This past Friday as the countdown ran for the last time, I don't believe I was the only one on that stage with tears welling up in their eyes. I blinked and somehow I missed it. The summer is over? My staff is gone? What a weird feeling to not wake up with your 29 sweet friends waiting on you in the living room... what a weird feeling to not be wearing my polo and prepping for reg on a monday... what a weird feeling to know that hundreds of kids are not waiting on you each morning with the precious desire to laugh, smile, and hear more about the Gospel through it all.
And I'm worried that I missed it. I look back at the summer and stand humbly in awe of all that the Lord did and yet it all feels like such a blur. Last summer didn't feel like this, why does this one? I think part of the difference there is that we didn't travel. A few weeks into the summer I came to the realization that we lived in Jackson this summer. We didn't just visit-- I lived there. And for that I am grateful. I've made some incredible friends, both on my staff as well as at Millsaps, and I'm excited to see how the Lord draws us together and uses each of us in unique ways from here forward.
Mary and I talked at training week about the idea that each of us have our own journey. The Lord has brought us each through some huge things in our lives that shape us to be who we are today and for this season of life, our journeys all met. It's like a giant treasure map with 30 paths swirling all around and landing in a big X in the middle-- the summer of 2011. It was beautiful to watch our stories intertwine and now they've separated back again, forever changed by the power and magnitude of the Gospel, of seeing kids come to know the Lord, of growing more from kids and adults and one another than we ever dreamed.
"In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace... For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." -Colossians 1:6-14
We talked this summer about how God provides. God provides forgiveness, God provides calling, and God provides enough. Forgiveness is something that we are called to preach to ourselves daily. My sweet friend Marko reminded me so often this summer of the necessity of that-- the need for us to preach the Gospel to ourselves daily. We are nothing without His forgiveness. It takes a full understanding of exactly why we need that forgiveness-- that sin that separates me from the holy and perfect God of the universe, that one that loves me enough to know my every heart beat. My desire today is for those heartbeats to be more and more in tune with His. That my life would be whole and pleasing to Him in every way. Forgiven... praise God we can be forgiven. I'll never forget the joy in the eyes of a little girl named Abby when she sat with me one night and talked through the Gospel with a full understanding of why she wanted and needed Christ in her life that very day. There is such beauty in the realization of our ugliness opposed to Christ's perfection. There is such beauty in the realization that His perfection is offered to us freely.
We talked on day two about how God provides calling for us. God calls each of us uniquely but there are two ways in which He calls all of us the same-- first to be His child and come follow Him and second to go forth and tell other people. My calling for the summer is coming to a close and now I am called to go back to being a student at UGA. I'm called to work at a church, to serve where I can, and to love very intentionally and boldly the people around me. The Lord has laid certain people on my heart and I pray I cannot escape the situations to share with them. And who knows where He will call me after that... looks like He may be calling me back in this direction but the beauty of God is that He knows exactly what I need. He knows where I need to be and He will work that for His Glory. I'm just along for the ride. The best I can do is to get on my knees and ask for His direction. Jeremiah 33:3, right?
That's probably enough of the random things on my mind for now... I'm convinced that despite the fact that the summer is coming to a close, God is not done teaching me (or any of us) about how He provides. He provides enough-- not just barely enough but exactly specifically what I need, even when I don't know I need it. I'm grateful today for the things He has provided in my life and excited to see how He continues to use those.
"The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant." -Colossians 1:15-23
For today, I am just going to continue to enjoy the morning while I wait for Daniel to finish his first day of work. It's still hard for me to grasp that he's teaching high school... The past few days have been such a sweet blessing to my heart. For now our lives look like lazy days of couch shopping and dancing in the living room. Just being back together is such a huge blessing and there is no place I would rather be.
"We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me." -Colossians 1:28-29
And what better way to close than with some of my favorite shots from the summer in absolutely no particular order at all. Enjoy!
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