Well, we made it to Nicaragua! Praise The Lord, am I right?! After four days of intense training we are here ready to serve God with everything we’ve got. While at training camp we had many sessions, some of them were informational like good tips for blogging (quite helpful) and cautionary tales about staying safe (also helpful). But more importantly we learned and were reminded that our identity is in Christ, that the Holy Spirit dwells inside us, that we must surrender everything to The Lord on a daily basis, and that hearing God’s voice is in fact possible and very powerful. All these lessons were meant to prepare us not only for the next three months on the mission field but also for the rest of our lives. And prepare us they did!
For those of you who don’t know much about me, I am very family oriented. My family means the world to me and leaving home for three months was the hardest thing I have ever done. Training camp didn’t make it any easier either, as I sat through the teachings and contemplated all the hard stuff being thrown my way I just wanted to go home. I wanted to go home where life was easy. Where I could wake up in the morning and do whatever I wanted. Where I could drive my car wherever I wanted to go, eat whatever food I wanted and hang out with my friends all day- in the air conditioning. But instead I was sitting in a room full of people I didn’t know listening to a sermon about how to hear the voice of God. Which frankly I didn’t want to do. I was tired of following God because so far all that had amounted was difficulty. I wanted to live a life of pleasure in Columbus, Ohio with the people I loved most, not a life full of being broken in ways I didn’t know needed to be broken.
Thankfully, I do not have the authority or the power to change my choices. Because at that moment I would have chosen the wrong thing. As the week progressed I came to the realization that yes, following God is hard- probably the hardest thing in the world- but holy moly it’s worth it. Why wouldn’t I want to live a life where I can dwell daily in the presence of the Most High God who for some reason chose me, Jenna Long, to be His daughter whom He loves and adores more than words can express? Yes, it is going to be tough. Yes, I will continually have to sacrifice my desires and wishes. Yes, I will be broken in ways I do not understand. But more importantly: the God who made the mountains and the molehills will be glorified because I chose to walk His path instead of my own. John Piper wrote in his book Don’t Waste Your Life, “It was not always plain to me that pursuing God’s glory would be virtually the same as pursuing my joy.” The moment we decide to give up our hopes and dreams and follow God’s hopes and dreams is the moment we give up earthly joy for heavenly joy. And let me tell you, living for God in Nicaragua is (so far) tons better than living for myself in Ohio.
