Looking For Myself vs. Looking For HIM

I came across this quote from C.S. Lewis a few days ago:

"Your real, new self (which is Christ's and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. The principle runs through all life from top to bottom, Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in."

I was thinking about this in context of the Ghana trip and started thinking about my reasons for going. I asked myself "Am I doing this in an attempt to look for my new, true self?" And I honestly think that was the case up until now.

As I prepare for this trip, I don't want any of it to be about me, or how much I can grow as a person or how much "good Christian work" I can do. No, instead I want this to be ALL about Jesus!

How I can look for Him in new ways and in the midst of new seasons of life. How I can seek Him in the midst of shadowy uncertainty of what the future holds. Discovering Him and seeing Him at work in Murfreesboro, Nashville, Ghana! The only way to walk through any of this or any situation in life is with my hand in His, being lead by Him and taking comfort in His leading me. I look forward to how He will reveal Himself and eventually my NEW self to me throughout this process.

"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves." -2 Corinthians 13:5a

"Then you will call upon me and come as pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," -Jeremiah 29:12-14a

Well, To Start Things Off...

I've always wanted to go on a mission trip. Especially overseas! I've never flown before. I've barely been out of the country. I've only been on one other mission trip. And I've never truly and consistently blogged before either! 

This is a blog of my personal journey as I prepare to travel to Ghana in May 2013 with a team with Lipscomb Missions.

The LORD is my light and my salvation- whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life- of whom shall I be afraid?
~Psalm 27:1