it's all about love.

i had to write a response paper for a class session in my 'foundations for educational ministry' class, so this is what i wrote. i actually really liked it and thought it had some good points, so i thought i would share it here. lemme know what you think :)

We talked quite a bit on Friday about the concept of love. This is actually a concept that I have thought quite a bit about on my own. And I don’t think that the world realizes that love, or the lack of love, can shape a person’s entire lifetime. You’re experience with love can change your life for the better of for the worse. I once knew a girl. Her name was Ellie. When I met her, she was 18 and a high-school drop-out. She was the girl who stood in the corner with a huge sweatshirt to hide the scars that marked up her arms. She had so many war stories; you could fill an entire set of books. She was a girl, who as a child had never felt love. Actually, throughout her entire life she had never felt love. Her parents were around but they cared more about her just being a good kid then trying to help her deal with her problems. She didn’t have many real friends; girls just stayed to manipulate her, and boys just took advantage of her. I can’t even count how many times I would receive texts saying goodbye. Ellie fully believed that to die was better than to live without love. And honestly, I believe that that is true to some extent. To live without love is miserable. But here’s the deal. We aren’t called to live without love. Christ gave us the ultimate love. He is our love, and we are His. Why do we try to live without something that has been freely given to us? We don’t have to live without it. “God demonstrated His own love for us in this: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Christ loves us more than we could ever explain. We are His, we are precious to Him, we are His bride. He loves us so that we can share His love with others. However, if that’s the case, then why do so many people still feel unloved? If it is our sole responsibility to love others and share Jesus’ love with them, then why do people like Ellie feel so unloved that they feel it is better to die than to keep on living? Is it possible at all to share Jesus’ love with so many people that their experience and opinion of love could begin to change? We discussed in class how people, especially in their formative JH/HS years want to be esteemed. They want to be valued. They want to be important. We are important to Jesus. Every woman, every man, every boy, every girl – they are all important to Jesus. Because He made them. He created them. He knit them together in their mothers’ wombs (Psalm 139).  If God values and esteems every single person, then why can’t we? Why can’t we find it in ourselves to see others how God sees them?

I also knew another girl. Her name was Noelle. Noelle grew up in a Christian home. Both of her parents loved Jesus very much, and they loved her. Even though she dealt with a lot of fear and doubt during the JH/HS years, her parents continued to love her through it all. They showed her that they cared even when she was struggling with really hard things. They showed her that even when she made them mad or sad, they still loved her and were always there to help her. Because of their constant love for Noelle, she was able to make it through these trials and come out a conqueror. But I know that the only reason that Noelle did make it out victorious is because of her parent’s love for her.

Two different experiences, yet they both stem from the same concept: love.

We all have different experiences with love. But our experiences with love will shape our lives. And I really want to issue a challenge right now. What would happen if those who claimed to follow Jesus really took that claim seriously, and they followed Him in His example of love? If they purposed to love anyone and everyone that crossed their path in a given day. If they purposed to be the hands and feet of our precious Jesus, and to demonstrate His love to all the hurting, all the broken, all the lost. If we purposed to love, and to solely love like Jesus, we could do incredible things. So this begs the question: why don’t we?

sovereignity

"all of my life, in every season. you are still God, i have a reason to sing, i have a reason to worship"


wednesday morning i woke up randomly at like 7 am...it was kinda an odd thing. but what was even more odder (yes i know those probably aren't words but i'm going to use them anyways) was that as i was starting to fall back asleep, i thought i heard crying from next door. i climbed out of bed and walked to the room next door and as i was about to knock on the door, my neighbor (we're going to call her Sister for the purposes of this story) walked out with tears running down her face. come to find out, her grandma had died early that morning. now Sister and her grandma we're super close, and this loss was extremely hard for her. she cried for a while, and told me memories of her grandma from when she was little. and then she said something i didn't expect. she told me that even though this was a horrible loss, it couldn't have happened on a better day. i was amazed that in the midst of her fear and sadness and grief, she was able to say that it couldn't have happened on a better day. and here's why. wednesday was a day called the "common day of learning", which basically means we had no class. nothing. so that was reason number one. reason number two is that her aunt (related to the grandma who had gone home to Jesus) was coming in at ten to hang out with her. this had been planned before grandma had gone home. reason number three was that her best friend was coming up around 3 that afternoon. that also had been planned before grandma had gone home. so Jesus had put distractions in place before Sister even knew she needed to be distracted. incredible no? well, that's not all. wednesday night was group, which is SPU's weekly worship meeting. the theme of wednesday's meeting was remembrance and how to make stones of remembrance. i thought of all of the memories that Sister had shared with me that morning and how she had been remembering her grandma, and now we were learning about remembrance. and then, to top of the day, group staff closed out the night with a song called "in Your city" and here's the lyrics. "oh the glorious day when we arrive and Heaven's gates are opened wide. all our fear and pain will fade away when we see You face to face, our great and awesome King. You will reign in brilliant light, forever glorified in Your city. and we, your daughters and your sons will see Your kingdom come in Your city." (phil wickham). i just sat there, smiling like ear to ear. it would be like Jesus to close out a night of worship with a song about His home, about Heaven, about the place where He had just taken Sister's grandma. her grandma was there, grandma was seeing His brilliant light, and seeing His city glorified. grandma didn't have to wait anymore. grandma was there. how incredible, no?

Jesus works in wonderful ways. He knows what is going on. He has His plans. and He works things out in ways that we could never ever ask for. i can't even put in to words how His sovereignty has been shown in my life in the last two months. i once heard a quote that goes like this: "God is sovereign, so i don't have to be in control. God is glorious, i don't have to fear others. God is holy, i don't have to look anywhere else for satisfaction. God is gracious, so i don't have to prove myself."

rest in the sovereignty of the God.

"to man belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue. all a man's ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord. commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. the Lord works out everything for his own ends - even the wicked for a day of disaster" (proverbs 16:1-4)

when i was little, i used to get really stressed about things. actually, who am i kidding. i still get really stressed out about things. and i would worry that Jesus would ask me to do something that i couldn't handle. i would look at a situation and say "there's no possible way i can do this". in essence i was saying "Jesus, you set me up for failure." and whenever i would start to think this, my mom would remind me that Jesus would never give me anything i couldn't handle. and this is a trustworthy saying. think about it. Jesus will never give you something you can't handle. He may give you things that stretch you, things that push you to the edge - but never things that break you, things that push you over the edge. God is sovereign. He is in everything. He has power over everything.

looking back over those trials that i thought were impossible at the time, i can see God's fingerprints in the situation, His constant weaving ribbon of hope and guidance and sovereignty in all of those. i can see His careful orchestration and direction. He was always there. He is always there. He will be always there. and He was working things out for the good of those who love Him.

one of the things about christianity that makes it different is that we believe in a relational, all-powerful God.back to the song quote from the beginning of this post "all of my life, in every season. you are still God, i have a reason to sing, i have a reason to worship". through every situation, He is still God. it's not like we get into a difficult situation and God goes "whoops, this is too hard. you go ahead and take the reigns on this one".  thank the Lord He doesn't do that. He is bigger than all of our issues. but the question is, can we trust Him? are you willing to have faith in the fact that He is indeed sovereign and bigger than our problems? because He is. He is bigger. we could take it back to veggie tales and say "God is bigger than the boogie man...". because that is a trustworthy saying. He is bigger than our problems. He is stronger than our fear. He is sovereign.

so i ask you: can you join me in the quest to let go of control, to let Him be the sovereign God He is?