Plans

When I didn't get into Appalachian State University, I was crushed.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do or where I would go to school.  As I was telling my boss all this she looked at me and said "Just remember, God has a plan, even when we can't see it."  It took me by surprise.  I left her office feeling just a tiny bit better than I did when I first went in.

As the semester is drawing to an end, I can't help but be reminded of that quote.  For some of us, graduation is just a few short days away.  For others of us a semester or two away.  With every passing day it seems as if the pressure to have a "plan" increases.  Right now I am trying to decide which graduate program I want to attend and where I want to be after I graduate from Montreat. It can be very frustrating not to know what comes next.  

Just like my boss said, God has a plan, I just can't see it right now.  There might be a reason he doesn't want me to see his plan right now.  It's not the right time.  God's timing is perfect.  He knows exactly what our lives look like before we were even born.  How amazing is that!  It's just a matter of faith.  Having faith in knowing God's plan is the plan that is best for your life. Jeremiah 29:11 says "For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord.  "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."

God wants the best for us.  He knows what lies up ahead of us.  All we need to do is have faith and know that God is taking care of us and has us in the palm of our hands.  One thing is for sure: even if our plans fall through, God won't.  He will be there no matter what.

Is it too hard?

A year or so ago I was at church listening to a sermon.  I hate to say this but I was kind of nodding off to sleep in the middle of the sermon.  Until something he said woke me up and grabbed my attention.

He said "God will ask you to do something that is too hard for you."  The whole congregation fell silent.  You could have heard a pin drop it was so quiet.  I'm sure I was thinking what everybody else was thinking 'You're a pastor.  You're not supposed to say that.  That's so discouraging.'  We made judgment before he finished his thought.  He continued with "But he will never ask you to do something that he can't do."  For the rest of the service I sat and contemplated what this meant.

At first I didn't understand this.  Why would God give me something that is too hard for me to do?  That would mean that I would fail and disappoint him.  Why would he do something like that?  Then I realized something.  He will ask me to do things that are too hard for me.  But only so I can rely on Him for his strength to accomplish it.  2 Corinthians 12:9 says this "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."  It's comforting to know that no matter how weak I am, God is always stronger than my weaknesses.  

Footprints

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one belonging to him, and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it. "Lord, You said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me."

The Lord replied, "My son, my precious child, I love you and would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you." -Anonymous
Sometimes in life we wonder why we can't feel God. Especially when we are going through something difficult. It is in those moments that he has us in his arms, carrying us through whatever we are facing.

Run

Who runs?  Everybody runs.  Well, not everybody is a track star but we all run.  What are we running from? Perhaps the more important question is: who are we running to?

It was my junior year in college and I was sitting in a biology lab.  Not my favorite place to be. Our professor always did a devotional with us each class period.  She told us how she struggled to find a devotion for this particular week.  So she just put on her itunes and asked God to show her what she needed to teach us.  The song Run Baby Run came on by Jason Upton.  The lyrics are as follows:

I?ve been calling you to go to the city
I?ve been watching you every day
Now I?m paying for a one way ticket
for a ship that sails the opposite way

And you laugh and you cry
and you live and you die
cause you don?t really know who you are
all alone in this world
orphan boy, orphan girl
cause you don?t really know who you are

Run baby run
my hands release you
baby run baby run
just as fast as you can
run till your legs lead your heart to the real truth
you?re my daughter, my son,
so run baby run baby run

Hear me laughing as you run from your calling
see me crying, see me crying in the storms that rage
one way or another, you will be going
to obey is such an easier way 

While she played the song for us she asked us to think about the meaning of the words and the impact it has on our life.  All I could do was sit there and allow my eyes to fill with tears.  I was the runner.  She pulled me aside after class to make sure I was okay and we talked for a bit.  I was running from God.  Not even knowing the direction I was headed.  Not long after I heard that song, I knew what I had to do.  I began to talk to God and let him in on what was going on. Once I did that, I stopped running.

