Vulnerable.

Life is messy, overwhelming, and scary. Yet we post on Instagram and Facebook about our exotic vacations and rich friendships, not the late night tears and broken relationships. We talk about the best parts of our week, not the moments when we yelled at a friend or let someone down. It’s easier to keep people at a distance instead of letting them into our embarrassing and flawed lives, so we build walls.

This morning, a student opened up about the dirt of life in youth group. It was a beautiful moment where our conversation transitioned from saying the right answers to letting down our walls. Everything wasn’t being portrayed as perfect and put together, and we talked about dealing with real pain in our lives. This student was able to feel safe enough to share their messy and hard story that was filled with brokenness. That required an insane amount of vulnerability. All the filters were gone and there wasn’t any put together words or Bible verses. The words of this student were raw, real, and heartbreaking.

Romans 8:18 says,

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Even though this is what the Bible tells us, we still put a filter on our lives. Instead of realizing that this pain is temporary, and God has a greater plan to use our suffering in powerful ways, we still hide it and avoid authenticity and vulnerability. Even if we share sin, we only share the acceptable sins that we know others cannot judge us for, and we make it seem better than it is. We post pictures of coffee with our bible and hipster journal so others see that we have our Jesus time, and we have the right answers at small group that make it seem like we know our Jesus knowledge. But where are we REAL?

God wants us just as we are: messy, broken and needy. Matthew 11: 28 says,

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

I want to challenge you to look beyond perfection. Be honest and authentic with those around you, as well as your relationship with Christ. God never asks you to have your life together. He asks you to come to him in your pain. Let your walls down and run to the God who wants every part of you, whether that involves joy, kindness, shame, or brokenness.

With love,

Piper Abigayle

Pursued.

Hello Friends!

I am planning on starting to blog again. I needed to take a break because I had a lot of craziness happening in my life, but I’m happy to be back and excited continue to share my life with y’all!

Over the past few months, God has been doing a lot in my heart. I tried to figure out life on my own and not admit my need for a Savior, but that wrecked me. Every day I chose myself over him, and I felt empty. I was unsatisfied and helpless. I would often come home being frustrated and emotionally exhausted. Even in this time of brokenness, God whispered, “I will always love you. Come back to me my child.”But I continued to try to do life on my own.

1 John 3:1 explains the crazy love that I chose to reject.

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”

Eventually I realized that my brokenness was something that I could not fix on my own. Life was HARD. Friendships fell apart, I felt alone and insecure, and being around people exhausted me. God wrecked me, and eventually I ran to him.

My Heavenly Father had his arms opened wide! He welcomed me and comforted me and reminded me that I am his BELOVED CHILD. He showed me that I am a visitor on this planet, and this world does not love me or want me to succeed. And oh how sweet is his embrace!

God’s love is crazy! I deserve death. I choose to be selfish and rude and not shine the light of Jesus, but I am forgiven every time I fail.

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

This is CRAZY. Even when we were rejecting God and not even thinking about him, let alone making him Lord of our life, he let his only son die to save us! He had no guarantee that we would choose to accept his love, and so often we reject it. But he still gave his SON. Just try to let that sink in.

I am in awe of God. I want to live in a state of adoration, but so often I stumble. I am thankful to have a God who helps me back up and reminds me who I am. I have a Father who unconditionally loves me, his precious daughter. I have a Creator who thought up stars, otters, sunflowers, and a billion other brilliant things. I have a King who will stand by my side through every battle I fight. I have a friend that will comfort me through every tearful night. And I have a Savior who forgives me endlessly, and pursues me without fail.

With love,

Piper Abigayle

Serve.

Last Saturday I was serving at my church’s food pantry in the clothes department. There was a girl that came through. She didn’t speak, but I was able to help her find clothes that she liked without saying a word. It was such a unique and touching experience. I have nice clothes, a private school education, and I can speak, and yet she gave me something. This girl whose life is so much harder than mine had the biggest smile by simply receiving an old sweatshirt. She found joy in the simple things. There are two things that I have been reminded of through this.

First, it is so important to serve. Not only is it a “good thing” to do, but it is what Christ did. Every day he served the people that he did life with. It is so easy to get caught up in our days and forget that we need to not just serve at specific places, but all the time in everything that we do. Through service we can show those around us Christ and his love.

