Reflections on an encouraging weekend...

I got to spend this last weekend at Young Life camp for "Arkansas College Weekend." It was a lot of fun, and I brought a couple of friends from Jonesboro, which was great because they had never seen YL before. God really spoke to me in a lot of ways this weekend. Jamie, our speaker, talked all weekend about how we react as Christians when life gets hard, and how we often get hard-hearted instead of being soft and moldable for the Lord to use it in order to shape us even more into his image.

This morning he talked about hearing God's calling and being obedient to it, and he said something that just made me think, "gosh, that's exactly where I am right now." He was talking about how when we feel God calling us to do something, He never shows us the big picture--he shows us one little step at a time, and we take that one step and sometimes we stay there for a while before he shows us the next one. I feel like I took the step to quit soccer and start Young Life in Jonesboro, and it's kinda been in this place like, "alright God, what's next?" And somewhere along the way I've gotten a little overwhelmed and a little impatient, and instead of softening and being moldable in this time when I need to be completely depending on God, I kind of let myself subconsciously get hard-hearted about it. Maybe not necessarily hard-hearted, but I definitely haven't spent enough time alone with the Lord lately asking him for guidance and more importantly thanking him for the amazing things he has already done to get the ball rolling on YL Jonesboro. So that was the first thing that was great about this weekend--Jamie's words just really spoke to my heart.

The second thing that was great about this weekend was the encouragement that I got from it. It was cool, because Fayetteville just started Young Life a year ago, and I just got to talk with a lot of U of A students who have seen its growth over the last year, who were exactly where I am now a year ago, and to be encouraged by my peers and just know that this is doable was such a breath of fresh air. I feel like God used that more than anything to speak to my heart this weekend, and to calm my heart. 

I've been reading Psalms at night, as kind of a "bed time story" I guess. Tonight I picked up my Bible and was reading Psalm 22, and it was so encouraging to me, especially with where I'm at in my life and my walk right now. I read it in my little ESV Bible and in The Message, and I want to share a little bit of the version from The Message:

"I have discovered this praise-life, and I'll do what I promised right here in front of the God-worshippers. Down-and-outers sit at God's table and eat their fill. Everyone on the hunt for God is here, praising him. 'Live it up, from head to toe. Don't ever quit!'

From the four corners of the earth people are coming to their senses, are running back to God. Long-lost families are falling on their faces before him. God has taken charge; from now on he has the last word.

All the power-mongers are before him--worshipping! All the poor and powerless, too--worshipping! Along with those who never got it together--worshipping!

Our children and their children will get in on this as the word is passed along from parent to child. Babies not yet conceived will hear the good news--that God does what he says."