Christmas Mix: Hymn Edition

In my parent's Honda CRV, there is a stack of CDs about an 1.5 inches thick wedged into the space just below the CD player.  That is overflow from the CDs that are actually in the CD case laying between the driver's seat and the passenger's seat in the front of the car.  For the last 4+ years, my brother and I have created mix CDs for every road trip, family vacation, major event.  It is interesting and sometimes hilarious to see what we had been listening to at various times within the past 4 years.

For us, Mix CDs are a way of cataloging - like mp3 scrap-booking.  There are stories and memories that go with the songs.  The speech I gave to my class at my high school graduation was a mix of songs that I thought captured our high school experience and the futures that we were each heading into.

So without further ado, here is the Christmas Hymn Mix

1. Hark, the Herald Angels Sing

At Christmastime at my grandparents, my cousins and I used to organize a Christmas play or talent show.  For quite a few years the only Christmas song that we all knew the words to was Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.  (Although, I used to sing "mercy minor" instead of "mercy mild" - that was just my interpretation...)  The memories with my cousins, and with the rest of my family are so important.  We aren't the family that says "hey, I'll take a bullet for you."  I'm sure we would do that - but rather, we are the family that says, "I am rich in everything that matters, because I have you."  That is what is important to me at Christmas.

2. Angels We Have Heard on High

  

This is one of my favorite hymns, because I remember my dad teaching me how to pronounce Excelsis Deo one time in church.  He told me to just say "egg shells-ez," and I have always remembered that.  Gloria, in egg-shells-ez Deo.

Glory to God in the highest.

3.  Silent Night

I will always remember at the end of all of my elementary school Holiday concerts we ended with Silent Night.  A beautiful image of what that still, beautiful night was when Jesus was born.  The lights would go down in our gymnasium as everyone, all grades and their parents, joined to sing Silent Night.  I can still recall a lot of the other songs we sang - one about being a package and sending yourself to someone.  I remember the year that my class got up to sing it, and we all started singing the wrong verse - we were cracking up, but our teacher probably didn't think it was too funny.  Or the classic, Christmas is coming, the Goose is getting fat; Please put a penny in the old man's hat.  You can only imagine the parodies that grade-schoolers came up with for that song.  And then the stillness of Silent Night to wrap up the concert.

4. Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus

The opening words of this hymn are a great reminder of what Christmas is about.  Come, Thou long expected Jesus.  Not the presents under the tree.  Not the food on the table.  Not the lights or the extravagance.  Jesus.  He is who we are waiting for this season.  He is who we are opening our hearts to.

5. O Come All Ye Faithful

This hymn is in a big red hymn book on our piano at home.  It begins with a call to the faithful, joyful and triumphant.  Do you always fit those categories?  I know I don't.  Have you ever been grumpy, frustrated or felt defeated...and then someone asks you to hold a baby?  How do you feel with that baby in your arms?  They are probably sweet, warm, smiling.  It's hard to hold on to those negative feelings with a baby in your arms.  With the sweet, innocent baby, those burdensome feelings dissipate.  We may not come with strong faith or with a joyful and triumphant heart - but in the presence of our savior, a humble babe in a manger, who has the power to ease our burdens, we can be transformed.

6. In the Bleak Midwinter

   

My favorite verse of this song begins with "What can I give Him, poor as I am?  If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb."  At the end of the verse, it resolves "What can I give Him?  I give Him my heart."  That is the most important thing at Christmas.  It can't be purchased.  It can't be wrapped and put under the tree.  The most important thing about Christmas is that our hearts our present - with God and with our family and friends.  The world may tell you that you don't have much to give - but God tells you that you have everything to give.

(And this is also an excuse to add a little JT to the Christmas mix.  Not Justin Timberlake - the original JT :) )

7. Go Tell it On the Mountain

That is our mission and purpose - Christmas can be the starting point, but we must go out from there and let others know about greatest gift ever given.  It is truly the gift that keeps on giving and that grows bigger every time it is given.  Go out to the mountains.  Go out to the supermarket.  To your school.  Tell them with your words or with your actions - or both.  God's love was born in a manger.  Journeyed to the cross.  And His love is still overflowing from there.  

Merry Christmas!  May the love and peace of Jesus Christ be with you this season and in all the seasons!

~SP

Perspective - It's Powerful

It is moments like this that I am humbled, and returned back to what is important, and what really matters.  At the end of this video, Leo, the man that the story is about, is asked how he keeps his "inner peace."  He says simply, "Faith. Prayer.  That's what it's all about."  What you find out about Leo during the course of the video, which was posted on Upworthy, is that he has been homeless and jobless for quite some time.  You'll be amazed by Leo's story.  When given the opportunity to learn computer coding and the possibility of a high paying job, what Leo really wants to do is design something that will better protect the planet.  A man who has no home, or car, or regular meals, still thinks of the betterment of others before himself.

Growing up, when I would see the faith of people, especially in 3rd world, impoverished countries, who proclaim this incredible faith in God, I was amazed.  They go for years without rain.  Have no homes.  Have little to no food or water.  Their land is ridden with disease.  I would like to think if I lived in those places and had those circumstances that my faith would be strong too.  But it is a reminder, that we can't just claim that God is good when the blessings are material and tangible - God is good because He gave Himself in abundance, and continues to give of Himself in abundance.

This year has been an incredible dose of perspective in what I really need.  The truth is, there are a lot of things I can do without.  It is not always easy, because when you get used to things you have to work on adapting.  But that is the point, they are things.  Things are not necessary.  Things can be replaced.

This is what I have come to know: the worst type of poverty is spiritual poverty.  Being hungry is terrible.  Not having a place to sleep at night is terrible.  Not having a job is terrible.  Having all of those things but not having Jesus is worse.  Losing all of those things and not having Jesus - I'm not sure where I would be.

"This is what I have come to know: the worst type of poverty is spiritual poverty."

I was humbled by this man's gratitude at the end of this video.  Gratitude that can only be inspired by faith.  Simple gratitude for God being who God is, and God doing what God does.  Again, it's not just about being thankful for the tangible blessings.  Things we can touch.  Things that actually happen.  It is about God being the creator and redeemer - and us being grateful for that.

So I believe that God is working on my heart.  I just wrote about my doubt and my fear - but I can already feel God working in my heart to change those things.  Reminding me that He takes care of it all if I am willing to surrender everything to Him.  Give up my plans.  Trust that if the plans don't come out exactly how I foresee them, it is not that I have failed, it is just that God has another direction in mind.

