A blank page. It’s something that
we all need sometimes. I especially know this, because believe it or not, I’ve
needed a lot of these in my little ole life. Sometimes, we just have to throw
everything away. And I had to do that. This is just me, in my black skinny
jeans and Michigan sweatshirt sitting in my warm bed in my messy dorm room
typing a blog. Nothing fancy, I don’t own a cool coffee mug (unless you count
the one with snoopy on it), I don’t have an artistic picture of my laptop and
said cup of coffee on Instagram. It’s just me. I am no one special, just a girl from Ohio
going to college in Missouri (or is it Misery? I can’t tell anymore because of
the weather).
A few
months ago, someone came up to me and said “God has great plans for you, remember
that.” Now obviously I thought in my head Of
course he does, or I wouldn’t be at Evangel! Even though you hear something
over and over doesn’t mean that you truly believe it. I started to become so
infatuated with all the different plans that God might have for me, like who I
will marry, if I would even stay at Evangel at the end of this year, and what
was I even going to do with a Digital Arts degree. It started to consume me,
the fantasies of what could be. They took over me, until I started to believe
that my plans where really Gods plans when they weren’t. I started to say “Yeah
God, here’s my life… but I want you to do this with it.” Because of the control
that I wanted in my life, I was terrified of God doing something really major,
maybe even something that I didn’t want to happen or do. I started to lose the
big picture of what it all was, to what he was doing. I was getting so tired of
people saying ‘You’re so happy all the time, how do you do it?” I couldn’t
answer that honestly, because even I didn’t know. It’s just my human nature, I can’t
help but not hold the door for someone, or to smile at someone while walking to
class. It’s the genuine me coming out. And I hated it. Because believe it or not, I was not happy on
the inside. I was just so sick of not knowing just what God was doing in my
life. I wanted control. I couldn’t let go. I also let the fear of not knowing
what was going to happen to consume me. I was scared of people leaving me, and
when they did, I was so done with dealing with everything. I thought How could someone I was so close to 4 months
ago just throw it all away because I was trying to live my life. I couldn’t
stand having someone leave me again. I poured my heart out to these people, and
now we don’t even talk? I said, or rather yelled, at God one night: what the heak are you doing, you’re screwing
everything up! Everything was great and dandy, and now you go and do this? I
can’t catch a break! I was over God. But no matter how mad and upset I was
at him, I couldn’t let him go. I’ve gone through too much, fought too hard, to
just throw this relationship away. If anything, I felt like I was the one
fighting to keep the relationship alive between me and God. I was treating him
like a friend, and not like my King.
I had
to start being humble. I made some drastic (drastic for me, anyway) decisions.
I deleted my Tumblr (blog site), because I was tired of logging on and only
seeing people post negative and sad crap all the time. And believe it or not, I
was tired of reading about One Direction (I know, big shock! I was shocked
too!). I started dressing for myself. Now, in the past, I started dressing how
everyone else was, what was trendy and all that. I started to lose sight of who
I was. Who cares if I wear t-shirts and jeans every day? But I did care, and I
cared more than I thought. So I stopped. Now, I wear what I want. And that
feels really good, let me tell ya. I woke up every morning as asked God how I
could be a blessing to someone that day. Every day I asked, and every day he
provided the opportunity for me to be a blessing to someone. I also started to embrace myself for who I
truly am. Now, smiling at people on the sidewalk actually makes me happy. Being
kind just to be kind feels really good. Genuine kindness is something that the
world needs more of. I started looking for friends who not only enjoyed my
company, but who bettered me. When I moved to my new floor, I was terrified.
Deep down I was, but I didn’t tell anyone. I had an awesome new roommate, and
the girls on the floor seemed really nice. But in my mind, no group of girls
could be as close as they all seemed to be. And they proved me wrong. I knew
from the start, when they asked me how I was, said hi to me, and actually
invited me to do things with them, that I found a group of girls who would be
my family. They all have a part of my heart now.
Control.
Having a grip on your life, or whatever you want to call it. I had to give God
control. Because if I didn’t, I would have just sat and sulked for a long time.
Most of you know, I am a very stubborn person. If I don’t want to do something,
I won’t until I have to. So I had to bow down to my King, and that took a lot
for me. Because I also deal with pride. Pride, control, and stubbornness are
the big three here. I humbly said “God, I’m an idiot and I need you. I screwed
up. You take my future, because I can’t deal with the thought of it anymore.”
And he did, he had already done it by paying the price for me. He hung on a
tree for me, he deserves the glory in everything. I gave him my hands to use
for his glory, I have him my heart to have. I finally had to say to myself “I
don’t want a boyfriend, because I want Jesus more. I don’t need these friends
in my life, because I have an everlasting father who is my eternal friend. I cannot
have control over my life, because my King has my past, present, and future in
his hands. He gets the glory in all that I do, not myself. I take no credit for
all that he has done in my life.” That took a lot for me to say to not only myself,
but to Jesus. But once you say those things, you really mean it. Jesus is so
much bigger than all of this. It’s so amazing how he pours and pours out his
grace to us, and it will never run out because that’s just how much he loves
us.
Now, I
am a happy resident of Walther Third South room 308, I’m on the campus radio
twice a week, I have amazing friends, and an amazing God. I’m not saying that
everything is peachy, because it’s far from it. I still have anxiety when I
think about my future, but every day is a new day, a blank page. I’m still
broke as a goat (new term, blame my friends), and my insecurities still find a
way to creep up on me. But I have an awesome God, a God who has control of it
all, who wraps me in his love and grace. What an amazing thought that is! I
will leave you with an inspiring quote:
“Each
New Year, we have before us a brand new book containing 365 blank pages. Let us
fill them with all the forgotten things from last year—the words we forgot to
say, the love we forgot to show, and the charity we forgot to offer.” ― Peggy Toney Horton
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