GoG 42: The Same Way

At Barry and Emily's rehearsal dinner, I had the huge honor of sitting at their table. The whole way to Chili's I kept thinking, "Gosh, I hope I get to sit by Em." And when I arrived ... shortly after Barry and Em ... Emily yelled for me ... "Mical!" And she pointed to the seat next to her with a smile. And Barry yelled at Micah (his best man) in the same way. ... Oh, it was such a joy to sit with them. Em was leaving me the next day, so I wanted to spend every minute with her ... and I just wanted to be close to her. And come to find out ... she felt the same way. :)

Now, that's grace. :)

GoG 41: The Child's Touch

I got to Brookside Church last Thursday, the 11th .... and after dropping off the food, Hannah Crane (little Hannah ... 7 years old ... from after school) grabbed my hand and just held on tight. She followed me to my car and everything.

There is something about a child's touch. Many people know me as "the girl who doesn't like to be touched." This is true to some extent ... but I've gotten a lot better. I've even grown to really enjoy hugs from most people ... especially friends. But for a long time, I've loved the touch of little kids. Their touches are so pure and empowering and dear to me.

And when they run and give you a hug or grab your hand and hold on for dear life .... sometimes, if they just say your name .... at least for me, it's like a little piece of heaven. Or ... grace. :)

GoG 40.5: The Friend Date

My friend, Ben, and I get together about once a month for something we like to call "friend dates." We usually meet at the Brownsburg Starbucks around 7:30pm .... and we talk for 2 or 3 hours ... sometimes more .... hardly ever less. It is a really sweet time. ... Lawana posted on one of my blog posts recently and told me that God has blessed me with some really special friendships. She is so right. Ben Nilsen is one of those friends I'm not sure I could live without. He has been one of my greatest encouragers, prayer warriors, and dearest friends for a few years now. Ben, by himself, is God's grace in action in my life .... but something he said at our friend date will probably stick with me forever 'cause it meant so much to me.

It was one simple sentence.

"I hope you can come because, yes, I want you to be there, but I also think you'll help calm me down all that day."

We were talking about me driving to Key West for his wedding. And he not only said he'd love for me to be there .... but he also said I could help him calm down (wedding jitters). .... You wouldn't think that comment would mean all that much ... just 'cause it's not anything huge. But boy, did it. It told me that he really appreciates my friendship ... that I'm the kind of friend that he feels really comfortable around ... that he can share his life and joys and struggles with me ... that I'm a friend who is dear enough to him that he wants me to be there on his wedding day ... just so we can share the day together as dear friends.

Ahh ... yep. It's one of those friendships called grace. :)

GoG 40: The Hannah Text

#40 .... Hannah Baker is amazing. She sent me a text last week that made my day.

It said ...

"Mical ... I love you. Just wanted you to know I am praying for you today. Not sure why but you are on my heart. Hope everything's ok!"

And that's all. What a blessing. What grace. I don't deserve such amazing friends like Hannah Joy ... but God gave her to me anyway. :)

GoG 39: The Day With Emily :)

So ... this is lame. I am so stinkin' behind with these GoGs. Bummer, yo. ..... And this is even more lame -- in effort to catch up to today's GoG, I'm gonna post several short (very short!) GoGs. And hopefully, I won't get so far behind again. And thankfully, I've been keeping track of my GoGs. :)

#39: A day with Emily :)

The Monday before Em's wedding, I headed to Serendipity to help her decorate for the reception. Afterwards, we went to dinner ... then to Target ... and then I went to her house to watch a movie with her and Josh. Good day.

A glimpse of God's grace because I have a BBF ... and she is the most wonderful thing in the world to me. Days with her make my life complete. :)

GoG 38: The Sob

Super Bowl Sunday has never been a huge thing for me. I like football. I like the Colts. But I am just way too busy to keep up with the games. I think I saw half a game this entire season. I "watched" the Super Bowl, but I colored and dealt with "drama" for most of the evening ... so I was a tad bit distracted.

I had my youth group over to watch the Super Bowl ... and it turned into an alright evening overall, but we had some struggles. In effort to spare the details, I'll just say that I have middle schoolers in my youth group. Need I say more? ;) I love middle school. It is (somehow - Lord knows He gave me a gift!) my favorite age group. They are full of drama much of the time, but I just love 6th-8th graders. They are a ton of fun! Difficult at times ... but so fun! Well, we had a drama night at the Super Bowl party ... and I had to be ready on my feet the whole time. Never a dull moment with my kids. ;) ....

