To Truly share and show Love.

My family has come a lot closer this past week. This past Sunday night my sister Carrie had a stroke. This wasn't expected, but it wasn't completely out of nowhere. She's in a rehabilitation center right now regaining movement of the left side of her body.
You don't realize how often you use the left side of your body until it stops working.
You don't realize how much time is given to you before you use it up.
Lately I have been back into a season where I feel that God is teaching me about love, sacrifice, and time again. I have often found it difficult to show love to people through my actions and words some days. I've felt bad because of teenage junk and I've thrown myself pity parties. I've been selfish. I've taken the things I have for granted and I feel that God is revealing to me what it truly means to have those things.

I was listening to a friend talk a Slab the other day. She said that a lot of times we take people for granted, and so often we're quick to judge and ignore people that God put in our pathway for a reason. Those people could be annoying; we could think "Why the heck did God put me here with these people?" and we can spend time getting so impatient with people and annoyed by them and snap on them for no reason.
 This sounds cliche, but really think about it for a minute.
Really ponder these thoughts:
Do you even know what that person could be going through?
Did you ever stop to think that God has you sitting next to them for a reason?
 Maybe it's to help them with something big or maybe it's just to smile at them. Afterall, every action you make bears a consequence. However, this thought isn't to cause pressure because Lord knows how often we screw up and say things we don't mean. But it's to inspire a change in how we live on a daily basis.

Consider the people that surround you, and consider what you do. Because the time we have here on this earth is so short and so quickly spent. I don't want to live a life constrained by things that don't matter and things that waste my time. But I want to make sure that these moments are well-spent. I want to say kind words to people. I want to compliment them, even if it annoys the crap out of other people and they call me a suck-up. That's just a negative term for kindness, in my opinion, and there isn't anything wrong with kindness.  I want people to know their beauty and their highlights and I want to be sweet to them.


So guys, here's to a week of getting stronger and a time of loving more. Here's to a week of learning to dance in the rain.

The Command to Go, not the inquiry.

There was something that happened in the earth when God commanded us in his word to Go. To preach the gospel to every living creature. He didn't set any limits. There isn't a phrase at the end of that scripture that says "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every living creature... only if you feel called to."


As living witnesses of The love of Christ, to go is our calling, wherever we may go, wherever he sends us, because he commanded it. He could tell us to Go into the school and that be our place, and from there we can reach further. The desire to go was formed in us from the beginning...

I can't say that before this year I had a burning, passionate desire to go on a missions trip, specifically. I knew that I would eventually, and I even thought to myself years ago "maybe 17 will be the year." I had a desire to see souls saved and people encounter Jesus, and that passion is still burning there and always will. But something sparked me. Something about looking at the way my friends were transformed when coming back home from these trips. How tears would fill their eyes when they would talk about what happened and the people they encountered and saw healed and saved. Watching them sell things that they owned to go on these trips and not miss a single thing. Watch them trust God with faith that moves mountains. Watching financial miracles happen. Most of all, it was watching them grow and listening to their stories and testimonies. Seeing something happen inside of them... It was a challenge, almost. A challenge that asked "How far are you willing to go? To what extreme are you going to take this whole Gospel thing to?" Even God asking me "What will you leave behind in order to follow my lead?"
So I sat down and asked myself. "How far am I willing to go?"
I prayed about it, and I felt that the answer was clear.
It's time for me to Go.



It's still time for me to go, No matter who decides to walk away from me for push me down for it. No matter who disapproves. No matter who makes fun of me for carrying a coffee can and a Toms box around school. There are so many people that are all for my trip, so many people that God has set in my path for me to cross paths with this year for important reasons, and they matter to me. They outnumber the people who disapprove. Even if everyone had turned their back against me, the fact that God approves outnumbers the opinion of man.

And he's faithful to send me if I just give myself to him, and to go for souls. It's not about me. It's about them... And it's All about Him, for his glory.

They are worthy because Jesus died for them.
He is worthy because he died for me, and my life is all I can give in return.

A Poem about a Journey

I want to go places
I've never been
see people
I've never seen
dream dreams
I've not yet dared to dream
find out what God's
put inside of me
what he's put inside
of them

 

discover what else lies

among these hills

figure out how this world

connects

how these roads lead away into

far off lands

that no one else has

dared to set foot on,

 dared to travel into.

There's a road of discovery
a sound that's been calling my name
ever since I could walk on my own
a sound that
leaks into my dreams
into my ear each time I
close my eyes
I constantly dream about the world




and the way God crafted it

And when I'm all done

with these wild adventures

chances are that I will run back

to the place I call home

until I wake up and discover

the sound that's calling me again.