By CBM National intern, Jordan Mancari

Have you ever felt like you’re constantly in the wrong place at the wrong time?

For me, this was most of my life; I was constantly asking “What’s next? Where do I go from here?” It wasn’t until I got older that I really began to know the meaning of what I was asking. Ruth 1:16 (ESV) says, “But Ruth said, ‘Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God my God.’”  Ruth’s desire was mine as I got closer to graduating high school and looking for that next step.

Finally, senior year came around, and I had my heart set on going to college at Lee University in Cleveland, TN to become a Christian counselor. However, as the year progressed I began to backslide from God, and found myself not wanting to do the same things anymore. I had taken a video game design class and had now decided this was what I wanted to do. You could say I was being a lot like Jonah and running away from God, because I feared God. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time! Later that year, I graduated and had everything in line to attend East TN State University for digital media. August came around and there I was a good ‘ole country boy from WV, in a place where I didn’t know anyone or anything, what I then considered the wrong place at the wrong time. During my time at college though, I got plugged into a campus ministry called Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ)! As the years progressed, I became actively involved, and there I began feeling like I was finally in the right place at the right time!

Then it happened. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I was unable to return to college, and I found myself angry with God, wondering why He would take me away from what I believed to be the right place and send me back home to what I considered the wrong place. I found myself yelling, telling God it was His fault, and that’s when I felt God say “Listen to yourself,” and I began crying, tears running down my face. I began to realize it was no one’s but my own fault for what happened. Psalm 37:4 (ESV) says, “Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”  I returned back to college the following semester. Later that year, I spoke to a friend in Cru and he was telling me about a counselor job at a camp called Camp Ta-Pa-Win-Go, one of CBM’s camps. I really didn’t know if this was for me but decided to pray about it and eventually felt God was telling me this was the right place, so I applied. Long story short, it did up being the right place, and from there I joined CBM’s National Internship Program. I can now say even though I believed I was spending most of my life in the wrong place at the wrong time, I’m now convinced I am in the right place at the right time! Isaiah 6:8 (ESV) says, “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
Edited by: CBM National

Views: 348