Live Out Loud

I never thought this day would come, but.. I think I love my LIFEgroup. Yes. I struggled to love my LIFEgroup allllllll the way until.. a month ago. Mostly due to my pride that refused to submit & insecurities that kept me from loving without bounds. But here we are, six months later, and God has changed my heart. It's. A. Miracle. Last week everyone wrote down a testimony of why we're thankful for our LIFEgroup community. Here are a couple that were especially encouraging to me: "LIFEgroup is a crazy thing that God has used to teach me lessons. Quite honestly, I didn't like any part of this LIFEgroup at first. I prayed and prayed that God would help me to love--love my members, LCGs, and leaders. It took roughly.. SIX MONTHS but God was so faithful. Because even in the dry and hard-to-love times, He was working in ways that I couldn't see and had no way of seeing until now. He very powerfully, yet subtly used a weekend we had together in a random town...

An all-girls LIFEgroup devouring an entire cake in 2 minutes (timed); at a reunion that took 77 emails to implement :P Even though I've always been an advocate of spring/summer LIFEgroups, something about my single-gender LIFEgroup last summer was notably different. Remarkably honest and raw from the very beginning, setting the bar for the rest of the summer we had together. Which got me thinking--what made this LIFEgroup so powerful? I've never trembled signing a LIFEgroup covenant as much as I have with Get Low. We came up with an extensive list of things we wanted to see happen in our LIFEgroup, and then committed to it together. There was no undershooting or "toning it down" to make it more realistic or achievable. We agreed on things that we hoped for, then revisited it every time we struggled to live by it. We committed in faith, with confidence and hope that it would happen. Really makes me think about the importance of making covenants in faith...

One of the best things I've heard all year, from one of the people I feared most "Jesus has never been so real to me" Moments like this put me in awe. Must. Be. God.

Hearing life stories this semester in LIFEgroup has been amazing. We're all hot messes and I love that we don't have to hide it. This is what it means to live life together--being a part of a community that is centered around a God who loves us in spite of our flaws and failures. Community that is composed of real people who learn to love, forgive, serve, and honor one another. This is what we were designed for. Sharing my life story for the first time four years ago was an immensely freeing experience for me. So powerful that I've implemented it in every single LIFEgroup I've been a part of since. You'd think that it might get old year-to-year, but it's quite the contrary. I love that every time I reflect on my life story, God reveals more that I hadn't thought about before. What I left out of my life story is my tendency to try to be God instead of be like Him. Ever since I started working 2.5 years ago, I've tried to make sense of why I e...

Here's my heart Lord Here's my heart Lord Here's my heart Lord Speak what is true I am found, I am Yours I am loved, I'm made pure I have life, I can breathe I am healed, I am free You are strong, You are sure You are life, You endure You are good, always true You are light breaking through You are more than enough You are here, You are love You are hope, You are grace You're all I have, You're everything What else can I say or do?

It's Spring Break here at UM, which means all the students are out-of-town. It was a little strange at first to have all my evenings free, but I'm really thankful for this time that I've been able to use to reconnect with friends--catching up with Pubs co-servants on Monday, Jeanie Beanie on Tuesday, and JKwon today. This break will be filled with rekindling relationships that had to be pushed aside in the midst of competing priorities--love it! I think part of the strangeness had to do with the fact that this year's spring break is relatively mellow compared to year's past. A year ago I was in Indonesia getting exposed through a medical missions trip, and the year before I was in Miami taking a short hiatus from my first run at working adult life. In previous years I've always seized opportunities to get out of Michigan, but this year I'm just glad to be here. Spring Break 2012 in Jogjakarta, Indonesia Time is such a gift from God, but I don'...