My Heart is Full

I was driving to Kroger this afternoon after work, thinking about a lot of things and people and recent events, and just couldn't help but say, "My heart is full". I don't know why I have been blessed the way I have. I can't really comprehend it...I certainly don't deserve it. But thank God for his mercies and His love. 

This past weekend was our youth ski trip that we have every other winter. I had been looking forward to it for quite a while...and is always the case, it went by way too fast. I could write for days on all the things that happened, all the things that were shared and said, all the ridiculous jokes and laughs...how I'm almost as bad at snowboarding as I was at skiing two years ago (which is beyond sad). But in the end, I just can't think of a better way to say how I feel: my heart is full.

I'm thinking about how the students I shared the past few days with are seriously like my brothers and sisters...like family. I'm thinking about how much they make me laugh and equally how much they make me cry, how proud they make me, how my heart breaks when theirs do, how I feel like they're my own kids. I'm thinking about the way God has just opened the floodgates on our youth ministry and sent some of the most amazing adults ever to work alongside us in reaching students. Those volunteers have become some of my closest friends in the world...I would die for them. I think about the encouragement that I receive from them. I'm thinking about the friends that God has blessed me with who so readily are there for me when I need them...to be a listening ear, a sounding board, a source of advice and support. I'm thinking about the ways I've seen God at work so powerfully in and among his people. About how I have been able to witness Him totally transforming hearts and redeeming lives. I'm frustrated even trying to explain the fullness I feel...

And then I start to realize that when I'm experiencing God and experiencing His people, that is when my heart is the fullest. No amount of success, talent, money, power, work, possessions...none of those things make me feel that way. And so I guess it makes sense, right? When God says that the two greatest commandments are to love Him and love others, He knew what He was saying. He knew the prescription to a full heart and a full life. It's not in work or in money or in success. It's in Him and it's in people. No, this isn't some amazing new revelation. But I experienced it and understood it afresh today.