Ever notice how for some people serving just seems to come natural? It’s not a job or a chore, they just do it.  Lately, I have been in very close contact with a family who serves as a way of life. (and by close contact, I mean living in their house)

This past week, I got a ride to work one day because my car was frozen shut and another day I went out to a cleaned off, warmed up car.  Today I got breakfast. Most nights I get dinner. After an unfortunate flat tire in -3 degree weather, an air compressor showed up to inflate the flat spare tire.  And this is just what I have experienced this week.  I know for a fact I am not the only one who has experienced the grace and hospitality of this family because they do it out of hearts of love for people around them.

It has inspired me to work on developing similar habits in my life. I want to be a person who serves not out of comfort or convenience, but serves to meet the needs of those around me.  I can tell you at the end of the  day, far more people have seen Jesus through simple kind acts done out of love than the bold, extravagant moves of a church. Both are needed I suppose. But I think we too often forget about the small things. Perhaps we are too wrapped up in our own lives or too focused on our own needs. Perhaps we hold too tightly to the stuff we own and forget it is all God’s anyways. Sadly, we, myself included, too often miss out on the chance to be a practical blessing to those around us. So for the rest of 2014, maybe we can all work harder to open our doors, share our lives, and warm up cars.

I am officially finished!!!

This morning I woke up, took a deep breath, and realized a huge weight is gone. All those papers and projects and textbooks are no longer hanging over my head or sitting on my desk longing to be read. I can now write MPA after my name if I want. Soon enough there will be an expensive piece of paper hanging on my wall signifying a lot of hard work, sweat, tears, and sacrifices. On top of that, I even finished it out with a 4.0 GPA.

Now that I am finished, I have lots of plans of things to accomplish. First off, I plan to actually have a social life! I am looking forward to not having to turn down offers to hang out because I have papers to write or books to read. Oh, and I am going to start reading for pleasure again too!! I have a whole list of books to tackle!!  I am going to clean and organize and cook. All things that have been neglected lately. And I have a little thing called a wedding to finish planning!

As I begin to reflect back over the past two years, I am thankful. Thankful for my parents who were so supportive. Thankful for the friends who understood I was overwhelmed and just gave me space, always offering to be there if I needed anything. I am thankful for the new friends I made and the education I gained. And I am thankful for Jordan’s ever faithful presence. He was always there to bring me food, encourage me, listen to me, and keep me going when I wanted to give up. I am sure I dropped a few balls over the past two years and probably stepped on a few toes, but I did the best I could. Now that it is all over, I am going to take some time to reconnect with friends and focus on my health which has taken a hit due to all those papers and projects.  I am going to relax a little and enjoy life.  And I am going to take the education I was afforded and use it to make a difference. I already have some pretty crazy ideas!:)

Thank you all for your support, love, and encouragement! Here’s to the next chapter of life!! 🙂

Luke 14:12-14
¹²Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,¹⁴and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

As I have mentioned before, I am reading through the book Seven by Jen Hatmaker with a small group of women.  The book has challenged  all of us on our lifestyles, the amount of stuff we own, and our consumerist attitudes. However, this week, I have been wrestling with one issue that comes  up over and over in her writings.

Her relationship with the marginalized.

It is a natural part of her life. She calls the homeless,the down and out, and the marginalized her friends.  They are not her ministry. She breaks bread  and spends Easter morning with them. And it bothers me. It bothers me because I feel like so often in my circle, we talk about serving the poor or our ministry to the poor. We don’t talk about them like they are our friends, we talk about them like they are a charity case. When we plan events, they are either for us or for the poor. I am not implying we should not serve the poor, but I think we have created a system in which we can live our normal, American lives and just sprinkle in good deeds to the poor here and there.  We can rally our small group together to provide household goods for a family. We can serve a meal. We can clean out our closets. But how often do we invite those people into our lives?  How often do we take them to coffee?  How often do we know their hopes and dreams?

I am guilty of this. I can honestly say, I don’t really have people around me that are marginalized. Sure, I serve a lot. I volunteer a lot. But at the end of the day, my circle of friends does not include any of the people I serve. It only includes the people I serve alongside. And this week, the crushing reality of that has broke my heart.  I can clean out my closet. I can get rid of my excess. But it will only be a matter of time before the closet fills back up.

Until our lives truly collide with the poor, the needy, and the broken, I am not sure permanent change is possible. Given the onslaught of advertising and the need to impress, we will always fight a battle of excess. But what if the single mom becomes our friend? What if we have dinner with her and spend time with her?  What if we see that she wears the same pair of pants everyday because she only has one pair?  What if we find out the hopes and dreams of the child who will go hungry tonight? At that point, I think we will look at our closets and realize they hold rubbish that will burned in a holy fire. Our lives will start to become less about what we own and more about who we spend our time around.

I am still figuring this out. I don’t know how to collide my life with the people I serve other than planting myself there, being vulnerable, and asking someone to coffee. And I have no idea what will happen. Will they view me as an outsider? Will they ever call me their friend? I just know that I am tired of cleaning out my closet and passing along my excess to a nameless person who may pick it up out of a clothing bank or off the Goodwill rack.  That is easy. That is comfortable. And that is not what I feel God has called me to do with my life.

If you had told me six months ago I would have spent the last week of my life learning about natural gas and electricity, the differences between volts, amps, and kilowatts, and trying to figure out if people around me were actually speaking English, I would have laughed in your face. I was out to change the world and no where in those plans did I consider needing to know how the electric industry was regulated.  As has been a general theme the last several years, however, God had other plans.

Monday I found myself sitting in orientation for a job as a Rates Analyst at our local utility company.  I have spent the rest of the week trying to keep my head above water (while fighting a nasty cold) and reading page upon page of testimony, electric/natural gas jargon, and acronyms that would make your head hurt. I mean, what kind of sentence has more abbreviations than actual words?  But alas, here I am, a week in, sitting here wondering what in the world I signed up for other than a dose of patience as  I try to figure out what in the world people are talking about and how in the world I am going to memorize and learn all of this.

The thing is, I still want to change the world. I still have big dreams to fight human trafficking and impact local and global development. My heart beats passionately for the “least of these.”  And at times this week, I have seriously wondered if I made the right decision. Should I have held out for a job that fit better with my heart?  Did I make the wrong decision?

The whole week, as I have wrestled with that glaring question, two verses keep rolling through my mind-Jeremiah 29:11 and Isaiah 61:1. I believe strongly that the Lord directs each of our steps and I can take you back to a specific moment when I felt that Isaiah 61:1 was my life calling.

The Spirit of the Soverign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom to the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners. Isaiah 61:1

This step is part of a grand calling on my life. My decision to work as a rates analyst was not a mistake. It was an unexpected bend in the road, but it was most intricately designed by a Savior who holds my deepest desires and passions close to His heart.  How exactly the two will play out, at this point I cannot tell you.  What I can tell you is that today, I am at complete peace. I have full confidence this is where I am supposed to be. And I am excited about the challenge of learning a new industry, making new friends, and starting a new adventure.