Throughout
my life I’ve always heard my grandparents talk about the people they used to be
and where they had gone. And now I’m 18, and its weird to be old enough to look
back at my life and do the same. I’m 18 and I already feel like I’m running out
of time. I have always been scared of growing up, becoming an adult, and
stopping at some point because I just realized that my life really hasn’t made
a difference.
But I have
also been inspired by others whom I know God has placed in my life, in the different
seasons I’ve been in. And a belief that I always knew, yet never fully
demonstrated, was to live fully for God.
A couple of
years ago, I went on a mission trip with my youth group to help construct part
of a church. My job for the day was to paint the trimmings of the doors and to
fill and smooth any holes before painting. My youth pastor at the time, Todd
Graham, was helping me in this process (He’s one of those guys that surprise
you almost everyday with something else you didn’t know about him). As we were
talking, he told me all about his different jobs, from being a restaurant cook,
to an ambulance driver, to a firefighter, and touring with Sixpence None the
Richer, all leading him to his current call of being our youth pastor. And at
the end of our hour and a half talk, I told him that his life was crazy,
considering he was only in his thirties. And what I remember the most about
that day was when he said, “If I died today, I truly would have no regrets.”
What he said that day has always stuck with me, not because he was telling me to “chase my dreams”, but because it gave me a better understanding of being courageous for God by seizing the opportunities the Lord gives you and leads you to. We have such a routine of “including” God into our daily lives that we don’t revolve our routine around Him. By looking back at how the Lord has stretched me, I can trust Him to lead me, even when I am in fear, because he is my father and truly knows what is best for me.
