Remembering ....

This Martin Luther King day I sit in Minnesota where today it is -12 below however feels like -30 below, but I am remembering a warm day in July.   This past summer I headed on a mission trip with my closest 60+ friends to the inner city of Atlanta GA. This week in July had many amazing God moments but today I am remembering our visit to Martin Luther King National Historic Site.


I wrote in July:
Last night (Tuesday) we got the privilege to tour the Martin Luther King JR museum. This national park holds the legacy of MLK's journey through faith, civil rights and his life and death.
We visited the tomb of MLK and his wife, the house he lived in and the church he preached in.
As a woman in ministry I love to visit churches, especially old ones. To sit in them and taken in the surrounding of the holiness.
I especially love churches with pews. .
I slipped into the pew of the Ebenezer church and Martin Luther King was heard over head preaching one of his many sermons he had preach from that pulpit.

As I took in the moment I began to clear my head and take in my surroundings. Trying to focus on what it meant to be sitting in Martin Luther King's church and what it would be like in that time. As I began to listen to him preach the first thing I heard was love your neighbor has yourself. Then he went on to read and preach on our theme verse:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' (Mark 12:30 NIV).

At that moment a few of the adults began to look at each other in awe. Though scripture we were connect in time with Martin Luther King Jr. For me it was a reminder that God was just saying remember why you are HeRe.

Back in Minnesota today in January I not only remember MLK, but as I write I am watching the President 's Inauguration. I love history, and have had the honor to take many youth on many mission trips that have included the visits to historical sites: Washington DC, the Holocaust Museum, the Liberty Bell,  the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Martin Luther King historical site. As I have explored these amazing historical sites I love reflecting what has happen over the years on the grounds underneath where I walk too. 

I love when I catch myself in a moment of remembrance, because it is in the time of reflection I see how I have grown or in the history of our country how we have changed and where we have come from. 

So today I reflect... 4 years ago as I watched the Inauguration I sat around the boxes in the my basement of my house in Richfield as we prepared to moved to Eden Prairie. I had a 1 and 4 year old and today I have school age children. Where as time gone?...

Last night our sending song at LiveWire worship was Love the Lord, Your God  "Love your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength."  It was no chance that we reflected on service in worship and today I reflect on that warm day in July sitting in Martin Luther's King church listening to him preach on Mark 12:30 
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' (Mark 12:30 NIV). 

As my friend Jenny G. preached last night, I was connected to sitting in Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta GA when she talk about sitting in our own Sanctuary. Our church sits on highway 5 and like Jenny I sit in worship sometimes and watch the lights of the cars go past in the night. But she said it beautifully, she said as we come into worship it feels like life stops and we pause in our lives to take time to be filled by God in praise of thanksgiving, of worship. But has we pause in this place of worship, the life outside goes on. And after we pause and reflect we need to go back out into the world.  We need to go out and be Christ in the world. 

Now Go. Love God and Love Others. Worship through every action. Invest all you have been given. Unite with Christ-followers. Serve as Jesus did. ~Youth Works 2012 Devotional

Blessings,
Mel