Be devoted to one another in love.

We have been digging into the book of Romans this fall with our Wednesday night Bible studies. It's been great for me to hear our students talking about the verses we've been challenging them with. I love that scripture is the root of these Wednesdays together. Tonight, with the 5th-6th grade students we are going to focus on Romans 12:9-10. In my study Bible the topic header for these verses reads: "Love in Action." As I have prepared this lesson over the past week, my mind continues to settle on the people in my life who have been living examples of how this scripture calls us to be love in action to one another. "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves." When I think of these faces, I praise God for the ways He is changing hearts to look more like His love, what a blessing it is to be on the receiving end of the obedience and faithfullness of these disciples & to experience the unity of brothers and sisters in Christ with our eyes on Him. Here are just a few of the faces in my life that are living examples of love in action.

Love from Guatemala.

Agradecido.

If I've been studying my Spanish correctly...which is questionable, the word for thankful or grateful in spanish is agradecido. Now, we'll see if anyone really reads this blog if I am corrected or given confirmation. :)

Tomorrow morning, I am heading to Guatemala with a small team from CUMC. It seems pretty surreal. In the past 6 months God has blessed me with the opportunity to serve overseas, not once but twice. He has opened doors and given me peace at times that seemed shaky. Kenya & Guatemala in the span of 4 months. What God is stirring in my heart through these opportunities I am still waiting and praying over--but with every ounce of my heart I am thankful.

I am thankful for friends who fill my e-mail inbox with affirmation and encouragement in my calling to serve others in this way. I am thankful for my parent's & grandmother who want to have dinner with me tonight before we leave tomorrow. I am thankful for an incredibly supportive group of students & parents whom I am blessed to serve here at CUMC who have said to me over and over again..."We are so excited for you--we are praying for your time in Guatemala." I am thankful for an assistant youth director who understands my heart for missions and who will help keep things running smoothly the week I am away. I am thankful for a staff and church leadership that are standing behind their youth ministry and children's ministry directors so that we can sharpen our faith and learn more about God's Kingdom in this next week so that we may return back to CUMC renewed in the ways we are blessed to be His hands and feet to the youth and children of this body of Christ. I'm thankful for the friends who have prayed silently and out loud with me over this opportunity. I am thankful.

When my alarm went off this morning, I spent a couple of moments enjoying the comfort of my own bed. I started to think about how often I tend to lean towards comfort in my life...and my heart started to stir. I don't want to be okay being comfortable...I want God to stretch me and break my spirit and life to look less like the things that make me comfortable and more like a heart that looks more like Him. I am praying that the next week in Guatemala will be a time where I can allow God to mold me anew. It may mean hard work, it may mean being out of my comfort zone, it may mean keeping my mouth shut and listening. I pray it will all be used for His glory.

Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all peoples.
1 Chronicles 16: 24

Shiny & Bright

I can't seem to stop thinking about this sweet little face. This is the face of one of the children I met during my time in Kenya. Before I left for Africa I thought that once I had gone & spent time there upon my return home I'd change a lot of things in my life. I'm not sure if I thought I'd give away everything I own or adopt three more Compassion International children or what it would look like to live differently post Africa. Is this missions opportunity suppose to serve as a wake up call? Honestly, from the outside looking in my life probably doesn't look too different from the way it was before I went to Kenya. I'm still processing what my experience and journey was like there. I'm still sorting through the many ways God tugged on my heart those 15 days.

The truth is that my days are different now because of a change on the inside...my heart is not the same. There aren't many mornings that my thoughts don't turn quickly to the faces of the children. I was blessed to have met hundreds of those faces. I saw them sing, dance, play and worship. I was able to learn some of their names...but mostly it was just the faces. They all held one thing in common--amazing smiles.

Smiles so shiny and bright sometimes it would take my breathe away when they were all surrounding me to get a spot on my lap or to touch my hair or to look at my camera. Beautiful smiles so shiny and bright. Some mornings as I pray for them a saddness washes over me because I feel so far away from those shiny and bright little faces. In Psalm 82 there is a short piece of verse 6 that says: "Children of the Most High, all of you." When I read that this morning my mind turned back to those shiny and bright smiles. The comfort and joy in being unified together as God's children. When I think about the kids back in Kenya I'm reminded also of one of my favorite passages from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis,

"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 everyday and eath 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 will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and your 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 am thanking God extra today for those little faces that remind me to continue to look to Christ first and formeost. They remind me that sometimes the greatest gift you can offer to others is a smile that shines the light of Jesus.

Every September.

Every year around this time I start missing my days as a college student at Hillsdale College. Anyone who knows me well or semi-well knows my love for the small school tucked away up in Michigan. My four years as a student were some of the sweetest years of my life. Without a doubt it is always so clear how God's hand orchestrated and blessed every struggle & joy that was part of the journey at Hillsdale during my undergrad college years.

It's also about this time of year that I start thinking back to how God led me to the beginning of my journey in youth ministry. I was a wide eyed freshman & somehow I found myself volunteering for the HFMC youth group with students who were just a year or two younger than myself. I am so thankful that God used my years as a volunteer to confirm to me that this was the path He was leading me on--because being a volunteer youth leader is hard. It's time consuming--always demanding more than just an hour a week & at the same time was one of the most rewarding and fulfilling experiences of my life. Now more than ever as I am fully immersed in my 5th year as a full time youth director, I still remember what it was like in those early days as a volunteer. The nights that I would walk back from the church to my dorm room and pray for the students I had just played knock out basketball with...what a precious beginning in youth ministry the Lord blessed me with.

