Hey y’all. I haven’t blogged in a while for a few reasons, but
one of them is that lately I’ve been struggling to find the joy. That’s
obviously the title of my blog and one of the things I strive for most in life.
A few years ago the Lord really taught me that despite my surrounding
circumstances, I can always find joy when my eyes are set on him and his love.
But lately, on and off again, I’ve kind of struggled with this. Looking back at
my journal, there’s a lot of asking God for patience, and peace, and a love
like his. It seems that rejoicing can occasionally be really difficult and the
other times it seems to be second nature. In Ann Voskamp’s book “One Thousand
Gifts” she says, “Do I really smother my own joy because I believe anger achieves
more than love?” Do I strive to get
angry instead of see joy? Lately I get irritated and frustrated quicker, and
need to remind myself to allow joy to triumph. So my prayer lately has been for
the Lord to teach me to see his face in the mess and, with thanksgiving, change
the mess into joy. I’ve also learned the joy and peace and love I pray for is
also a choice I have to make. My “Jesus Calling” devotional the other day said,“You will never run out of things to worry about, but you
can choose to trust me no matter what. I am an ever-present help in trouble.” –
Jesus.
So I’m working on choosing. Choosing God. Choosing to trust.
Choosing joy!
The other reason I’m writing again is to update y’all on my
life. In less than a month I’m heading to Amsterdam on a Spring Service Project
along with 13 others from Northwestern. Our trip is 10 days, and during those
10 days we’ll be working with two different hostiles in Amsterdam. I was
initially drawn to this trip because it’s near the red light district (which many
of you know is one of my greatest passions), but the Lord actually changed my
heart and drew me to this trip for a completely different reason. During our
stay we’ll be cleaning the hostiles top to bottom to hopefully give the long
term volunteers and staff a break, which I’ve seen in the past can be very
important. Ministry can easily wear a person out and it’s my prayer that during
our stay we will not hinder the staff, but rather give them an opportunity to
rest and spend some sweet time with our Savior. We’ll also just be hanging
around the hostile and forming relationships with the people traveling through
and leading nightly Bible studies. It’s my prayer that through this seeds will
be planted and people will be drawn to the Lord, whether we are there to see
that or not. So as me and the rest of the team prepare to leave on February 28th,
pray that the Lord prepares our hearts for ministry, but that he also prepares
the hearts of those we’ll interact with. We serve a great, big, and mighty God
who is capable to do more than we could ask or imagine…so let’s ask! Let’s ask
him to bring a revival in the hearts of those we’ll encounter in Amsterdam!
