Saturday, November 8, 2008

Acceptance

Welp, it's all beginning! I've been accepted to Denver Seminary and will soon become a Coloradan... (and that's really what they're called. I looked it up! Read here.) I head up to good ol' Colorado next week to visit the campus, go hiking, and visit a friend in Aspen. It's been a crazy ride so far deciding to go to seminary. My sister's godmother who is around 90 years old (and still kickin!) told my mom years back that I was going to be a priest one day (I was raised Episcopalian). When my mom told me this, I scoffed and figured there was no way I would ever be anything close to a priest.

Fast forward a few years and I found myself interning for the church I grew up in. Our church leadership was hit with alot of stress when the national Episcopal church started adopting unsound doctrine. I saw how hard it was to "run" a church and I told myself I would never be a part of a church's leadership again. I thought there were too many politics.

Fast forward another couple of years and I found myself working as a communications intern for a church in Fort Worth. I stayed there for two years. And it wasn't until the end of those two years that I realized I was in this kind of life for a reason. I care too much for the church just to watch it suffer. There is alot of poor leadership out there and it's infesting the body. Many local churches are hollow. The body looks intact, but it's merely skin deep.

People. People. People. That's what makes up the body and second to God, people should be the focus of any ministry. We are meant to live in relationship with each other. We are meant to cry with others, laugh with them, celebrate, hold, scream, whisper, LIVE LIFE with them. There is nothing easy about being a Christian. It is hard. It's almost a paradox in this world. And that's the point. It's suppose to not make sense.

We are not meant to understand how God works, but we know he works in glorious ways to further his kingdom. We are not the center of the story. We get to be a part of it. I've used the term "we" alot because we are in this together. That's how the body works. My gift for talking with and helping people is nothing without someone who can stand up and teach truth. God gives us different gifts that we might come together to use them.

For awhile I saw others around me who are great teachers, and I thought, "Man, if only I could do that." I even thought of studying Biblical Studies in seminary to learn how to teach truth like that. But then I realized what gifts God haa given me. He's given me the gifts of mercy and compassion. And I am meant to hone these gifts that I might do my part in furthering his kingdom.

I won't lie... It's hard having this kind of gift. My heart aches alot and God has pulled me through some major suffering that I might know what it's like to be at the bottom. But I know that without all the heartache, I wouldn't be at the place I am now, and I wouldn't have the passion to help others through their suffering. So praise be to God who knows what it's like to suffer. What love is in that... that God himself came down from heaven and bore our Sin. What a selfless sacrifice.

2 comments:

  1. 1. I appreciate the garden gnome being included in your blog format.
    2. I'm looking forward to reading your many adventures and thoughts here. I've added you to the Favorites list, no doubt.
    3. I can witness God's glory and plan for you through the words you've already expressed. I can't even imagine what amazing growth is to come for you. You're an absolute blessing to His kingdom.

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  2. Thanks for that affirmation! It's so encouraging to hear that...

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