When a quiet time turns into a post, this is what happens

Right now, I’m sitting in Starbucks in the Altstadt (old city) of Düsseldorf with Charlotte and CT. They’re my groupmates for our final project for the Düsseldorf class and Starbucks has the most reliable internet of... anywhere. This morning, we went to a German Protestant Pentacost church service. It reminded me of a Methodist church from back home, but I didn’t understand most of the sermon. It was still cool though, because our final project is over Pentacost, Easter, and Lent celebrations in Germany, and we have an interview with the pastor on Thursday. After church, they served eveyone beer and soup for Pentacost and the pastor’s birthday. I thought it was pretty hilarious that I walked out of church and one of the first things that happened was a guy came up to me with a tray and offered me an Altbier. And later tonight I’m going to the jazz festival! There’s surely many pictures to come of that- it’s a jazz festival and a celebration of Pentacost, which is a huge deal here.

And for the even more important things, the Lord has been teaching me a lot in a very short amount of time. I honestly don’t even know where to start! I’ll break it down by some huge verses that have been speaking to me the most. Maybe that’ll help me explain.

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Luke 11:9-13

I mentioned in my last post that I need more of the Holy Spirit. It is impossible for me to have a pure desire to read Scripture or pray or serve or have fellowship with my classmates or be content with where I am or do anything good without the Lord. James 1:16-18 says: “ Do not be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” Man is not naturally good by any means. It is solely by the grace of Christ that anything good comes from us. And the above passage in Luke is JESUS BEGGING His children to ask! To pray! To seek! I mean how awesome is that? Jesus wants me to ask Him for the Holy Spirit. But why is the Holy Spirit and God’s presence what I should want?

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

Just look at that first sentence. It speaks to me every time I read it. There are so many things I feel trapped by- especially by Germany. I know that sounds crazy because you would think freedom is being away from home and on your own, but as I mentioned before, everything I love is in Georgia. This week, I’ve let my mind slip into the idea that my desire to feel filled again could be satisfied by this world- by going home. But this verse redifines freedom, just as Jesus did. Freedom is not being able to do whatever you want or be near what makes you comfortable and happy. Freedom is NOT about being able to do what you, a fickle human, thinks is best. No. Freedom is having the ability to follow Christ, because He is the only thing to ever exist outside of the chains of sin. All else is chained. As said by John Piper at the Passion Conference I went to this past year, freedom is being chained to He Who is unchainable.

So for me, the meaning of this trip has changed quite a bit. I’m still homesick, but as my mom always says, I have to be patient with myself. I know that Scripture says to trust God in all that you do, but I think a big part of that is to seek out His purpose. And even if I don’t know exactly what that is, I do know that His purpose is always to bring Him glory and shine His light. So I’m still begging for more of the Spirit, because as I said, I can’t do this on my own.

Just as word of encouragement to anyone reading this- God answers prayers. You just have to look for the answers sometimes. It’s like a little kid digging for hidden treasure, hoping that it even exists under the ground. But once he’s found it, he appreciates it that much more because of how much work he put into the digging, how much faith was built in him in the process, and how much he grew without even fully seeing it.

I guess I owe those of you back home a brief explanation of what exactly I’ve been doing in the past week. It has been brought to my attention that not all of you can see the gazillions of pictures I’ve been posting on Facebook.

A couple of days a week, we have long classes at the Heinrich-Heine Universität:

After class or for an entire day, we usually have some kind of group activity planned. Here’s some of those:

Tour of Villa Hügel, where the Krupp family (steel industry) originated-

Zollverein coal mine... this place was enormous-

And an incredible tour of the Mercedes-Benz plant. Imagine the most high tech robot factory ever and this was it-

K21 Art Museum-

A day in Koln... the best part was der Dome- the huge church. And we hiked those 533 steps on a teeny tiny ancient spiral staircase (thought I was gonna die for sure)! Not to mention the Lindt chocolate museum-

And some more random photos of Düsseldorf-

Tomorrow we venture to Aachen, another pretty big city in the area. We have our first test Wednesday and next weekend we go hiking and tour a castle! I may have had a rough adjustment to Germany, but this place is pretty awesome.

This will probably be my last post for a few days because I have a test and lots of work coming up, but as always, God is good, and there is grace. He is worthy of everything! :)