Everybody is running from something or someone.  The question though is who are you running to? Is it God?  Is it man?  Is it materialistic?  Whatever it is, God already knows and he cares.  Stop running.  Turn around and run to him because he's the only one that will run to you.

Life is like a paperclip

Life is like a paperclip.  Yes.  Like a paperclip.  When a paperclip is bought at the store, it's in the perfect little package.  Perfect in shape and color.  There is nothing flawed about it.  However, the paperclip will not stay in that form.  Somebody will bend it out of shape just for the amusement of it.  You can try and bend the paperclip back into the original position but it's very difficult.  It can be done though.  It just takes some time and patience.

We are like paperclips in God's eyes.  When we are born, we are perfect.  Not a scratch to our name.  As we go through life though, we get scratches, bumps, and bruises.  When we head into our teen/early adult years that is when we start to "bend out of shape."  We hang with the wrong crowd.  Do and say the wrong things.  We get into bad habits.  Pretty soon we can't even recognize who we are.  This is where God comes in and picks us up and holds us in his arms.  He molds us "back into shape."  To our original condition.  

God may let us wander down a path or two that's off course, but he will always bring us back to where we started.  God is good and he loves his children.  There is nothing we can do or say that will keep his love from us.  He will do whatever it takes to "bend us back into shape."

Can You Hear Me Now??

Can you hear me now? Ok. Good. How about now? Good. Can you hear me now? This catchy phrase was coined by the Verizon Wireless phone company. This is there slogan. Being able to communicate with people is important. Text messages and phone calls are used to send messages. However, sometime the signal is bad and the messages don't go through and the calls get dropped. This can also be true of the Christian life.

How many times when we pray to God and ask 'Can you hear me?' Our prayers feel like they're not even getting past the ceiling. We ask God 'Why aren't you answering?' 'Can you not hear me?'

This can be a very frustrating experience. Humanly, we can relate this to two friends sitting in a room together. Friend A is telling friend B about how horrible her day was and everything that went wrong. When she is finished talking, friend B looks up and says 'Oh I'm sorry. Did you say something?' The good news is: God isn't like that!

God does hear us. He just wants us to be quiet. Isaiah 65:24 says this "It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear." God knows what we are going to say before we say it. And he knows how long we will talk to him about it too. God wants us to take a moment to stop asking the questions of 'Can you hear me? and Why aren't you answering?' to sit and listen in quiet. Perhaps the reason we can't hear him is because we ourselves are not quiet enough to hear him. God is listening. Are you?

Finals

Ahh the week of finals.  There is no feeling quite like it in the world.  The rushing around trying to cram every piece of information from the whole semester into a study session.  The stress of trying to raise grades by the letter.  Not to mention the focus of thinking about getting home to see family and friends for the holidays.  If you also add in trying to make last minute plans with friends before the break plus the above mentioned, you have a recipe for stress.

This is exactly what I am experiencing this week.  My grades in my classes are teetering between two letter grades.  The exams will be the deciding factor.  I want to do my best.  Therefore, I am extremely stressed on making sure that the grade on my finals cause my overall all grade to go up a letter grade.  Then I got a devotional email from my mom.

The opening to the devotional was this verse: "But you will not even need to fight.  Take your positions; then stand still and watch the Lord's victory.  He is with you, O people of Judah and Jerusalem.  Do not be afraid or discouraged.  Go out there tomorrow, for the Lord is with you!" 2 Chronicles 20:17  I was stuck on this verse for awhile.  I kept reading it and rereading it. Then I realized something.

I have no need to worry about my finals.  God is going to be with me no matter what.  In the end it won't matter what I made on my finals.  My finals do not and will not determine my entrance into the kingdom of Heaven.  So, I am no longer worried about my finals.  I know God is with me and will supply my needs.  His word says: "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26  If I were to take on these exams in my own strength, it would be impossible.  But because I have God on my side, these exams are not impossible.  God is with me.

