Pursuit

I was talking with a friend recently and she posed an interesting question to me.  She asked if, looking back, I could see God pursuing me all of my life.  My initial thought was, “No.”  But before the word was even formed on my lips, I knew it was not the truth.  The friend I was talking to had become a Christian later in life so I could guess at the kind of pursuit she looked back and saw, but I fully gave my heart and life to Christ when I was three years old.  I assumed I didn’t have a magnificent story to look back on and tell of moments He orchestrated for me to notice Him and know that He is real.  But in that split second before I answered my friend’s question, I realized the answer is, yes.  Yes, I look back on my life and realize that God has been pursuing me the whole time.  God’s pursuit of me is different than His pursuit of my friend.  God pursued my friend in a way that is similar to a man pursuing the woman he wants to marry.  I said that I saw His pursuit of me through most of my life more like the way a husband would pursue his wife after they’re married.

Christianity isn’t about the moment of conversion, when you say that you believe Jesus is the Son of God who died to take away your sins and you ask for forgiveness.  Just like marriage isn’t only about the moment a man and woman say “I do.”  That is just the beginning.  God’s pursuit is evident throughout all of our lives no matter when we come to Christ.  Sometimes it is made up of loud and extravagant events like a man trying to get a woman to notice that he is alive and at other times it is subtle, steady and consistent like a husband reminding his wife of who he is.  No matter which stage of Christian life you are at, God is pursuing you.  There are simply different types of pursuit for different times in our lives and different types of people, but the same remarkable God is pursuing each of us.  It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of how.  How has God pursued you in the past?  And how is He pursuing you now?

OT Kings vs. Peter

I’ve been reading Jeremiah and Mark in the mornings for the past month or so and last week I read about two similar sets of circumstances with two totally different outcomes.  In Jeremiah I read about Old Testament kings who turned their backs on God to worship idols they had created with their own imagination and hands.  In Mark I read about Peter who personally walked with Jesus for years and then, during Jesus’ trial, totally disowned Him.  Both denied and betrayed God, but the OT kings were carried off into captivity and killed and Jesus told Peter to be the shepherd of the early church and that Peter would be used as a major player in establishing the Church!  Big difference.

I think the difference between the two is the relationship they had with God.  The OT kings had diminished God and equated Him to stone and gold man-made idols.  They had no relationship with Him and therefore felt no remorse until after they were captured and in exile.  Peter on the other hand had spent years in Jesus’ inner circle and the Bible says that as soon as Peter realized what he had done he “broke down and wept.”

Peter, unlike the OT kings, was full of remorse the moment he realized that he had betrayed God.

This made me think.  Do I only respond when I’m receiving consequences of my actions and I’m in pain?  Or do I respond with remorse when I realize my actions have caused God pain?  It’s a bit of both.  I want that relationship though.

God help me to have the kind of relationship Peter had with You.  Help me to love You and know Your heart.   Thank you for Your Grace Lord.  I love You.

I Love Spencer Lake!

I just got back from a week as a Jr. High Camp counselor at Spencer Lake Youth Camp.  I grew up a mile away from Spencer Lake, my mother has worked in the youth department in our district almost all of my life and have grown up looking forward to camp every summer.   I’m not gonna lie; I was terrified about spending a week with Jr. Highers, but it was an incredible week.  It was so much fun!  My body was exhausted when I came home, but I was completely renewed in my heart.  I cannot remember the last time I felt so full of life.  What an incredible week!  I saw God work some beautiful responses in kids and was able to become friends with the absolutely wonderful girls in my cabin and the guys from our church. 

 

My weeks at Spencer Lake Camp have been filled with defining moments in my Christian walk, amazing times of spiritual clarity and so much fun.  This year was no different.  Spencer Lake did not disappoint.  What a great opportunity it was for me and I am so grateful I was able to go.

Knighted and Queened

Sunday, June 29^th marked the end of our series on faith in Kids Rock.  For ten weeks the kids had learned about faith through CS Lewis’ book Prince Caspian and parallel Bible stories.  Each week the kids got a new memory verse about faith.  From the beginning we let the kids know that if they memorized all 10 verses they would be able to be in a special coronation ceremony.  I had parents coming to me saying that their son kept talking about being knighted and daughters were memorizing their verses so that they could become queened.  Towards the end Marlene, our Kids Rock director, and I had kids calling us to say verses to us over the phone.  Every time I came to church kids attacked me with verses they’d memorized.  It was great!!!

