2017
a year of extreme growth.
the year I attended my first and last high school prom.
the year I got my first car.
the year that I attended my last Young Life camp as a high schooler.
the year I sought after every opportunity the Lord presented to me to deepen a relationship with him, whatever that may have looked like
the year i learned what sacrificial love meant in my life
the year i gave up a month of my summer to serve at young life camp. best decision ever.
the year i graduated high school
the year i moved across the country back to las vegas, nv after 3 years spent in Georgia
the year i anticipated abandoning my everyday life to go out among the nations and tell people who Jesus is. to love like Jesus. and live the gospel out loud, just as Jesus did.
and the year i actually did it.
the world race.
an opportunity I knew i couldn’t pass up. An opportunity i knew would grow and stretch me. Push me out of the comfort zones I’d been living in for 17 years of life. Alongside people who love the Lord so much that they too gave up 9 months of their own lives to walk in obedience to the plan he placed in front of them. A privilege- a true privilege it is to be able to tell the world who the Lord is, what He’s done in my life and how he’s taken my own little world and flipped it right side up with his love and mercy and grace. a beautiful thing.
in the last 4 months that i’ve been on the race, i’ve grown. In some ways incomprehensible. Dependency on the Lord is something i’m learning a whole lot about during this season of life. What it looks like to rejoice in the heights of hope alongside God, but also how to sit in the depths of despair and invite Him into that space. Serious stuff. Growth.
Feelings!!!! How to FEEL feelings. Specifically the hard stuff. I have no problem feeling the intensity of Joy and Love and LIFE in full, but it’s with sorrow, inadequacy, and helplessness along with other hard emotions, that i’m learning to truly and deeply feel. Instead of feeling the hard stuff, I used to shift my gaze to a situation even worse than mine, minimizing my own circumstances so that I didn’t have to sit in a pool of murky grey water with dark clouds above that obstructed me from feeling the sun on my skin and seeing light with my own eyes. I want to be happy. I want to rejoice in TODAY. I don’t, in fact, want to feel sorrow when i’m full of it. But, the heights of hope and depths of despair go hand in hand. You can’t have one in full without the other in full as well. They’re really a beautiful thing, emotions are. Demanding to be felt, and worthy of feeling.
LOVE!!!! Love without boarders. How to love without even understanding the language of the people I do, indeed, LOVE. Love is its own language. Something that like feelings, also demands to be felt. A beautiful thing, an aroma thick in the air when you’re around it. Alluring, swirling around your ears and filling your nose with a sweet smell of your favorite smells.
Ephesians 5:1-2
“follow God’s example, therefore as dearly loved children, and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God”
What it looks like to be more and more like Jesus. Something I crave to be like. To walk in a posture of sacrificial love, all of the time. A prayer i’ve been praying;
if love were a street
i want to stand in the middle of it
walking in the way of love
fearlessly running through the streets
to be awake around love
to get behind it, defend it
to embrace it, feel it, and give it out.
in every way, but especially sacrificially.
may I always honor others above myself (Romans 12:10)
loving one another and intentionally choosing love above all else.
I will fight for love, I will fight to love as Jesus does
May my hands be constantly wanting to give generously and and feet dance in the freedom of boarderless, abounding love.
2018
I’m three days in and so far, i’ve seen my last sunset on the delta in Botswana, Africa as well as the sunrise the next morning.
I’m on my way to one of the seven wonders of the world, Victoria falls.
I’m halfway through my 9 months abroad.
and things are happening !!
i’m praying big things over 2018 – i’m praying that the Lord moves within me to reach the people of South Africa and the Philippines
I’m experiencing life in it’s entirety
Im learning about culture and God and different ways of experiencing God
I’m learning the importance of why the Lord leaves the 99 for just 1. What it looks like to send praises up for the well taken cared for 99 but also actively pursue the 1.
praying dependence over 2018.
praying prayers of revival over south africa.
in the hearts and lives we meet. may the lord use our hands to bless the lives around us.
thankful for another year. another day, another minute on this earth. Going to maximize my time here.
