Have you taken the time?

 Have you ever taken the time to look at creation and sit in awe of how awesome God is?  This past Monday, I attended the Chicago West Area Team meeting and we took time to do a retreat of silence at a beautiful garden.  After going through the retreat guide, I just took some time to walk around admire the garden.  As I can to the end of a path I found a plaque that had Psalm 8 on it.  So curious to figure out why they chose that Psalm, I looked it up in my Bible to see what it was about (this version is the ESV):
     
            O LORD, our Lord, 
      how majestic is your name in all the earth! 
                  You have set your glory above the heavens. 
            Out of the mouth of babies and infants, 
                  you have established strength because of your foes, 
      to still the enemy and the avenger. 

            When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, 
      the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 
            what is man that you are mindful of him, 
      and the son of man that you care for him? 

            Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings 
      and crowned him with glory and honor. 
            You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; 
      you have put all things under his feet, 
            all sheep and oxen, 
      and also the beasts of the field, 
            the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, 
      whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 

            O LORD, our Lord, 
      how majestic is your name in all the earth! 

And now I understood why they picked that Psalm to be on a plaque in a garden.  Surrounded by God's magnificent creation, to think that He created each unique plant, leaf, pebble, petal, ripple, bug, & animal can only make you echo the Psalmist's thoughts "who am I that the Creator of the universe should be mindful of me?" The Almighty God, Savior of the World, King of All is also the greatest Artist ever who created all the beauty that is around us.  Not only that, but the LORD of hosts took the time to intricately form man, to form you, to form me.  Not only though did He form us, He CARES for us.  He cares for you.  He cares for me.  In fact, it isn't just that He cares, He LOVES.  The awesome, mighty, powerful, Creator God loves me, loves each of us individually.  The Bible says that God knows the number of hairs on our head.  He knows that not just because He is Omniscient, but because He made each one of those individual hairs.  He pays attention to the smallest detail about me, and He is the King of Kings.  "Who am I that the LORD should be mindful of me?"

The simple answer is just that He loves us.  He loves you.  He loves me.  He loves me enough to make me; I am fearfully and wonderfully made by Him. He cares and loves me enough to count the hairs on my head.  And as I began to reflect on that, it reminded me that if God cares enough to do that, then He cares also about those bigger things too.  If He cares to uniquely make every detail about me, then He cares about me spending time with Him.  He cares about how I'm doing emotionally, if I'm happy, stressed, excited, angry, sad, joyful... He cares about my concern for my family when they are sick.  He cares about my need to have quiet time.  He cares about my financial needs to be 100% funded to work full time with students at AU with IV.  He cares about my heart to see the lost at AU be reached with the love of Christ.  And He cares for each one of those students at AU that don't know Him yet.  

Not only does He care about me, He cares about them.  God took time to create them; each one is fearfully and wonderfully made by Him. If He cared enough to create the 2,600 students that are at AU, each one uniquely formed, then I should care for them too.  We should care for them too.  And that care means that we should be concerned for the eternal destiny of each of those students.  God loves each of the students, and we should too.  At a conference once, the speaker asked a really bold question.  He asked how much do you have to hate someone to not share with them the Good News of Christ?  Obviously none of us hate college students, but do we love them enough to share with them that there is a a Creator God who made them, and loves them, and because of that love sent Christ to die for their sins so they can spend eternity with the God who is Love?  This is a challenging question for me to have to honestly answer, so I know it is hard for all to really answer that.  So the next question is what do you do with that?  Now that you have been asked if you love them, how will you show that you do?  My answer is that I went on staff with IV to share the love of Christ with them on a full time basis.  You're answer won't look the same as mine, but you still need to answer it.  You're answer might simply be praying for those students, some others might respond by serving the college students at their church, others still might intentionally invest time in mentoring a students, others still might respond by financially supporting ministries that serve the college campus.  A hard question sometimes requires an answer that is hard to do but love is not easy.  We are to be known as Christians by our love, and that means that love needs to extend to the college campus as well.  If God loves us, then we need to love like He does.

A New Semester, A Bigger Harvest Field

The semester is approaching really fast.  To think that classes will start in 2 weeks makes you wonder where the summer went.  I am anticipating this time a little differently than those who will be going back to classes.  I am not concerned about textbooks, commuting, or any of those other typical back to school issues.  These issues don't even compare to the issue that is tearing at my heart.  For those of you wondering, not even my fund raising holds a candle to the issue at hand.  True, getting funded is important and needed to do the ministry God has called me to at AU. 