~SP

Doubt

This is my biggest struggle right now.  Doubt.  I am struggling with a lot of insecurities of what the future brings.  Whether I will be selected for an internship.  Whether I will have the means to take that internship.  I've never experienced doubt this great.  Doubt that fractures trust.  It is consuming.

It is so hard to not be in on every detail, every step of the plan.  Because that is control - and I like control, because it makes me feel secure.  But I also know safety and security in Jesus - so how can that be so hard to rely on in this time?

A friend who prayed for me, and with me, a few weeks ago offered this up in prayer: God, it is when we are helpless and have surrendered that you do wonderful, amazing things, that You take control.  Sometimes we treat God as if He is the God that just shows up sometimes.  He reveals something wonderful to us, pours out blessing, and we say, oh look, there He is!  God just showed up.  But He didn't.  God was always there.  It was you or I that was holding out.  Holding on to the plans and trying to make our own.

It is not a magic trick.  There is no magic prayer or words that allow God to do His work.  It is you and I who have to do the surrendering.  God can take control of the plans with or without our surrender, and He does.  But He wants us to choose His will.  When we surrender, we realize that God didn't come running upon our decision.  He has been there all along - we just failed to see.

My doubt is holding me back from surrender.  So I pray.  I pray that I will be able to wholeheartedly give up the plans and surrender.  The the outcomes of my efforts in April, whatever they may be, are in God's hands.
Last summer, I stood in front of a bunch of kids and adults that I loved.  I told them about the God I knew, and how He provides exactly what we need.  And now I need to hear those words, with my ears and with my heart.  God provides.

God you are good, and you know my heart.  My standing up, and my sitting down.  You, who hem me in before and behind will carry me, love me, provide for me, and give me hope.  You ask for my surrender.  Help me where I am weak to lean on you.  Lift up the burden of doubt.  Let any plans that I may have, be yours.

Amen.

Star of Wonder, Star of Night

In past posts, I have talked about the scripture in Genesis, where God speaks to Abraham and tells him that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars.

Psalm 174: 4

He determines the number of stars; He gives to all of them their names.

Those stars were us - the ones that God pointed out to Abraham.  No, we aren't literally gaseous balls of fire, but we were planned and are known by God, just like it is described in the Psalms.  

And then in the gospels, we read about the bright star shining in the sky.  The one that led the wise men to Jesus.  The one that inspired Christmas hymns.  The one that often adorns our Christmas trees.

What was that star?  Why did God choose to put it there?  The star stood out above all the rest.  It could be noticed, because it was bright - it made it easy for travelers to follow.

We were stars placed in the sky.  We were placed as a part of a family.  We were sons and daughters of God.  And on the night that Jesus was born, God placed another Son in the sky among us.  The star was made up of the same matter as the other stars, just as Jesus was human.  However, there was something different about that star.  Something not of this world.  Something unlike the other stars.

We have always been a part of God's family, but we often fall away.  We distance ourselves, we become like strangers.  We estrange ourselves from the family.  Then God sent a sibling to live among us.  One who had been living in perfect Unity with the Father.  One who could tell us about the Father, and how His heart longed for our return.  He would bring with Him the offer of adoption back into the family - to lay the things of the world aside.  Jesus came like a bright and radiant star in the midst of dark night, so that the other fading stars could have their light restored and be held in their place by the hands of God.

Merry Christmas!

~SP

Church: Open on Christmas, Easter and Every Other Day In Between

 I want to address something that occurs usually twice a year - this great, wonderful thing that we should rejoice in - but I often find myself snarling about.  I walk into my church, or the church I am attending on Christmas Eve or Easter Sunday, and it is packed.  People are sitting hip to hip in the pews.  There are faces I don't know; faces I haven't seen for a long time.  I want every Sunday to be like that when I walk into Church.  I want to have to set up more chairs, because the pews can't contain everyone.

I'll just throw something out there - yes, there have been names made up for those who only choose to attend church twice a year.  There's the plain old "twice-a-year Christians."  There's "Creaster" - a goofy melding of the words Christmas and Easter.  I need to apologize.  Because I've used these terms.  My heart has been hard.  I don't know why I get frustrated and make these bitter statements.  I love God's Church and I want to see it grow.  I shouldn't spite you because you don't have a spotless attendance record.  That's not what it's about. 

This has created what my pastors in Bloomington call an "us and them" culture.  It's not a good thing.  I should be overjoyed to see people I don't know and people who I haven't seen in a long time in Church.  You are not different, or part of an outcast group - you are welcomed as part of God's church, always, whether you attend every Sunday or just twice a year. 

Now let me say this, genuinely: I would love to see you again.  The Sunday after Christmas.  The Sunday after that.  Actually, all of the Sundays in between Christmas and Easter.  Then after Easter, I'd love to see you at Church all the Sundays between Easter and Christmas...see what I did there? :)

Let me offer you this: Church is a lot more than just sitting in the pews and being there to Celebrate Christ's birth, death and resurrection.  It is about a community that I want you to be a part of, and more importantly, that God wants you to be a part of.  I want you to experience the way God works throughout the entire year, not just on the Holidays.  There are so many wonderful things that God is able to do through the body of His Church - come and find out.

What if life was like this: what if people were only nice to you on your birthday.  They only affirmed you, supported you or paid any attention to you on that day.  You only get one day out of the year.  Would you survive?  I couldn't.  Jesus lived a whole life in between His birth and His crucifixion.  He had big days, like the Sermon on the Mount and the day He fed 5,000.  He had less glamorous days - like the day He met the woman at the well, and the day He visited Zaccheus' house.  Those days were still important.  They were a big part of Jesus' life and story and they were a big part of the lives of the others involved.

All those Sundays in between are important.  The Sundays when you have joys to share and the Sundays when you are hurting.  We don't just want to celebrate Christ's birth and death in community, we want to celebrate everyday in community.  Everyday is a gift.  Jesus is not just there for the milestones - He is there for the journey.

Merry Christmas!

~SP 

A Broken Nativity: How We Come to the Stable

My family has a lot of Holiday traditions.  Some big, and some small.  They have adapted as our family has grown, but at their core they are still built on the value of our family being together.  That is one of my greatest gifts at Christmastime.

