Jesus At Work...

Learning My Role

by Chelsea Boyd

As I'm writing this I can't really believe that it's true--there is LESS THAN A MONTH left of the internship. Three (ish) weeks people! The last couple of weeks have been quite a journey, and I'm excited to sort through my thoughts as I tell you guys about it.

I have an amazing group of young women in my "huddle group". I mean, they are amazing. They are all extremely respectful and receptive to the truth of the Word. They want to learn, which I think is the coolest part about them. There have been some lessons I've learned that have been hard, though.

I've grown to have a heavy burden for these girls and for West Dallas. All around them are temptations of life and the world is attractive to them! This is true for any high school student, not just ones from the 'hood. I will say that worldly lifestyles are less secret around here, though, which makes the temptation greater for these students. Many of them are trying to figure out their faith and what Christianity is all about, and I can tell that many of them have one foot in the world and one foot out of the world. The attractiveness of living a selfish life is waving in front of their eyes and they are having to make the hard decision of who they are going to let be the boss of their life: themselves or Jesus. I have seen evidence of this "one foot in, one foot out" thing in so many of the junior interns, and it deeply saddens my heart. Because I know peace! I know the beauty and joy and security and fullness that come with a life lived under Christ, and I desperately want them to. I want them to get that Jesus is better. It sounds so cliché, but he truly is. All of the other things we chase don’t satisfy. I've seen so many others, including myself, have to learn this lesson the hard way; I want them to learn it now and follow them with their whole lives! I've also felt really burdened by sin in general, and how deeply it plagues our lives, our families, and our world. What a jubilant day it will be when Jesus comes back and makes everything new!

While this burden is a good thing, I think I have taken it too far in some cases. If I am ever in a circumstance where a student might think I'm lame, it's really tempting for me to freak out and think that I just made Jesus less attractive to them. I literally said the words one time, "I want them to know Jesus SO badly, and I feel like that won't happen if they don't like me." How ridiculous! I have learned a major lesson through this. Ready? We don't save anyone. We can't! It's the Holy Spirit's work. HE turns hearts toward himself and HE redeems and HE is the one who shows himself to them so that the world is less attractive to them! It's not our burden to bear. Philippians says that it is GOD who works in you to will and to work according to his good purpose. It doesn't say that your amazing senior intern that you had that one summer works in you. HE does. The Holy Spirit is the one who did that work in me and in every other person on the earth who has ever believed in him; how silly to think that I could do the work in these young people! It's my job to be the broken vessel and to carry out the good works he has prepared for me to do and to trust Him with the rest.

 

I'd really appreciate your prayers as we continue with the work this summer. Please pray that myself and the other senior interns will know how to further challenge the students into a deeper relationship with Jesus. Pray that we will love them fervently and with wisdom and peace. Join me in praying that the junior interns' hearts are softened to the truth and that the Lord reveals himself to them in a mighty way, so that they see his goodness and have NO other options but to follow him with all of themselves. Just a side note: these students are SO funny and fun to be around! They crack me up all the time; I wish each of you could make the trip to Mercy Street to meet them. There's no other way I could imagine doing my summer. SO thankful that God put me here.