with arms high & heart abandoned.

it's been a full week since i've returned from serving as a team leader at super summer, and it's taken that long to fully process everything He fed me while there. wanna know some of the highlights?
during our team leader weekend training, we were asked to wear ankle weights until the students arrived monday in order to better grasp what paul intended in galations, to bear one another's burdens. two and a half pounds on each leg didn't initially strike us as particularly challenging, but a few hours of walking around obu's campus and some blisters later got us to thinkin'. i genuinely wish i had discovered something incredibly spiritual from the process, but the extent was this: carrying those 'burdens' is completely unnatural for us to do. had zane not requested we wear them, we would never have voluntarily picked up a pair of weights and strapped them to ourselves for pure fun. in much the same way, we were never intended to strap unnecessary burdens to ourselves. there are just some things we were never meant to carry. let's travel light alongside Him, shall we? :)
at one point also during the tl weekend, every single one of us 150 or so adults scattered around the auditorium of raley chapel, selected a favorite psalm, and spoke it over the entire body of seats. it was breathtaking. i chose psalm 34, almost immediately and without any actual contemplation. it turned out to be my heart's exact cry that day, though. i love how He works!
my "children" and "husband" for the week were nothing short of spectacular. i'm too too blessed to have been entrusted with thirteen phenomenal high school sophomores who desire nothing less than His absolute glory. i learned so much from their gentle wisdom.
i also think i surrendered to perhaps one of the most difficult dreams He's given me so far. i've always had a heart for the persecuted church, yet i've resisted the vision of working for them and putting my own body into danger in the process. it scares me. it makes me ache. but i must share their story. praise Him for reaffirming that and rearranging my dreams during one of the evening services, in which afshin spoke of two women currently imprisoned in iran for pledging their hearts to Christ. i sobbed while viewing their photograph. i sobbed while He knocked on my heart and said, 'hand yourself over to working for them.' i sobbed while we sang 'the stand' as soon as their story was completed. before the service, i prayed for God to shake me. boy, did He deliver. :)
so i'll stand, with arms high and heart abandoned/in awe of the One who gave it all/i'll stand, my soul, Lord, to You surrendered/all i am is Yours