Contributor

October 20 2020

Child-like Faith

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When I was about four years old, I had a Little Tikes house-bed – a bed built with a pink base and a light blue roof with little green shudders as the headboard. One of my earliest memories as a child was praying with my parents before bedtime. I vividly remember one night as I was getting tucked into that warm little house bed – my very own house in my own home – my mom asked me what I would like to ask God. It took me a minute to gather my thoughts and out of my curiosity I responded not with a prayer request, but with a literal question: “How many trees are there on the Earth?”.

Every time I remember this memory I always smile. There is something truly special about a child’s faith and wonder. I had heard once before at preschool that Jesus knew the amount of hairs on my head (Matthew 10:30), so I simply wanted to know if He also knew how many trees there were on the Earth. During prayer time that night I also asked God to please keep bugs out of my room as I slept, so they would not crawl on me. As silly as it sounds, that was one of my most frequent prayers throughout my childhood. I never got an answer to my initial question about the trees, but deep down I knew that God had the answer. And I am pretty sure I was granted the blessing of a bug-less bedroom each night I requested it. Yes, that was a silly prayer, but each time I prayed that, something profound was happening in my spirit. I was praying through a foundation of trust. I trusted that God would keep me safe through the night and I had confidence that He would carry me through to the next morning.

Be encouraged and run to the Father, go back to that child-like faith. Pray without pressure and keep wonder alive.

Matthew 6:7-8 teaches us that we should pray with confidence and not to obtain God’s favor through babbling. This portion of Matthew emphasizes the importance of fervent prayers over repetitious phrases. Prayer filled confidence does not come from the prayer itself. We may never get a definite answer, or the situation might not change in the way we want it. We can pray for something specific over and over again; but we will achieve nothing if we have not decided to trust in the One we are praying to. It can be so easy to get lost in our own words, or to feel the pressures of needing to pray a certain way. Confident prayers are those that come from faith and are set soundly in the abilities of our Heavenly Father’s power, whether we get the answers we were looking for or not. When we pray with confidence in Him and not in ourselves, our own words, or our own plans, we allow ourselves to let go of control, find comfort in depending on Him, and gather hope in the promises He has for us.

“When you go to pray, there is no need to repeat empty phrases… there is no need since your Father already knows what you need before you ask Him.”

Matthew 6:7-8 (TPT)

Be encouraged and run to the Father, go back to that child-like faith. Pray without pressure and keep wonder alive. For the Father knows the number of stars and calls them all by name (Psalm 147:4), He knows the very amount of hairs on your head (Matthew 10:6), and He already knows what you need even before you ask Him (Matthew 6:8).

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October 13 2020

Deadly Silence

Bryant Stokes Contributor, new

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Praying the same prayers over and over can be discouraging. Where is God? Why is He taking so long to help me? Thoughts of despair, frustration, and shame can creep in quickly and be difficult to get rid of. I’ve discovered that the more I pray, the more I recognize I need God, and the more I recognize I need God, the more I pray. The act of prayer is not a heavenly ATM card, but it’s a way to build your faith. Prayer aligns our will, our thoughts, and our actions with Heaven and its timing.

David, the one who killed lions and giants, found himself in a compromising and potentially deadly predicament. The jealous and insecure King Saul sent numerous capable warriors to find David and kill him. The Bible says that King Saul pursued him relentlessly for a long period of time. I don’t know about you, but if someone was trying to kill me, my prayer life would be incredible. But in the same breath, I don’t think I would be singing praises to God while hiding and running for my life — just to be honest.

I’ve discovered that the more I pray, the more I recognize I need God, and the more I recognize I need God, the more I pray.

