Park night 2019
I can't believe it's been a week. In a few short days there will be a video recap, photos sent out, and our fundraising total announced. I wanted to take a quick second to recount the personal impact this night had made on my life once again. I have three favorite pictures of the night. Every year in the sea of pictures there are a few that stick out to me, they declare God's goodness, and I see through a moments capture what I could not better explain with words. You can see God's working and redemption in each one, and that is the story I am still here to tell. My life, but his story.
Pic #1
This is me. If you knew me prior to my cancer diagnosis, and prior to sitting in the lead of a ministry organization that's first value is to love the way we were loved first, you would see it too. There are many things I have learned along the way, but one is how to lovingly embrace others for who God made them to be. My life has been wrecked, reshaped, redeemed, and renewed. Walls have fallen down my heart is truly broken for what breaks others, I have received the spiritual gift of Mercy through what we have walked and this picture is proof of God's transformation inside of me. (A mercy-giver’s basic motivational drive is to sense and respond to the emotional and spiritual needs of others. Those with the mercy motivational gift have a divine ability to sense hurt and respond to it with love and understanding) I finally feel like I can love, by not my strength but his, everyone, in the middle of there hard stuff.
"for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose."
Phillipians 2:13
Picture #2
These beautiful women are my dear friends. And this picture encapsulates the words my heart can't quite articulate about our night. When we started this fundraiser four years ago it was a small and we had small goals, but it was always our dream that we would be better together. Fighting cancer, or moving through tragedy takes a village. Each and every one of you matter. Every person who loaded their family in the car, every person who prayed for our day, every one of you who donated selflessly, EVERY ONE OF YOU. This pic is the response of my heart, my excitement, my joy. I get to sit in a seat within this ministry that sees Jesus almost everyday. It's my desire that this picture is the way he feels when we bring our offering of all that we do in this ministry to him. Every little thing matters. Every small act of generosity or kindness, He sees you. And He is cheering you on.
"If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? " Romans 8:31-32
Picture #3
When you see this picture you might see me, standing in front of a large group of people, having a position of authority and of others listening to what I have to say. Look closely, I do not see that.
I see...
Jesus.
I see him powering over a large group of his people, holding them with his warm embrace, each one he called to that very seat they are sitting in.
I see a woman, standing confident, but blown away, at the impossible that she had to endure to be able to stand at the helm of God's work. I see again a vessel, telling a story, that has become mine, but only by his mighty power and authority over my life to be able to do so.
I see a story of redemption, a calling. A life almost vanished, but instead to be raised to life, full of submission to God's purpose and for his glory. I see God's kindness, his love, his grace, and his provision. It is so very true a picture can tell a thousand words.
"O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you have indeed done for us all our works."
Isaiah 26:12
"God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:10
Friends, it is the prayer of my heart that my life, and Radiant Hope, will always reflect God's astounding, sovereign, love and goodness. There are more pictures to come from our event, may God be glorified in, through, and because of all the things he has done. Thanks for being on this journey with us. Thanks for praying for us and being part of answered prayers on my belief. Thanks for supporting us, cheering for us, standing by my side through all life's changes and challenges. SO thankful for you.
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