Memphis Chronicles: The Switch

One thing I have been forced to learn this summer is how to adapt into various cultures on a daily basis. As some of you may know, I enjoy routine and I like consistency in my life. To say the Lord has taught me much about letting go of that control would be an understatement! Depending on the day, I find myself one minute sitting with a lively Vietnamese couple eating eggrolls, then sitting drinking chai with a Somalian family, then returning home to my house in the inner city while being bombarded with questions from the neighborhood kids about what my life is all about. Then there are days when I eat meals or spend time with friends in east Memphis in mansions bigger than I have ever walked into before. (The "sweet" southern life is fantastic) In the midst of all this transition, I know this is not real life for me at all. This is not normal, and I will once again switch back life at school (for one more year).

I struggle with transition, and I struggle with change. I want badly to deepen my roots and build relationships that do not end after a short season. Change makes me want to keep my distance and look ahead for what is next, rather than be wholly where I am at. I look at the life of Jesus and know he never had a permanent home, and that he loved people so deeply that his entire life was testimony of the father's love. 

I want to love without hesitation, to serve without reservation. What do I take from here? How do I transition here from my last week of my internship into my last year at JBU?

One thing is sure. I worship a God that is unchanging, my rock which I will lay my foundation. Whatever changes or transitions lie ahead, I will not be shaken-for my God is one that has been faithful to me every step the way. I will take each day with great expectation that the Holy Spirit will show up and give life to the lifeless, food to the hungry, and hope for the hopeless. I know this to be true because I myself am often lifeless, hungry, and in great need of hope. I will continually secure my deepest satisfaction in him, because I have chased the cheap and been left wanting.

Here's to tomorrow, whatever it may bring...

Memphis Chronicles:To Fly

Run, John, run, the law commands
But gives us neither feet nor hands,
Far better news the gospel brings:
It bids us fly and gives us wings.

-John Bunyan

A friend shared this poem as he spoke truth into my burdened heart.You see, I am guilty of carrying the weight of what I am learning this summer. I now feel somewhat responsible for the brokenness and need within this city because I am no longer naive. As I wrestle with big questions, I think, "Lord, what will you have me do after I graduate? What am I supposed to do with all these wonderful and powerful experiences after I leave here? What is my purpose in all of this?"

The truth is that the law commands me to do exactly what I am unable to do. The law binds me to move in a manner in which I save, I change, and I transform the brokenness in this place out of a responsibility to what I have experienced. I am being moved to act and challenged to see God's work accomplished, but it is rising from within my own self. The beauty of the gospel is that it is the Holy Spirit that is the catalyst for change. It is the Holy Spirit that saves, changes, transforms and moves. His work will continue to be accomplished after I leave here, he doesn't need me in the slightest.

But I'm begging for wings, for I long to be apart of what the Holy Spirit is doing here. I'm praying big, for radical change beyond what my imagination can fathom. I'm asking for comforts and false senses of security to be gone that Christ my be glorified through me.

Freedom of Grace, give me wings so that I may fly.