Radical Love.

Been home for 5 days & it has been interesting. Honestly, I was looking forward to it so much. By the end of Europe I was thrilled, yet exhausted and excited to just rest and be alone. I was also looking forward to seeing all my friends, family and the beach! I was looking forward to being comfortable in my own bed, with my own schedule, my own friends, my own church, my own eating habits, etc.

Resting & taking alone time with myself and God has been great. Seeing friends and family has been amazing, although there has been some changes and challenges. The beach is beautiful minus the abnormal amount of dead algae in the water. And living comfortably has been nice, but it doesn't beat living sacrificially for the sake of bringing the hope of Jesus to people. 

I'm realizing that if loving a bunch of unaccepted & uncared for kids means little sleep, disgusted looks from others and fholding these little, fiflthy, smelly kids then it is absolutely worth it. I'm realizing that if teaching a bunch of kids of a true Hope and a true Love that I have found in Jesus, means staying up to the wee hours to plan dances, crafts & stories...it's so worth it. I'm realizing that if talking to people on trains & hotel receptionists means walkings miles & developing a new foot problem such as Metatarsalgia, it's still worth it. I'm realizing that if doing dance concerts all over Hungary to share truth and love with people means freaking out over which songs & what version, & how many & how long etc. than it is completely worth it. If going over seas to fullfill the great commission means spending tons of time writing letters, sending letters, figuring out $, worrying if I'll ever raise enough, having many "practical" discussion with the parentals, and coming home to debt, than it is totally worth it. I'm realizing that if ministering internationally means quitting my job, leaving the California sun, leaving dance classes/intensives so that I could improve, and having a few weeks left of summer to cram all I have to do before school, than it is with out a question, worth it.

I miss that absloute intentionality of being lights, loving and sharing truth everyday that happens on missions. I've been on mission trips since begining of high school and I am still trying to figure out how to see the same fruits that is produced on mission trips in our everyday lives. How do we bring that INTENTIONALITY to a life style of running errands, checking e-mails, paying bills, and working? How do we bring it to a life style of consumerism, comfort, routines, and independence?

I'm still trying to figure this out, but my prayer is that God's people would not take lightly the gathering of his people (church isn't a Sunday routine! we don't do it because "it's tradition." It is a sacred, amazing thing). My prayer is that God's people in the U.S. would not take lightly their "religious" freedom to worship, to read let alone carry a bible, to be able to testify what God has done in each of our lives. In the service Sunday, my prayer was that the church would fully understand God's love so that His love would compel us to do radical things. As Shane Claiborne says, if we follow Jesus we need to be radical, which which should be and ordinary thing. The church should be made up of ordinary radicals. Jesus loved radically. He defended to poor radically. He stood up to the "religious" or the Pharisees radicially. He sacrificed radically. God show us what it means to live like Your Son did.