Your First Two Years In Youth Ministry

I've been reading this book by Doug Fields (see title of blog post), and it is full of some really incredible truths. This is something I came across this evening, and it spoke to me so deeply I had to share:

(When discouragement overwhelms you)

Welcome Christ's suffering

If I'm praying to be like Jesus...if I believe the greatest aim of youth ministry is to reflect Christ...if I truly believe youth ministry is "incarnational," then I must participate with Christ in His suffering. I can't expect to be like Jesus and only experience His joy, peace, wisdom, and power. He'll also let me feel discouragement, frustration, sorrow, and heartache-- just like He does.

Wow. If I really believe that-- if I really do want to imitate Christ, as scripture encourages and compels me to do... I should embrace every feeling He experienced, just as He embraces every feeling I experience.

Summer 2012 Bucket List

 Inspired to create a Bucket List for this summer, I spent the last hour working on it:

~say yes to something new

~read/nap in a hammock

~participate in a scavenger hunt

~bake a treat for someone

~go white water rafting

~fireworks on July 4th

~step out of my comfort zone

~go to the drive-in

~see the Reds play

~ride a ferris wheel

~hike the Pinnacles at night

~buy something at a farmer's market

~ignore an inhibition

~complete a 1000 piece puzzle

~Red River Gorge

~get a pedicure

~outdoor movie at night on a hill using a projector

~completely clean car inside and out

~go to a summer festival

~get a massage

~eat dinner outside

~go horseback riding

~random act of kindness every week

~bonfire with hot dogs and s'mores

~run 3 miles without stopping

~sunrise yoga

~buy someone my favorite book

~cookout

~eat a snow cone

~create a summer playlist

~current weight: 165 goal weight: 142

~play a game in the rain

~volunteer somewhere outside of church

~go out for breakfast

~tell a stranger she's beautiful

~paint something on canvas

~whiten teeth

~Louisville zoo

~Ft. Boonesboro

~give something away

~finish reading 5 books

~eat a whole watermelon

~learn to French braid

~play sand volleyball

~listen without giving advice

~make lemonade from scratch

~water balloon fight

~find out where I'm going on missions next year

~sleep in tent in backyard

~tire swing

~Cumberland Falls

~go camping

~ballroom dancing

~inspire someone

~be inspired

~laugh. a lot.

I hope you enjoy. I know I will!

................................God...............................

Immanuel

Jehovah Jireh

One question has really been bouncing around in my head and my heart lately. A question I've only recently begun to truly analyze and apply.

How would our lives change if we truly believed God was walking with us, and that His thoughts, His opinions, were the only things that mattered?

Recently, I was speaking with my pastor's wife about some emotional endurance issues I'd been having, and she encouraged me with the story of Moses. Here was a man who led thousands and thousands of grumbly, complain-y, rude people around a wilderness for forty years. Every other day they were either mad at him or mad at his wife, and on opposite days they were trying to mutiny against the Lord. They break for camp one day, Moses schlepps up a mountain to sit in God's presence for a while, and all (forgive my lack of a better word) hell breaks loose in base camp. The ultimate mutiny- they throw God out the window, make golden statues of animals, and begin to worship them because God doesn't answer their prayers the way they want Him to.

This is what I imagine Moses looked like.

You can tell he's angry because of the beard and the pointing.

Moses comes back down the mountain to see all this, throws some pretty rare stones on the ground, turns around, and treks back up the hill to God. "Lord," he says, "These people suck. They complain, they argue, nothing I say or do is ever right. But I will continue to lead them, to listen to them, to offer than encouragement and advice, whatever You want or ask...just let me be with You right now. Just let me sit in Your presence and be encouraged, because their opinions and words don't matter. Only Yours."

Moses found his self-esteem, his encouragement, his fulfillment in the Lord. He didn't allow the people around him to fill his head or his heart with discouragement, negativity, or a false sense of self based on their emotional opinions.

It got me thinking: if I truly pressed into the Lord rather than people, if I really allowed my emotional sustenance to come from Him rather than seeking it from other people, how would my life change? How much more courage would I face my days with? What obstacles or fears could I overcome if I only focused on God's opinion? What steps of absolute faith could I blindly take, knowing He was with me?

No, we are not meant to be islands, we are created as relational people. But those relationships don't necessarily have to impact or affect you, especially negatively. Someone recently shared with me a revelation that when we take on people's negative opinions or statements, we are giving them the authority that only God should possess to speak into our lives. He is the only Truth. We as people are fallible, emotional, broken people, and the adage Hurt people hurt people absolutely applies.

How would our lives change, how would our spirits, our attitudes change, if we really believed that God's opinion of us was the only one that mattered? If we really believed He was real, that He walked with us...  Of all of God's different names, two have been really impressed on me in the recent past: Immanuel, which means God With Us, and Jehovah Jireh, which means God Has Provided. I think that really wraps up His character beautifully: He walks with us, talks with us, lives in us... and He has already provided, even for the things we have yet to ask Him for. He is a Provider, and His provisions sustain us and spur us on along our journeys.

 It helps if you hold hands.

I think life would be easier to handle if we took back the position of influence people have in our lives, and gave it back to the Lord, the only true owner of that place. When we actively seek Him, when we sit back and listen, when we allow Him to be the voice of Reason and Truth and Life... wow. What healing we might experience, and what incredible things we could accomplish. Amen.

