Alison Haupt challenges us to continue to pursue Jesus in the late stages of the summer even though we are away from our community.
I know that the summer is often one of the hardest times of the year for so many of us as we are away from our campus community and thrown back into our home environments which for some are great and amazing and for others are challenging and difficult. I know for me, whenever I am away from the community in which I experience God with the most, it feels hard to hear him, it feels hard to know he is there, to feel his presence and to believe that he can still speak to me.
I think that hearing God is something I have always had to work at in my life. I think when I first became a believer, I felt like I would begin to hear God with a megaphone and that everything would suddenly become extra clear to me, but unfortunately that has not been my experience. I have heard from God and do hear from him, but it is always something that I need to work at and it is not because God is not speaking, but that I am having a hard time listening.
I have come to realize that the reason it becomes hard for me to hear God when I am not around community, is not only because I hear God through them at times, but the truth is that the community helps me strip away all the unnecessary sound waves that get in the way of hearing God’s voice in the midst of all the noise in my life and helps me to focus on Jesus and allows me to hear him most clearly. This is one reason of many why a community of believers has become so important to me and why I have given my life to see that very thing created on college campuses because I want so badly for people to hear God the way I have been able to hear him and know that having a community around us spurring us on towards him is a crucial element of that. My life would be so different without this.
I am sure some of us have felt a little strained this summer to hear God, to know he is there because our community on campus that we are used to experiencing God together in has been fragmented and I hope that some of you have been able to find a community back home to connect with and to connect with God through, but I know that can be much easier said than done.
I remember being home at my parents house for the summer after having such strong encounters with God during the school year and feeling empty, feeling like I don’t know how to follow Jesus here, feeling like I was slipping back into old patterns and struggles, feeling like I couldn’t hear God and I had gone from being in a rich rainforest with so much life and was transported to a desert. I do remember though having some deep encounters with God even in those desert moments. I remember some mornings devoting time to spend with God before going to work and praying for my family and getting to see God use me in special ways, I remember God using me to have spiritual conversations with co-workers at my summer job. I remember visiting different churches in my hometown just to get a taste of how others worshiped and to try to find a community. Most of all, I just remember when I would take time to be silent and still before Jesus him speaking to me in subtle and simple, yet profound ways. I had poor discipline in my walk with Jesus and the times with him were so sporadic, but they were still rich and powerful and it was Jesus who sustained me through the time I had to live separate from my core spiritual community.
Although I believe with everything in me, that Jesus calls us to be in community with one another and worship him and do mission out of that community. There are times when we are away from community for a season and I still believe that God wants to speak to us in those times and show us more of himself and use us in the lives of others as well. I know that Jesus is everywhere because I have been in some dark places, but I know that even in that Jesus was there so I trust that regardless of how desert like our life feels, that he is still there wanting to speak to us if we are willing to listen.
I encourage you as the summer comes to a close to find places of silence to be before Jesus, to read his word and simply to listen to whatever he may want to say to you. I encourage you to look for ways to pursue Jesus in the environment you find yourself at home, at work, traveling, or wherever you may be. And I encourage you to stay connected to each other in our community in any way that you can. We need each other to push us towards Jesus and his ways so let’s be there for each other however we can in the last part of this season.
Alison Haupt
Alison's heart for the college campus has produced tons of students to follow Jesus and experience true christian community in an environment where its hard to find family away from family. she also is the Intervarsity area corrdinator for the tampa area.
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