One Year Later.

365 days. 12 months. 1 year.

That is the amount of time that Melissa has been in Heaven with Jesus. It is one of those things that makes me reflect on this past year. It definitely brings sadness to my heart and I miss her sweet self all the time, but it has been a year of growing and love. A year of trusting The Lord more and more. A season of anger, hurt, and a sad heart overlapped with a heart full of joy that my friend is with Jesus and has absolutely no more pain or suffering like she did here on earth in her physical body. 

It was a year of a lot of emotions. Emotions on both ends of the spectrum. Emotions that had me dancing around and singing at the top of my lungs because I was full of joy and love and emotions that left me weeping. Emotions that left me in the middle of these two extremes. 

I spent a season angry at God. Angry that He would take my friend's life. Angry that she had Cystic Fibrosis. Angry that I didn't get to hear her laugh, eat Wendy's baked potatoes, watch TLC or Nashville with her, or pray with one another; the list could go on and on. I spent a season of time where I was really sad and it felt as though my heart physically ached because I missed her so much. There was a more recent season where I had to ask God, "Do I believe You do all things well? Even if it is something that did not go my way. Even if it was something that was painful." My answer for a long time was no. I definitely told God that He was wrong and I was right. That taking Melissa from all of us was the wrong move (How silly am I, right?). The Lord is good. The Lord is sure. He is steady and strong. He knows exactly what He is doing. He knew what He was doing when He created Melissa and He knew she would face enormous obstacles her entire life, but He gave her a heart overflowing with love for others that she shined so bright in spite of her illness. 

Melissa loved me, and everyone else, incredibly well. She spoke love and peace into the lives of every single person she came into contact with. She showed me what loving others as Jesus loves us truly looked like. That no matter what the cost, loving others really well was of utmost importance. She sought after The Lord harder than anyone I know and she did it with strength and courage as she fought her hard, painful, and tiring fight. Time and time again, we prayed together over her and her illness; but she always was more interested in how I was doing. She cared about me. I mean, really, and truly cared. What an honor to be loved on by such a special person. She showed me just how special a relationship with the Creator of the Universe was and what it looked like to run after The Lord with everything that you have. One of the biggest things she taught me, other than loving others, was that you should never say "never" when it comes to Jesus. You may not understand what is going on or you may not imagine yourself in a certain situation, but God is good. God is faithful. He knows exactly what He is doing and will lead us and guide us according to His plan for our lives. 

She wrote a letter shortly before her 2nd double-lung transplant and I'm going to share an excerpt from it, "There are a few things that I have learned on this journey of life. One should never say, "never" when it comes to Christ. With God anything is possible and God won't put you through anything that together you can't handle. And when He is ready ~ He will bring you home! Honor and praise him and you will be rewarded. Everyone is made special in different ways so don't compare yourself to others and don't judge - that's God's job. I feel so so thankful that my life and circumstances could be used by God as an inspiration to others. So thanks again for everything and I'll hope you see you all in Heaven!

Love, Melissa"

Her life meant something. She knew that there was something greater to live for, to strive for. She knew that the unsatisfying things in this world would never be enough for her. They would never measure up to the joy and satisfaction in her Savior. She was a living, breathing, screaming invitation to believe better things for not only me, but the hundreds that came across her path. 

When I start to grow weary and wear thin, I think of my precious friend. I think of how she lit up any room she was in and even in her weariest, and sometimes silent, of days she taught me and loved me so much. I think of how her perseverance built a character of hope, peace, and true life.

If I can love half as much as she loved people, I'll be in good shape. 

A year later, I am still challenged by the precious voice in my head, encouraging and challenging me to love others and stretch beyond my comfort zone.

Mel, I hope you know that your life has had an enormous impact on more people than I can begin to name or count. I love you to the moon and back and miss you daily. My firefly is a sweet reminder of your comfort and God's ability to hold my broken heart.

"My One defense, my righteousness. Oh God, how I need You." 

Heaven Song by Phil Wickham was a song that carried me through the time when she almost met Jesus in 2012. Beautiful words. The good news is that Jesus conquered death on the Cross. "Oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting?" 

