Winter Blast 2017

            You know you have just spent a weekend with a – what do you call a group of junior high students?  A herd?  A swarm?  A school? A gaggle?  A gaggle sounds appropriate.  You know you have just spent a weekend with a gaggle of junior highers when, between you and your husband,

You have shoes that smell like this:

You have clothes that smell like this:

You have muscles that won't let you get off of this:

You have a pair of jeans that looks like this (it's a sad day when your jeans decide to self-destruct in the final round of a game you instigated...p.s. the back has holes too):

You have a stance that looks like this (because you are still afraid that at any moment you might be shot in the neck with an invisible dart and have to fall on the ground paralyzed all while hoping someone will save you before the natives try to dump water on your face):

And you, upon returning home, have a bedtime that looks like this:

            We loved every minute of it, and are so thankful we had the privilege of getting our feet wet in youth ministry again at Maranatha Bible Camp’s Winter Blast.  On Friday, Jon and I loaded up our minivan (yep, no shame) with suitcases, music, speaking notes, a guitar, a keyboard, and a cajón, and we drove to the North Platte/Maxwell area to lead the chapel sessions at the retreat along with the help of a talented percussionist whom we met after we arrived.  Together, we led the worship time, and Jon gave the messages.  We also were able to participate in everything from playing games like Gaga Ball and Nine-Square to discussing the history of One Direction (the band) with sixth grade girls at sixth-grade-girl decibels and levels of sass. 

Some of My Maranatha Camp Mementos

The whole weekend was a ton of fun, but the best part was getting to see pre-teens learn about Jesus, sing about Jesus, and pray to Jesus.  Junior high years are so difficult and so crucial.  I remember being incredibly stressed out, confused, and frustrated all the time in junior high, but I also remember that those were the years when I really started to understand what walking in a relationship with Jesus in my daily life meant.  Those were also the years when I got to see one of my dearest friends put her faith in Christ (on a side note, Maranatha played a major role both in developing my walk with Christ and in the salvation of my friend - it's a great place of ministry!).  They truly are formative years, and they are years when students desperately need to know that they are loved and accepted.  Pointing them to the One who loves them and accepts them perfectly and completely is such an honor. 

Throughout the weekend, my husband taught through Ephesians 2:1-10.  Over three sessions, He explained how we were dead in our sin, we were made alive in Christ when we believed, and how we can live in a way that fulfills our purpose by living for the One who gave us life.  Of course, he also sprinkled in a variety of colorful and memorable illustrations and some occasional banter with random students who liked to interject.  During the fourth session, Jon went over a quick review and then instructed everyone to split up into groups to talk about what Jesus meant to them and how they could use the gifts that God had given them to bring Him glory.  In addition to the main messages and the small group times, the students were able to hear interview-style testimonies from several of their leaders about what life was like for them in junior high and moments in their lives when God really drew them to Himself.  The students were also given opportunities to share what they had been learning with the whole group.  Through it all, I was encouraged by the testimonies of other leaders and of the students, and I was challenged by my husband’s messages once again to live every moment and use every gift for the One who created me.  All in all, as paradoxical as it sounds, this weekend was an exhausting time of refreshment, and I cannot believe just how much I've missed working with youth!  

A Life Unexpected (Part 5)

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

-C.S. Lewis

            Some of my sweetest memories are of sitting alone outside with God.  Several of these instances took place behind the chapel at Bible school.  The town was small and fairly still with the exception of the bustling of the students and the occasional mooing of cows in the distance.  As I enjoyed the various shapes of puffy clouds against the bright blue of the sky and examined the intricacies of all the different uncomfortable rocks on which I sat, I talked to God.  Unhurried and surrounded by comfortable silence, I told him whatever was on my heart and mind, I read some of His Word, and I thought about who He was as I drank in my surroundings.  Then, I would wait.  Sometimes, I could almost hear Him answer my frustrations and my questions in my heart.  Often, I already knew the answers, but I just needed to be reminded and reassured.  He was always so gentle and so patient, but direct. 

It was in one of these times that I told Him that He could do anything with my life.  In particular, I told Him that I would keep loving and serving Him even if that meant that my dreams of marriage never came true or that I would be living in some awful mud hut in a foreign land (just please, Lord, keep the snakes far away!).  I told Him I was willing and that I wanted to be obedient, and I meant it with every fiber of my being.  As crazy as it sounds, indescribable peace filled my heart, and fear had no more place.  As I have experienced different trials and allowed myself to drift away in doubt, discouragement, and fear, I have found that the quickest way back to that sweet place of peace, surrender, and fellowship is the way that I arrived there in the first place: by remembering who I am and whose I am.

