Consider the Lilies...

A few days ago I was tagged in a photo on Facebook by a friend from 16 years ago (say what?!! how in da world can I be so old?). Her "tagging" brought me down the road to memory lane... And you are more than welcome to come with me if you please :).

When I was a bright eyed, barely 19 year old who was blazing with fire for the Lord I flew across the country to join a ministry called REACH Youth Ministry in Yakima, WA. You can read all about REACH and its current happenings here, but in a nutshell we were a bunch of 18-26 year olds who traveled the West Coast and Canada, prayed, lived in community with one another, and put on really cool retreats for youth of all ages.   

The picture above is a news letter that REACH sent out WAY back when. It's a little hard to read (you know a picture of a picture), but I start out by saying: "Sunflowers and rainbows make me smile and Jesus fills me with overflowing joy!" See what I mean by being totally "on fire" for the Lord :). Also, the two on either side of me were on my team 2 years in a row. Later we all attend the same University together AND they got married, which I was SO honored to stand up in their wedding, and now they have 4 beautiful children. A-maz-ing.


So...
For 2 years of my life it was my team (made up of 5 gals and 5 guys), our 15 passenger van, the open road, and a whole lot of God. 
*sigh*
I loved my years of serving in retreat ministry and having that be my full time job, my everything. I loved the people on my teams and since we have parted ways (16 anos ago!) I have missed them dearly. There was nothing better than going to bed at the end of a long day completely exhausted after working tirelessly for Jesus. 
You see, from the time I was little playing sports had always been a huge part of my life. It seemed that the majority of my days would end in being completely spent from sports practice or games. So when I was deciding what I wanted to do right after High School, the thought of putting that same effort and energy into working for God was the only thing that made sense to me!  (Many were worried that I would never go to College if I didn't go right away, but I always knew it would not even be a question of if I would go to school after doing mission work, just where. :) After discovering REACH Youth Ministries, I knew that that was exactly what I wanted to do and more importantly what God wanted me to do. Prayer, Mass, ministry, and the people on my team were the focus of my everyday. Hard to believe that my day consisted of at least 3 hours of prayer when CURRENTLY I can barely make it through my 10 minute morning prayer regime without 55 interruptions from my 4 littles. 

My first REACH team.  And yes, I thought that jacket from the old man's section at Goodwill was the coolest. I told you my taste can be, well um, unique. No fashion blogging in my near future!

My second year team! I miss them all!

Now back to being tagged in a photo by my friend and REACH teammate on Facebook.

Da photo.

Whenever I would share my testimony on a retreat I would always talk about the Consider the Lilies, as I like to call it,  Scripture from Matthew 6: 25-28. Slightly paraphrased by moi it reads like this:  

"Therefore I tell you do not worry about your life. What you will eat or what you will wear... Consider the lilies of the field. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of them. So, if I take care of the lilies, how much more will I take care of you?? Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own!" 

God has always ALWAYS spoke to me so loudly, yet so tenderly through this scripture passage. I can remember being an insecure worry-wart of a High School gal and my mom, knowing this, wrote this Scripture out on the back of my student planner. Whenever I would become anxious or worry I would read it and immediately experience peace.  When I got the FB tag it got me thinking that even now as a mom and wife the Lord is speaking to me in the beauty of these words. Why do I worry about my kids, my husband, getting a bigger house, etc, etc, etc when I know that HE -the creator of the universe- will take care of me. I mean heck, if he takes care of the lilies of the field, He is going to take care of me, his child. Right??

*sigh*
deep breathe...

I really do love it that Jesus doesn't want me to worry. That He will take care of all my needs and desires.  
So Jen, thank you. Thank you for reminding me of this again today. Though miles and years separate me from you and all of my dear REACH friends, through Jesus we are just a prayer away.  Ps. (Now thinking about the importance of this Scripture and the cornerstone it has been for me in life, I feel that I should have named my blogo Consider the Lilies!! I guess you live and learn and at the time the oh-so-original Team Boda was all I could come up with :).