As always, Grace Retreat was such an encouragement to me. I loved my small group and I was encouraged by how God leads each one of us in his unique ways in our lives. All the girls in my small group were so sweet! In the past, I always saw the media team taking pictures and making videos and told myself that one day I would join the media team. And this year, I joined the team and took pictures for the Grace Retreat! I really enjoyed photographing the attendees and it was a really good experience in general (the pictures that Ann & I took can be found here).
The Grace Retreat was always a time and place where I encountered God in the past. Each year, I was encouraged by the speakers and the prophetic words spoken over me. I hope each person who attended this year had an experience with God; however I hope that it doesn't end there. The same God we encounter at Grace Retreat is with us today because God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Throughout the year, I've been learning (again) that Christianity is not just about reading my Bible every day, going to church, attending Bible study, etc. It's about a relationship - it's about having an intimate relationship with God, who created the heavens and the earth (which is an amazing privilege and you just have to accept His invitation!). I was actually going to write a blog post about this a few weeks ago, but I didn't and now here it is. I believe that the last school year, God was just telling me to sit in his presence. Throughout the semester I was reminded of the passage of Martha and Mary.
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. (Luke 10: 38-42)
While Martha was cleaning and preparing food for the guests, Mary chose to sit at Jesus' feet. While Jesus was calling me to be like Mary, I wanted to be like Martha. I wanted to do something my freshman year - join an organization, club, do something exciting, make an impact, etc. Yet, Jesus was calling me to simply sit in his presence. However, I really struggled to just sit still and listen to his voice. Simply sitting and doing nothing seemed not that important and it was hard to set aside time to spend time with God. I was too busy running around doing things that seemed important at that time. (It reminds me how Aug used to always tell us that we had to make time to read the Bible and pray instead of wishing for more time in the day.) And as the summer began, God kept calling me to sit still and just spend time with him. Yet, I kept pushing it back. Although I knew how important it was to spend time with God, it was easy for me to keep pushing it back. Setting aside time in His presence is absolutely crucial to my relationship with God. I believe that in this place of intimacy, I will be reminded of who I am in God. I believe that God will show me the blueprints of my future directions and even more.
...to be continued
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