HEY EVERYBODY! Ok, SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED! 

   I am currently sitting in Gainesville, GA at training camp with 36 other amazing, beautiful humans. This past week has involved not showering for 4 days straight, porta-pottys, and waking up at 6:30 after sleeping on the floor next to almost 40 other people. These things might sound gross and you might be thinking, “Lilly, why in the world would you CHOOSE to do this?” I wasn’t really sure either the first couple days. But then we had a speaker, Deon, who spoke on the ‘Cost of Discipleship” and really put things into perspective. Mark 8:34-36 says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” It got me thinking… a lot. What am I living for? I am living for Jesus and bringing glory to Him, and that’s something worth dying for. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to the point of having to actually give my life for the sake of Jesus Christ, but I hope I am filled with the confidence and bravery of Christ.

   But for right now, dying to myself looks a lot like sacrificing a hot shower for showering in a shipping container with a limit of 10 minutes. It also looks like sleeping on the cold floor in a single room with 40 other people and waking up at the crack of dawn. It looks like putting other children of God before myself and my needs. And I’m so happy to do it. If “taking up my cross” is me simply giving up some comforts that I’m used to, I will do it again and again and again. Jesus Christ GAVE HIS LIFE FOR ME—I can give up being comfortable for 6 months. It seems so small in comparison to all Jesus sacrificed for me, but the beautiful thing is Jesus doesn’t care. He sees the little things, and He is proud. 

   But His love for us doesn’t change, He will always love us with the same reckless, wild, unconditional love even if I hadn’t chosen to do this. We don’t have to work for His love. Romans 8:37-39, “No, in all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Oh, how sweet it is to be loved by Him and to believe in something worth dying for. I never thought I’d be so thankful for a porta-potty.