Use our lives
As wine that is poured out
A willing sacrifice
Empower us Father
To share the love of Christ
As bread that is broken Lord
Use our lives
~Paul Baloche and Claire Cloninger
I spent the last few months of 2007 preparing for HIGHER, my church's youth camp. The preparation, and the camp itself, is an experience that I still can't put words to. I have never had the privilege to be part of something so big, with 130 odd campers, and so humbling when we caught a glimpse of God's awesome love for us. I could congratulate myself for sticking to the job and giving my all for this (which I have never done before, being normally inconsistent), etc etc, but in my heart I know it's not the complete story. I know I only did a good job because there was a strong sense of God's intention for the camp, His Higher purpose, throughout the planning. Our leaders prayed over it and gave us their complete support; church administrators helped us with food; plans that fell through came together again in the nick of time.I was especially humbled by the way everyone in the committee gave their best for the Lord through this camp. With such a cloud of witnesses, there was no reason to run half-heartedly. And I believe God has used this camp to prepare us as a community for His service in this year.
This year I want to learn a little more what it means to serve as broken bread and poured out wine. I don't think it is possible to ever come to the end of learning this. Perhaps that's what all this excitement about Jabez and enlarging our territory means. God will continue to draw us to the very edge of ourselves, our abilities. If I think I cannot possibly be more broken than I was last year, or that I have not one more drop left to give, that's when I learn how God's strength is made perfect in my weakness. I need to realise just how empty I am so that I can be filled with God's strength and love, filled to overflowing, filled to the point that my heart is stretched and my spirit enlarged. And I will have learnt more the depth of Christ's love and forgiveness, participated more in his sufferings, and anticipated more of the glory to come. That's what I want out of this year: to enter the depths of Christ's love in serving to the point of brokenness. And to remember (as the melancholic me often forgets) that in the midst of that brokenness I can still rejoice in the knowledge that what is in store will be so much greater, and worth the effort, just as Christ, knowing the glory that was ahead of him, endured the cross.
This year I want to learn a little more what it means to serve as broken bread and poured out wine. I don't think it is possible to ever come to the end of learning this. Perhaps that's what all this excitement about Jabez and enlarging our territory means. God will continue to draw us to the very edge of ourselves, our abilities. If I think I cannot possibly be more broken than I was last year, or that I have not one more drop left to give, that's when I learn how God's strength is made perfect in my weakness. I need to realise just how empty I am so that I can be filled with God's strength and love, filled to overflowing, filled to the point that my heart is stretched and my spirit enlarged. And I will have learnt more the depth of Christ's love and forgiveness, participated more in his sufferings, and anticipated more of the glory to come. That's what I want out of this year: to enter the depths of Christ's love in serving to the point of brokenness. And to remember (as the melancholic me often forgets) that in the midst of that brokenness I can still rejoice in the knowledge that what is in store will be so much greater, and worth the effort, just as Christ, knowing the glory that was ahead of him, endured the cross.
1 comment:
Rejoice, for the Lord worked in manifold and magnificent ways in camp - even when the plans of mice and men went awry!
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