Hustle

"No longer will you need the sun to shine by day, nor the moon to give its light by night, for the Lord your God will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory."

Isaiah 60:19

This season of life has been filled with anxiety for the unknown and undone. I'm halfway through college, burdened with debt, working a part-time job, and planning a wedding. There are times when I'm consumed with fear over one of those tasks, and there are times when the pressures of life hit me like a tidal wave. I have an acute strength for worrying. The slightest change of plan can seem to irrevocably shift the course of my life, in a span of five seconds. I'm becoming an adult in an Instagram culture, where every image and post that I see sends the message that everyone else is more successful/happy/wealthy/secure/polished than me. This is the era of the social media model, when a woman with decent photography skills can make thousands of dollars for every like on a painstakingly posed picture. This is the era of the Etsy shop owner, when a mom with Adobe Photoshop can create journals, prints, and accessories from the comfort of her toddler-laden home. This is the era of the #girlboss, when women are encouraged to climb the corporate ladder and shatter the glass ceiling in the pursuit of recognition and respect.

None of these pursuits are inherently bad. None of these women are necessarily wrong or behaving in an unbiblical manner. The problem lies in the pressure to compete, the pressure to prove yourself or establish security for yourself based on your own accolades and skill set.

"But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person's work has any value."

1 Corinthians 3:13

The word of 2016 seemed to be HUSTLE. Delayed gratification is all but nonexistent as people buzz like bees to meet their goals in the quickest manner possible. Working hard certainly isn't wrong, but Paul poses a counter-cultural perspective in 1 Corinthians 3. The problem with hustling isn't the hustling itself, but the motivation behind it. Oftentimes, I find myself hustling because I'm filled with fear at the double-digit number in my checking account. College students around me lose sleep over assignments that they have two hours to do because their day was filled with class, work, sorority meetings, and Bible studies. The pressure to build your resume as a college student is high. The pressure to make connections that will potentially help you in your career field is high. The pressure to raise children who make the world a better place all while being incredibly photogenic and accomplished is high. Pressure, pressure, pressure, all for fairly temporal goals. The Bible encourages hard work for an entirely different reason:

All for the glory of God.

Too often, the motivation for working yourself to the bone is to build your own security instead of trusting God to secure you. When you begin to believe that your efforts are your safety net and provision, you've launched yourself out of the Father's hands and into your own flimsy butterfly net. We hustle to earn money for a bigger house, more clothes, and less anxiety all while forgetting that the house will crumble, the clothes will be donated, and the anxiety will stay unless we get right with the heart of Jesus. Jesus denied earthly comforts for the sake of heavenly rewards, and his confidence rested in God alone. Jesus was less concerned about the hustle, and more concerned about the eternal. You don't see Jesus worrying about whether people would show up to hear his sermons. Open scripture, and you'll see a man who did what his Father asked of him, each and every day. Jesus didn't work tirelessly to gain followers and establish himself in the community. He worked tirelessly to represent his Father in every move, big or small. He put more thought into his responses than into his next preaching location. Jesus was concerned with the responsibilities directly in front of him, and trusted God to lead him to the next chapter and season of ministry. 

"The master was full of praise. 'Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together!' "

Matthew 25:21

We too, are meant to handle what's directly in front of us before looking five years into the future. If your only task for today is to love your spouse well, then the Lord will give you more opportunities to love them as He does. If your only task for today is to see the people that Jesus sees, then your slightly awkward conversation in the dining hall may plant a Gospel seed in a stranger's life. If your task for today is to write a blog post that gives glory to God above men, then He will bring readers to your page. In the pictures above from my time as a camp counselor this summer, my only tasks were to serve and love. I served my head counselor by blowing up kiddie pools for an hour. I loved babies who most likely don't remember me now, six months after camp. If God can trust us with today's blessings and opportunities, then greater things will come to us. We serve a Father who longs to give his children good gifts, but He can only give to those whose hands are open to Him. God wants us to trust HIS provision more than our own because His perspective is always eternal. He knows what tomorrow holds, and He knows what guides our motives from our past.

