Being Known

This week at Greek IV we talked about the woman at the well and one of the things we discussed was how everyone has a longing to be known and accepted. And to the Samaritan woman at the well that is exactly what Jesus did he knew all of her crap and told her about it, but still accepted who she was and loved her. We discussed how that essential is what everyone wants. We're all really good at putting on a face and acting like we have it all together to the majority of the world, but what we really want is someone to actually get to know us and see all our crap and be ok with it and love us. If you're lucky you get that in your close friends. They are the people you can take out your frustrations, hurts, etc. but they will still always be by your side loving you no matter what. Even if you don't have that with friends it's so awesome to know that Jesus is there and no matter what you do or don't do he already knows and he is always there waiting to love you. I just love that and I love looking at Bible stories with new groups of people so that you get to see it through different eyes and pick up on different things.

We also watched this modern day interpretation of the woman at the well which was really awesome.

Through this discussion someone shared a poem that someone else had given her that was really good so I thought I'd share it on here (to the 3 people that read this blog). The author is unknown as far as we know, but it's still a really good and an awesome reminder of all of the amazing plans God has for you and how much he longs for you to be satisfied in him before you look other places.

Everyone longs to give themselves completely to someone,
To have a deep soul relationship with another,
To be loved thoroughly and exclusively.

But to a Christian, God says, "No, not until you are satisfied,
Fulfilled and content with being loved by me alone,
With giving yourself totally and unreservedly to me.
With having an intensely personal and unique relationship with me alone.

Discovering that only in me is your satisfaction to be found,
Will you be capable of the perfect human relationship,
That I have planned for you.

You will never be united to another
Until you are united with me.
Exclusive of anyone or anything else. Exclusive of any other desires or longings.
I want you to stop planning, to stop wishing, and allow me to give you
The most thrilling plan existing . . . one you cannot imagine.
I want you to have the best.

Please allow me to bring it to you.
You just keep watching me, expecting the greatest things.
Keep experiencing the satisfaction that I am.
Keep listening and learning the things that I tell you.
Just wait, that’s all.

Don’t be anxious, don’t worry
Don’t look around at things others have gotten
Or that I have given them
Don’t look around at the things you think you want,
Just keep looking off and away up to me,
Or you’ll miss what I want to show you.
And then, when you’re ready, I’ll surprise you with a love
Far more wonderful than you could dream of.
You see, until you are ready, and until the one I have for you is ready,
I am working even at this moment
To have both of you ready at the same time.
Until you are both satisfied exclusively with me
And the life I’ve prepared for you,
You won’t be able to experience the love that exemplifies your relationship with me.
And this is perfect love.

And, dear one, I want you to have this most wonderful love.
I want you to see in the flesh a picture of your relationship with me.
And to enjoy materially and concretely the everlasting union
Of beauty, perfection and love that I offer you with Myself.
Know that I love you utterly.
For I am God. Believe it and be satisfied.

God is full of jokes

I thought that was an appropriate title as today is April 1. Also bare with this post as it could be a lot of rambling, but I wanted to get my thoughts down and I sort of planned the post during my drive home so it may make some sense.

 Today was the first official meeting of Drake Greek Intervarsity. I've blogged quite a bit about it over the past year, but today the small planning group of us actually expanded and we had a real meeting. We were expecting 1 or 2 additional people to our small group of about 6-7 and there was actually about 20 people that came. We were all pleasantly surprised. It just goes to show that God takes your dreams and desires and does things with them that are so much better than you could have imagined.

It's so crazy to think how all of this started and so awesome to be reminded that you never really know what small seed you are planting that God can use to grow into something really amazing. I never would have thought that my sophomore year at Urbana when Beth Ann talked about starting a Bible Study in DG that 3 years later we would be having a greek intervarsity meeting with representatives from 4 different chapters. If you would have told me that even last year when we got the idea to actually start something this would be the result I wouldn't have believed you.

It really shows me how much God is needed and wanted in the greek system. People are obviously looking for something and it's great that they're reaching out to a Christian organization to find that something. It also shows how much God can use people to really do his work. Today I was also reminded just how much God uses people where they are at and pieces us all together to make something awesome. Thinking about the DGs before me that were involved in Intervarsity, the people who went to DG Bible study with me, the people who met last year at Drake Diner to talk with Beau, went to Greek conference, and have been planning Greek IV this past year all came together and God used us to bring others that we know together for a common purpose and that is just so awesome. It's also crazy because it really was just people inviting their friends because we haven't gone to each of the chapters yet to tell them about it.

I'm glad that I've been able to be a part of this growth and see the group change even though it can be strange at times since I'm not really a part of the greek system anymore. I love that they still welcome me and don't find it to awkward that I'm still hanging around.

I'm still just in awe of how much God still surprises me and how awesome he really is. I also can't wait to see how much more he uses this group to change the Greek system at Drake and make it a place that really shows God's love to each other and is a community that really blesses those around them.

