Valley Life

At the beginning of the summer I was bummed. I wanted to do something big. Something big in the name of Jesus or in the name of my academic ambitions or in the health field, anything. I wanted to be a part of something noteworthy. Something I would be proud to share with the millions who would ask. I wanted to to feel significant. Like I had made an impact.


One by one, my applications for camps got turned down and no internship opportunities arose. Although I felt God's hand in the situation the entire time, I was still distraught. I was facing my worst fear--a regular summer.


Well, it happened. They all asked. And all I had to say was "a little work & a little school," and it was always onto the next topic of conversation.


Out of the monotony, God has allowed me to see some beautiful things. This experience has been so humbling. My unfulfilled longing to feel important has been the biggest blessing. Through the insignificance of my activities, God has taught me something huge about the nature of my role in the Kingdom. Compared to the King of kings, every one of us is insignificant. Yea, you may have invented the iPhone or built the tallest skyscraper. You may have even led thousands to Christ. But have you constructed a breathtaking waterfall or hurled a planet into orbit? When was the last time you shook the earth or calmed the sea with a simple word? How did you choose to save the world from the pits of death? 


He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. (Isaiah 40:22)


The crazy paradox is this: God does not do small things. If His fingerprint is on it, it is HUGE. It is eternal. When you let Him use you to speak truth into the girl next door or stop to help someone with a flat tire, it is not small if it is done in His name.


Anything that you lay at His feet suddenly becomes MASSIVE. 


You never know how much influence you might have on a person. Coming through the telephone from a complete stranger after taking a sandwich order at a sub shop, those 12 simple words are definitely some that I won't ever forget. After a summer of fearing that I am barely serving the Lord, that sentence hit my ears like water bursting through a dam.


Every word, tone, inflection. Every action, movement, breath. Every bad day, mood swing, attitude. You have a choice to make. Claim each moment for yourself. Or give it back to the One who gave it to you in the beginning.


The past three months have been amazing. In the most incredibly mundane way. I am so thankful for this summer. Oswald Chambers wrote a lot about "life in the valley." I will wrap up this post with his incite into the daily Christian life. 


"It is a wonderful thing to be on the mountain with God, but a person only gets there so that he may later go down and lift up the demon-possessed people in the valley (see Mark 9:14-18). We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life— those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength. Yet our spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mountain. We feel that we could talk and live like perfect angels, if we could only stay on the mountaintop. Those times of exaltation are exceptional and they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware to prevent our spiritual selfishness from wanting to make them the only time."