God doesn’t need us, He chooses us.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, part of the reason for that is that I’ve been serving on Summer Staff for the past month at a Young Life camp in Glen Spey, NY called Lake Champion. The other part of that reason is that I’ve probably been a bit lazy and I haven’t had inspiration to post something but I do today so here it goes;

God doesn’t need us, He chooses us.

This idea is crazy and it’s insane but it is true and that’s why it is so mind-blowing. In my past year of leading and at my time spent on Summer Staff this phrase has been tossed around some and I never really took it for what it was worth until recently when God chose me for something that I didn’t feel adequate doing.

This year God decided to make me and another leader on my Young Life team at Northwest High School team leaders.

Now their are a few reasons that I feel inadequate in doing this:

1. I am starting my second semester of leading, and generally, a team leader has at least a couple of years of leading experience under their belts.

2. I have a lot of responsibility on my plate with school, and with the need for a job, and with leading in general so team leading just feels like too much for me on top of it all.

3. I already feel inadequate in what I’m doing so when this happened I was kind of like “Hey God you’re kidding right?”

But the Lord spoke to me today and what He said was this:

“I don’t need you, I chose you.”

Right now that truth is an anchor for me. Today, The Lord showed me that He can use me as a team leader, He showed me that He has and will provide everything that I need to equip me to do what He has chosen me for, and that is the biggest comfort I could receive.

When I look at scripture I see that this is a constant theme throughout every circumstance. God chooses people who are inadequate and He makes them adequate and that brings Him glory and that’s why we all exist.

My favorite example of this is in John 21, where Jesus reinstates Peter:

When they had finished eating Jesus said to Simon Peter,

“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?“

“Yes Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.“

Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?“

He answered, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep“

The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?“

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time. “Do you love me?“

He said,“Lord you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.“

Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then He said to him, “Follow me!“

This is such a testament to the fact that God doesn’t need us but He still chooses us. In the book of Acts, Peter does incredible things. Things that are so impossible for Him to do that the only explanation is that God is in him, and that is the beauty of what we get to experience every day when we follow Jesus. We get to be a conduit for the God of the universe and let others see His power through our inadequacy.

So if you are at a place where you feel inadequate or afraid about what God has chosen for you then take comfort in the fact that you aren’t needed, you are chosen, and that is exactly why The Lord is going to give you what you need to accomplish your task.

Jesus in Lima.

Today is our third day in Lima, Peru where we are working with the local Young Life area to bring Christ to kids in Lima. So far we have played in a water park with kids, and we have gone to a school for the disabled and helped to establish the Capernaum ministry there.

The biggest thing that I have noticed so far is that the gospel is so raw here. There is no watered-down way of bringing kids to Christ, all of the leaders we have come in contact with are full of Jesus. Like at the school we went to there was a clown, on stilts, juggling discs; of course we would soon find out that this guy is a Young life leader.

The mission hasn’t changed here in Peru. It is still about Jesus and not about us. Our team grows closer everyday and I see Christ in every person here.

Our hosts are amazing and have such servant’s hearts. I wish I had more time to describe all of the amazing things that are taking place but I don’t! Hopefully I will be able to write a more detailed entry later. I want to personally thank everyone who has prayed/donated for us to be here and I want to ensure you that we are doing kingdom work and that we wouldn’t be able to without you all, you all are a part of this trip and what God is doing through us and I am so grateful.

“So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say. ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty’ ” (Luke 17:10)

A Year In Review

A year ago today I walked into the dining hall at a Young Life camp called Rockbridge Alum Springs. I didn’t know any of the people there or even why I was there but three days into my two week session Jesus met me where I was and made me His child. In three days it will be one year since I’ve been following Christ. It hasn’t been easy, I’ve messed up more times than I can count, but for the past year I have turned to Christ with my burdens instead of carrying them myself, I have trusted Him when things weren’t looking great at all, and I have experienced what a true community of people chasing after Jesus can accomplish. So blessed to have spent August 6th through August 20th in 2012 with a group of fearless pursuers of Christ. I’m thankful that I have been changed by the ministry of Young Life and the spectacular people in it. The past year has shown me that I want to give my life to ministry and that I never want to live a second without Jesus again.

To each and every person from Rockbridge: Thank you so much for showing me in 3 short days what I was missing. Thank you for being driven by your love for Jesus and for making me want it more each day, I love you all!

Lazarus.

My senior year of high school has not turned out the way that I envisioned it to say the least. I never expected that Jesus would capture my heart at Work Crew over the summer, nor did I anticipate how much He would change my life in a matter of months. Now, as I am looking at schools to further my education at I am no longer deciding for myself, for I no longer live to satisfy my own will. I feel that I must reluctantly admit that I am still afraid of where I’ll end up. I am afraid that I will misinterpret what I believe to be as the Lord leading me. Am I really being called to full time ministry? How can I possibly do this at Belmont without the finances to support a $36,000 a year school? Frustrated and tired, I turned to the Word for guidance.

I want the kind of faith that the man with leprosy had in Matthew 8. “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” I read this and think about just how spectacular, how amazing our Savior is. This leper, this person rejected by society, still has faith in Jesus. I cannot imagine the pain he must have been in every day, not to mention being shunned by society for a disease he could not control. But he still knew without a doubt that Jesus could heal him. The same God that made that leper made me, and I can say pretty confidently that I have grown up in drastically better circumstances than this man did. All of my good fortune has come from God, yet I still had doubts that He would take care of me.

As I finish my application to Belmont University in Nashville, TN, I still cannot possibly fathom how the Lord could make it work. Just as these doubts began to consume my mind once again, none other than the Lord burst through my thoughts and sent one name reverberating off the walls of my mind, ‘Lazarus.’ Once again I prayed for forgiveness for my lack of faith. I felt like Peter after the rooster crowed. How many times must the Lord teach me that He can be trusted, that He can do anything. “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” (Ephesians 3:20 NIV)

Okay so define immeasurably. Let me break it down for you; Martha’s brother Lazarus has been dead for four days. When Jesus heard about this he decided to turn around and go back to Judea. I should also mention that very recently many Jews in Judea tried to stone Him. So Jesus who loved Martha, her sister Mary, and their dead brother Lazarus went to comfort them. Both of them wept for their dead brother and said “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not be dead.”(John 11:21 NIV). Seeing these women break down caused Jesus to weep. Yes, Jesus, the son of God, wept. Moved by the Spirit, Jesus decided to do something. He inquired about the burial place of Lazarus and instructed them to roll away the stone that sealed his grave.

“Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” (John 11:43-44 NIV) WHAT? Jesus literally raised a man from the dead. Death is almost the only absolute thing in this world. Everyone has to die in their earthly bodies at some point, this is such a solid truth. So Jesus did immeasurably more than Martha, Mary, and his disciples thought he could. And I had doubts that because of a lack of money, I might be unable to follow where the Lord is leading me. This is the same God that constructed mountains, and through belief in his Son gave man the faith to move them. When I think about the power of this almighty God my doubts melt away and a solid faith is all that remains. I know that if I trust in the Lord, He will do immeasurably more than all I can ask or imagine, including getting me where I need to be for school.