Full Circle

(I posted this story onto the Pine Cove Summer staff blog, but thought it was a good story to post on here too.)

It allll comes full circle.  Most good stories do, and this is one of those.  Last week, I got the opportunity to go recruit at my alma mater–the University of Oklahoma.  The first thing I learned?  I love recruiting.  I love that I get to hear people’s stories and hearts.  I love that I get to challenge and encourage.  I love that I get to share the gospel.  I love to travel and see college campuses.  I love meeting and greeting and being busy.  I just really love all of it.   But as I stood in the student union at OU, I couldn’t help but remember.

I remembered when I was in college attending my usual Tuesday night ministry and this really cool video played.  The video was a bunch of college kids hanging out and doing fun and crazy things with kids.  I remember sitting in my chair thinking, That looks really fun!  I went to talk to these people, who were Pine Cove people recruiting college summer staffers at OU.  What’s Pine Cove?  Where is it, I wonder?  I’ve never heard of it.  Oh, there’s a Tyler, TX?  I approached the booth knowing absolutely nothing about Pine Cove because I had never heard of it before.  I met Dutch and Dodgeballa and impulsively signed up for an interview the next day.  That was in the fall of 2005.

As I stood in the student union last week on the “other side,” what struck me was how at the time, 7 years ago, I had absolutely no idea how huge that “impulsive decision” would be for my life.  Little did I know that I would get hired at Pine Cove and spend the next four summers having the time of my life.  Little did I know that this would be the place where I would gain my Biblical foundation and solidify my identity in Christ.  Little did I know that my life would be absolutely transformed through Pine Cove and that it would affect everything for the rest of my life.  And what I didn’t know then is that I would learn how to truly serve because He first served us.  And that nothing matters outside of the Gospel.  And little did I know, that I would take my first full-time job at this ministry that has meant so much to me.
As I look back and reflect on “college Jenny” and how she just applied on a whim, I am so thankful for the Lord’s leading in my life.  He knew.  One of my favorite verses is John 13:7, which says:

Jesus replied, ‘You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’

I love this verse because it is so applicable to every calling that the Lord places in our lives.  A lot of times, we don’t get it.  We don’t understand the pain, or the fear, or the unknowns of something.  But He tells us, “later you will understand.”  I wasn’t aware at the time that I was choosing to walk through a door that would impact the rest of my life, who I am, and who I am yet to be.  But God did.  He knew.  And I am thankful.  So, last week I stood in the student union with my flashbacks and was thankful.  Then I interviewed lots of Sooners and smiled realizing that they too, could be standing before a door that would profoundly impact the rest of their life.