This post is waaaaay long over due, but it's a story I've been meaning to share. Better late than never. The first week of May we had Spiritual Emphasis Week here at the school where I'm chaplain. During Spiritual Emphasis Week we have all-school chapels every morning. I felt God wanted me to preach on Mark 12:30."Love the Lord your God
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength."
I liked the way this verse was easy to break up into five concise chapels. Monday was an introduction, Tuesday I talked about loving God with all your heart, Wednesday was about loving God with all your soul, and so on. The more I studied this passage of scripture, the more amazed I was by the things I was discovering about God's command to love Him with our entire being.
When the scribe asked Jesus, "What is the greatest commandment", he was really asking "What must I do to be good in God's sight?" The religious leaders of that day were obsessed with the laws, commands, and ceremonial boundaries that they felt would earn them righteous standing before God. However, doing right flows out of being right, not the other way around. When asked "what do I need to do", Jesus responded with "Love Me with everything you are -- heart, soul, mind, and strength." 
It all begins with our heart because our heart is the center of who we are physically and spiritually. The Hebrew word for heart is lebab, which means: to be enclosed -- as the interior or the center. In the Greek, the word is kardia. It means: the seat in the center of man's inward life -- the place of human depravity or the sphere of divine influence. Both meanings point to that which gives man "life". Our physical heart controls our life by pumping blood through our veins, which travel all throughout our entire body. In the same way, our "spiritual" heart is the very center of who we are -- it controls what we are passionate about and what motivates us. Your heart is where you'll find your purpose in life. It's that "thing" that drives you. Whatever we are most devoted to is what will have that #1 place in our hearts. Loving God with all your heart really has nothing to do with emotions. It has to do with choosing to make Christ your treasure and giving Him the place of honor He alone deserves. The emotions and right actions flow out of a heart that wholly loves God.
I always struggle to find ways to communicate these deep spiritual truths the K-8th grade students at my school. The young ones are especially a challenge to teach. They're hungry to learn, but I constantly have to check and recheck my style of teaching to make sure I'm explaining it in a way that they can understand. For this sermon I made a huge heart out of red paper and set it up at the front of the chapel. Directly in front of it I placed a fancy blue chair that resembled a throne. While I was teaching I kept coming back to this chair and referring to it as the "number one place in our hearts that only God should have", the throne of our hearts.
The kindergartners (5 and 6 yr old) sit on the front row of chapel so they always have an up close view of the action. A couple days after I preached this sermon, one of the kindergarten teachers stopped me in the hall to share with me what a parent had told her. This parent asked her son (who is about 6 yrs old) what he thought about chapel that week. When he started to talk he burst into tears. So she asked him what was wrong, probably thinking I'd preached a fire and brimstone message that had scared him half to death! But between the sobs he managed to explain: "I.....just.....love God.... with all my heart. And I love Pastor Anna because she is teaching me how to love God with all my heart.....I just love God...." It still makes me cry to think about this months later.
When I heard this, I immediately thought of Philippians 2:13 where Paul says that "God works in us, both to will and to do for His good pleasure." I am humbled that God would use me to teach students about who He is and why it matters, but I am fully aware that without the work of His Holy Spirit and grace, my efforts are all in vain. This story is a perfect example of this. I can study and think and plan and use every ounce of my creative energy to produce sermons that will communicate God's Word in a way that can be understood and applied to life......but I cannot give a 6 year old a revelation about what it means to love God with all of his heart. I know that he didn't grasp that concept to the dept that the older students or teachers could have, but I also know that God graciously worked though my feeble efforts and gave that little boy an understanding that overwhelmed him to tears. That is amazing to me! It just reminds me of how dependent I am on God. There is no way I could have made that happen.
The highlight of my summer was most certainly David and Erin Gwynne's wedding. David was the first Scottish person to welcome me when I arrived in Aberdeen. He actually came over to my flat the day I moved in because he lived right across from me. I was immensely blessed to have him as a friend, neighbor, and personal life assistant. He showed me which bus to ride, how to count the currency, where to buy good coffee, and many other life essentials for living abroad. Not to mention the fact that he let me come to his flat and steal wireless internet from his neighbors the first three months I was in Scotland. Priceless!
The wedding was in Chicago so I was able to attend. Not only that, but Linda, Mike, and Alastair came from Scotland for the wedding so I got to see them as well! It was a weekend full of reminiscing, catching up, and full-on banter. Anyone that knows me at all knows that seeing these precious people meant more to me that I could possibly articulate. It was my best weekend since I've been back from Scotland! To see all my pictures from the wedding, clicky here. 
Lovely
One of the reasons this weekend was so awesome was because of the little lady 2nd from the right -- my best friend Emily. She took the bus down from Detroit, MI to spend the weekend with me. It was so special that my friends from Scotland got to meet the most precious bb of my life! Needless to say, they adored each other. 
Mr. and Mrs Gwynne
And of course there was a lot of good dancing!
Decorating the car was a new experience for Alastair and Mike.
Umm, yeah! Why wouldn't we?
