As I reflect on the last year and all of the changes in my life, I am reminded of the constant change that has become a norm in our world.  Although my context has changed, what I do and the focus of my heart has not.  I am a truth teller.  I bring hope.  I encourage others to make decisions that will bring about the future that they hope for and deeply desire.

I reflect on conversations that I have had recently with students – and realize that there is a longing for belonging and community that has only increased over the years.  I sat with one student who recently was dianosed with bipolar disorder and anxiety and listened to her as she shared about her need to find an intergenerational group where she can find support because she cannot find it with her friends.  I watched the tears roll down the cheek of another student as she described her burden of going home for the summer to a house that doesn’t feel like a home and parents that are living on two different sides of the house each consumed with their own lives.  And I encouraged another student to consider forgiving her father for abandoning her family, not for her father’s sake, but for her own as her fear of seeing her father and having to hear his voice has crippled her.  These are my days.  I recently had one student ask as I helped her see her patterns that led to her downfall, ” How did you know all of that about me?”  I have learned, the people are different.  They are each unique and special individuals.  But the sin is the same.  It doesn’t mask itself to well.  It follows a pattern and inflicts itself in the same way.

So what is my response?  To speak truth.  To recognize that there is only one answer to all of this brokenness.  There is only one response that can heal these hearts.  Jesus is and was and will be the only answer.  Yet to a generation that has experienced a loss of relationship and trustworthiness from others, it has been a challenge for them to see how a relationship with Jesus is possible.  How He will fill a longing or a void that has been there for so many years.  It is my hope and the cry of my heart for this generation to connect with their Creator.  To not be confused by what they see in the world around them, but to know Jesus on an even deeper level because of the pain that they have experienced in their past.  It is this generation that will lead the next and it is the passion in my heart to continue to guide them to truth.