Hearing
footsteps and talking on the floor above me, going for a run through the woods,
snow on the ground in April, swinging a golf club regularly. These are all memories
I have growing up in northern Minnesota, and they also are becoming my day to
day life again, right now.
Two
weeks ago, I packed up my car, said goodbye to my friends in Texas, and drove
the two days and 1,128 miles back home to Coleraine, Minnesota and the area I
grew up in. I drove back to what was my normal for roughly 20 years, but it didn’t
really feel that way anymore. This time, it felt different. Over the past two
and a half years, I’ve actually only been home for just three separate three-week
periods, as I graduated college, traveled the U.S. working as an intern, worked
as a golf coach, traveled the world, and most recently, attended Lifestyle Christianity
University. To say moving around became my norm would be an understatement. In
those two and a half years, the longest I lived anywhere was three months (and
that was only on two occasions).
So,
as I made the 17-hour drive back north and began to think about what was next,
I realized I didn’t know what living with my family was like anymore. I have
two brothers in college, one about to graduate high school, and my little
sister is closer to 17, not to mention my parents and all the people I literally
haven’t seen in two to three years! It hit me that this was going to be
different not only because I’ve changed immensely, but I fully understood for
the first time how much had happened since the last time I was truly home for
those who’ve been here the whole time. It honestly shocked me.
Now,
two weeks in, I feel like I’m starting to settle in.
It’s
been different for sure, but not necessarily in a bad way.
As
I’m currently living the American stereotype by being (almost) 24, unemployed,
and living in my parent’s basement, God is teaching me a lot. He’s showing me how
much I’ve grown in the last couple years, how to put love into action with
family, how to truly trust Him (being unemployed and beginning to look for a
job during this pandemic isn’t the easiest), what living in His daily provision
looks like, and so much more. Every day there’s something new to find and to
walk out, and it’s helping me fall so much more in love with God.
I
want to encourage and challenge you, as we walk through these very un-normal
times, to find God in it all and create a new normal in your life.
The
past couple weeks I’ve woken up in such a spirit of worship each day and have
started praising God more in my quiet times, and that’s just one sweet way God is
connecting with me right now and teaching me new things. Yes, this pandemic may
be creating some hardships for you and your family, but God is using this time
to create a new normal in us and the world. If we look to Him, He’ll show us so
much more during these days than maybe any other season.
We
hear about all the sickness and death lately but what about the fact that
hundreds of missionaries are back in the states and still living kingdom lives,
impacting those around them? What about the thousands of people who are
recovering from the virus and returning to their families? What about the special
quality time many families are having? We may not be where we envisioned
ourselves right now, or our old normal may not be possible anymore, but why is that
necessarily a bad thing?
If
we allow God to bring us back to Himself and create a new normal where the old
was, who’s to say when this is over that we won’t be in the position we always
wanted, that maybe families might be healed, that maybe revival won’t break out
and sweep the world?
That’s
what I’m choosing to believe and work towards… and my God can do it!
Remember
not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new
thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the
wilderness and rivers in the desert.
-Isaiah 43:18-19
God
Bless!
Ben
(If
you need any prayer please comment below or send me a personal message through
social media - I'd love to connect and pray for you!)
Just a small-town Minnesota boy following Jesus in a big world. Make sure to subscribe and follow along with this crazy adventure! God Bless!
