Bed? No thank you!

Okay, SO I should totally be in bed right now, getting rested for my wonderful 8:00 class, BUT instead I want to blog about something that been on my heart this week. So here goes...

For some reason this week, I have had the word "radical" replaying in my head over and over. God has so placed the concept of being aliens in this world to my mind and my heart and I would be dumb to ignore it. From gossip, to jokes I make, or even the music I listen to, I totally fit in with the world. Isn't that what everyone wants? Or looks for... to fit in? Maybe it is our culture that has given me peace about this, excuses that tell me it is fine...at least I am not doing such and such. BUT in reality, I don't want to be content with that, and God doesn't want me to either.

Recently, I have been planning for my trip abroad. Four and a half months in Europe! So much to do and so much to see...I have been researching the best things to do in each country I want to visit. Which is all fine I guess, but at some point in reading about hiking in Norway, or paragliding in Switzerland did it occur to me that maybe that isn't the reason I am going. I have no doubt that is completely a God thing that I am going to Oxford. He is the one sending me, so why shouldn't I consult him before I make plans. Basically, what I have realized is that I want to travel abroad with one goal in mind...to go where God wants me to go. See what he has planned for me to encounter, and have him speak through me to those who need his word. How awesome would it be if I used this time not only to study,but to reach out to God's people? What if I used this time as a ministry, as a mission that my words, my actions, and my goals are all of God and none of me. I desire to live radically for God, to stand out from this world. To not fall in the mixture, but for people to ask "what is different about her?" and I want to answer them confidently that it is my savior.

I want to want this even more than I do. I want to thirst for God, hunger for God, yearn for his life in me.

"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me just as the father knows me and I know the father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay my life down-only to take it back up again." John 10: 14-17

I know I don't have to plan trips to big orphanages, or search the streets of London for the homeless, but I can allow God to show himself to my waiter at a restaurant, the tour guide, the woman sitting next to me on the bus. I am confident that I don't have to speak their language, but that God can speak through me without words. He can work through their hearts, and make sure his message gets across without me speaking a word, but just through a smile, or anything really. This is the kind of life I want to live, I want to bring His sheep together. I want to be one of the herd of THIS shepherd, and no other. I want everyone to be standing next to me. I love that He states so firmly that there WILL be one flock and that they WILL listen to His voice! Praise God!

I hope I can do this with all me heart I hope! Please be in prayer that I may have a safe and fun trip, but more importantly that God takes over my life and my actions. That I am a servant, and that I live radically.

Cailee