Journal 6 (a month later)

This is the journal for a couple weeks ago (pretty much a month ago now).

Journal 6
For the week of July 10

I have really felt God’s presence this week as I continue to learn and grow.

In this week I am amazed at how much I have grown with God and felt God. I have never been a big Bible reader, except for one time in high school when I tried to read the Bible in a year and got through Genesis, Exodus, and maybe a couple other books. My prayer life also was typically confined to prayer led by other people, usually on Sundays, until more recently since I’ve been in college. So as you can see, I have never had a strong grounding in these disciplines until more recently. College is when I realized I had to really own my faith and there’s more to it than what I thought so I tried a few times to pray before bed or before meals or do a devotional for lent. Usually these practices lasted for a little while but eventually I either ran out of material (the devotional) or I just started to forget and make other excuses. This summer though, has felt like a solid change.

In June I picked up one of the devotionals at the church for the summer months and started to read it each day. The first couple of days I was lackadaisical about doing it so I didn’t think I needed to do it every day. Then something hit me and I realized that I should be reading the devotional and scripture everyday because it is how I am going to grow my relationship with God and learn more about God.  Since that day I have read the devotional every day, preferably right when I wake up. (What better way to wake up, than with God?!)

I’ve already mentioned prayer a little bit too but I would like to add how I’ve improved with it. During my spiritual disciplines class I made prayer the discipline I wanted to practice intensely. I half succeeded at this by praying before meals a little bit more and improving my prayer communication with God a little more but it wasn’t enough. Howard-Miami is a church that prays, a lot. Every meeting starts with prayer concerns and a prayer and people depend on this church praying for them. They do more than just talk about praying for people. This has empowered me and supported me more than they know. I am amazed at how much more comfortable I am becoming with praying during my time.

I find both of these growths exciting and it energizes me to continue them after I leave here.

Just the other day I was doing some of my required reading from the book recommended by Sarah called Purpose-Centered Youth Ministry written by Mike King. I had a wonderful God moment as I was reading outside under the maple tree. It was around two o’clock in the afternoon and King’s chapter was titled “Trusting the Holy Spirit with Your Ministry”. At this point in the chapter, King is talking about an experience of his own that included experiences of fire, water, and wind (91). I was sitting outside under the maple tree at home reading the section about wind. King speaks of a particular camp-type experience, feeling the nearness of God and breathing it in causing the youth to encounter the presence of God (92).

As I was reading, the breeze around me started to pick up and just continued to a hearty, but non-threatening wind. It was an enjoyable wind, with strength, but not intimidating. I was so thankful for the wind. I believe the Holy Spirit gave me the opportunity to connect with God, learning, and scripture in that time. I will conclude with a scripture King includes in this section, John 3:8, which says “The wind blows where it should and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.”