joy

So it's obviously been quite a while since I've posted. But that absence of words doesn't portray an absence of thoughts in my mind. Over the past month, I've been wrestling with so many parts of CiH that just seem... impossible. Looking at the big picture and the daunting funds needed and the checklist of items that just don't seem to get checked off, I easily got sidetracked. I got distracted from the purpose of Clothed in Hope, the purpose of life. To LOVE and to receive LOVE from our Lover, Savior, Rescuer, Provider, Healer, all things good and perfect in the Lord.

I attended the Passion Conference in Atlanta for the third time just a couple of weeks ago and honestly I wasn't expecting much. I felt I had already experienced the heart awakening for the nations by the grace of God opening my eyes to the needs of the world and our responsibility to meet them with the love of Jesus. Standing to worship in another session, I was hit by a truck- with this song, one I've heard a million times over.



Except this time was so different than any other time before. If you watch the video you'll see that people from all across the world sang this in worship in their native language with a full heart and in full joy of the truth of this song. Even sweet little ones from Uganda stood up there singing to our God with more passion than I've felt in my heart in quite some time. It was in that moment that God reached down to my heart in grace.

He showed me that serving Him in Zambia through Clothed in Hope isn't a burden. It isn't impossible. He's ordained this and He's before all things and causes all things to happen. He's here to carry my load when it feels too heavy to bear. He's here to hold my hand when I feel no one else cares. He's not just here for me. He's LET me see the needs of Zambia; He's LET me know the hearts of dear Zambian women and children to LET me in on HIS PURPOSE: to make His glory known to all people through the immeasurable love of Christ in a slum in Lusaka, Zambia. That's it.

Too often I view the daily tasks of Clothed in Hope as a burden and lack the sugar coating of explanations when people ask me about it. But it was in that moment God shook me and showed me through His intense love, mercy and grace that this is all a GIFT and that swells my heart up with intense joy to think that the God of the Universe, the One who knows every person on earth, has CHOSEN me to bring hope to the hopeless. He has CHOSEN ME- a doubting, selfish, ridiculous college student to carry His name to Zambia. Just let that soak for a hot second.

Our "burdens", our "crosses to bear" aren't without purpose. They aren't only hardships for the sense of being refined into this great Christian. They're God's ultimate plan to USE us though He doesn't need us. They're God's grace to let us SEE what He's doing in our workplaces, in our homes, across the nations, though He doesn't need to show us at all. They're God's method of letting us partake in HIS holiness though we are far from it. Now that just wells my heart up with immeasurable joy.