Last night was so fun! I went to my friend Brad's house for a cookout with a bunch of peeps. We danced the night away to Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie and John Ford Coley and England Dan. We played Simon Says. We ate Brats and the yummiest s'mores known to man/woman. Laughed our butts off. I walked away last night with very sleepy eyes and a big smile on my face. Community. What we were created for. Connection...Harmony...Community....one in spirit and in mind. I love it.

Philippians 2 says, " Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind."

You see, the peeps I was with LOVE Jesus. We share that in common. Our relationships look different from person to person, but we all love him. Spending time with each other I was reminded of him. The joy I share, the fun we have...THAT is Jesus...that is what he wants. Making his joy complete by being like-minded with Christ, having HIS same love and being ONE in spirit and of ONE mind. What does it mean to be like-minded with Christ? The next couple of verses hit pretty close it.

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others."

This is EXACTLY what Christ did. We had fun last night and put the interests of others on the table. I wanted to dance, Steph wanted to play Simon says, Brad wanted to cookout and make s'mores. By putting all of our interests on the table, without any agenda or selfishness, we allow ourselves to have fun and really live out what Phil.2 is saying.

Backing up...the first part of this chapter states something very very interesting to me."...make my joy complete by having the same love". I was frustrated last night. For protection of this person I will not say much about them, but will tell you about the place my heart was in. I felt judged last night. I felt as if I could do nothing right in their eyes and to be honest....I didn't wanna try. There was no guilt in the fun we had. It was good clean fun...it just was outside of their comfort zone. I knew the exact condition of my heart and nothing about last night would make Jesus frown...BUT the way I felt towards them. It is hard to love someone who continues to push you away and your only interaction with them is them disapproving of you. I felt myself getting bitter...very bitter b/c I am sick of the box they put God in. God doesn't exist in a box. The God I know is a generous God who gives grace, peace, wisdom, strength and perseverance to work through things we face...and a spirit to make sense of it all. He is a God of communal oneness. He is personally and intimately invested in me. THAT is the God I know. With that said...none of what I just listed puts God in a box....instead he is far out of it. He is not a God that says "live this way and I am not really going to give any explanation why"....NO....he sent his son Jesus to show us exactly why. He set an example for us and showed us that even HE, God in the flesh, did not hang with perfect people. His best friends were the farthest thing from that. So what gives for the pressure of being perfect in every one's eyes and only hanging with people who do the same (even though our private lives when know one is around, wouldn't line up with our exterior). I hang with imperfection and Jesus loves those people...I am one of them!

So...I prayed. I asked God for grace and peace to love them well. I was reminded about something I heard Rob Bell say once. He said " Wanna understand God's love, grace and peace? Surround yourself with the strange, hard to love, outcast, one's you can't stand....and in that frustration of trying to love them well, you will be face to face with what it means for God to love you." Whoa. Trying to love this person well is a DIRECT reminder of what God goes through with me. I was humbled. I was quiet for awhile just thinking about that last night. Not ONLY do I love the strange and outcast...but the ones that are HARD for me to love because of how they treat me. EVEN those peeps, I am to flesh out to love well. Wow.

If I could forgive them of their past, and how they treat me, I could get a glimpse of how God loves me despite my past.

I am CHOOSING to love well...even when it is hard and you feel like knocking the "you know what" out of them". I am also choosing to be one in spirit and one in mind. Living how God intended for me to live...in commnuinty, being creative, living in harmony with others.

Union and Communion are the goal of all creativity in community. We are created for these things. Relationship with Jesus. We were made for this.

While I value beyond measure everything the Lord teaches me in each season of life....i don't want this blog to just be a devotional each time.

That just doesn't match my personality. I am crazy and random. I want this blog to reflect just that!

So...sometimes I will be serious...others will just be funny or random...and others will be a bit of both!!

I just got back from taking 9 girls to Young Life camp in Fraser, CO. The camp is called Crooked Creek Ranch. It is absolutely beautiful and I am in complete awe that the Lord has blessed this mission with such beautiful camps all across the world.

The girls who went on this trip we all girls who have either grown up in the military or have lived in a military community their whole lives. Either circumstance leaves these kids with a inconsistent friends because of the constant moving and a heart of steal protecting them from letting anyone in, who will eventually leave. Walking into this "Military Young Life" ministry, I can honestly say I had no idea how hard this would truly be in comparison to my "Multicultural (or Urban) Young Life" experience in Nashville. Not that one is harder than another....they are just really different.

So my prayer walking into last week was that God would go before me and give me more than everything I needed. He did indeed answer that prayer.
9 girls...none of them Christians...none of them with stable home lives....none of them really ever hearing about the greatest love story ever and the hope that is found in that. I got the front row seat of watching the Lord break down walls around this girls. I got to see fruit spring up as it "clicked" in there sweet hearts that THERE IS indeed a God who loves them MORE than anything they could imagine and there is NOTHING that could make Him love them any less. Hearing this, these girls broke. They couldn't believe that there was that much forgiveness. 'The more you get to know him, the more you will want to be like him"....this came out of my mouth at least 5 times a day. They had this misconception that the God of the universe, the God that their YL leader Erin so DEEPLY loves. I told them that he doesn't want them to come to him being perfect, but instead, just as they are. Whoa. "You mean we don't have to quit drinking, smoking and all the other stuff BEFORE we come to him", one of my sweet girls asked. Nope. Come as you are. He loves you as you are, BUT refuses to leave you that way. He wants the BEST for your life and will go to ANY cost so that you can have HIS best.

Sure, the emotions of feeling unworthy of his love, a love that would sacrifice his own life to save them and give them life and life the fullest were present. Sure, they felt like they have screwed up WAYYYYYYYYY to much to ever come home like the prodigal son did. But at the end of the week, they walked away knowing that although his love is undeserved, it is there and he offers it freely, if we would just reach out and take it. And they did! 6 out of the 9. They stood up at "Say SO", Young Life's way of giving kids a chance to live out what Ps. 107:2 says "Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy", and proclaimed that they had decided to come home to the Father. I was OVERWHELMED by what the Lord had done and honored to get to see the fruit, which is something that any Young Life leader will tell you, is not always a guaranteed perk in this ministry. Thanks for all your prayers!!

Now on to the funny stuff. No doubt I am a leader who will ALWAYS get in trouble at camp. This year I seemed to escape it though. Every night we had wrestling matches and sumo fights, which required the kids to take pillows from the cabin outside the cabin (which is NOT allowed)...and many more things that cannot be mentioned :) . I had so much fun with these girls. I thank God for the other leader, Jenny, who joined the team 2 weeks before camp, and was clearly the adult in our cabin when I was just as stirred up as the girls. She definitely had fun with us too...she just brought me back down to earth when I was SUPER hyper. Here are just a few pics of the chaos and fun!!

Oh the joy it is to serve God through Young Life. I am blessed beyond understanding to walk through life with these kids and earn my right to be hear in their life!!!