Jesus love,

Make me more like you.  You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me. Even when I have nothing to say, I can come and just be. Show me love how to cling to you when everything changes and I’m thrown out of my comfort zone. Freedom exists in full bondage to you and abandonment of all the freedom the world offers. I’m so sorry for my short temper and anger and unwillingness to see how passionately love the people that I don’t…

I was doing the 5k run for young life and it hit me that I want to run to and for Jesus. That I want that feeling of delirious exhaustion when I approach the gates of heaven, knowing that I held nothing back. I thought about how running is the heart of young life. Running after high school kids. Loving them hard. Even though that love will not produce the desired results. Even though kids will reject our love and run from us. Even though girls will choose boys over Jesus. Even though you go deep enough that your heart breaks with theirs and for theirs. And that we run only because Jesus came running after us. My dear friend Mike said he thought it was idiotic to say “I found Jesus” because he was never lost. He’s always been here. Its just we were running away from him.

So I was running hit by how unutterably beautiful Christ is and the fact that every time I see Libby or Ryder I just want to cry because they loved me like Jesus does and pursued me and were there for me. They really do look like Jesus. And I wanted to get up at the breakfast and pour out my full heart but I knew this really wasn’t about me at all. Then Ryder was talking and he started talking about Hugo girls who were there and that me and Shanie with the Hugo girls are the picture of young life. And God said so evidently “you do not need to glorify yourself because I will glorify you and more importantly I will glorify myself with your life.” And he also said, “Words are powerful but loving these girls speaks so much louder. Don’t talk about what it looks like to follow Jesus, just run after him. Don’t worry about conveying things, speaking into microphones and powerful messages. Just abandon yourself to my Son and let me work in you.” But perhaps more beautiful is that Ryder constantly points to other people and builds them up and glorifies Jesus through them. Ryder is one of the most incredible people I have ever met in my entire life. And he is always, always shining light on everyone else. That’s exactly what Jesus did.