These were the questions posed to us for our Communications clinical. It gave me a chance to put my faith into words. The picture I included is of a little 8-year-old girl named Akiane who heard God's voice in her backyard while looking at dandelions. She had zero faith until that moment and was "told" [by the Holy Spirit] to draw for Jesus. I encourage you to Google her story!
Meaning & Purpose
In my life, I’ve chosen God as the most powerful thing which gives my life meaning and purpose. Purpose comes in the form of opportunities given to me to serve other people, both strangers and acquaintances. I have meaning because a free gift was given to me that doesn’t demand payment back. That free gift was forgiveness of my sins that had accumulated through the years out of selfishness and ignorance. The Lord offered His son, Jesus Christ, to be brutally martyred on a cross through mutilation, flogging, and asphyxiation as a sacrifice for my sins. Without this event in history, I would still be living for self, concerned about no one, socially immoral and destructive. I acknowledge this event as a love offering and feel only reverent and humble. It causes me to only want to direct the attention of others towards this phenomenal moment in history.
So when a temptation gets thrown my way and I succumb to it, my human instinct is to feel guilty and bury my head in the sand. However, I have a deep rooted belief system in God’s word, especially where it states that by believing His son Jesus died for my sins, I am simply forgiven of all the temptations I fall victim to. It may sound cliché to state this because many people feel this phrase has been abused through the years, but nonetheless, it’s real and it’s true. To heal my spirit I simply pray on my knees and imagine placing my baggage at the feet of God on His throne and apologizing to Him for it and asking for His forgiveness. After that joy, peace, and a fresh start are the feelings that follow. I am able to forgive others fairly easily because I look at their transgressions the way Jesus would look at them. This doesn’t mean that they get off the hook with a free pass; I’m willing to forgive if the person ultimately feels sorrowful for their actions and seeks my forgiveness.
Inner strengths:
To say that finding joy and peace in my life are simple things is to underestimate the dynamics of both of these things. Simply put, I find joy and peace in the quiet of the day, in solitude, and reflecting on the blessings of life. (“He leadeth me beside the still waters” –Psalm 23.:2) I consider my blessings to be:
- The house I live in, because a single mother with her crippled son in a third world country is living in a mud hut.
- The car I drive, because others’ mode of transportation is walking.
- The supportive friends I have, because some teenagers feel isolated and ostracized.
- Running water, because people I visited in the Dominican Republic had bathtubs, but used them as storage units because of the lack of flowing water.
I like that I am extremely considerate of others, because it forges trusting lifelong relationships. I see the potential in others and discreetly try to motivate them to reach those potentials. I am driven out of a love for God, and because He loves His children on this earth, I love them too. Since He asks me to shepherd them, I consider it an honor and perform it with joy. I find that my consideration for others translates into my personal strengths as I have been told I can be extremely hospitable and throw awesome parties. I also remember in undergrad having the pressure put on me to be as professional as possible and extinguish any unprofessional habits in order to establish a successful business. I’ve worked hard on myself and have pushed myself to extreme limits of delivering quality professional service, only to find that in most instances, others have not worked equally as hard. This becomes evident in my experiences with bad customer service and professional attitudes.
Interconnections:
At the present juncture I am proud of myself for all the accomplishments I’ve made in life, for how far I’ve come, and for the networking I’ve formed in Louisville (politics, church culture, economy). There are some highly resourceful people in my life who have helped guide me along spiritually, mentally, educationally, physically, and professionally. I wouldn’t be who I am today without those people who poured themselves into me. I feel confident in my life skills because those who have performed those same life skills as my role models displayed them with such perfection, dignity, and integrity, I plan to hold to these skills permanently.
I consider social outings to be things I pursue for my own personal interest. I can’t afford to travel right now, so I spend most of my free time building the friendships I’ve already established. It’s really important to me to build a strong network of supportive friends because I know when life becomes challenging, it’s those people I count on to pull me through. So right now my social life holds a high value to me. I am abnormally blessed in the friend department. What this means is, I attend a mega church that has a ministry for my age group and currently has around 500 young adults. I’m friends with a large majority of them and because we share a common faith, it’s easy to say I know 80% of their personalities. This helps to form unique bonds that are beneficial to each party. I have a pool of friends I can count on to help with any task imaginable. Asking for help is easy because my friends are always more than willing to help whether I need it or not. They also know the house I live in has an open door policy for anyone to make themselves feel at home.
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