Beau's Journal « First-Year Student Journals

A Much Needed Break

November 20, 2005 | 3 comments

Thanksgiving was amazing this year. With all of the problems at home and the intense workload that I have been dealing with, it was great to stop for a moment and refocus my attention. Biola gave us three days off plus the weekend and I had an opportunity to go back home to my family and spend some time with them.

I was also able to visit my grandmother. Shes not doing too well in the rehab center but it was nice to see her and she was very open to seeing me. I wasnt too sure about how shed respond to seeing me but it went well. She has always been very hard to get along with and before I was a Christian (I became a Christian about four years ago) I was living a pretty bad life. I was in and out of jail quite often. Back then we were certainly not on good terms and even now as a Christian shes not willing to fully accept me.

Its really unfortunate that tragedy happens in our lives but sometimes it takes tragedy to open our eyes to whats important. Wasnt it C.S. Lewis who said that God whispers to us in our pleasures but shouts to us in our pains? How true that is. It wasnt until I was at the bottom of a life and drugs and violence that I was broken enough to cry out to God. If not for what happened then, I wouldnt be where I am now. Romans 8:28 says that God causes all things to work together for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Too often today we take that verse and think it means that the good God works out is what we want right then or what we think is good at that moment. But thats not what the verse is conveying. God has a plan and a purpose and He brings about a good that sometimes goes far beyond what we can comprehend. The fact that God chose to refine me by allowing trials in my life is a good beyond anything I was capable of understanding at that time.

Its not always easy to understand why bad things happen to us but often within the realm of our past experiences we see the kind intentions of Gods will taking place in our lives. We need to trust God that His Word is true and even when we cant understand what is happening around us we know that God is the Father of mercies and God of all comfort (2 Cor. 1:3). Those foundational truths are what I rest on.

So the break was definitely an amazing time for me to rest and recover somewhat from a pretty fast first semester. I was able to go to my former church and see the many wonderful people who have become my family over the past four years. My pastor Gil and his lovely wife Charyla had me over with their family for Thanksgiving Day. My family has never been too traditional and usually we get together on holidays only if everybody decides to show up a day before the actual event; sometimes not even then. We all have so much going on in different areas its hard for us to ever plan anything out. But Gil and Charyla have always been willing to have me over on the holidays with them and its been a real blessing, even more so because I havent seen them very much since I came here. There was lots of good food and I got an awesome little nap after eating all that turkey. One of the best things about it was the amazing apple pie that Charyla made. =)

I was also reminded this Thanksgiving of how easy it is for us to go about our lives without being grateful for who God is and what He does in the lives of His chosen people. Its so easy to get caught up in my school studies and forget to spend time with God in His Word. God has chosen us for His glory and His purposes and when we get caught up in world that holds us down we dishonor our Savior. God has blessed me with an amazing opportunity to study here at Biola and I have a responsibility to honor that opportunity by doing my best here and by glorifying God in my studies. I dont think Gods intentions for me being here were ever for me to get so busy with my work that I wouldnt have any time to focus on Him.

How strange it is that we so often forget the simple foundational truths of being grounded in the Lord and in knowing Him. Its those wonderful truths, that amazing grace that we need to keep in our minds and in our hearts when we go about our lives. In all things we are to honor Him. As John says, In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him (1 John 4:9).