Resolution June: Financial Awareness

In The Area Of Om Nom Nom

 

 I know, I know...it's not June. Yet. But finances have been on my mind quite a bit this month. More so than usual, and that's a lot! I've been noticing just how very much I eat from fast food restaurants. It's enough to be ashamed of for two lifetimes.  Not only am I ashamed of my serious lack of daily nutritional value, but think of how much money I spend buying meals from a drive thru! Wow. It's a really overwhelming thought.

So my resolution for the ENTIRE month of June will be to avoid eating from any fast food restaurant. I will make an exception for sit-down meals, but only in the company of at least one other person (and it can't have been my invitation or idea). If I go to a fast food place with a group of friends, I'll eat beforehand. Period. It's a month, I can do it.

I think the hardest things for me are going to be the 2 weeks I'm dog- and house-sitting for friends, and any stinking time I go to a coffee shop. I will, however, make one exception to the rule on behalf of my serious addiction to coffee (and how very social drinking a cup of coffee is): I can purchase one cup of black coffee, or one cup of hot tea, both being around $1 ish. That's not too bad. And I'll be saving a bundle because I'm not drinking my regular $3.76 latte.

Now here is the kicker: ANY amount of money I even think about spending at any fast food place, any craving I can't stop drooling over, will immediately be dedicated to bill-paying. I can't imagine how much money I'll not only be saving, but be using to (hopefully) pay a bill or two completely off.  I'll keep a record for my own benefit (and to prove to myself how much of a glutton I am, both in the realm of food and finances).  At the end of the month I'll be able to look back and see how much money I spend monthly on excess, and I'll be able to make an informed, pre-persuaded decision to cut out excess luxury in my life, in order to be more financially fit. A tool, I hope, to carry on for the rest of my life, in the hopes of giving even more to missions, to charity, and to my family.

Open The Flood Gates

As you all know, I've been searching the Lord for an overseas area I can go to spend a year ministering to "the least of these." I'm just in the beginning stages of this process, but the Lord, as per usual, has just opened the floodgates of blessing in my life. Every door I've knocked on has been opened by someone eager to get to know me and where the Lord might be placing me.

I had a meeting last week with an old friend and mentor who is preparing to move to Guatemala to run a home for abused or abandoned teenage girls. We discussed the possibility of applying for a job there, or maybe even an internship (which would only last 6 months, which is 6 months shy of how long I'd like to stay).  He even offered to set up a trip for me to visit this summer to explore more fully the idea that God might be calling me there.  I'm terribly excited.

The very next day I had a skype interview with a regional director of Team Inc, an international missions organization that works in many, many different countries on many, many different continents in many, many different capacities.  The older gentleman who interviewed me was incredibly kind, and full of information and encouragement for me during this process.  He was enthusiastic that I would be a great candidate for mission work, and gave me a week to narrow my search- at this point, I'm open to going pretty much anywhere, but the world is a mighty large place.  I, however, am more interested in WHAT I might be doing, as opposed to WHERE.  I know my calling is to work with teenage girls- I don't care where I go in order to do that.

Finally- just this afternoon- I received a phone call from Christ In The City, International- a missions organization that focuses primarily in Central and South America, in mainly Spanish-speaking countries. Because I am willing to go for a year, she felt I could go to a language school within the ministry area for the first few months, because ministry is much more powerful when you can understand and be understood by the person(s) you are working with. She also encouraged me to seek out 2 other organizations that work primarily with youth. She'll be emailing me those details tonight.

Like I said, this is just the surface level of seeking where God will have me. My hope is to GO by the end of the year. All of these opportunities, like most missions, will be support-based. I'll need to raise my own funds.  I'm not worried, however. I know that if God opens the door, He'll provide. I'm ready. Or... at least...I think I'm ready. Only HE knows. He is continually moving and challenging and growing me in ways I never knew I could be. I know that's a lifelong process, but I'm ready and willing whenever He feels I am necessary somewhere. Until then, I will continue to seek Him, seek ways to serve Him here, and seek to minister to students in this area. He is a faithful God. He will prove faithful in abundance, beyond my wildest dreams or expectations, in this area as well. All praise to Him. Amen.

Resolution May: Phyiscal Health

I'm going to say this quickly, before my courage, motivation, and will-power abandon me.  My resolution for the month of May will be to work out 5 days a week, and if I work out a 6th day, I'll reward myself with something (other than food). And that will be the only reward I get, because working out every day should be part of my lifestyle, not an occasional activity meriting a reward.

I've been really neglecting my physical health lately. Bearing the image of God, and being the abiding place of His Holy Spirit, I need to be more mindful of my body, and the things I'm allowing to "nourish" it. I'm starting with exercise, because for me- good habits beget good habits. It's much easier for me to choose healthy meals and snacks when I know my body needs enough of the right kind of fuel to not just get through a day, but get through a workout.  Perhaps next month I will re-visit only making healthy food choices, or perhaps that will trickle in during this month of intentional exercise.  I know I attempted this in February, only to end the month with a severe sinus infection. Surprisingly enough, today is the first day of May AND the first day of a NEW sinus infection. But we press on anyway!

Now that this statement is public, I must hold myself to it, so...

Here's to a month of being reminded of the importance of attention to my body and physical health!