It was as if I had heard “The Story I’ll Tell” message series 18 years before it was preached at North Ridge. Three years before that I had been an unchurched, depressed teenager that was radically transformed by God’s grace during my senior year of high school. Now as a college sophomore my faith had grown by leaps and bounds but there were parts of my sinful nature that needed to be addressed. I grabbed a marker and piece of paper off my dorm room desk and began to write. What came next was something only the Holy Spirit could write…
“I am child of God, I refuse to base my self-worth on how I look, who I date or what activities I’m involved in. My worth should spring from the passion I have for the man who died broken on a cross for my sins, my savior who formed me into who I am today and who I will be in the future with His guidance. I am here to serve Him, to see people as He sees them and not how society sees them, to focus not only on my life but the big picture. When I look in the mirror, I will see a woman that is constantly learning and above all, I will see that I am God’s child.”
This piece of paper remained taped to my mirror throughout most of my years in college. Afterwards I folded it and put it in the Bible I got when I became a Christian, one of my most prized possessions. Like a lot of other photos and papers, it remained tucked in my Bible as reminders of what the Lord had done in my life over the years.
Earlier this week I pulled it back out to see how it compared to what we were talking about at NRC now.
I was struck by God’s faithfulness and the prophetic words I wrote out all those years ago. “I am here to serve Him, to see people as He seems them and not how society sees them.”
Little did I know at the time how the Lord would lead me into ministry with juvenile delinquents--ministry with the “bad kids”, the “troublemakers”, the “damaged”, the “wrong crowd”, the “criminals” … the list goes on of the labels they get.
I’m now in the process of reflecting and praying over what an updated grounding statement will be for me. The closest thing I have had in recent years is a verse I got tattooed on my wrist: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.” - Luke 4:18
Submitted by Liz G. on 11/17/21