My senior year at Maryville College (pronounced Mare-Vul by native Southerners) was a pivotal year for my InterVarsity chapter. The chapter president (my roommate and best friend) set a goal of leaving a legacy on our campus, which seemed like a monumental task. She didn’t rely on herself to get things accomplished and never lost sight of the goal. At the end of our senior year, the unthinkable happened.
As you seek to live out God’s calling on your life, there might be times when you ask yourself a form of this question: What is more important—living a life of holiness or reaching out to friends that don’t know God? Do you want to know Jesus’ answer? It’s “yes.” That is, they go hand in hand.
“Why is this night different from all other nights?” Jewish children will voice this question around Seder tables this week as families celebrate Passover and remember the ancient identity-forming story from Exodus 12-14. Likewise, we do well to ask ourselves as Christians, “Why is this week different from all other weeks? Why is this a holy week?”
I have a love/hate relationship with the roller coaster that is chapter planting, and I'm learning that success doesn't always look the way we expect it to.
Jesus says, “Apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5). As we seek to develop world-changers in our ministry, we must trust in Jesus, the vine, to produce fruit through our lives.