Living It

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."   Colossians 3:16

A few years ago, while my husband Greg was going to Moody Graduate School in Chicago, we were invited to a birthday party for a good friend.  In a tiny apartment in downtown Chicago, we crowded in with about 20 other Moody students for what I thought was going to be a normal birthday party.  Of course, we had the usual cake and ice cream, but once everybody was there, nothing less than a worship service took place.  

Hang, a student from Vietnam, pulled out his guitar and started singing worship songs, and everyone joined in.  Then, as if it were the most natural thing to do at a birthday party, people were asked to share their testimonies.  Robin was eager to tell how his dad had been freed from chronic arthritis pain and bitterness when the Lord answered the consistent prayers of two faithful people.  Then, with her gentle British accent and the ease of a born writer, Beth told how the Lord had completely turned her life around.  And after her, another testimony was told.  There was nothing put on about any of it.  In fact, what touched me the most was knowing that every one of them was at the Graduate School for one reason, and that was because they wanted to serve the Lord with the rest of their lives.  Some were headed for missions in what would be considered "hardship posts," and some had given up dream homes, parental approval and lucrative job opportunities.  However, were any of them moping around over what they had given up?  No!  In fact, what stood out to me was their joy.

Quietly, unknowingly, they reminded me that evening that it's one thing to sing songs like "I Will Offer Up My Life," as I had done so glibly countless times, but it’s a much more powerful thing to see these students, whose gifts and intelligence could offer them every opportunity to live a comfortable life, backing up what they sang with their lives.  

Prayer for the Week:  Heavenly Father, please give me a heart willing to sacrifice, willing to lay my life down at Your feet. And not just lip service, Lord; change me deep within so that I actually mean it.