What Starts Here Changes the World

Oh, I hope that is true.

What starts here: My relationship with Christ did not start at UT, but I have grown so much there. It’s incredible, but yes, my relationship with God grew at the University of Texas. The school which my freshman year boasted the titles of the #1 football team and also the #1 party school in America. That’s the place God used to grow me and teach me and draw me closer to Him. God used a lot of the people in my life to teach me. Rudy played a large part in that growth in teaching me a lot about ministry. And I think he underestimates how much he’s taught me. I often recall advice he’s given me and various things I learned from him. Ana also really played a part in my growth. She helped me by giving me ministry experience, in a sense, and by being a good, faithful friend to me all through college. And then there’s my BUNCHY girls. They were older (well, older than me…who was a little 17 year old when I moved in with them…), wiser and just overall more experienced with life. They were good examples of godly women for me to look up to. God also used Longhorn Life in general to teach me and grow me. I look back at my freshman year and I really just see that God had me exactly where He wanted me. He had me in the best place for me to grow “in life, in love, in faith and in purity” (1 Tim. 4:12).

Changes the world: I’m writing this the night before my first day of my last semester at UT. I actually feel a little nostalgic, but I’m looking forward to seeing what God has for me in the future. I know that it will be good because I have seen God’s faithfulness and His goodness and sovereignty in my experience at UT. What I really hope for in my future is that God uses me to change the world for Him. I want to be used by Him for Him. I want to reach people for Christ – to lead people to the life and love that only Christ offers and to lead those who are already believers in their relationships with God. I believe He can use me to bring about change in the lives of individuals. What if God uses me in my lifetime to reach just 20 people. And then those 20 people reach 20 people. And those 20 people reach 20 more people. That’s called multiplication. That’s called changing the world. That is just so cool and so exciting to me!!!

I’m convinced that what starts here at UT really can change the world. I think God is going to use me in the lives of others for change – change that He ultimately brings about, but that He graciously lets me be a part of.

This is the kind of change I’m talking about:  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” –2 Corinthians 5:17