By: Nina Bueno
Well, here we are back at college once again! It has been a summer full of exciting adventures, whether it was graduating high school, gaining experience from a job or internship, or from a life-changing mission year. I am a junior returning from a powerful summer of canvassing, where each day I was faced with the “Great Controversy” in real life and watched Jesus win out repeatedly.
But now I am here, and in many ways, I wish that I was back in summer. I’m sure you understand what I mean, especially if you’ve come here from something good. Perhaps you wish you could just go back to a certain moment in time. You want to return to a place that holds special memories. You want to escape back into a better place in your life, far from the struggles of today. You’ve been on the mountaintop and now you’re experiencing the valley. But we need some momentum to keep us going, to keep us striving towards God’s purpose.
The week after canvassing ended, I read part of Isaiah 43 for my devotions, and I truly felt a call towards continued momentum. It was a call to me and my fellow canvassers as the mountaintop was beginning to fade in the distance. It is a call to us right now, having been through amazing experiences, and faced with a year ahead of school, stress and struggles.
God has led us through the waters and fires of our past experiences, and we have come through on the other side refined and purified (verse 2). We have seen both his power and his personal closeness (verse 3). And we must remember that we are among, “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” (verse 7). Our life is for God’s glory! We cannot ever stop and believe that we have done our job and fulfilled our commission.
“‘You are my witnesses,’ declares the Lord, ‘and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he”’ (Isaiah 43:10). I am a witness to what he did this summer in my life and the lives of those I reached through canvassing. You too have been a witness to God, working in some amazing way in your family or at your mission location. We are all witnesses to what God has done in the past and to what we know He will do in the future.
When we feel disconnected from God or slipping down from that mountaintop, let us witness. As we share our testimonies with others, what salvation and love He has for them, and what purpose he has in store for them, we will remember our own. As we share, we will again see God at work and believe and trust even Him more. After all, why does God declare us to be His witnesses in verse 10? “So that you may know and believe me.”
Ellen White reminds us that, “We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history” (CET 204.1).
I encourage you to read Isaiah 43 and reflect on the ways God is calling you. When you feel you are slipping, when you don’t know what’s next, hold on to the promises of God and share with others what He has done and is doing for you. When we share, may our trust and belief in God increase. The more we participate in Christ’s ministry of reconciliation, the more we are reconciled to God ourselves.