Thank you Jesus for all you have given me these past 9 months. Thank you for the friends, the community, the church, the personal growth, and the encounters with you. Thank you also for the anxieties, aimlessness, hardships, challenges, and all manor of struggles. Through them all you have been there
You have belly laughed beside me hanging out at docksology late into the night with friends. You have wept at my bedside on the days where I was in too much pain to do anything else but lay down. You have been a father to me, a friend, a brother, a shepherd , a wonderful counselor, and a mighty God. I’ve seen you face in my friends who encourage me, the leaders that point me in the right direction, and my host family that takes care of me. I’ve seen you face in the children of los brasiles in Nicaragua, those suffering in nursing homes on pastoral care visits, and friends grieving as life continued to happen so fast outside of fellows
Psalm 139:8-12 NIV
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
Leaving fellows feels like a blur. Where will I live? Where will I work? How will I survive in life on my own? But you have told us not to concern ourselves with worries of the world. To seek first your kingdom and your righteousness and all things will be added to us. While there’s lots I could reflect on, I think its best to stop and worship. Lord I’m sorry for not giving you the praise you deserved as I got swept up in the worries of life. For not treasuring the gifts of each day before they were gone. Forgive me, and give me your eyes to see myself and my situation as you do. I’m hoping as I enter this next season for God to not dwell on all that is different than what I expected. I may not have thought I would have stayed in raleigh, and may not have thought I would get the job that I did. But God knew, and he has big plans. Thank you for being with me the past 9 months, and thank you for going before me for the next.
-Elijah