A year ago Melissa swiftly sprinted off to be with The Lord. Selfishly, I want her here. But I would never take her away from Jesus in a million years. All that said, I pray for another year of loving others to the best of my ability and with all that my heart can muster.

You Do All Things Well

As one of my favorite worship songs says, "I will climb this mountain with my hands wide open" and those have been the words that are carrying  me through this season of life. I encourage you to listen to it here. 

Seasons of life come and go. Some long, some short, and some that make you feel like you have no idea how to get out of it. That was me for the last couple months. I felt stuck in what seemed like a never ending season of life and I was at a loss as to how to free myself.

I admit, I have been unfocused on what truly matters. Jesus. The last couple of months have left me in a barren desert. Feeling quite dry and even empty. Not as though my outpouring was coming from any sort of overflow as is talked about in The Bible but that I had been run dry. Part of me believes that this stems from my season of feeling worn out last semester. 

In the spirit of honesty, I'm wrestling on a question with God. The question is this: Do I really believe that You do all things well? To help you understand here's the backstory. I was listening to Tenth Avenue North perform an acoustic set live in early January at this small venue in Jax. (They're one of my favorites so obviously I was only like 3 ft away from them aka the very front). The lead singer, Mike Donehey, says they're going to play "You do All Things Well" and begins to tell the story behind it. I'll save you the extra details but basically his roommate was on the verge of death in the ICU unlikely to make it through that night. So there they are in the hospital praying and singing out to The Lord and Mike starts talking to God and saying something along the lines of God, you perform miracles all the time. I believe that You can heal my friend miraculously. But what if You don't heal him the way that I want You to? What if You healing him is taking him home? Give me faith to believe that even if You aren't doing something I want You to do that You are doing all things well. (And bam this song was basically written). But I, having lost a friend less than a year ago, am an emotional wreck in the front row. I may have cried through Melissa's death, I may have said I'm seeking comfort in Jesus, (which I was at times), and I may have told you I was doing okay. The reality is I have held onto a lot of pain in my life simply because I know the instant I let go and start to talk to God about what is going on in my heart I might break. The instant I say "God, I cannot do this on my own" I begin to process through and deal with the issues I have suppressed. A good friend pointed out that maybe the reason I have been slow to seek out Jesus lately is because I know the moment I do I have to start that hard process. I believe she was right. 

The question remains. Do I believe that God does all things well? Do I believe that in the midst of my dad's alcoholism, God is still doing all things well? Do I believe that in the midst of a time of chaos and pain on my mom's side of the family that He is still doing all things well? Do I believe that in the midst of Melissa dying that God was doing all things well? 

My answer was no. My answer was no because I was hurt, angry, confused, sad...you name it I probably felt it in the last year. I know in my head that yes, God does all things well; however, my heart struggled to have the faith to say that I believe God does all things well. I'm processing through that question right now and I've come to realize that it is okay to have these questions. It's okay to wrestle through things with God. God already knows my heart and He still loves me the same. He knows that I've struggled finding the good in these life happenings and wants me to process and face these struggles with Him. 

All that said, I have embarked on that hard process. I have begun to call out to God in my fear of letting things go. I have begun to find relief and energy lost a long time ago. I am thankful for my community who have loved me so well despite maybe not loving them back as well as I should have been. My heart has found healing in this chaos because "we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28). 

And I'll leave you with words from and to the Tenth Avenue North song, "You Do All Things Well"

"You break me to bind me.

You hurt me, Lord, to heal me.

You cut me to touch me.

You died to revive me

You do all things

You do all things

You do all things well" 

Do you believe that God does all things well?

I have an adventurous heart.

Over this Christmas break, I drove to the surrounding areas of Orlando to spend some time with my old roommate from the summer, Alyssa, and I've gotten to hang out with some of my Gainesville friends and it's been a sweet time so far. Right now, she's at work and I'm at Starbucks sipping on my Peppermint Mocha and spending some time with myself, reading and writing and changing around my class schedule "for the last time" I tell myself.

