This last week has brought me is much joy. I don’t exactly know what happened, but I feel a lightness in my heart. I feel joy pouring out of me. I feel overwhelmed by the love of the Lord and His goodness. I have learned how to train my eyes to see His hand in everything. I am learning how to see the Lord in the small details of my life, and it has opened my eyes to so much happiness and so much joy. I feel blessings pouring over me. I feel the Lord pressing this thumb down on me.
A couple of days ago my team and I went on a team date, a time to bond with each other, sitting around a table chatting. About ten minutes into our date, I began sobbing because I was so overwhelmed with how much I love my team and how incredible the Lord is. He has planted me here on the race, he’s brought forward so much joy and so much growth in such a short time. Abba’s faithfulness is flooding in my life always, so I would like to take a second and praise him. Here are some random thoughts that have come to my mind this last week.
God didn’t have to make flowers, he didn’t have to spend the time to make something so beautiful. He created flowers with so much beauty and love, He created every pedal with thought and care, and we get the opportunity to look at them. We give them as gifts to the people we love, to represent the feeling we have for them. How funny is it that we do that without giving credit to the creator of the flowers? I need to spend more time appreciating flowers and seeing the grace of God in every stem, leaf, and pedal.
There’s an old Hillsong lyric that says
“Every painted sky, a signal fire of grace”
And I have heard these lyrics so many times that they have kind of lost the meaning. The Lord prepares every single sunset and sunrise for us. He paints every color and crafts every cloud. The reflection of golden hour on our skin and on the mountains, that’s God’s hand. I forget just how much He loves us sometimes, he created elaborate paintings for us and gifts them to us twice every single day, and He doesn’t even care if anyone is there to watch. Literal signal fires of His grace for us.
Children laughing is such a sweet sound. Hearing them bust out laughing and running out with huge smiles is something I can’t even put into words. When I am at ministry and I am playing with the kids, sometimes I stop in awe. The joy that they radiate from their every step, and their desire to share that joy with everyone around them is inspiring. I want to be more like a kid, I want to laugh harder and share more joy and love with the people around me. I want to laugh at the little things and rejoice in every moment.
The people I am around daily literally blow me away. This community I have here on the race is such an extraordinary group of people. Even the people I have met at young life, or at church, or at training camp are living breathing examples of Christ-like love. The church is such a blessing from Abba. He created His followers to be people of community. People that want to share laughs and struggles. People who run towards deep relationships and do not hide from hard conversations. The church is full of people who want to run towards the Lord together, people who want to share burdens, along with sharing the highlights.
Those were some random thoughts from this week, thank you for tuning in.
