Something that God is continuing to teach me through my move across the country to Utah is that my yes to coming here was never about me. It was never about how much I could “get” or how much I could benefit from coming here, it was (and is) about how I can give. My yes to Him is about me being a blessing to others while I am here, and showing people the love of Jesus, many of which have quite possibly spent their entire lives wondering if such a thing as God really even exists.
My yes to God is about loving people who believe differently politically than me, and showing them in real practice that I can and will love them as valued human beings made in the image of God, even if we have different perspectives on certain things.
My yes to God is about every patient I will encounter in the hospital in the year that I am here who I will have the opportunity to show Jesus to by caring for them in their toughest, darkest, and often loneliest moments of life.
My yes to God is about serving His kingdom within a church community, and using the gifts, talents, and passions He has given me to help build up His kingdom.
My yes to God was never about me coming to a beautiful place where I can go on lots of hikes and post pictures of them (although the hiking is certainly a perk and I’m definitely not complaining about it). My yes to God is about THEM, and to some extent I don’t even know who all encompasses “them” yet. I just know I’m not here for my own self-fulfillment or gain, but I am here to serve and to fearlessly and compassionately love others.
TO ALL MY FOLKS BACK IN KY: I hope that me saying yes to God in this way can be an example and an inspiration to you in your own journey of following Jesus. I hope that seeing me choose to say yes, even though it was (and sometimes still is) hard, encourages you to say yes to Jesus, too. I hope it reminds you that we can and should say yes to Him, even when we feel weak, and even if we walk to where He is taking us with our knees trembling every step of the way. Even if it means giving up what we know, even if it means crawling on the floor from being captivated by fear of the unknown, even if it means saying goodbye to people who are so close that they feel like actual blood family (shout out to my Radiant KY church fam – you guys will always be family), it’s STILL worth it, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I wouldn’t trade the hard for the easy. I wouldn’t trade not knowing for being certain of each and every possible detail of my future that my finite human brain could manage, and even though I am actively living in the hard of still being fairly new in Utah and away from everything I know that was familiar to me, I STILL wouldn’t say no. I wouldn’t say no to God because I trust in His plan, and because I know that my yes was never about me. It was (and is) about how God can USE me to be a blessing to others, and to show them what a truly sold out and fully devoted follower of Jesus looks like. It’s about giving, it was never about getting.
We say yes not always knowing why because it reminds us to put our faith in God and in HIS plan, knowing that His plan is always greater than anything we could ever imagine for ourselves.
We say yes even in the midst of fear, because we know that even if we feel fear, God is still with us. God is with us in the uncertainty, in the fear, in the anxiety, JUST as much as He is with us in the courage. We don’t have to feel a certain way about our yes. We just have to give it.
Joshua 1:9: “Have I not commanded you? ‘Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go'”, (NIV).
2 Timothy 1:7: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind”, (NKJV).
Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'”, (NIV).
Deauteronomy 31:8: “And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed”, (NKJV).
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