Yesterday, Alyssa, Cory, and I went on an adventure. There's this trail that you can get on behind her house and we walked to the creek and begun to explore. We each had a turn leading the exploration we were embarking on. Alyssa called us "triplets" as we walked and talked with one another. We walked in the water, alongside the water, around the water. We walked through bushes and this area that Cory said looked like fingers coming out of the ground, but really they were tree roots poking way out of the ground. I think I got bit by something while on our adventure and I got some scratches from walking through prickly brush. There was this mud-like terrain that seemed to act like quick sand because once you stepped onto it your feet begin to sink quickly. We ventured out of the woods and came across a road that signaled we were much farther away from where we started than we thought. After finding our way back to the bridge we set up our hammocks underneath it and simply "hung" out. We were dirty and sweaty but that didn't matter one bit because we were with each other and living life alongside one another on this adventure.

More and more, I have been learning how much of an adventurous heart I really do have. I love going on adventures. I love to explore. My heart's desire is to travel to the ends of the earth and then some. I don't know that I can explain why my heart has such a desire, but it's one of my biggest passions. My life has been full of exciting adventures: several camps, work crew at Trail West, Skydiving, college is an adventure in itself, leading Young Life, taking kids to camp, Honduras, Haiti...all full of joy and excitement. I've recently learned that even if something is painful or hard, that doesn't make it any less of an adventure. Venturing through my family, hard friendships, loss of a dearly loved friend, fighting through my personal regrets and heartache. Those are also adventures; however, they are not filled with excitement but rather sadness and often times, tears. And that's okay. (tears being okay is also something else I have learned). Those adventures aren't necessarily fun for me, but they are certainly a learning experience. I read a blog by Donald Miller this morning entitled "The Greatest Impact You Have May Come Out Of Your Pain" and it reminded me of God's promise that He turns our pain into something beautiful. In this post, Donald Miller wrote "When we stay bitter, we don't grow, and we don't help the people around us." Reread that quote. Think about it. Pray on it. Believe it. I believe it. I believe that if I were to have stayed bitter towards my dad I wouldn't have been able to speak truth and wisdom into someone else's life. I could go on and on with examples, but I'll save you from all that. It goes to show that even the hard and painful adventures are worth it more than I could ever imagine.

I pray that I will willingly and excitedly go wherever and whatever Jesus has called me to in this life. I pray that He never ceases to surprise me, one adventure after another, be it exciting or hard. Because I see God as an adventurous God. I have no clue as to what adventures The Lord is going to be taking me on in life or what my next step after college looks like. However, I do know that The Lord is good and loves me and knows the desires of my heart. My heart is to serve and love others and to do that well, no matter what capacity that may be in. My heart loves Haiti, my heart loves YL and my girls, my heart loves my community, my heart loves to travel and be in new places. Like I said, I may not know much, but I do know that God has carved out a beautiful plan for my life and weaved these desires into my soul. My Redeemed Soul.

Jesus always shows up.

I'm sitting in the architecture building on campus with one of my favorite people just hanging out. These are some of my favorite moments. Moments like this when I'm allowed to sit and just be with my favorites. I think one of my favorite parts of hanging with Kenz is how real we are with one another. She can ask the hard questions and the easy questions and I get to process my life with her. It's a sweet picture of how life is supposed to be walked alongside a community. Such a blessing to have people in my life that I get to do life with who consistently pour into me so much and so well.

Today Kenz asked me if I was excited for break and I think for the first time I was able to genuinely answer "Yes! I'm excited because I'm excited to see my parents." This will be the second time I will be home since the beginning of August and the second time I've seen my dad and brother since August. Thanksgiving was great, but I saw them for like 5 hours and I was so sick that I didn't want to do anything but lay on the couch. I am actually craving quality time with my parents, and lots of it. I want to sit and watch endless hours of NCIS with my dad. I want to go shopping with my mom, as much as I hate shopping. I want to drink coffee and hot apple cider and simply be with my family. Those of you that know me well, know that it is very unlike me to say those things and it's only because of Jesus that I can say them.

