Last week at the high school youth group I help with, we sang a worship song in which the chorus goes: "When You shine, I come alive. I'm on fire for You. I'm on fire for You."
As I sang that I thought to myself, when do I see God shine? I saw God shine in Ukraine. Easy. It's amazing how we open our eyes to see God's work, when we are in a different place or country.
But have I seen God shine here? Have I looked?
A couple of weeks ago I was reading an update on my dear friend Amy as she goes through this ridiculous battle of healing. It was a relatively encouraging update because she is healing, but there are some complications with the medicine and some other thing that I don't understand. Granted, I was a little emotional that night, but as I was talking to my mom about it on the phone, I couldn't stop crying. This isn't fair that this is happening to Amy and her family. My mom kept saying, "God is going to use this" and "We can't see how God is using this yet". I wanted to scream "I'm sick and tired of God 'using' crap situations!" I thought: God can do good things and use other situations with out putting Amy and her family through all of this.
When You shine, I come alive.
In reality, my mom's right. I could only see the negative in this situation. God can and will use this for something good. Even if I never see the good of it, I have to trust Him. And when I think about how Amy and her family have to trust Him even more than I do and how she is so amazing in doing that, I just feel ridiculous.
I have to seek God to see Him shine. I have to look for it. If I keep myself buried in the negative aspects of life, with out looking for the potential of God's love, I'm not going to see it. And I'm not going to come alive. Christ is what makes me alive and by seeing his work around me I can begin to live to my full potential I have been created for.
Whatever is going on around me, if I seek God and continue to try and see his abounding love in all situations- I'll come alive. Because
I wanna burn bright like a star in the night.
Fall fall and surrender it all.
Sing awhile and believe like a child.
I just want to be your reflection.
When you shine, I come alive.
I'm on fire for you.
I'm on fire for you.
May we seek to see God shine in all situations and may his love overflow out of our lives onto others. May we come alive in Christ. Amen
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Before I forget
There are a couple stories from Ukraine that I have to tell before I start talking about getting back into life at Point Loma.
They're both short but were super impacting for me at least. They are two huge reasons while I believe that it is so important and beneficial to return somewhere.
The Sunday we came back to Kiev, after camp, we went to our host Andrey's apartment for his home church he had started. One of the girls that came happened to be a girl that went to Odessa with me three years ago. Walking back to the metro I got to catch up with her a little bit. When we were in Odessa together we went and visited a group of boys that lived on the street. One of them had to be taken to the hospital because he had pneumonia. The next couple days we were there, we visited him in the hospital. His name was Sergei. He was eighteen at the time, I think. Anyways, while I was talking to Anya she asked if I remembered him. When I said yes, she told me the rest of his story. After he got out of the hospital he went to live with the woman we stayed with while we were in Odessa, Nathalia. He ran away from there once and returned. He then went to rehab for a while. But now, Anya says that he is doing well, a Christian and married with a kid. How great is that? So often do we meet someone and never get to hear what happened in their lives. God is so amazing and I feel so blessed that I got to hear Sergei's story.
The other story I'm going to copy out of my journal.
"On Wednesday our last day with kids at the park [in Kiev] went really well and I got to see Andre, the boy I went to Odessa with three years ago. He's grown up so much! He is so funny still and I am so happy I got to see him. Funniest thing he said was when I asked him 'so what have you been up to the past three years?' and he replied 'well the day after you left I woke up and felt like P Diddy'. [for anyone that doesn't know- that was a Ke$ha reference] The most impacting thing he said: "Everyone always says they are going to come back and they never do."
I didn't write anymore about it in my journal, but he went on. He said at when he first saw me, he didn't think it was actually me because he couldn't believe I came back. He said, "People shouldn't say that they will come back if they don't mean it. I know people just say things but still." I am so grateful that God is amazing and allowed me to come back to this country.
I didn't say I would come back when I left this time, but I really want to. I pray that it works out that I am able to. These stories are reasons why I think it is important to return to countries after mission trips. Right now my church at home is working on building a relationship with Haiti and going on trips consistently. I think that's awesome. Building relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world is not only important, but really a blessing to us who are visiting. It is a beautiful feeling to worship with others half way across the globe.
They're both short but were super impacting for me at least. They are two huge reasons while I believe that it is so important and beneficial to return somewhere.
The Sunday we came back to Kiev, after camp, we went to our host Andrey's apartment for his home church he had started. One of the girls that came happened to be a girl that went to Odessa with me three years ago. Walking back to the metro I got to catch up with her a little bit. When we were in Odessa together we went and visited a group of boys that lived on the street. One of them had to be taken to the hospital because he had pneumonia. The next couple days we were there, we visited him in the hospital. His name was Sergei. He was eighteen at the time, I think. Anyways, while I was talking to Anya she asked if I remembered him. When I said yes, she told me the rest of his story. After he got out of the hospital he went to live with the woman we stayed with while we were in Odessa, Nathalia. He ran away from there once and returned. He then went to rehab for a while. But now, Anya says that he is doing well, a Christian and married with a kid. How great is that? So often do we meet someone and never get to hear what happened in their lives. God is so amazing and I feel so blessed that I got to hear Sergei's story.
The other story I'm going to copy out of my journal.
"On Wednesday our last day with kids at the park [in Kiev] went really well and I got to see Andre, the boy I went to Odessa with three years ago. He's grown up so much! He is so funny still and I am so happy I got to see him. Funniest thing he said was when I asked him 'so what have you been up to the past three years?' and he replied 'well the day after you left I woke up and felt like P Diddy'. [for anyone that doesn't know- that was a Ke$ha reference] The most impacting thing he said: "Everyone always says they are going to come back and they never do."
I didn't write anymore about it in my journal, but he went on. He said at when he first saw me, he didn't think it was actually me because he couldn't believe I came back. He said, "People shouldn't say that they will come back if they don't mean it. I know people just say things but still." I am so grateful that God is amazing and allowed me to come back to this country.
I didn't say I would come back when I left this time, but I really want to. I pray that it works out that I am able to. These stories are reasons why I think it is important to return to countries after mission trips. Right now my church at home is working on building a relationship with Haiti and going on trips consistently. I think that's awesome. Building relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world is not only important, but really a blessing to us who are visiting. It is a beautiful feeling to worship with others half way across the globe.
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