From The Desk of David

It’s already over. My first semester of college is already reached its conclusion. It’s been a journey which is brought both joyful moments and ones filled with tears. It blows my mind that I am only one – seventh of the way through this journey. I’ve learned so much. The Lord has been ever so faithful. It’s time I finally tell this story…

If I had to summarize these past few months down to a single lesson, I wouldn’t quite know where to begin but I guess if one thing is clear is that life will never go how I, a mere mortal and fallen being, may ever dream for it to go, but rather the Lord has plans which are far greater than I can ever come up with. Life at Liberty University didn’t go how I thought it would. Within the first two weeks of classes, a door slammed shut that I wasn’t expecting to close so quickly and abruptly and it broke my heart. This unforeseen obstacle was hard to walk through, especially in my new foreign world. But I guess that was the point. For me not to have anyone to walk through with me. For when it feels like you hit rock bottom, you have nowhere else to turn but to The Rock. I guess that was the point too. For me to realize that what seemed like an obstacle, a heartbreaking situation was drawing me back to the One who made my heart.

If you told me the beginning of the semester, I would be where I am and who I am today, I would’ve laughed in your face. I’m not the same boy who packed his life into boxes and moved a mere 100 miles with nothing more than a calling and a Savior who promised to bring him through it. Maybe it was the anticipation or maybe it was the feeling of being overwhelmed by it all, but I never realized what I was stepping into. The same boy who was told that he would never walk was stepping onto one of the largest college campuses in the country. It was that same boy who was told that his academic dreams and aspirations were nothing but a hopeless fantasy for he would never make it out of that special education class in preschool. It was the same boy who was told he would never be able to care for himself who stepped into the responsibility of being independent. I was blinded, maybe with ignorance, or maybe by a stubborn heart, I’d like to think that it was Holy Spirit induced blindness. Like Paul, I think I was blinded because I had to gain an abandonment for this calling in which the Lord is placed upon my life.

When I began taking down picture frames and folding clothes which were to be packed away into boxes, people kept telling me that I needed to get rid of fear because fear would limit the calling in which the Lord had placed on my life. If you would have asked me four months ago to walk across a room and pray for a stranger, the chains of fear would have held me in my seat. And I would dare not move. But now, it seems as if my life is filled with walks across the room to meet people where they are. “Meet people where they are…” I’ve heard that phrase thousands of times and yet I never quite understood what it truly meant until now.

From the guy who dumps his entire tray upon the floor of the cafeteria, feeling embarrassed and judged, he just needs a smiling face and someone to tell him that, “I would’ve done the same thing.” All he needs is a smile and someone to get down on their hands and knees and pick up the mess in which he has made. And little did I know that his mom’s cancer was back, he wasn’t sure if she’d make it Christmas. He was barely holding it together. I prayed for him. He smiled and thanked me for helping.

This is what ministry is all about.

Someone asks the other day what I’ve learned about ministry and I respond with this story. Ministry is inconvenient. There are times when doing ministry demands that we go further than Sunday morning services and I’ve learned one thing if the ministry comes at the most inconvenient times.

Canadian author, Ann Voskamp once scratched out the idea the time has no place in the Kingdom of God and the time is simply something the mere mortal employs to measure change. This idea begs the question, “If God doesn’t change, then does God have care for time itself?” I found myself struggling to answer this question this past semester, for it seems that when time is of the essence, it is when I get the knock on my door a friend who needs to talk because his world is falling apart…

I used to think that time was nothing more than a thief, who came to take away the days, until one day I would have no more to take. No, father time is not a thief but rather time has been given to me, to give away to others. This is kingdom living. While yes, the days fly by faster and faster and faster, there is still work to be done. In ministry is accomplish when time is used well.

A lot has changed in these past few months, new friendships have been formed, knowledge acquired, and tears shed. I am so thankful for my time at Liberty so far and I can’t wait for future adventures and for times in which the faithfulness of the Lord is shown again and again, for He is always faithful and never fails to keep His promises.

For all who prayed for me during this transition, the words, “thank you” seem to fail in expressing the amount of gratitude I have for you. At times, your prayers carried me. Your encouragement pushed me.

To my family, words will never capture how much I love and adore you for there were many nights in which I called, frustrated, angry, sad, and broken, to which you met with laughter and joy, spurring me on to keep up what Paul said was the good race.

Thanks for walking with me through this journey. I can’t wait for what’s to come – for the best is yet to come!

For His Glory,
David