Broken

What does it mean to be broken? Do our material posessions or wealth determine if we are broken or not? Does where we live determine if we are broken or not?

No matter what - rich/poor, aliso viejo/skid row... we are all broken. We all need God's amazing Grace and we all need to be saved by Him and receive His mercy.

I had the amazing opportunity to go serve at Skid Row today with some Christian brothers and sisters from Saddleback Church and it was completely eye opening and humbling. My life was changed today. Seeing all of the pain and hurt these people are wearing on their faces you can't help but to cry, my heart was shattered today - my heart was breaking and still is for all of the homeless people, especially those on Skid Row in Los Angeles, CA. God is so faithful, He provides for organizations like Urban Connection and uses us to help others. It is so amazing how He works. Whenever I have a serving opportunity I always second guess going and after forcefully making myself go I never regret it, serving with other believers and just spending time sharing God with others is the best feeling in the world - nothing can compare to it.

I always feel like I am going to serve and change others for God but God really uses these people and these serving opportunities to change me. It is so mind blowing how God prepares our hearts. I am going to Haiti on July 24 and all I have been doing to prepare is praying, for my team and all of the CRAVE teams going... I have just been praying that God would prepare our hearts and that we would be used for His Glory and to just be a vessel for Him and to just pour out the love of Christ onto others... And with these serving opportunities I can really sense God preparing my heart and breaking my heart for Haiti and I am so excited about it. I can't stop thinking and talking and praying... I have never been so on fire for God in my entire life.

I had a really rough night the other night as well and woke up in the morning and was really honest with God and asked Him a lot of questions, I was actually kind of pissed. I was in a terrible situation and after spending time reading the Bible and praying I found myself coming back to the simple statement.

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will grant you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

We have to make Christ number one in our hearts - when He is, everything else will fall into place. Of course we will have set backs but we need to rejoice at all times. Going to skid row showed me that I have no reason not to rejoice every second of my stinkin life. I am in awe of how much God loves me. He has blessed me with such amazing, Christ centered, wise friends who have been there for me and helped me and encouraged me. I can't help but to smile whenever I look, think, talk, or text to my friends. Because they ultimately don't know how much I appreciate their roots in Christ. I love them so much and I pray that God would show them how much I love them through my actions. I am so humbled to know that everyone is equal in God's eyes - no material posessions, no class status or economic status matters - we are all made in His image and for His pleasure.

Our God truly is an awesome God...

Never forget that <3