Life in college is like Pilates— and not just because it hurts.
Pilates is core-strengthening and aligning one’s body correctly. Life in college strengthens (or questions) one’s core values and attempts to align one’s opinions.
I never cease to learn something new every day. It is overwhelming how much I am trying to learn, but it is not so much academic as it is values.
What do I value most in life? Why do I value what I value? Is it right? Is it wrong? Is it even a matter of right and wrong or is it just different? What really matters most in life? Are my values merely adopted by my parents or are my values really mine?
So many questions! Darn you, Christian college school, that God is using to strengthen my core values and tweak my opinion alignment. Darn you!
I’m reading Cross-Cultural Connections for one of my classes. In this book, the author talks about expectations and how it can be frustrating when attempting to understand someone of another culture.
He goes on to say how life is like that. BUT “understanding comes to those who patiently seek answers to their confusion.”
God is constantly revealing Himself to me, mostly in little ways, but nonetheless revealing Himself. Most of the time, I am so frustrated because I don’t understand, and I want the answers RIGHT NOW. But God doesn’t really work that way.
He could have created the universe in less than one second, but He chose to take 6 days. He could have created a different, faster way to save people, but instead He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth in the form of a baby, and 30 some years later, after growing up/developing, building relationships with other people, going through trials, dying on the cross, and rising three days later, Jesus is now the Mediator between man and God.
God could have made it so much easier to make friends and have good relationships with our family, but He chose to make it a process that takes time. What I have also been learning is to relax. As much as I would like to know everything and have it all together all the time, God is showing me that the process truly is beneficial, and “time” is a very fluid concept.
Specifically, I feel like God is trying to teach me not feel entitled to my expectations. The other day I was reading in my daily devotional and the author wrote, “Instead of feeling entitled to all these blessings, respond to them with gratitude. Be prepared to let go of anything I take from you, but never let go of My hand!” This was extremely convicting to me. I love how God can convict me without making me feel judged.
Praise Your name, God! Thank You that You are always in control. Thank You for challenging my values and aligning my opinions with who You are. Though it is painful, I praise You for this process of learning. Help me to relax. Help me to be patient, and to learn through this process. Help me to find the blessing in the process. Thank You for putting things back into perspective for me; for loving me through conviction. Through all the ups and downs, and the “whys” or “why nots,” You are still God, and I will praise Your great name! Amen
David Sanford says
Thanks, Rebecca. Wise words, indeed.
Are we willing to give up our weak and inadequate theology of God, and our sugarcoated and unrealistic theology of how life works?
Or will we insist on putting the American dream atop our faith, only later to be severely hurt by life and disappointed in God-as-we-want-Him-to-be?
Special thanks for your prayer, which I too have lifted up to the Lord today.