Silent Night

Silent Night.  An all-time favorite Christmas carol.  So simple yet so impactful.  Well, I used to enjoy that song every year at Christmas.  I would hear it sung at church countless times as well as when the carols at the stores would sing it.  This Christmas is different though.

In October of 2007 my Grammy passed away.  We were very very close.  That Christmas was slightly difficult but looking back I do not think that I totally processed her not being there at Christmas.  Our family had gone non-stop since her death.  Having people come over bringing dinners.  Visiting extended family for Thanksgiving.  Finals coming up.  It all happened so quickly. Hearing the song Silent Night that Christmas really did not affect me that much.  However, this Christmas is different.  Every time I hear that song, I think of my Grammy.  It's harder this year.  I hear the song and I remember her.  It was her favorite Christmas song.  I can still hear the faint sound of her voice singing it.  

I've gotten to the point to where I have asked many questions and even allowing myself to get angry.  I ask the question 'why?'  Then God showed me something.  The night my Grammy passed away was in fact a silent night.  At least in our hearts and minds.  When she passed away, it began a long journey.  A journey that will never end.  However, the night she passed away, there was a place where it wasn't a silent night.  Heaven.  The angels in heaven were rejoicing and welcoming her home with open arms.  Jesus was there at the gate to meet her.  

So while we were here on Earth experiencing a silent night, Heaven was experiencing a joyous night.  Sometimes things aren't always what we seem.  God will make a way to comfort us even in the most tragic situations.  So now when I hear that song, I don't think of a silent night.  I think of a joyous night!

The Good Through The Bad

Its the week before finals and my roommate and I decided we wanted to rearrange our room. However, she wasn't here when I rearranged but we talked about how we wanted the room and that's how I arranged it. When she got back later, she really didn't say a lot. I could tell by the look on her face. The room was still messy with clothes, books, and other things scattered everywhere. It was 11:30 pm. I was tired and cranky and I honestly did not feel like moving anything else. So we talked about the room and the layout and how else we could do it to where we were both satisfied with it. By the time we figured it out, it was 12:00 am. We both had 8:00 classes. We began to move. It was a bit challenging because we had to move stuff all over the room just to settle in a tiny piece of furniture. Once we got all the furniture in place, we still had a HUGE mess to clean up. By this time it was 1:00 am. Neither one of us got to bed before 2:00 am.

I know this probably sounds like a way for me to vent off my frustrations. However, I realized that God is like this sometimes. Like the roommate that changes their mind. My roommate wanted to move the furniture around until she found just the right layout for the room. God is like that too. He puts us in situations that frustrates us, challenge us, and even encourage us. When we first go through those situations, we are not able to see the good that will come out of it. We become focused on the problem instead of the solution. We become tired and aggravated just like I did with my roommate. God is patient though. He knows the good that will come out of situation. Just like my roommate knew the room would look amazing in this layout.

The next time I find myself in a challenging situation, I need to look to God to find the light at the end of the tunnel.

Ministry Across the Curriculum

The other day I read an article entitled "A New Rallying Cry" by Howard Culbertson. I found this article to take a very interesting viewpoint on the integration of faith and learning.

Culbertson's view on integration of faith and learning is basically that professors and teachers can not integrate faith into every single subject. He used math as an example. There are very few mathematical examples in the Bible. When a teacher teaches the multiplication tables, she could integrate how Jesus taught to forgive 70 times 7. However, when the teacher begins to teach algebra, there are no biblical examples of this in the Bible that can be used. In other subjects though, there are biblical examples that can be used. Culbertson's point was that faith can not be integrated into every subject therefore by the time students graduate they are not even aware of the college's faith based slogan. Let alone knowing that they don't know how to integrate faith into learning. The author of this article proposes a different way to integrate faith and learning. He calls it Ministry Across the Curriculum. Culbertson says, "It would make people think of hands-on, field ministry involvements by all students and faculty." Professors and teachers would not necessarily integrate faith into the classroom as much as they would set an example through their actions and words.

