6am my alarm goes off. I went to bed early and I planned to make an early start of my morning & get to school an hour before class and type up my answers to a take-home quiz that was due today. So I hit snooze and roll over just for a minute...
Just for a minute... those 4 deadly words. At 7:20am my brother and sister slamming car doors wake me up. Great.. By 8am I'm pulling out of my driveway thinking there is still a chance I can make this work. My first class is at 9:30 and it only takes an hour to get to school. That leaves me 30 minutes to type up my quiz answers. Perfect.
Of course not. Traffic was horrible. I somehow managed to be 30 minutes LATE to my first class. Do not ask me how that is even possible. After getting lost in Cabbagetown and driving the wrong way on a one way, I no longer want to talk about it.
Somewhere in Cabbagetown - Atlanta, GA
There was a happy ending to this story. I managed to get my quiz typed up in time for the next class thankfully. I also managed to squeeze in an Econ group meeting, an intense arm and shoulder workout at the rec center, and made it just in time for American Lit. And on top of all that, I got an A+ on my first paper in that class. So today turned out pretty good actually.
But the huge plus to being very late was that I fit in an entire lesson from Mark Driscoll. If you don't know who Mark Driscoll is, I'm about to rock your world. Look up Mars Hill Church in the app store on your phone. Download it and give one series a chance and I promise you won't regret it. Mark Driscoll is the pastor of a church in Seattle called Mars Hill Church. His style of teaching is incredibly informative yet very simple and so easy to understand. I promise you, he is like no other teacher you've ever listened to. He has become my road trip and commuter companion. I find myself wanting to listen to lessons rather than the radio. He is SO INTERESTING compared to other Bible teachers. The app will look something like this:
So this morning I was studying in Esther and I learned that although Esther and Mordecai were imperfect people with imperfect pasts, they were in Persia for a specific purpose. They were missionaries sent by God for a divine appointment. At a time when the Jews were about to be annihilated, Esther had the power to do something about it. She wasn't a Bible scholar; she never went to Bible seminary. She was an ordinary girl. And she had been a quiet Christian up until this point. She did not proclaim her faith as if she were proud of it. We can all see some of ourselves in Esther and Mordecai. How many times have we been quiet about our faith just because it wasn't a popular topic?
But we see God use imperfect people with imperfect pasts all throughout the Bible. Esther was one of those people. She was a missionary. And if you're a Christian, so are you. Most Christians don't view themselves as missionaries and that's a huge problem. Even though we aren't all sent to remote locations and impoverished nations, we are to be missionaries where we are. We are surrounded by unsaved people on a daily basis!
Viewing Esther as a girl with an imperfect past who was still used of God as a missionary to save the lives of thousands of God's people really changed my perspective of myself. I don't know if I told you or not, but I gave my life this past summer to the full time ministry of God. To me, I thought that was a huge step, now that I was willing to go wherever to help whomever. Unfortunately, my perspective was wrong from the beginning. I am to be a missionary, regardless of if ministry is my "occupation." Every moment on this Earth is an opportunity for mission work all around you. I don't have to wait to begin mission work until I've been called somewhere because I've been called right here, right now.
So that's what I learned this morning. =)
No comments:
Post a Comment