Hey there,
While sitting thinking about what to write for this first post from myself to you all, I had a hard time putting all of my thoughts into words; the purpose of gathering the girls is so simple and yet has so much depth to it for me. I suppose, in order for me to explain what gathering the girls means to my heart, I need to give y’all an idea of where my heart has been in the past year or so. Most of this blog was written a few months ago, before gathering the girls was even on my radar, so grab a cup of coffee, this might be lengthy, but I hope it speaks to your heart in some sort of way!
(real real quick! since we are still getting to know each other, let me give you the spark notes on my life that will help you understand what I am writing about here; after I graduated high school I took a gap year and went on a nine month missions trip with an organization alongside about 40 other people my age, scary but something I knew I needed to do, then after I returned home I went to community college for a semester before transferring to Liberty University)
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Ever since I got back to the states after the world race, up until recently, I have wrestled with the questions of “How will I live out my purpose as a Christian? Will I serve this purpose out overseas?” Part of my heart longs to hop on a plane at any minute and not look back, to go back and be with the people and be at the places that made my heart feel the most alive and where I saw Jesus move the most.
I used to think that if I stayed in the states, I would be settling in comfort, and running away from a life that a true Christian should live. But now I think that if I left, I would be running from a life that the Lord has specifically called me to. I think it is such a beautiful thing to move across the ocean and spread the Lord's hope to all people, and I'm not discrediting those who do that. In many ways I envy those of you who are called to do that, and I thought that was me for a long time. I've done my fair share of mission trips and outreaches in other countries, trips that were very intentionally focused. But through all of that the one thing that I have been truly convicted of is how I need to make that intentionality of service a part of my everyday, and not just in preparation for a trip. The life we have been given by the Lord is one long journey that does have an intention, a mission. I need to spend each day not only preparing for it, but living it out. For me, I think it's easier to drop everything and go accomplish a mission for a period of time. With a trip like that I have everything laid out for me. I have the start date, the end date, and a plan for all of the in between time. At the end of the trip I can look back and see what I've done, see how much I have accomplished. But what about when I return to real life? I think that the true challenge for me now is to see my life, wherever I may be as a mission. This is something I’ve always known, but have never truly been able to translate that head knowledge to my heart. I didn’t know what it really looked like to live on a mission at home. To be intentional with living everyday for the sole purpose of glorifying the Lord. How was I supposed to do this while at school, running around doing errands, at work, at my house? How was I supposed to live radically in a life that was so comfortable to me? Radical living and comfortability don't really coincide with each other.
To put it bluntly, yes I would love to live somewhere overseas and see the Lord move in ways that I just don't see Him move here. But that's just the issue. It's not that the Lord isn't moving here in the states, it's that I have become so comfortable in thinking that God works differently overseas. This mindset is exactly what made me not look for His hand in my day to day life here at home. Over those nine months away, I woke up each day with a mission and a purpose, a mindset that (whether I was feeling it that day or not) expected the unexpected for the day. I expected to climb back into bed each night with a story of how the Lord moved that day. If I did that here at home, I would see God’s hand so much more in my everyday life. You see, it wasn't the people I encountered in the world race (sure their culture made a big difference) but it was how I saw/ how I looked for Jesus to move around me that excited my soul and swept it up in the radical mission that Lord has given us an opportunity to be a part of. I need to wake up each and every day expecting to see God move and expecting to have my heart overtaken by the ways he works that day. That same excitement that fills my heart when I think of worshipping with the African church down the road from where I lived, or the joy I saw pouring out of a smiling ninety year old lady on the side of the road encouraging me to dive into God’s goodness, should be the very same excitement that fills my soul when I think of the potential each day, each hour holds.
So here is my heart. I want to be a person who invites others into my home and gives them a warm meal and a nutritious hope. I want to model what it means to truly love others, at no benefit to myself. If I truly believe what the gospel says, I should be doing what it says. Period. I need to learn how to do this here where I am now. How to live this out in my everyday. This needs to be my sole focus, because it is our soul focus.
I know that my in-betweens were designed to be anything but what I have made them to be. We get the idea that we need to go in order to make a difference, and we can make a difference when we go, and we should go. But we need to lift our heads and see the time we have been given now. The here and now is a precious time that God has blessed us with. The opportunity that we have to follow Jesus and take up our cross to serve and glorify Him doesn't start when our feet step off of a plane or when we walk into church. It starts from the moment we repent and put our faith in Jesus, and ends when we see Jesus face to face. How beautiful is it that we get to have Jesus with us each and every day, but that in our time here on Earth we can never see all of his beauty. Only when we are called home will we get to experience that. I need to act upon all of this conviction, and I need to do it now. I know that if I were to just hold this in and never act upon it, I would be acting in disobedience to my Heavenly father.
I am so thankful for the time I spent seeing Jesus work in so many different ways around the world, but now I want to lift my head to see how he has been working all around me. I want to notice all of the things that I have been blinding myself too. Oh how he does work all around us! He is constant, and always working, the question now is, will I open my eyes and see him moving?
For so long I have been stuck in this rut of wanting to live as I just as I have written, but instead I made excuses. I realized I will never live like this in the future if I do not choose to start living it out now. NOW, as in this very second. Gathering the girls is something that was born out of this conviction. It's the first step toward a bigger dream that Drew and I have for a ministry. Go read Drew’s post to see how crazy neat the Lord is in that He orchestrated both of our stories so differently and yet our hearts ended up in a similar position. Our hope is that gathering the girls is a place for us all to come and start taking the first few steps towards a way of radical living that the Lord calls us all into. Maybe you already have direction, maybe you're fighting something that you know you need to do, maybe you know what direction you are supposed to go but don't know how to get there, or maybe you are feeling a little lost. I promise you; you are not alone. We would love for you to join the gathering the girls family and walk in your story alongside all of us. Community was created so that we can be encouraged, held accountable, and join in the mission of the Lord together! Disciples, making disciples, making disciples. We are excited to walk with you through whatever season you are in, and we will be here for you through whatever season you may face in the future!
Talk to you soon,
xoxo jules
such good truth.