a step away from apathy

Hey friends! Wow, seriously the weeks fly by and I cant believe its already almost Friday! This week has been incredible. We had the privilege to hear Seth Higgins, our Men’s Director here at Link, teach us about the historical accuracy of the Bible this past week. There’s no way I would be able to talk about all of the information that he gave us, but I would love to talk to anyone individually about all that we learned from a historical view on the Bible and Jesus himself. All of the facts aside though, what really stood out to me was something that Seth said: “You as a Christian can no longer claim ignorance. There are too many resources, smarter people than you, that hold to Biblical understanding to the Christian faith for you to not challenge or make an effort to know what you believe and why you believe it, is lazy. In a world in which we live in, your faith will be rocked and it will be shaken unless you strive to figure these things out.” This statement kind of rocked my world. For years I have kind of just gone along with everything I have been told, and if it didn’t make sense I would say “well I’ll just have faith and the rest will work itself out”. For a long time I didn’t see the flaw in this thinking, up until recently when I’ve been really digging in to my faith and seeing why I believe what I believe. We as Christians live in a world that wants us to fall down, wants to shake our faith and make us sin and give into the temptations that everyone else is giving in to, and we need to equip ourselves with information to defend our faith and lead others to Christ. I challenge everyone to no longer just accept what you are told, whether that be on a college campus in class, online, or even in a church. Challenge what you have heard and are being taught, Jesus died in order that we may live and live to the fullest- live to the fullest for his glory. I have a ton of facts and historical information about the Bible and Christianity in general and if anyone would like my notes regarding that, or just to talk with me about it, I would love to walk through it with y’all! Love y’all, thanks for reading :)

"Just Look Up"

This past Friday i was walking outside at about 11:45 at night and was walking towards the game room from my room at Link Year, which is about a solid 2 minute walk at most, and i ran into my friend Thomas. It was like 40 degrees outside and there was not a cloud in the sky, and Thomas was standing outside looking at the stars. I stopped and he said "I wish people would get off of their phones and just look up." For the next 45 minutes we both sat there and looked at the stars and talked about life.

From this moment on I started to look up a lot more. Looking up at the stars, looking up at the pouring rain, looking up from my phone in general, and I started to notice more. God intricately created the universe and this world with such care, and if God designed the world in such beauty; with no snowflake ever the same, leaves falling and changing at different times, even just water simply crashing over the shore over and over, then how much more intricately are we created and designed by God?

 I just wanted to encourage y'all to look up. Get away from your phone today, go outside and just look at the sky, look at the world around you. Look at the people around you, everyone has a story and something that they are struggling with or going through and we could easily miss it in the busyness and everyday-ness of life. Don't let busy schedules be your excuse to neglect our greatest commandments: to love God, and love his people. Love God's creation, look at what he has made and love his people whom he has created. Take time to just look up this week friends, enjoy the Lord and His creation.

I'm a mess but deeply loved.

Hey y'all! Weekly Review!! The overarching message of this week at Link Year was clear. “I am a mess, but deeply loved by God and because of that I am able to be transformed by His grace.” B.J. Thompson came this week and brought a strong and defined message that made it obvious about the transforming power of the gospel. A lot of different things stood out to me but these 3 concepts that we are 1)a mess, 2)deeply loved, and 3)able to receive grace through those is so powerful. BJ talked about how until we not only accept, but embrace, the fact that we are a mess we will truly never be able to have authentic community. This fact kind of stuck to me because a lot of times we try to have our lives put together and this just creates a cycle of facades and people who are trying to live up to performance standards that they won’t be able to add up to. Another thing on community that BJ touched on was that since we as humans are hardwired for relationships we are always going to be wanting community, but until we are able to say that we are a mess, that we are a broken and lost people, we wont be able to engage in this authentic community that we have been designed for. This was cool for me to hear because sometimes as a girl in a Christian community like Link Year it is natural for me to act like I have it all together, that all of my friendships are super solid, that I have all of my schoolwork balanced out, etc., when in all actuality its not. This concept that it is “okay to not be okay” is a little scary to embrace at times but I think it could potentially change the way we see community and the way we see ourselves. Its okay if youre screwed up and you messed up with everything that you did this week, God is still there and He still loves us more than we could imagine. Take heart this week friends, and remember the transforming power of the grace of God. Love y’all!

