It is the second week of my last year here at Westmont, but
I have already jammed so many things into these last seventeen days that it
feels as though more than a month has passed. It has been an amazing start to
the year—meeting so many new people, learning a new role, and of course,
starting new classes. This is about the point in the semester where I realize
how many things I have committed myself to and I wonder how in the world I am
going to survive.
Naturally, since this happens every year, I have a go to
method of dealing with the overwhelming to-do lists, scary projects, and
whatever else I decided I HAD to be involved in. What is amazing about this
year, however, is that so many of my activities and new relationships have come
from doors that God has opened for me. (Meaning that I didn’t necessarily seek
them out) Starting this year, as the transportation director of Westmont’s
Mexico service team, Potter’s Clay, was never something that I expected for my
time at Westmont—however, I have already seen God working through my position.
If it was not for that position, there are many people at Westmont who I would
have missed the opportunity to meet. I have developed fast friendships with my
team and others in student leadership, and God has clearly called all of us to
our various positions, this year.
Moreover, my classes carry a more intimidating level of
difficulty that comes from the culmination of knowledge in senior year. This is
where I have derived most of the unsettled and anxious feelings that come with
the transition into a new year. What I have found amazing is that God has used
my position on Potter’s Clay to refresh me and provide me with the strength to
take on the tough schoolwork and medical school application process. Through
bringing me this position, he has clearly shown me that he is in control, and
he is directing my path along his will. I can rest easy in the promise that,
“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he
trusts in you” Isaiah 26:3.
Today on the way back from a weekend trip to Mexico, our
staff director asked for people to share devotional thoughts, because we had
missed church. One girl, Taylor, shared a simple but incredible insight into
truth. She turned to a familiar passage, Psalm 23 and read: “The Lord is my
shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me li down in green pastures…” She stopped
there, and discussed how the ancient understanding of a “green pasture” was
actually fairly dry ground with just enough grass growing to support the
animals for that ONE DAY. She encouraged us to remember that God promises to
provide enough for today. When we
are anxious or in a hurry or frustrated or jealous or ________ God is going to
sustain you and fill you for that day.
We can trust our shepherd.
My goal for this year is to remain present and available for
deepening my relationships with the people who are currently in my life at
Westmont, and it is scary to commit to that in the face of the piles of work.
However, I know that I can trust God to sustain me today, and he will keep me
in his perfect peace.