As a student, I can see both perspectives on the integration of faith and learning. Coming from a Christian college where the professors do speak about God and faith in the classroom and relate it to what we are learning, I find it to be very useful and helpful. I appreciate the fact that the professors are not ashamed to openly share their faith with the students. I also think that sometimes faith can be best shown through actions. I agree that faith does not always have to be spoken about in a classroom. However, my only concern with this approach is that it will become more and more less common to speak about one's faith in the classroom and it will eventually become obsolete. I do like the approach though of acting on one's faith. That can also speak volumes. Regardless of how a college or university decides to integrate faith and learning, one thing is for sure and that's faith needs to be integrated somehow and someway with learning.

http://online.montreat.edu/file.php/318/A_New_Rallying_Cry_Howard_Culbertson_Southern_Nazarene_University.pdf

Integration Isn't Just For Faith

In a recent article that I read entitled "Defining the Integration of Faith and Learning" by Robert Harris, it speaks about what integration actually is and how it relates to faith and learning.

"Every time we learn something, we engage in the process of integrating knowledge, for integration is the process of connecting knowledge with knowledge-connecting facts, ideas, and other information together in a way that unifies them." - Robert Harris

Everybody integrates knowledge at some point everyday. We may not even mean to do it. It just comes naturally. It would only seem natural that faith is integrated with learning as well.

Harris lists five assumptions to integrating faith and learning. One of these assumptions is that truth is the most important goal of learning. No matter what you learn, when you do learn, you want to learn the truth. A kindergarten teacher does not teach her students that 2+2=5. That is wrong. Untrue. 2+2=4 That is the truth. If a student doesn't learn that then they will have difficulty in all other types of math simply because they didn't know the truth and were not taught. The same goes for the integration of faith and learning. If people are not taught the importance of their faith and how to apply it to what they learn, then they will have nothing to base their knowledge on because God is truth and truth is God.

I think its very important that God's truth is the basis for every other kind of knowledge. Otherwise, the other knowledge will make sense but there will always be a piece missing from the puzzle. That piece is the knowledge of God's truth and knowing for a fact that it is the ultimate truth.

I will leave with a quote from J.P. Moreland who says this "In conceptual integration,one's theological beliefs are blended and unified with propositions judged to be justifiably believed as true from other sources into a coherent, intellectually satisfying world view."

www.virtualsalt.com/int/intdef.pdf

Why Is It So Important?

I never really understood the importance of integrating faith with the learning experience. In my mind, it was just another thing to talk about and to learn about. That was until I got to Montreat College. I began to understand the importance of faith and learning mixed together. However, it wasn't until recently that I read an article entitled "The Integration of Faith and Learning" by Robert Harris, that I really began to grasp and understand the importance of having a faith based learning system.

Who's responsibility is it to integrate faith and learning? This was a question that was raised in Harris's article. It struck me because this is something that I have never thought about before. First of all, it is the universities's and colleges's responsibilities to take on this role. Many students are afraid to integrate their faith with their learning for various reasons. Harris states: "If we want our students to love truth and pursue it freely, we must liberate them from this fear of learning by showing them that learning can strengthen and extend their faith."

However, it is also the student's responsibility to put what they have learned into practice. Meaning, when the professors show the students how to incorporate their faith with their learning, they need to do it. It will ultimately cause the students to become stronger in their faith so when they are faced with questions of postmodernism and things of that sort, they will be able to stand strong in their faith and know what they believe.

As a student, I find this article to be very much encouraging. There are times when I wonder if my belief in God is strong enough and if I'm learning all that I possible can. Through reading this article I have learned that integrating faith into learning is a process and takes time. There will be days when I will get discouraged and that's okay. There will be days when I'm encouraged and that's okay too. The main thing is to keep God in the center of everything you do because without him, it's nothing.

Jesus says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment. -Matthew 22:37-38

http://www.virtualsalt.com/integrat.htm