I love working in a place where every single day is different from the one before. Right now we are in the process of really detailed definitions of what our goals are out here at Roosevelt, and we're organizing volunteer opportunities to give anyone and everyone a chance to really serve if their heart so desires. And yet, it's been a difficult task because there is literally something different coming up nearly every day. It's good though :) It's great actually. Just a little bizarre. I was just writing back and forth this morning with Kristine, who established the gigantic shoes we are now trying to fill ;), and I just was struck with how bizarre this job is :) It's so weird! A church in a public school reaching out to the students and community. Homecoming planning is ministry now, and yet it's just what Jesus did. He went fishing with, ate meals with and celebrated with the people that He was reaching out to.
Yesterday I actually said the name of Jesus to a student for the first time. That is definitely not something that happens out here, and I actually really like that. I'll explain the context to you though...He asked Heather and I what kind of a church we went to, and he asked "Is it an open church?" When I asked him what he meant by that he said that most Christians were very closed minded. Heather and I told him our hearts as a church were to show others what we are for, rather than what we are against. And then I said, "We absolutely believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior, and we believe that He is all about relationships, so that's what we are about." He seemed to take this answer really well and we proceeded onto conversations about finding food he could feed his mice, among other things. I almost felt like I had done something wrong at first, but I know that it was God.
I've been overwhelmed with the concept of fearing God recently. I feel like Satan has been extremely sneaky in the past week to two weeks to really discourage me. And I've actually been letting it happen a bit. But multiple things have happened within the course of just a few days that have been hammering the idea of the Fear of God into my head. On Friday night I had the privilege of meeting with some amazing girls, and each one of us brought a verse and some thoughts on it, and every single one had one common denominator: When we fear God with our whole hearts, it leads to submission, trust, and dying to ourselves which leads to God being manifested in our lives. And then Kip spoke this weekend on turning away from the desire to love this world. I took that one step further and felt like I needed to stop letting the view this world had about ME make me feel less about myself. Satan uses this world to make us feel like we are alone, that we don't have what it takes, that there's always someone or something better than us and on and on and on. The fight against this idea is the heart behind what we're doing here at Roosevelt, and the heart behind how I want to treat everyone in my life. We want to stop that idea from spreading and show people what incredible value every single life has!
With all of the discouragement that I feel has been trying to take over my heart, I realized that by simply being reminded of the BIGNESS of God, and His love for me, and HIS opinion of me, is the only way to see myself and stay in the stride of God. I want to be so caught up in His will, His opinion and His purpose that wisdom and purpose oozes out of every action I take and every word I say. I believe this comes out of being on my face before God and developing an ever deepening fear of the Lord, an ever deepening realization of how BIG He is and at the same time an ever deepening realization of how CHOSEN I am. We all are, and no matter what bizarre situation we find ourselves in, we can be sure that if we're following Him, we are exactly where we are supposed to be. I want to be able to be trusted by Him in everything, so that bigger and better things can be awaiting me.
I believe it is in this place, the place of pure realization of the unity between us and God, that we can be confident that we have what it takes because God says so. So I'm standing up to the world because, as the beloved elementary school phrase so well puts it, "My dad is bigger than your dad, world".