One tradition that started when my cousin Alana and I were very young was setting up the Nativity at my grandparents' house.  The frame of the stable sits under the grand piano in the living room.  There is an old-fashioned department store box full of Nativity pieces.  To take a census, there are about 10 sheep figurines, two donkeys, maybe a camel or two.  We've go three wise men.  A few shepherds.  Mary, Joseph, Jesus (who is the size of a toddler).  We've also got one huge angel and then a bunch of little angels (clearly originating from two different nativity sets).  Now, what sets our Nativity set apart is the variety of missing limbs from all the figurines.  We've had several amputations and re-attachments over the years.  We've got Mary with a shepherds hand.  Baby Jesus has a full grown man hand.  But regardless of the state of each of the figurines, the Nativity gets set up during Christmas.

One year we decided to incorporate the figurines from the Nativity into our cousin variety show (it's an annual event).  We decided to do a retelling of the Christmas story using the Nativity characters.  Joseph was recruited to play full grown Jesus.  Just as we reached the point of the story where Jesus grows up, his (Joseph) hand tumbles to the ground.  So I lifted up Joseph/Jesus and said "and then Jesus grew up to become the savior of all humankind...single-handedly."  My parents, aunts, uncles and even Grandma and Grandpa were rolling with laughter.  The whole event has been immortalized on home video.

The point of this story is not my 11-year-old, faulty theology.  All the broken pieces of the Nativity set make me think about how we would all approach the stable.  On Christmas Eve, or Christmas day we often put on our finest outfits for the candlelight service.  We "put ourselves together."  But over the past year, there may have been times of brokenness or struggle.  We may come with some scars - visible like my grandparents nativity, or invisible.

Some Christmas throughout our lives, we may all approach the stable a little broken.  We may have a piece or two missing.  And there at the stable, we are accepted whichever way we come.  Even as a baby, in Jesus' presence we are made whole.  We are invited in to be a part of a family, to be a part of a home.  When there is no room for us in the other lodging, Jesus makes room for us.  There may have been other people in Bethlehem who were enjoying the comfort of their private lodging that night, but the stable doors were open to welcome the travelers, the sick and the lonely, the broken.  They were invited into the presence of their King.

Over the years, none of the Nativity characters in my grandparents collection have been discarded.  Even those who are missing both hands, a leg, or various other parts.  We are always able to find a place for them.  The stable is open.  Come as you are into the presence of your King.

Merry Christmas.

~SP    

Chew Your Food: Advice for your Spiritual Life and for your Health

Chew your food.  That is so important.  I heard my parents say that to David and I so many times when we were young.  Sometimes when we are young, and we get hungry, we just stuff our faces with food instead of actually eating it.  Sometimes it becomes a competition - who can eat the fastest.  But you don't want to choke.  So you need to chew.

Let's break down the physiology first.

When you see food, or think about food, a couple of processes begin.  Salivation, being one of them.  Your body also begins to produce different enzymes.  When the food hits your mouth these enzymes are ready to go.  You have your salivary amylase for carbohydrate digestion.  A little bit of lingual lipase - that's for the fats.  Protein digestion doesn't hit full swing until you reach the stomach with the hydrochloric acid and various peptidases.  Are you still with me?  In plain and simple terms: when you chew your food you are able to release more nutrients and increase what your body can absorb for all of its functions and processes.

But all of these enzymes and substances can only do so much.  You have to chew; break down the food so the enzymes have a greater surface area to work with.  You have to break down the food so the enzymes can get to their target substrates.  You need to chew.

So it goes with our spiritual nourishment.  We can't just take what we're given at face value.  We have got to chew it.  To break it down.  To explore it.  We miss the full nourishment when we fail to explore, question and seek.

This is especially important when reading God's word.  Sometimes we only get bits and pieces.  We become picky eaters.  Or we take it in too quickly.  We open the book, simply read the words, and accept it at face value.  But if we don't chew - if we don't think or ask questions - we aren't really seeking.

What does chewing look like when you read scripture?  Prayer.  A lot of prayer.  Inviting God to speak to your heart through His word.  Asking the questions.  God wants you to seek His truth.  You are not any less faithful if you have some whys or what for's on your heart.  Give them up to God.  That is faithfulness.

We also need to chew non-scriptural things.  You've got Kiss FM on full blast - listening to Beyonce, Katy Perry, John Mayer, Adele.  Or you're reading a best-seller.  Maybe it's Twilight, maybe it's The Great Gatsby.  Simply because these things aren't inherently Christian or faith-based does not mean they have to be restricted or listening to or reading them makes you a bad Christian.  But you need to chew them up.  You have to seek and find if their is any spirituality present.  Look for what's missing, or what you didn't know could be found.  God can, and does often, permeate the secular.  As my pastor in Bloomington said, God can use even the most broken instruments for His glory.

You also have to determine what to take in moderation.  You have to determine your dietary restrictions.  Consider that there are some things that are toxic, and need to be cut out.  If you don't chew, anything has the potential to leave you with no nutritive value or do you harm.

Here is the big idea: when you don't chew you lose important nutrients that sustain you, keep you healthy and even make you stronger.

So chew.  Ask the questions.  As Christians we have to use our head and our hearts, and most of all, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to make decisions and to build our lives in Christ.

~SP    

My Husband is not my Soul Mate...but He is Who God has Planned for Him to Be

Recently, there has been an article that has been catching a lot of attention on the internet.  It is entitled "My Husband is Not My Soul Mate."  It is a good article!  I would highly recommend reading it - especially if you plan to continue reading this post...otherwise it may not make much sense.

I agree with a lot of the points in the article:

- God's plan for our lives is not for us to be married.  That is not the be all, end all.  His plan for our lives is to grow in a relationship with Him.  Marriage may very well be part of that plan!  Which is exciting!  But our purpose in life is not to be a wife or husband, but a faithful child of God.

- I don't really care for the term soul mate either.  For me, it is just a trendy term used to replace the term husband or wife.

- Marriage and love does involve choices.  We have to choose to be present in and work hard for our relationships.  In a marriage,  you have to choose to grow toward Christ with one another.  All relationships involve choices.  You choose to be a friend to your friends.  You choose to obey your parents.  You choose to live a life pleasing and glorifying to God.

However, I know God to be an extremely intentional God.  The article rejects the idea that God has a person meant for you.  A person planned for you.  Rather, there may be several people throughout life that we can choose to make "our person."  Yet this is the God who knits us together in our mother's womb.  This is the God who knew our names before we were born.  The plan for our lives was in order long before we took our first breath.

