So I woke up with a crazy headache that I had for no apparent reason. I got up and started getting ready for school, but then I got really nauseous and weak, so I went to go tell my mom. I didn't want to just stay home because I had a dress rehearsal for choir and I couldn't miss that. My stomach and head hurt so badly that I was rolling around on my bed and crying. Well, long story short, Mom thought it was an attack from the enemy because of all the work God has been doing through our family these past couple of days, so she and my sister prayed over me....and then I fell back asleep for another two hours. The last thing running through my mind, "God promises that He will lay His healing hands upon the sick and they will be healed." SIGH.
Two hours of sleep later. I am better. :D So I go to school. And yes. Of my own volition.
Fast forward two hours. Alice and I randomly end up getting the opportunity to speak in Miss Choi's 10th grade girls' Life Skils class (Bible class). Alice shared a testimony of what God has been doing in her life the past couple of days, and she challenged the girls about how freeing it is to confess sin, make things right with God and others, and accept the consequences maturely. And she was so right on when she said: the scariest place to be is when you are a Christian and you have unconfessed sin against God, but the BEST place to be is when you know you are in a right standing with Him. So true. Wise words there, girl. :D
I also spoke, very extemporaneously. Miss Choi just asked right before that class if I could speak, and I couldn't turn her down. It was something that I had been wanting to do for ages, and here was an opportunity being given to me.
I can't remember word for word what I had said, but it was along the lines of:
As a Christian, there will be a time in your life where you will have to decide whether you really believe in God, whether you are going to take a step of faith and take God for His Word, whether you will believe that the Bible is the absolute authority. I shared about the time when Mom got sick and was in and out of the hospital for a couple of weeks. I told those girls that it was then that I really got serious about God. It was then when I was pushed to the end of myself and I had to ask myself if I really believe God is truthful when He promises to me in His Word that if my mother and father forsake me, He will lift me up. I had to ask if I really believed that all things work together for good and that He is the Father of all Comfort.
I told them that we can go to Harvest since we were in kindergarten and learn all these facts about God and the Bible, but if we don't live out what we learn, all we're doing is learning how to be really good liars. When will we take the mask off? When will we stop kidding ourselves and get honest with God about sin and who we really are?
If you don't go to Harvest, then you probably don't realize this, but the difference between this year's junior class and the other high school classes is a huge chasm. Aside from all biases, there is something different about my class. I know that those sophomore girls knew that, because I have talked to many of them. Some of them have even asked me why things are so different with us. You may be asking the same question. God's grace is what makes us different. Yeah, we are TOTALLY not perfect, but because there were a few of us our freshman year who took God seriously, God took us seriously. Because of His grace, He has really brought our class close together.
I took that illustration and brought it to the point of: Take God seriously, and He will take your seriousness seriously. I told them they can mock me and even think I'm foolish for giving my all for the Gospel, but I also told them that if they do, I know something they don't. I know how real, how good, and how awesome JEHOVAH God is! I told them that my life is a picture of God's grace. Honestly. There have been so many things that my family and I have gone through that we never could have survived without God. I shared with them specific things in my family that I have seen God do.
I told them that if they are challenged by what was said and finally decide to take the next step in their Christian walk, I'm not going to mock them. There are people that are going to support them, not ridicule them for standing up for Christ. I told them that even the reason I was speaking in their class was to support Alice, my sister in Christ. And if they ever wanted to talk, they can come to us...and other Christian girls. I challenged them to be that girl who people can point at and say, "Yeah, that girl is God's girl. She's not perfect, but she knows exactly who she is in Christ."
In all seriousness, I praise God for that opportunity. I praise God for the fact that my life is a picture of His grace and sovereignty. I praise God for all the things that He has brought me through. Even for just one person I touch....each hardship is worth it.
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