Something I've loved doing lately is looking back and thinking about what's happened in order for me to be where I am. It's kind of amazing, really. I know it's one of those cliche things to say how "God has a reason for everything", but I've honestly found that to be true.
Here's one example of how crazy legit God is: I decided that my senior year of high school I was going to apply to be a Teaching Fellow which is a scholarship program that gives you a bunch of money, but also tells you where to go to school. So I went through the interview process and was crazy excited, but they kept putting off sending the acceptance letters. Since it decides what school you go to I was depending on that to tell me whether I should go to Winthrop or USC, since I got into both schools. Unfortunately, since the letters came out so late, I had to go ahead and send in the deposits to both schools, but doing all of the logistics for USC since that's where I really wanted to end up. However, I finally received the letter telling me that I did not receive the scholarship and that I would be put on a waiting list. Knowing this, I decided on USC which was one of the best decisions I ever made. About a month into fall semester I got a letter telling me that I could apply and transfer to College of Charleston if I wanted to be in the Teaching Fellows Program there, but I decided to stay on the waiting list for USC. I still haven't heard from them, but I consider it a blessing. If you receive the scholarship, you have to teach in South Carolina for the same number of years you are in the program. This would mean that instead of teaching as a ministry tool, like God's calling me to do wherever that may be, I would be stuck in South Carolina with no guarantee of a job for 3+ years. God used what I considered a miserable experience to lead me and open the door for His ministry! Crazy, eh?
I know that was really long, but I have another example of how crazy God works, and you don't have to read it if you don't want to. So here we go. I briefly mentioned in another blog post about how God led me to Chicago this summer. There's actually a little more to it. Way earlier in the year I thought about applying for a position for the Orientation Staff, mainly because they made my orientation experience amazing. So I looked at the application and realized that they required my SAT/ACT score for acceptance since I didn't have a college GPA yet. Unfortunately for me, both of my scores were not high enough, so I didn't even turn in the application. To be honest, this was a huge letdown for me. So I forgot about summer plans for awhile until I went to Converge in February. That's when I found out about Myrtle Beach and decided to pursue it. I went after it with all I had and really thought that's what God had in store for me this summer. Everything went well until I got an email telling me that, although I was super qualified, God was leading them in a different direction this summer and I wasn't going to be on staff with them. It may sound stupid, but I cried for hours about this. I had plans of my own that included a summer at the beach, but God had totally different plans for me. I thought it was the weirdest thing that I didn't get the job even though he said I was super qualified, but he sent all of my stuff to NAMB and well, the rest is history. God stepped in and said, "Caroline, I know your intentions are good. You want to serve me and that's great. However, this summer I'm going to change up your plans and take you somewhere way out of your comfort zone. Don't worry though. I've prepared you for this summer for a long time. I've given you all you need. All you have to do is use it."
Have I mentioned how excited I am for this summer? I AM SO EXCITED!!
Here's one example of how crazy legit God is: I decided that my senior year of high school I was going to apply to be a Teaching Fellow which is a scholarship program that gives you a bunch of money, but also tells you where to go to school. So I went through the interview process and was crazy excited, but they kept putting off sending the acceptance letters. Since it decides what school you go to I was depending on that to tell me whether I should go to Winthrop or USC, since I got into both schools. Unfortunately, since the letters came out so late, I had to go ahead and send in the deposits to both schools, but doing all of the logistics for USC since that's where I really wanted to end up. However, I finally received the letter telling me that I did not receive the scholarship and that I would be put on a waiting list. Knowing this, I decided on USC which was one of the best decisions I ever made. About a month into fall semester I got a letter telling me that I could apply and transfer to College of Charleston if I wanted to be in the Teaching Fellows Program there, but I decided to stay on the waiting list for USC. I still haven't heard from them, but I consider it a blessing. If you receive the scholarship, you have to teach in South Carolina for the same number of years you are in the program. This would mean that instead of teaching as a ministry tool, like God's calling me to do wherever that may be, I would be stuck in South Carolina with no guarantee of a job for 3+ years. God used what I considered a miserable experience to lead me and open the door for His ministry! Crazy, eh?
I know that was really long, but I have another example of how crazy God works, and you don't have to read it if you don't want to. So here we go. I briefly mentioned in another blog post about how God led me to Chicago this summer. There's actually a little more to it. Way earlier in the year I thought about applying for a position for the Orientation Staff, mainly because they made my orientation experience amazing. So I looked at the application and realized that they required my SAT/ACT score for acceptance since I didn't have a college GPA yet. Unfortunately for me, both of my scores were not high enough, so I didn't even turn in the application. To be honest, this was a huge letdown for me. So I forgot about summer plans for awhile until I went to Converge in February. That's when I found out about Myrtle Beach and decided to pursue it. I went after it with all I had and really thought that's what God had in store for me this summer. Everything went well until I got an email telling me that, although I was super qualified, God was leading them in a different direction this summer and I wasn't going to be on staff with them. It may sound stupid, but I cried for hours about this. I had plans of my own that included a summer at the beach, but God had totally different plans for me. I thought it was the weirdest thing that I didn't get the job even though he said I was super qualified, but he sent all of my stuff to NAMB and well, the rest is history. God stepped in and said, "Caroline, I know your intentions are good. You want to serve me and that's great. However, this summer I'm going to change up your plans and take you somewhere way out of your comfort zone. Don't worry though. I've prepared you for this summer for a long time. I've given you all you need. All you have to do is use it."
Have I mentioned how excited I am for this summer? I AM SO EXCITED!!
No comments:
Post a Comment