Life's a mission

So much for weekly updates, eh? Sorry! The schedule down here is so much busier than I had anticipated so please forgive me! An short update on NMB project itself:

1. Last week, God used the people on our project to initiate over 2500 spiritual conversations, present the gospel over 600 times, and lead 101 people to Christ!
2. There's only one temperature here: HOT
3. I'm working at Chik-fil-A...which is a fast food restaurant that serves a lot of Chicken.
4. I'm now leading the acoustic worship team on sunday nights for the project (something I'm still getting used to saying)
5. My roommates/bible study/impact group are AMAZING
6. Prayer requests!
-For strength and energy for everyone on the project. It's fun...but exhausting
-For unity among the students and staff...it's been awesome...but pray for even more unity :)
-For safety for the project people, but also for the MANY high school kids around who come here to party hard
7. Tonight marks the start of World week! Yay!!
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This is what has been on my mind lately.

For anyone who knows me, they'd say I'm a pretty extroverted person. However, I've found myself wanting to be by myself or in small groups rather than big group stuff. I've definitely included myself, no worries. But I've found that it's only during my alone time that I'm able to think about why I'm truly here: to grow in order to be sent.

As I go from work to project events, I find myself so incredibly focused on my personal growth (it's not a bad thing, by any means...it's the reason I came here) that I forget what burdens I know I'm meant to live with. One of those burdens is the weight of eternal glory. We are taught that eternal perspective means not to live by worldly standards and know with our minds and hearts that things like grades and appearance don't matter. I couldn't agree more with that. But do I live that way? Nope...because I let my flesh take over.

About a month before coming to North Myrtle, I had a conversation with my two good friends Johanna and Emily about what eternal perspective really means. As we sat in what UW-Madison calls "the prayer room" at 1am on a monday night, we realized what it meant to LIVE with an eternal perspective. Over and over again in the Bible, prophecies are fulfilled and nations are changed. The last prophecy of the bible is that Jesus is coming back. Meaning, that is what we're waiting on RIGHT NOW. We're waiting for Jesus to come back. What kind of weight is that to carry? The bible says that "He will come like a thief in the night." No one knows when He will return except the Father. Yet, we discussed this idea: that if somehow, we knew when and where Jesus was to return...true worshippers and believers around the world would drop everything to go to the world. The way we interact with people who walk down the street would change radically. I picture my friends and I sitting around a map and designating others to different places around the globe. Just picture it! What would it look like to see every knee bow at the name of Jesus and what would it sound like to hear every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? It would be BEAUTIFUL. Other than God, I can't think of a sight more astounding than the sight of everyone worshipping our King and giving Him the praise He deserves. And when I think about Jesus' return, it gets me excited because in heaven, we are seated in the heavenly realms and are CO-HEIRS with Christ! In heaven, it will be an eternity without pain, suffering and sin and only with love, passion, joy and peace. Even further, we will be embraced by our true love and hear "well done my good and faithful servant."

So...my burden is this: I can't wait for heaven and can't wait to stand before Him and rejoice in victory, but I have this heart wrenching fear that-as bad as it sounds-Jesus is going to come back too soon. I'm burdened at the thought of knowing that if Jesus came at this very moment...even though I would be able to spend eternity with Him, there would be people that I could never see again. It scares me that there are people that I love more than I can say that I would not be able to hug or love again because they would spend an eternity separated from their Creator. And I think about the lost around the world that have never heard the good news. I hear all of this and immediately, God places an urgency in my soul that returns a kind of passion and freedom that I so often forget. It's not only an urgency to share the Gospel...but it's an urgency to LOVE others. It's an urgency to truly rejoice in everything as Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

Even though the book of Revelation scares me...I KNOW that faith, hope, love, and redemption are real. I know that someday...there will be justice for orphans, widows, the oppressed and marginalized. That is why my heart continues in this battle for the Lord. We are brothers and sisters in Christ that need to unite in order to bring home the lost. We are soldiers in God's army fighting HIS fight. It's not ours to win or lose. We know that in the end, we win...so why do we give up so often? God's word, the belt of truth, the sword of the Spirit, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation...take all of that and FIGHT. Fight hard until the end because the battle is not over. Christ has taken the victory and it's just a matter of persevering through the pain and suffering. We will have casualties in our actions and words...but as we puruse Jesus with a steadfast heart and hold the the truths of love, grace, salvation and redemption...the injuries are worth it.

Life's a mission: Activate (NMB motto!)

"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." --John 4:23-24

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