As an open house activity at Fuller Theological Seminary, visitors were able to sit in on a sample lecture by Scott Cormode entitled “Things that Keep You Up at Night.”

The lecture was on leadership and on how in any service oriented job in ministry, leadership is required to help people live into their vision, defined as a “shared story of future hope.”  Leadership is diagnosing what the problem is preventing them from articulating their vision and helping them live into it by weaving hope into their story.

Take Carl and Ellie from Disney’s UP! for example.  We watched the 2 minute clip from the beginning of UP! that developed the relationship between Carl and Ellie.  We follow them as they meet for the first time and become best friends with the innocence that only childhood can bring to a relationship.  We see as they get married and celebrate together.  We dream with them as they place hopes in seeing Paradise Falls one day.  We hurt with them as they lose a child.  Most of all, we feel the loneliness and sadness that accompanies Carl’s pain when he loses the love of his life.

How did we get so hooked into the movie so quickly?  Disney skillfully crafted a 2 minute story that had the two things that every person empathizes with: Longing and Loss.  Carl and Ellie long for adventure, old age, a child, and the money to go on their dream vacation.  They experience loss as they have a miscarriage, and as Carl loses Ellie to sickness.  That is the heart of the human condition and the basis of all things that keep us up at night.

If you think about how much time thinking about the things you long for and the things you have lost, you realize how much you are potentially holding back by living this way.  For me, it is surprising.  I realize that in order to live into the vision given to me of future hope, I need to let go of certain things, but it is easier said than done.

Think about stories.  All literary themes have some sort of variation of longing and loss.  We are shaped psychologically and sociologically by the past stories of longing and loss in our lives.

This causes me to question: how do I really connect with people in my life?  If this is the basis of all human condition, how can we encourage each other to live into our own visions given to us of future hope?

There are less than 3 weeks to go until I leave for San Francisco, and I have reached full support for my summer project!  God is good!  Thank you to everyone who has contributed and for the prayers :)

#yolo

I’ve been fundraising for my summer project missions trip to San Francisco with Epic Movement for about a month now, and God has been blessing me through the process and teaching me lots of mind opening things!  

Last night, we talked about the Rich Young Man in Mark 10 in Emmanuel Fellowship, and I shared some of the thoughts I had been churning in my mind about finances and riches in college.  These thoughts mixed with missions work in my mind and I had a good conversation about it on the way home from fellowship with my sister.

What she said really became impressed on my mind.  Missions is about GO. SEND. PRAY. Not everyone can be missionaries, or are called to be missionaries.  But every Christian needs to be involved in Matthew 28, whether it is Going, Sending others, or Praying fervently for their work and their seeds they sow.  

Going back to Mark 10, I thought about the history of churches.  Without rich patrons SENDING pastors and priests, the churches never would have been able to reach the poor peasants.  Nor would Paul have been able to take his missionary journeys around the continent.

These are just some of my thoughts that I’ve been wrestling with recently.  With regards to my missions trip, God has given me the opportunity to GO this summer to San Francisco to minister to the city with Cru and Epic Movement.  I am so excited and I feel called to this project in particular!  I have always wanted to go on missions, but it never was possible until now, because of timing, or situations, or safety.  But I have been given this opportunity, and I am ready now.  God’s timing is perfect.

I’ve been involved with Cru for about a year and a half, and it has really challenged me to lay down my life as a living sacrifice for Christ in everything I do.  I spent this year’s spring break with Cru, serving and learning how to share my faith in Orange County, California.  It was a really eye-opening experience and I learned so much about my own faith, and about other people’s beliefs.  It gave me a heart for others and I finally saw people as God saw them, as His children who were lost and needed Him.  I am convinced that missional living looks like this, loving people and sharing the gospel with the full assurance of God’s love through His son’s sacrifice. 

I feel that God has called me to serve Him this summer on a Summer Missions project with other campus ministries.  I am raising support for the Epic Movement San Francisco Summer Project and I would love for you to join my support team.  Through this trip, I want to love on the city of San Francisco.  San Francisco is a diverse city of many different cultures, economic classes, and worldviews.  In San Francisco, we will be doing a variety of outreach projects, including working with youth, the homeless, urban outreach, convalescent homes and possibly Francis Chan’s ministry there.  The trip is seven weeks long, from June 16 to August 6.  I hope to be equipped to serve God in any city that He calls me to build in the future.  

 If you could commit to praying for me and my team for this summer, I would love to have you join my “team” so to speak!  Thank you :)

I’m reading Vincent Van Gogh: A Life by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith.  It is a gigantic book, and I toted it along every day that I had jury duty.  It has been an interesting ride so far.  Signs of his mental illness are not obvious from his childhood, but it is clear that he was a unique child that didn’t have the familial support he needed.  He was opinionated, stubborn, and of an artist’s temperament, and his parents were analytical, traditional, and disciplinary.  I’m about at the part when he first gets checked into an insane asylum, and it is already heart-breaking.  He has so many passions, but he can’t pick one and stick with it.  His personality alienates friends and family and he is incapable of holding a job.  It’s easy to see the desperation he feels through letters to his brother Theo.  

I love reading about his relationship with his brother.  They get into disagreements and go through months without writing to each other, but they are always family and bonded by brotherly love.  Theo never ceases worrying about Vincent and supporting him despite Vincent’s jealousy, desire to be needed, and explosive temper.  

One little known Catholic author that I enjoy reading is Henri J. Nouwen.  He writes on Christianity and faith, and was a Catholic priest who spent his life in Canada serving the mentally disabled.  One of my favorite books is called The Inner Voice of Love.  It was written during a time when Nouwen was depressed and doubted his faith in God.  Everyday, he wrote a little encouragement note to himself to remind himself of what he believed in.  All the notes are collected in this book, and it is very deep and personal.  I wish more people read his books so that I could discuss the struggles he had and the struggles I have sometimes.

This one is tough…. I don’t have many memories before age 8.  I used to have very vivid dreams when I was a kid that took place at my school and at home.  I would always mix up the two, and I didn’t snap out of it until I turned 8 and changed schools.  So I guess in third grade I liked reading Harry Potter (that was back when there were only three books out), Nancy Drew, and those Dear America Diaries that were historical fiction.    My third grade teacher Mrs. Schreiber didn’t really read books to us out loud, but she did read poetry.  I still have many Shel Silverstein poems memorized because every time we recited a poem to her, we got candy.  It was really fun, and I got my first cavities that year.

Magic realism.  Even better would be magic realism combined with historical fiction.  Historical fiction is a close second.