The Lord is good. Not much more needs to be said about the topic. Actually, this retreat has been one of those things in life that you look back at and say, "That was exactly what I needed". I needed to be reminded of God's love, of God's faithfulness, and of what the faith that those sold out for Christ looks like. This was what I got from our speaker, Afshin Ziafat. The guy told his testimony about how God had brought him to Christ so many years ago, and that there was no way he could back down from being sold out for Christ. It made me examine my own faith and my own life passions.

I live an easy life.

I avoid confrontation, and stay away from anything that might hurt my own reputation. What that means is that I hesitate to be a light for Christ to people. In reality, I should care very little about my own reputation and care more about the Kingdom of God. Afshin talked about how he stood up for Christ even when his dad disowned him for being a Christian. My heart was heavy as I thought of how I'm not concerned about hardships like this, but instead selfishly think about how one day I can be making a lot of money and be able to buy a lot of stuff. That's not a good life.

On my deathbed, will I think about how much money I've amassed or how many cars I've owned? No. I will instead wonder if I did all things for the glory of HIS name. Jesus.

Someone brought it up that I should be more concerned about my reputation because I'm in a competitive research field. However, I am a Christian first, a researcher/grad student and everything else second.