Showing posts with label church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label church. Show all posts
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Milestone Song
I love music. Finding that song that perfectly encapsulates everything you're feeling has got to be one of the best experiences. It's like the essence of the song fuses in with your soul and things just seem right.
One of my favorite hobbies is to make playlists every season. This started back in high school in my more emo days. Oftentimes there would be a song that would stand apart from the rest of the list (usually because it resonated with my feelings of unrequited love). To this day whenever I hear one of those "milestone songs", I get a rush of memories from that time of my life. If you know me well, my memory sucks, so the fact that music helps me remember things makes it all the more important to me.
This year, I've had the privilege of being on band (playing drums!). Part of that responsibility is to try to find songs that we think would be appropriate for where our church is at. Unfortunately, I'm still 0-4 in song suggestions making it into the band song list, but one of the new songs we're learning this semester really stands out to me. It's still early, but I have a strong feeling that it will be one of those "milestone songs" for this semester. The song lays out so simply God's power and majesty and the lyrics yearn for things that we are so desperate to see happen in our church.
Every time I listen to this song, I am filled with excitement and wonder at what God has in store for us this year. How awesome will it be to look back on this semester and hear all the stories of lives God has touched?
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Yay God Moments
OCR has been amazing. This year we really wanted to focus on being able to minister to people versus just inviting them out to our church events. That way even if we talk to fewer people, they'll at least experience something deeper than just a friendly face.
God met, and exceeded my expectations. Personally I've always had a hard time when people tell me that they get led by the Spirit to do things or they get visions, I'm happy for them, but because I've never been able to experience it for myself, part of me is skeptical.
Well, when we went out on campus and we specifically prayed for divine encounters, God did not disappoint. One time in the Union, a couple of us went into the eating area and I saw a guy sitting by himself watching TV. I really felt like I was supposed to talk w/ him so I just went up and struck up a conversation, when I turned around to introduce the other people with me, they weren't there but I kept talking. We ended up having a really deep conversation and he shared how he had been really struggling recently with loneliness and personal guilt. I just felt compelled to pray for him and when I had finished, he had been crying and said that God provided that conversation to encourage him. I was so blown away at how God orchestrated that event.
Another time I was out w/ Dr. Matt and a student and we were just going around asking if people had time to answer a spiritual survey. We came to this guy who initially said he didn't have time to talk, but when we asked he he'd like us to pray for anything, he shared he would love for us to pray for his thesis defense (he was a philosophy phD student). After the prayer, he was so thankful he actually hugged us and invited us to sit down. In my head I was laughing b/c he had told us 3 minutes earlier he was too busy to talk and yet he was opening the door into his life. We ended up having a cool discussion on his thesis... honestly it was way over my head.. it had something to do with how this one philosopher used his conjunctions as mathematical equations to describe our world... it blew my mind. But we were able to share parts of our own testimony and encourage him. Aaron and I ended up leaving after 30 or so minutes to try meeting other students, but Dr. Matt actually helped him w/ his research! haha amazing right?
Even for our events, one thing that we were praying for was continuity among the people who showed up for our events. Done. From our first event, God brought out a good group, and many of them ended up coming to each one and with life groups starting next week, they have signed up for those as well! This is the beginning of the tipping point, I feel it! There's a definitely buzz and excitement, although for sure it is incredibly draining. (It doesn't help that it's over 100 degrees every night)
If you're praying for Austin, know that your prayers are definitely falling on some fertile soil!!
God met, and exceeded my expectations. Personally I've always had a hard time when people tell me that they get led by the Spirit to do things or they get visions, I'm happy for them, but because I've never been able to experience it for myself, part of me is skeptical.
Well, when we went out on campus and we specifically prayed for divine encounters, God did not disappoint. One time in the Union, a couple of us went into the eating area and I saw a guy sitting by himself watching TV. I really felt like I was supposed to talk w/ him so I just went up and struck up a conversation, when I turned around to introduce the other people with me, they weren't there but I kept talking. We ended up having a really deep conversation and he shared how he had been really struggling recently with loneliness and personal guilt. I just felt compelled to pray for him and when I had finished, he had been crying and said that God provided that conversation to encourage him. I was so blown away at how God orchestrated that event.
Another time I was out w/ Dr. Matt and a student and we were just going around asking if people had time to answer a spiritual survey. We came to this guy who initially said he didn't have time to talk, but when we asked he he'd like us to pray for anything, he shared he would love for us to pray for his thesis defense (he was a philosophy phD student). After the prayer, he was so thankful he actually hugged us and invited us to sit down. In my head I was laughing b/c he had told us 3 minutes earlier he was too busy to talk and yet he was opening the door into his life. We ended up having a cool discussion on his thesis... honestly it was way over my head.. it had something to do with how this one philosopher used his conjunctions as mathematical equations to describe our world... it blew my mind. But we were able to share parts of our own testimony and encourage him. Aaron and I ended up leaving after 30 or so minutes to try meeting other students, but Dr. Matt actually helped him w/ his research! haha amazing right?
Even for our events, one thing that we were praying for was continuity among the people who showed up for our events. Done. From our first event, God brought out a good group, and many of them ended up coming to each one and with life groups starting next week, they have signed up for those as well! This is the beginning of the tipping point, I feel it! There's a definitely buzz and excitement, although for sure it is incredibly draining. (It doesn't help that it's over 100 degrees every night)
If you're praying for Austin, know that your prayers are definitely falling on some fertile soil!!
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