Our Mission: in a Very Small Nutshell

Living on a college campus has really shown me the reality a lot of my peers live in. I've seen people who are addicted to partying and alcohol; I've seen people who sleep around with different partners every week; I've seen people who showcase their bodies more than I could ever imagine doing. But today I realized there is only one thing that makes me different from these people.

I know how valuable I really am.

Let it be my mission, our CHURCH'S mission to show our brothers and sisters how truly VALUABLE they are. How loved and cherished they are. So much so that the world would not be the same without them. That they have a purpose and a unique plan so special that a man without sin died for them.

I'm really no different than everyone else. I've just seen and experienced a deep, soul-wrenching love that changed my life.

Different

Today as I was walking to class, I could hear two girls behind me talking. One girl asked her friend if her shoes were comfortable. The girl replied, "Yeah they are! You have to get a pair of Sperry's. Everyone wears them!" The same thing happened to me in my jazz class this morning. A couple of people behind me were making fun of a girl they knew because of what she wore and how she acted. She was "different". She dressed "differently".

Both those things really got me thinking. How different would this world be if people like that didn't exist? God made each of us so amazingly unique and different. Each part of us was created for his glory and to praise him and to impact the world. Imagine how much we could accomplish in this world if we all felt unbound by any expectation or label. Imagine if people in the church would all fully be themselves and live true to how God created them. How different would our worship be? Our services be? The way we praise our maker and the way we act around others?

I think we would see a group of people fully ALIVE.

This was also a gut check for me today. Am I that person that tries to hold people back? Where am I that person that puts bondage on people?

Let us be people who show others what true freedom looks like.

Ashes

It is so easy for me to accept that I am worthy of being covered in ashes.

And by ashes, I mean blackness, darkness, unworthiness, sinfulness.

Abba, bring me out of my darkness.

My instinct is to wallow in how bad I am; in how much of a sinful creature I am; how unworthy I am.

But God does not mark me with ashes to place me in bondage.

Our God is a God of freedom!! Our God saves and draws us up from the wreckage and brings life and healing and righteousness to places of darkness!

Father please, on this day of rememberence of my sinfulness, help to to see how good you are. I want the glory of your love and beauty and righteousness to knock me to the ground. Let my acknowledgment of how dark I am make your light seem even brighter. Let me see what it is like to be blinded by my God.

Bring me out.