So a few days ago was the move-in day for USC and all of us at Christian Challenge (the staff and student leaders) were helping out all the new freshmen unload and find out where they were staying. It was a long day, but a surprisingly fun and productive one! We were stationed at 3 different spots on campus to make the most of our time and I was with 2 of the guy students, Robbie and Matt. We basically walked up to people with large amounts of boxes and things and offered our services carrying things in! We were also at the New/North dorm, the only dorm, nay, only building on campus without an elevator! But that also gave us more time to talk with the students and their parents so I didn't mind (plus it was my workout for the day - some of those boxes were heavy and I was able to work on my biceps :)
The coolest thing happened within the first hour too. Robbie, Matt and I had met a guy named Nick and we were helping he and his mom carry things to his new room. We learned he was from Hong Kong even though his parents grew up here in the States. When we arrive at his room, however, his name on the door read "Nick Shmitt" and my jaw dropped. Why would I care about a freshman guy's name you might wonder? Glad you asked!! Last weekend was our staff and student leadership retreat and on Monday morning, right before we got started with our day, my boss Neil read aloud an email he had been sent by some parents. The email basically said that they found our group from our website and wanted us to pray for their son who was coming to USC in the fall. They said his name was Nick and he was going to be a cinematic arts major. They also mentioned that while they were both active in their faiths, their son had walked away and they wanted us to pray that he would find Jesus again. They were also from Hong Kong. Now, don't worry, they did not ask us to find him or weird him out by knowing his family history! They just wanted prayers for their son. So when I saw Nick's last name it was *the exact same guy* we had prayed for earlier!! I didn't say anything to his mom or Nick, but when we were finished I told Robbie and Matt who it was we just helped and they were floored at God's providence!!
We moved in a lot more students that day and when we were done, we prayed for all of them, and made special mention of God's good humor that out of all the thousands of people who were on campus that day, we met the one guy we prayed for!! God is so good!!
Friday, August 20, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
My old friend has returned
After a three year remission, my rheumatoid arthritis has returned. I don't know what the cause is, perhaps the fact that I got sick right after Hawaii and sickness can cause a flare-up, or maybe the fact that anything past 8 weeks is just too long an interval right now to go without medication, or it could just randomly have shown up. I don't know and I don't even care all that much because how does that affect me? The RA is here, and I get my medication again next week.
At first I was super mad and anxious about it because it's really painful and I'm not looking forward to being in pain all the time again. I was laying in my bed on Sunday night, because that is when my RA was keeping me up with my right shoulder being in pain (thank you to my sister Tiff who is in Hawaii who I called and talked to to get my mind off it!) and I was just thinking to myself, "what if this is my RA coming back for good? What can I do with my life? What kind of life can I have?" basically playing the "woe is me" game and then I remembered something from church that very day. My pastor was talking about the truth of the Scriptures and how its truth can overcome any of my negative thoughts and how the devil can really get me off-balance by feeding me and maintaining those "you're worthless" ideas that come into your head.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says, "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we *take captive every thought* to make it obedient to Christ."
We're always going to have those negative thoughts like "you're not good enough" "why should anyone care about you?" or "you can't do it" but those are untruths that the enemy uses because they're so darn effective! But I was able to put a stop to my pity party and tell myself that those thoughts I was having were untrue, that I knew exactly what I was going to do with my life, that I was still going to glorify God and make disciples, and that He was going to give me the strength and energy to make that happen. Right away I felt better because I had attacked those bad thoughts with the truth and didn't dwell on them.
Man, I was so excited about how relevant God's Word is!! It was written so long ago, and yet it still impacts my days in the here and now, I mean, that is awesome and God is so personal!!
So while I am not a fan of my RA being back, I know I can tell myself the truth, that even though I may not like it, I can deal with it God's way and focus on others. Because it's either God's way where I can rest in the fact that even though I don't understand it, He has a perfect plan for it and will give me an abundant life (John 10:10) or I can deal with it my way and try to ignore it, throw myself pity party after pity party, get bitter when people don't understand what I'm going through and be depressed on the inside about how "wrong" my life went. Yeah, no contest!
God is good no matter the circumstances, *no matter the circumstances,* and this may just be a temporary blip on the radar or it could be the beginning of a long relationship with the pain again, I don't know, but God does and He said He can handle it so I am giving it to Him to let Him take that burden (Ps. 55:22 - Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken). My only job is to continue to love and glorify Him and let others know how much He has changed my life and perspective. So no matter what happens or how long I have to deal with the RA, God is still good and He is still worthy of my life.
At first I was super mad and anxious about it because it's really painful and I'm not looking forward to being in pain all the time again. I was laying in my bed on Sunday night, because that is when my RA was keeping me up with my right shoulder being in pain (thank you to my sister Tiff who is in Hawaii who I called and talked to to get my mind off it!) and I was just thinking to myself, "what if this is my RA coming back for good? What can I do with my life? What kind of life can I have?" basically playing the "woe is me" game and then I remembered something from church that very day. My pastor was talking about the truth of the Scriptures and how its truth can overcome any of my negative thoughts and how the devil can really get me off-balance by feeding me and maintaining those "you're worthless" ideas that come into your head.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says, "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we *take captive every thought* to make it obedient to Christ."
We're always going to have those negative thoughts like "you're not good enough" "why should anyone care about you?" or "you can't do it" but those are untruths that the enemy uses because they're so darn effective! But I was able to put a stop to my pity party and tell myself that those thoughts I was having were untrue, that I knew exactly what I was going to do with my life, that I was still going to glorify God and make disciples, and that He was going to give me the strength and energy to make that happen. Right away I felt better because I had attacked those bad thoughts with the truth and didn't dwell on them.
Man, I was so excited about how relevant God's Word is!! It was written so long ago, and yet it still impacts my days in the here and now, I mean, that is awesome and God is so personal!!
So while I am not a fan of my RA being back, I know I can tell myself the truth, that even though I may not like it, I can deal with it God's way and focus on others. Because it's either God's way where I can rest in the fact that even though I don't understand it, He has a perfect plan for it and will give me an abundant life (John 10:10) or I can deal with it my way and try to ignore it, throw myself pity party after pity party, get bitter when people don't understand what I'm going through and be depressed on the inside about how "wrong" my life went. Yeah, no contest!
God is good no matter the circumstances, *no matter the circumstances,* and this may just be a temporary blip on the radar or it could be the beginning of a long relationship with the pain again, I don't know, but God does and He said He can handle it so I am giving it to Him to let Him take that burden (Ps. 55:22 - Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken). My only job is to continue to love and glorify Him and let others know how much He has changed my life and perspective. So no matter what happens or how long I have to deal with the RA, God is still good and He is still worthy of my life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)