#penlandlife

Last night, Penland Hall hosted a worship night. Yep, that Penland Hall. P-nasty, that dorm most famous for the dirty third and #penlandlife, put on a worship night for the campus. The Holy Spirit showed up and so did lots of people. We sang praises to Jesus and then prayed for God to move in our hearts and in our school. Our prayer was simple. Paul prayed it first.

…I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.  Ephesians 3:17-19

At the end of a busy Monday, that’s all I want. I want to grasp His love and be filled to the measure by my God. That’s all I want for me. That’s all I want for these guys in Penland. That’s all I want for the readers of this blog. I want us to grasp the dimensions of His love. I want us to grasp that Love came down and that it’s a weighty love. It’s a love that makes us want to sing and write, a love that makes us want to give and serve, and a love that makes us want to go and tell others about it.

Changes are in the works for this blog. I’m excited to make some big announcements in the next couple weeks and I’m excited about a new name and look for this blog. But at the end of the day, here’s why we’ve got something to sing about and write about and live for:

Jesus came down 2,000 years ago, lived a perfect life, died a perfect death, and rose again on the third day.

God forbid I ever stop writing about that.

Gospel Glasses

I’m going to be real with y’all for a second. This school year has been hard. I’ve been trying to play a lot of roles. Socially, spiritually, academically, I’m spread too thin. I haven’t finished my to-do list yet this year. There’s a lot of people in my life who I want to be there for, and there’s fifty things that I want to write about every day that I never get to. I wrote this in my journal right before we took communion at church on Sunday.

I’m working in a cubicle for Jesus right now. There’s so little joy and freedom and I just get so tired. Free me from these lies, Lord. This faith, this life, these lies I’m living, they’re contrary to the Gospel. Free me Lord. Never mind, you already did. So show me my standing before You. Tell me about your love every day Jesus. Tell me I’m not in a cubicle, that you did the work for me.

I’m done being robbed of joy. I’m done seeing this year of incredible opportunity feel like an incredible weight and burden upon my shoulders. It’s a gift. It’s all a gift. And it’s time to start living like it.

I told my friend Caroline about working in a cubicle for Jesus. She just looked at me and said simply, “The gospel is supposed to bring freedom.”

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

Here’s a question I want to ask myself daily. What kind of lens are you viewing your upcoming day through? This morning, I put on my Gospel glasses, and everything looks a whole lot more beautiful.

Here’s the truth. Here’s why those of us in Christ have countless reason to rejoice over every item on today’s to-do list. And here’s why today’s staff meeting is going to be a blast.

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13-14