In working with youth, I have a tough job goin' for me. It is overwhelming at times ... and sometimes, there are situations that I just can't handle ... or don't know how to handle. Super Bowl Sunday turned into one of those situations. By the time I got home from taking some of the kids home, I was wiped ... even emotionally drained ... mostly because I have been going alone in this youth ministry thing for 9 months now. And youth ministry is nearly impossible to do alone. ..... I ended up talking (and crying) with my parents for almost an hour ... maybe longer ... that night when I got home. Conveying to them that "I can't do this by myself anymore." And it's true. I need help. Thankfully, my parents are amazing, and they are going to help me until we can find someone more permanent. :) .... But sobbing to my parents that night helped me realize something. Yes ... it helped me realize that I can't work in ministry by myself any longer .... but it also helped me remember that God is the one I need to be crying out to ... God is the one I need to look to for help and comfort and wisdom and the rest ... God is the one who put me in this ministry, and God is the one who is gonna help me complete this calling that He has placed on my life. ..... I've blogged before about realizing my dependence on the Lord .... or rather, remembering that I can do nothing without Him. And here He went again .... His grace again .... He needed me to know that I am helpless without Him .... He seems to do that most when my focus gets out of whack ... which is more often than I would like. ;) ... So ... He did it again. God revealed His grace by humbling me and making me recognize my need for Him once again.

GoG 37: The Clean Up

A week ago Saturday, a bunch of us girls got together for Emily's bachelorette party. Most of the bridesmaids and I took her out for a nice lunch and then some ice cream. It was a pretty fun day. But my favorite part was cleaning up the mess we made. Ha! That was my favorite part because I got to spend some, what I considered, quality time with my friend, Mags.

I think I've talked about Maggie on here at least once before ... Mags is my longest, loveliest friend ... my LLF. :) .... She has been my friend since I was 6 and she was 7 years old. We met at Calvary ... went to middle school and high school together ... and have just been the best of friends for ... wow ... it's been about 17 years. Crazy! .... Well, ever since she got married about a year and a half ago, we haven't gotten to spend as much time together as we used to. And now that she's having a baby, I'll probably see even less of her. ..... Every time I get to hang out with her these days, I think to myself, "Gosh, I'm so glad we're friends." And "Gosh, I know WHY we're friends." And "Gosh, I'm thankful for Maggie!" She's just one of those lifelong friends ... one I cherish very much. :)

That Saturday night, we got to clean up together. We didn't talk too much while we were cleaning up .... I think it was just that we got to spend some time together ... just the two of us while the others chatted on the couch. ..... I kept trying to pour the chips from the bowl back into their bag, and I kept missing and spilling 'em all over the counter .... we kept laughing at that. She is not supposed to be eating sugar while she's pregnant, and she kept stealing brownies and eating 'em ... and we kept laughing at that. We chatted about how goofy weight is 'cause it's so hard to keep off our bodies ... and she gave me all of the food that was left over so that I could take it to youth group with me the next day. I gave her the dishes while she loaded the dishwasher. I refilled the trash bag .... we cleaned up. It was as simple as that. But it was such a sweet time. Just spending time together. It was just a reminder of what a gift friendships are ... especially, long, deep friendships like my friendship with Maggie. .... God loves us so much that He gives us friends. Thank you, Lord. :)

GoG 36: The Selfless Love

Gosh. I'm still so behind. Will I ever catch up?

Last Friday ... ha! It's been a week ago Friday by now ... I watched a video by Joshua Harris. He posed the question "Are you searching for true love?" .... His video series was all about love, trust, and purity ... concerning relationships with the opposite sex. I was watching the series to see if I could use it in youth group. We watched the first video about love, but I decided to leave out the other two for now. But last Friday, I watched the video about love before I showed it in youth group on Sunday morning. In the video, Josh gave out three points that described what true love does.

#1 - True love lays down its life for others.

#2 - True love is sincere.

#3 - True love is revealed in Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross.

The big thing I took away from these three points is that true love ... the kind of love that is forever, that does not waver in tough times or put its own desires first ... TRUE love is selfless. If you think about it ... to be #1, #2, and #3, you must be selfless. Selfishness is the root of all sin. Every sin we commit points back to our own selfishness. But TRUE love ... the kind of love that Jesus has for us and the kind of love that we should have for one another is selfless ... it has no hint of selfish ambition ... no "me, me, me" attitude ... no "I." And that is what I need to be striving for. Josh's video was pretty convicting. God's words spoken through him were just another reminder of God's grace. God wants us to learn selflessness so that we can be totally consumed with Him ... so that we can live out our purpose completely. God wants us to live in joy and in purpose ... so much so that He will bring on the conviction ... bring it until we change. He's been convicting me of a lot lately ... and I am learning more and more that His conviction is His grace in action in my life ... because without it, I would be so far from His presence, from His will, from His plan ... that I wouldn't be able to come back.