If we desire to be married, I believe that God hears that desire and will weave it into His plan for our life.  Marriage is a reflection of the relationship that God wants with us, and I believe that if we desire it, He also wants us to have that experience and to seek Him through it.

I do believe that God knows that person who we will each marry.  That is a part of the plan that He has worked out.  He knows when our lives will come into contact, based on His own timing.

Just as we choose to say yes to a proposal, and to say I Do on our wedding day, God also asks us to choose a life with Him.  And the purposeful and intentional God that you have the choice to say yes to is planning a course for that man or woman that you will share the rest of your life with, just as he is planning a course for you.  Of course, our earthly relationships are far from perfect.  The goal is that they are a reflection of our relationship with our creator, but we are humans and we often fall short.

We will have to choose daily to love our spouses.  It is not that there is no choice at all in who you will marry.  You can say yes, and you can say no.  However, the God who knows your heart, the God who knows the heart of all His children, is looking out for you.  He wants to lead you to Joy.  He will purposefully bring friendships and other relationships into your life.

The first year I worked at camp, all of the girl counselors took an evening to go and do devotions in the girls dorms with our girl campers and their leaders.  One of the adult leaders imparted some wisdom that I will never forget.  She told us all to pray for the man that we are going to marry, because God is still working on him just like He is working in all of our hearts.  He is preparing to write our stories together, just like He writes us into His own story.

 So here is my bottom line: I believe that God know's the person you will spend the rest of your life with.  He or she was created and shaped by the same God that shaped you.  You may not know their name, what they look like, what they like to eat or what their favorite TV show is, but God does.  He will bring your lives together in His perfect timing.

~SP

Hymn: Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise

Immortal, Invisible, God only wise

In light inaccessible, hid from our eyes

Here is another one of my favorite hymns.  From the first verse it proclaims our God, the one who is endless and timeless.  The one that we may not see in the physical, embodied sense, but rather with our hearts.  The only God.

Light inaccessible.  That is a beautiful image.  It is a radiant light of mystery and a gracious light of guidance.  The idea of God's light being inaccessible might evoke in us a feeling of insecurity or a feeling of despair.  If we can't touch it, or understand it, how can we feel safe?  How can we take refuge if it is intangible?

All of these ideas that the hymn evokes in the first two lines are things that we cannot see or touch.  Immortal: we cannot know the depths of immortality.  Invisible: it is something that our human eyes cannot see.  Inaccessible: it is not within our physical reach, we cannot touch it.

Sometimes I get frustrated with the things that I can't do on my own.  Things that I can't remedy immediately.  Things that my own strength is not capable of.  I find myself praying first for God to give me strength, when my heart still wants to lean on my own capabilities.  Then I try to truly let go, and give up to God what I know I cannot handle on my own.  But I remain scared, because I can see the light, and I know the light goes before me into the unknown, it heads into the mystery.

Part of my recent journey has been learning to take refuge in God's inaccessible light.  It is possible to take refuge and feel safe in His mystery. Psalm 42:7 says "Deep cries out to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me."  When I first read these words, the idea of being covered in water created an image of sinking and drowning.  Terrifying.  But it is not that we are submerged in the great, endless depths; we are covered.  We are safely covered in waters of grace.  We are wrapped in inaccessible light.  

So we do not have to know everything.  We can't know everything.  We have a God that longs to protect us and wrap us in His safe mystery.  He says it is alright not to know it all, because He knows it all, and He will protect us.  

The hymn continues like this:

Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days

Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise    

We can trust in what we don't know, because we do know that our God is great, almighty and victorious.  That is faith.

~SP

Community: "How I Long for you with the Compassion of Christ"

Philipians 1:8.  I love these words in Paul's letter to the Phillipians.  When I read them, I can tell that they were simply bursting forth from Paul's heart towards the people that he loves.

I think a lot about what community means.  As Christians, we are called into community with one another to serve God.  I have been blessed over the past few years to build community with friends from school, church and Green Lake, and to continue in community with friends from home.  I have watched my parents build community throughout their lives and throughout my own life.

In these days I am checking off bucket list items here in Bloomington, because I know I will be headed elsewhere.  I have been blessed to spend time here with friends that I have been growing with since my first days in Bloomington.  I have also been blessed this year to spend time with friends from Green Lake and Quest, and to continue to be a part of each others lives.

It can be a strenuous season when you have to be away from the people you love and you have to learn to rebuild somewhere else.  Paul is writing a letter to the Philipians.  He has previously met them on his travels to Philipi, but he discloses in this letter that he is currently imprisoned - and therefore, can't be with them.

Paul doesn't simply say to the people of Philipi, I miss you.  He says he longs for them.  And at that, he longs for them with the compassion of Christ.  That is a beautiful, breathtaking image.  The image of Christ's compassion is His hands and feet nailed to the cross for our transgressions.  His compassion for us was so strong that He took on our sin.  The compassion of Christ is no small thing.  It is not a lukewarm feeling.  It is a deep, bountiful, incredible expression.

Paul's longing for his community helps bridge the distance.  When we care for each other with that Christ-like compassion, we are never too far away.  It reminds me of the opening lines of an E.E. Cummings poem, I Carry Your Heart:

I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart).

I am never without it.  (Anywhere I go, you go my dear...)

We carry the most important part of each friendship to the next place in life.  One of my most recent prayers to God is to ask Him to bless my friendships and all of my relationships.  I ask Him that they would grow according to His will.  When you leave a place, the hardest thing to leave is the people in that place.

The most amazing thing is, that when you remember one another with that Christ-like compassion, when you carry the hearts of those you love with you, when you are back in one another's physical presence it feels like not a day has gone by.   That is how God works in our communities and our friendships. 

Just the same, when we have times that we feel far from God, our Father, and then we are brought home to His presence, His love for us has not changed.  His heart longs for us the same way as it did before.  He, above all else, knows that Christ-like compassion.

~SP

Whether it is the beloved friends from Kindergarten through high school...

...beloved roommates...

...beloved family...

...beloved friends...

...more beloved friends...

...or even more beloved friends.

The time we spend in each other's presence may be limited, but the time we spend in each other's hearts is not.

