The Summer Summarized

In one post? I don’t know if I really can summarize this summer and still communicate the affects of it fully. What can I say? It’s been an interesting one, an emotional one, one full of tears and laughter all mixed in a big bowl. It’s been one full of change which has become something I am becoming quite familiar with to say the least. It’s never comfortable but I’m still learning to embrace it rather than run from it. To accept whatever with joy which is normally not my initial reaction 100% of the time but I’m working on it. Change truly has become my best friend…

Change:

noun tense.

1. to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone
2. to transform or convert
3. to substitute another or others for; exchange for something else, usually of the same kind
4. to give and take reciprocally; interchange
5. to remove and replace the covering or coverings of

verb tense.

1. to become different
2. to become altered or modified
3. to become transformed or converted
4. to pass gradually into
5. to make a change or an exchange
6. to transfer between trains or other conveyances
7. to change one's clothes
8. to pass from one phase to another

There you have it. That is my summer summarized. God has stretched me in areas I never knew were possible to stretch, challenged beliefs I didn’t think could be challenged, shown light on dark places I never even knew existed and pushed me into places I never would have thought I was ready to go. My relationships have and will continue to change but oh, have they been tested! Ignorance in relationship is never bliss—it’s dangerous. The importance of truth and transparency in the light of Christ is something that can’t be ignored no matter how uncomfortable it may be. If our relationships with people are because of the blood of Christ then it costs us something. He has asked me the question: what is the ship that keeps your relation afloat? If that ship is not Christ and Him crucified your relation is not going to float. The condition of the waters isn’t even an issue if you have a boat that won’t float, it’s the test of righteous relation with one another in Christ. Relationship is something we have because of Christ but it is something that costs us. Something that doesn’t cost anything isn’t worth anything and won’t do anything. That’s where change enters in again.

This Change has brought so many things to the surface in me. Everything from pride, arrogance, insecurity, fear, ignorance but most importantly self. Self. Now that is most dangerous. He’s taught me that I can never be independent from Him. I look back five to six months ago and all I can say is “wow!” I’m a completely different person, altered, modified and it hasn’t been easy. But when I look back, only briefly to thank Christ for what He has done in me, I must say that all the difficulty, tears, sacrifice, hurt, confusion and everything I had to give up to obey Him in this process of becoming mature in Him- it was all worth it.

I know this is just the beginning of what Christ is doing in Me and I must say I can’t wait to see what’s around the next corner. It’s funny and certain people who know me will see how ironic it is for me to say what I’m about to say. I was thinking about my favorite childhood movie earlier, Pocahontas, I’d watch it over and over, had every book, every little nightgown and coloring book. My favorite part was we she got into the canoe and started down the river. It started off calm but gradually became fast and more exciting, maybe somewhat more dangerous and unpredictable but I just remember watching it and thinking “I wanna do that one day”. I know this sounds so immature but whatever ;) I am only 18 haha. Here’s a quote from the song in that clip:

What I love most about rivers is:
You can't step in the same river twice
The water's always changing, always flowing
But people, I guess, can't live like that
We all must pay a price
To be safe, we lose our chance of ever knowing
What's around the riverbend

You can step in the same river twice, you can choose to step in and never get back out but that’s not life in Christ. His living water is always changing, always flowing and never becoming stagnant. And we in Christ can and must live like that, it’s just the opposite of Pocahontas’s point of view. We must pay the price to not be safe in our own eyes, to simply trust the Creator of the river of this life in Him. We must pay the price to know Him. It doesn’t matter knowing what’s around the riverbend but the One who does. That’s the joy, that’s the rest but it takes obedience to Him. It takes giving up the reigns of ourselves but truly, that’s when we are the safest.

So there it is. Change. Something that we will all have as long as we live. We can choose to resist it but based on the past couple months of my life, if you want to take the advice of an 18 year old...it’s so much easier to simply cooperate with it, with Him.

“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.” Phil 3:12-16

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Phil 4:6-7