I got back last night from a missions trip with 75 high school students to The Pittsburgh Project. It was an amazing, crazy week, totally outside of my comfort zone. I didn't grow up going to youth group or going on missions trips. I am so blessed to have said yes to this opportunity.
Highlights of my week include:
Driving the Swaggin' Wagon around the Burgh
Sleeping in June in no air conditioning
Hours of playing black magic, the object game, around the world, and many other games
13 roommates and sharing a bathroom with >100 teenage girls
A hit and run accident
Serving an amazing woman by repairing her home
A trunkful of spilt paint
Hanging out with an awesome group of students and leaders
But beyond the fun, the service, and the tense moments, God really spoke intensely and intimately to my heart to teach me some amazing lessons. Here's a summary.
You can't make much of God and much of what other people think of you at the same time. I was put in some situations this week where God definitely was calling me to do something different than what some people were telling me. As a chronic people-pleaser, I've struggled with balancing God's calling for me and what others will think or say. But when God speaks to your heart, it is so right, so intense, so clear...that everything fades into the background. When I listened to God, everything fell into place. God showed me His sovreignty and reinforced His plan for me this week.
You don't have to be good at something for God to use you. This was a tough lesson for me, the perpetual over-achiever and perfectionist. I mean, I like doing things really, really well. I'm used to doing things really, really well. God has shown me that my pride, the facade I build up of perfectionism, is stupid and a waste of time.
I am probably one of the most hopeless home improvement grown-ups in the greater Charlotte region. I am not the most amazing high school lifegroup leader. But I spent a week teaching high school kids how to paint, scrape, and talk about and show God's love to the city of Pittsburgh. He used me and worked through me this week, much more intensely than He does when I'm in my comfort zone. I had to lean on Him, rely on Him, trust Him like I've never had to before. The results...amazing!
As a result, my eyes have really been opened to some awesome possibilities. I've been praying about medical missions for a while now - it is hard to find opportunities for physical therapists. But now my heart wonders if I just need to GO somewhere, to serve, and that God isn't calling me just yet to use the PT skills He's given me in missions work. I feel like something big, amazing, and life-altering is on the horizon.
Listen to God's calling for your life. More than anything, God reinforced to me that I need to stay involved with the youth at my church, that He has a plan for me with these students. All of my involvement with Advance, with The Pittsburgh Project, has been clearly spoken to me and revealed to my heart. I thought (and still think, sometimes) that God is crazy for calling me down this path. But I have trusted Him, said yes to Him, and my life will never be the same - for the better.
If I had to sum up my week in Pittsburgh, I would tell you to say yes to God. It makes this journey called life so much better.
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