Passion2012: DO SOMETHING NOW!

Passion 2012 is currently happening (if you don't know what that is, check it out here) and I've had the opportunity to listen to some of the main sessions via their live stream.

I get shivers as I listen to the worship as I'm hearing thousands and thousands of 20-somethings worshipping the Lord and having their hearts being renewed, inspired and changed.

Yesterday's afternoon session left me.....well let me share with you what I came away thinking about.....

The woman who spoke, Christine Caine, was specifically speaking about sex trafficking and the darkness and pain in our world. She pointed out if you take away a name and face and just put statistic than it's easy to ignore suffering. This is why the Nazi's tattooed numbers, numbers dehumanized. Is it more powerful when we see large statistics of number of girls who are sex trafficked or when you hear and see one story, a story that has a name and face? What is our reaction when that happens? What are we suppose to do?

Christine talked about the story in the Bible about the good Samaritan and shared how it shows how we are called to react.

"the Samaritan had compassion and so he went"

Is it compassion when we hear the stories to get emotional and sad? Is it compassion when I sit there, crying my eyes out as I hear the story of an abused and broken girl? Not really.

"the Samaritan had compassion and so he went"

HE WENT. He didn't just sit there and cry. He didn't just sit there and ponder the darkness of the situation. HE WENT. He didn't just sit there and pray. It's not really compassion until you cross the street and DO SOMETHING. Until you become actively involved and allow your life to be interrupted.

We have been given hope. So many people in this world don't know the hope that I do. We have hope, we have been saved by grace. But we have been saved by grace FOR A PURPOSE. We are to be moved by compassion and be sent out to a lost and broken world to bring hope and restoration.

There are people all over the world, our country, our city, our neighborhood who are bound and captive. Maybe it's the extreme of sex trafficking or slavery but maybe it's drugs, it's the alcohol, it's an abusive relationship......whatever it is......what would happen if we raised our voices and did something?! Could we possibly be a generation that could help bring freedom, life, mercy, justice, truth to a lost generation?!?

Towards the end of her talk, Christine shared a story about her involvement in rescuing girls from sex trafficking. She was in a shelter and there was a girl who had just been rescued across the room who yelled at Christine why did she come? Christine told this rescued girl about this God in heaven that loves her, that Jesus healed Christine, and had freed her and God could do that for this rescued girl too. That God has a plan/purpose/destiny for her life and Jesus could redeem her and give her a future for her past. The rescued girl yelled across the shelter,

 "If what you are telling me about your God is true, if this is true about your God, THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU COME SOONER?!?!"

One word. HAUNTING.

What is it in our temporal lives that is so important that takes us away from the eternal purpose that we are here for? What is more important than people?

Safety? Comfort? Money? Security?

"Security is not the goal of Christianity......freedom is"

Jesus set us free to send us into a dark and dying world to bring freedom.

I think it scares us. Scares up to give up the security that our American life holds for us. Scared that would will God actually ask of us if we fully and completely surrender to the Lord?! Scared about the darkness that is in the world. Scared about how it could affect our lives and shake us up. But why? Why are we so scared? We don't need to fear what he defeated.

Christine ended her talk with the story of taking her daughter to go get a flashlight. And her daughter tried to turn the flashlight on in the store but because it was so light in there.....obviously you couldn't see the light. Christine's daughter turned to her and said, "mommy...can we please go find some darkness"

Out of the mouths of babes. How do we expect the light of Christ to shine in us in a lighted room? we don't need to fear it. Light works best in darkness. We need to take the light of Christ into a dark and dying world. How will they ever know if we don't do something?! Now?!

"Surely God wants to use rescued people to rescue people"

We have been rescued. When someone is saved and rescued from a dark prison do they just stay silent? Do they just keep calm about where they come from and what they have come into? NO! So, why do we?! Why do we stay in our little comfortable, middle-class, Christian American lives and act like God approves of our mediocre Christianity?!

If you call yourself a believer, a follower of Christ.....YOU ARE NOT YOU OWN....your life needs to be about being the light in the darkness.

Do something now.

What is God calling you, calling me, to do? How does He want to use my gifts and talents to make a difference in my world? Jesus has sent me, and you, to to bring life and liberty. We have been set free and rescued to do the same to others. Not to just live in our little "Christian 'bless me' clubs".

I feel God has been doing a lot in my heart the past week in regards to thinking about my future, my destination and how the choices I'm making influence the destination I'm headed towards.

(There will be a blog all about this in future days, I'm sure.)

Is it a coincidence that I heard all this the day before I have my first interview with the international guys of Young Life? Is it just by chance that I heard this when it speaks DIRECTLY to the fears and concerns I've had in me, regarding doing international ministry again?

HECK NO!

I know it was God telling me to stop thinking about me, about my future, about my comfort.It was God reminding me that there are hurting young people in this world that need to be told and shown His love. That there are dark places where these youth are and dark things that they are getting involved in that will just keep leading them further and further away from a loving and gracious God who wants nothing more than to be in relationship with them. And it is the call on my life to be a light to these people. It is the call on my life to love students. To love the trouble ones, to love the lost and dark ones, to love those who are pursuing the Lord, to walk that journey with them, to be Jesus to them, to be an example of a person changed by home, to be an example of someone who's been rescued and to be a light in the dark.

What that EXACTLY looks like? I don't know. But I've started on the journey of discovery it.

This is my "do something now".

Year of Hope to the Year of Joy

Hello 2012, welcome to my world.

Last year the word Hope was my word for the year. It it absolutly incredible to sit here a year later and think about all the ways that word impacted my life this year. Hope will forever be one of my favorite words. There is so much promise, so much anticipation, so much heartache and so much longing in that four letter word. I learned how important it is to allow yourself to feel the weight of the hope and the desires you have. That my hope for things must be brought under the banner of God's plans and control. That I need to trust Him with my hope. And to understand that hoping can bring pain. That your heart may ache the more you hope but that it isn't a bad thing. That it is actually suffering that can produce even more hope. It was a word I needed to focus on last year. I needed to find the hope in my life. I needed to find the source of my hope and how that can complete me. And I did.

I thought a lot about my word for this year. And the word I've chosen is Joy. It's something that towards the last half of this year I've been thinking a lot about. Joy. What does it look like to be someone who is joyful at all times, in all circumstances, not matter what is coming or going in life? I want to be that type of person. I want to be someone who understands what the joy of the Lord is and how it looks in daily life. So, here we go. On the journey of joy. Watch this space.

I've excited for this year. I'm excited to go to Florida in a few weeks and see one of my soul friends. I'm excited for my work conference and the refreshing time that I know it will be. I'm excited to watch the continual process of pursuing international staff and seeing what God does in that.

Hopefully, I'll blog more this year too. haha. Don't hold your breath for that one!