A Story of Submission and God's Leading: Part II

Picking up from where I left off last entry, I had finally made my college decision. This, of course, was not just a college decision, but a decision that would affect the next four years of my life. I realized that by choosing DePaul I would face many difficulties: having a long, daily commute, a lot of walking, spending time in the unfamiliar Chicago Loop, meeting a wide variety of people every day, being in a very liberal and anti-Christian college environment, being surrounded by the hustle and bustle of life in Chicago, and many more things. These difficulties I embraced as only obstacles – and ones that I could overcome easily with God at my side. I prayed that God would use these obstacles to mold me and train me for His future work.

One of the first important lessons that was brought to my attention was the importance of preparing my heart for the day ahead. Because of my long commute, I have a large amount of downtime in the morning. At the beginning of the school year, I usually spent this time reading. One of these books, a biography on George Mueller, stressed the importance of meditating on God’s word and preparing your heart in the morning. This book led to a change in my habits and I began to use this time to study and meditate on His Word. How can you glorify God throughout the day, if your soul is not in a ‘happy state’ with Him? How can you learn from God’s lessons if your mind is already racing ahead to the day’s activities and completely throwing aside the sovereignty of God? We are all humans here and need constant reminders that life is not all about us. By reading and meditating on scripture before the day’s activities (not just praying or typical ‘reading’, but actual applicable meditation and studying), I have found myself to be well prepared for the day’s situations; more so than I have ever experienced before. My morning commute has provided for some of my most productive Bible study and prayer sessions.

The second lesson I learned, and one that I am still learning, was that of boldness. I quickly had the opportunity to set myself apart from the typical freshman. Starting from the very first day of our immersion week, there were stories of parties and half the class was hung-over. I found it hard to hold a conversation when all they talked about was how they got drunk last night. Still, every opportunity I had, I made it known that I was a Christian. This opened the door for several conversations about Christ with non-Christian friends that were in my classes. Nothing overly spectacular, but I must start somewhere. Coming into school, one of my weaknesses was avoiding any situation that required me to make a stand for Christianity. I believe this is one thing that needs to change before I can be of any use to Him.

I had the wonderful opportunity of becoming involved with the InterVarsity group at DePaul and am encouraged at the direction they are headed. Their emphasis is on weekly small group meetings at different times on different days with two large group meetings each quarter. We also have many different activities throughout the quarter. It has been amazing to see God work in my own small group this past quarter. The group has grown tremendously and many heart-changing topics were brought up that you could tell many of the students had a passion for. For the large group meetings, I have had the opportunity to help lead worship with my guitar. It will be exciting to see how God continues to work throughout the rest of the school year.

For the sake of brevity, I will cut this entry short here. There are so many more things that I have learned, and it is amazing to look back and see how much my heart has changed over this period of only three months. It is even more amazing to imagine what God could do during the remaining 3 ½ years of school.

Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. – Ephesians 6:19-20