Who I Am

           When trying to define myself, I am often tempted to list off describing qualities, such as: wife, babysitter, organizer, musician, etc.  In reality, these titles refer to my roles, jobs, behaviors, and hobbies and fall far short when it comes to determining who I really am.  If I found my identity in them, then I would be completely lost should they be changed or taken away.  Fortunately, my identity is much more stable, and God has told me what it is.  As a believer in Christ, I am:

And SO MUCH MORE!

This identity (or position) is at the core of every believer, and it cannot be lost.  Neither does it originate within the believer, but it is the gift Christ gives us of Himself.  We believers don’t always act in accordance with this identity, but that does not change the fact of who we are in Christ.  Paul understood this truth better than most.  He had an impressive earthly pedigree and resume, which he outlined briefly in Philippians 3:5, 6.  Continuing on in the passage, we see that he considered all of it to be a loss in comparison with knowing Christ and being found in Him.  Christ’s righteousness in him was far superior to any feeble righteousness that he could muster up on his own.  Paul’s earthly successes were garbage compared to the value of the life he could live in Christ.  He admitted that he was not complete and perfect in living out his identity in Christ, but he also knew that on this earth he was to press on in growing more like Christ and becoming in practice who he already was in his position.  This type of thinking is completely illogical to the world, which is why Paul also pointed to one very crucial aspect of the believer’s identity – that of being citizens of heaven.        

The fact that I am a citizen of heaven is one of the most encouraging truths to me in times of difficulty.  This life is not all there is, which gives me hope.  I was not made to fit into this world’s mold and to constantly chase after the ever-elusive goals of temporary self-fulfillment, success, pleasure, and happiness.  I was made for lasting joy, for meaningful worship, for deep fellowship, for liberating rest, and for eternity.  I was made to last and to be in a relationship with the one who always was, is, and will be.      

Whose I Am

            Understanding who we are is only part of the equation.  We must also understand whose we are.  I know I have touched on this in previous posts, but the answer to living a life unexpected really all boils down to this.  We are not our own.  We belong to Christ – to God.  He has not hidden His character from us.  In His Word, He has revealed that He is:

And, again, SO MUCH MORE!

            He loves us so much, and He does not find joy in our pain.  Many cultures in many ages have believed in gods who required blood sacrifices to cover the sins of man.  The one true God also required blood to cover sin, but He Himself came down and met the requirement that His character demanded.  He could have left us as lost causes to die and be separated from Him forever.  We deserve just that.  Instead, the Creator laid down His life to save us, though He knew many of us would turn our backs on Him, hate Him, and trample all over His sacrifice.  He could not give us a greater demonstration of His love.  We will suffer in this life, but only for a little while.  For those who have trusted in Christ, we know that we will have an eternity of the life that He offers, which far surpasses any short, self-pleasing life that we can dream up on this earth.  We get little tastes of that heavenly life when we take the time to worship Him for who He is and rest in the identity He has given to us.  For those who haven’t trusted in Christ, He wants you to come to Him.  He wants to have a relationship with you and to give you an identity and a purpose that are secure.  You weren’t made to go through this life alone.  We can trust Him to lead us through a life unexpected.                                         

A Life Unexpected (Part 4)

“Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.”

-Mary, the mother of Jesus, in Luke 1:38

            Have I mentioned already that I am a planner?  I love calendars, planner apps, sticky notes, lists, schedules, budgets, spreadsheets, charts, file folders, color coding, and all things pertaining to detailed organization and careful forethought.  I rate Office Depot right up with Hobby Lobby, Kohl’s, and quirky little music or book stores.  For me, making a plan or decision is a painfully slow process of thorough analysis and research, and once it is made, I don’t respond well to unexpected changes or curve balls from any source.  It drives my fun-loving and spontaneous husband crazy.

            While planning and organization are helpful skills, they (like just about anything) can become detrimental if they are taken too far.  Overly rigid schedules and disproportionate responses to interruptions and inconveniences often betray an unhealthy desire to be in control.  This inner drive to be in charge makes it incredibly hard to have a truly willing heart of obedience and surrender when it comes to following Jesus.  Time and time again, I think I have relinquished control of this life I have been given for complete dependence on God, and time and time again, He has gently shown me areas to which I am still holding on with white knuckles.  In my endeavors to gain control, I usurp Jesus’s role as Lord and treat Him instead like an adviser and a repairman.  In essence, I bow to the idol of self.  A life that revolves around self-fulfillment, self-sufficiency, self-service, self-trust, self-pity, self-worship, and/or self-absorption is not a life that honors God, and it is certainly not the abundant life that Jesus offers.       

