Chasing Daylight

God always does things right!
His way is ALWAYS the best way,
even if to us it seems all wrong.

If you asked God for one thing and received another,
TRUST.

You can be sure that He will always give you what you need at the appropriate time.

What you want... ...is not always what you need!

God never fails to grant our petitions, so keep going for Him without doubting or murmuring, keep running the race set before us.

My dad sent me this e-mail today, and it just fits with everything I am learning and going through right now. During finals week, in what would turn out to be one of the last nights of fellowship with this particular group of people, we talked about our greatest fears. Mine is definitely a combination of being left and abandoned, change, and failure. The days to follow between then and now were characterized by a mass exodus and the realization that this was a huge time of change. My life would never be quite like it was during those college days again.

However, during this time, I have drawn closer to my Savior and have realized a sense of adventure in myself. Two years ago, I went to Wilmington, NC on a 10 day trip to support our newest church plant there. Coming home, I was convinced I would go back. A year ago, I planned my entire summer around going back to Wilmington and was full charge going on a month long leadership program Pastor Tom was having there. The door was slammed in my face, and I was sent to Czech instead. Czech was amazing and God was definitely orchestrating that entire process and teaching me so much, but the thought still lingered in the back of my mind: "How could I have been so wrong about Wilmington? I was so sure that was where my heart was at and where God's will was in my life." Since then, I have realized that God's will is to GO, geography makes no difference. God's will is our hearts, our hearts of worship and thanksgiving, of prayer and dedication to Him, and that can and will occur whether I am in Fort Collins, Wilmington, Czech, or Antarctica. When God has our hearts, we move naturally in His will.

Anyways, going back to the e-mail above. This year, I had nearly dismissed Wilmington all together. Then an idea of pursuing PT school and having a year off begged the question of what I would do with that year. A friend passed by me on campus one day in between class. Rather than asking "How are you?" he asked, "You wanna move to Wilmington?" It had only been a vague inclination in the back of my mind at that point, and I got really excited at the Spirit's working and confirming that path. A few roadblocks quickly fell away, and I sat contemplating a move to the east coast. Why wouldn't I go? Nothing came to mind.

So, here I am, moving to Wilmington... a process two years in the making. What I was convinced would happen last year, God had in His own timing. Everything He does is good. I have no idea what awaits me, but I am excited for the adventure of not knowing and following hard after Christ in this!!

One of the key components in my decision has been my reading a book called Chasing Daylight by Erwin McManus. It challenges its reader to seize the power of every moment.

"Don't wait for Him to remove all the uncertainty. Realize He may actually increase the uncertainty and leverage all odds against you, just so that you will know in the end that it wasn't your gifts but His power through your gifts that fulfilled His purpose in your life."

"Wouldn't it be great to be Lazarus experiencing the power of God raising you from the dead? Of course, there is a downside. You have to die for this to happen."
Whoa...

"but in between "once upon a time" and "they lived happily ever after" is called now."

"From the time of Abraham, [the Israelites] were a people commissioned to fulfill a mission. While their calling was specific, the application of that calling was always dynamic."
God's promise remained, but they ended up waiting 40 years in the desert due to missed opportunities.

"You are not called to be a survivor but to be a conquerer... I don't know what it means for others, but for a follower of Jesus Christ, what it means to live on the edge is to stand at the epicenter of where the kingdom of God confronts the kingdom of darkness"
** Christ with disciples standing at the gates of hell :)

"We are not given a detailed outline of how we should live each day. We are given a due north, a direction we should move toward... when you refuse to act on what you know all that you do not know paralyzes you."

"The life of the adventurer is less like organizing an office and more like windsurfing."

"...lean in the direction that you are supposed to go...God sends you in a specific direction. And yes, you must get off the life. God's instructions are to go, live life, take risks, move forward, advance."

"There is something exciting about an entire community leaning forward to advance the good on God's heart rather than leaning back, attempting to resist it."
Get packed and ready!... "if your church is full of missionaries, the rest is just geography... these were not people suddenly called to missions; these were people who were already on missions, and then God chose a change of address... you cannot advance the kingdom of God with people who are in retreat."

"It would be great if the signs from God that we should advance were always things like a perfect situation, all the resources necessary to succeed, or a guaranteed win. Yet if that were the case, there would be no adventure!"
**I'm on the edge of my seat ready to jump out the roof thinking about this one! WAHOO!!!!

So, these are some quotes that have stuck out to me... I'd like to go through them more individually, but for now, I just had to get them all out here. Food for thought.

Here's to a life of adventure, of chasing daylight, of seizing the now and not focusing on the "once upon a time" or the "happily ever after"
Last year, on campus, we played games at night over one half of campus... capture the flag, fugitive... hard core, all hours of the night. and I loved it! It didn't matter the things I needed to be up for the next day or the tests i should've studied for or the papers I should have been writing, if there was a game, i was there. It thrilled me! I loved the adrenaline pumping, edge of my seat, not knowing what's around the next corner, take risks, get messy, sacrifice one for your team mate, all out, no bars held thrilling rush it always turned out to be. An adventure. Why can't life be like this? Better question: why isn't my life more like this?
Excuses, stupid lame, same old, same old excuses. School, work, tired. The same ones most use to miss out on the game, we also use to miss out on life itself. In the words of my favorite Disney princess: "I want adventure in the great wide somewhere! I want it more than I can tell!" I refuse mediocrity, I choose to make the right turn, and not to apathetically look left. I want my life to be characterized like those late night campus games, like a good soccer match... adventure, chaos, uncertainty, thrill, and trusting in the One who planned it all before.

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways -Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroug hly used up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO! What a Ride'

This sense of adventure was my mindset in high school, and has been a little crowded by so many other things these last few years... welcome to freedom!!!!! Here goes nothing!

Hebrews 12:1-3