Gratitude

This journey with Christ is so great and fascinating. Last night at our prayer meeting, Megan (my roommate, friend, and co-leader) led the prayer time and focused on suffering. We recognized the incomprehensible suffering that Jesus went through and that we are invited as co-heirs with Christ to suffer alongside Him. He has given us a gift of life, and a beautiful one at that, but we also aren't called to a life of comfort. We are called to stand next to Christ and fight this world of hatred, brokenness, stereotypes, racism, and death. And this is to be for the glory of the King, and for my gratitude of the life He has given me with Him. God's love is so big and it hurts me to see people that don't understand how much they are loved by the creator of this earth. He's a God that created each person in order for them to have life everlasting and a good life, a life not filled with pain and sorrow, but a life in confidence of who they were created to be.
I have been thinking about my worth in life lately because of the new beginning that I will soon come to. Graduating college! I have no idea what I want to do....I mean I do, but I don't. I want to bring people to the knowledge of who they are in the eyes of Christ Jesus. I want to accompany people in their journey of healing. I love the thought of reconciliation. And my time in Palestine this summer has really inspired me, along with my experiences with healing prayer. All of these things that have come together have shown me a bigger purpose in life for freedom to live for God. How do I go about starting this? It's quite confusing, but I don't want to think about it from the perspective of success or what would look best on my resume. I want to think about how God wants to best use me with the passion He has given me.
I can't stop thinking about Palestine. I loved it there and it inspired me so much. I have gotten to write about it a lot this semester. And I have been really led to go back this March to the Christ at the Checkpoint conference in Bethlehem. (Christ at the Checkpoint is featuring a blogging contest with different prizes, which you can find out more about on their website.) I am so drawn to speakers and leaders that are speaking out against injustice. I desire to learn more from these people. They are prophetically speaking against the world's hatred and giving Christianity a better name by stepping up to stand against such a controversial issue that most Christians don't address.
I am co-sure of who I am in Christ and so happy to be living life for Him, but I am also proud to die for Him. I am so grateful for all that He has given me passion for. I pray for each one of you and myself that it would be made known or more made known of how God has been blessing you with passions, talents, and gifts!
Please pray for Megan and I (and other Missions & Anthropology students at Eastern) tonight because we will presenting on our cross-cultural experiences in front of important people at Eastern. I wasn't nervous, but I have recently started to become more nervous (mostly because I haven't prepared anything....oops.)
Bless you all!