I was cleaning my apartment last night & as I was vacuuming my eyes drifted towards my back hallway. I've lined it with picture frames filled with pictures of mission trips & Youth Sundays from the different ministries I've served in since I began at HFMC as a college freshman. From Michigan to Mississippi to Indianapolis, I stared at their faces in those pictures & felt my heart fall in love with God even more. I am so undeserving--and He has richly blessed me by being able to witness His presence and work in the lives of all of these teenagers I've had the privilege to know & love.

I know as a freshman in college I had pretty big plans for myself. I'm sure by the time I was 27--I thought I'd be a mom & married & teaching the 3 year old Sunday School class. As I looked at the wall of pictures from so many amazing experiences..so many students I've had the honor to know... I thanked God for His plan for me...for His timing. I wouldn't change a single part of this journey.

Best Thing Ever.

Last night we kicked off our Wednesday night Bible study we hold for students during the school year. I was blown away with the 55 teens we had in attendance. What an encouragement.

Wednesday evenings are a special time for me because I led our Tween Bible Study. It’s been really fun to build a ministry for 5th and 6th students here at CUMC over the past year and I have had great anticipation about this coming year & a new batch of 5th graders.

I spent sometime last night talking about our student ministry with the tweens at the beginning of Bible study. All of a sudden one of the students yelled out: “Being apart of youth group is the best thing ever.” We all started laughing but it brought a smile to my face and heart to hear the excitement in her sweet voice about taking the step into our youth ministry family.

I like to pray when I run. This morning’s run was a little on the cold side but I had a dialogue going with the Lord in my head about our tweens & the students we saw at Bible study last night. I kept hearing her phrase running through my mind…”the best thing ever.” A lot of times I’ll selfishly admit, I do hope that. I do hope to lead a student ministry that is considered the best youth group ever. I’d love for that to be a quality that our church family is known around the city of Indianapolis for being the “best thing ever” for the teenagers that are apart of it. The more I thought about her phrase…the more I prayed for our teens on my run this morning… I was reminded about why we are here for these students, what we are really all about and that is about pointing them into relationship with the BEST THING EVER…Jesus.

Because, honestly…I’ll probably never be able to create programming that will reach every teen in this city—but I do know a Savior who desires to reach them…who desires to love every tween, middle school student & high schooler from Noblesville to downtown Indianapolis and beyond. There is no way the games, music, pizza, t-shirts, etc. that I could come up with on my own could ever be enough to spark the interest of every teen that comes my way—but I do know a God who knows the heart and desire of every teen that walks through our doors. The best thing I could ever do with my life is point them in the direction of Him…their creator, author, sustainer & best friend.

There’s a song that our worship team at the Saturday evening service, Renovate, played a few weeks ago that I feel really echoes my heart for our students in finding their “best thing ever” in Jesus…

Everything by Tim Hughes:
God in my living, There in my breathing
God in my waking, God in my sleeping
God in my resting, There in my working
God in my thinking, God in my speaking

Be my everything, Be my everything, Be my everything.

God in my hoping, There in my dreaming
God in my watching, God in my waiting
God in my laughing, there in my weeping
God in my hurting, God in my healing

Christ in me, Christ in me, Christ in me the hope of glory
Be my everything

Strength for today.

There’s a piece of scripture that I’ve been carrying around in my tote bag written on a post-it note for the last week. Proverbs 31:25: “She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.”

I looked up what another translation says and it worded the first part of the verse this way: Strength and dignity are her clothing.

In a devotional I’m using right now there’s a lot of emphasis on the characteristics of being a virtuous woman of God by using the instruction in Proverbs 31. Verse 25 keeps coming back to me. I’ve come across the post-it in my bag at random times…when I was in line at Target, walking into work the other morning I put my keys back into my bag after locking my car and I brushed against it, the post it actually fell on the floor of my office once this week too.

I read the post it & my mind goes back to those two words: strength and dignity. And then I read again the way this virtuous woman owns these characteristics…she is clothed with them…they cover her. They hold onto her so tightly that no matter what happens in the coming days, in the future, she faces it with joy and laughter.

Wow. I feel far from that virtuous woman most of the time. I seem to crumble so easily with struggles like lacking patience & lack of control…those characteristics seems so far from strength and dignity.

I drove home to my parent’s house this evening. It’s been over a week since I’ve had a day off so I was thankful for the opportunity to drive up to Fort Wayne for Labor Day to have some rest. I plugged in my phone to listen to Pandora during my drive and while I was fumbling for the right cord in my tote bag I came across the post it for Proverbs 31:25 again. I re-read the scripture out loud and let out a sigh…here again I was feeling anything but strong, honestly I was feeling tired.

I started to drive and suddenly the Pandora channel started to play one of my favorite hymns, Great Is Thy Faithfulness, as I started to sing a long I realized what I was singing… “Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow”

I realized how wrong I had been about my little post-it note I have been hauling around all week. Only through God’s amazing faithfulness, is where I gain strength. Not strength that I could maintain perfectly in this human body on this Earth…but strength for this day…this moment. Of course, I fail. Of course, I am weak. Through my surrender trust in Him…through God working and alive in me…through His grace I can strive to clothe myself more and more with His strength and dignity.

Great Is Thy Faithfulness.