So over winter break I attended San Diego Winter Conference. It is a conference held for college students in the California, Arizona and Hawaii states. For the 4 days of the conference, we learned how we could "SHIFT" our lives to align them with God's plan, will and purpose.
I had a blast! I was able to see people from my Santa Monica Summer Project '09 (holla!) and my team from this past summer in South Africa (Team Flex!) So good for my little heart. Not only was I able to visit and hang out with them but I also spent a lot of time with people from UCI!
Winter Conference, as awesome as it is to hang out with people, is not entirely about socializing. There is an element of learning and growing and taking HUGE steps of faith and it is amazing to see the Lord bless all of the above (including the fellowship).
I really felt God calling me to "Shift" my life to His perfect plan. Not the other way around. I cannot tell you exactly how this translates to my life, but one of the speakers told us that the greatest form of praise is trusting in God. I know that God is calling me to just trust Him, in all aspects of my life, in my future, in school, in my relationships, in how I spend my time. Make sense?
Example: While at conference, after one of our campus times, a total of 17 college-educated students thought that it would be a fantastic idea to cram as many people as we could into an elevator! Did we succeed? Of course, we did. Only we didn't really succeed on the elevator moving part. Whoops! So here we are, 17 people crammed into an elevator. After calling the lovely operator, Jennifer, on the phone they manually lowered us to the first floor and then we suddenly dropped another few feet. For the next 40 minutes or so we were stuck. Luckily some of the guys were tall enough to open one of the tiles to get more air, but towards the end, we were seriously losing ventilation in that small confined space! In the midst of the chaos and the freaking out, it was fun to trust that the Lord of the Universe, the Creator of all things was crammed into that little space with us! Crazy, right? Another element of trust came in when we were praying and confessed our sin and stupidity to God about it being a good idea to try and fit all these people into one elevator. We confessed our sins, and trusted that our sin was already paid for by the One who saved us from all our sins, past, present and future. Praise Jesus!
Thankfully, the mechanic came just in time to let us out, right before we all started passing out from lack of oxygen. We climbed about 2.5 feet out of the elevator, because it wasn't level with the ground.
Praise God, that He was with us, that He forgave us, and that He kept all of us safe! What an experience! As scary as it was, I don't think that I would trade it for anything. Never have the words, "Giver of every breath I breathe" ever been so real to me! (Casting Crowns, All Because of Jesus).
So this was just an example of ways that I am trusting the Lord. In small ways. But more so, I am trusting that God is calling me to a year of full-time ministry! I am not sure when or where or what that looks like, but I know that it something that He wants me to do- to trust Him to use me for an entire year for His glory!
