Seek Week.

This week at CBU is what we like to call Seek Week. This is a week that is taken each semester for students to really seek God and what He is calling each of us to do in our lives at the moment and in the future. We are able to go to chapel Monday, Wednesday, and Friday during this week along with other extra activities such as a Worship Night, Prayer Night, and Participation in a fast. 


For me, the entire semester has been leading up to this week. I didn't know that until it began.


Monday morning-- I slept through my first class. Hard to be in a good mood when you sleep through your class. Maybe other people see that as a good thing, but I hate missing class.
I got up and ready for my next class. Since I'm such a genius I waited to do my homework for that class until that morning...and it took a bit longer than I expected and I ended up needing to run to class. And, yes, I was that girl. I did it. I ran to class. I swore I'd never be that girl, but I did it. Guess what? We were in class for ten minutes. The professor let us go early. I should have been glad about that, right? But I just humiliated myself running to class so I wouldn't be late...only to leave. Kinda disappointing if you ask me.
So, I go back to my room and put on actual clothes so I can head in to chapel.
And I began to realize-- it's Seek Week and I have been drawing closer and closer to Christ since I've been here...no wonder today sucks. I'm supposed to learn something during chapel. I really need to hear this but I am in such a bad mood right now I don't know how this is going to work out. So, I started praying as I got dressed, sucked it up, and headed over to chapel.


Chapel kicked my butt. First of all, I was already crying on the first song. Second of all, our speaker Albert Tate is legit. He speaks with such simplicity that it's impossible to miss his point. My favorite thing about his style of preaching is that he uses simple illustrations like buying his wife a gift, sitting in a chair, and getting in a fight to explain our spiritual lives. But he gets me so caught up in his story that I am not expecting the spiritual twist he's about to put on it. In fact, every single story he told-- when he got to the spiritual punch line I was just thinking, "Whaaaaaaaat?" I couldn't predict any of them, which made me more interested in what he had to say.


His message on Wednesay was based on Isaiah 6:1-9.


He spoke of what our reaction to meeting Jesus should be -- noticing our uncleanliness, noticing our community's uncleanliness, being purified by Christ, and saying "Here am I, send me."


But a different part of his message really stuck out to me. He emphasized this verse;


Isaiah 6:1 -- It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple.


Tate said, "King Uzziah had to die so that Isaiah could see the Lord. He was too focused on his earthly king to realize the majesty and glory of the real King. Who has to die so that you can see the King? What has to die in order for you to see the Lord?"


Remember how I said this entire semester has been leading up to Seek Week? And I didn't even know it?


I have been distracted. Fear, future, failure, image, and communication are all things that have been standing in the way of me seeing Jesus. Over the last couple of months 'Uzziah' has been dying. And I've been fighting it. Satan loves the fact that if he keeps me from seeing the Lord then my reaction won't be -- Here am I, send me. Because I'm too focused on what I want, what I think I deserve, or what I believe is going to happen. Satan loves to hold us back in whatever way that he can.


And he ended with this --

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,

All the kings horses and all the kings men,

couldn't put poor Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Tate said, "Why didn't Humpty Dumpty just call the king?"

I have been feeling like the girl in this skit-- when all of the distractions are pushing her down, hitting her, and dragging her away from Christ-- but all I needed to do was let Jesus kill 'Uzziah'. All I needed to do was call the King.

He was waiting there, pulling me closer to him. He was waiting for the moment that I stretched out my tiny, frail arm barely even reaching toward him-- and when I did, he met me where I was at. He cleansed me of my sins and has made me into a new creation.

I just need to rest in who He is and let Him take full control.

Psalm 116:1-2 -- I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!