Secondly, she taught me to be grateful. It is easy to see what I don’t have, but I am oh so blessed! God has given me blessings that I can use to bless others. I want to live in a mindset of service and blessing. The joy that I feel when I can help someone is so satisfying, and I pray that they see Christ and not me, because he is the one who gives me everything that I need.

With love,

Piper Abigayle

“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'”

Bold.

Being bold is terrifying. I absolutely love acting, but I always get nervous before going on stage. It’s not because I don’t believe that I have put in the work and time, but because I fear the unknown. But when I boldly go on stage I am filled with joy and happiness. I forget the fear and feed off of the audiences energy and become someone new.

The same is when I am bold for Christ. I can’t halfheartedly be pursuing Him, but he calls me to unashamedly represent him and share the redemption that I have through Him with others.

When God sent Jesus to die for our sin, that was bold. He willingly gave up his son because he loves us. Its crazy to believe that I’m afraid of simply being judged by my peers for being a bold Christian when Jesus gave up everything.

“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”

2 Timothy 1:6-7

Everyone who has accepted Jesus as the Savior of their life and realizes that they are nothing without him has the Holy Spirit. We each have a strength within us. We not only are given the strength to be bold, but are commanded to.

As Christians it is our duty to boldly proclaim Christ to those we interact with. This may be saying, “Let me tell you about Jesus and how he changed my life,” or it may be saying, “you seem to be having a rough day. Is there anything I can do for you?” In all of our actions we need to boldly proclaim Christ to those around us.

I want to challenge you to intentionally be boldly pursuing Christ. When we are most trusting God with our life we seem him do the most miraculous things. This week unashamedly be bold for Christ.

With BOLD trust in Christ,

Piper

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)

Community.

This weekend I was able to head up to Boone and visit my dear friend, Greta. She is the girl that has seen every side of me and I would trust her with anything. When she was a junior in high school and I was in eighth grade, she became my mentor. This meant that every Sunday morning we would meet before Church and read through the Bible. Over time she became so much more than a mentor. She has shown me a wonderful example of an authentic relationship with Christ and with people.

John, Cam, Josiah, and James are all my brothers. Only two of them are biological, but I trust and love each one of them. From chilling in a dorm and talking about random things for an hour to discussing the existence of God, I have seen an example of honorable men who are respectful as well as dear friends.

These are two of my communities. They are places where I am able to have support as well  as be challenged to grow in my relationship with God and grow as a person. I have to intentionally give my time for these communities to thrive.

It is so very important to have communities that I am invested in. They are people that I love and have become dear to me. Without people who are holding me accountable, I would not grow. Invest in communities that lead to growth instead of ones that are lukewarm.

With sincere trust in Christ,

Piper

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)

 

 

Starved.

When I was young I remember a day that I decided to see how long I could go without eating. I decided it would be fun. This endeavor did not last more than a few hours. I needed to eat food so that I could keep adventuring through life, which included making jars out of clay in the creak and playing with my beloved dolls. Little Me couldn’t live life to it’s fullest potential when unnourished.

The same rule applies to me and my relationship with God. I will not pretend that I have been spending enough time with the Lord the past few months. I can give you a million and one excuses why this is ok for me, an overworked and sleep deprived high school student, because I have told them to myself.

“I don’t even get home until after 6:00pm and I’m at swim team in the morning!”

“I need to keep my grades up!”

“I spend time  with God on Sundays . Isn’t that good enough?”

Of course I never verbalized this last one because that would lead to guilt and shame. If I owned up to the reality that I believed Sundays were enough to sustain me, I may have been able to see this mistake. But I did not.

I decided to fill my hours with stressing over my grades, being utterly exhausted from balancing a sport and work, and feeling empty. I would feel guilty when I realized how little time I was spending with the Lord, but I would think of something else to avoid negative feelings that came along with this realization.

Just like a younger version of me, I was starving myself. I was choosing to compromise myself because I thought it would be easier. I suffered, however, and my choices led to me feeling guilty, empty, and in need of something fulfilling. Until I adjusted my priorities.

