What's the point?

Hello,

     As someone who is pursuing full time ministry, there is a definite temptation to seek God purely for Him to bless the ministry. You read the word so that you will have some wisdom to share to whoever you are ministering to. You pray for God to do breakthroughs and start revivals. These are both great things that need to be done by all people pursuing full time ministry, but I think that sometimes we forget the point.
     Why are we doing ministry in the first place? What is the reason for all of this effort and toil? What's the point? I have recently been asking myself this question, not in a negative way, but just really seeking God's direction on whether I am truly getting the point of why I am doing what I am doing.
     One of the perks of doing the internship is that I am exposed to amazing literature that I wouldn't have known about otherwise. We just finished reading "The Pursuit of God" by A.W. Tozer and it was life-changing. I learned so much from his wise and thoughtful words. The biggest takeaway that I have gained from reading the book was that for most of my life I have been missing the point. I have been a believer for most of my life, but I often forget why I am a believer in the first place.
     I am not a believer to serve God; I am a believer to be in relationship with God. Jesus didn't die on the cross for me to do the Chi Alpha internship at Tulane. He died on the cross so that I can enjoy constant communion with Father. I often, and I mean often, forget this. The creator of the universe sacrificed His own son, His pride and joy, a piece of His very Self to know me. He didn't want me to ever be apart from Him, so He went to the ends of the earth to bridge the gap. That is powerful and humbling. I am not worth this sacrifice. I am just the creation, something that He has all authority to cast out, but He doesn't. Wow.
     I spend most of my time worrying about if I am serving Him right, when I should spend most of my time enjoying the wonderful privilege of HIs presence. I find delight in the fact that I never have to leave it. Many people have enjoyed the rush of peace and joy you get when the worship team at church ushers the Spirit into the service. That is a feeling that we don't ever have to part from. We can be consistently bathed in His love, mercy, grace, joy, and peace.
     If you are feeling like your walk with the Lord is burdensome, I want to encourage you to remember that His burden is light and easy. Allow yourself to delight in His presence and let His healing love restore you. He is waiting patiently for you to come back to Him. That's the point anyways right?

Matthew 11:28-30
²⁸ Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Morgan :)

Picture Update

Hello,

It has been a while since I blogged about Tulane life and while I definitely believe that words are powerful and can express deep feelings and emotions, I wanted to show you guys what God has been doing through pictures. These are pictures of events that have been happening with students and I truly love these people so much!

(warning: there are a lot of pictures)

Verse I have been meditating on lately...

John 13:35

The Message (MSG)

^34-35 “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”

 

- Morgan S.

Hidden Gems

     I must say, WOW! It has definitely been an interesting and exciting few weeks. If you didn't know, I recently moved to New Orleans, Louisiana to pursue my passion for college ministry. We have recently had orientation and now we are gearing up for start-up week. If you are a part of the college ministry community, then you know that start-up week is the craziest, most exciting, and quite often most fruitful week of the ministry for meeting new students. I am so anxious and excited to begin! I want God to do unbelievable things this year for Tulane (that is the campus I am on!).

     But before I can go all crazy on campus and start being BFFs with everyone in sight, I have to learn about Tulane. Get to know what is special about the school and how Chi Alpha functions on their campus. For four years, I have been learning about ministry from a totally different lens. First of all, Tulane is private and in a major city. While Louisiana Tech (where I graduated) is in a rural college town and is public. I did not understand the vast differences in how ministry would work until walking around Tulane's campus, talking with students, and asking my campus pastor tons of questions!

      When coming from Northern Louisiana, you are used to seeing land and lots of land. Tech was wide and spacious. It has huge beautiful trees and beautiful landscape. In the fall, it is gorgeous with all the different color leaves and in the spring the tulips are to die for. That was my current idea of a beautiful campus. At first,Tulane did not match the qualities I liked in campuses. It is by no means wide and spacious! Instead it is skinny and long and smushed next to another campus. But as I looked deeper, I started to see little things that I loved. The architecture, the high tech feel of the student center, the beautiful modern art, and the backdrop of a truly fantastic city! Yes, it is smack dab in the middle of the city, but it has all of these beautiful elements that make me want to sit on the lawn and drink coffee like a hipster or something :).

     I often find myself making these silly comparisons. Tech is like this; Tulane is like that. I find I do that when God changes my location or direction in life. I always look back to the old and reminisce about the "good ole days". Don't get me wrong, I am so excited about Tulane and have loved every minute! But I no longer want to try and fit it into my current frame of mind. I want to clear the slate. Open my mind and take a posture of listening and learning. I think that is how we should approach every new task God has set before us. We should remember that there are new things to learn in every situation that God has set before you. He does this because in every new situation there is an opportunity to learn more about who HE is. That is so amazing to me! God wants ME to know HIM and He orchestrates my life in such a way to make that happen. WOW how exciting is that? I mean He is the creator, the author, the conductor of life and I get to know Him!

     I am excited to do just that. I am just super ready to not only love on Tulane's students this year, but to get to know my wonderful Daddy in Heaven.

Morgan :)