Leadership and Serving

What does it mean to be a leader? To have power and brawn? To be in charge of it all and take everything on your shoulders so that the people around you will admire you for your abilities?

Leadership is none of those things. It is a position of servanthood, a position to give. A leader sacrifices themselves for the people they work with and for. You take on the job of getting dirty and losing yourself a bit for the good of others.

I have learned these things in my experience as a leader and it is a humbling fact that I am not in a place to be powerful, but to be at the bottom. I have to take on the things no one else does through my leadership and I love it. I give to others and share with them what I can. Through servanthood and letting others shine, I get to sit back and smile, knowing that I have helped someone else gain. I am not the face of what I do, Christ is. Christ gave me this desire and He gave me these loves and I am thankful. Being a leader in Christ puts a certain tone to leadership and I am able to stand back and know whom I am serving. I do not serve myself. That would be boring.

I serve my God and I serve His people. I give because I am called to and I love it. There is nothing like the joy of giving and nothing like the joy of serving.

Clarity

Friends... Here is my advice to you. Talk to people. Talk. Words are so powerful and they alleviate all of the unseen things in relationships. If you think a friendship is in shambles, talk and figure things out. Chances are the relationship is actually quite fine and you are both undergoing a lot of stress. Life happens and people get crazy busy with all the demands surrounding us, especially in college. We have commitments and other pressures that just hone in on our heads until eventually, as I said last night, "my brain is just going to explode all over the wall!!"

Now that really won't happen, but it is a good way of relieving initial stress that keeps building up. Get a little frustrated. Get a little mad. It's healthy. Then just calmly talk. How beautiful a friendship becomes when you talk and things get solved.

Hugs at the end are also always welcome :)

The Place I Found Myself

I have been to a place that was beautiful

Where I discovered, I hoped, I dreamed

My whole being was immersed

In all the splendor around me

Sailing across an ocean of awe

Carrying me far from home

A place where beauty is determined by character

Not by standards

No one was the judge of me

Even I lost that power

And God took my hand

Led me to His creation

Guiding me through the walls of this town

And all the way He spoke of beauty

What it really means

While we made the last step He turned to me and said

How much He loved me

How much He adored me

And told me I was beautiful

And I believed Him.

Have You Seen...?

Sometimes you just feel lost. Like there is an empty cavern housing itself inside of you. You feel like there is something missing. Why does your heart feel so out of place? And why is your mind never in the same moment as you?

What makes us lost? Where do we get this crazy belief? I do not have those answers. All I know is that that is how I feel. Lost. Like there is no one to claim me. Like I was forgotten at baggage claim and my owner will never come back. I am not filled with important things anyway, so what's the use in carrying around a piece of luggage that really has no value to you regardless.

This is a moment of rarity. I usually don't feel like this. But every once in a while it creeps up and hits me. That maybe I am really alone. Not really, because I always have God. But that here in earth, I am alone. Just fending for me and that everyone else just walks past me and doesn't even see my sad little wave as they walk on by.

Sleepless in Wenham

Orientation is insane, that is for sure. I have been through a week of training and now I have my group of kids that I get to watch over and guide through the first initial days and weeks of the college life. It is overwhelming and all volunteer work. And I love it. I have met so many great people and I have gained a lot of confidence about meeting new people and being outgoing. I am somewhat shy and timid, but orientation has made me step out of that comfort zone. There are many things that would have bothered me before that don't bother me anymore. I am able to do anything!

Just thought I would say that and how much I am enjoying this experience and this opportunity to serve God in such a servant-like position. This is what God called me to do... be a servant to Him and His people. And I will do it until the day I die.

Wisdom

Volumes and volumes

They are barely used anymore

Precious books with gallant tales

Unlocked doors with the keys inside

Treasures for the wisdom they hold

Wisdom our mouths could never tell

Whispers our ears could never hear

Do not tell me what they say

For they speak for themselves

Our words cannot trap theirs

And neither can our interpretations

We gather them like gold

Stowing them away like secrets

Even though all we ever needed

Is all they contain

How the world should be turning

As opposed to it's modern day spiral

~ ECD

Vintage People

All the vintage people

Peeking behind sterile eyes

In their brown tattered photos

Still as can be

Waiting

They wait for the light to flash

Sighing in relief that their time has come

To be trapped in time

For just a moment

To be caught in eternal life

Framed, for generations to see

Their vintage selves

Amidst the fabrics of space

~ ECD