With school now in full swing, things are getting crazy around the life of our church. But I wanted to take some time to reflect on what God has taught me in my first summer as a campus missionary.
This summer has been one of the most difficult, yet rewarding seasons I’ve yet to experience. Up until about a month and a half ago I had been running extremely hard towards the cross and pressing into bold things that the Lord was asking of me.
Then I hit this wall. I did not want to move forward. I did not want to make an effort. I did not want to put in work that seemed absolutely pointless to me. I had no desire to run to the cross or press into the promises that the Lord has for me. I was paralyzed, feeling incapable and invaluable. I was crying out in a space that felt like a barren desert. To top things off, I was on crutches for a sprained ankle for most of this, but other than that, life was not hard during this season. Generally things were actually going quite well on the outside, but internally I was fighting one of the hardest, if not the hardest, battles of my mind. Every lie the enemy would throw at me, I believed. I had no energy to fight the war being waged against me.
Through all of this, I prayed one constant prayer: God, reveal your grace to me.
This was one of the hardest seasons I’ve ever had to fight my way through, but God remained faithful, even when I was faithless. While fighting to keep my head above water, God reached down to me and answered my prayer for grace with this simple truth: we will never outgrow our need for the gospel.
Do me a favor, just sit in that for a moment. Go back to that moment when you cried out to Jesus expressing your utmost need for a Savior. Has that need left you since then? Or has your awareness of His presence grown?
Since the day I fell in love with Jesus, I would say my need for Him has actually increased. My desire to flee the things of this world and pursue holiness has grown as well as my awareness of my need for Jesus. I know I cannot do this without him, and my sole purpose is to spread His glory and fame, which only brings me back to the gospel. The more I press in, the more I find myself at the feet of Jesus, soaking in the good news.
This does not always mean things are easier. In fact, the enemy wants to take our eyes off the goodness of the gospel and focus all of our attention on things of this world; things that are temporary and that do not bring satisfaction. But the good news of the gospel says this: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)
WE WILL THIRST. There is no avoiding it. We will always have an innate desire for something more, for something greater. In the above passage, Jesus, the Son of God, came to this Samaritan woman at the well, in the middle of the day. A few things to keep in mind when reading this:
1. Being a Samaritan in general meant that you were a social outcast and looked down upon by the Jews.
2. Being a Samaritan woman, meant an even lower rank in society.
3. The fact that Jesus met this woman at the well during midday meant that even within her own community, who are all already looked down up, she was also an outcast.
Imagine what that looks like: to be an outcast in an outcasted society.
The Son of God chose to reveal himself as the Messiah to the lowliest and unlikely of people. This is such a sweet picture of what the gospel is. In Romans 5:8 it says this: “but God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
While we were an outcast of the outcasts, Christ died for us. In our lowest, ugliest, most vulnerable places, Jesus meets us there. He pays for our failures, our mistakes, our shortcomings, and so much more. You know what’s incredible about this? Even after we place our hope and trust in the Lord, we will still need the Lord. We will always need the Lord. We will always need grace. While we are still on this earth, we will not lose our need for a Savior.
If you are feeling like you are wandering in a desert, in a dry season of life, cling to this: there is a cloud coming to bring rain. Pray for the rain, wait for the rain patiently, and when you finally see it, RUN INTO IT.
The Lord wants to saturate your life with love, with hope, and with grace. Are you ready to receive it?
Joyful with Christ 
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