Reflection (Cloud of witnesses)

Oh my gosh, I feel like a Christian book author or inspirational speaker because I just realized that I am going to have four posts in a row all with the same suffix (distraction, communication, reflection, and communication again).  Sometimes I’m easily amused.  And I actually can’t quite decide if this pattern (or use of any pattern) is lame or cool, but either way, here it is.  Plus I titled this post to go with the –tion theme, and I also have two posts with the same name, so really there’s not much of anything to get excited about.  I just wrote a whole paragraph about nothing.  Good job.

So, what I really wanted to write about is how thankful I am right now.  Seriously, God is so good to me.  This past week I was able to Skype with several friends as well as my family on my dad’s birthday, and it just got me thinking how incredibly blessed I am to have such wonderful people in my life.  I was listening to Mark Schultz the other day and he has a song based on Hebrews 12:1, which says:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

The author of Hebrews says this right after he finishes talking about all of the devoted disciples of Christ that dropped everything to follow whatever God happened to be calling them to do.  It is an inspiration to us as believers to see their committed acts of faith.  Noah endured ridicule to build a giant boat and save his family and all of the fauna from the flood that was to destroy the entire earth.  Abraham blindly followed God out of his homeland to a new place, and was willing to sacrifice his only son—whose birth was already a miracle from God.  Moses stepped out of his comfort zone as a leader and took a bunch of complaining Israelites out of Egypt.  There are many more people in the Bible who are convicting examples of undying faith to the Lord, and there are also many people like that today.  And some of them are my friends and family.

My parents are absolutely amazing people who seek God’s will for every situation and possess godly wisdom.  I can’t even express how thankful I am to be their daughter.  My beautiful sister Emily is invested in the Bible and committed to prayer, and filled with the joy of Jesus.  I do not even deserve the incredible friendship of my roommate back at school, Stephanie.  She is such a devoted woman of God and absolutely committed to prayer and spending time with Jesus so she can get to know Him better, and decrease so that He can increase in her.  Steph sincerely invests in relationships with the people in her life and she is an inspiration and a blessing to me and many others.  She exemplifies the biblical example of how iron sharpens iron and one person should sharpen another in their spiritual walk.  Lydia is my pre-med buddy who has a passion for serving God with medicine, and she wants nothing more than to be a vessel of His love and light.  It is beautiful to see how much she wants to be the hands and feet of Jesus to everyone she interacts with and her desire to know and follow His will.  This semester I have the privilege of living with Heather and Sage, two godly women from my school that I seriously appreciate.  They are both vulnerable and real and it is refreshing to observe their commitment to their walk with Christ, not to mention the joy of just hanging out and having conversation about literally anything and everything.  Having them as housemates is a gift from God.

I could name so many more people whose friendship I cherish and whose faith I admire but for now I’ll stop there.  Right now I am also thankful for… Our Guatemalan family who has welcomed us into their home.  Professors at school who are also friends.  The chance to live in a new culture and be stretched.  Singing in harmony.  God’s creativity when He made fruits and vegetables.  Christmastime (yeah it’s a ways away but seriously I just love it).  The beautiful new baby of my dear friends, and the recent engagement of another dear friend.  Scripture.

That verse in Hebrews is one of many verses that begins with encouragement and finishes with an appeal—notice how it’s collective:

Throw off everything that hinders us.  Get rid of the sin that entangles us. 

Run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 

Fix our eyes on Jesus!

Together, we will lift each other up and run to our Jesus.