Worship: Bearing the Image

On occasion, I like to listen to recorded sermons from Mars Hill.  Mark Driscoll has some interesting points, and whether I agree with everything in his sermon, or not, I always walk away with something new to think about.  Right now, Mars Hill is in the midst of a sermon series on the Ten Commandments: Set Free to Live Free.  He has 10 sermons, each focusing on a commandment, and is currently on the 8th commandment.  I have only watched the first two.  The second one was particularly interesting - thou shall have no other idols before God.

Mark talks about idol worship and the distinction between idol worship and our worship of God.  He says that when we worship idols we seek to bargain - we give them something so that they will do something for us.  There is a price.  When we worship God, we worship God to bring glory to Him.  He gives to us richly because He loves us.  There is nothing that we could give Him that would increase the blessing.  He gives, because of who He is.

So Mr. Driscoll says this about worship: it is "image bearing."  We worship God by striving to be in His likeness.  We do not worship by bargaining with God - an hour of worship is not equal to a set quantity of blessings.

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I haven't had this experience yet, because I don't have children, but have you ever seen a parent's face when they are told that their child looks just like them?  They are filled with a joy and excitement like no other.  Even more so, when they are told that their child does something just like they would do it.  They know that all the time in nourishing their growth, praying diligently about their upbringing, has been recognized. Their heart is full.

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I can relate this story: first a little background info.  When I was 10, the Build-A-Bear craze was at its peak.  So for my birthday, I went to the shop and built my yellow lab, Laura.  I still have her today.  

Although it may be highly materialized and commercialized, I believe that there are some good intentions with Build-A-Bear.  When you are stuffing your animal with the best fluff money can buy, you can put a small heart inside of them.  You can kiss the heart and make a wish for it before you put it inside your animal and stitch them up.  As a 10 year old, you walk away knowing that your special Bear was made by you with love, kind of in the same way that you were created out of love.

However, Build-A-Bear is not the point to my story.  Fast forward a few years, and I'm over the craze.  But my little cousin, Haley, who was about 4, was just old enough to appreciate the chance to Build a Bear.  So my mom and I took her to the Build-A-Bear at a nearby mall.  You have to know that when Haley was younger, she spoke very softly and never said more than a few words at a time.  Now, she is the most conversational eleven year old you will ever meet.  So we finished her animal - she also decided to make a puppy like me.  

Then it was time to name the bear.  My mom, "Aunt Dawn," leaned down beside Haley to hear the name she chose.  Haley repeated the name several times, very softly and we just couldn't get it.  Tears started to swell in her eyes, and I knew I had to listen really closely...."Laura?"  That was it.  She chose the same name for her puppy as I had for mine.  As her big cousin I was honored that she thought I was that awesome, she wanted to be just like me.

Haley and I

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We are called to worship because we are called to bring glory to God.  God's heart rejoices when He sees His children striving to live in the likeness of His son, Jesus Christ.  Therefore, worship is not limited to a sanctuary for an hour on a Sunday morning.  You are worshiping or in worship whenever you strive to live in His image, whenever you strive to be like Him.  You are not limited by a praise band or pews.  You can bear the image, and worship wherever you are.

~SP  

I Will Wait For You

One of my favorite love songs as of late is Mumford and Son's I Will Wait.  By public standards, it may not be a love song, and it never mentions the word love, but I think letting someone know that you will be waiting for them is one of the greatest expressions of love.

A few weeks ago, at my church group we discussed what it means to "bring someone into tomorrow."  The discussion was derived from a book by Henry Nouwen called The Wounded Healer.  The chapter we discussed depicted a discussion between a man going into surgery and a chaplain.  The man going in to surgery had no one waiting for him at the other end of his surgery.  He had no one to go home to.  He had no one on the other side of his trials or his pain.

That is what we need - someone to wait for us.  Someone on the other side of the canyon that we are standing at, that holds to the promise of simply being there.  Think about how much of a difference it makes, after a long, trying day, when you come home to an empty home vs. a home full of people you know and love.  The latter option is the one I find more desirable.  It is the comfort of being received that melts away some of the trials.

We have this promise in Jesus: He will wait for us.  He is the one standing on the other side of the trials of this life.  He is waiting to receive you in Heaven.  I am reminded of this when I take communion.  At the last supper, Jesus sits with His disciples, passes around the bread and the cup.  As he passes around the cup that symbolizes His blood to be shed for us, He tells His disciples:

"I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." Matthew 26:29

Jesus makes His journey to the cross.  Those that came to crucify Him offer Him wine.  He turns it down.  It may have seemed like such a small promise - just to avoid a sip of wine - but it is a great gesture of love.  His promise holds true: He will wait for you.

Jesus waits for us on the other side of this life.  In this life He has given us people that wait for us on the other side of our earthly struggles.  That is His love poured out through others.  Who waits for you?  Who do you wait for?  That is simply love.  Just being there in someone's tomorrow, that is love.  That is a way that we can allow Christ to work through us.

~SP

From This Valley

As of late I have had the Civil Wars blowin' up my Spotify - which is just a fancy, college-age way of saying, I have been listening to the Civil Wars frequently.  Off of their new, self-titled album, there is one song in particular that has caught my attention: From This Valley.

It is upbeat, and has some beautiful lyricism.  The chorus goes like this:

Oh won't you take me from this valley,

to that mountain high above.

I will pray, pray, pray till I see your smiling face.

I will pray, pray, pray to the one I love.

It's a prayer.  One that I've prayed before with different words.  Probably one that you, or someone you know has prayed before.  God, lift me out of this valley, these hard times that I am facing, these struggles.  Bring me to your high ground.  Lift me up.  I want to be in your presence.

The second verse continues like this:

Oh the outcast dreams of acceptance, just to find pure love's embrace.

Like the orphan longs for its mother, may you hold me in your grace.

Have you ever felt so lost in your trials and struggles that you can't find a place that feels like home?  Have you ever felt so lost that you feel orphaned - you have no one to claim you?  I think sometimes our pain and our suffering does that to us.  Pushes us away.  Makes us believe we don't belong.  There is another prayer I have whispered: God bring me back home to you, make me your child again.  

If you are in the valley, and you don't want to be there, God can lift you.  He wants to hear you call out to Him.  He hears your prayers in the valley.  He wants you to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer." (Romans 12:12).  So lift it up to Him whether spoken, or sung, or just uttered by your heart.  Call out to your God.