I have recently began to be investing my time more consistently with the Lord. Whether this is jamming out to Rend Collective while applying my makeup or reading and processing a chapter from the Bible I am filling myself with the Lord. It has been hard. I am not a morning person, but choosing to start my day off with the Lord has been so rewarding. This does not mean easy. I have to choose God over my own desires, but I am filled with joy.

I sincerely hope that this can be both a challenge and an encouragement. Remember that God is the priority. His will is more perfect than we can ever imagine and his love is more pure than anything that we know. Make him the center of your life. It is a battle. My personal desires are constantly telling me to choose things that I want, but God is great. He cannot be replaced by anything. Be encouraged in knowing that God will always pursue us. Even when I was was not searching for him, he was calling my name. Our Lord will run after us and offer life. Every day choose him. He will fulfill when nothing else will.

With sincere trust in Christ,

Piper

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)

p.s. I am so sorry for the lack of posts. I will be working hard to be blogging more consistently.

{An Update}

Well, I’m still here. Life has been hectic. Some super exciting thing have been happening, which I’m pumped to tell you about! I haven’t had a free second, but I am excited to catch you up on the happenings of my life. God has been doing incredible work…

{Ohio Missions Trip} Over Labor Day weekend I went on my first missions trip. And it was INCREDIBLE. From seeing a young church take a huge first step in reaching their community, to riding a camel for the first time, it led to many firsts. It was super cool to be able to see a VERY young church putting all their trust in God. I loved being able to support Good News Church as they reached out to their community to spread Gods kingdom to the needy. On Monday we went to Columbus, Ohio Zoo, where I rode a camel. It was pretty epic. This trip has challenged me to put myself out there for Gods kingdom.

{Jensen in India} She has been doing AMAZING work for Gods kingdom! This trip has given her the opportunity to share the love of Christ through the care packages that many of you contributed in putting together, and many other opportunities. Pray for her as she continues to share the love of Christ with many people. Also, feel free to check out her blog and leave her  comment (https://jensensadventures.wordpress.com)

{Point Church North Raleigh Campus} This is so exciting! The Point Church is launching a new campus in North Raleigh, and my Dad will be the Campus Pastor. This means that my family will be part of spreading Gods kingdom in North Raleigh. If you have any interest in being part of the Launch Team for this new campus, please let me know. God is going to do truly amazing things through this campus, and I am so PUMPED to be part of it!

This is BIG stuff. Please be praying for God to continue to work in the hearts of the Point Youth, that we will be challenged to give up everything for God, for Jensen as she continues to spread Gods love in India, and for the North Raleigh Point Church Campus, that God will bring together a community of believers that will change North Raleigh by pointing people to Jesus.

With sincere trust in Christ,

Piper

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)

You are Vintage

On Wednesday I had Middle School Girls Life Group, which I co-lead with Elise Drennan (http://elisedrennan.com) and Sarah Schulz. These are so much fun and crazy. I love spending time and talking through the struggles of life with these awesome girls. The book we use is Made To Shine (By Becca and Elissa). When I found out that I was leading the life group this past night, I was PUMPED. I was sitting at Sola Cafe (a great coffee shop) going over my lessons. These lessons had  a lot of potential. And then I found my favorite day. Irreplaceable.  It starts out with the discussion of vintage objects. Something that is unique and can never be replaced. They then transitioned to the idea of all of us being “vintage” to God. “God considers us his irreplaceable treasures.” I knew that I wanted to dig deep into this day, but how could I do something to help everyone remember that they are unique, irreplaceable, and only God can use ME for what he calls ME to do, and only YOU for what he calls YOU to do. And then I thought, “What would be better then to go to a thrift store, find a whole lot of random vintage items, and let each girl have one to take home with her?” So that is what I did.

Everyone picked something out from the box, whether it was a scarf with hats all over it, a mug with a dogs face on one end and its rear on the other, or a wooden chicken that was hand painted (to name a few). We then went around the room and had each girl say something that made them vintage. It was awesome to see these girls list a characteristic about themselves that God could use. But my favorite moment was when a girl was struggling to think of something, and all the girls started listing awesome things about her. It was so touching.

