Freely Loving

Okay, now that we have all that BIG NEWS out of the way, I can share what is really on my heart and mind ;-)

Totally cool story. See, my friend Jeremy Harris--who I met in Atlanta in January at the Passion2010 conference, shout out Pink Stripe!--is currenly on a year-long, world-wide, mind-blowing mission trip known as the World Race. I mean, this isn't your granddad's "Camp Chetek" youth group trip... this is serious business among the nations of the world. Anyway, several weeks ago I began to read the book of Philippians and right smack in the first chapter there were several verses that struck me:

"And this is my prayer: that your love may about more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God." {Philippians 1:9-11}

After reading those verses (that was NIV, but I love them in the NKJV too, you should check it out) I had this urge to pray them specifically for Jeremy and his team--in particular that he'd be able to love well and love everyone around him and love wisely, to the glory and praise of God. Sure, I prayed for unity and support... but this one request was always on the forefront of my prayers, that he would love. I didn't know why I wanted to pray it so badly, just that I needed to do it. In fact, sometime last week I think it was, I awoke in the middle of the night and wasn't able to sleep until I had prayed hard-core for this WR team to love and be unified.

Fast-forward to today. I got an email that Jeremy had updated his World Race blog (plug--you should read it because it's awesome: http://jeremyharris.theworldrace.org/) and I went to check out his new post, entitled "Free to Love".

What I found brought me to tears. Through a connection with a 6-year-old boy in a Haitian orphanage, Jeremy had lost the walls that blocked him from loving fully. Through a series of songs, comments, natural phenomena, and prayers, Jeremy realized and was affirmed that he was free to love!--The very specific thing I had been praying for weeks without knowing was something God was specifically looking to do in Jer's life! That just BLOWS MY MIND! God let me, little self-absorbed Libby, all the way on the other side of the world just wishing she could do something so wild and crazy and abandoned as orphan ministry, have a sliver in on the Kingdom coming to Earth in the life of a World Racer and his team. (btw, the prayers for unity are being answered too--his team has decided to fast from food and electronics for a whole day because of how serious they are about everyone getting their financial support completed!)

Wow. I just thought that was SO COOL and it was really affirming to me, too. To hear that God answers prayer is great; to have Him answer a prayer after years of praying is cool; and now to have Him plant something so specific and then answer it even more specifically all the way on the other side of the world is awe-inspiring! :-D

Okay, I'm done... for now. Here's the link to Jeremy's post; I really think you should read it:

http://jeremyharris.theworldrace.org/?filename=free-to-love

Last of all, here's a picture of Jeremy with his little wall-demolishing friend, Egine--too sweet not to share:

Space Cadet

Okay, so a lot has happened in the last MONTH since I posted. Actually, I have kind of been avoiding posting on purpose because of all that has been happening.


As you may know, I had been agonizing between two AMAZING opportunities God had presented to me fresh out of college:

1) Would I travel with Life Action Ministries for a year, ministering to churches across America as an alto singer and building crazy experiences and relationships with like-minded Christian peers? This was a tremendous opportunity to go into full-time, dedicated, vocational Christian ministry and it was the one my heart really wanted at the time.

OR

2) Would I stay in town and accept the Flight Director job offered to me by the Challenger Learning Center at Heartland (yes, they offered it to me on a Friday when I was at the Solar Car Rayce 2010 ISU Stage Stop with the Rutherfords!)? This would give me an opportunity to pay off my student loans, making me totally financially free for the future; it would also suit my abilities and interests very well and it was on the campus where I'd worked for nearly four years.


Well, a LOT of stuff happened. A lot of verses and songs came up... a lot of conversations with wise people... a lot of conversations with other friends... a lot of encouragement and prayer from a handful of still other friends... even fasting... and a lot of prayer... I wrestled heavily with the concept of God's will for me and His sovereignty vs. my choice in life. I still don't know that I've reached a 100% sure conclusion, but I can say that I trust Him in a way I never have before. Now I see His control of my life as the loving intervention on my behalf that it is. As Brian, our college pastor, often says, "God doesn't say "don't"--He says "don't hurt yourself". Christianity is not a set of rules--but God does give us guidelines so we can enjoy the life He's given as fully and safely as possible." I have realized that God's will is not like a tightrope that I can easily fall off of as much as it's like a pasture with a fence around it--a pasture with lots of green choices to pick from!


Soooooooooo........ It's time for me to break my blogging silence. And that means I should at least let you know which one I ended up choosing and am now having a ROCKIN'-LY AWESOME TIME at. I began my training on Monday, July 26th and am learning a lot.

Here's your clue: a picture of me "on the job":

Funny how God is so faithful...

"A man's heart plans his ways, but the LORD directs his steps"

P.S. and yes, the moment I accepted the job, people started asking me all kinds of questions about space, NASA, etc. and assumed I was an expert on it all... so now space will become my LIFE so that I *can* be an expert on it all :-)