"In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall."

2 Samuel 22:30

If we work by the Spirit's strength rather than our own, we can accomplish great things for God's glory. Not for our fame, finances, or security, but for GOD'S GLORY. Working by the Spirit requires total surrender to God's will above your own, total surrender of your own strengths and comfort so God can shine through your weaknesses and humility. When you glorify the Lord, joy is found. When you direct praise back to Christ, your strength will be renewed. When you give your time, energy, and resources to the Father, you're laying bricks in heaven's walls.

As the holidays wind to a close, and your normal schedule resumes, leave with these promises from the Father. Consecrate your hustle to the Lord, and remember where your worth is found: not in your accomplishments, but in your creation.

"I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit."

Ephesians 3:16

"And this righteousness will bring peace. Yes, it will bring quietness and confidence forever. My people will live in safety, quietly at home. They will be at rest. Even if the forest should be destroyed and the city torn down, the Lord will greatly bless his people. Wherever they plant seed, bountiful crops will spring up. Their cattle and donkeys will graze freely."

Isaiah 32:17-20

2K15

This morning, my grandparents' pastor reminded the church congregation that it was the last weekend of 2015. He went on to share how this year had been wonderful for him, with new additions to the family and college graduations to celebrate. His exuberance over his 2015 experience prompted me to make a collage celebrating my year as well. While I was scrolling through the abundance of screenshots, selfies, group photos, and vacation pictures, I realized that I had too many happy moments to compress into one collage. If I wanted to include every worthwhile memory from 2015, I would have filled your newsfeed with all the mushy gushy, feel-good vibes of my year. I chose the picture above to represent my year because God bombarded me with blessings the way my buddy Steve bombarded me with color powder. My relationships blossomed just like the beautiful wildflowers I found in my backyard this spring, my pursuit of God was more vibrant than the red powder streaking across my white dress, and my celebratory moments surpassed what I could have dreamed or imagined was possible for one year.

This year was honestly the best year of my life, but none of that would have happened if I hadn't dared to leave what was comfortable for the sake of the unknown. In January, I broke up with my boyfriend of two years after realizing that we were being crippled by the convenience of our relationship. Two years prior, we had started on a path together, hand in hand, overcome with the giddiness of puppy love and infatuation. But as time had passed, we had come to a fork in the road, and I went left when he went right. Our grip on one another was strained, our words grew distant and undistinguishable, and we simply couldn't continue down our destined paths together. Leaving my ex was the most daunting, scary, and necessary decision I'd ever had to make, but it propelled me from the valley of complacency into green pastures.

February and March were filled with girls' nights, books and hot baths, and almost-relationships that were classified with the ever elusive "we're talking." In April, I had my senior prom and it was the most fun I had in all of high school. I was ignoring God just as I had for the past year and a half, but I started journaling again. Journaling led to asking questions in prayer, and by April, I was more open to receive God than I had been in years. At a church conference, I heard a sermon about the immoral woman in Luke 7. The woman came to Jesus while he was eating, poured expensive perfume over him, and washed his feet with her tears, wiping them away with her hair. I had never felt so connected to a biblical character as I did to that woman. She and I were one, both pursuing the gazes of men and placing our worth in material things. Rather than washing Jesus' feet, I wrote him a love letter in a dark corner of the sanctuary, hiding from those around me as I laid myself bare before my king. That was my first great blessing of 2015: reclaimed intimacy with God.

That spring, I started having quiet time every morning on my back porch. I worshipped, I prayed for others, I confessed my brokenness, I read the Word, day in and day out. The better part of my senior year was spent pursuing Christ and praying for those around me who were still stuck in the stagnant Christianity I had just escaped. Joy was easier to find in the everyday, and I truly loved my classmates and my church. I went to Sadie Hawkins with my close guy friend, I gave the opening remarks at graduation, and I left high school satisfied that I had made the most of my last two months there. Summer was just beginning though, and the path the Lord was leading me on was about to get a little more crowded.

