Being Confident in the Calling

This week I was asked a peculiar question by someone..."Jennica...you are young and single...how long are you REALLY going to be at Highlands? You can be doing anything you want - you can go wherever you want, do whatever you want, how long are you really planning on staying here?"

Hearing this question got me thinking. My life today isn't anything like I thought it would be - I never would have guessed that God would allow me to do my dream job right out of college. During church this morning - one of the points being made was: Take courage in your Calling - Trust what God has entrusted to you. I am regularly humbled by the fact that God chooses to use us in our brokenness to share God's Word with other people. He entrusts us with the message - confident that we will get the job done.

I have no idea what God has for the future...I don't know what tomorrow will hold, or next week, next month or next year. But, I do know...that I am confident in what God has called me to. God has given me a deep passion to invest in the next generation and I want to do all I can to fulfill the task God has created for me.

God so clearly brought me to Highlands and I am so thankful for how clear that call was. I am starting this new week with a deeper sense of rest than I had before. I want to be able to say at the end of the day, that I did all I could to fulfill God's call on my life. I love the life God has blessed me with in Renton and I truly could not imagine being anywhere else or doing anything else at this point in my life. I am thankful for how God shut so many doors to lead me to this place. He is good. His timing is impeccable.

In Acts 20 it says:

But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

We don't always get what we want, when we want it....but that is such a gift!! He knows us deeper than we know ourselves...and for that I am truly grateful. I want to do better at more quickly turning to dwell on His faithfulness and celebrating His grace.

My friends, in a world where it is so easy to compare oneself to another - where we see the 'happy faces' on social media...where we are always trying to do bigger and better things - where the grass is always greener on the other side - be confident in the message and calling God has given YOU.

That calling is only yours and it is beautiful! 

A Valentine's Day Post

Every year, this holiday rolls up and I find myself again and again pretending it isn't so. Pretending that this day isn't really coming up and I am still single. I avoid the grocery stores like the plague because of the nausea that screams in my face the second I walk through the doors. The commercials and radio advertisements and all the reminders that Valentine's Day is happening is so loud I can't go an hour without being reminded it is coming.

This year, I am seeking the Lord to teach me about what it means to surrender my hopes, dreams and life to Him. To the author of the world and the giver of life - to Love Himself. I knew that in order to have a good attitude today, I needed to not be at my house by myself. So, I decided earlier this week that I needed to go on a hike with Jesus - that is where I sense his presence closest with me. When I can tune out the noise of this world, the lies that try and creep their way into my mind, thoughts and heart. I put on my earbuds and turned up my worship music and we took a hike. Just after I got started this song came on - Good to be Alive - I started singing along and knew it was going to be a good day! Look it up - it's a good one!

I made it to the top and found a cozy spot and pulled out my Bible. I am working on reading the Bible through chronologically and it is FASCINATING. If you haven't read the Bible through this way - start now! Every time I read through there is something new and this time things are jumping off the page at me and I am so in love with the God who created all of this.

I am currently in 2 Samuel; 1 Chronicles and the Psalms. It is neat to see David's prayers in the Psalms as he leads the Israelites through to the Promised Land. Each time a new nation comes up to conquer, the Israelites say, 'No way. God can't do this. We must return to Egypt.' They overtly disobey and don't trust the God who PROMISED them to get to the Promised Land. I feel like I am so quick to have the same attitude. I know God has given me more than I ever could possibly deserve, yet I have moments where I doubt His leading in my life. I want to be married someday and have my own family, that isn't happening yet and I so quickly fall into the same trap as the Israelites - believing that I can do better myself - failing to recognize all that God has given me. In this weeks reading, I came across Psalm 84:10-12.

"For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!"

