It's been a really intense week and I'm exhausted, with another really long day to go yet tomorrow.
I was running over to the other girls' apartment (which is really just across the grassy knoll in between our buildings) but in order to get there, I had to climb through kind of a muddy mess in the rain. In the process, I slipped and fell into the mud, but a piney bush caught most of my fall. But I did end up fairly muddy. (Which sucked because we don't have hot water right now to be able to take a shower. The shower today was ridiculous.)
I laughed and shook it off, but it was the perfect topping to the day. In general, it was just one of those days that you kind of want to shake off completely. ...Except for the meeting I got to have with Autumn, who is an awesome girl working with Fountain of Life church on the Southside of Madison. This girl gets it and my meetings with her are always encouraging and challenging for both of us.
2 weeks into this internship, I'm experiencing the excitement and frustrations of ministry. It is wonderful and painful all at the same time. It is the biggest contradiction I've ever experienced. I love being a part of the team. I love the work that is happening in my heart and in the hearts of the students on my team. I love the creativity and passion involved.
But along with that comes frustrations... along with that comes emotions and complexities that I never even knew existed.
One of the most daunting things that I'm experiencing right now is this:
Square one: Service is essential. How many references in Scripture are there that tell followers of Christ to care for the margins of society? Good deeds and Good news go hand in hand. They do not separate. They are essential to one another.
The problem: The church (generalized Church) has built up walls. We no longer move toward our neighbor, but hull up in our big buildings and run our programs for ourselves with very little thought as to the welfare of the guy living across the street from us.
Luckily, some people are making amazing strides to bust those walls down and it's creating a revolution among what should be the "body of Christ." We are being pushed to become the Church once again. This challenge is both exhilarating and ridiculously difficult at the same time.
Why is this daunting to me? Because of this fact: The question with this internship that arises is how in the world do we get people, specifically college students in my case, to stop seeing service as part of a check list and start seeing it as essential? How does that heart develop? Obviously, God works in the hearts of people, but to some extent, it is our responsibility to respond out of obedience, due to the Greatest Commandments: Love God. Love others. All others fall under those two.
But how do we move toward the fatherless and the widow...the man recently released from prison...the drifter who needs a place to sleep for the night that isn't a park bench...the single mom trying to make ends meet and keep her children out of trouble? How do we move toward the woman who has been sexually abused and the family that has hit a financial snag due to their father's illness? Jesus loved them. Jesus didn't see them as part of His checklist. He was there with them. He hurt with them. He healed them. And, in doing so, people believed.
Good Works. Good News.
There's no disconnecting them.
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