Not okay, but that's okay

Hey friends! Weekly update, yay! If I could have one word to describe this week it would be exhausted. Physically, spiritually and emotionally. I’m not saying this to get pity or sympathy, but to emphasize the point that we hear at Link a lot: “It’s okay to not be okay.” There are a bunch of things that go into this but mainly its been so cool to see how God is forming and shaping everyone here, including me. One of the pillars we have here at Link Year is Heart Transformation and I am here to say that Heart Transformation is taking place here in Branson, Missouri. Psalm 51:7-8 says “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.” Did y’all catch what that says? Let the bones that you have broken rejoice? Why would I rejoice in being broken? David first asks that he can be clean, whiter than snow, which brings about joy and gladness in the purity that only Christ can bring. David understands that he will first have to be broken, shaped and mended, into the man that God designed him to be. This passage in Scripture is why I can look at a really crappy week and see good. I can see joy even in death; I can see contentment even when the situation kinda sucks. Heart transformation is so cool, and God is using every situation here at Link Year to break us of our pride, entitlement, arrogance, or anything that is keeping us from Him- and shape is into what He desired for us to be. It doesn’t’ always feel good, and it really isn’t fun, but it is so so rewarding. So my encouragement for the week is that an omniscient Creator, carefully seeing your needs and where he can shape and grow you even more, has placed the bad or frustrating situations in your life for a purpose. For example, I have a hard time trusting God with all aspects of my life. I am quick to pray about my spiritual life, and pray for my friends, family, boyfriend, etc., but do I pray about my homework? My ability to balance classes and sleep? I have put a lot on my plate (not that much but I’m bad at time management) and I have been drowning in it. I am quick to complain about my work and how it sucks that I have to take classes, or stay up later because I have school stuff, and after a couple weeks of my time managing me, rather than me managing my time, I just prayed. I prayed for dependence on God and His timing and that I would stop to stress about it and trust Him. And then the coolest thing happened, I had time. Through the situations that we get frustrated or worn down in, God is shaping us and teaching us. In my case, God was teaching me dependency and the importance of trust (which I’m still learning). Take a step back and look at what’s been overwhelming you this week, or maybe just look at the trials you’ve encountered this week and try to see how God is moving in your life. Thanks for reading y’all! Y’all are awesome. Sorry I didn’t talk about our speaker, he was awesome and I probably will talk about him next week. Anyways, sorry if this was wordy, love all of y’all! As always, if there are any questions about what I’m talking about please ask!

a brief week overview

I don’t even know what week of Link Year this is so I’m not even going to try! What a week! This past weekend I went to Denver and got to see my awesome boyfriend, Hunter which was super busy and crazy and fun and I could talk about it for hours so I’ll spare y’all, but that ended last week/ started this week off incredibly well. I got to hang out with my awesome small group, accountability partners, and participate in a group Bible study about submission to authority. Then in class this week spoke about managing our time, managing our self, and managing money. This was super awesome as I am a hugeeeee procrastinator myself and needed to hear the biblical reasoning’s behind how to properly manage my time and money, as well as how to really live a healthy lifestyle that honors how God has called us as Christians to live. It was a super practical week but the most I got out of it was that I saw how all of these seemingly “legalistic” practices were all backed up by scripture and will help us further the kingdom of heaven in multiple ways. None of these things we learned about is particularly easy and they require self discipline, but Christ has called us to that and it is our job as Christians to be good stewards of that with which he has given to us (as a gift, none of this is truly ours anyways). Tonight we had family dinner, where you either go to a Kanakuk familiy’s house and they make you a meal, or you eat in the dining hall as a big family. I am so blessed to have an awesome group and we got to participate in awesome fellowship together and I’m already so excited to see what God is going to do throughout this year through them. Following that, we went to a college ministry here called “The Fort”, here in Branson at Woodland Hills Family Church. Every week God continues to show himself to me in different ways and this always happens to be one, bringing His followers, his lost sheep back to him in the most loving way possible. Anyways, this week has been super busy, so I just figured I would give a good overview of what a normal week here looks like and kind of stray away from speaking on one single topic. Anyways, if y’all have any questions, let me know for sure. Love y’all!