Pride.

My eyes were opened to how much I let pride get in the way of my leadership.

Soul Link 2008: The theme was "Consumed". The big question of the weekend, "Does God have your heart?" My answer was yes. After that, the speaker was kind of all over the place, and not making many points. There were some pretty good skits and what not. I had fun. Worship, as usual was top notch. The MCs for the weekend had their moments. KJ52 got krunk.

Saturday Night of Soul Link 2008: Youth group processing time came. We all sat in the Chapel of the church, as Bordo asked questions. What we learned, and how we can take it back to the rest of the youth group. I listened to all the kid's answers. They had some good ideas, not many of them were really do-able. One kid said we could reenact what they did. Not likely to happen. Another said we can tell them what we learned, but in the end would they do that? And if they did would it just be a story of another retreat? I was about to raise my hand and tell them that what our youth group really needs is for us to reach out and serve each other. If we are "Consumed" by God, then that is what we should do. Then, a senior girl rose her hand. She said the biggest problem our youth group has is that we don't reach out to invisible people. She said more, but that sentence hit me. I was about to raise my hand and tell kids to do something that I have not been doing for this girl. I have known her for years. We were friends, but she stopped coming to church, and to be honest, she's one of those "hard to love" people. She started coming back to some youth events, and I would completely ignore her. Why? Because I had it in my head that I didn't need to. I would see her sitting by herself and I would never go talk to her. All because I told myself that I'm a good enough leader. I serve, I stack chairs, I sing on praise team, I hang out with pretty much everyone at church, I usually talk to the "invisible people", I hang out with the younger kids, and I work for the church...I'm pretty much BIG TIME. I didn't need to talk to this girl... I felt completely convicted to talk to her, so after, I walked up to her and laid my hand on her shoulder and apologized. She needed to hear that. We talked for about 15 minutes, and then we got CRAZAYYY at the KJ52 concert.

Why do I choose who to talk to and who not to talk to? I have been so blessed by that group, and I couldn't be a blessing to her. God humbled me, so here's my message: You're probably not as big time as you think you are, so be a blessing to someone, no matter who they are or what they've done (you have probably done something worse or more annoying). Jesus paid much too high of a price for us to pick and choose who can come. Seriously, it takes courage, but God will hook you up. It will definitely humble you.

Have a blessed day :)

~Lauren~

PS. Mr. Morris's cancer has cleared up!! God's healing power is amazing. I love Amy Morris. The end.