"How's
the weather there in sunny California?" - is a question
I am often asked by my friends and family members in Indiana.
I have often found myself complaining to them that it is still
90 degrees in October. I am amazed at how readily I can complain
about how "hot" the weather is here, and how sweet
I think it is when there is a rainy day like today in Southern
California...and yet, back home I would likely be doing the
opposite. I have been convicted about my attitude towards the
weather as of late, and really liked what I read from John Piper
today (via desiringgod.org):
"Thursday in Minneapolis it was so gorgeous walking home
I thought: I should write a post on how astonishing it is that
no earthquake swallowed up this city today.
Instead God sent warmth and crystal skies and cool breezes and
golden leaves and hanging sea gulls over Elliot Park.
Amazing. Absolutely amazing!
We deserved the 52-story IDS tower to fall, and bridges to collapse,
and poisonous gas to kill thousands. But instead God gave us
over-the-top foretastes of heaven.
This is why everyone is crying out, Where was God on Thursday!
Where were you God! How could you do this? Why did you let this
happen?
Everybody is saying that, aren't they?"
Although I do love fall, I should never complain about the beautiful,
sunny (and oft-warm) weather here in Simi. Because, honestly,
I deserve the sun to move just a tiny bit closer to earth and
make the temperature so hot that I perish. But, God has given
an insane amount of grace, and has made each day, as He sees
fit, to bring glory to Himself.
Psalm 145:8-9: " The Lord is gracious and merciful,slow
to anger and abounding in steadfast love.The Lord is good to
all,and his mercy is over all that he has made."
One
of the many benefits of coming to EBC is having the ability to
go to Cornerstone Church. Each of my roommates and I have been
attending Cornerstone since we arrived, and we are all consistently
being stirred by the Word of God through various pastors. A few
weeks ago my heart was being goaded about the nature of my relationships.
In class, I am learning what it looks like to be "gospel-centered" and
how each of my relationships and interactions, everything I do,
should be propelled by the gospel. It's difficult to be gospel
focused in your neighborhood when you don't even know your neighbors,
and my heart was being stirred because of the fact that we (as
an apartment) had not made any great effort to get to know our
neighbors. What was taught that Sunday at church perfectly correlated
with that fact, and I felt compelled to action. I was able to
get in contact with one of the pastors from Cornerstone and find
out who our believing neighbors were. It was cool to see that
there were quite a few people who attend Cornerstone living in
close proximity to us, but what about our actual neighbors? The
ones whom we often pass coming into or leaving our apartment?
The ones whose music we can hear through the walls? The ones
who we hope have at least recognized us to be Christians?
Jesus' command is clear: "You shall love your neighbor
as yourself." But how are we supposed to love our neighbors
when we don't even know them? How are we to fulfill what Jesus
says is the second commandment without putting any effort into
it? The answer is: we cannot.
After fumbling through the questions and the obvious answers,
my apartment now has a plan to reach out to our neighbors today,
on halloween. I will soon return with an update on how things
went...
The first day of class, I pretty much freaked out (syllabus
shock as it is commonly known), but I was also taught an extraordinary
amount. God had already started to work on my heart and He did
so by humbling me. I guess I kind of thought I had a pretty accurate
picture of God. I have been learning about Him for years, and
just assumed that I had grasped (for the most part) who God is.
However, in the few short days I've been here He's shown me that
I not only have so far to go in my knowledge of Him but I also
have a lot of ground to advance in my love for Him.
Now, a not-so-smooth transition into the story of my apartment
...
I share an apartment with 3 other girls, and it's pretty awesome.
It's crazy how God brought us all together. It seems as though
we've been living together for a long time now. We try to do
homework ... we really do try ... generally we will start our
homework and within a few minutes a few people from EBC will
show up. It just always happens. So then, we try to study with
them, but we end up making silly videos or cooking or something
other than studying. Eventually we will break down and do homework,
but it's always good to have some fun first, right?
It was my senior year of high school and within the first few
months all of my friends and classmates were filling out college
applications. All but me. It seemed as though I was the only one
who really wanted to know where to go, but didn't even have one
college that I was seriously considering. The only place on my
list at the time was a ministry training course in Ohio. With all
of the pressure on my shoulders, I felt
surprisingly calm about the whole situation, and knew that the
Lord would lead me where He wanted me in His time. One afternoon
I was listening to Francis' podcast and heard him mention EBC and thought about how totally
awesome it would be to attend if it were anything like Cornerstone
church. I kind of shrugged it off. I mean, come on, 2200+ miles
away from home? There's no way I could do that.
Well, that same
week the door to the training course in Ohio was clearly closed
and one of my friends, who knew what I was looking for after
college, suggested I look into EBC. By then I thought maybe I
will if nothing else comes into the picture within the next few
months, but when another friend mentioned EBC just a few days
later, I felt as though God was trying to get my attention. I
started looking at EBC's website and was immediately drawn in
and continued to be as time went on. I could see that EBC was
a place that pursued the same kind of Godly integrity as Cornerstone.
It was a place that sought to teach strictly on the basis of
what the Bible says. It was a place that stressed an education
that goes beyond mere knowledge. It also seemed to be a place
of strong, ardent community, and after talking to a current EBC
student, I discovered that this was indeed a reality. Plus, on
top of all those things, tuition was more affordable than any
other Christian/Bible college I had seen. Through prayer and
consideration of these things the Lord made it clear that this
was where He wanted me.
Though I now face the great move of a
couple thousand miles, God's promises are greater still! I don't
necessarily expect it to be easy, but I know that I can do it
with God and the strength that He provides. |
