4 Years At A Glance - #3

 

In these early morning hours before my work day begins, I go back through all the days, weeks, months, and years that I have spent in the Coast Guard, and I relive all the moments that God has blessed me with. Every new week, my co-workers smile and shake their heads at me when I announce my new count down to my out date...right now I am down to 57! But what I don't tell them is this, where as I am so excited to be getting out of the Coast Guard and counting down helps me to make it through each new week, I am also doing it to remind myself that this is all I have left...I only have 57 more days to make an impact here! And really only half of those days will be at work. So really I only have 29 more days to shine Christ here in front of every one of these people who surround me day in and day out.

And I am left wondering...have I? Have I really even made a difference? Have I pointed to Christ; and maybe in the process, has anyone seen Jesus in me?

4 Years At A Glance ~ #2

The day before I embarked upon my four-year mission trip around the United States, I wrote down some thoughts that I would like to share now as I look back. It is crazy how slow time moves while pressing through situations and how fast is has passed once you are on the other side! I was gearing up at this point for eight weeks of boot camp. Excitement pulsed through me as I wondered how hard it would really be...would I be up for the challenge? Would I make it through? Would these be the longest eight weeks of my life? And then what about after those eight weeks? What then? But this is the perspective God gave me in the midst of my fears and excitement.

ONLY EIGHT WEEKS...to make an impact for the Lord on my fellow Coast Guard recruits and Company Commanders, to shine the light of the Gospel in a dark place, to have the attitude of Christ Jesus as I give my best in all I do, and to be a witness of the transforming beauty and power of the cross.

4 Years At A Glance~ #1

With orders in hand, I realize that I am fastly approaching the day that I will be getting out of the Coast Guard. In these next several days and weeks, I want to write a blog series highlighting the amazing things God has done right before my eyes these past four years. When I joined the Coast Guard, I looked at it as a four-year, all expences paid mission trip around the United States...and though time and discouragement can cloud that vision, as I look back I realize that these past four years have been exactly that. God has called us to be "World Changers" to step up and "Do Hard Things" but we must not forget that it is when we touch one life with Christ's love that we are actually impacting the world...it is by one act, one word, and one attitude of saying "Yes" to God that will do the most for spreading God's fame. Why is this so? I think it is because God is doing this work and not us...God is changing the world and not us. So we need to focus on the little part of the world God has given us and demonstrate by our actions that God truly does care for each person.