perfect sunday service

I don't know why, but I really really enjoyed today's Sunday service.

It could have had to do with the fact that I was surrounded by a few 09ers again, or that we sang songs that really spoke to my heart (I just knew Chad was going to sing "You Never Let Go" today for some reason, and I had really been wanting to hear/sing it), or that there was amazing bread+hummus after service...

...but I really feel like the message resonated with me today - it's something that I've needed to be reminded of.

Pastor Barry referenced Mark 2:18-22, and it's funny that he picked that passage because I had been vaguely confused with it recently while doing my Bible-through-the-year readings - that is, I wasn't sure what Jesus meant by new and old wineskins - what exactly was the wine? (He said the wine was joy.)

But even more so than the selection of this passage was the message that went along with it: WHY we should have joy.

Someone asked me the other day, "Hey Sarah, are you at peace these days?"

I said, "Yeah, I have plenty of peace. Even if that peace might actually be apathy, I'm pretty peaceful."

And then the person asked, "What about joy?"

And you know, even before the question came, I had already recognized that I had been running on low supplies of joy recently.

But you know, the sermon really refreshed me - they were things I already knew, but it was good to feel it in my heart again.

Reasons to have joy:

1) Jesus has proposed to us - He wants to give us everything, and now we are being asked to do the same.

I kind of felt bad for the brothers in the room, because the overwhelming joy that comes to girls when guys propose is really what this point was going for. Yeah, guys can feel antsy and excited to propose and when (if? haha jk) the girl accepts, I'm sure he feels like a crazy sense of joy/relief/excitement, but I really feel like the adrenaline rush and sense of complete warmth and security and touched-ness that girls feel is pretty crazy. Trying to apply that potential feeling to the way I should feel about His proposal to me actually works. I mean, yeah, I've never been proposed to (LOL) but I have received a handful of surprises in my lifetime, so I think I can get the idea (maybe multiplied by 50).

2) Jesus picked us still - Despite all our sins, flaws, weaknesses, brokenness (you name it), He still chose us, He still loves us and wants to be with us.

I know I'm imperfect, and I think I've encountered this fact a million times in this past year, to the point of self-deprecation and paranoia about what others might think of me. But you know, His love for me still amazes me in a way that I can't explain. There's a difference between knowing that your friend or your significant other or your parents still love you and care about you despite your faults (because in a way, their human love can only look over so much without becoming judgmental or bitter or concerned) and knowing that He loves you so much despite your complete wretchedness. His love is perfect and unchanging, it casts out fear and covers over sins, it is completely 200% sacrificial, and loving Him back is so freeing and restoring.

3) One day He will return to us - To others, He might not be "real" because He's not in front of us, but His love is definitely real. He has simply gone away to prepare a place for us in heaven and will return to this earth to bring us there.

Sometimes, you have to let go of the one you love, and time will tell whether or not that person will return to you. But we know for sure that He will come back to us; of course, His Spirit resides with us all the time, but He will return to bring us safely back to where we actually belong.

And as we wait, as we fast during this Lent season, it doesn't need to be painful or mournful anymore - I can rejoice in His love and rejoice in anticipation of His arrival.

I feel like I haven't written it on this blog for SUCH a long, long time, but:

God is SO good to me. His love is MORE than enough. And life without Him would be completely, utterly, totally meaningless and hopeless and JOYless.

I'm so so so so excited to live in His joy again :)

GET PUMPED

Such a goot song :)