The Beginning.

I’ve never been a half effort person until I reflected my relationship with Jesus my first semester at college.  This lukewarm, penciling in version I called a true relationship with Christ was unlike any other activity I participated in and was not like my typical relationships.  The version of the Gospel I was acting out was not what my loving King deserved.  Was he truly who I lived for?  Did I schedule him into my day or was he my day?  Moving hundreds of miles away from my close-knit family and not knowing a single soul, Jesus began to completely open my heart to him.  He showed me that he was who I could rely on.  He was always there for me.  He is my best friend I could ever ask for.  He wanted to my protector, lover, and comforter.  I didn’t need anyone else there to do that.  My satisfaction lies in him.

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”  -Revelation 3:15-16

Jesus is slowly letting me see and begin to love like him.  I look around and see what he sees; despair, brokenness, pain, suffering, hurt. But then I see his little signs, and I hear his quiet whispers that he is here amidst it all, sovereign.  I asked him to break my heart and open my eyes.  He did, for the orphan especially.  For the racism still present.  For the homeless and weak.  He showed me how many people still NEED to hear the GOSPEL, and how Christians need it just as much.  My life is not okay to live in my own world circled around me.  It is not my life.  It is his.  He’s who I live for. He’s what matters everyday when my schedule is so jammed packed that I forget whose agenda I’m really on.  So, I’m sick of the comfort.  I’m jumping off of the subway, as my Pastor Bryan in Memphis would say, running towards the finish line while clinging to my KING. 

“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” -Matthew 10:39

            Jesus demands your life, every single part of it, and when you lose your life, you gain something better.  Following Jesus is NOT a life of comfort, half effort, and mediocrity.  There is no middle ground.  It’s all in or nothing.  I’m in the game and trying to lose my baggage along the way, including my desire to have an excessive amount of clothing and many other ideas deemed important by the world.  The world wants me to get caught up in myself and my desires, but not God.  Even in my sinful moments, he’s ALWAYS there with arms open wide.  This comfortable life is old.  I want to join the ride and proclaim God’s glory and sovereignty to all the nations, and live all in for him wherever he leads.  There is no middle ground that people “Christians” have tried to create.  The Gospel goes right along with this.

            I love him and cling to him for he is my Creator, Rock, Father, King and Comforter, and HE alone is worthy and righteous.       

So, my journey has taken off.  My feet will hit the red dirt of Uganda on June 2^nd, 2011 with my best friend Allison, and a team from Visiting Orphans.  After the first 2 weeks, I will continue my journey and stay at Amani Baby Cottage for the next month.  I’ll begin my long journey home on July 11^th. 

            God has broken my heart for the orphans and fatherless.  They are just waiting for someone to listen to God’s call to step out in faith, forget what the world says, and jump off the subway and out of the comfortable live. (bc he sets the lonely in families.)   Adoption and the Orphan Crisis is a whole other post.  The staggering statistic is that there are between over 147 million orphans in the world.  The orphan crisis is a silent epidemic because these children have no voice.   Uganda is a country with a population of 32.4 million people.  There are over 2.3 million orphans in Uganda. 

“God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy. But he makes the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.”  -Psalm 68:6

JESUS has given me such a joyous and complete feeling.  I know my purpose and that he has a plan for me, not my own plan or the worlds.  I’m not worrying about my future because he’s there and will guide me every step of the way.  I want to stay on his road and not stray away.  For he completes me and was there ready and waiting for when I decided to fall completely back in love with my Jesus and back into his arms surrendered fully to him.  I’m so excited for this journey I’m on while clinging to him. 

"I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own, it is not for man to direct his steps. -Jeremiah 10:23

 “'For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”  -Jeremiah 29:11

“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” James 1:27

-Lindsay

I'm officially a blogger!

I'm SO glad that God has broken my hearts for what breaks his.