Blessed Days

Tonight was a sweet night. This whole week so far has been a sweet week, day by day. Perhaps it's the Lord's way of saying "Happy Birthday!" Which will be this weekend, and no doubt being surrounded by friends will only bless me more. 

Monday was the first official Shadow Mountain Young Life club since 2005. God is faithful. "Baby" club...hilarious. What's not to love about 25 or so full grown humans walking around with diapers over their outfits? So awkward. Glorious. We've been working hard with hopeful eyes to see what the Lord wants to do at Shadow. It's tiresome, yes, but so fulfilling.

{Isaiah 40:28-31}

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Tuesday held our weekly RC (redemption community) with our church family. I love them all - it was a time of laughter and sharing and learning. We spoke of men and women and how they are created. Although it wasn't necessarily relevant to the conversation - the Lord cast my vision and thoughts to think about the present...and there is contentment in the now, rather than the past or the future.

{Proverbs 27:1}

“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.”

Wednesday. There were many joys of today, including conversing with my dad about spiritual things and spending time talking about life over a DQ Blizzard with the most adorable, spunky Young Life girl I've ever met. The most joyous part of my day though was this: a night hike with a couple Young Life girls who recently graduated and have moved into the "college-age" phase of their life. They are best friends and make me laugh a ton. During our hike, which really entailed walking for 5 minutes and plopping on a mountain top for an hour (hehe) the wind was blowing beautifully.

{John 3:5-7}

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit was very present in our time together, leading. I could sense the Lord strongly both in my heart as well as physically on our pathway. One of these girls (women, now!) accepted Christ last month and the other re-dedicated her life to Him this past Sunday. I was even overcome at times with tears, a surprised emotional response...I think just to God! I may have imagined it, but I thought I saw one of the girls wiping a tear from her face at the same time my eyes watered during our conversation about this newness.

{Colossians 3:1-16}

Living as Those Made Alive in Christ

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

The world and all of us people in it have many ideas about who Jesus was and is. When we meet again next week - here was my challenge to them and to myself - the same question Jesus asked Peter, "Who do you say I am?" Who do they believe Jesus really is in their life?

{Mark 8: 27-29}

Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?” 

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”

Why I Believe In God

A friend asked me this week, "Why do you believe in God?" Here are some of the most honest answers I have to that sweet question:

-          Because people whose lives I watched that believed in God were unlike others I met. Because when I didn’t believe, the people I knew that really believed in God (not just God, but JESUS as God) thought, talked, and acted differently than others. They loved more, laughed more, and cared for each other and for me better. And they didn’t do it to only seem “good,” they did it because they actually wanted to. They were able to find meaning in life without pursuing things that leave you feeling empty afterwards. I couldn’t grasp it. They seemed like more “complete” and “whole” humans. I always thought that they knew something that I didn’t, but I couldn’t quite figure it out. They always told me it was all to do with God, Jesus specifically – but I didn’t believe it for myself at the time. These people didn’t give up on me or stop being my friend over things that tore other friendships apart. They always loved me (Nikki, my brother, Justine). Although they were the ones showing me love, my mind and heart eventually gave credit to the source that they claimed for being the loving people they were. I stopped assuming the goodness that I experienced from their lives came from them and began to seek the direct source.

-          Because believing in myself wasn’t working. The main “way to live” philosophy I was taught through parenting and culture was the “believe in yourself and you can do anything” concept. But what about me, I would ask, was there to believe in? I loved hanging with friends, getting drunk, hooking up with guys à what about me and my life did I have to believe in, did I want to believe in? I knew that whatever my little self was coming up with to believe in and live by was just not it and I wanted to go outside of myself to know what was really good! (I Praise God now) that I was smart enough to know that I wasn’t the key to my own life or others J.

-          Because believing in a good God was the most logical thing I’d ever heard. During a season of utter emptiness and loss of meaning in my life through my own vain attempts for happiness and fun, I strived to find meaning by asking questions about things that really seemed to have meaning – like God, how the world was created, what was really the purpose of humans? It seems strange to think of such big concepts when we’re practically dying inside, but thinking about and pondering on such meaningful things was really the only thing that kept my spirit fed and full at the time. Learning about the meaning of life was the only thing I wanted to know more about, it was the only thing that kept me curious and kept me satisfied all at once. I started asking questions like, “Does God exist?” “If God does exist, what is God like?” and “If God exists, is this way or that, how does that apply to my life?” The answers started pouring in – and they all made so much sense, in a really logical way. As humans, and what I found in myself, is that – most of the things we believe, we believe rather inconsistently – as in, I might think this way for this or that reason (most of which weren’t very good reasons anyway), speak another way, and neither the way I thought or spoke computed to the way I acted. My whole self and how I functioned was entirely inconsistent. Inconsistency isn’t logical. So I logically began to explore the God I was discovering EXISTED! And He was GOOD! So I explored that! I believed in God, because I explored ideas about God à and the God of the bible made the most sense!

-          Because I couldn’t help it. After not knowing God for so long and starting to realize who He really was/is – I tried to fight admitting that I believed in Him and trusted Him for awhile. I thought believing in God was a huge jump to make, like it wasn’t actually possible for me to do it anyway. I thought if it were to ever happen, I would wake up one day and just officially “believe.” But what I realized as I studied more, asked more questions, and was surrounded by people who believed in God who loved me well, was that…I had believed in God for awhile and trusted Him too! I just had never realized it really. So I “officially” one day told God that I trusted in Him, although He already knew this – but apart from confessing this trust, took “ownership” of it in a way, and made a promise back to Him one day that no matter what, I would keep trusting in Him and would follow Him with my life. I had no other option. Once you see and understand who God is, how true, how good, how gracious…there is no way you could not believe again or ever want to not believe. Sure, you go through days when it seems more real than others, but with even the small assurance of seeing the difference of who I am and my motivations for daily life…I could never turn back.