Greek Conference

Last weekend I headed to Indianapolis, IN for Greek IV Conference. It was so much fun and I'm so glad I went. Here's a little recap of what I did and learned from the weekend:

Friday:
I had to go later than the rest of the group because of my classes so I flew to Indianapolis. After a strange start to my journey at the Des Moines Airport where attendance was taken on the plane I made it to Indianapolis and was picked up at the airport by a volunteer with the conference. I got all checked in and then headed to my room to hang out with the other Drake peeps. There were 5 other DGs (Tess, Christina, Lindsay, Haley, Anna), Amy, and Turk from Drake. That first night I missed the sessions, but still got to chat with all of those wonderful people before we went to bed. We spent the night talking about a lot of random things and it was so great to see my DG sisters again and spend time with them as well as meet one of the new members.

Saturday:
We got up and got ready then heading to Starbucks for breakfast. We arrived at our concentrations a little late because of this breakfast stop, but we decided people needed to eat. My concentration was called Influencer and my specific section was about how to influence the world. It was aimed at graduating seniors and so it talked a lot about making the transition from a student in a greek house to the "real world", and how we can be influential in our new location. It was a great concentration- I learned a lot and it really made me think about some things.
Here are the things that stuck out to my from the concentration:

• God is still shaping you: life in your 20s is primarily about what God is going to be doing in you rather than through you. This is the time of your life where you are figuring out who you are and what God is calling you do. Your calling is not just about what you do, but who you are and what you are becoming.
• Get to know yourself better- find out what your passions are. There is a quote that we talked about and that I have talked about before about where the deepest needs are and where your passions meet is where God is calling you. I just love this!
• Stay connected to others in community- wherever you are sink your roots in deep no matter the length of time you will be there. This really stuck out to me because lately I've been thinking how I won't be at Drake much longer and then I'll be moving about for the next year so it doesn't exactly matter what I'm doing. Even though I'll be in these places for a short amount of time I need to be present and loving people and finding people who I can be in community with while I'm traveling around.

During our lunch break we headed to the Butler area and ate at the Ripple Bagel Deli and it was SOOO good. Haley ate here on a college visit and said it was good and so we decided to check it out. After that we headed over to the DG house at Butler and asked for a tour. Our tour guide was really nice and did a great job showing us around the house and explaining things even though we just dropped by. I love looking at other DG chapters and seeing the similarities and differences. Their house is a lot bigger than ours and has more of a typical sorority house feel in my opinion.

After supper back at the hotel we had large group time. The speaker was James Choung and he did a great job. The talk was on the "good life" and what exactly does that mean. It focused on the story of the rich man who was told to give up all his wealth and follow Jesus, but he couldn't do it. I feel like this has been in theme in my life lately through Urbana and Greek Conference and other things. To follow Jesus means to give up everything and follow him for the good life. It's not what the world says it is, but it is so much better. I think that has been hard for me to accept lately. I love having plans and everything mapped out and control so it's really hard for me to trust God's plan and timing for my life and to be ok with giving up that control. But if I really want to follow Jesus that is going to be what I have to do. I'm still not sure what exactly that looks like in my life, but I'm excited to continue to say yes to God in all the small ways and figure out what his plan is for my life.

After that we had a dance party and the theme was country clubbin' so we all got dressed up in our preppy attire and headed to the dance party. It was actually a lot of fun dancing and hanging out with everyone. Then after the party we headed to our room and chatted for quite a while before we went to bed.

Sunday:

We woke up, got ready, and headed back to Des Moines. It was an 8 hour car ride back and so it was nice to chat some more and also rest a little. I'm not the best at sleeping in the car so I didn't do that, but still just got to rest and relax before coming back home.


Here's some pics from the weekend:

Streetpainting/Greek Intevarsity

Last Friday was streetpainting at Drake. This was my 3rd year going (I didn't go freshman year). The past 2 years I've mainly helped paint the intervarsity square and haven't done much of walking around or throwing/putting paint on others. This year I decided that I was just going to show up and not necessarily help with any square painting, but instead paint other people. I went with Nikki M and we met Nikki L there. It was nice to just walk around and watch people fight with paint. It was also nice to be able to talk to people and steal paint to put on other people. I only stayed for about an hour because I was meeting people for dinner (I'll write about that later in the post), but it was still a lot of fun. I was surprised by how many people were already covered in paint. I think this is a great tradition at Drake and am glad that I've been a part of it. The street looks awesome and ready for relays!

After I showered and got the majority of the paint off of my body I met some people at Drake Diner to discuss Greek Intervarsity. There were a couple of Greek IV staff from San Diego State (I think that's where there were from anyway) were in Des Moines because they had been at the University of Iowa starting some Greek IV stuff and so Amy thought it would be great to sit down with them. It was Anna, Sarah, Tess, Aaron, Amy, and myself for dinner. It was super interesting to hear about Greek IV chapters across the country and what they were doing. We also just talked about our own experiences with IV and being involved in a Greek organization. I think we're going to start meeting and seeing where God leads us within the Greek community. I'm really excited about this and will probably continue to work with this into next year and just be that creepy alum ;)