Game Changers

game changer (n.)  //  a newly introduced element or factor that changes an existing situation or activity in a significant way

As I consider how the Lord has been growing me since I returned to the States last summer, I can point to several "game changers"...

My Coloring Book

Coloring books aren't just for kids anymore!  Okay, how does this relate to my faith journey?  The book I have is full of verses and designs.  As I fill in the spaces with color, I repeat the words over and over in my head, allowing God to cement these truths into my heart.

Simply coloring has been a great stress reliever and has caused me to take time to pause.  I've never been very good at sitting still and just reflecting.  I have found that coloring God's promises has created a margin for meditating on His Word in a new way.

"I meditate on Your precepts and consider Your ways.  I delight in Your decrees; I will not neglect Your word."  Psalm 119:15-16

My Small Group Bible Study

A few weeks after I started attending North Way Christian Community Church in Oakland (back in September), I got connected with a small group of young professionals.  I'm so grateful for the way we can share openly and challenge each other in our faith!

Even more, the workbook that we selected has kept me accountable to reading Scripture daily and digging deeper into God's Word.  The study on 1 and 2 Samuel that we just completed was a reminder to me of the holiness and sovereignty of God, as well as an opportunity to recommit to obey His leading in the big and the small moments.


My Mom's Guitar

When I lived in Germany, I was spoiled to have a piano in my apartment.  Although it was challenging to find a time to play that didn't interfere with Germany's "quiet hours," I enjoyed having it for times of worship with my roommate, my small group, or gatherings of friends.

Since I don't have a piano right now, I'm attempting to tackle an item on my bucket list: learning to play the guitar!  My mom generously allowed me to bring her guitar to Pittsburgh with me, and Brittany has taught me new chords and playing tips each time she has visited from Toronto.  I'm still very much a beginner, but being able to sing worship songs each day has been a huge blessing this year!

What have been some faith "game changers" for you?

Friendship: A High Calling [Part 3: Mentorship]

This post is the third of a four-part series based on the message about friendships that I shared in chapel at Grove City College on February 9, part of the college's Focus Week on relationships.  To listen to the complete message, click here.

Many of you already know about my passion for a third type of friendship: mentorship.  During my college years, I realized the importance of having someone pouring into me while I was pouring into others.  This natural flow is represented here in this image.  The pitcher on the left represents a person who uses his or her unique passions and gifts to pour into the lives of others (the cup on the right).

It's easy to see that continuing like this will lead to an empty pitcher.  Thus, it is essential that this pitcher is also poured into by another pitcher, another person faithfully serving Christ by investing in people.  While we can certainly be filled by peer friendships, I believe there is something uniquely empowering when it's an older mentor.  

Ideally, this "cascade of mentorship" continues through whole communities, as believers faithfully live out their callings in relationship with one another, "one generation commend[ing] [God's] works to another" (Psalm 145:4).

This image stayed with me as I entered the "real world" and moved to Germany.  I welcomed the opportunity to lead a small group of high school girls, and many of you have prayed with me for these girls over the past 5+ years!

However, in that first year as their small group leader, I realized that, in order to maintain balance in my life, I needed to also have someone pouring into me.  At the end of my first year in Germany, I asked a woman in the community to be my mentor, and she became a voice of truth and wisdom for me during my years overseas.  This grew into a desire to spread the vision for connection in intentional relationships, and so began Walking Together. 

Mentorship is seen in the example of Paul and Timothy, whom Paul refers to as his "son in the faith" (1 Tim. 1:2).  Paul instructs Timothy to "fight the good fight" (1 Tim. 6:12), to "train [himself] to be godly" (1 Tim. 4:7), and not to let anyone look down on him (1 Tim. 4:12).  

Clearly both Paul and Timothy were very busy men.  They were spreading the Gospel all over the known world and equipping the first century church to flourish and grow into a global movement.  They certainly faced obstacles in figuring out a time to meet - imprisonment, shipwreck, dependence on long-distance communication - and all without the Internet!  But Paul intentionally invested in Timothy as a rising leader by inviting him to serve alongside him and affirming his faith.

Do you have someone helping you process life and speaking words of truth into your present circumstances?  Consider if there is someone in your community whom you can ask to meet with you periodically and walk alongside you in this season of life.

It could be that you are in a new place or one with very few believers or surrounded mostly by peers.  Perhaps you've looked around and prayed for someone to invest in you, but you're coming up empty-handed.  It may sound cliche, but I believe that Jesus will provide exactly what we need in His timing.  Perhaps right now He is asking you to listen to His voice and allow Him to mentor you through a dry season.

Proverbs 18:24 says that there is a Friend who sticks closer than a brother - that is Jesus, who desires our friendship for life and who was willing to die to make that intimate relationship possible.  In seasons of transition, this has silenced my worrying and abated my attempts to try to make my community look like what I think it should look like.  As we seek Him, Jesus will provide exactly what we need in His timing.

Whether we are sitting in the ashes of loneliness or celebrating in the company of many, we can continue to trust that Jesus will provide exactly the people we need in His timing.  

And more than that, He is always enough.  God's promise to Isaiah is true for us, too: "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be discouraged, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand" (Isaiah 41:10).

How can you acknowledge God's sovereignty in your current season?

How will you choose to lean into sharing life with others as part of the "cascade of mentorship"?

Friendship: A High Calling [Part 2: Deep Friendship]

This post is the second of a four-part series based on the message about friendships that I shared in chapel at Grove City College on February 9, part of the college's Focus Week on relationships.  To listen to the complete message, click here.

When I was young, I distinctly remember my mom encouraging me not to use the term "best friend." So, although I have had many wonderful friends over the years, I've never given any of them the label "best friend."  I love this idea that we can have lots of friends at the same time, and we don't have to label them with superlatives.  Of course, we may be closer to some than others, but this mentality allows many people to play different roles in our lives.

While last week's focus was companionship, this week is deep friendship.  In his book The Four Loves, C. S. Lewis writes this:

"Friendship arises out of mere Companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest [...]  The typical expression of opening friendship would be something like, 'What?  You too?  I thought I was the only one.'"

When I was a freshman at Grove City, my companions-turned-close-friends were my two roommates and two other triple rooms located right below ours.  We sent group emails and reply-all responses to figure out which cafeteria we were going to for dinner.  They waved to me distractingly when I was giving campus tours.  We had a lot of fun together - taking friendship seriously does not mean that it has to be all serious! - but our friendship was and continues to be centered around praying for one another, encouraging one another with Truth, and demonstrating Christ's sacrificial love.

Although we went in all different directions after graduation - literally across the country and around the world - we continued the reply-all emails, in which dinner plans were replaced with life updates.  We have had several reunions, not just to relive college memories, but to create new shared experiences and pray for one another in our current contexts.  These women are friends for life, even as we have made other new deep friendships.

One of my favorite aspects of life in Germany was the community.  There were certainly frustrations and complications of living and working and sharing life with the same people, but for me, this was a life-giving, refining season.  I was challenged to live authentically and was gifted with many companions and close friends.  

I believe that God crosses our paths with others so that He can grow each of us to become more like Himself.  However, it's our responsibility to lean into that calling to be friends.  We can remain as pass-in-the-night roommates, chit-chatting neighbors, or casual acquaintances - or, we can purpose to persevere in getting to know one another and appreciating one another's uniquenesses.

C. S. Lewis continues with this:

"In reality, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another, posting to different regiments, the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting - any of these chances might have kept us apart.  But, for a Christian, there are strictly speaking, no chances [...]  Christ who said to the disciples, 'Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you,' can truly say to every group of Christian friends, 'You have not chosen one another, but I have chosen you for one another.'  [Friendship] is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others."

In each season of life, there are opportunities to build new friendships and continue growing existing friendships.  God has placed you right where you are in a community of potential companions and friends.  

Are you allowing God to reveal to you the "beauties of all the others" around you?

Are you choosing to appreciate and connect with others around you in this season of life?  

Jesus said, "A new command I give to you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:34-35).  It's our calling to love our close friends in order to demonstrate the love of Christ to the world.

Friendship: A High Calling [Part 1: Companionship]

This post is the first of a four-part series based on the message about friendships that I shared in chapel at Grove City College on February 9, part of the college's Focus Week on relationships.  To listen to the complete message, click here.

We have been taught the art of friend-making since we were young: "If you want to have a friend, you have to be one first."  As toddlers, we learn how to share and play nicely together.  But, friendship goes deeper than that.  I believe we can best live out our calling as friends when we live out our calling as Christians.

Through the writings of Paul, we can get an idea of how we're called to live in relationship with others:

"Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love..."  Colossians 3:12-14

" Love must be sincere...  Be devoted to one another in love.  Honor one another above yourselves... Practice hospitality.  Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.  Live in harmony with one another."  Portions of Romans 12

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should not look only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."  Philippians 2:3

Being a friend and living in relationship with others is a high calling!

There are different types of friendships that have value throughout our lives, one of which is companionship.  Companions share the common ground of the same place, same time, and same purpose.  This could be your classmates, teammates, small group members, co-workers...  These friends are important!  They help us feel connected in a group and develop camaraderie while accomplishing a difficult task.

I really value meaningful conversations with people.  I developed an appreciation for an eventual enjoyment of coffee just so I could "meet for coffee" with people!  As someone who values intentional relationships, I might be tempted to overlook the importance of companionship.  But companions need not stick to surface-level conversations.  The Lord can speak through poignant conversations with people we wouldn't consider our closest friends or who are only in our lives for a season.

How is God speaking to you through the people around you?  How can you encourage others who are in the same place at the same time working toward the same purpose as you?

"Bear One Another's Burdens"

"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Galatians 6:2

The past two months have been burden-bearing months.  No, not burdensome, but definitely burden-bearing.

Within the span of a few weeks, several friends had sudden life-threatening medical emergencies and are now undergoing extensive rehab.  Others face situations of grief, loneliness, confusion, and defeat.  I'm sure you could add to the list from your own story and the circumstances of your friends.

It has been a staggering two months of repeatedly entrusting others to Jesus, claiming promises over their situations and singing songs of surrender to the Lord. While it has been challenging to see friends struggle, I am inspired by their courage and honored to pray for them.  As I have entered this battleground on their behalf, I've been reminded that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against... the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians 6:12).

So I fall on my knees, and I fight like a warrior
I am a warrior on my knees
And I call on the Name of the One who is conquerer
I'm more than a conquerer when I believe
The enemy trembles every time
'Cause He knows the battle is no longer mine
And I fall on my knees and fight like a warrior
- "Warrior" (Steven Curtis Chapman)

Friends, can I humbly ask you to bear my "burdens" by praying for me this week? I'm putting the final touches on two talks I'll be giving at Grove City College next Tuesday.  (Believe it or not, speaking to 1,000+ college students and professors is not the same as a class of twenty middle schoolers!)  I'd appreciate your prayers against anxiety, physical sickness, missed opportunity...  Pray that Truth would be proclaimed and Jesus would be glorified.

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power... Therefore, put on the full armor or God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."  Ephesians 6:10, 13