Our problems can sometimes feel that way. Problems can be oppressive, aggressive, and deadly to our inner self. Catch what David says in Psalms:

“But I will sing of Your power; Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; For You have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble.”
Psalms 59:16 NKJV

While God hadn’t yet intervened, David was smart and bold enough to magnify the character of Christ in the middle of his deadly situation. He recognized that the Great Defender could still come through. He actively chose to look to God for the resolution of his situation. Sometimes the most simple thing can be the most difficult. Offering up prayer and praise while being pursued seems like too much to ask. In truth, it’s not, because it’s a matter of focus. Place your focus on The One who handles all things well. Here’s the hope; difficult things prove to us the strength of God. God isn’t scared of your problems; He’s waiting to handle them. He will handle them.

When we pray and couple our praise with it, Heaven stands at attention. I challenge you to find out who God is. Declare His word. Praise His character. Pray in faith. Then, watch Him come through for you. Breakthrough waits for faith filled prayers AND praise. Don’t be caught being silent.

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October 6 2020

The Story Behind Love Church’s Name Change

Pastor Josh Baird Contributor, new

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A couple of years ago, God started speaking to me about a new name for our church. I remember doing what I always do when God is speaking something big – go talk to my wife. I jokingly say that I get Brittney confused with the Holy Spirit sometimes, because she is so wise, decisive, and discerning in the midst of important decisions. We both immediately felt like God was confirming that we should change the name of our church sometime in the near future, but we didn’t feel like it was the right time. We decided we would just put the name change idea on the “back burner” and wait until we felt God show us the right time to do it.

In the meantime, we started to talk about what the new name would be. I will never forget the very first idea that ever came out of my mouth. It was in a conversation we were having in the car. I reminded Brittney of one of my all-time favorite verses, John 13:35, where Jesus says, “This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples – when they see the LOVE you have for each other”. I vividly remember turning to her and saying, “I mean, the best church name of all time would be Love Church, but I don’t think we could ever name it that”. Brittney said, “Why not?”

In the following months, we spent countless hours trying to think of reasons why “Love Church” would not work and tried to think of better names. Not because we didn’t like the name, but because we wanted to be thoroughly convinced and at peace that we had made the right decision. I assembled a small team of people that met throughout the spring and summer of 2019 to help with vetting the new name. As time went on, “Love Church” became the name that we couldn’t get rid of. Every time someone thought of a reason that it wasn’t a good name, there was an even better counter argument in support of it. Love is the central theme of the Bible, of the Gospel, of God Himself. The name is a simple, powerful, and accurate representation of who God is and who we are called to be. So finally, we stopped the searching and vetting: it was a done deal. We would one day be called “Love Church”. But what we still didn’t know was when the right time would be.

Fast forward to 2020 and the global pandemic. It was late April and we had been meeting online-only for about 6 weeks. That’s when Brittney and I started feeling like this year might be the year to launch the new name. In many ways, it’s been a year of pain, loss, and heartache. But it’s also a year of opportunity for the Church (capital “C”) to step up and take our place in the midst of the turmoil and show the love of Christ. As the events of 2020 continued to unfold, we were more and more convinced that this was the time.

The name is a simple, powerful, and accurate representation of who God is and who we are called to be.

So, here we are! Love is here.

We truly believe that God has ordained this name and this time. That we are here for such a time as this. If the world ever needed to see the love of God on display, it is now. The time is upon us to love God and love people like never before.

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”– 1 John 4:7-12

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September 29 2020

Work It

Hannah Arensen Contributor Work

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I come from a family of hard workers. Something just compels us to work like crazy, biting off more than we can chew and choking it down with coffee, lack of sleep and baggy eyes. My face lotion is the “anti-fatigue” kind, no joke. I’m so grateful for this family culture that taught me the value of working hard, but I often wondered… what is it that drives us to work the way we do? Moreover, as Christ-followers, what should work look like?

2 Timothy 2:15 says this, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (NIV)

I don’t know about you, but presenting myself to God as an approved and unashamed worker sounds pretty intense. There are some toxic work environments out there, and it can be really hard not to take part in the gossip and frustration. We often look at work as being separate from the rest of our life, including our relationship with Jesus. But in the act of presenting ourselves to the Lord, we are also representing Him to others. As we work, we are reflecting God to the people around us. But this doesn’t just mean being on our best behavior at the office.

