Who moved?
The Christian walk never stops, even when you move away from home and the little Christian bubble you grew up in. There's no doubt about it, we all have felt distant from God at some point in our lives. We like to think he's the one who moved, but is he really? In the Bible, he plainly says to us: "I will never leave you nor forsake you." (Deuteronomy 31:6) So clearly, he's not the one who is moving, but why do we sometimes feel so distant? Lately, I have been trying to figure out why I have felt this way. At first, I thought it was just because I am now on my own away from home, and I'm not in my normal atmosphere, but as the year has gone on, I realized that is not the reason.
Here's the reality of why we feel distant from God: we start getting comfortable in our everyday lives and stop pursuing him. It's that simple. Everyone experiences difficulties and defeats in life, and sometimes we don't see God anywhere during our struggle and that makes us question him. In the midst of those trials, we lose sight of God and start to question his love for us. We don't praise him in the storm, and that is where we go wrong. If you really want God's attention, start praising him in the storms of your life and in the highs of your life.
My junior and senior year, I got involved with a fabulous group of girls and leaders called the Soul Sisters, and they have become some of my best friends and helped me on my pursuit of God. They have helped me realize that God's grace is more than any sin. They have taught me so much about how no matter what we are going through, his love never leaves our side. The leaders we had were amazing. They poured into me so much more than I could ever give back, and for that I am beyond thankful. God truly blessed me when he allowed all of these wonderful girls and ladies to be in my life.
Philippians 2:1-4 says "If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand."
When I left for college, my walk became more challenging because I was not in my same comfortable, little Christian bubble. I was on my own in the real world, and that is where I learned that I was the one who had moved, not God.
My freshman year has been full of trials, storms and difficult times, and I believe that was God's way of bringing me back to him. He is our shelter in the storms, and when everything started going haywire, I found myself diving more into his word and found myself getting closer to him. Sometimes, we have to let go and realize that his plan is much greater than ours.
Let it be, let it be, Jesus.
C.S. Lewis—“I gave in and admitted that God was God.”
