Give Each Thing the Love it Deserves...

Hello, friends! 
I am not sure where I first heard the phrase "give each thing the love it deserves."  It could have been a word I heard from Jesus or from a sermon.  Either way, it is something that has stuck with me since when I first heard it and been a theme for me this year. 

Working with two different fellowships is hard work.  I now have two sets of students with two different sets of needs as far as how to grow them in missionality.  There are two strategies and two cultures that need to be taken into account.  As I talked about a few days ago I still have a lot of learning to do in this area.  But that doesn't change the fact that I need to give each thing the love that it deserves.  When I am with ACF students, I need to give them my full attention because that is the love that they deserve.  With BCM students, it is the same way. 

At church on Sunday the pastor talked a little bit about faithfulness.  He talked about how quitting is not an option when it comes to following Jesus.  Faithfulness is sticking with things even when they get tough.  I understand where he was going with what he was saying, but I think that actually only half the picture was given.

Faithfulness is about giving each thing the love (time, energy, etc.) that it deserves.  Following Jesus deserves all of you, so it only makes sense to give all of myself to following Jesus.  BUT, there are some things that actually don't deserve any of your love (or time, energy, etc.).  I'm not even necessarily talking about sin issues.  There are tons of things that may be GOOD, but they aren't where God is calling you.  Thus, they are not deserving of your love (or time, energy, etc.). 

This is what discernment is at its core, isn't it?  It is listening to God to find out from among the good things, what is the BEST thing for you, given your season of life and where He wants to see you grow.  One of the things that I have noticed about students today, both in ACF and BCM, is that they are overworked and stressed.  Difficult courses are certainly a part of that, but I believe that much of it is because of a lack of discernment.  Students are joining more clubs than ever and instead of dropping the non-essentials when things get difficult, they turn to other things to try and cope with the stress. 

Of course, I am guilty of this as much as the next person.  Even as this has been my mantra for the past few months, I have trouble giving each thing the love that it deserves.  Part of this comes from being very task oriented and seeing everything as a task to be completed.  Part of this is my competitive nature, wanting to do things as quickly as possible.  Part of this is just straight sin.  But, whatever the case, it is an area where I want to model well for my students. 

Prayer points:
- Wednesday is going to be a combined ACF/BCM outreach event.  Please pray that students will come and be able to interact with Jesus. 
- Spring Break is right around the corner!  Please be praying for the 18 students and 1 staff that will be attending City Lights this year.  Our group includes 15 first timers, 10 international students, and at least 6 non-Christians! 
- I hurt my knee running this morning... bummer.

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam