"There's no place like Home"

It seems like its Homecoming weekend at every high school and college right about now. Which means that people are coming in from all over the place to reconnect with friends that they shared a common “home” with at some point in their life. I experienced a few “homecomings” in various areas of my life over the last few days that caused me to ponder my relationships with the people in the many places that I have called “home”.

Homecoming #1: My sisters!! I got to see my baby sister (Courtney) and my sister-in-law (Liz) for dinner on Thursday night. My sister’s friend from high school (Shelley) also got to join us!  These are seriously some of my favorite people in the world… and it feels like I hardly ever get to see them. I carry them around in my heart and mind on a daily basis, but I only get to experience them in person when we are able to “come home” to each other.

Liz, Me, Shelley, Courtney

Homecoming #2: Duke!! My best friend from college chased her dreams of writing out to L.A. last year. She is incredibly gifted and talented; I could not be more proud of her. The thing is… L.A. is as far as she could physically be from me in the continental United States. PROBLEM. It takes a lot of planning and effort to keep cross-continental, 3-hour time difference, long-term friendships afloat. But continuing to prioritize each other and invest in each other from afar makes our “homecomings” all the more special : )

Duke Alums before the homecoming game on Saturday!

Homecoming #3: Fellows!! I “came home” to the fellows last night after a weekend away visiting friends at Duke’s actual homecoming. We celebrated Tripp’s (our program director) birthday with a surprise party and a murder mystery game. I had only been away from everyone for a few days, but I still could not wait to be reunited with the fellows family… they are becoming one of my “homes”.

Birthday Boy Tripp and the lady Fellows :)

Sitting in church this morning, the sermon caused me to reflect on my “homecomings” from this week. I was thinking back over the various reunions that I had enjoyed and how thankful I was for those relationships had endured the test of time.

Then I felt like the Lord gently prodded me with the question: Where is my true “HOME”? Where do I identify with the most deeply? Where is my heart fully invested?

My answer: the person of Jesus Christ. What a beautiful realization, that although my other “homecomings” require travel, money, and planning… my true home is always accessible to me. I wander astray from Him on a daily (let’s be real, probably minute-ly) basis… and He still let’s me call Him home. I put other people above Him all the time, I take His love for granted, I don’t invest in my relationship with Him as much as I should… and He still opens Himself to me and welcomes me into the beautiful “Home” that can only be found wrapped up in the arms of Jesus. "There's no place like home"... especially when "Home" is Jesus.

Lord, thank You for your patience as my fickle heart constantly pursues things other than You. Thank You for gently pulling me back to yourself when I get too focused on the good gifts that You have given me and less focused on You, the Giver. Thank you for “demonstrating you love for me in this: while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me” Romans 5:8. You alone are my true and rightful Home, thank You for faithfully drawing me back to Yourself. I love you. Amen

Roots are taking hold

Today is Sunday. Since Wednesday night at 6:30 pm, like 4 days ago Wednesday, I have…

-flown to Denver and back, CO for a PA school interview

-spent a total of 10 hours in Greensboro from Thursday night to Friday morning

-drove to Atlanta, GA for a music festival

-drove back to Gboro through the night last night so I could be here for church this morning

-was finally reunited with the other Fellows at Church of the Redeemer this morning

- and now I should be preparing for the youth group that I am leading tonight

… the thing is, this type of schedule is not unusual for me. I love just up and going places, and to be honest I have a hard time staying still for very long. Along with that, it is hard for me to want to invest in people or places that I see as temporary.

But what was unusual about the past few days, was when I was gone from the other Fellows… I legitimately missed them. I had a desire to be reunited with them and share about what was going on in my life. This strikes me as odd since I have only known these people for 2 weeks, but it is also crazy awesome because I can feel the Lord knitting us together in our relationships with each other. I am touched and surprised by the connection that I have already established with the other Fellows, and it creates a new excitement in what lies ahead of us this year.

beautiful reminder of my Creator from out my airplane window

I am going to close with a prayer:

Thank you Lord for giving me these dear friends and supporters to walk through this year with me. Thank you that your plans are always greater than my own and that I cannot upset your plans. Thank you for grounding me in yourself and blessing me with people that help me dig deeper into who you are so that I can become the woman that you have designed me to be. I love you and I am thankful for all the many unexpected and undeserved blessings that you pour out on me daily. Amen.

Love yall, thanks for your prayers

"...Always Fail Forward"

Today marks my week-a-ver-sary as a Greensboro Fellow! It has been an incredible week filled with amazing people. I have only been on this journey for 7 days, yet I have already seen myself fail. I have failed to always have a good attitude. I have failed to extend grace to others. I have failed to consistently set aside time to spend with Christ. There are a million ways that I have failed, and there will be more next week. 

