Lake Powell: I Want It That Way

Along with singing Backstreet Boys at the top of our lungs everyday, we created a bond with one another. Different schools, different stories, different cities. It didn't matter how we got to Lake Powell that week, it just mattered that we were there.

This week taught me so much more than what it meant to take a break from reality and escape for a while. I learned to be fearless, to be confident in my faith, and to not let current circumstances determine my future.

From the moment I graduated, I was moving at a mile a minute. There was no opportunity to "slow down" and accept the reality I was now living; I just had to roll with it. While this trip gave me that opportunity physically, spiritually I wasn't slowing down; I was sprinting.

My senior year was brought with many challenges, opportunities, heartache, joy, and everything in between. When it came to a close, I looked back on how much I had grown as a person and as a Christian. I surrendered everything that was to come and the Lord was faithful. On this trip, I was given the blessing to reflect on where my heart was at the end of that season.

Going into my mission trips and ultimately my freshman year of college, I asked myself, "Is that attitude and perspective something that is going to stick?" It's so easy to praise the Lord when life is good. But what about when it's not? What about when I'm away from home for weeks at a time? When I'm homesick at college? When classes get hard? When relationships fail? Will I still say, "Lord, take it all. You are in control. I rejoice that everything is at your disposal and out of my reach."?

This was what the Spirit wanted me to examine. Would I do as the Backstreet Boys and proclaim to God that "I Want It That Way?" Do I really desire to surrender in all seasons of life?

This was the conclusion I came to: I experience an endless amount of joy when things are out of my control. The minute I take things out of God's hands and into my own, it all crumbles. I am not supposed to be in control, and HALLELUJAH for this! Can you imagine the havoc we would be in if the most imperfect creation was in control? My surrender is my declaration to God that his plan is enough.

I left my week knowing that despite the unknown, despite my discomfort, despite my life running at a mile a minute, God was in control and was not hindered by any of these things. I want it that way; the way God wants it to be, the way I intentionally lived my senior year: committed, faithful, obedient. Declare to the Lord that you too want it that way: His way.

Hebrews 11:32-34, 39-40 - "And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets --- who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight...And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect."