The stories of “just BE. you”

one more story from kelsey!  as i mentioned in her intro on tuesday, she’s back in school.  here’s her journal entry from may 10:

“Tonight, I attended my first Thursday evening class at Bethel College. Usually when I attend a new class with a new group of people I don’t know, I’m very shy and tend to keep to myself. I told myself going into the class that I would be intentional with at least 1 person tonight. Tonight, I felt the need to arrive to class early. I’m not sure why I felt this way, but I just did, so I arrived about 30 minutes early. I expected the room to be empty when I got there, but to my surprise, there was already another student in the room…I sat down and began conversation with her. Come to find out, she had just lost her job and was unsure what she was going to do with her life – she expressed that she felt like she had hit a hard stop in her life, where nothing seemed to be going right  At first, I just felt the need to listen to her story – and really “hear” what she was saying. She was hurting from recent life changes, like losing her job and feeing like her friends abandoned her. I could relate on the feelings of friend abandonment level. I shared with her my recent friendship struggles as well – feeling left out and abandoned. She looked shocked when my feelings reflected a lot of what she was going through too. I told her she’s not alone…and that the only thing that keeps my head up somedays is knowing that my value is not found in outward “things” or “people” of this world – but that my value is found in Jesus. She agreed then began speaking words of encouragement over me like I had NEVER had before. These were words straight from heaven, out of this woman’s mouth. Words I need to hear. After we talked a few minutes, we prayed together and even shed some tears together. All of this happened because I listened to that still small voice and arrived to class early and allowed God to do work in me.”