Erin Blasinski
Editor-in-Chief
October 29, 2004
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Alumnus Kelly McDuffie speaks to students at the Christ and Culture Forum. |
-Photo by Erin Blasinski |
I sat down in chapel on yesterday morning expecting to hear an average speaker who would say something profound that might stick with me for an hour but then fade away as quickly as it came. I was pleasantly surprised to leave at 12:15 with a smile on my face and a message on my heart.
For the first time all semester I felt a real peace in the chapel. I usually notice mumbling and shuffling of papers because people think that chapel is a study hall instead of a time to meet God. The entire time Kelly McDuffie was talking, even when the chimes above rang out from above us, people sat quiet in their seats and listened. God was speaking.
“The impact you have on people’s lives is all that matters,” said McDuffie, a 1984 Milligan graduate, the speaker in chapel who made an impact on me. She spoke about her ministry and how God has called her and led her to where she is right now.
Her message was personal, meaningful and powerful. It was about how God is using people just like me and just like you to serve and reach out to people who need Him the most.
She provided a challenge to me. Do I just live a good life or do I live it God’s way? It’s easy to just live a good life, a mediocre life that makes me feel good. But what a challenge it is to live life God’s way. To do that I need to really listen and take risks.
McDuffie took risks. She resigned from a full time teaching position in Georgia to follow God’s call to devote more time to her Get Real Ministries, Inc. She obeyed, believing in her heart that God would provide. God did provide. She’s teaching part time and has devoted more time to her ministry.
“You tell me if it isn’t plain why God let me survive cancer,” she said, sharing a story of a recent encounter with a high school student who committed her life to Christ just days before. That’s powerful. What can I say about my life and how I’ve lived my 22 years on this earth? Each of us has a plan written out for us by God. Read about it, she said, in Psalm 139.
Thursday night I attended a forum for seniors in Christ and Culture, and she spoke again about God’s plan and purpose for out lives.
God has created a special plan for you, He’s made you exactly the way he wants you and don’t try to force things to work in your life, McDuffie said to the group of about 45 seniors. All of us, I’m sure, heard her loud and clear. I talked with some people after the forum and each said that she spoke in a personal way.
“She said yes to God and He provided,” said senior Rebecca Rimmer. “That’s really encouraging.”
Senior Julie Grimm said that McDuffie’s talk was important, especially since seniors are at a crossroads in life.
“Her talk deepened my belief that God should be in control of the decisions we make in life,” Grimm said.
I think that sometimes we hear God telling us to do a certain task, but we ignore it out of fear. Fear of change, fear of failure, fear of letting God down. But if God has laid it on your heart, then why not trust him. He’s put it there for a reason.
“God wants you to do things that man can’t take credit for,” McDuffie said. “Do things God-size.”
As a senior it’s hard not to want to know what I’m going to do with my life after I graduate in May. But her words were convicting and powerful. Trust in God.
“If you could describe your ministry in one word, what would it be and why?” This was the question I found myself asking her.
“God’s,” was the answer she gave me, “because he did it and we did not.”
How wonderful an answer, I thought. Would this be how I would answer the question of my life? Is that how you would answer the question?
The great challenge she set before me is simple: Am I living the life that God wants or am I living the life I want it? What word will I use in heaven to describe my ministry?