Live Out Loud

"NY will you stay here until I graduate?" ......  (heck no) Perhaps that's the very thing I need to surrender

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.” - C.S. Lewis

October is Clergy Appreciation Month and I was really excited this year when the Publication team prepared twice as many prayer cards than we have in the years past. When I first came into HMCC as a freshman, there were five pastors on staff here in Ann Arbor. Since then, we've been sending them out one by one to start churches in places like Austin and Jakarta. To see us add pastors and staff here in Ann Arbor and at our global sites, is an answer to prayers I lifted up since my time in college. How I've been blessed.. I started getting to know Diana starting my senior year, and have had the privilege of being on the receiving end of her prayers, counseling, and mentorship. She was actually one of the first people to greet me at the Posting Wall when I walked into HMCC for the first time as a long-lost freshman. Through the years, one thing I’ve been really impacted by is the countless chances Diana has given me despite the number of times I’ve dropped the ball or m

As someone that is fairly confident of my calling to the secular workplace, I've always wondered how to glorify God through my work. I read this on John Piper's blog and had to share. Dependence . Go to work utterly dependent on God ( Proverbs 3:5-6 ;  John 15:5 ). Without him you can’t breathe, move, think, feel, or talk. Not to mention be spiritually influential. Get up in the morning and let God know your desperation for him. Pray for help. Integrity . Be absolutely and meticulously honest and trustworthy on the job. Be on time. Give a full day’s work. “Thou shalt not steal.” More people rob their employers by being slackers than by filching the petty cash. Skill . Get good at what you do. God has given you not only the grace of integrity but the gift of skills. Treasure that gift and be a good steward of those skills. This growth in skill is built on dependence and integrity. Corporate shaping . As you have influence and opportunity, shape the ethos of the workp

I will never forget the day this summer when I woke up with a sharp pain in my left knee. I had never experienced any bodily injuries or discomfort, so it was a completely strange concept to me. The pain was unbearable when I was using the stairs, and I couldn't walk without limping for about six weeks. When I visited the doctor I was told I had a case of patellofemoral pain syndrome , also known as runner's knee. Considering how out-of-the-blue this was, I remember thinking, "What have I been praying for lately?" And then I remembered. All throughout spring training when our missions team was running together, I had a hard time being understanding and sympathetic towards teammates who had chronic body aches or disorders. I couldn't understand why they couldn't run at a faster rate, and frankly judged them for it. I thought I was better. A couple days after I started experiencing pain in my knee, I decided to participate in physical training with

I feel loved when people don't let me go. When they don't let me slide by with my surface-level answers. When they don't let me hide behind the blankets, the pillows, the scarves. When they look straight in my eyes until I actually answer the question. When they don't get impatient regardless of how long it takes. When they don't have any time constraints, when they sleepover because they know I'll take all night to let down the walls. I haven't felt loved like this in a while. Thanks God for using the unexpected of people to show me that the answer is Jesus only Jesus. Who woulda thunk that the tables would turn like this--