~SP 

A Heritage of Faith

Stand with Abraham for a moment.  He is outside looking up at the sky.  He probably went out there to take a break from his day, to find a quiet place where he could talk to God.  Abraham has been wanting a son for some time now.  Do you know that feeling, to want something so desperately?  It is all you think about?  It sits like a lead weight in your stomach.

Abraham is old and so is his wife, Sarah, so he is reasoning that his chances of fathering a child are little to none.  But on this night that Abraham is standing outside, in the stillness of the universe, God reaches down to Abraham.  Maybe God wasn't physically with Abraham, but I have this image when I close my eyes of a comforting arm around Abraham's shoulders and the other arm stretched out to the sky.  God makes a grand gesture to the night sky and tells Abraham, look at those stars, I will bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.

Did you know, that on that night, so long ago, you and I were each one of those stars that God pointed out in the sky?

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What God plans to do through Abraham is fulfill a beautiful, faithful promise.  In Abraham's day, people were so concerned with inheritance.  What did they stand to gain from those who came before them.  God's plan was to start through Abraham a heritage of faith.  What he would hand down to his children, and his children's children was the love for and faith in a beautiful and bountiful God.

God adopted Abraham, made him His own.  God blessed Abraham.  He promised to do that for generations to come.

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So what does this heritage mean for us today?  We are those stars that God pointed to.  We are the one's that He is faithful to, and continues to pour out blessings on.  Our inheritance binds our hearts to God and to the hearts of His people.  Our brothers and sisters.

What does this heritage of faith do?  For one week out of the summer it brings together a youth group from the smallest of towns in the middle of Illinois with a youth group from the biggest and busiest of cities.  It brings together youth who have grown up in different states and different nations.  Their social cultures are different.  Their style, their language and slang vary.  But they love each other.  For this week all the things that the world tells them should be barriers between them are torn down.  They realize that they are children of the same God.  They are part of the same inheritance that was handed down through Abraham.  It is this heritage of faith that binds their hearts.

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Psalm 147:4 He determined the number of stars.  He gives all of them their names.

God gave you your name that night, so long ago as He spoke to Abraham.  He had you planned long before you were born.  

Psalm 8:3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place.

You are the work of God's fingers.  He crafted you, and made a promise to you.  To bless you.  When He set you in place, He set you a place in His inheritance for you.  He wrote you into His story.

You are blessed by the God that knew you long before your first breath.

~SP

       

God's Truth: The Blessing of Sharing His Words

The last few years of my life have been a huge time of transformation in my relationship with Christ.  He has truly worked in my heart through my Church in Bloomington, through relationships here, through my summers in Green Lake and relationships there.  He has blessed me with the love and support of my parents and brother.  He has been showing me a lot about what a life lived for Him really is.  He has put strength and courage in my heart.

I have always loved to write.  I loved to write stories, and about my life experiences.  I think I had a thousand journals when I was younger - not because I filled them all - but I'd write a few things, then decided I needed a new journal to write in.  Sometimes a spiral notebook would suffice, and sometimes I needed a fancier medium for my writing.  Then Microsoft Word was introduced into my life. But the stories stayed in those journals and word documents.  In this past year God has urged me to share my stories.  It doesn't matter the number of pageviews, but it is out there.  And now my story is His story.  He is the "Author and Perfector."

I have just gotten around to uploading some videos from this summer of the message I was blessed to be able to share at Quest.  I want to share it here on my blog.

Early in life I was always hesitant to share my testimony (the word made me cringe) because I thought it would be boring.  My testimony is the one that starts, "Well, I grew up in a Christian home..."  But a testimony is dynamic.  The story is changing.  My testimony isn't about me, it's about the One who created me, so it is worth sharing.  If you have similar hesitations, know that your story has value because God is a part of it.  I hope and pray that God will use my words for His glory and His truth.

~SP

Great is Thy Faithfulness

I have said earlier that I am a fan of hymns.  I wanted to start off my hymn reflections with one of my favorites: Great is Thy Faithfulness.

I keep an old hymnal from my church right next to my bed, underneath my Bible and journal.  As I was flipping through it the other day, I stopped for a moment on Great is Thy Faithfulness.

Great is Thy faithfulness!  Great is Thy faithfulness!  Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided.  Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.  

God's faithfulness.  I often think about my relationship with God in terms of my faith.  I am called to be faithful to Him and have faith in Him.  In times of frustration or confusion, have you ever wondered why God asks you to have faith in Him?  My mother made this statement to me earlier this year: "I want to be found faithful, because God is faithful."  These were such simple words, but they illuminated a truth that I had not thought much about before.

God is faithful to His people.

Lately, I have been able to resonate with Abraham and his story.  An old man with a barren wife.  It may not seem like we could have anything in common.  God asks Abraham to leave his home and go to a new land with his family.  "Now the Lord said to Abram, 'Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.'" Genesis 12:1  God's call to Abraham is a get up and go kind of call.

In May, I will get up and leave Bloomington.  I don't know where I will be going yet.  That will be determined by April.  It is very exciting, and also scary.  I might be called to somewhere where I will have to completely rebuild a life and a community.  Somewhere completely new.  But God is calling me to get up, and leave the places where I am comfortable. 

Back to Abraham's story: around the time that he is called to leave his home, Abraham is waiting desperately for a son.  He just wants a single offspring.  This is what God tells him: "Look up to the sky and count the stars -- if indeed you can count them...so shall your offspring be." Genesis 15:5.  God makes an incredible promise to be faithful to Abraham.  Despite Abraham's age.  Despite his wife Sarah's age.  God will be faithful to Abraham and bless him in abundance.

God does bless Abraham with a son, Isaac.  And Isaac is just the beginning of God's faithful promise to Abraham.  God has a plan to prosper Abraham in His own time, and we see this plan unfold throughout God's story in the Bible.

God may be asking me to take a plunge into the unknown.  But He is faithful.  Just like with Abraham, His plan for me is for prosperity (Jeremiah 29:11).

Abraham's life and my life are separated by thousands of years.  Yet I am written into the same story that Abraham is a part of - God's story.  God promised to hand down a heritage of faith through Abraham.  You and I are each one of the stars in the sky that God pointed out when He told Abraham of His faithful plan.           

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I think the operative word in this hymn is not great or faithfulness, but rather is.  Great is Thy faithfulness.  It is a present and enduring thing.  God wasn't faithful for a time.  He was not faithful in a few things.  He is always, and continues to be, faithful. 

The hymn also reinforces this thought:

Thou [God] changest not, Thy compassions they fail not, as Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.

