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Topic: Beginnings (05/31/04)
TITLE: The Awakening By sharron pete 06/04/04 |
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Everything familiar, friendly, and comfortable is becoming a mere dot small and slowly disappearing as clouds fill my view. Sitting, surrounded by people, none of whom look like me, I pray to God for peace and assurance. Closing my eyes, tilting my head backwards and resting it upon the seat, I am confident He has given it to me. Starting something new is never easy, especially in a foreign country.
At the ripe age of 22, I found myself crossing the Atlantic Ocean, bypassing Eastern Europe, skipping over Africa and landing in India. Relying on my faith in God and His sheer goodness, I accepted an internship with an Indian software company for a period of four months. As the plane makes its dissenting approach, my mind rewinds to the many conversations I had months earlier with my parents. “I just don’t understand why you have to go so far away,” my father would say. “But dad, this is a great opportunity. And it will look good on my resume.” It’s true this adventure of sorts would be a great opportunity for me and would no doubt enhance my resume to companies that were touting the importance of international work experience. But if there is such a thing as a ‘spiritual’ resume that outlines previous faith-testing experiences, my time in India would easily surpass the ‘one-page resume rule’.
When I look back over those months spent learning new customs, meeting new people, and navigating through a strange land, I realize that my time in India represented more than just an adventure or resume filler. It was a new beginning, in more ways than one.
Prior to this time, God and I had been walking pretty closely. Somewhere between freshman orientation and college graduation, I realized that being a Sunday-morning Christian just wasn’t enough. God required more of me. He and I began a fellowship that grew and through it I was blessed with friends, health, peace, and a lovely hard-earned document that hangs over the mantle now. During college, God and I were on a roll and I thought our relationship couldn’t get any better. Of course, I was wrong.
The first step in my new ‘beginning’ was remembering to lean not on my own understanding, but to acknowledge God in all my ways and let Him direct my path (Proverbs 3:5-6). My new ‘beginning’ came when I realized that it was really time to ‘walk the talk’. Greater than that revelation, was the fear associated with walking it alone. I’m reminded of two paths, one straight and narrow, and the other wide. Being a Christian is not always easy, but prior to my time in India, I never had to be one alone.
As the only proclaimed Christian in my new household, I found myself getting hit with a barrage of questions. I was by no means an authority on Jesus or the Bible, but I sought answers in God’s Word and relied on Him to fill the gaps. My ‘awakening’ as I have termed it, led me to seek ways to bring others to knowledge of Christ. It was challenging and given the circumstances, I often felt that my words had little or no influence. But my job, as I have now realized, was not to grow the fruit, but to plant the seed.
In that instance God was using me to create ‘beginnings’ in others by helping others to see Him through me. I prayed then as I pray now that by my example I can help plant the seed that will create a new beginning for someone else.