Emily is one of my very best friends. She started coming to lifegroup her freshmen year and she's continued coming ever since. That's one thing that marks Emily. Consistency. She dedicates herself to things, people, and Jesus, and she doesn't stop pressing into them. Even when it gets hard, or messy, or inconvenient. Emily always listens to my ridiculous ramblings about my life. She listens to me whine. She studies with me even when I get sassy. She stays with me for 27 hours straight when I freak out about silly things. A loyal friend is hard to find, and I'm so happy to say that I've found one in Emily. And now I get the honor of living with her! Emily's story get's me fired up about God's character every time I hear her speak truth into places that have hurt her so deeply. She has learned the true importance and freedom in vulnerability, and I've been so honored to be on that journey with her!
Well. I was born January 13, 1993.
But my story doesn’t really get started until the fourth grade. That was
the year my parents separated, which sadly was a relief to me. After seeing how
angry my dad was a lot of the time and how much he yelled, I longed for a home where
I wouldn’t hear yelling. So from that
point on, every Saturday my dad would spend time with my younger siblings and I. I’m not really sure how long that lasted, but
at some point I realized that the home that I thought would hold less anger and
less yelling hadn’t really changed. I
began to notice that I was the one getting angry and that I was the one
yelling. My elementary-school mind
equated this to being like my father which comes with spending time with him,
so logically, I would be less angry and less dad-like if I spent less time with
him. This began a game of deciding which
Saturdays I would spend with my dad while crafting sneaky excuses some other
Saturdays that would keep him from being angry with me for not going with
him. This went on for a few years, but
by time I reached middle school it was more rare for me to go with my dad and
siblings on a Saturday than it was to stay at home.
At the same time, I spent every
Sunday at church. They told me all about Jesus. The head knowledge was
there and I was pretty morally sound. I
didn’t break rules (usually because I was afraid of getting in trouble), I
didn’t swear, and I tried to be nice to my sister and brother. It wasn’t until
my mom began attending a new church in middle school and insisted that we come
that I learned that Jesus was more than head knowledge. He wanted a
relationship with me. There wasn’t like a concrete, pinpoint, about-turn moment
in my life, but gradually my moral sound-ness became a walk with Jesus. My friends became the people I went to church
with. Which was sometimes great, but sometimes not. I could go to any church event and have a
friend to talk to (even if they were somewhat inconsistent at times) but at
school I had very few solid friends. I
guess that really caused a need to feel valued by people and a search for my
identity in what people said about me. That’s probably why when people called
me a leader I stepped into as many leadership roles as possible-sometimes even doing
things I didn’t really enjoy. I craved
affirmation and consistency in friendship and I was frequently disappointed by
my friends. That isn’t to say I didn’t have good friends, because I did. But my
expectations of them were too high for any person to meet.
So there I was in high school. I avoided spending time with my family
because it was never easy. Especially when my brother struggled with suicidal
thoughts a lot during my sophomore and junior year. I kept busy with school,
work, and church. I poured a lot of time and effort into friendships because
that’s what was keeping me running. Looking back now, it’s hard to even see the
relationship I had with Jesus. Not because He wasn’t there, but because I was
rarely looking. I remember “spiritual highs” and worship nights, but there
wasn’t really much to the relationship besides that. I thought I was good with
God. By time it came to look at college, I was ready to leave. Which is how I ended up 1600 miles from home.
I was running away from everything, hoping to find God in the mix of it all,
and ready to be somewhere where people didn’t know me and had no expectations
for who I needed to be. That’s why I
applied to Baylor.
Let’s back track a little bit to my
dad. The same pattern continued onward
until I essentially had no relationship with him at all. When people said every girl needs her dad, I
didn’t believe them. I was generally perfectly fine without him in my life,
besides the fact that I had no idea how to fix our relationship. It was my senior year when my dad decided to
take his own life. It was unexpected to say the least. My family was wrecked. But, just like when he
left the first time, I convinced myself that I was ok. For a few months, I was pretty sure I was
relying on the strength of the Lord. I was fine.
But the next few months were really
hard, made even harder because I felt like I had no one I could talk to about
it. Not because they weren’t there but because I had no idea how to bring that
up in a conversation without making it awkward for the people who avoided the
subject as soon as the could.
So I was going to Baylor. And my
family was a mess. But I was okay.
Still, I got to a point the summer before going to school where I seriously
questioned whether or not I wanted to continue doing the whole God-thing I had
been doing. Which pretty much sums up my walk with Jesus through high school. I
can’t really put it to words though, but in my head it wasn’t much more than
this-whole-God-thing I’d been doing for a few years. Somehow, clearly by God’s
own doing, I decided not to give up yet. And then summer went by. And then I
got to Baylor.
