Kristen Schlee

Thirsty

It was 98 degrees outside as I pulled out of the parking lot after teardown today.  I happen to think that we have the most amazing volunteers on the planet at Lifepoint, and today was no exception. Honor, passion, and generosity are on display in these fine people for all to see between the hours of 6:00am and 2:00pm on any given Sunday at Chancellor High School.  Thank you to all of you who stayed late today--even if you weren't scheduled--to get us out of there as quickly as possible.  

I was still marveling at our "Life Force" when I encountered another group of volunteers on my way home. Stopping at Bottom Dollar (my "not-as-much-favorite" grocery store) to pick up some laundry detergent, I noticed a fire truck parked outside.  After determining there was no emergency, I went in and quickly grabbed my bottle of Tide, only to then stand in line behind many because they only had two checkout lines open (see my blog later this week on customer service!)  The lines were piling up quickly with people behind me, as well.  I turned around, hoping the growing line would alert someone to open another register, and noticed four guys from the Spotsylvania Volunteer Fire Department a few carts back, in full uniform, with their grocery cart full of Gatorade.  It looked as though they had been to one or two calls already on this steamy day, and the Gatorade made sense.  It was then that I heard the call--the dispatcher alerting them about the incident that needed their immediate response. Without hesitation they left their gatorade--still thirsty--and walked out into the sweltering heat and drove away to put themselves again in harm's way, hoping to secure the safety of some stranger.    

The passion and sacrifice with which these and our own volunteers faithfully and selflessly serve reminds me of that of the One for whom we serve at Lifepoint.  Jesus was no stranger to sacrifice, exhaustion, heat, hunger, pain--and thirst.  He put Himself in harm's way on our behalf--so that we might have life.  So that we might know God and His purpose for us, without shame or fear or deserved guilt sentence.  So that we might feel loved, regardless of our worth or past or mistakes.  So that we would be safe from the fire and quenched from our own thirst by springs of living water that never run dry.  His example is one worth following, and while it doesn't come without a price tag, there is no higher calling and nothing more fulfilling and worthwhile in this life.  

Thank you, Lifeforce, for all that you are and all that you do to make it easier for those who are far from God to be found by Him.  

Thank you, Spotsylvania VFD #8 (I think?) for responding to that emergency today, and many others, without regard for your own life, or safety, or thirst, or convenience.  

And thank you, Jesus, for responding without hesitation to my call and showing me your design for my life.  

Passion: How He Loves

The song, "How He Loves" by John Mark McMillan has really grown on me over this past year since we first heard it last Spring from Kim Walker and then our own worship team.  But the time it impacted me the most was at Drive '08 at North Point last May. 

Just one day before that conference, I was blessed to attend the wedding of my friends Mike and Kelly. Their wedding was one of the most worshipful experiences I have had, and I was truly blown away to watch as a perfect portrait was painted of the kind of love this song describes. Whatever struggles they had been through leading up to that day, Mike looked at his bride with fire in his eyes and announced that he felt the storms in his heart subsiding at the joy of their union.  Tears rolled down Kelly's cheeks (and everyone else's in the room) as the culmination of a romance and courtship full of purity, pursuit and passion, sacrifice, commitment, hard-core-seeking-of-the-Lord's-will, overcoming of fears and doubts, and healing of past wounds unfolded before our eyes.  It was the stuff fairy tales are made of. I don't know all of the details of their story, but I do know this: This groom had pursued his bride with patience, compassion, and extravagant love--winning her heart slowly but surely in a way that you might think only happens in the movies. The look on his face as the pastor pronounced them husband and wife was as passionate and victorious a look as I have ever seen on anyone.  I can honestly say I felt weak in the knees.  His love for her was so tangible, so obvious, so much bigger than he could contain, that every one of us in the room had to take a piece of it, and fell in love with her, as well!  

This affected me so deeply because I saw it--right then and there--in that look on Mike's face and the contagious love in his eyes for Kelly--I saw and felt and realized again that this is the kind of love Jesus has for me.  For you.  For all of us.  For HIS Bride, the Church.  That crazy, passionate, overflowing, your-heart-beating-like-it's-going-to-come-out-of-your-chest, weak in the knees, butterflies in the stomach kind of love.  Not that WE have for HIM, but that HE has for US.  The pursuit, the passion, everything I saw in that beautiful wedding, was so incredibly Christlike.  It's amazing to think about, really.  Most days I can't even get my head around it.  I know I don't deserve it.  I know I didn't--and can't--earn it.  And yet Jesus looks at me that way, that same way, the way Mike was looking at Kelly.  And just once in a while, I gaze back at Him with tears streaming down my cheeks, like Kelly did, and when that happens, miraculously I think less about why I don't deserve it, remember less all the reasons He shouldn't and couldn't possibly love me that way, and doubt less that He could possibly use me to help the rest of the world fall in love with Him.  ("And all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by Glory. . .and I realize just how beautiful You are and how great your affections are for me!")  And in those moments, as in that moment in Nashville when Mike and Kelly had their first kiss as husband and wife, "My heart turns violently inside of my chest. . .and I don't have time to maintain these regrets. . .when I think about the way He loves us."  

Could it be that if we were to realize this love, to really embrace it and take it in and feel it, that we, too, would glow like Kelly did at her wedding?  And the rest of the world wouldn't be able to help themselves and would fall in love with both the bride (the Church) and the Groom, (Jesus) as they witnessed this undeniable passion?

When was the last time your heart turned violently inside your chest at the thought of His love for you?