Leavin' It Behind

"Leave your reputation at the airport…"

Last Thursday I left K-State to live in Niceville, Florida for the next 8 ½ weeks. I’m with a campus ministry, Student Mobilization, in a training program called Kaleo. (More details to come.)

But the above statement hit me like a wall. How am I suppose to leave everything that I’ve become over the last 20 years behind at the airport in Ft. Walton Beach? Honestly, I am proud of the person that I am. At the end of the day however, I’m still motivated by seeking the world’s approval. My lifestyle is not glorifying God in the way that God fully intended me to be and that I’m not proud of.

Since moving into my resort home, with Mandy, Julie, Cindy, Chelsea, Dorothy, Laura, and Annie, I’ve spent quite some time really thinking about what kind of reputation that I do have? There is no way that I can truly come to an exact definition of what others think of me, good or bad. But that doesn’t matter; it’s irrelevant in God’s eyes. What is important is that I continue to acknowledge the roots, that I’ve written about before, and focus on how I can take these past experiences and be transformed into a new creation in Christ.

The last few days I’ve really struggled with seeking employment, balancing life here in Florida and back home, and really wondering how I ever got accepted into this incredible program. Yesterday after a particularly challenging day of job searching, I came back and opened my Bible to 2 Corinthians 5, specifically focusing on verses 15-17.

He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life

will no longer live to please themselves. Instead, they will live to please Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them.

Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he were merely a human being. How differently I think about him now.

What this means is that those

who became Christians became new persons.

They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone.

A new life has begun.
2 Corinthians 5:15-17

I humble myself to God that I can become a new creation in Him. That my reputation can be left at the airport, that I can be renewed into a person chasing after the cross with more perseverance and endurance than ever before.

Today I witnessed what God is capable of doing with people willing to lay aside their own earthly desires to lift up His cross. My brand new OSU friend, Morgan, and I, helped to lead 12 young girls to Christ on the beach. I was completely humbled, less than 10 minutes before Morgan and I sat at a picnic table trembling in fear at the gift that we were to present. We were intimidated by these girls, but were guided by the spirit to share the Gospel with them. In the end, all 12 rededicated their life to seeking Christ as the center of their lives.

This is nothing that we could ever have

accomplished on our own.

Bethany Bohnenblust, a year ago couldn’t even imagine being at a training program like this, 6 months ago I didn’t see how I could ever share the Gospel with another, and on Thursday in the airport, I never thought that I would possibly leave my reputation behind and witness young women accepting the incredible gift of placing Christ as the center of their lives.

It all starts with leaving your reputation at the airport.