Dear 19-Year Old Me, Faith Will Come By Jordan Harrell Dear 19-Year-Old Me, You’re probably wearing a t-shirt and baggy sweatpants, a ponytail wagging back-and-forth as you bee-bop around your Christian university in between chapel and the campus center. The whole concept of “college” as an educational experience is beyond you, but you sincerely enjoy it nonetheless. Yours is a good place full of good people. A safe place. You are good at being safe. What you lack in social skills you make up for in kindness and wit. You have enough of a wild streak to make you fun but an equal amount of self-righteousness to make you just a bit stuck up, even if you hide it well. You resent the fact that you inherited your mother’s guilty conscience and crave the freedom to make terrible decisions. You are keenly aware of your weaknesses (still are) and paranoid that others might find them out, too. Life tip: it’s okay if they do. They might even like you more. People don’t appreciate perfection nearly as much as you think. You haven’t felt God much in your life yet. You’ve heard countless sermons and been to boat-loads of Christian camps. You’ve gone on a couple of mission trips that involved you and your giggling friends passing buckets of mud to boys you had crushes on in the mornings and playing soccer with the locals in the evenings. You’ve even cautiously raised your hands up in the air while worshiping once or twice.
But if I asked you to pinpoint one time in your life in which you genuinely felt God’s presence, a moment that proved his real-ness to you, well, trust me… You’ve got nothin’. Remember how good you are at being safe? Caution often impedes the miraculous. It’s hard to spot God if you never need him. Somewhere between 19 and 31, you figure a few things out about faith and how to get it. If you’d like a head-start, here are a few things you
for Fort Bend Justice of the Peace Precinct 3
“My philosophy as a judge is to be fair but firm, while upholding the laws of the State of Texas. For many people their only experience with the court system is in a JP or Municipal court. That experience should be fair and courteous. As judge, I will continue that commitment to those who frequent the court.”
The Only Qualified Candidate • Fort Bend County Assistant District Attorney • Chief Prosecutor, Justice of the Peace Courts • 14 years experience as judge in Fort Bend County municipal courts • 20 years prosecutorial experience • 10 years total experience, Assistant City Attorney in Missouri City and Sugar Land
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