I came in secretly a mess. And it
was a secret to me just as much as to everyone else. My plan of action was to
keep everything that had happened with my dad hidden. I didn’t want that to be
how people knew me. I was insecure. I had no idea who I was. I didn’t know
anyone at Baylor and I didn’t want to be
home with my family. However, every leader I had had since being at Baylor went
to Antioch Community Church so that was the only logical place for me to start
going. And I’m really glad I did. Not only did I meet Jesus in a personal way
for the first time, I learned what the true meaning of the church was, and fell
head first into community.
Let me just tell you the way that
Jesus has radically transformed my life, even in the first semester. For the
first time, I heard that Jesus spoke to ME. Not just my pastor or “important”
people. But me personally. I learned to hear the voice of God. Big deal number
one.
I also learned that I have an identity in Jesus that cannot be
shaken. Like who He says I am is who I
am. There’s no changing the fact that I’m His daughter, that He calls me His
own, that He isn’t going to fail me. Jesus wants
to walk in relationship with me. And because of His blood, He says I’m worthy
to be His friend. Big deal number two.
Turns out, there’s this character trait of God called His Father
heart. Big deal number three. I know it’s simple, but when you tell a girl
who’s essentially lived without a father most of her life that the God of the
Universe has a heart for her and calls her daughter it’s a pretty big deal.
It’s strange to think about, but even at the end of first
semester, when I was surrounded by a lot of solid people, many of them had no
idea that my dad had committed suicide hardly a year prior. But first semester
was what I like to think of as a “staging ground.” God made me familiar with
hearing His voice, getting words from other people, and helped me recognize
through others that being vulnerable is actually ok. It’s probably not a big deal that this next
part happened second semester, but considering that it was less than a year ago
(which is CRAZY) that’s how I always think about it. Just a few weeks into my second semester at
Baylor I realized-or rather God began teaching me-that I needed to start being
vulnerable with my community, mostly because I wanted my friends to know about
my dad. I guess as a way to connect better or something, I don’t really know.
But when you grow up thinking that vulnerability and honesty are signs of
weakness, it isn’t that easy to tell people about your life. The first half of the semester was really a
process of learning vulnerability in even the subtlest ways. Followed by having
to share my life story with groups of people who were actually my friends. And
then freely telling people on a spring break mission trip called Awaken (if you
ever get a chance to go, don’t say no. Okay?).
Remember that I thought I was ok? Surprise! I wasn’t. I think I cried
more on Awaken than I did the rest of my freshman year combined. But it was so
good. Being broken before Jesus is probably one of the sweetest places I can
ever find myself. And that week I was destroyed.
I had never mourned my dad’s death, and I got to with my Heavenly Father. I had
never dealt with-or even been aware of-half the lies I had been believing
regarding my dad’s death, and suddenly I was free to weep over them. Numerous
people prayed for me the exact same things. AKA God was speaking right to me
through numerous people.
Man, God is GOOD. He has healed me in ways I didn’t even know I
needed to be healed. I never even knew that was a possibility. I never thought
God cared. I never knew that it hurt him as much as it hurt me. I had no idea
that He was waiting for me to run into His arms, the safest place in the world.
I am welcome in His embrace. And most of
it came after a willingness to be vulnerable with community. I could tell you
the names of the people who were the most impactful to me on that trip, but I
don’t think that’s really the point. The point is that God ROCKED my world that
week. He placed new identity on me. He surrounded me with a community that I
feel safe in and CAN be vulnerable with. Every bit of mess that I came to
Baylor with He is making His own and making me whole in the process. Every
place of brokenness is just another opportunity for God to make me whole in Him.
That’s what I keep learning about. The Father heart of God. The
way God, just like a dad, picks me up in my brokenness, lifts up my chin, looks
me in the eye and says it’s going to be alright because He has control. The way
He stands with open arms as I run to Him and He tells me how proud He is of me.
The way that God meets my every need and is the best Father I could have asked
for. He has shown me time and time again what a Father looks like, which is
especially important when the only model for a dad that I had wasn’t one that
reflected God. And Jesus brings me to places of brokenness and desperation for
Him so that I can reach more intimate places with Him. It doesn’t make sense
really. That the God who created everything
longs for friendship and relationship with me. That He loves me and
is proud of me. But He does. That’s
what makes me excited to wake up every morning and spend time with Jesus.
That’s what drives my desires to go to the nations and walk in obedience with
the Lord. That’s why the things that break my heart have changed and the way I
live has changed and my life isn’t always easy to put into words. Because it’s
not my own anymore. My life belongs to the Lord and times of confusion and
chaos are times when I look right into His eyes because I know I can’t handle
it on my own.
There’s more to my story, but as I meet with Jesus in deep places,
the hurt from my past seems so much less significant. He redeems. That’s my
story. I once was an object of wrath, but now I am raised up with Christ so He
can show me the immeasurable riches of His grace (Eph 2:1-10).