Say Yes To God

My hands were sweaty, my heart was beating fast, and I kept thinking, Why am I doing this? Why am I stepping this far outside of my comfort zone?

I was walking through Kensington’s doors for my first internship meeting. I had just come out of an eight-year season of staying at home with my kids, as well as being in a “COVID bubble” so this internship was a major leap of faith. The unknown can be scary, but I have witnessed how God moves when you say yes to Him.

My internship experience was a winding and beautiful journey of love, self-reflection and witnessing just how amazingly faithful God is.  

God knew exactly where to place me in the Kensington Internship Program. I had the incredible privilege of interning for the Move Out Team. Watching, learning, and leading with this amazing team showed me what it really means to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the community and around the world.

Mother Teresa once said, “We have not come into the world to be numbered; we have been created for a purpose; for great things: to love and be loved.”

My time at Kensington helped me to better love others, to see the beauty in others, and to see and know people the way Jesus does. 

I will always hold close to my heart the frequent refrain of Move Out Director, Becky Lee, “See the Beauty!?” 

I’ve also learned to see the beauty in myself during the ten months of my internship. It was as if God lifted a veil from my eyes.

I have a cousin who grew up farming with us. A few years ago, he started taking over some of the fields that my Dad had stopped farming. He made the decision to get sober and to start a new way of life. He needed new activities to replace some of the destructive habits.  He started learning. He had watched and learned from my Dad and his own dad. Now he finds incredible purpose in the entire process of preparing the land, planting, caring for the crops, and sharing the fruit of his labor with others. He doesn’t do it to make money. He piles up his truck bed with corn and delivers it to people in the community – just to share the fruit of his labor. (I didn’t mention that my family has a reputation for growing the BEST sweet corn you’ll ever taste.  So, everyone is excited to receive his sweet gift).

So, what does all of this mean when it comes to our church?  

I’m not sure!  But I really appreciate being pushed to use my imagination and to hear from God in a different way.

For me, I can imagine our community as that full, fruitful field.

I imagine that none of us can really produce fruit on our own, we need each other.

I imagine how beautiful it looks to gaze at a field and not be able to see where one stalk ends and another begins, but the whole field is unified in one purpose.

I imagine God’s desire for us to flourish and enjoy the fruits of His spirit as a community, giving it away freely to the world, not for our own gain but because it’s SO GOOD!

I imagine how wonderful it feels to taste the fruit ourselves and to freely share it with everyone.

I imagine the importance of learning and growing in our own understanding and wisdom so that we can continually produce and share a better crop.

I imagine us sharing all that we learn with others so that everything we have experienced is shared with future generations.

Then I think of the “giants.” How do we combat the external threats like weeds, insects, bad weather? How do we know what and how to plant? How do we know how much to focus on the process and our own effort, and how much is out of our hands?

And then I’m reminded that God is delighted when we seek Him for guidance, direction and wisdom (Numbers 14:8). He promises to never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).  He promises us if we seek we will find (Matthew 7:7).  He promises us His Holy Spirit to guide us (John 16:13). We can go to Him with all of our “how” questions and He promises wisdom (James 1:5).

In Michigan it is harvest time, and I’m glad I have this image of hope for our church community tucked away in my imagination.

Join me in looking forward to seeing how our church will grow to full, robust, plants that appear to merge into one big field of green. And when the intimating “how giants” lurk, we can turn to God and be certain that we are not growing our community of faith on our own, but we have the promise of wisdom and guidance from our eternal creator God and that is all we need!