God has worked so much on my heart and my relationship between me and my parents, specifically my mom and I. It's been such a blessing to see the beginning of healing in our relationship. I'm unaware if she even knows how much she has hurt me over the years, but my heart has began to soften a lot towards her and that has been a beautiful, and at times painful, process to be a part of. I find peace in our conversations and they are conversations that are full of love. They are conversations that are meaningful and hopeful for our relationship. They bring me such joy. God has been changing my heart from a position of bitterness and one of disdain to one of complete love and grace towards them. How can I expect any healing to happen if I am not willing to let it happen? How can I expect to grow a better relationship with my mom if I'm holding onto all of these things from the past? God commands me to honor my father and mother and to be honest, I haven't done the best job of that. God has allowed me to let go of the large amount of hurt that I have held onto for years and I have found nothing but peace and joy. Yes, it's painful to sit there and think about all the hurt. Yes, it's painful to know that in order to really forgive my mom and for our relationship to heal in ways I cannot even imagine I am going to have to talk to her. But, the beauty that has already come out of me loving on her as best as I can and being gracious with her is infinitely more than I could have ever hoped for. I'm going home for Christmas break tomorrow and I am more than ready to love on my parents and love on them to the best of my abilities. My hope and prayer is that they notice something different about me when I'm home; furthermore, that they might begin to ask questions and begin to understand why I do what I do. I pray that Jesus will show up in the Aultman household during this holiday season. The beautiful thing about Jesus is that He shows up in every situation we are ever placed in, even when we're afraid He might not be present.

These past couple months, God has shown up so much in my life. I find that I am quick to doubt that God is going to show up in situations. It's easy for me to say "God, what are you doing? Why isn't this happening?" Fill in the blank for "this" because it could be anything. I start to trust my own judgment instead of trusting that God will be there and He will provide. Trusting God is a daily thing for me. Going into college, I never expected to be graduating an entire year early, to be a psychology major, to want to go into counseling/therapy, or that I wouldn't know what my future looks like. I am a planner. I like to know when something is happening in my life and how exactly it will play out. I like to have a multi-year plan for my life on the ready. I have to continually be reminded to trust that Jesus has my entire life planned and he's taking me on a great adventure and to be patient with it because He will reveal things when He sees fit. For a planner, that's hard for me. To trust that something so big, like my future, will be taken care of and taken care of well. I like to think of God as an adventurous God as He has taken me on so many crazy and unexpected, yet breathtakingly awesome, adventures.

As God continues to show up in the little areas of my life, like within my day to day tasks, or in the big areas, like my broken relationship with my mother, I pray for continued trust in Jesus. I pray that I will allow God to use me in ways that will take me on adventures I cannot begin to fathom. I pray that I respond to what The Lord calls me to with ease and with excitement.

God can call me out of something just like He calls me into it.

Here's exactly why I felt God called me into this time of intentional singleness: I felt that it was time for me to quit avoiding the problems of my past I pretended didn't happen. I knew that I knew I was forgiven, but didn't necessarily believe it in my heart. I knew that that guy held power over me still. I knew that I felt chained up and my heart needed healing.

So I dove in. 

Now almost five months down the road I can say a lot more than I could have when I started. I can say that I have finally dealt with my problems in the past. I can say that not only do I know I'm forgiven, but I believe it. I can also say that he has absolutely zero power over me and I've found freedom. And that my heart has been healed and realigned. 

I honestly believe that because I avoided my past my heart was misaligned. I fully believe that not dealing with my past and not seeking out healing for my heart hindered my relationship with Christ. In these past five months I have seen such a turn in the position of my heart, and one that is more towards Christ, because of the healing I've received. It's been a crazy awesome journey thus far! I went into this year with an intentional purpose I felt God had given me. I was willing to commit to a year and obey God in this calling for my life at the time. I am at a point now where I know in my heart that I have done what God called me to do in this year. The problem? I'm on month 5, not month 12. I've had to spend a lot of time in prayer these past couple weeks to try and hear what God was telling me and I've done a lot of examining of my heart in that process.

God can call me out of something just as quickly as He calls me into something. God called me into a period of intentional singleness with such clarity that I knew I was obeying The Lord when making that decision. I set a time of one full year because of the message I heard, right around the time I made this decision, from Andy Stanley about his one year challenge of singleness. I wrote a blog which you can read here about my decision to partake in this and why I chose to do it. I made a promise to God and God is a God who honors promises. However, God is a God who does not run on any time scale that we as humans create. Putting a time limit on God is absurd because He is the God of the universe and He can take a year to heal me, a week, or two years. God does everything in His own timing and although at times that can be frustrating, I am grateful for that. My prayers have been that God would speak clearly to me in what I am supposed to be doing now. It says in 2 Peter 3:8, "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." My time limit of a year could turn into 5 months in God's timing.

