The Light and Dark Of Summer......

Summer for me has been the best times of my college life. I gave my first summer up to the Lord and from then on decided thats what I was going to do. I struggled just like everyone else with whether I should be going to school, getting a job that pays me actual money, or an internship (this one was not really a problem cause I didn't know what I was going to do at the time). But the Lord grabbed a hold of me the first summer and thats all I wanted to do the rest of them. Definantly a blessing!

"You have made known to the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence" (Acts 2:28)

Now just because it was a great time of growth for me and I feel like there were way more peaks than valleys, it wasn't always easy. My summer to East Asia couldn't have been more challenging and difficult to say the least. And there were times throughout the other summers where I was definantly living out of the flesh. But Summer is so special to me because I learned so much through both the peaks and valleys that when I talk to people I always draw from those moments and experiences. I praise the Lord for that growth and the lives changed during those months.

The thing that really stirs my spirit is that summer is looked at like a time of joy and peace no matter what you are doing. Very rarely do I speak to someone about their summer time and they admit that it's not where they need to be. But even though people dont say it, I see it all the time. We mask the desires of the Lord, with the desires of the world. I keep hearing a lot recently the phrase, "Im being pulled in a lot of different directions right now." Yeah I struggle with that too, but there is only one way we need to be pulled and thats the direction of the Lord. Society has skewed the idea that our first job is making a name for ourselves in this world through a job, family, and money. That's a lie, our first mission or "job" if you will is to glorify the Lord and teach his gospel to everyone we come in contact with. That in our job or school that we let him teach others in our lives about him and that we walk in that truth. Not that this doesn't happen in other seasons, but it is opened up to my eyes more in the summer time when our time can become more about us than about our Lord and savior. I end my thought with a quote that rocked my world today by a man that the Lord has spoken to me through him a lot recently.

"To many people are trying to become something, when the Jesus tells us to become nothing" - Matt Chandler

A Child-like Heart...… Does an imagination count?

A challenge has been set on me recently, even though I fully asked for it, it's a challenge nonetheless. I am going to be taking care of kids somewhere between the ages of 7 and 11, thats not the challenge though. The challenge is teaching them more than they are going to teach me. I have not even seen the first kid and they are already teaching me so much about God and myself. I mean sure sometimes you can get frustrated with them and there are situations, that are not to be named, that make you question what they have been brought up in. But have you ever just sat and watched a kid that is that age? Their imaginations are endless and are constantly going 90 to nothing. They for most part take joy in every activity they do as long as it's an adventure. They look up to people sometimes without even knowing them for one reason, because they think we have been on "crazy journey's that makes us a hero". We are older so we know the answers, and sometimes they might think that we never mess up (you give them one reason and they will see right through that). 

-"Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3)

-"Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the Kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." (Mark 10:14,15)

I have been challenge by kiddos I dont even know yet to go after God with the same imagination and childish joy and peace that they go after of people with greater height than them. To go after Jesus constantly "looking up" to him like they look up constantly to people (most of the time literally). It's not always the heart of the child that gets my attention first, it's their imagination and how their heart flows through that. When they cant tie their shoe but they can come up with the most elaborate, amazing way of looking at a canoeing activity. When they cant even see over the counter, yet they stand on their tiptoes just so they dont have to ask for help. When they tell you some really simple story of something that happened to them that doesn't pertain to whats going on in the moment, just so they can tell you something and see your approval. They dont care about relevance, randomness, or how crazy/politically correct something is. They just love the "adventure", and when they see your "adventure" is with Jesus, they want that same "adventure". So I ask the question, when I come with the heart of a child, can I come with the imagination too? Because I dont see how they are separated?!