I walked into church this morning very aware of these failures. For whatever reason I had been reflecting on my shortcomings for a large part of the weekend. The sermon at Church of the Redeemer met me right in the midst of these thoughts, reminding me of God's incredible love for me. The Gospel was beautifully poured out on me this morning, reminding me that the Lord deals with me by first by Grace and second by the Law. 

After church, we had a meeting laying out the vision for how God is shaping the future of Redeemer. This was a quote used to sum up our church's history...

     "Never say die. Never be satisfied. Be stubborn. Be persistent. Integrity is a must. Anything worth having is worth striving for with all your might. 
     If we look long enough for what we want in life we are almost sure to find it. Success is in the journey, the continual process. And no matter how hard you work, you will not create the perfect plan or execute it without error. You will never get to the point that you no longer make mistakes, that you no longer fail.
     The next time you find yourself envying what successful people have achieved, recognize that they have probably gone through many negative experiences that you cannot see on the surface.
     Fail early, fail often, but always fail forward.” 
― John Maxwell, Failing Forward

I love this quote, I love the vision being lived out by the leadership at Church of the Redeemer, and I am excited to walk alongside this body of believers to see what the Lord teaches me this year. 

Thank you for your prayers : )

And so it begins

Hi! If you are reading this, then I would like to personally THANK YOU once again for the investment that you are making in my life either financially or through prayer this year. I am honored and humbled to have a community full of people that love me and are interested in what the Lord is doing in my heart. So thank you, thank you, thank you; your prayers and encouragement impact my life much more than you know. 

     I'm going to be honest, writing a blog is very intimidating to me. I have attempted to start this very first post multiple times and have gotten stumped over how to begin or what to say... but I basically I just want to be able to be real with you on this blog. I want to invite you into the way that I am processing through the events of this year (and I am an over-analyzer to a fault so accept this invitation with caution : ). I want you to view this as an open dialogue between you and me; if you read something that you would like to clarify or speak truth into my life about... then please do so! I would love to get feedback from you about my journey through the Greensboro Fellows Program this year. 

     Speaking of "journey", I titled this blog "Cherish the Journey" because I often find myself keeping my eyes fixed on whatever prize that I am working toward. I have always been goal-oriented, so feeling like I'm progressing toward something gives me a sense of satisfaction...but I tend to miss the hidden treasures in the process of reaching my goals. However, this year I don't want to focus on an end goal or a finish line or anything like that. Instead I want to see the Lord working in and through every step of this incredible journey. I want to learn to appreciate the unknown and live in the tension of this transitional period of my life. 

     A very wise friend of mine (the one and only Michele Bascom) once counseled me on this very topic with the verse Psalm 119:105 "Your Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." She pointed out that lamps do not light up that much around our feet; a lamp lights up a small area right around where it stands. In the same way, God does not promise that I will always see where my path is leading; He gives me what I need to know in order to make decisions and move forward on whatever phase of the path that I am on at any given time. This is how I want to live out this year; accepting that I cannot control everything about my future and allowing the Lord to transform me in the present. For me this will be very difficult and definitely stretch my faith, but I know that this is what the Lord is wanting form me right now. I need to trust HIM with my plans instead of attempting the control them myself.

That's pretty much the broad idea of this blog... it should be a fun ride : )

In other news, here is a recap of my life the past few days:

1. I moved into Drew and Natalie Hill's house on Saturday, September 7!

~my cozy new room/home in the Hill basement~

2. I had my first Sunday worshipping at Church of the Redeemer with all of the other Greensboro Fellows on September 8, and afterwards we had a church-wide lunch and fellowship time and a church member's beautiful home. I also got to meet about 15 of the high school students that I will be doing ministry with this year at a Discipleship time that Drew hosts in his basement (right outside my door : ) every Sunday night at 7!

~my lovely new family~

3. Monday-Wednesday kicked off our orientation week, which consists of lots of team-building activities designed to help us get to know each other and the city of Greensboro before starting our internships next week! So far we have:

• gone on early morning runs through downtown together as a group
• touring Battleground Park to learn about the history of Greensboro
• been a part of Young Life's city-wide All-Freshman Club which had about 300 students from schools all over Greensboro at it

had a surprise road trip to go to the Maroon 5/Kelly Clarkson concert... which was awesome : )

• visited Hope Academy, which is an amazing private school in downtown Greensboro that offers affordable Christ-centered education to 5th-8th grade students that live in low income/high crime areas and are at a high risk for getting involved with gangs and prostitution.... some of the fellows are working with this school as their internship this year, and I hope to be able to volunteer with them!
• toured the Civil Rights museum; we learned about Greensboro's role in the Civil Rights Movement and how that phase of history still impacts the culture of this area

It is hard to believe that I have only been in Greensboro for a few days because we have done so much already! That is all for now, I look forward to updating you more in the next few days!