This season of transition brings many emotions - definite excitement, but a little sadness, and honestly some regret. I want to share a couple of blurbs from the past four years in hopes that they will be useful in some way.
One of the most valuable things I have learned over the past four years is how to make my relationship with God my own. For a long time I found myself comparing my faith to those around me, and thinking that others had the key to what knowing and walking with God should look like. Later I learned that I had been believing a lie - that the people I envied were just like me. Over time and with the help of our faithful Lord, I realized that everyone's relationship with Jesus looks different because it's personal to who they are, which is ultimately the beauty of it all! We serve a God who made us uniquely and knows and loves us completely. He comes to where we are, and for that reason we can't and won't all have the same, cookie-cutter lives or experiences.
Don't get me wrong - there's nothing wrong with finding similarities among each other, but I found such freedom in knowing and learning how to encounter Jesus in the intimate, private places of my life. It was through consistent prayer, daily journaling and reading scripture that I found myself in a dialogue with God and hearing from Him for the very first times. Once I learned how to just be with Him, I could truly own my relationship with my Savior. This process led me to find such truth in Kari Jobe's lyrics: "The more I seek You, the more I find You. The more I find You, the more I love You." (Also see Jeremiah 29:13 - You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.)
The last pieces of "wisdom" - and possibly the most important things I have to share - are what I wish I had done differently in college. I wish I had recognized the importance of community sooner and taken advantage of opportunities for relationships. I wish I had spent more time being relational and less task oriented. On any given day I had my full 24-hour schedule planned, hour by hour, which left no time for me to be available to others or spontaneous. Looking back, I see that I missed out on time with friends and getting to know my peers better because I was truly overextended. My advice is to make time for community - there is such power and healing in relationship, and it's one of the ways God demonstrates His love for us. It has taken a while, but I continue to see the goodness of our God in others - community is a blessing and a necessity.
Today, I also recognize the importance of rest and the fact that taking time for myself is not selfish, it's necessary for self care. I often forget that, just like loving God and others, resting is a commandment. Even Jesus took time to rest... it sustains.
All this to say, there's no special formula for doing college, life, or any endeavor the "right" way. If there is, it's only to love the Lord with all that you are...everything flows from your connection to Him.
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