Humble Beginnings
“But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead”
Philippians 3:13b, ESV
Hello all! My name is Wyly, like the coyote, and I am beyond pumped for this opportunity to unload my thoughts on this platform. I am a freshman at the University of Florida studying Industrial and Systems Engineering and Computer Science. I currently hold the Guinness World Record for “Y Name Density” (3 Y’s in 8 letters). I am a huge sports fan, but usually hang around football and soccer the most. I like to read but I usually find myself too glued to my phone (ask my parents about that one) to make a dent on the ever increasing pile of must reads sitting in my dorm. I can sing in one key and play guitar mediocrely, but lately I have become self-conscious of my entire dorm listening to my less-than studio quality jams, so these talents rarely make any appearance anymore. I am a brother of a Christian fraternity (more on that later) and involved in other campus ministries.
The Vision
I am not going to lie; this is a daunting task. I don’t really have any qualifications to be doing this. I am not seminary trained (God-willing I hope to be one day), I still struggle with doubt, the amount of homeless people that I have walked by without even passing along a smile this year is very high. My flesh leans toward self-righteousness and conceit every chance it gets. However, after looking at “God’s Draft Board” throughout history, I realize that this might just put me in a position for God to work through me. All I can do is echo what Paul says in Philippians 3:13, and forge onward towards a story that we know the ending of (see Rev. 21-22).
My vision for this journey is that the words that I write would be merely an exchange of notes. I am putting my notebook out there for the class to look at and it must be tested to deem whether it is consistent with what the teacher of the class is saying, learning from the successes and the mistakes of the notes. I also pray that my heart is pure, that I am doing this to mutual encourage the Body of Christ and to ultimately glorify Him, not to encourage even a glance to my name or ability.
God’s Heart for Humility
Back to the whole Christian fraternity idea… still working on my transitions – I dropped ENC 3246 after one day of class (it was too early). I wanted to give a peek at how God has been moving in my life lately. I have a handful of moments where I encountered the Lord in such real ways that in my mind they serve as vivid monuments by which I compare all other events around it. In a similar way to a married person thinks about every life event in two categoripes: BM and AM (before and after marriage), I am able to reference these major spiritual moments to see where I was in my walk with the Lord at different points in my life. Last week, I added to the list of monumental moments, as I saw the Lord do a work that left me bowing on my knees in humble adoration. It was a modern parallel of the events of Luke 5, where Jesus meets Simon Peteron a boat and puts out from the shore to speak to a crowd.
“And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.”
Luke 5:4-6 ESV, emphasis added
This past week was the fraternity’s spring rush, a widely overlooked facet of the organization’s schedule. It is generally much smaller in scale compared to the fall counterpart. Through the first three nights of the week-long process, we had fished all night, yet our catch was small. So small that many higher up members were throwing around the idea of not fielding a class of new members at all. There was a meeting that third night, and the faces were nothing short of long and downcast. We had half-heartedly sailed through the recruitment process and the fruit was evident. That night, a handful of us went up to the “upper room” (its name is derived as more of a spiritual posture, although it does happen to be on the top floor of the house), and interceded in prayer on behalf of the fraternity, changing our minds and hearts to lean on His power and not our own. We put our stale crumbs on the table and prayed that the Lord would prepare a feast. The mindset was “I will pray all night or until I encounter Jesus, whichever comes first.”
God Moves
We worshipped, prayed for the lost, prayed for that heart change, and one person got the story of Luke 5 placed on his mind. By 3:00am, the eight or so of us left the room, filled, tired, yet oddly expectant of miracles to come. The energy had changed and by the end of that following night, our nets were truly breaking. The size of our incoming group increased 700%, and it was nothing we did. God chose to show up in a big and mighty way. I cannot even begin to relay the tone change in the meeting that night. To go from utterly dead, dejected, and hopeless to uncontainable bursts of joy and shouting and praise in 24 hours is something I will not soon forget. Hopefully I can lean on this moment and similar ones when the enemy attacks me with doubt.
I look forward to what this chapter of my life brings and know that the Lord is moving in ways I cannot even begin to grasp. The same is true for you whether you can see it or not! Rest in that promise this week!
One Response
Wyly…WOW God is truly digging deep wells in you young man! May He continue you amaze you with the depth of His Love, Grace, Mercy and Faithfulness. I look forward to reading more on your journey.