God's faithfulness never changes.  It will endure forever.  When you are struggling with faith, or being faithful, remember that your God is still faithful to you.       

~SP

Rug Doctor Grace

This summer at camp each of our Thursdays focused on David and Bathsheba.  Prior to this day, the stories about David's life had been about his growth, his triumph over struggles, and the way he devoted his life to God.  Then David, like all of us, makes a harmful decision.  The moments that unfold are not so glorious as when he slayed Goliath.  It is hard to recognize the beloved Psalmist.

David sins.  Commits a transgression against the God he loves.  He decides to sleep with another man's wife and a scroll of misfortune continues to unravel from there.  Bathsheba becomes pregnant.  David makes a few failed attempts to make it look like Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, is the father.  When that doesn't work, David sends Uriah to the front lines of battle where he loses his life.

David's sin snowballs.  He becomes buried in it.

And then there is grace.  Never ceasing.  Grace that covers all transgression.  Jesus death redeems David's sin.  Jesus death redeems our sins.  It is a promise.

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Sometimes I feel like I live with God's grace as a rented Rug Doctor from our local Sears.  It's like bringing out the big guns.  I let a lot of stuff accumulate.  I spilled grape juice on the rug.  A few days later I added an orange juice stain.  Dirt from my boots.  But it's all ok, because I can bring in the Rug Doctor.  It will eliminate every stain.

But God's love for us calls us to something better then just the Rug Doctor grace in times of need.  Paul articulates it beautifully: 

"What then are we to say?  Should we continue to sin in order that grace may abound? By no means!  How can we who died to sin go on living in it?"  Romans 6:1-2.

God's grace will cover us, but His love calls us to live a life glorifying and pleasing to Him.  He calls us to fight uphill battles and resist temptation.  He calls us to die and rise again with Him.  He knows in the flesh we will fall short, but He calls us to begin living and walking in the Spirit.

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There's another thing about sin: it creates distance.  Because we have God's grace, could we go on living in sin?

God knows.  He sees the stumbling blocks and the pitfalls.  I also know this to be true: in Psalm 40, David talks about God "reaching into the miry pit."  I would have to imagine that the miry pit is someplace that is very deep, and very far off.  God will reach for you.  But He wants something better for us than to live life in the miry pit.

God doesn't want the distance between your heart and His.  He desires closeness with you.  Sin prevents that closeness.  It buries your heart; hardens it.  If you call out to God in the valley He will reach down for you.  He never tires.  Never grows weary.  Yet, He wants you to know that if you choose it, He will walk with you on solid, stable ground, and lead you up to the mount of His love.  You do not have to live life chronically in the valley.

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We are called to say no to a life of sin, because it is no life at all.  It is death.  God wants life for us.  He wants us to live for the home we were made for.  A final thought on Paul's words: If we do fall short, and sin, God's grace will abound; if we strive to live a life free of sin, God's grace will still abound.  God's grace is not dependent on us, but rather we are dependent on it.    

~SP

      

Bringing Life to a Relationship

James 2:14-26. Often, I have heard verse 17 extracted from this passage: So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

I have been mulling over James' idea for a while.  If I were to give you my gold star, Sunday school response, I would say: simple, James is encouraging us to live out our faith.  Talk the talk, and walk the walk.

I know this to be true: that God loves me, sent His son to atone for my sins, and wants to call me His child because of who He is.  It has nothing to do with getting good grades, attending Sunday School every week, or of any of the times I went Trick-or-Treating for UNICEF.

However, James is giving some stellar relationship advice.  I wonder if he knew?

I try to be good about telling my family and friends that I love them.  I think there are people in my life that also simply know that I love them, even if I can't tell them every day.  I know that my parents love me, even if we go a few days without communicating.  And we could go on like that, in all of our relationships, just telling each other we love each other.  Just loving each other.

But there you have it: I didn't get through that last paragraph without using love as a verb in every context.  It is an action.  A few weeks ago at my church, Pastor Stacee talked about Agape, Godly love, the kind of love that gives.  Giving is active.  God's love is active.

Love is active.  Faith is active.  Belief is active.  When Jesus asks us to believe that He is the way the truth and the life, He is asking us not just to profess it from our mouths but from our hearts.  Belief does not sit silently or passively, belief gets up and goes.

So what brings life to our earthly relationships?  Is it the thread of text message conversations?  The collection of snapchats?  I don't think so.  It is the times when they show up at your recitals or sporting events.  It is the times where they help you run an errand.  It is the times when they lend an ear to listen.  You could just simply say that you are friends - but by giving, by being actively invested in the relationship, the relationship comes alive!      

When I read the faith without works passage, that is what speaks to me:  Jesus loves me because of who He is and what He has done.  There is nothing I can do to earn that.  At the same time, Jesus' love for me puts me on my feet.  It fills my heart and it makes me want to move.  I want to be the active hands and feet of Jesus because it brings my relationship with Him to life.  It helps me grow toward Him.

James is not encouraging us to incorporate works into our faith because he thinks that God has a tally sheet.  I think he is giving this advice out of love for his readers because he knows something to be true: God can bless us and others through our works of faith.  There is no instrument that God finds unusable.

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Sometimes it is so overwhelming to know that God wants good things for us.  It can be hard to let that thought sink in because live in a world that is not mindful of us.  God encourages us to get up and go - through Paul He speaks to us: "Live a life worthy of the calling you have received" Ephesians 4:1.  This is all out of His love for us.  All Agape.  All from a love that gives, never fails, never ends.  

~SP

Heaven: It's All About Jesus

When I was younger, and I was asked to imagine what Heaven would be like or look like, I began to think of places on earth that I loved to be.  An easy front-runner was Green Lake.  It was easy to start planning my eternal life in the beautiful outdoors, walking through Dawson Prairie or strolling down Memory Lane.

The truth is, Heaven will be unlike any earthly place.

However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him."

1 Corinthians 2:9

There is one truth that I know, that I hold surely in my heart - Heaven is all about Jesus the son, God the father and His Holy Spirit - the beautiful, triune God.

Here is what Jesus told us:

"I am the way, and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."

John 14:16

So who goes to heaven?  I am now walking into very hot water, I know.  But bear with me.

Here's the hot debate in our world today: we have Christians telling non-Christians that they aren't going to heaven.  Christians are telling other Christians that they aren't going to heaven.  There are even some Christians that might tell you that there are other ways to enter heaven besides Jesus.  There is a lot of finger pointing.  A lot of judgement.  A lot of condemnation.  Again, bear with me.