Our first reference of work in the Bible is the work of God himself, in fact He placed man in the garden to work it. Even though it was beautiful already, God specifically chose humans to make it even more fruitful so they could share His goodness with their children and their children’s children. So when we work, we are partnering with God to share His goodness and make this world better. Work is a divine reflection of God!

But let’s be honest, very rarely do I walk around my office thinking “Yeah, this is a divine reflection of God.” That beautiful garden didn’t make it past chapter 2 of the Bible; so work, like everything else, is subject to the pains of a fallen world. This is why in 2 Timothy, Paul talks about being one “who correctly handles the word of truth” or the gospel — because we always need a purpose.

As we work, we are reflecting God to the people around us.

So, what is it about the gospel, when accurately lived out, that makes our work worthwhile?

1 Peter 1:3 says this, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.”

What makes work worthwhile? HOPE. We have been given this living hope through the resurrection of Jesus, and the inheritance that is our own bodily resurrection and a new creation. So when we work, we have hope and confidence that our work is not just there for survival, but it is a noble and divine effort that will not be simply discarded by God, but made anew in the richness of His Glory. For he says, “I am making all things new”-Revelation 21:5

So whatever you do — whether you’re an educator, hair-dresser, engineer, stay-at-home mom, barista, pastor, or designer —“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord” -Colossians 3:23

Because whether you’re in your dream job or not, God is ready to do a work in you. He is, through our Lord Jesus, making all things new!

Hannah Arensen is a landscape designer with a focus on ecological resilience and social equity in public space. A blogger and worship team member, she is passionate about helping people grow in their relationship with Jesus. When she’s not in the studio, you can find her curled up with a good book and a cup of coffee.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row padding_mobile=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on” admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_padding=”100px|||” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”off” custom_width_px=”1080px” custom_width_percent=”80%”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”RECENT POSTS TITLE” _builder_version=”3.27.4″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” text_orientation=”center” module_alignment=”center” use_border_color=”off” border_style=”solid”]

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September 22 2020

Love is All You Need

Pastor Kim Burnell Contributor Love

Yes, I took a line from a popular Beatles song but could it be that simple? There’s so much fighting in our world right now about so many different issues. Just pick one: racism, the virus, masks, religion, politics. Everyone has an opinion, usually a strong one. And if someone doesn’t agree with them, there will be an argument over it, maybe a relationship broken, and worse yet, hatred might rise. So, could LOVE really be all we need?

I believe that LOVE is all we need, but we have to make the choice to lay down our selfish desires, give up our right to be right, and at times, even lay down our right for others. We’re all born with the “me” mentality, which is seen in children as they grow older and are able to communicate.

Yes, I took a line from a popular Beatles song but could it be that simple?

I love my grandchildren and through my “grandma” eyes, they can do no wrong! Of course, that’s not true, but have you seen 2 toddlers playing and one has the other’s toy? The toddler sees their toy in someone else’s hand, and what do they say? “MINE,” along with pulling and tugging. As we mature, we don’t yell or snatch things — well at least I hope not — but we still have that “me” mentality and thus we are always looking out for ourselves.

But God didn’t create us to constantly be thinking of ourselves. In one of the most famous LOVE chapters known, Paul talks about LOVE being above all else –

“If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NLT

The Message translation says, “So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.” We could be the richest and most intelligent person, have the most Facebook friends or Instagram followers, and know everything about God, but if we did not LOVE others, we have nothing.

We were created to LOVE — to love God and love people! Our skills and talents are not for ourselves but to help others. Jesus demonstrated this by His LOVE for us. He came to earth, lived among us, and was humiliated, beaten, and crucified — then, He rose from the grave, defeating death — all because of His abundant LOVE for us!