            Thankfully, my Lord is also a loving Father who does not allow His children to get away with mutiny.  He disciplines us (Heb. 12:5-11), and He gives us instruction in His Word for living a rich and purpose-driven life (2 Tim. 3:16, 17).  In the Bible, He repeatedly addresses these issues of idolizing self and taking control by teaching us to instead humble ourselves and submit to His will.  In Romans 12:1, Paul urges us (in view of all that Christ has done) to offer our bodies as living and holy sacrifices in a spiritual service of worship.  The animals that were sacrificed in the Old Testament were completely vulnerable, powerless, and without a voice as to their fate.  Unlike them, we are exhorted as people who have a choice to be living sacrifices.  The problem with a living sacrifice is that it can get off of the altar.  This is the reason why re-dedication is such a common and recurring practice.  We can choose to obey Christ one moment and then turn around and obey our selfish desires the next.  Laying down our lives as living sacrifices isn’t something that we just do once, but we must lay them down again and again every time we are presented with the choice to follow self or to follow God. 

            To clarify, I am not speaking here about salvation.  A person is saved once for all when he or she believes in Jesus on the basis of His death and resurrection, and this does not need to be repeated.  Rather, I am examining discipleship and surrender, which are normal responses to salvation.  I could offer a more detailed explanation, but that would take us on quite a long bunny trail from the topic at hand.  If you have questions or would like to discuss it more, feel free to contact me! 

            In Galatians 2:20, Paul tells us how this life of self-sacrifice is possible by declaring, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”  Later in the same book, he describes in detail what it means to “live by the Spirit” and to “walk by the Spirit” (meaning the Holy Spirit).  God does not expect us to obey and follow Him out of our own strength.  We would not be able to do that.  Rather, He has led by His example of being the ultimate sacrifice, and He has given us His Spirit to empower us to live the lives to which He calls us.  Living by the power of the Spirit in obedience produces “…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control…” (Gal. 5:22, 23), which sounds much like the abundant life that we so desperately want and mistakenly try to attain through self-focused efforts.    

            Not only has God given us the instruction and the power to surrender our lives to Him, but He has also provided us with examples to follow.  One example that immediately comes to mind having recently celebrated the Christmas season is Mary, the mother of Jesus.  As a young virgin girl who was engaged to a man of integrity, she would have had many reasons to fear, to try to seize control, and to seek an escape from her very unexpected calling of bearing the Savior.  People would assume that she had been unfaithful, and she would have to endure the disbelief, judgment, and disapproval of everyone around her, including her fiancé.  Experiencing pregnancy for the first time can be unsettling for any mother, and she might have wondered if she would have to face it alone.  The rumors would spread, and she would even be at risk of being stoned to death according to the law.  None of this held Mary back.  She didn’t doubt, argue with, or reason with God, but she believed that the angel’s announcement would come to pass, and she responded with humble submission and an attitude of worshipful rejoicing in her God.  She chose to willfully and joyfully be a living sacrifice. 

            A modern example that God has provided for me is that of my brother-in-law and his wife (Ben and JaNae).  They recently announced their pregnancy (in one of the most creative ways ever, I might add → Click Here to See Ben & JaNae's Announcement), and their story about becoming pregnant is so fitting for this post.  JaNae shares it like this:          

In June, Ben and I decided to go camping for a night and take a kayak and float around for a few hours. He fished, and I read. While reading, this book talked all about how Christians love to say "God's in charge" but don't actually let him be in charge, and how we lack obedience. This sentence smacked me in the face, because the phrase "God's in charge" had come out of my mouth so many times when it came to having kids, and yet we were in total control over it. So we prayed and agreed...we need to give him actual control... so we gave up control and ACTUALLY surrendered it to him with the desire to be obedient! Was I ready? No! I was freaking out! But we know His plans our greater than our own, and his timing is perfect! We are TOTALLY pumped to be having a child! My mind is blown everyday by His creation, and we can't wait to meet our little loved one!!

            Ben and JaNae recognized God’s voice, and they listened.  In spite of their apprehensions, they chose to hand the reigns over in this area of their lives to the One they knew they could trust. They chose to be obedient, to be surrendered, and to be living sacrifices.  The same Spirit who strengthened Mary to be obedient by faith is working today in the lives of Ben and JaNae and in the lives of all who have trusted in Christ.  When we let Him, He enables us to say along with Mary, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word” (Lk. 1:38).