This week was filled with learning a lot of names, trying to get a handle on how life happens here on the campus where I'm living and working, figuring out what it means to live with two women I just met, and more. Through it all, I saw the Lord's hand working out the details and reminding me that I'm not walking through this journey alone. There have been moments in my life when I can't say His presence is clear to me, but this is not one of those times. Each time I find myself worrying, doubting or complaining, I feel the Father's comforting hand guiding me back so that my eyes are focused on Him once again. I know that if all else fails this summer, I am where He has called me to be.
This past Sunday I chose to visit a local church by myself as both my roommates happened to be out of town that morning. Walking through the doors of a new church alone is an intimidating feeling even as someone who has a commitment to walking with the Lord. I have new found respect for individuals who are searching for answers and enter into a foreign church on a Sunday morning. They are truly brave souls. This church opened their arms to me the moment I crossed the threshold into their facility. I had countless faces and names greet me and ask me to sit with them shaking my hand and giving it an extra squeeze to let me know that I was wanted in their church that morning. When the service was over and after another twenty minutes of talking with sweet women of the Lord, I promised them I'd return the following week, I have an invitation to join one woman at her home for lunch after the service and am invited to join a women's Bible study for the summer. This church family truly knows what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. I have no doubt I will build dear friendships with these prayer warriors while I am in Macon this summer.
On Monday morning, I had some paperwork and other formalities I needed to take care of before I could discover what my summer would look like in the Early Childhood and Parenting Program (ECP) working with teenage mothers and their children. As I was signing approximately 40-some sheets of paper, I was invited to join the weekly devotional and prayer meeting that is held every Monday morning and led by the Executive Director/COO of Hephzibah for any staff who would like to and is able to attend. This man who has an entire campus full of residents and staff to deal with took the time to meet me and invite me to join him and the other two interns in his office later that afternoon. When I met with them I discovered that he had assigned them a book to read about leadership. This meeting was the follow-up to discuss what they'd read and what he'd learned throughout his life. He then assigned us all another book to read in the coming month and scheduled another meeting. Before we left, he told us, "I am here to be an advocate for you." This man knows what it means to love the least of these, be it teenagers removed from their home with nowhere to live or unpaid interns working for him for a mere summer.
As I think about these examples of tangible love in my life this week, I am reminded that the greatest commandment I have been given is to Love God and Love Others. My prayer this week is that as God uses me as He desires, I would learn to embody love as it is described in 1 Corinthians 13. I want to be someone who is patient, kind, not envious or boastful or proud. I want to be someone who honors others and seeks to serve them. I do not want to be easily angered or keep a record of wrongs. Instead, I want to rejoice in the truth, trusting, hoping, and persevering in faith that never ends. May I learn to be love to others as God is Love.
No comments:
Post a Comment