There’s a phrase I heard many years ago: People don’t care what you know; they want to know that you care. What if we accepted and LOVED people just as they are, just where they are, no matter what they believed? God loved and accepted us before we even asked for forgiveness and said yes to Jesus. If His LOVE did all that for us, we can surely LOVE others!

I’d be the first to tell you that loving others isn’t always easy, especially those that treat you badly, but the Holy Spirit gives us the strength to LOVE, and the more we LOVE, the easier it becomes. I truly believe LOVE is all we need to transform a world, one life at a time. All they need is LOVE!

Kim Burnell is Assistant Campus Pastor at The Life Church Winchester. She’s passionate about God’s Word, people finding life in Jesus, and encouraging others along life’s journey. She’s been married to her high-school sweetheart, Ed Burnell, for 36 years. They have 5 children and 8 grandchildren, and she says when this social distancing is over, there will be snuggles for days!

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September 15 2020

He Will Go To Work

Melanie Ramirez Contributor

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I love Max Lucado. More specifically, I love his children’s books. To this day I still reread the books I grew up on more than his books for adults. My favorite was a book of his titled, You Are Special. In it, there’s a city of wooden people carved by a woodworker. The wooden people spend every day giving each other star stickers as affirmation or dot stickers as criticism. It focuses on one wooden person in particular, Punchinello. He receives so many dot stickers that he refuses to even go outside. Then he meets Lucia, a wooden person with no stickers at all, a fact she attributes to going to see the woodworker every day. Once Punchinello goes to see the woodworker himself, a sticker falls off.

I reread it when I was writing this and what stood out to me was that when the story ended, Punchinello was still covered in stickers. He was still riddled with wounds from other people’s criticism. And so are we.

We all want to think that the healing process is as simple as ripping off a band-aid.

We all want to think that the healing process is as simple as ripping off a band-aid. “I ended the relationship”, “I got out of the house”, “I quit the job”, problem solved, right? Wrong. I’ve come to learn that the healing process more closely resembles being the star of an action movie being shot, having to pull the bullet out, and then having to continue with the rest of the plot only to have the bad guy painfully remind you of your injury later in the story. It’s rough. Wounds span from being bullied in high school to bad break-ups to abuse. But Psalm 147:3 says, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” All our wounds are different, but what they have in common is that you’re never so wounded that they can’t be bound and that you can’t be healed.

When Lucado’s book ends, the woodworker says, “Come see me every day and let me remind you how much I care”, Punchinello leaves thinking, “I think he really means it”. He was still doubtful. But doubt is real, it’s honest, and God can work with it. “I think going to church might be a good idea”, “Maybe I’ll come next week”, “This might work out for our family”. I started there too. I doubted my anxiety and depression was something that could ever be healed, but I went to a prayer meeting anyway. At my lowest, I remember being at 21 Days of Prayer when something in me broke, and I just started crying. I wasn’t even praying as much as I was saddened by the fact that crying this way had become so normal for me. A couple days later, I saw a picture of me from that night on the church’s Instagram. In that moment, I was reminded that I wasn’t just seen by a man behind a camera but that I was seen by the Son of God. He was going to work, against the anxiety, against the fear, against the depression. I implore you, log on to prayer, listen to a message, read the verse of the day because when you go to God, He will go to work.

Melanie Ramirez is a Blog Writer and member of the Manassas Campus Prayer Team. She works as a job coach for individuals with disabilities and has been spending her quarantine cooking, crafting, and writing letters to as many people as she can.

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September 8 2020

Satisfy The Appetite

Dieter Stach Contributor

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I once had the miserable opportunity to be an 11^th wheel. That’s right – just me, a single young adult at the time, having dinner with 5 couples. I watched for 2 hours as they talked about favorite date spots, laughed about funny quirks their partners exhibited, and scheduled double dates, and since I had never seriously dated anyone in my short 18 years of life, I had nothing in common with anyone there.

To top it all off, after the meal was done and everyone was saying goodbye, my friend came up to me and said “Dieter, you need to get a girlfriend so we can double date!”

