CBM Intern – The Wrong Place at the Wrong Time
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: 328
Dino
June 19, 2016 (4:44 am)
I’m glad you finally feel like you are in the right place at the right time.