What I Know About God

I remember the first Sunday School lesson I taught quite well. In the living room of a broken home on Quiet Hills Drive, I taught an imaginary classroom full of students about Jesus.

I guess I should have realized then that my calling in life was to teach. It's funny how we know things when we're younger, but as we age we begin to doubt our abilities and talents. We begin to doubt the amount of money we can make. We begin to doubt the job opportunities. We begin to doubt God.

You know, it's no accident that I'm a Christian. It's not an accident that I stumbled upon my creator and believed in the one who breathed me to life. I know God and it grieves my heart that some don't. Because God truly, deeply loves us with the kind of love that you will never experience on Earth unless you know him.

Looking back, I know it must have been hard for God to look down from the Heavens and see a young girl with so much potential willing to throw it away because she wanted to be loved. It must have been hard to for him to watch me stray for a while because my life was only getting worse and I wondered why he didn't rescue me. It must have been hard for God to stand by as I wasted talents, blessings and opportunities because I was angry.

Do you know what I know about God? Do you know how much he loves you in spite of your shortcomings and dark moments? How much he longs to bless you if only you would sit as his feet and rest a while?

If you were to ask me what I long to share with the world, it would be this: God is patient, kind and merciful. And he loves you more than you will ever know. There is nothing in God's character that is evil or bad. Scripture says that "every good and perfect gift comes from above." (James 1:17)

God allowed things into my life over the years, both good and bad, to shape me into the person I am today. He allowed me to go through the divorce of my parents because I lacked humility and compassion. He allowed me to move five times in six years because I was too comfortable living in the world with worldly people. He allowed me to live in a two-room studio and share a room with my brother and mother because he longed for me to "be content in any and every situation." (Philippians 4:12)

Every bad experience was of God's allowance, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am a better person today for every one of them. And when I meet somebody who is going through what I did, I love to encourage them and remind them that God's not done with us yet.

He will be patient with you as you come to know him. He will never demand your love, but rather try to earn it with his goodness and grace.

My greatest fear is that I will mess up and God will turn his back on me. I fear that even though he loves more than I could ever fathom, I will disappoint him or hurt him and he will no longer guide my footsteps. Because, my dear friend, if you were to look at the beautiful life he has given me now in spite of all the sins and all the moments where I turned from him, you, too, would believe that you are not here by accident. You have a purpose and you have a God who longs to give you more than you have now. Yes, he will take you through dark times and radically mess up the life you have, but it is in preparation of the work he has planned for you.

God gave me the gifts to teach and love people of every walk of life. I teach people between the ages of 2-90 every day. Every day. I teach a myriad of subjects, everything from the life of Jesus to Facebook Marketing to Excel, but the greatest thing I teach is about the love of God for his people. And I do that by loving everyone who crosses my path not by my own abilities, but by God's.

You may have messed up over the years, but God doesn't see all of your sins and mistakes. He just sees you. He sees the potential you have. He sees the gifts and talents he has freely bestowed on you. He sees love.

If you don't know Jesus, then today is a good day to sit at his feet. To read about his life. To ask him to reveal himself to you.

What I know about God is that he wants you to know him today. He wants to use you and bless you in ways that you couldn't begin to imagine. Believe me when I say you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.