I was not happy. I had just endured 2 hours of people excluding me from conversation only to be told the only reason I wasn’t welcome in any of the discussion was because I hadn’t met my future wife yet!

I left that night feeling more isolated than I ever had in my life. I felt so alone, so cut off from community and relationship. And I think that’s something many of us are feeling now. When society has shut down, people have been forced to stay home, and our ability to connect with our communities has been so limited, it’s easy to succumb to the weight of loneliness. It’s easy to sink into the feeling that if we’re feeling lonely, there must be something wrong with us. And that’s understandable. We feel lonely, and something deep inside us tells us that it’s not good to feel lonely.

I have a hot take for you: Feeling lonely doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you — it’s actually a gift from God.

Feeling lonely doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you — it’s actually a gift from God.

I know. That doesn’t sound right. Let me explain what I mean: Loneliness is an appetite. Just like we have appetites for food, pleasure, and for all our favorite televised sports to return, we have an appetite for intimacy. Loneliness is our God-given indication that lets us know we are not receiving the intimacy we require.

But here’s the catch: Not any old connection will satisfy the appetite. In my 11^th wheel experience I was surrounded by people, but still felt lonely. Intimacy is not about being with people, it’s about the quality of the relationships.

The writer of Hebrews describes it like this: “Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25). See, we’re not designed to simply receive intimacy from others. God has designed us to derive a deep sense of intimacy by actively participating in building each other up.

We’ll be returning to in-person services at our Manassas and Winchester campuses on October 4^th. Hallelujah! But after this time of isolation, maybe Jesus is calling us to do more than show up. Maybe He’s calling us to use our skills and passions to make a difference by joining a Serve Team? Our small group semester just restarted, with online, in-person, and hybrid groups in abundance — but maybe more than just showing up, Jesus wants us to participate in the discussions, and share our experiences honestly. Jesus wants us to serve the people around us like He did in His life, death, and resurrection. As we look forward to coming back together as a church, let’s think of the ways Jesus wants us to build each other up, and feed our appetite for loneliness with real community.

Dieter is the newly installed Blog Team Coordinator for the Life Church. He and his new wife Becca married on January 18th, 2020, (impeccable timing, if you ask them) They are keeping themselves busy during the pandemic with board games, long walks, and more board games.

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September 1 2020

Drop An Anchor

Pastor Tony Lutyk Contributor

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“Is the height of the tallest redwood more or less than 1,200 feet?”

This is the first of two questions that was asked to a group of research participants visiting the San Francisco Exploratorium asked about Redwoods, which are known as the largest trees on planet earth. The participants were then asked a follow-up question; “What is your best guess about the height of the tallest redwood?”

What makes the Exploratorium study so interesting is who the questions were being asked by: a psychologist named Daniel Kahneman. Kahneman was interested in studying people, not trees. So, he took a second group of research participants and asked them an almost identical pair of questions with one important difference; “Is the height of the tallest redwood more or less than 180 feet?”

Kahneman then gathered all of the guesses about the height of the tallest redwood (380.1 feet is the correct answer for those who are dying a little on the inside without this information) and estimated the difference between those who were asked if the difference was 1,200 feet and those who were asked if the difference was 180 feet.

The results? The median guess for those in the 1,200 group was 844. The median guess for those in the 180 group was 282.

What Kahneman’s experiment demonstrates is a psychological phenomenon called the anchoring effect. Most people don’t really know anything about trees. It’s a moment of uncertainty. And we HATE uncertainty. So, the way that the human mind reacts to uncertainty is to search quickly for something certain, like the last number a researcher plants in our brain through a question. That number becomes the anchor for our thinking, and that anchor, more than logical reasoning or rational thinking, has a powerful effect on our decision making.

So, what’s anchoring you?

It has been a while since our world was this uncertain. Between a global pandemic, social isolation, civil unrest, an upcoming election, a tumultuous global economy, the strangest start to a school year in living memory, and the mere existence of Facebook, I personally cannot remember a time when the world felt this collectively erratic. The world needs the Church now more than ever. Yet Christians are people too, struggling with the same weight that humanity is carrying in this moment. And like the rest of humanity, in uncertain times Christians will also reach for an anchor.