So many times I have seen this verse be taken out of it's context to be given as encouragement to people that God will give you something good. It is a pretty powerful statement, but when we read it in the order that it happened, Israel is turning their back, going from one sin to another, not trusting in the Father, then seeing Him provide and protect for them. When I read this passage this week, in this context, I was stunned. There is SO much power behind that. Even when we fail to trust completely, when we think we can do better than God Himself, he will bring us back, forgive us and give us His blessing and His goodness. What an amazing God!

At the top of the mountain today I got to witness an engagement. A young couple came to the top and I could tell the young man looked nervous. He was fidgeting and looking around - he looked at me and smiled and I knew what he was about to do. He got down on one knee...gave her a little speech then pulled out a little black box. My heart was beaming with love knowing that I was getting to experience this moment with this couple. Though I still dream of the day that some man might get down on his knee to ask to spend the rest of my life with him, I was reminded that God has already done that for me. That kind of love, that full commitment, the ALL in kind of love. Jesus did that for me when I asked Him to forgive me of my sins and to be my Savior. And, even better, earthly promises say, 'till death do us part.' My love with Jesus isn't that at all. It is at death that we will truly be united - with no fears, questions, or tears - I like that part!

Tonight, I am going to bed in awe of God's steadfast love for me. He is the one that loves us fully, perfectly and unconditionally. I am so thankful for this kind of love and that we get to experience a small taste of this love on earth. So my friends, enjoy this day. Celebrate with the ones whom God has brought into your life and thank Him first and foremost for each of those people and for the fact that He gave His life so we could live forever with Him. That is a love we will never understand!

Jesus, help me to walk uprightly and trust you completely!  

You can see the couple there - just to the right - just after they got engaged. Blessings on your marriage, strangers! :) 

A Year of Surrender

As we step into another new year, I always like to take some time to reflect on what God has done in the year and what I am looking forward to God doing in the next year. This has always been a value of my Dads and something our family looks forward to every New Years Day: Chinese food and sharing what God is doing. This year, I have met a gal named Lauryn - she is my BSF leader and I am so thankful God put me in her group. She was sharing with us that her family does something like this every year. They each pick a word they want to grow in that year and they pray about it, seek it in the Word and learn as much as possible about that one characteristic. She challenged us to do the same starting this fall. I LOVED the idea and decided to pick a word for my 2015. 

After much prayer, thought and journaling, I decided that God was putting on my heart the idea of SURRENDER. For me, I LOVE stories. I love reading stories, listening to stories but even more telling stories - I even themed my whole dorm section in college around the idea of stories! I love the art in this form of communication and I believe that stories are one of Gods greatest ways of communicating truth to His people. However, because I have such a love for stories, I find myself striving to create and craft my own stories for my future. What I think should happen and how I think it should happen and sometimes worse...when it should happen. I recognize that I am failing to surrender myself and my future to our perfect Savior who is a FAR better story teller than I will ever be. 

We live in a goal-oriented world. Goals in and of themselves aren't bad, it is important to set a target and have something to look to.  However, for myself, I have sensed my goals slipping to expectations for myself. I had expectations of where I would be at this point in my life. What I would be doing for a job and where I would be living. The life I have now is no where near what I ever thought I would be doing (at least at this point) ha! I never would have imagined God would be putting me in full time Children's ministry at this age. I never would have imagined I would have my own place and would be living on my own and paying my own bills. What a surprise God gave me - and huge blessing!

For 2015, I am asking God to help me surrender my future and my desire to write my own story. God is a far better author than me - he has already proved that in more ways than one in my life. I hope for this year to more regularly be living in my today. To stop crafting what tomorrow will hold and surrender my hopes, expectations, dreams and desires to Him - because they are all a gift from Him to begin with!! 

I am so looking forward to this year and all that God will do in my heart, mind and life. AND this year I FINALLY get a brother - I am looking forward to that quite a bit too! I challenge you to think of what God is wanting to teach each of you this year and dive into the Word to discover what God has for you in that. So far, my favorite passage on surrender is found in Matthew 16:

'Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.'

 Join me as I seek to surrender my story and my future to the perfect Author. Blessings on your 2015!!