What did 2008 mean for me? The year of a surprisingly awesome summer in Chicago interning at Leo Burnett, the entrance into the dreaded Junior year at the business school, with corporate presentations every week and constant visits to career counselors and communication consultants in effort to perfect every bit of the recruiting process, from my resume to cover letters to interviewing skills. Also the year that I realized different and good were not mutually exclusive things (ie: JCrew small group last year), and I really learned what it means to have a missional mindset on and off the court.
To be frank, I don’t remember what the first half of 2008 was like, largely because I moved on to a new journal in the second half of the year. But what I do remember doing for months is asking God for a greater heart for His lost people, for my heart to break at the sight of those who do not know Christ—and mostly for my own family members. Something about not spending eternity in heaven with my parents did not seem right, yet I felt no urgency to share the Gospel with them. So I asked God for that greater burden for months, and went into Junior year with several days of OCR (Operation Campus Reach) training at my church in Ann Arbor.
In short, OCR changed my life. I realized how much I had been dichotomizing my life in and outside the church, not only in my behavior, but also in my mindset. Within the boundaries of life group, I knew I was supposed to try to “reach out” to my classmates, dormmates, and the like, but this only briefly crossed my mind when my leaders announced we would be having a Thanksgiving Outreach Dinner. Simply said, ministry was limited to times I dedicated to church activities. However, OCR challenged me to fuse every part of my life together—my spiritual life (ie: life group), personal life (ie: going to the gym), and academic/professional life (ie: bschool peers). Sharing the Gospel or talking about spiritual things was no longer confined to group outreaches around campus, or long meals with my accountability partner.
Soon after, I copped an opportunity talking to the card swiper at the CCRB (gym), a friend of a friend I had just met at Meijer (grocery store), and a classmate that just wanted to know where I was disappearing off to every Wednesday night from 6 to 10PM. In all, I realized there are plenty of people all around us who are more than willing to come out to church or learn about Christianity, if only we asked. Here I am, thinking to myself that no one wants to hear this good news, and fearing rejection. But God is still moving when we don’t know it, and He has already prepared a harvest that just needs to be reaped. A new meaning of “It’s not about me” defined.
All this sounds great, but why is it so much easier for me to practice this to strangers whom I barely know? Why have I been home for a week already and never revved up the nerve to share the Gospel message with my parents? My only fear is that the next two weeks will fly by and I will leave home once again without having said a word to my own mother about how Jesus changed my life. In the meantime, please pray for boldness on my behalf..
To be frank, I don’t remember what the first half of 2008 was like, largely because I moved on to a new journal in the second half of the year. But what I do remember doing for months is asking God for a greater heart for His lost people, for my heart to break at the sight of those who do not know Christ—and mostly for my own family members. Something about not spending eternity in heaven with my parents did not seem right, yet I felt no urgency to share the Gospel with them. So I asked God for that greater burden for months, and went into Junior year with several days of OCR (Operation Campus Reach) training at my church in Ann Arbor.
In short, OCR changed my life. I realized how much I had been dichotomizing my life in and outside the church, not only in my behavior, but also in my mindset. Within the boundaries of life group, I knew I was supposed to try to “reach out” to my classmates, dormmates, and the like, but this only briefly crossed my mind when my leaders announced we would be having a Thanksgiving Outreach Dinner. Simply said, ministry was limited to times I dedicated to church activities. However, OCR challenged me to fuse every part of my life together—my spiritual life (ie: life group), personal life (ie: going to the gym), and academic/professional life (ie: bschool peers). Sharing the Gospel or talking about spiritual things was no longer confined to group outreaches around campus, or long meals with my accountability partner.
Soon after, I copped an opportunity talking to the card swiper at the CCRB (gym), a friend of a friend I had just met at Meijer (grocery store), and a classmate that just wanted to know where I was disappearing off to every Wednesday night from 6 to 10PM. In all, I realized there are plenty of people all around us who are more than willing to come out to church or learn about Christianity, if only we asked. Here I am, thinking to myself that no one wants to hear this good news, and fearing rejection. But God is still moving when we don’t know it, and He has already prepared a harvest that just needs to be reaped. A new meaning of “It’s not about me” defined.
All this sounds great, but why is it so much easier for me to practice this to strangers whom I barely know? Why have I been home for a week already and never revved up the nerve to share the Gospel message with my parents? My only fear is that the next two weeks will fly by and I will leave home once again without having said a word to my own mother about how Jesus changed my life. In the meantime, please pray for boldness on my behalf..
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