Just

In the last week two girls I wanted to room with at Liberty got engaged, someone I went to school with got a house with their best friends, another moved to Florida, one of my friends got a car and someone I grew up with got her wedding dress. And me? I live at home, have a car that will break down at any time, and wedding bells are no where in my near future.

If I'm honest, I have felt like an almost-twenty-year-old-failure-at-this-whole-life-thing. Like everyone else got a "How to Succeed at Life for Dummies" manual and I was left out.

This brought me to really think about what is skewing my thinking?  The answer is simple... Comparison, that's all it was. I was standing my life up against everyone around me, and to me, I was not adding up. To me, I was the 2+2=5 in terms of life.

I find myself using the word "just" far too often in my dictionary. "I was just called to youth ministry. I am just going to be a camp counselor at my dream camp. I am just a college kid, pulling their hair out with three weeks left in the semester. I just work as a child care teacher. I just... I just... I just..."

I could go on for day's about the "justs" that I am. The saddest part? I didn't realize it until two people openly called me out on it (in love, great love).

I distinctly remember the first time I was told about this, it was someone I didn't even know at a medical missions conference. So you can see my hesitance in walking up to tables, because I am not medically inclined at all. Well, unless you count my guarding certifications as medical. As I walked up to the table the man asked what I did (here it comes), "Oh, I'm just going into youth ministry". This man's response was exactly what I needed, "Oh, you're just going to be in charge of the hearts of the youth and are called to help them love Christ more." Bam. I felt like I had been hit with a train.

{God assigned me a special mission, just like He assigned you a special mission.}  

 

My issue wasn't that my "mission" wasn't big enough, but that everyone else's mission seemed way better than mine. Simply because their mission included early marriage, a car or a house at twenty. Almost like a "the grass is greener on the other side" type situation.

 

But something I needed to realize (and I think we all do) is that all of our stories can't look the same. Because if they did there would be no way for each mission to be fulfilled in the way we can if our stories are all different. And the best part about that calling? Is we were appointed by Christ, as John 15:16 says. He knew that I was going to feel this exact way at this exact time, and He also knows my whole life's plan. Beginning to end. Baby to nursing home. And everything in between.

 

I want to end this blog with some encouragement that I needed so badly.

 

You are never a "just" in your equation of life. You are made by the same hands that formed the earth. You were given the same breath as Adam and Eve. You were a thought in God's mind before the earth was set spinning around the sun.

 

You were made with a purpose, created for His glory. If you're just anything, you're just a servant to the King of kings and Lord of lords, and you have just been sent here to win souls for His kingdom.

 

If that doesn't make your heart flutter, I don't know what will.

 

 

Matthew 28:19-20

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."