April Update!

Let’s start with good news: This is a photo from our most recent TCC core. It has been so exciting to see this ministry grow. We have only been on campus two semesters and God has really brought us some people. Pray for these students. Pray for what next year might look like. All I know is that this campus is hungry for community. Many of these students came by word of mouth through their friends. I love the grassroots feeling we are experiencing.

I wanted to share a passage that has been on my mind while reflecting on TCC.

It’s the parable of the bags of gold from Matthew 25:14-30. It starts off with the master entrusting different amounts of wealth to his servants. One receives five, another receives two and the last servant is given one. It notes that each was given according to their ability. Then the passage talks about how the first two double what they were given and the guy with one just buried it. Here is the rest of the parable below:

19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ 21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’22 “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’ 23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ 24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ 26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. 28 “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

So, this story really challenges the part of me who can look for success in numbers. Both the man who received five and two were given the same praise, “Well done, good and faithful servant”. The man who received one bag of gold could’ve also been given this praise, but he buried what the master gave. I read this and it stirs up a memory from my first year doing ministry in Arlington. There was another small group on the same night as mine. I was getting discouraged because I would meet students and they would go to the other group. It felt like no one was able to come to my core. At my ugliest, I was jealous of one of the other leaders. I read this parable during this time and God really woke me up. I don’t want to be like the servant who does nothing with what I have been entrusted. I want to proudly look to God and show him that I doubled what I’ve been given even when that means I just have two.

I feel like I am in a season of much. I have many sweet ladies to meet with. I get to disciple girls who are new to our ministry. I praise God that I can be in a time like that, but I remember this lesson. This lesson is an important one. Be faithful with what the Lord has given you. The man who was given one would have received that compliment. Fight the urge to desire to be the one who is given much. We know on that end what God says too. “ From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked”. (Luke 12:48).

Be praying as we end this semester. Pray that we can finish well and love the people we have been given.

Here are some photos from my peer team’s trip to Bonham. I’ve decided to make a tradition of taking students to see my grandma. These city folk love coming to a country town.