These girls are starting to realize the significance their very existence has on the world. That God can ONLY use them to do the kingdom work he calls them to. It makes me so happy to see God already working in the wonderful sweet crazy girls lives. Pray that God does amazing things for these girls and through them.

with sincere trust in Christ,

Piper

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)

Giving Up My Everything

Do you ever feel like you have to be in control or you don’t feel safe? I feel like this all the time, but I didn’t realize it until a couple of weeks ago. I have felt like my relationship with God has been strong and reliable. I have been having a consistent quiet time and trying to make my life more about Jesus. However, I haven’t given God my life.

I was baptized at a young age. I was ten or younger. I can’t remember the exact year. But I have been a pastors kid literally every second of my life. This means that I attend church almost every Sunday, and I serve in some shape or form. Since I have always grown up in the Church, baptism wasn’t a life changing experience. It was confirming my relationship with Christ and making a public commitment to follow him forever. I even wrote out a testimony that I have to this day. At that point, I trusted God completely. I gave him my life and whatever he wanted to do with it, he could do. I wasn’t held in fear. I was captivated by the adventure a life for him would bring. 

And then LIFE happened. I left my close group of girlfriends when my family moved to Raleigh, learned what it meant to care way to much about what people think, and lost my dependence on my Lord when I lost who I was as a person. I chose to put my friends before my Creator, and to have my beauty defined by others.

These actions weren’t intentional, but very real. The second I lost sight of Gods plan was the second life didn’t have a purpose. The dependency and trust I had on God when I was baptized got lost. Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t like I had no good memories between sixth grade and the present. The problem is what I was focused on. I was focused on my interests and and wants, but not focused on how I could use them to bring glory to God.

For example, friendships were seen as a way for me to expand my friend circle, not as a way to share Christ, or to encourage a fellow believer in their walk with Christ. People are walking stories. Oh I wish I had seen this sooner! God wants us to dive deep with people, and read their story. But I think we have all seen first hand that every story has AT LEAST one messy part that is not easy to read. I would get deep, but it was more to create a closeness with a  friend. However, God wants to become the center of all of our stories. I wasn’t focused on making God the next part of my friends stories, but instead i wanted to make myself the center.

In this time of my life, I became dependent on myself. I felt safer when I was in control. However, I was able to reflect on my trust in myself while at CIY. God did amazing things in this Haven. I felt God tugging at my heart. He wants my everything. I can’t just partially commit to him. It’s an all or nothing deal. I’ve been trying to live a life that is partly for God and partly for myself, but God told me very clearly, “Piper, you need to let me have you life. I can offer you so much more than you will every have on your own.” I am letting God write my story now, instead of letting God write one sentence and I write the next. He gets full possession of my story. And that scares me. It terrifies me and makes me tear up and makes me laugh and want to sing! And you know what is amazing? I don’t take this leap on my own.

My church stands with me.

My friends and family stand with me.

My God stands with me.

I am giving up my everything for the king who died for me because he believes I am worth more than any earthly possession, for the friend that will ALWAYS be here for me even after I move or I say terrible things, my teacher who continues to challenge me in life even when I say I’m always going to fail, and my Creator who makes a masterpiece for me everywhere I walk to show his immense majesty.

God wants to use me, but I need to let him have my life. ALL of it. And I give it to him. Going back to school is going to be very hard because I will be tempted to go back to my old habits and cling to trusting myself. But God has much bigger plans than I can even imagine. I have to leap off the cliff and let God make me soar.

with sincere trust in Christ,

Piper

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)

So Long Blog (tear), Hello CIY!

Dear exquisitely amazing people,

I must bid you adieu for a week, which makes me ever so sad. I love you all, and will miss sharing my life with you. However, I will return with MANY stories that will fill MANY blog posts.

I am so excited to see what happens at Camp. I believe that God is going to do amazing things and that I will feel my relationship grow with Christ and my youth group. I also look forward to being challenged in areas of my walk with Christ.

Please pray that God is with this amazing group of young people. I look forward to seeing relationships strengthened, and new ones to start developing. Also, pray that we have safe travel and an overall safe trip. We travel six hours to Cleveland, Tennessee and six hours back on Saturday. Also, I have a very, well, adventurous youth group is the best way to put it. 🙂 We would appreciate prayers of safety for all of the crazy activities that are bound to happen.

I cannot wait to come back and share all that happens. Thanks for stopping by!

-Piper-