Jesus also tells us this:  that He is going to prepare a place for us.  He talks about His father's house.  JESUS is preparing a room for YOU, because Heaven is all about being with HIM.  

Just as we have misconceptions about the visual appearance of heaven, we may also sometimes have other misconceptions about what eternal life there will be like.  We think about Heaven as a place where we will never hunger, where we will find rest, where we will find peace - I believe all those things will be there because Jesus is there.  He makes those things possible in Heaven.  Heaven is about being in a relationship with Jesus the son, God the father and His Holy Spirit.
   

Heaven is God's house; it is His place that He sent Jesus to bring us to.  Jesus has extended the invitation.  Jesus offers to cover our sin.  Jesus offers salvation.  There is no one else that has made the offer to prepare a place for you in Heaven.  And Jesus is the only one that can.

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Jesus' statement in John 14:16 is not the means to an exclusive offer.  Heaven is an inclusive community.  Jesus talks about there being many rooms, He never mentions a specific number.  Just as He commissioned His followers to make disciples of all nations, He wants His community in Heaven to grow.  He is saying that this is what Heaven is about: living in community with Him.  He is saying choose Heaven, choose a life everlasting with Him.

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So here it is: 

Jesus is the way, and the truth and the life.  He is the only way by which we can spend life eternal in Heaven because Heaven is about Him.  I want to choose a relationship with Jesus Christ here during my time on earth because that is what my soul longs for in Heaven. 

~SP   

      

Hymn: How Great Thou Art

Oh, Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, 

consider all the worlds Thy hands have made.

I thought it would be appropriate to reflect on How Great Thou Art since it is the namesake of the blog.  My God, how great Thou art!

The first line of this hymn takes about awesome wonder.  Awesome is an extremely overused and abused word.  We rarely consider that, because every time we see something that we think is nifty or cool, we deem it awesome.  

Have you ever watched ABC's the Bachelor or the *Bachelorette?  They throw the word awesome around almost to the point that it is meaningless.  This date was AWESOME.  That guy was AWESOME.  Making out with what's-his-face was AWESOME.

I will admit to my own personal abuse and misuse of the word awesome.

The dictionary gives us this definition of awe:

"An overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc."

Awesome would suggest something that inspires those feelings.  I doubt when the bachelorette is on a date, she is overcome with reverence, admiration or fear for the lad that she is with.

When the writer of this hymn talks about awesome wonder, they are talking about a feeling that completely covers you, almost paralyzes you, it is so strong.  It is a feeling that makes us drop to our knees.  It is a feeling that leaves us without the words to describe the situation.  

    

God is all powerful.  He is graciously majestic, beautiful and strong.  In His presence we should be in awesome wonder of who He is.  

~SP

*To be perfectly honest, I watch the Bachelorette.  So no condemnation intended to anyone who enjoys a good rose ceremony : ).  

Quest: How Church Camp Builds a Foundation

I am extremely fond of Quest - the church camp I grew up attending and the place where I was blessed to be able to work and serve God for the past two summers.  The church I was raised in did not have a youth group during my middle school and high school years - being in community with other young Christians at Quest was a huge part of my spiritual growth during those years.

Let me take a brief pause, and give this disclaimer: this is not a "my church camp is better than yours" reflection.  This is something that I hope anyone who has ever attended a church camp anywhere can relate to.

Camps like Quest and other camp-like experiences often get referred to as "Mountain Top" experiences.  They are places where kids are on a spiritual high, set apart from the rest of the world for a week or so.  Campers are submerged into this inclusive, loving, non-judgmental, God-centered environment.  (As I write this, I acknowledge that this is the ideal, and not every church camp experience fits this description.)  And then everyone piles into the 15 passenger rental vans and begins the descent from the mountain top - back into peer pressure and other worldly pressures.

I can remember back to my first year at Quest.  Sunday, the day after I returned home, I can remember bawling my eyes out.  I'm not entirely sure that I knew why I was so overwhelmed (lack of sleep was probably a key player) but I was.  I longed for those friends I had made that week and the time spent in that God-centered community.  As I left co-workers these past two summers, I experienced a similar heartbreak.

In those moments, it may have seemed like I was re-acclimating.  Transitioning from valley to mountain and back again.  But it is unfair to look back and see those summers simply in terms of spiritual highs and lows.  It is true that going back into my non-camp life was harder each time, but I look back and I can see a foundation being built.

Being on the other end of camp, as a counselor, I have realized that we have the ability to take those short weeks and start building a foundation with them.  It takes some time, and it takes strong mortar to fill the spaces between the bricks.  And sometimes there are setbacks and cracks that arise.  But God has used Quest to help build a foundation for me that I can continue to build on as I move forward.

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So here is what I want to say - to my campers, to your youth leaders, to anyone else who is a part of your community:

Know that myself, and the other counselors and the people you met at camp, continue to pray for you and think of you long after you return to your homes.  Our relationships with you did not end when you left Green Lake, just as your relationship with Jesus Christ did not end.  

Know that being back at home will not always be easy - there will be days when you wish that you were throwing your counselors in a mud pit or covering them with shaving cream, or eating pretzels and cheese at 9:30 at night.  But you have a foundation.  You have your Church home, you have your friends there.  And most importantly, you have Jesus to lean on.  He goes with you always.  

You have seen how God builds community and that is a great foundation to stand on.  He will do that for you in all places in your life, not just at camp.

Fun fact: several of your Quest counselors were Quest alums.  We were strange, goofy and maybe a little awkward.  And to some extent, we still are.  Yet God has been at work in our lives since the time that we were campers, and He is still at work in our lives now.  He is at work in your lives too!

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So, while you are biding the other 51 weeks of the year until you return to Green Lake or wherever your camp is, stand on the foundation that has been built.  Know that God can work in your life in any place - He is not limited to church camp.  He also knows the joy you experience at camp, and His heart is glad for your desire to return to that community.

With Love,

Sarah       

These are pictures from the summer after my junior year in high school, which was my last year as a camper.  Above is my small group meeting in the infamous Dominguez room.  Below is my small group on the log - probably trying to figure out everyone's birthdays so we can put ourselves in the proper order :)

And then below, here's me keeping life, always a little less than interesting, and always completely strange as Value Mart Lady.