True love is selfless. How are you loving, Mical?

John 15:13 - "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."

GoG 35: The Scene

Soon after the movie, To Save A Life, came out in theaters, I went to see it to see if I could take my SoZo kids to see it. Having a pretty good idea about what the premise of the movie was, I thought I would be a mess on and off throughout the movie. The previews hinted around that a good friend of the main character in the movie commits suicide. And suicide is something I don't handle well. Someone I barely knew at all committed suicide a few years back, and I grieved for weeks. I just can't bare the thought that someone would be so hurt, so hopeless to the point of ending his own life. Suicide just tears me apart. So ... going into this movie, I knew I was running the risk of completely breaking down in the theater. Thankfully, I didn't lose it during that scene in the movie. But ... I DID cry during another part. It was a scene that probably wouldn't make anyone else cry. It took me completely off guard 'cause I just broke down with no warning.

The main character of the movie was a "jock," a popular guy, who seemed to have everything going for him - a beautiful girlfriend, a full-ride basketball scholarship to the college of his dreams ... good-looking, etc. etc. When his old friend from elementary school committed suicide, he really started evaluating his life ... wondering what the purpose of life was ... what he was doing with his life, and on and on. In one scene in the movie, he brought his girlfriend to youth group with him. Immediately, everyone started staring at them and whispering. She felt so judged that she left. Later on in the scene, after going out to console his girlfriend, he came back in ... and the youth pastor asked his kids to take a minute to evaluate their hearts ... asking themselves the question, "Who have I judged?" The guy (gosh, I can't believe I can't remember his name) sat down in the back and watched as several of the young people started talking about some girl they were interested in or what they were planning to do during the weekend or something totally distracting from the question they were presented with. .... Finally, this guy stands up and yells, "Didn't you all just hear what he said?!" And he goes on to tell the group that his girlfriend left because she felt judged. And he pointed at their hypocrisy and their fake Christianity ... shocked that they would proclaim something and not live it out.

You'd have to see this scene to really see what happened. It was the most powerful scene in the whole movie for me. I don't know where the tears came from, but I lost it. I think I saw how right he was .... how so many Christians proclaim Jesus as Lord, but they don't mean it. They are fakers. They are hypocrites! And then I thought about how I am a faker sometimes. I am a hypocrite at times. I judge people all the time. ..... I think they were tears of disappointment and hurt .... "How can we, as Christians, do these things? How can we give Jesus such a bad name?" .... But they were also tears of conviction. "I am one of those people who gives Jesus a bad name ... even if most of that hypocrisy and judgement goes on in my spirit .... it still comes to the surface for others to see at times ... and it still dishonors Christ whether on the surface or in my spirit." This scene just really got me thinking.

And even though conviction is never easy, it is God's grace in action in our lives. Without His conviction, we would be so far from His glory ... so far that we would never be able to find our way back. Praise the Lord for His mighty conviction and grace!

GoG 34: The Smile

Ha! This is really cheesy ... and such a girl thing to post ... but thankfully, I am both ... so it works!

A week and a half ago, I was in the gym ... I had just walked in, put my bag down, and headed for the elliptical. I looked up and started walking, and some guy said hi to me and gave me a warm smile. And I got all excited about it. And well ... that's all.

Sometimes, a glimpse of God's grace comes in something as simple as a cute guy smiling at you. :)

GoG 33: The Movie Night With Elizabeth

Wow. I don't think I could be more behind with this blog project. Darnit. Let's see if I can get caught up today. Ha!

Glimpse #33 ...

Way back on February 2nd, I took one of my SoZo girls to see Sherlock Holmes. Elizabeth is a huge Sherlock Holmes buff. She loves Doyle (the guy who wrote the Sherlock stuff). :) She carries his books around in her big bag all the time. :) We went to see this movie that night ... I picked her up at her house ... we chatted all the way there ... and after the movie, she was so excited! She thought it was the best movie she'd ever seen ... maybe even the best that has ever been made. She wants to take me to see it again. Ha! ....

God has blessed me in incredible ways by allowing me to not only spend time with my kids but lead them. I've been working with our youth group at Calvary for almost 4 years. Three of those years, I was an adult leader, but now, I'm the one in charge. Weird. But it's been such a blessing ... because I have the privilege of spending even more time with my kids. Taking Elizabeth out for the evening was just another glimpse of God's grace, reminding me of what a joy it is to work with youth ... and reminding me of why I love it so much. :)

GoG 32: The "Veg" Day

Glimpse of Grace number 32 ....

Today was a "veg" day: I slept in, I watched movies, I drank lots of sweet tea, I blogged.

Life is good.

And that! That is God's grace in action. :)