The way that I seek after Jesus has changed since I started this journey. But that is not to say that when the label of "being intentionally single for a year" is removed that the way I seek Jesus will revert back. I strongly believe that because I have dealt with the things that kept me from seeking after The Lord as strong as I am now, the way I seek Him will stay the same if not grow more as I grow. I've been wrestling with The Lord over this, confused, asking Him why He might be calling me out of this because I committed to a year and was fully ready to stay committed. I don't want to shut a door that is supposed to stay open. What I have been hearing is simple. It's that the purpose God set before me I have accomplished.

I can sit here and say that I am confident God is calling me out of intentional singleness. You may judge me and think that what I'm doing is wrong and I should stick out the whole year, and that's okay. But know that I am still obeying God in this decision because He is the one calling me out of this. I may not know why God is telling me that my year is up at five months at the moment, but I am ready and willing for whatever that might be. I'm shutting this door and waiting for the next door to be opened and I'm doing so with excitement!

I hope and pray that you take this without judgement or looking down upon me for not finishing the entire year. I hope and pray that you'll pray alongside and with me as I continue to run after The Lord with all that I have simply without this label. I hope and pray that you would share in the excitement of whatever comes next with me. I love you and I'm praying for you! As always, please feel free to talk to me about anything here. 

Sometimes it's hard to be this real.

I swear time moves faster and faster each day. It's been 4 months now and it's time for the monthly update on my life. It's hard to pinpoint one or two things that God has been teaching me in the last month, so my apologies in advance for the random nature of this.

The theme of my life has been busy. I've let myself fall into the trap of always doing something. I've believed into the lie of society that being constantly busy is good, that it makes you more of a competitive person, and that's the way to earn success, right? At least, that's what society tells me. I've been so busy I'm often exhausted. I am learning though. Granted, it's a slow process but I am learning. I'm learning where to spend my time and how to spend it in the wisest way possible. Learning not to overextend myself with school, friends, activities, YL girls...the list goes on. But by overextending myself I'm not carving out the time I need to for Jesus and who else is gonna give me the  wisdom to do this other than Jesus? I'm not allowing myself to have God at the root of my heart and until I do I will never figure this out. Because when God is at the root, He'll order the rest of the things I love to where they need to be in my life. I'm learning how to say no to people and things, even the good things, so that I can begin to feel less exhausted and not stretched so thin to where I'm no good to anyone around me. 

My church, Greenhouse Church, here in Gainesville has been doing a series on Wisdom through Proverbs this semester and I've loved it! The last couple weeks have been about sex and sexual immorality as a whole. So part of what drove me into this year of intentional singleness had been what the last two sermons have been on. The week before, however, was on guarding your heart and what that actually looks like. If you recall, I mentioned that I couldn't seem to lay these regrets and sins down at the foot of the cross and walk away. That I can't seem to forgive myself. And Mike Patz said a few weeks ago, "the reason you can't forgive yourself is because you've let something else set up shop in your heart and set standards that God does not have for you." What words of truth. I've allowed feelings of guilt and shame and "rules" take place and tell me that I should not forgive myself. Guarding my heart isn't about keeping the wrong guys out or keeping the wrong things out, but keeping the right thing in and that's God and God alone. 

For so long I dealt with the branches of my sins, never the root of what caused it. I went trying to fix the point, not the path I was on. I quit the action, but never dealt with the cause. So you know, I gave small parts of me away in high school and expected not to feel broken and hurt. I expected it to fulfill my need, my loneliness, and my want for attention from a guy. I believed it when he said he wanted to go out with me, when he said he liked me. But in return I got none of that and then some things I did not expect nor did I want. I got the feeling of shame and regret. The guilt. The brokenness. I felt used and dirty. Too ashamed to tell my best friend, let alone bring it before The Lord.

