May she also go wherever she is led.
I spent today thinking of and praying for my sweet friend Sarah. She is currently on her way to Cambodia, ready and excited to start a six-month HNGR internship in the slums of Phnom Penh.
From living directly across the hallway and snuggling me through the ups and downs of freshman year, to instructing me on what a good cup of tea can add to a conversation, Sarah has impacted my life in more ways than I could number. She planned a night for our small group to share our favorite poems with each other and she asked me on our first date what I do that "gives me life". She's taught me to see God in the beauty and rhythm of liturgy, to take note of what I hear in solitude and reflection and a good bike ride. She is probably the major reason I first decided to apply for HNGR. Both directly (I got to see her go through the whole process last year), and because so many of my thoughts and prayers about compassion, about the needs of those throughout the world and what life is like for so many I do not see, about social justice and what it means to be a Christian and how I want my life to look and how it should and could look, came straight from conversations with her, through her challenges to me and through seeing her struggle with those questions and discrepancies herself.
We talked the other night and I prayed this for her, from a book we've used together in our small group:
As we remember saints
who have journeyed before us,
Lord, teach us the way of their simplicity:
strength with humility,
at peace in the fear of God.
May we also go wherever we are led.
The keeping of Christ about her,
the guarding of God with her
to possess her, to protect her
from drowning and danger and loss,
the gospel of the God of grace
from brow of head
to sole of foot,
the gospel of Christ,
King of salvation,
be as a mantle to her body.
All she speaks
be blessed to her, O God.
All she hears
be blessed to her, O God.
All she sees
be blessed to her, O God.
All she senses
be blessed to her, O God.
All she tastes
be blessed to her, O God.
Each step she takes,
be blessed to her, O God...
On Your path, O my God,
and not her own,
be all her journeying.
Rule this heart of hers
that it be only Yours.
Pray for her today if you get a chance. Pray for safety, for wisdom, that she would have the time of her life and learn from others and that they would get the chance to learn from her as I have been so lucky to.
From living directly across the hallway and snuggling me through the ups and downs of freshman year, to instructing me on what a good cup of tea can add to a conversation, Sarah has impacted my life in more ways than I could number. She planned a night for our small group to share our favorite poems with each other and she asked me on our first date what I do that "gives me life". She's taught me to see God in the beauty and rhythm of liturgy, to take note of what I hear in solitude and reflection and a good bike ride. She is probably the major reason I first decided to apply for HNGR. Both directly (I got to see her go through the whole process last year), and because so many of my thoughts and prayers about compassion, about the needs of those throughout the world and what life is like for so many I do not see, about social justice and what it means to be a Christian and how I want my life to look and how it should and could look, came straight from conversations with her, through her challenges to me and through seeing her struggle with those questions and discrepancies herself.
We talked the other night and I prayed this for her, from a book we've used together in our small group:
As we remember saints
who have journeyed before us,
Lord, teach us the way of their simplicity:
strength with humility,
at peace in the fear of God.
May we also go wherever we are led.
The keeping of Christ about her,
the guarding of God with her
to possess her, to protect her
from drowning and danger and loss,
the gospel of the God of grace
from brow of head
to sole of foot,
the gospel of Christ,
King of salvation,
be as a mantle to her body.
All she speaks
be blessed to her, O God.
All she hears
be blessed to her, O God.
All she sees
be blessed to her, O God.
All she senses
be blessed to her, O God.
All she tastes
be blessed to her, O God.
Each step she takes,
be blessed to her, O God...
On Your path, O my God,
and not her own,
be all her journeying.
Rule this heart of hers
that it be only Yours.
Pray for her today if you get a chance. Pray for safety, for wisdom, that she would have the time of her life and learn from others and that they would get the chance to learn from her as I have been so lucky to.