When The World Doesn't Choose You...

 I was sitting in the Dacus Library at Winthrop when I started working on my reflection for a class. I began to type out my response to a question on the desktop computer when I found myself typing out, "You don't have to be chosen by them because you are chosen by me." 

Even when I am not focused on Him, He is focused on me...always.

It was the weirdest thing because I wasn't even thinking in that moment about God (absolute truth).  I wasn't reading my Bible, praying, or listening to my "Jesus Jams" playlist on Spotify. I was working on homework, and my mind was set on finishing these lesson plans and reading reflections that keep piling up one after the other. --Reality. 

If I am being honest, I have been in a spiritual slump. You know exactly what I am talking about. It's when you feel like God is NO WHERE to be found, but you KNOW in your soul that He is so near. Your faith in Him surpasses those lies that say, "God left you and left you to figure it out yourself", but your life situation and the outcomes that have occurred makes you "feel" like, "Why is God being silent, and why hasn't He provided the way or the answer yet?" --Reality. 

Beloved, those moments are not to make you question if that was God or not. There are so many times where this sort of thing happens, and then I tell myself..."Oh, that wasn't God. That was just your subconscious." No, honey. That was your Father reminding you that He listens to your long outcries in the car. He cares that much to insert the small dose of truth into your everyday life. That is His intentional character. He is focused on you and every moment of your life, the good and bad. --Reality. 

Isn't it soothing to the soul that God was thinking of me and speaking straight to my insecurities and weighted heart as I sat alone in a small library study room? He does this for you too.-- Do you ever just randomly think a thought or start singing a song that totally goes against what your mental state is in? I'm talking about when you are struggling and there is no way that your mental state can produce a positive, uplifting thought, but somehow it did, and then you were like, "Whoa. Where did that come from?"--That's your heavenly Father, creator, true love, missing piece, and comforter of the soul using your brokenness to point to His goodness and rich love for you. --Reality.

The other reality: The world really doesn't care about you.

The world doesn't choose you for what you want it to choose you for. Confusing, I know, but let me explain. 

We look to the world to choose us as the best teacher, doctor, husband, wife, son, daughter, brother, sister, friend, athlete, student...etc. We want the world and those in the world to say, "Oh wow. *your name* is so amazing. I want her/him on my team. I want to be her/his friend." We put these expectations in our mind about how the world will acknowledge us for our gifts and talents. The reality check of this is that the world doesn't quite care about our expectations, gifts, or talents. It cares about itself and its image. 

The world is not out to "gas you up" (modern slang for: make you feel important). The world is out out to make you feel not enough and one-up you. The world is out to make you feel like you have to work for acceptance and worth.-- The world is not choosing you to be their bright and shining star. The world, if anything, chooses you as the next victim to tear down and offer you unfulfilling sin that traps you into a habitual relationship with it to the point where you desire more of the world's offerings. Who honestly wants to be chosen by this? Let's be honest, we all do. We want the world to accept us, love us, and choose us because we don't want to feel like we are the outlier or the odd-man out....We want to be loved and cherished with a great love. 

 Believer in Jesus Christ, He displayed on the cross the most beautiful love story that screams: I CHOOSE YOU!!! Beloved!! I urge you to remember that God chose you to STAND OUT. When the world doesn't choose you as their prom queen or king or the elite few, remember that God chose you before you were born. Ephesians 1:4 tells us, "Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes." Also,  Jeremiah 1:5 tells us, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..."

This is the creator of the world telling you this. He gives you your purpose. He knows you better than you know yourself.. and that is beautiful. THIS IS REAL LOVE. 

Believer in Jesus Christ, when that friend leaves, when you don't get the position or job, when you feel like you fail at everything, when you feel alone, when you don't get chosen by the world...remember God chooses you.