One month ago I moved into a home for young women who are pregnant but do not have the support and resources to care for themselves and their children. I serve as an RA and when I say that people ask "what does that entail?" Well the house I live in is more of a discipleship house, the girls are not required to be Christians, but the house is run by a Christian organization and all of the staff are Christians. My "work" is every other weekend all day, but we are truly "always on". When I interviewed they made this seem like such a daunting task, but the Words God has spoken to me in this last month give me peace and rest in this. He says be ready in season and out of season, basically everyone of us is "ALWAYS ON", but sometimes we forget who our audience is. See if I was trying to please my boss or the girls I now live with this new task would be overwhelming. Never being off would be stressful, but the truth is for the last 15 years of my life I have been living to LOVE JESUS. This love spills over as actions, but I don't walk around worried about what someone else may think of me. The only question I ever have to ask is "Is this an expression of Love to my Lord and savior?" Now this may still seem overwhelming to think that we are always on, but if we draw our strength from God our helper and we take on the the yoke that Jesus refers to in Matthew 11 then we begin to live in the freedom of grace and provision instead of working to please. Think LOVE, what does it look like, we love because he first loved us. His love is perfect, he does not want you to follow a list of rules, he wants you to live to LOVE him. When we recognize this we no longer have to change how we live depending on the circumstance we find ourselves. If we continue to focus on our first true love, JESUS Christ, we will be provided all we need in the circumstance.
I think the more we are in the same "mission field" and circumstances do not follow our dreams or our plans we allow our fire to diminish and start to think "where is God leading me NEXT?" Here. Thats where he is leading you. Where is that? Where you are and the next step you will take. Look around for those that you can love and never stop. Jesus led you there because he is pursuing those around you through you. He has chosen to use YOU, but love is long suffering. It does not stop when you get frustrated or when those around you do not receive it. You must love those that Jesus loves (which is everyone) sacrificially. One song that brought me into this job and God has used to prepare me for what it will take is Hillsong United "Love is War." The writers were speaking about where the lyrics came from and he said that it is about us surrendering our life, our desires, our pride for the LOVE of Christ knowing that he has triumphed. The love of Christ is saying not my will but Yours. I knew coming into this job that the girls were not going to thank me everyday for being the RA, for making them follow the rules, do their chores, or even help them with something. They expect it, it is my job. But what they do not expect because they do not understand is that I will tell them and show them that I love them no matter what they say or how they act out. Not because I am a good person, or because they are just perfect angels, but because Jesus is pursuing them. Jesus will never stop loving them, so I commit to never stop loving them from the overflow of love He has given me. So what does this look like for you? It is not your future. It is your present. Yes God has greater things to come, but he wants us to be faithful in the things he has for us now. If you see him working in the now you will continue the good work. It does not show up all the sudden. Faith is built by God being faithful, but you can not see his faithfulness if you do not step out of the comfort of the predictable.
I left for college almost 6 years ago with faith that God had called me to Florida, however I will admit that I had not been living in faith much before that. I mean yes I had accepted Christ by faith, but my life day by day was not lived in faith. I loved Jesus, but I had not spent the time investing in his faithfulness, so when I got here I began to questioned if I had made the correct decision. I allowed the doubt from the Devil to shut me in, convincing me that I was not in the right place and since I had come to the wrong place I could not be used. I am so glad that I had parents and a church growing up that mentored me in the Word. I turned there, not to a church or a friend, I turned to the Bible, God's promises in my life. I read and immersed myself in it and began to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. Yes it was hard, but in the previous years he had been preparing me for it, it was his plan and he had led me there. He built my faith through His Word even though I did not have the support system I so earnestly desired. He had to pull me out of the comfort of my family, church, and friends for me to realize that I was not in reliance on him. I was merely living off the faith of others. Now their faith and seeing what He had brought others through did allow me to know that He was real, but by calling me out to a truly personal relationship he began to build my faith in Him. That faith has grown slowly over the last 5 years, but has much maturing to do. I hear him as He leads and the fact that I don't know exactly where He is leading next provides no anxiety for me because I KNOW he will lead. It frees me to live intentional about where I am now instead of having to split my attention between the present and future. I also see how my past has led to my present so I know that what I am encountering now, both good and bad, my struggles, my hurts, my joys, are all part of his plan. Not just for my life, but more importantly to Glorify HIS name.
So in response to "What are you doing here?" I would say Loving Jesus, Glorifying the Father, and Loving those He has called me to. "What does that look like?" Well it is leaving daily at 6:15 (when I use to wake up at 7:30) to go to class and showing them that a woman of God is not just a pastor's wife. A woman of God can be a student. It is coming home dead tired but sacrificing my time to eat dinner with them, sit in on a Bible study, help them with home work, mentor them through a situation in their life, or just talk. It is trusting that God called me to do this work and that he will provide the time and the energy to pass my classes as well as invest in their lives. It is giving up studying, being lazy, going to the beach, or whatever else every other weekend to be "on the job." Most importantly it is not forgetting my first love, because without the desire to know my savior, his love, and all the other characteristics of Him I will never be able to accomplish any of the above task. Operating in my weakness and His strength is the only possible answer to this job, not only at His Caring Place, but as a Christian in general. So where do you feel weak? Embrace it and ask God to work right there so that you can experience His characteristic of faithfulness.
Live Foolishly,
Rachel Woodson
