IT FEELS LIKE TODAY
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
leading in faith...or trying to
my grandad asked me last weekend what my life looks like as a...ummm...a person who...ummm...does what i do. (obviously he was more articulate than that--but that was how articulate i felt as i tried to answer). good question, right? i think it's a scary question for me, because my life, my post-college "real world" life, isn't very typical, although typical these days doesn't mean much. i think it also strikes people as a bit odd, especially those people who aren't church-goers. that's fine. i agree that it is a bit odd. it's not what i envisioned for myself two or three years ago. it's not what i envision for myself ten years from now. but this is life now, odd and random and intense and less busy than i would have imagined, but in a good way. hope this helps, grandad: --i'm a leader in faith. i'm still trying to figure out what exactly that means, but i know that it is my responsibility to lead people to God, no matter where they are or what they believe.
-- i ask questions. sometimes i go to the union with my friend betsy, and we ask people to take this survey she wrote. a lot of people are up for it, and we ask them questions like, "where do you think life came from? what do you think will happen when you die?" most people respond with "i don't know" or some variation of that. sometimes it's even "i don't care." betsy and i don't really talk about what we believe unless they're interested. most of the time we just ask the questions, invite people to think about this stuff, cause it's important.
--i pray a lot. or try to. it is strange to think that i am getting paid to pray, but it makes sense. prayer is one of the most powerful and effective things i can do as a leader in faith. i pray for the students that i know. i pray that they'll come to know God more deeply and fully. i try to spend time in solitude and silence so that i can hear from God.
--i do what God tells me to do. most of the time i don't know from one week to the next what work i'm going to be doing. i wait on God to reveal to me the work that needs to be done.
--i spend a ton of time with people. or that's the idea. on monday mornings i spend time with the rest of the staff to get a vision for the week, get encouraged, get on board. on wednesday mornings i go to "staff training" where we're going through a basic doctrine and theology class. on wednesday nights i lead a "lifegroup" which is a bunch of girls living in the baits and bursley dorms, who want to follow God and be together in that pursuit. on sundays i spend at least four hours with the women leaders who live on north campus. we talk about our lives and what we're learning, what we're struggling with. we spur one another on. i get together with girls one-on-one to talk about how they can grow, how they can lead better, how they can reach out to others.
--i travel a lot. for retreats, spring break trips, leadership training. this summer i'll spend eleven weeks in virginia with fifty of our student leaders, leading them to lead better. hopefully i'll eventually get to go overseas more to help with scouting out possibilities for missions trips, international leadership trainings, and church plants.
--i maintain random databases.
--i make large amounts of cookies, brownies, and cupcakes. i go to a lot of BBQs.
--i write long newsletters with prayer requests and send them to my prayer partners...every month.
--i hang up lots of flyers around campus.
--i go bowling, play games, watch movies and TV shows, chill on the beach, sing karaoke, make ice cream sundaes, and the like. it's all about bonding with the students. it's all about pretty much being a student, except without all the studying and paper-writing.
--my goal is to be apart of developing communities in the dorms at UofM that are influential, communities that draw people to Christ. my goal is to show college students how to love God by loving God. my goal is to love God. my goal is to love these people, really love them. my goal is to keep getting better at all this.
4:04 pm - 03.29.2006
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
there's music playing: "breathing air again" by robbie seay band
i'm reading: PERELANDRA by c.s. lewis
previous - next
|
|
|
|
|
|