UCM Night of Worship Testimony

So, this evening, I gave my testimony at the United Campus Ministry's Night of Worship. God has laid this message on my heart for the past few months...it is a deep and hard lesson that God taught me through an unfortunate event...but I had to learn it.

It sorta feels like my high school career flew past me. One day I was sitting in my first freshman class, the next at my graduation. They say time flies when you’re having fun…that’s true, but it also flies when you’re REALLY busy.

I know for me, in high school, I was always extremely busy. I had homework, volleyball, clubs, and organizing FCA. A lot of times, as people, we tend to fill our plates up with so much stuff, that it’s like we become like robots. Even as Christians, we get so caught up in doing “kingdom work” that we forget to develop our relationships with Christ and with the people around us.

At the very end of my freshman year in college I had been talking to my best friend. Her sister was going through a hard time in her faith and was getting into stuff that could really hurt her. God continued to lay it on my heart to take her out to lunch or go see her just to talk and see how she was doing. I kept telling myself I would do it some other time, she’d be around on the weekends, I could come and see her then. That “some other time” never came…and one day that summer, she wasn’t there anymore. She died in a car accident three days after her 19^th birthday. I always regretted that I never talked to her. What if I had and it had changed something which could have saved her?

Not only did her death and my lack of caring leave me with grief and guilt, but through it, God reminded me that I need to remember that just because we’re young doesn’t mean we can never die. He used that moment to teach me that I need to cherish every moment that I have and to make sure that I’m always doing His will, because I would hate to die in a moment when I’m not.

"Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. 5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath.”— Psalm 39: 4-5

I would prefer to use my short “breath” of life to glorify the Lord and do what He asks of me than to waste it on anything else. I challenge you to use your time for Him as well. Make sure you’re taking the time to praise God. Take the time to smile at someone, to talk to someone that’s hurting. Don’t just rush through the time God has has given us, slow down and glorify Him.

Sometimes it can be hard, but push yourself to always be growing and reaching out to those around you. God bless!!!

--Emily Grace