Full life in the emptiest of places...

“I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places – firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry.” – Isaiah 58:1 (The Message)

It’s been a month now since I moved away from home. And to be quite honest, it has probably been the hardest four weeks of my life. When I decided to take the offer and move north, I made a decision that I was going to trust God. I had no idea why I was moving away, other than for my internship. And for the first couple of weeks here, I was pretty bitter about it. I tried going in to the internship with an open mind and being okay with the fact that anything familiar to me was now at least a two-hour drive away but I was failing miserably at it.

A few weekends ago, my housemate had gone home and I was all by myself. I spent most of the day on Saturday contemplating what I was really doing. I was questioning whether I had made the right decision because it had been almost three weeks since I moved and I was still searching for the reason why. I cried several times that day, missing my family and my friends. I just sat in the house and was angry at God because He had led me here and I was all alone.  

Then, the following day I went to church. I was supposed to meet up with a friend of mine from IWU and some of his friends that live in the area, but the weather was bad and my friend couldn’t make it. So, I went anyways and met up with his friends. After the service had ended and we were walking out, one of the guys invited me to a dinner that night at his campus ministry pastor’s house. I went that night and also found out about a weekly Bible study that this group has. Since that dinner, I have gone to a couple of different things with this group and I am finally starting to meet people and form relationships. It really does amaze me how perfect and intentional God’s timing is. One day, I was sitting at home thinking of a way to get out of the internship and move back and the very next day, God starting placing people in my life to help me get connected.

I’m beginning to think that the real reason God guided me to move away was so that I would become more dependent on Him. The last couple of years I have just been comfortable going through the motions of being a Christian but I have been longing for something more. I want that renewed passion that I had when I first started that intimate relationship with Christ. God has a purpose, and no matter how unplanned and random we think it may be, He really has had it planned all along. I’m starting to see the purpose for why I am here and what God’s plan is.

…“I will always show you where to go.”