A Week of Change

Unpacking boxes.  New faces.  Thank You notes.  Back roads.  Isaiah. Painting Lake Houses.  Uncharted Territory.

Just a few words that describe my first week in Gainesville.

I'm learning to trust.  I'm learning that I don't have to know the next step in front of me, that I don't have to have it all together, that I don't have to earn my calling.  I'm learning the rhythms of Grace. 

Here's my testimony from this week.  The thing is, it's not mine.  It's the story of a friend walking in simple obedience.  

Last Tuesday, I was asked to help renovate "The Lake House."  Here @ AIM, it's famous.  I heard about two years ago even before I ever stepped foot inside this beauty.  It's a guy's house for missionaries..specifically those doing CGA this year like me.  

The first day I stepped in I met a guy who just got back from Guatemala and I knew right away that he was sick.  They told me he had contracted Hepatitis A.  My heart hurt to watch him and I just wanted him to be healed right there and then.  I was inspired by the fact that he still came to CGA.  I would've stayed at home with my Mommy for sure.  Yet even though he felt terrible and didn't know when it was going to get any better, he came.  It gave me confidence that I can do this too!

I have wondered in the past week why God has placed me in this house to work.  I know it's not for my artistic eye or outstanding abilities to paint a room.  I think part of it was to participate outwardly in what He is doing in my soul.  As I sand down a wall, re paint, clean a dusty corner, I'm aware that He is renovating my heart. Unarming my defenses, putting his healing ointment on my wounds, demolishing my insecurities.  It's a process and it hurts.  

Yesterday was a very discouraging day.  I felt better after a chat with my best friend and sister, Ashlin, and walked back into the kitchen after talking with her to find my friend making this:

She was preparing food for our friend who has been sick.  She was stopping for the one.  She was loving as Christ loves and it shifted my perspective.  God touches our lives with Grace so that we can touch others.

Mother Teresa said:

"Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person."

My answer to this call really comes down to being transformed by this radical love of Jesus and sharing it with every single person I come in contact with- I have the best job in the world. 

"Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” -Isaiah 6:8