Back Where I Belong

I've been reading Donald Miller's Book - Searching For God Knows What and while reading today, one particular passage stuck out. This idea of success and identity that Miller talks about perfectly describes something I've been learning through this support raising process.

"Some of us are athletes and others of us are physicists, and some of us are good-looking and some of us are rich, and we all are running around, in a way, trying to get a bunch of people to clap for us, trying to get a bunch of people to say we are normal, we are healthy, we are good. And there is nothing wrong with being beautiful or being athletic or being smart, but those are some of the pleasures of life, not life's redemption. In this sense, as harsh as some of Jesus' words are, they are also beautiful and comforting. No more worrying about what an audience thinks, no more trying to elbow our way to the top. We have Him instead, a God who redeems our identity for us, giving us His righteousness."

The day I graduated from college, I looked around at my peers - people going on to graduate school, future doctors, teachers, lawyers - and I said to myself "they are successful." I often compared myself to these people, allowing the competitive nature in me to surface.

Even today I still think about my friends who went on to be successful and brilliant and here I am asking people for money - how humbling.

How humbling it is to be completely dependent on God to provide for my needs. How scary it is to take a risk for the sake of glorifying the one who took a risk for me! How awesome it is to being doing something completely out of my comfort zone!

Miller reminds me that my success is not defined by a job or a status, but by living the life that God intended for me. Although I doubt it some days, I truly believe that this is the place that God wants me to be for now. I feel confident that He will not let go of me and that I cannot fail as long as I hold onto Him.

I am so excited to continue this adventure and cannot wait to see who God has to join me as ministry partners!