COLLEGE: It Really Was the Time of My Life!

Walking across Mississippi State’s campus for the last time as an undergraduate I was humbled by a vision of myself over the last three & a half years in a condensed, “bigger picture” timeline. I was covered with goose bumps by the thought of what could have been, yet in the same moment, I was warmed by utter joyfulness because of what is. I felt like God allowed me to look in from His perspective to see the life of His daughter that He redeemed and brought purpose and perspective to. I saw a girl who was lost, fighting for any sense of belonging and purpose, trying to fill her “God hole” with anything and finding disappointment time after time. She was defeated, worn out, useless, and stuck. In this “bigger picture” vision, I didn’t see all the frustration and heartache that came when the ragged girl began trying to live for a righteous God. The details that I remember so vividly along the way were erased by the overwhelming sense of a life altered by faith and righteousness, given to the girl freely by the grace she finally accepted.

Throughout my years in college, God has taken my view of life and expanded it. He has taken my fear of death and given me hope for eternity. God has taken my own ideas, direction, and purpose and exchanged them for His. He has crushed my arrogance, taken my pride, and allowed me to depend on Him in humbleness. God has used my weaknesses to show His strength. He has lifted my burdens and my baggage so I can be yoked to Him alone. What was dead, He gave life to. What was purposeless, He gave purpose. What was full of wild passion, He channeled for His majestic, unfathomable, greater than this life plan of salvation, hope, and restoration. God accepted a prideful, conforming, self-righteous, stubborn smarty pants. He met me where I was and persistently picked up the pieces of my shattered life. In case you haven’t read the Bible, this is NOT the first time God has used a broken person. In fact, it is a broken person God always uses, and He graciously welcomes His children to be a part of what He is doing. Are you allowing yourself to be broken before Him so that you can be used by Him?