The world needs the Church now more than ever. Yet Christians are people too, struggling with the same weight that humanity is carrying in this moment.

So, what’s your reference point? What does your mind reach for first in the midst of uncertainty? Is it your 401K? Your political ideology? Your relationship status? Your likes on social media?

These are, of course, fine things. But they cannot be first things. First things must be solid, secure and unchanging. That’s the whole point of an anchor. An anchor that shifts is no anchor at all. What people need to make it through uncertain times is a certain foundation.

One of my favorite passages of Scripture is found in Hebrews chapter 6. The author of Hebrews is writing to a church whose members are facing uncertainty, persecution and expulsion from their community. These are people who need encouragement, and so the writer of Hebrews gives them encouragement in the following verses of 18-20: “So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.”

What I love about this passage is that the writer of Hebrews points us to hope, but that hope is not that our circumstances will change. There is no certainty in that. Instead, that hope is in the character of God. And God’s character never changes.

So, there is hope for our souls in uncertain times. There is an anchor. This anchor is the certainty of God’s Word and His promises to us. The question for us is will this be our anchor?

This has been God’s challenge to me over the past few months. Am I willing to drop an anchor? Because anchoring is not something you can do passively. Am I willing to run to God, His presence and His promises first – before I check the news, Facebook, ask my friends, or even run through every potential outcome in my mind as my anxiety rises? Am I willing to pray first? Trust when I cannot see the outcome? Obey when I do not understand? Am I willing to drop an anchor into the promises of God?

Because the world is looking for that same certainty and stability. My friends are looking for an anchor. I wonder what they see when they look at me?

Tony Lutyk is the Campus Pastor at The Life Church Manassas. He’s an excellent leader and communicator who has a talent for throwing in some wit and humor when he preaches. He’s passionate about God’s Word, seeing people reach their full potential in Christ, and he misses hockey more than he can adequately express.

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August 25 2020

Hand It Over

Laura Victoria Contributor Anxiety, trust

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When COVID-19 hit, I started the terrible habit of clenching my teeth. I was getting headaches almost everyday for 2-3 weeks straight before I realized what was happening. It took another few days after that to figure out that what was causing my head pain was my jaw being clenched shut unintentionally for way too long a period of time. After taking medicine regularly to help ease this continual headache, it hit me —“Why am I clenching my teeth so much? Oh yes, we’ve been going through the strangest year of our lives. And my body is telling me I need to stop and process this because it is stressed out and upset, even if my brain doesn’t register it.”

Once I finally started processing everything, I realized that while I loved some of the things in my life, I was really angry and sad at others. I simultaneously loved and hated being at home 24/7. I loved it because I’m a homebody, so honestly there are a ton of advantages to staying home (books, cozy bed, recipe experimentation, etc). But I also hated not seeing my friends in person, not being able to travel, living in an apartment where there are literally only two spaces to go between, and more.

During the processing I realized I wasn’t really welcoming God into my space. In fact, I was kind of ignoring Him because I wanted to be okay so badly.

During the processing I realized I wasn’t really welcoming God into my space. In fact, I was kind of ignoring Him because I wanted to be okay so badly. Sure, I attended church at home, read my Bible on occasion, and participated in virtual small groups and daily prayer, but I wasn’t actively welcoming God’s help, and that is crucial.

Psalm 55:22 says, “Pile your troubles on God’s shoulders — He’ll carry your load, He’ll help you out.”

There is a keyword in that verse, and it is the word pile. In order to pile something onto someone you’ve first got to hand it over. Now, I don’t know about you, but if I’m being completely honest sometimes I hold on a little too tightly to my problems because it feels way less risky to carry my backpack full of problems than to hand it over to a God who I can’t visibly see. And yet, if I am going to live out my faith, I have to believe that when God says He’ll carry my load, He means it and will do it. In fact, if I say that I believe that God loves me (which I do), my not piling my troubles on God means that I am stopping my own self from experiencing God’s peace that passes all understanding. All because I am too stubborn to believe God by acting on His word.