     Now I'm going to be really honest and real here and this is definitely the hardest part for me. And this is the stuff I typically leave out of my life story when I share it because of the shame I feel, but my past is my past and it happened. It makes up who I am today and God and there's healing and power in the words of my testimony. BUT, it's hard to admit I've screwed up and that this is my past. Yes, I've never actually dated anyone, yes I've never been kissed, yes I've never had sex. But yes, a guy has still seen more of me than anyone who's not my husband should see. Yes, I was "that girl". And yes this guy wanted to take all those things from me in the end, but with strength that could only have come from Jesus I had the courage to finally say no. 

Lastly, I've been learning about the daily surrendering of my heart to God. I've been walking through hard stuff with a friend of mine and it's been weighing my heart down and weighing me down. My family has been, and is, going through a lot right now and I want to be at home with them but that can't happen because of school. It's really hard to watch your loved ones hurt and worry and you can't do a thing to fix the problems. It's hard to be on this end of things and be asking God, "Why us? Why my family? We've been through so much already in the last few years...why would you throw this at us?" My heart weighs heavy most days and it takes a lot of discipline to say "Here God, You take my heavy heart and You hold it. Because I'm at a loss and I'm weak and weary and I need You." pretty much daily. 

My prayer is that God would continue to teach me about surrendering my heavy heart to Him daily. That I would always believe that despite my past, I have a Redeemer. That I would continue to seek healing in The Lord. And that I would reorder my heart and make God the root so that He is my first love and he will order the rest to where they need to be. 

The beautiful thing is that I...

Have a fresh start in...

I'm rewired because of...

I can find healing in...

And I'm cleansed in...

The One who made it possible by taking on a tree of death for me, Jesus. 

He paid the price for me, He bought me out of love and grace. And not only did He do that by dying on the cross, the sits on the throne in Heaven. He reigns victorious. Battle won. He has Redeemed me from all of the mistakes I've made and the mistakes that I will make. What a beautiful picture of the life Jesus has to offer us. Fully covered and fully redeemed. 

I can be fully loved and fully known because I am covered. 

From the bottom of my heart.

The past few weeks of my life have been absolutely stressful and I know I didn't mention that in my last post, but that one was already long and focused on something else. I know that I don't usually post something so soon after one another, but this has been heavy on my heart and I don't know how else to express it.

For the past few weeks, I have felt very overwhelmed. Very stressed. Very much like I'm drowning in life. I have been consistently pushed and pulled in a lot of directions and frankly, I'm exhausted. I'm exhausted in every kind of exhaustion that exists: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I've consistently felt like I'm drowning in everything for a solid few weeks now and I've become distant and detached because of it. 

In the midst of my frustrations last week, I was reminded to spend some quiet time with Jesus and rest in His love for me and I'll feel better because of it. As I was reminded that, I was rushing out of my apartment to work, after an already long day of class, eating my sandwich. I chose to spend the entire drive just chatting with Jesus, something I hadn't done in a while. My friend was right, I did feel better. I felt more at peace. Less like I'm sinking and more like I'm floating. But as the week went on the busyness of life remained constant, and even seemed to pick up the pace.

Due to all of this chaos in my life, I've become distant. I'm spent. I feel like I've poured out all I have to give and I hit empty. There's been no refills. And I know it's because I haven't made time for Jesus to rest in Him and His love. To be refilled by Him. I've filled my days start to finish and most of that doesn't include Jesus. Sure, I go to church and YL leadership, and even YL College now...but none of that compares to the quality quiet time with The Lord. 

So with that I am sorry. I am sorry from the bottom of my heart to those around me. I am sorry that I've become distant. I am sorry if I haven't been there for you like you needed or wanted me to be. I am sorry if I have been rude, it was completely unintentional. I am sorry if I have hurt you in any way, shape, or form. Please know how much I care and how much I've wanted to want to be there for you. How much I've wanted to be a better friend these past few weeks. Know that I still love every single one of you a whole bunch. Those who I'm closest with and around most often, I am extra sorry if you've needed me and I wasn't there for you. I want to love you, and love you well, and I haven't been doing a very good job of that. I may have physically been there for you, but emotionally or mentally I have been elsewhere. Will you forgive me? Will you hold me accountable? Will you pray for me? Will you pray with me? 

As I seek Jesus more and more right now, I'm beginning to no longer sink or float, but to swim. I hope that you can forgive me and know that I would never intentionally hurt you by being distant from you. I love y'all so stinkin' much and I promise that I really am always here for you, no matter what.