Fresh out of high school and alive with summertime, I introduced myself to a cute stranger after church. For the first time in my life (honestly), I had no desire to date anyone, and was completely satisfied in pursuing Christ rather than boys. I didn't expect anything to develop, but I started noticing him everywhere after that. I wanted to tell my friends about him, even though we'd had a handful of conversations and I barely knew him. I sensed a crush coming on, and so June and July were spent fighting it off, reading my Bible, going to summer camp, and preparing for college. Mid-July, my youth group went to Colorado for what would be my seventh Desperation Conference experience. My crush was there, as a middle school boys leader, and I fled from him at every opportunity. Not only was Tim handsome, but he was well-read, loved the Lord, and looked at me like I'd always wanted a man to. He had warm eyes, a kind smile, laughed easily... I was smitten. This was the beginning of my second big blessing.

Before that date came along, however, the Lord planted a seed in my heart for missions. Suddenly, I saw myself washing the feet of the Dalits in India, walking down the dirty streets, and loving on the unloved. Small, forgotten threads from my life were sewn together, and I could finally see how the various fabric swatches of passions, experiences, and goals fit together to reveal my life purpose. I was created to love the Dalit people, the most mistreated people group in India. Then and now, my heart swells when I hear them mentioned, when I come across a worship song or Bible verse about orphans, or when I see a mission trip advertised on campus. Oddly enough, I had an intense longing to tell Tim about my call, so on our second date, I did. Surprisingly, he had been called to missions too, just a couple weeks prior. An indescribable peace encompassed me as he described how he'd heard from the Lord, and over the next few weeks, we were inseparable.

Come August, I left my home of twelve years for my first semester of college. My roommate and I clung to each other in those first few days away from home, and we went from acquaintances to sisters in a matter of weeks. The spring and summer leading up to school were filled with blessings: intimacy with the Lord, healed relationships with my parents, unexpected scholarships, and Tim. Fall, however, brought different kinds of blessings: those that come with trial, struggle, and tear-filled nights. I hated school, I hated being away from home, I hated spending my time and money on what felt worthless. I met amazing people and learned more about the world and myself than I ever had, but I cried at least once a week to Tim about missing home. My blessings went from the abstract and spiritual to the everyday and minute. I praised the Lord for a good cup of coffee, for a stranger opening the door for me, for a 70 degree day. My path of life had darkened with menacing forests of debt, loneliness, and purposelessness. To combat the dreariness, I had to focus on the wildflowers on the forest floor, the tiny gifts God planted in my days to get me through my descent from the mountaintop of summer. 

By November, I started going to counseling, cried half as often, and forced myself to enjoy the allotted time I had to spend away from home. The blessings were still small, but every visit home gave me a taste of heaven to get me through hell. I was able to lead the sixth grade girls at a youth retreat back home, and got to love on a special needs sweetheart in my group. On my last day of class at school, I got a call from Pine Cove family camp and was told that my counselor application had been accepted. I came home with a high GPA and a wide open Christmas break, and have spent every day with people I love. 

This year, I gained invaluable friendships, met incredible people, and have the future I've always dreamed of within reach. There have been struggles, but my greatest blessing has been the joy to get me through all seasons. This year has been my best, because I know who I am in Christ, and have full freedom to walk in that identity. But all my blessings began with a tough decision. As the new year approaches, think about what your decision will be for 2016. Do you need to end a dating relationship or unhealthy friendship? Do you need to take time to discover who you are in Christ? Is it time to take a career risk, or transfer to a new school, or move to a new community? Whatever your decision is, know this: God is always calling us to higher purposes than our own. As you enter into 2016, find comfort in letting God's word be the lamp on your feet and the light on your path. Pursue Him, and His peace will lead you through whatever triumphs and struggles come this year. But it all starts with a decision: what, or who, is holding you back from Him?