I have just finished my summer internship in Indianapolis with Mission Indy. Going into the summer, I had a lot of things that needed improvement in my life. I wanted to work on my pride, selfishness, perfectionist, people-pleasing, negativity, gossiping, complaining, etc. Usually, I find a weakness of mine and try to work on that one thing all by myself. This summer, I decided to give it all to God and not focus on any one of those things, but focus on my relationship with Him. At the end of the summer, I looked back at a list of all those things I wanted to work on and I realized that I no longer was doing them. The only way I can explain how I got to that point was with God. I obviously had done nothing but focus everything on Him and somehow everything else fell into place. When I learned who Christ was and my identity in Him, God was able to break me down and purify my heart to be more like His and not desire those sins anymore. I am still FAR from perfect and still struggle with those things from time to time, but they no longer have control over me like they used to and that is such a great feeling.
This summer was the hardest I had ever worked in my life physically. I learned how to use power tools, demo a house, paint, put up dry wall, kitchen floors, sidewalks, patios, etc. Many times this work was done in 90-110 degree heat. I feel a lot stronger now and more knowledgable on things that girls dont usually know about :) I think this is what helped me with my complaining and negativity, because I knew that I had done something harder earlier in the summer and this was nothing compared to that. Or I saw other people complaining or being negative and I got annoyed by it and just kept working harder.
Working at Wheeler Higher Ground with the Women's Addiction Center was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. This is where my heart and passion was. These women had come so far and had been through so much. I loved hearing their stories, learning about who they were and how they had gotten to where they were today. I enjoyed spending every day with them just being a mentor and a person to help them through every day life. Going into this, I thought that they would they would think I was some young middle-class white girl from the city trying to come in and be in charge. I thought I would get no respect and they would not see me as an authority figure or someone who they could talk to. Man, was I wrong. These women called me, Miss Amanda (along with the other bosses), and were so open and honest with me. They took me in as their own daughter, their own family. They treated me with kindness, respect and love. I cannot wait to see them again someday in their new lives out of the house and into the world again for a second chance at life. These women changed me and had a HUGE impact on my life.
Some things I learned throughout the summer:
- God hasnt told the world to go to the church, but for the church to go to the world.
- Wherever you are, do what you can with what you have.
- What you worship is what you idolize. What you idolize is what you become. What you become is what you become a slave to. Why do we get so excited to watch our favorite football team that we show up 5 hours early to tailgate in the cold, but we dont get that excited about worshipping our Lord and Savior and changing lives?
- Redemption - the theme of God's Word as a whole - 4 broken relationships in Genesis - with themselves, God, creation and others. The entire rest of Scripture is trying to regain those relationships.
- Steak and Shake theology - A guy at Steak and Shake jumps in front of a bullet for you and dies because of it. Would you ever forget about that?? No! You would live the rest of your life remembering that and living a life to honor him, that he would be proud of. Then why do we forget about Christ even though He died for us?
- Identity: the state or fact of remaining the same one or ones, as under varying aspects or conditions. The condition of being oneself, not another. A condition concerning "who" the person is, not "what" a person does. What is your identity??
- With all the falsehoods and fake people found in our culture, we must understand that we cannot live life to the fullest as Jesus wants us to without knowing who we are. The more you agree with God about your identity in Christ, the more your behavior will reflect your God-given identity.
- We belong to God. The evidence is that we do not continually live in sin.
- Jesus used the slave language to define what it meant to follow Him. Being a slave of Christ is not bad because we are either a slave to Him or to sin (2 options). We must give up our life in order to follow Him. Kurios (Greek word for Lord) means "owner/master of slaves" so if we call Jesus, Lord, then we must assume the role of a slave.
- In the Andes mountains in Peru, the ice melts and a single drop of water begins a trip down the mountain joining other drops. One drop does not make a difference, but when joined with all the other drops, they form the Amazon river- the largest river on earth. This is how we work together as the body of Christ!
- Our identity: We are chosen, adopted, slaves, ambassadors and the body of Christ.
