Palm Beach Atlantic University Student Blogs

I have had the privilege of seeing God work in my life today. I get this joy out of seeing how things and events are connected to each other, and what causes something else. Today had one such example of this common phenomenon.

I woke up this morning at 8 o’clock. Well, maybe that’s a lie, it was a few minutes after. I don’t normally lay in bed very long, because I have to get up to turn off my iPod alarm clock (which I, for some reason, set EVERY night before going to bed to play the song “The Way I Am” by Ingrid Michaelson. Just a fun fact. So I always wake up to that song.) So I woke up, took a shower (Fifteen minutes. That’s ALWAYS how long it is. This is how regimented my life is), then I ate a bowl of dry Lucky Charms while praying and reading my Bible (Ephesians 4:29-32).

So just before nine o’clock I started walking over to the Art building. Painting I. What a great class. Great, except I work too fast so I feel like it’s not worth me sitting for two hours to just stare at it and change practically nothing… but we were just painting and minding our business, when all of a sudden (after about an hour of the class) the power went out. The lights turned off and this annoying high-pitched sound commenced. After letting us sit in the dark to wait it out, the professor said we could leave, because the light was different on the shadows and highlights… am I boring you yet?

Yay! Power is out downtown and I’m out of class early! Could life get better?

No.

Just kidding, but I really wanted to say that. But I ran into my friend Jen walking back toward my dorm, and she asked me to come walk with her while she gave blood (the Bloodmobiles were outside the student center for the day). I followed her. Someone mentioned the idea of ME giving blood. I figured that would be a bad idea, because I feel like I don’t weigh nearly enough and I would probably pass out or die or go into a coma and start traveling through time to a mysterious island– wait, I’ve been watching Lost too much. But I was afraid and I really didn’t want to give blood.

Someone mentioned that they were saving three lives by giving blood. I thought about that for a second. I thought to myself (and I am making this up now as I’m writing. This is pretty much my reasoning of it at the time, though), “There are people that need this blood. I have an abundance of it. I am being kind of selfish by NOT giving blood.” Then this verse that I had been convicted by a few months ago popped into my head:

James 4:17 - “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”

I knew that to give blood was a GOOD thing. Something in me just didn’t want to do it though. I didn’t want to have a needle stuck into me, I didn’t want to inflict pain on myself just because these people are begging me to donate blood and I’ll win some free t-shirt or pizza or whatever. I had my reservations, but Christ’s power was at work in me. So I grabbed one of the forms and began to fill it out. Before I knew it, I was downing Powerade and being hustled on to one of the buses. I was pretty much shaking the whole time because I was super nervous and it was really cold… mostly the nervous part though, admittedly.

Part One: They pricked me in the finger. That HURT and my finger began to throb as she squeezed the blood out of it. What a great start to my blood-giving experience…

Part Two: This guy took me into this room where I was shaking even more. He interrogated me. The room was about the size of a bathroom stall. Actually, it was much smaller. No worries.

Part Three: I come out of the room and sit on one of those leany-back-cushioned-hospital-bed-like chairs. The nice little lady strapped my arm onto the armrest and started wiping my arm with some numbing stuff. A little cold. I was drinking Powerade this whole time, too. OUCH! I kept my eyes away from my arm and whatever that thing was that just dove into the veins on my upper forearm. It felt like a pinch, but gradually I got used to it. She told me to pump my fist. I wasn’t looking, but I am pretty sure that’s when the blood started going through the tube into the little plastic bag.

Part Four: After about ten minutes, the lady said I was done and cut off a bunch of tubes and pulled everything out of my skin. She quickly wrapped a fluorescent green bandage around my arm. Check it. I felt fine. Actually I’d never felt better. A guy took my picture for their slideshow.

I just saved someone’s life.

So now I was thinking about how I gave my blood to save people. What a perfect analogy of what Christ did for me. He totally didn’t have to shed his blood. He could have left me in that state of sin and misery and wretchedness, chasing after my own desires. But he loved me enough to shed his blood. All of it. Not just a plastic bag full of it. And to think that I wasn’t willing to give something that would not even really cost me anything except a LITTLE bit of pain and a LITTLE bit of my time, when the Son of God paid EVERYTHING to rescue all of humanity. That is the ultimate sacrifice and the ultimate display of servitude.

What Would Jesus Do?

Well, he would give ALL of his blood. When that little lady went to take out the tube, he would say, “No, keep going. Keep pumping. Take it all.” I am ashamed that I was even hesitant to give that little amount. But through this, God showed me what sacrifice is. It means we give up what makes us feel comfortable or secure, and completely just turn our life over to Jesus and to his will and purpose. I am all too often stuck in a rut of just going about with life.

So THANK GOD FOR POWER OUTAGES! If the power hadn’t gone out, I wouldn’t even have considered giving blood, and I would just have gone about my average busy Thursday. So that is just a little update on what God has done in my life lately. I am so grateful for Jesus’ love for me, that he would be that ultimate blood donor for me.

So now get out there and do something to serve Him. Go give blood. Think about someone other than yourself, and what you can do to serve them and be a blessing in their life. That is what being a Christian is. To serve people out of love for Jesus and his kingdom–That is what it truly means to follow Christ.

God works.

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