Changes

God has radically altered my plans these past two weeks. I have never had an overwhelming peace about moving to California and it was just gnawing at my spirit. I felt like I was trying to conjure up this excitement about going and just could never quite attain it sincerely. So...I am not moving to California! I love Riverbend, I love the ministry I have here, I love the people I am around, I love the hope I have for future opportunities. All those things combined made it so evident that God is not finished working in me here. I will still complete the Biblical Counseling program through their summer correspondence program and Lord-willing will graduate with my Master's degree in 2010. I thought it was going to be a huge step of faith to move out there, but now it seems a bigger step of faith to stay here. I gave up my teaching job and a replacement has already been hired. So now I am unemployed, facing the challenge of getting my own place in August or September, and have no idea how that will all work out. But I am grateful to God for all of this because I have so much anticipation and excitement to see what God is going to do in my life here!

It's been a while..

Well I have been a failure at posting lately, and even now this will be rather brief. I am not experiencing any kind of deep suffering in my life right now, however this quote by Piper still made a significant impact on me as I contemplate how much I cling to the things of this world, the people in my world. I wish I could just let them go easily and quickly without any selfish desires to hang onto them.

In his book, Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, Piper says: You cannot show the preciousness of a person by being happy with his gifts. Ingratitude will certainly prove that the giver is not loved. But gratitude for gifts does not prove that the giver is precious. What proves that the giver is precious is the glad-hearted readiness to leave all his gifts to be with him. This is why suffering is so central in the mission of the church. The goal of our mission is that people from all nations worship the true God. But worship means cherishing the preciousness of God above all else, including life itself. It will be very hard to bring the nations to love God from a lifestyle that communicates a love of things. Therefore, God ordains in the lives of his messengers that suffering sever our bondage to the world. When joy and love survive this severing, we are fit to say to the nations with authenticity and power: hope in God.