Reflections on the Past 4-5 Years of My Life

Junior Year (2007-2008)

I didn't know it at the time, but looking back on it, this was the year that completely turned my life around in every way. In every area of my life, I was turned upside down by Jesus. Let's go for a ride...

So this is the year that Chi Alpha got started on Purdue's West Lafayette campus again after a significant absence. God answered my desperate prayers (I am sure I wasn't the only one praying...) in pretty short order. This is a pretty significant request, and so it seemed like God was just waiting for us to ask in order to unleash the blessings. At least thats what it felt like. We started out with a decent number for a new Chi Alpha group, probably 15-20 people or so. Many of them were from the church I had started going to, or from the Bible study from the previous year. We had our meetings on Thursday nights.

Our Pastor preached on a wide variety of topics that fall. From what I've heard, she would pray and ask God, hear from God, and then prepare a message. Which is a good way to do things I might add. Of course the topic I am going to talk about is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (BHS), which you can read about for yourselves in the Bible. I guess you could say that it changed my life. I had received the BHS before when I was younger, but I didn't know what to do with it. I didn't really know that much about it. But after hearing the sermon, I went to the front and received it. I am not someone that does too many crazy things, but this would be right up there...

This is a really good point to mark the before and after picture. Everything before this is the before picture, and everything after this is the after picture. For my life, it really is like those commercials on TV that you never believe the transformation that occurs from before to after. I would argue that it my transformation is even more unbelievable. Those that knew me before and then after know what I'm talking about...

I don't even know what happened to me. I can't explain it, other than I gave God permission to come in and clean me up and do His work to me and He did that. It was all a blur to me. I still can't ever remember much about it. One thing I can say he did was open me up to people. He gave me an ability to quickly be open with people. I was suddenly able to look people in the eyes when conversing with them. Maybe this is easy for some people, but this was a true transformation for me. He literally unleashed a different person...

Maybe some other good thing also happened that year, but the most important thing left to talk about is the Spring Break Trip we took to Peoria, IL and IHOP-KC for the week. I believe this is the other thing that really helped to shape me as a person during my college life. The idea behind this trip was to expose us to what a "typical" Chi Alpha meeting and group looked like. All our missionaries had participated in Chi Alpha during their time in college and had an idea in our head, but they decided it would be more powerful if they could show us instead of telling us.

I almost didn't go on this trip. What an opportunity I would have missed. It was a day or so before the deadline and I hadn't even remotely thought about going, but my friend Lauren bugged and nagged me into going and so I decided to give it a try. (Sidebar: There could be people around you waiting for you to invite them to come along. They probably want to go, but people want to be wanted, and this helped me to go.) I got signed up just in time for this. Man, am I glad she did so...

First stop on the trip is Peoria, IL and the Chi Alpha there. I was fortunate enough to stay with a gracious host family. The first night we got there we had about an hour to go to our places we were staying, and then we had to go to their service at their sweetness Chi Alpha house. I decided to have a little fun on this trip, to let loose and try to get rid of the inhibitions that have entangled me so much in my life, within reason of course. I set a goal for the night (see my post about setting goals...). It was to meet 5 new ladies and remember their names. Difficult, but attainable and measurable. I don't know that I had it that night, but by the time I left, I knew more than 5 ladies names... I was determined hahahahahahaha!!!

While we were there, one of the things we did was some evangelism on their campus. This came in the form of God Table, and prayer walking, and singing songs out loud in public. All of these things were very new to me. God was by no means new to me, but sharing God in public and standing up for my faith was a new thing for me. It was quite scary but I would never see most of these people again I figured, so I decided to try everything out that I could. It felt really good to finally step out there and try something bold for Jesus.

This next part is a little awkward to tell, but I believe it's necessary to tell, since I'm trying to be honest and forthcoming with everyone that reads this. This one is about words. The words we say to others especially. I certainly had some problems with the words and sarcasm I was using toward other people. I liked to use it cause I thought it was funny, and I usually got a good laugh when using it as well. However it was just plain mean sometimes and degrades people where that needs not to happen. I slipped on it this one time and called one of my friends "trash" when under normal circumstances I would normally never do this. Needless to say, that was the last time I ever did that. I felt so gross all over after that happened. Even today if I say something negative about someone else, it makes me feel totally gross all over. Today I guess I would say when other people do it and I am not even involved, it still makes me feel gross...

The second part of this revolutionary trip was the trip to the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. I believe it's in the Missouri part of Kansas City... A building solely dedicated to prayer. How unbelievable that is... It was a strange experience being there, even for me. Being raised in a Pentecostal environment, I have seen a lot of things, but I even saw some things here that were strange for me. I guess there are various ways we can worship God, and who am I to say what is good and bad. There were flag wavers, and dancers among others. I also had an opportunity to go to their prophecy room to have a word of prophecy spoken over me. That was an interesting experience. Maybe one of these days I will go back and listen to that tape. I can't even begin to describe the experience I had there, other than the fact that God was all over that place. It is something you really have to go and experience for yourself.

This trip was one of the highlights of my time at Purdue. I would say that after this trip, I actually felt like part of a family. I felt like a part of something that was bigger than myself. I had finally found what I was looking for. Some people to love and accept me for who I am. I really felt close to the group that went with us on the trip. We all grew closer together, and closer to God. It was one of the best times of my life. And I am sure glad that my friend bugged me about it until I decided to go... Thanks Lauren...