As I pulled up to the AIM headquarters last week I thought
to myself, “here I am again.” As surreal as it was to be there, it was little
different that time. You see, back in January a boy came to Gainesville knowing
that he was called to Swaziland, but didn’t really know why. He just knew he
had to be obedient. He knew God. Matter of fact he knew a lot about Him but had
never taken the big step. It’s a scary step. It’s that step of going from
knowing what you’re supposed to do, to actually doing it. That step for me came
when I was tired of my talk being cheap. When I was tired of serving the Lord
half-heartedly even though I knew He requires much more. You know what I’m
talking about right? Like, “if I’m gonna follow Christ then I’m going all out!”
That’s what He requires of us.
A few weeks previous to my leaving for Swazi, I attended the Passion
2010 conference in Atlanta. It was an incredible, life-changing weekend for me.
At Passion we made this declaration, “God,
kindle in me the desire to go anywhere, at anytime, at any cost, to do anything
to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Read that again. Anywhere,
anytime, any cost, to do anything! Eeish! That declaration went from being my
bold (probably slightly naïve) prayer, to being the journey that God has placed
me on.
This 2010 year has been beyond words. You can read all the
blogs but they don’t even begin to do justice what God has done to this heart. He
has taken my little step of obedience and blown me out of the water with how
great His time after time. It was not till I had to be fully dependent on Him
that I realized how great He truly is. That realization has made me willing to
go anywhere, at anytime, at any cost, to do anything to proclaim the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
Here we go again. This time Brazil… What? Yeah, that’s
exactly what I thought but as I prayed God simply said, “serve me.” Here I sit
in Belo Horizonte, Brazil with a team of college kids. I don’t have a clue what
this journey will be like but there is one thing I do know; God has never let
me down. Every time He’s called me and I’ve stepped out in obedience, He has
proved himself to be faithful. Every time I’ve taken that scary step of going
deeper, He’s been there waiting for me. Every time He has held up His part of
the deal.
So what is it for you? What’s holding you back from giving
Him everything? What is that big step (maybe even a small step) that you know
you ought to take but aren’t? He can’t fail us and we all know that His plans
are much better than our own. Why not put it to the test? As David writes in
Psalms “taste and see that the Lord is good!”
Much Love, Ryan
This is my great team. Check out their blogs at http://brazil.adventures.org/
