He's all the world to me!

One great joy I have being a former staff member of Campus Outreach (www.cocharlotte.org) is hearing how the students I got to know, love, and disciple are doing in their walks with the Lord today. It brings incredible joy to my heart to hear that so many of them love Jesus deeply and continue to pursue His glory in their lives.



Another great joy I have as a former staff member of Campus Outreach is all the incredible resources that crew gets their hands on. I get the inside scoop in just a short convo with a CO staff member (shout out Dria!) and then that resource ends up changing my life or a moment in my life. The current resource that has been passed along to me is John Ortberg's book that CO Charlotte/Virgina teams read this summer called, "The Life You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People."So I'm only in chapter one and I already have things I want to share. Get this, "God is determined to overcome the defacing of his image in us. His plan is not simply to repair most of our brokenness. He wants to make us new creatures. So the story of the human race is not just one of universal disappointment, but one of inextinguishable hope." AMEN!

So Ortberg talks about a lady he met in a government run hospital named Mabel. He describes Mabel as a disfigured, blind, almost deaf woman who had been committed to this hospital alone for 25 years. He met her by simply offering her a mother's day flower. Over time he gets to know this 89 year old woman and her heart for the Lord. He describes their visits saying, "Some days I would read the Bible, and often when I would pause she would continue reciting the passage from memory, word-for-word."

Ortberg began thinking, "What does Mabel have to think about-hour after hour, day after day, week after week, not even able to know whether it is day or night?" The next time he visited her, he asked and she replied, "I think about my Jesus."

Ortberg had the same response I had....I can't even focus on Jesus for more than 5 minutes.

Mabel explains, "I think about how good he's been to me. He's been awfully good to me in my life, you know.....I'm mostly satisfied...Lots of folks wouldn't care much for what I think. I don't care. I'd rather have Jesus. He's all the world to me."

In a city where it is intensely easy for me to focus on status, money, weight/exercise/food, clothes/shoes, work, the next event, the weekend, etc, Mabel's words have started ringing in my ears, "He's all the world to me."

Lord, draw me close. Don't let me obsess over such temporary challenges. Make my heart like Mabel's.

I'm so thankful that God is determined to overcome my defacing of His Image!