Life of Pi

Blog 14

“The reason death sticks so closely to life isn’t biological necessity- it’s envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud.”

Yann Martel

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Reconnaissant

1 Corinthians 1: 4- 9, ESV

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge- even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you- so that you are not lacking any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Every sunrise of each day is a chance and an opportunity to recognize the grace and beauty and mercy of God (Lamentations 3: 22-23). I thank God for the grace and the freedom of knowing I no longer have to merit his favor and love because Jesus has done it perfectly and completely for me. I think the more you see of the world and the more people you meet one realizes how awe-ing and endless God’s grace is but also how very rare and uncommon it is among his people. When you yourself are saved by grace and have been blessed with community that sincerely loves Christ, the need for God is so much more evident in the world. I will be the first to admit that I have not and don’t display grace as though my Savior willingly and innocently died in my place to pay a debt that was completely mine. But, thus, I am thankful that it is God who is ultimately gracious. I pray to live out the Gospel everyday in recognition of this undeserved gift of reconciliation and fellowship of his Son. Christ will sustain you to the end, the debt is paid in full, God is faithful, and his love endures forever (Psalm 136).

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So surreal

I’ve been in Paris for two days but it feels like a week! I think I’m going through a little bit of what’s called “culture shock.” Everything is just so different here and it’s hard to really put it into words! But this experience so far has just felt so surreal. Sometimes I can’t believe I’m here, in most likely the most popular city in the world, surrounded by French speakers, and experiencing a different culture completely apart from my own. It does come with difficulties though, such as there not being a real schedule and knowing when to make time for God. In addition to that wanting to spend time with him when we’re always with people and going on to do the next thing to do. But it’s certainly not impossible and cannot be forgotten! Prayers for this would be appreciated!

Also, there’s a terrace on top of the hostel for international students we’re staying in and I got to capture this beautiful view of la tour Eiffel!

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June at T-Wolf

I know what you’re thinking, “Finally, I get to hear about Hannah’s summer staff experience a month later!” (Just kidding) But here it is!

So, for having gone in with few expectations there were a lot of things about summer staff at Timber Wolf Lake I was not expecting! I knew it’d be awesome but I didn’t think it’d be that awesome and so fun! There was a ropes crew Hunger Games version of the game assassin, a night in which a few southern gents taught some of us how to swing dance, a lot more dancing (of course), spontaneous and fully cloathed jumps in the lake that have happened more than once, and so many other great things!

Also, the time that you spend at summer staff is non stop and the time flies. Typically a day looked like this: morning rides or bible study, meal, help set up/run/tear down event, some down time, meal, rides, meal, some down time, and then help set up/run/tear down event. It was exhausting at times but all so good and so worth it. Because of how our time was spent there was great community and great time of just being with God.

One of the things that was so awesome about our summer staff session was that we all got along so well and was pretty much drama free… seriously, I can honestly say I loved everyone there! One cool thing that our summer staff leaders told us was that great community was going to be a byproduct of Christ and then campers being of number one importance, not focusing on eachother or ourselves. Which is so true! How else, but by the grace of God, would all 45+ of us have gotten along so well? (Another interesting tidbit is that everyone was from everywhere, too, like Alaska,  Alabama, Mississipi, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nebraska, North Carolina, Missouri, Indiana, Virginia, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky, and obviously Ohio!)

Personally, having been on the go a lot and with people a lot made being with just God all the better. It was cool learning how to be with God not only during the times I had taken advantage of for quiet times but also during the times when patience is running thin and there’s still an hour left to go and all one can do every time is look to the cross and remember what He alone has done and why we’re there.

If I were to give advice to anyone considering doing summer staff it’d be to make it about Jesus and then the campers, make an effort to be vulnerable with community, and still remember to guard your heart.

While at summer staff you’re going to be surrounded by really awesome people… I think I had a minor crush all the guys at summer staff and it’s not called “YoungLife find a wife” for no reason! But if we’re not careful, being vulnerable and not putting up many walls can cross the line of forgetting to guard your heart at all. Getting just a little carried away can lead to toying with someone else’s or your own heart or someone else playing with yours as well. (Did you follow that?) But God is sovereign and will always draw us back to him even if we get distracted or are the distraction.

Over all, though, I feel really blessed for having gotten to experience June summer staff at Timber Wolf Lake! We got to witness God move so much that month through the power of prayer and I’ve met so many wonderful people. If you choose to do summer staff, it will be one of the best decisions in your life. (:

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T-Wolf Summer Staff!

So I figured it was about time for an update! 6:30 AM this Saturday morning I will be headed to Lake City, Michigan to do summer staff for a month at Timber Wolf Young Life camp! I’ll be doing the high ropes course which is very exciting! While I’m there, though, I will also be able to serve and ecourage kids coming to know God through his Son to face their fears and take risks! I hope to use this time to pray over the kids at camp, to get to know my fellow staffers, to be more spiritually disciplined, and overall to come to better know God’s love. I will not have access to my phone very often and not at all to my laptop, so if you would like to send me an old fashioned letter that would be greatly appreciated!

Hannah Granger, Session 1
Timber Wolf Lake
4909 N Morey Rd
Lake City, MI 49651

 

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Satisfier of my soul

During my French Lit. class from this previous semester we read a book called Sa Femme, by Emmanuele Bernheim, about a woman and her affair with a man who is supposedly married with children. She had ended her relationship with her previous husband during this new relationship, however in the end, (spoiler alert), she ends up leaving the new guy who lied about being married and starts another obsessive affair with a married man with two children. (I don’t honestly recommend this book, sorry Bernheim!) Even if you don’t get the plot line at least know that there is a cycle of desiring satisfaction but had found no means of it in the end.

One day, I was pretty open about what I thought about the character’s actions in a class discussion. I think I said: “Je ne pense pas qu’elle a un coeur,” and “elle est froid,” (“I don’t think she has a heart” and “she’s cold [emotionally]”). I was thinking about the fact that she didn’t seem to care really that these men were cheating on their wives and seemingly disregarded their children. It honestly wasn’t until after class I realized how self-righteous and pharisaic my actions were. I am no where near perfect or better than this hypothetical person and can cast no stones at her guiltiness. Granted what she was doing was wrong, but we are all in the same position: sinners seperated from God in need of a Savior so that we might know the Satisfier of our souls.

Jesus would never tell this person to better herself and then come to Him. Jesus takes us as we are, sin and all.

God through his Son Jesus Christ is the one who replaces our calloused hearts of stone to that of flesh and quenches our every thirst for eternity. This made me think of Jesus and the woman of Samaria:

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”  Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.” “What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”   (John 4:7-26 ESV)

Spiritually, our hearts are broken vessels; always refilling and yet always emptying, because what this world has to offer is not sufficient for broken hearts. By God’s grace though, He will replace our heart of stone with a heart of flesh (Ezekial 11: 19) and Jesus has said, ” whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again!”

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My Summer Reading List

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1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins  

2. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

3. The book of Acts throughout

4. Atonement by Ian McEwan

5. How Now Shall We Live by Charles Colson

6. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

7. Speaking Truth in Love by David Powlison