My Ministry

While my friends are off having adventures at New Life Camp, Impact, or in Tennessee, Brazil, Barbados, Bangladesh, Haiti, Australia, China and the like, I am doing the same thing I've been doing all year: school.

Now, this is not a post to complain about school-- I made the choice all year not to finish it every week. It's my own fault for being so busy and lazy. Let's go off on a tangent about the year before I get to my summer.

It's been a fabulous year. Band has so many memories of good friends, good talks, good laughs, and making music. And some drama, but it's hard to have band without drama!
Refinery and Starbucks with the senior girls. I love those girls. I learned so much from their view on things, and I enjoyed that we got to pray for each other and apply what we've learned in Belize.
BELIZE. Best week of my life. Long van rides, stupid roosters, beautiful countryside, amazing food, amazing kids, amazing team members and an AMAZING God. I felt so at home while I was there.
Work. Not exactly my favorite thing ever, but it's got to be in the list of why I didn't get my school done this year :)
Speech/Drama. I am incredibly glad that my mom made me take 'some speech class' senior year. I didn't know anyone, and they all knew each other...so I was kind of intimidated at first. There are some bad memories: waiting to get up and do a speech, all the research and stressing about Debate (I wasn't a fan of making up speeches on the fly.), and blanking on a stanza of the 1,120 word poem Mrs. E made me do. The good memories totally make up for the bad ones. Rehearsing 5 hours every Friday, laughing for most of them, getting to yell and be mean on stage (my character was...feisty), wearing that ridiculous little girl dress while trying to be an old woman, adventures to Chick-fil-A, Quelf, improv games, and acting in general. I love my cast, my crew, and my 'Cluck'.

So that's what I was doing every week. It was amazing and I'm really glad I did it!

Every morning I get up and I pray for my friends who are missionaries or doing some sort of ministry this summer. I pray that they will be free from sin so that they can minister for God more effectively. I pray for their focus to be completely on Christ and His Gospel. I pray that their lives will be changed by the mission they are on, and that God will change others' lives through them. I pray for their physical and spiritual strength.

Now here's my problem: I didn't feel like I needed those prayers as much because I'm just sitting at home finishing school and doing laundry. I didn't feel like I had a ministry this summer. I'm not doing hard things. I was discontent because I could have been doing awesome things like Impact, drama camps, acting in a movie, or going on a mission trip. But no! Must. Finish. School.

I realized this morning that even though I'm not out doing mission trips or the like, I still have a ministry to my family and my church. And I have small hard things to do. I have responsibilities to accomplish school and help out around the house. I need spiritual strength against complacency. It is essential that I am falling in love with Christ harder this summer than ever before: I'm going to a secular, Christ-denying institution in the fall--NC State. It is imperative that I am confessing and repenting of my sins this summer, guarding the gospel, and treasuring Christ.

You might be like me, you don't have many 'important' things to do this summer. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says "whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
I don't know what you're doing this summer, but are you making it a ministry?