Last week, at our coronation ceremony we had about 8 girls become queens and 3 boys become knights in God’s Kingdom.  It was great to hear these kids speaking the Word of God.

God let faith rise up in these great kids.  Bring those verses back to their minds, just when they need them.  Thank you Lord for Your Faithfulness.

Fireworks!!!

I love the 4th of July!  I love our country and this special time to remember our independence and freedom.  It's a beautiful thing.  And that is wonderful, the remembering, but my favorite part of the remembering is the "rocket's red glare" part of the celebration, the FIREWORKS!  My favorites are the ones that create a huge waterfall of sparkly copper light.  Last night began this year's fireworks tour.  Started in Appleton this year and it was an amazing show!  So great with a new special light blue color and a light green aqua that were lovely.  Tonight we'll continue the celebration in Waupaca and tomorrow the fireworks holiday extravaganza will bring it on home to Stevens Point.  Looking forward to the RedPoint grill out and then of course the fantastic fireworks at the river front.  They're supposed to be even more incredible this year because it's Points sesquicentennial.   Here's to a phenomenal 4th weekend!  Enjoy!

The Climb

I just got back from an incredible trip to Washington, DC.  What a fantastic place.  I always enjoy visiting.  I love the history, the memorials, the monuments, the buildings, the metro, delicious Mike’s in Springfield and my best friend lives there.  Yep, one of my favorite places to visit.  But this trip was even better because I was at a conference, Unplugged, hosted by National Community Church.  60 pastors came together to talk about leadership in the church and the challenges we face.  It was wonderful.

I wish I could share every bit of information I got because it was so enriching and challenging, but I’ll limit myself to my favorite part.

Jud Wilhite, pastor of Central Christian in Las Vegas, got up and said, “The summit is a state of mind.  There is no “there” there.  You’ve got to love the journey.  Fall in love with the climb.”  Whoa!  Good to have goals, but don’t forget that most of the trek is about the climb.  You get to the summit and spend 15 minutes, maybe an hour, and then you start climbing again.  So love the climb.

“Fall in love with the climb” was like flowers opening in my mind, like amber sunshine on emerald green leaves with the dark grey rain clouds in the sky, it took my breath away.  Love the journey.  There’s never a point where it’s going to suddenly be easier, where there won’t be as many troubles and if we did reach that summit, we would soon grow tired of it and create a new goal, so love the mud and the junk and the pain and the fun and the moment, love the climb.

This is something I want to embrace with my life.

Influence: leggings and the breakdown of society

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about influence.  Much of the time, we don’t even recognize the things that influence us.  And that can be dangerous.  I mean I used to say, “I will never wear leggings, they are so 80’s.”  And then without a conscious turning point I found myself the somewhat humbled owner of three pairs of leggings.  How did that happen?!  I was so dead set against them and now there they are in my closet.  Influence.  Over a period of time the barracades I had set up against the evils of the leggings were worn down by their incessant appearances in advertisements and fashions I saw on tv and in magazines and in stores and on friends.  And I, once a staunchly opposed to the leggings craze, found myself not only liking them, but owning them!

Ok, so leggings aren’t really causing a major break down in society.  That was probably not the worst influence.  But what about all of the other things that we are influenced toward day in and out?  This is something I find myself thinking about a lot.  Especially in regard to kids.  What is the lead character in that television show influencing kids to think is right?  What quality is that ad influencing kids to hold in high regard?  What information is that movie influencing kids to take as moral truth?  It’s not all bad by any means, but it’s not all good either.  We’ve got to be aware of the influences that are all around us and our children.  We need to know how to recognize these influences and not just be undiscerning consumers of media.  Instead of just taking in whatever is set in front of us, we need to be able to identify positive influence and reinforce it or identify negative influence and react appropriately.  Hmmm… easy to say, harder to do, but worth the effort, right?  Let’s keep thinking about this.