I read a book called, Mistaken Identity telling the true story of Laura Van Ryn and Whitney Cerak. There were both two beautiful blonde girls. As they were in a van with all their university friends and teachers, a truck came and passed the median and hit the van. Five people died and two were flown to a hospital. Whitney Cerak passed away, and their family went through all the motions of the reality of death, and the funeral. Laura was taken to the hospital where she was in a coma, and her parents, family, friends, and boyfriend supported her as the weeks went on. After five weeks, the family started realizing that this girl who was lying in this bed wasn’t their daughter. It then was revealed that the girl lying in the bed was actually Whitney Cerak, and not Laura Van Ryn. The girl that the Van Ryn's believed to be their living daughter was actually Whitney Cerak. How this happened? That is for you to go and figure out. The book is written by both the Cerak and Van Ryn parents who I would describe as strong children of the Lord. This book has encouraged me in my faith, as they saw God in every area of death and life. This book also left me thinking about my own life.
God has so richly blessed me in uncountable ways. Often times I go about my life not even recognizing these blessings, but after I look back, I see God’s Almighty Hand at work. I often times question who I am, what is my purpose, how do I fit in and where does God want me? Yet gently through conversations, speakers, pastors, friends, scripture and creation, Christ reminds me that I am found in Him, and He in me. All my identity is within Him. To follow Christ is my purpose and to listen to His voice.
From a blessed family, beautiful looks, and written blogs some might say I got it all together. Don’t be fooled. I am as human as you are. I struggle each day of my life. Realizing that my everything is originated in Christ doesn’t make life some ‘teddy bear picnic’. No. Each and every day I have to remind myself what God did for me. As my pastor always tells us, look to the Cross. There lies the treasure of the world. The foolish will miss this gold, looking in all other places but in the open. The wise will come to appreciate and grasp the gift that lies open for everyone. The wise understand the suffering of Jesus on the cross was not in vain, but for you and me. Every day, I need to denounce the devil in my life. I make so many choices in one day that if I don’t guard my heart, he sneaks in. I want you to know that I have taken up the Lord’s armour and am ready for battle. With Christ, you and I are victorious. I am more than just a conqueror, yet also a co-heir with Christ. I am a princess. A daughter of the King. A child of God.
These past two weeks I have been learning so much about the worldview of humanity and how we are to be in this world but not of it. Captain Jesse taught us about Missions, and Rob taught us about the Character of God. My heart is taking a change in the manner of renouncing all attitudes of independence and pride. Life is a gift. We are to receive God’s gift of grace and be dependent on God and his goodness. Grace should affect change. Through his free gift of grace we see God’s love for us. God’s love is not like the love the world says it is. It is not evoked by feelings. Nothing is a surprise to God. God made a choice knowing everything. It’s so relieving that God knows everything about me and still embraces every part of me.
God searched the world to find something to extravagant and beautiful and he couldn’t find what he was looking for. IT was to be a flower of a new brand. It would shine colors that only this flower could bring. He couldn’t find it in this world, and He had decided it needed it to be made. He called her Elizabeth. This week, I had a lot of affirmations given to me about whom I am and God’s love for me. One of my friends’s also had a similar vision to this previous one which was told to me by the speaker Rob about me being a matchless flower. The flower was half opened. It was beautiful as it was, but the beauty could only grow in so much measure if it soaked up the sun so that it could open all the way. The sun was beaming on this flower. All it needed to do was take in the light. God was illustrated as the sun and I the flower... God has so much for me, and I just need to embrace His love. God not only loves you and I, but he likes us. He gets so excited about us. Our Father likes us all intimately.
Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22: 37-40
This blog has been all over the map in thoughts and feelings incorporating what I have been learning in lectures, and in my daily life. I want you to all know that I am doing well in Australia and the Discipleship Training School has been such a blessing to me. I thank you for all your support and prayers. You are my brothers and sisters in Christ, and I need you to stay along side of me. This coming weekend, I am leaving to go to the Aussie Bush / Rainforest to go camping for two weeks where we will have our lectures in a different setting. It will be a great time to have our quiet times out in God’s creation and soak in nature. After I come back from camping, I have four and half weeks till I go on Outreach to Thailand. So the time is just moving along out here. I constantly think of our church and my friends all back at home. I love hearing from all you, and thank you for the feedback and supportive comments.
How Can I Keep From Singing?
1 comment:
Lisa,
your words and passion are so inspiring. i am so glad that i stumbled across your blog.
the part of this entry that really struck me was the vision of you being a flower, that was beautiful but could only grow and become the most beautiful it could be from the sun shining on it; soaking into it.
i, like most girls..struggle time to time with self image...believing the lies of the world and trying to measure up to the world's standards. but the Lord reminds me time and time again that He created me, like you, and like every child of his, beautiful. and His light on us makes us shine a unique and remarkable beauty..but so many of us get off track or distracted..or we just fall into the lies and our real identities are mistaken.
but anyway..sorry this was such a long comment. but thank you for posting this. God spoke to me profoundly through it..and i'm quite sure that He will touch others who stumble across it as well. God bless!
-alanna m.
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