The Invitation

"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat was is good and your soul will delight in the richest of fare."

Isaiah 55:1a-2

The ever present invitation to come be with Jesus; the invitation for the thirsty to drink, for the hungry to eat, for the laborer to find satisfaction.

The invitation had been sent over and over to Christina. She usually stamped it, unopened, with a "return to sender" label and put it right back in the mail. Sometimes she'd open the invitation and glance at the letters, and set it aside, eventually thinking that party had long since happened.

But God kept sending her invitations to come to Him, and last week she responded.

I got a text from Christina on Monday: "Hey, got anytime this week that you would want to do a quiet time with me or just get together?" A quiet time?! Quite surprised Christina initiated with me the desire to read the Bible, I texted her back a time and place, curious to hear about what was going on in that heart of hers.

Sitting across from her at Starbucks yesterday, she began to pour out her story between sips of hot chocolate, about how she discovered God in a real way last week.

"Lauren, no one notices when I'm missing; missing from Navs, missing from rugby, missing from class. . .all these things that I thought would fill my life are disappointing me. And then I realized, Navigators won't satisfy me, rugby won't satisfy me, class won't satisfy me. I need God, and I never thought I'd say that."

Ha! Neither did I! I've been praying for Christina, meeting with her, trying to make the Bible as exciting and clear as possible (without having to pull out felt-board Jesus or break out the tap shoes), and nothing has seemed to click. But all this time, God has been faithfully sending Christina invitations to come to Him, and she is finally responding.

I sat across from Christina and sent silent praises to God, as I listened to this 21 year old spout off these new epiphanies. We read Isaiah 55 together and she wrote in her journal.

She finished her hot chocolate and made a comment about having too much caffeine, and then we planned out what to read this week. And I am still amazed. God is so kind to constantly be sending out invitations to come to Him. To have relationship with him and discover what truly satisfies.

Me and Christina at the Valentine's Dinner this past February.

Ski Art

Every winter season I have high hopes of making it to the slopes an excessive amount of times. Living two and a half hours away from the nearest lift and working with college students seems to hinder olympic ski aspirations, so I've decided to go into the lesser known, but potentially lucrative business of "Ski Art."

What is it you ask?! How you can you be a part of the Ski Art experience?!

Well, first you need some end of season spring conditions. I'm talking slushy 7 eleven slurpy type snow. Then you need some great friends that will do weird things. Be sure to leave all expectations of an awesome ski day at the car, grab your camera, and start snapping away. There you have it, Ski Art. For the common folk who still wear bibs and scarves skiing. . .or who just can't make it to the slopes enough to brave the terrain park.
Cheers to spring conditions!!

Road Trip: Part Three, Making a Splash

You can't take a group of 19 and 20 year olds to Southern California and not have a little fun! So while our friends back in Colorado were braving the blizzards, we played in the surf and sun, and sang along with Jack Sparrow on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney.

I really enjoyed the last day in California. My teammate Jamie and I took two van fulls of landlocked students to Laguna Beach to boogie board, play in the sand, and explore the tide pools. As I sat on the beach and watch them conquer the waves I smiled and really felt the joy of their pleasure. I can only guess this is what a parent feels like when they see their kids truly enjoying something, and how God must feel when we're doing the very things he's created us for on earth.

The students would occasionally run up from the icy Pacific waters with different types of seaweed wearing them as wigs, or scarves; it was quite entertaining. We also touched sea anemones and urchins, watched a few crabs fight over a meal, and found a very large and slimy sea slug making his daily rounds in his tide pool.

I really believe discipleship reaches it's most glorious points when you spend a lot of time together. Spending eight days with 17 students really allowed everyone to see the gamut of emotions and personalities under every kind of circumstance: stress, anxiety, fun, relaxation, quick decisions, etc. Each day held challenges and I really wanted to be a model, always responding in that angelic godly way. Haha. I laugh now. But despite the ups and downs I believe I got to exercise that humility muscle, you know that one small piece of our bodies that occasionally overpowers our opinions, sarcasm, irritation, and so on. And in God's grace, we all learned, we all loved, and we all are back safe and sound.

What an adventure!

Laguna Beach Time!

One of the seaweed wigs! (And some boogie boarders.)