However, the real issue at hand, the issue that fuels me to tackle this mountain called fund raising, is the issue of the eternal condition of the students walking onto AU's campus.  In just 2 weeks over 2,000 students will walk back onto AU's campus.  These students are coming to make new friend, catch up with old friends,

pursue a degree to end in a career, explore some of the greatest questions of our generation, etc... They have the near future on their minds, some even have a 10 year plan.  But most of these students don't have an eternal plan.  Some of these students don't think that there is anything after this life, some may think if you are good you'll make it some form of "heaven".  Some don't even think that there is a hope that they can find comfort in on this side of heaven, let alone after this life.  These students are searching for something to fill that desire to have meaning, be made whole, & to be a part of something greater than them.  These students are searching and I want to be on campus to point them down the right road.

I ache to lead them to Jesus.  To show them his love and compassion.  To teach them that nothing of this world can fill their desires but they can be filled and healed through Jesus.  I don't want to let a single student leave that campus without hearing about Jesus.  Each student's life could be transformed by a single conversation or encounter with a living witness for Christ.  But that is 2,000 students.  That is 2,000 conversations.  That is 2,000 interactions with a witness for Christ.  Each year more and more students attend AU, and that means there are that many more students who need to have a relationship with Jesus.  The work isn't done until the trumpets sounds and we are called home to glory.  AU is a harvest field, but the workers need to be there to work it.  I'm so thankful that even as I wait to start on campus, the IV chapter is established enough to still do what they can to share the gospel.  But this need, these students that need to know Jesus, make me not content until I can be on campus to do outreach too.

I saw a quote on a bulletin board at church the other day.  The gist of it was that the one thing that we will never be able to do again once we are in heaven is share the gospel.  So we need to work until the Master comes back.  That means sharing the gospel at AU to each of the students.  That means reaching out to those who are hurt and broken and need to know that there is hope.  That means I need to be able to get to work soon.  There is a song by Brandon Heath that reminds me how important it is to keep working in the harvest field, to continue to reach out to the lost and broken.  The chorus is my prayer to all of us, not just for me to be able to do my work on campus:

For all that we've grown
How could we forget
Those who don't know
Or just don't know yet
Let's harvest this field
From sunrise to sunset
The Master is coming
We are not done yet

I pray that I will never forget that there is still work to be done at AU.  As students come year after year to AU, I pray that I don't forget how great the need is to go and tell others about the hope we have found in Christ.  That is why I feel the urgency and the ache to be on campus; I want to be able to harvest the field from sunrise to sunset.  I need to get on campus soon, because the work is not done for me yet at AU.  Let us not forget those who don't know yet. 

So, what do I do?

I am always asked, "So, what do you do?"  And that can be a very long and complicated answer.  Twentyonehundred Productions, InterVarsity's multimedia department, I believe summed it up pretty well in their infographic this week.

Singleness

Well February is over and you know what that means.... Valentine's Day has come and gone yet again.  This day to celebrate love and relationships is finally past but I am still left with reflections that this day brought about.  In our culture it seems that whether or not you enjoy the day hinges on one think, having a relationship with a significant other (boyfriend/girlfriend, husband/wife).  Those who have that relationship are busy planning a fun day or romantic dinner, while those who do not tend to complain about the day or try to "be strong" and ignore the lovely-dovey posts floating across their Facebook and Twitter feeds.  This year seemed no different than any other year.  I normally land in the chategory of "being strong and trying to ignore all the lovey-dovey social media posts".  I have never had a boyfriend, never been on a date; and therefore, normally disliked Valentine's Day. If I had a $1 for every time some one told me "One day...", I probably would be funded and on campus by now.  It is almost like singleness is treated like an illness that needs to be cured; that our dislike of a day about love could be solved by just going on a date.

However, my reflections on this day have come to a different realization this year.  I'm not in a different place relationally (still single) but I have come to a different season and place in my faith (no I am not kissing dating good-bye).  I have come to a place where I am content with where God has me relationally.  I'm not desperate and going to do whatever I can to get a date.  I don't want to date for fun.  In fact I think of dating more as "courting", the only reason I would date someone is with the end goal of knowing if that person is indeed someone I could marry.  I would rather have it be a one time deal, instead of coming into my final relationship with the baggage that accumulated from dating for fun.  So I will gladly wait for the Lord to bring me to the one man I would spend the rest of my life with.  I only need one, so I will wait.  God gives me what I need, so if I don't have a boyfriend right now guess I don't need one just yet.  Instead of begrudging my singleness I will take advantage of this time to focus solely on my King and let Him be the only man in my life for now.  Why should I make myself miserable when God can use this time for so much good?  So I resonate with this two videos of some amazing Christian music artists who are in the same boat as me.

Thus ends my rant on people who think there is something wrong with me because I'm waiting and have never dated yet...