Now, this is not a one and done thing. That is why Romans 12:2 says “…be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” We have to renew our minds weekly, daily, hourly, to get over our own stubbornness. How? There are multiple ways. I have reminders like, “God’s got this,” or, “He’ll never let me down”. Sometimes I have to blast a worship song and sing it at the top of my lungs, especially to tune out my anxieties. When I have no words, I will read Psalms out loud (highly recommend). And when none of it works, I remind myself that God still loves me even when I can’t let go. Tomorrow is a new day and I will continue to do my best at handing God my pile of troubles. Will you?

Laura Victoria is the Communications Director for The Life Church. You can catch her doing anything from reading a good fiction novel or baking, to hiking/being outdoors, to watching anything Jane Austen related or Avatar: The Last Airbender. She has a passion for the church, creativity, and helping people find freedom in Jesus.

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August 18 2020

What About The Sugar

Kayleigh D'abadie Contributor

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Welcome to Back-to-School season! But as we all know, it is August 2020 so back-to-school is bound to look a little (or maybe a lot) different than usual. I’ve seen quite a few commercials of kids jumping around with new backpacks and new clothes, and then quickly realize – that will not be the reality for most students in the Northern Virginia area. We have been venturing into “new normals” all year and yes, we will make this work; but that does not make this transition any easier. We are being stretched to the max, being unsure and uncomfortable are two of the most common feelings tied with the COVID-19 season – and let me just affirm to you that it is okay to feel this way. It is okay: if you feel fainthearted or tired, if you feel somewhat inadequate regarding the place you have been positioned, if you feel worried, fearful, or even exhausted. Your natural feelings towards such a sudden shift in reality are completely valid. The Lord has compassion on you and so do I. But let’s not forget that when life gives you lemons, you have the ability to make lemonade!

Something I find a bit silly about this inspirational cliché is no one talks about where the sugar comes from. I suppose you could make lemonade with just the lemons you are given but I could only assume that it would turn out to be some extremely sour, and not so desirable, lemonade. To be honest life can sometimes feel like bitter lemonade; it’s definitely drinkable – but it doesn’t taste that great. So, what do we do when life gets a little sour? Grab a little sugar and make it sweet! One of the most encouraging things that has helped pull me through this challenging year has been the sweet joy that the Lord provides. When we are filled with the joy of the Lord, life becomes a bit sweeter and we can share that sweetness with all the people we encounter.

When we are filled with the joy of the Lord, life becomes a bit sweeter and we can share that sweetness with all the people we encounter.

1 Thessalonians 5:14-15 teaches us to be encouraging, kind, and helpful to one another. I feel like I have seen this verse come alive within our communities this year. For example, we see encouragement and kindness being extended to our church and our communities through our recently organized Back-to-School Parades! The beautiful thing is that through the struggles, the Lord helps us, and through Him we can come together to support and encourage one another. Since it is back-to-school season students, parents, guardians, families, teachers, and school personnel have really been on my heart. And I truly believe that they all need a little extra supply of sweetness during this time. So, if you are one of those people, stay encouraged! The Father is holding you in the very palm of His hand, His plans for you are great, and we are here for you.

“… Be skilled at gently encouraging those who feel themselves inadequate. Be faithful to stand your ground. Help the weak stand again. Be quick to demonstrate patience with everyone. Resist revenge, and make sure that no one pays back evil in place of evil but always pursue doing what is beautiful to one another.” 1 Thessalonians 5:14-15 (TPT)

Kayleigh D’Abadie is a blog writer and a member of the Manassas campus worship team at the Life Church. She is also a student at George Mason University pursuing her Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education. She enjoys crafting, being outside in nature, and is always up for new adventures!

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