Yes. The simple answer to this question is yes. The gospel is sufficient for all seasons of life. When I think of the gospel, I typically think of it in the past tense. After hearing from speaker BJ Thompson this week, I want to focus on ways the gospel is not only applicable to my life in the past, but also how the gospel is relevant in my life in the present and how it will be relevant in the future.
As human beings we are in constant need of grace. We always need God's grace because we continually sin. BJ had this saying that he would repeat throughout all of his talks. It was, "I am a mess, and yet deeply loved by God. Grace transforms me." God's grace is meant to transform us from the inside out. It is meant to show us that we are a complete and utter mess, yet God still loves us and sees us as perfect anyways. God's grace is meant to show us that we do not have to work to earn love, all we have to do is turn around and embrace the love that God has already placed in front of us. No human being is ever too far gone from the reaches of God's grace; Jesus meets us where we are at, we don't have to try and make ourselves better in order to follow Jesus.
Something else I found interesting that BJ talked about was the concept of paternalism. The concept of paternalism is when you will not all ow people to serve you in the same way you serve them. This, for me, specifically applies to people I serve on mission trips or just in different volunteer activities. When we do not allow them to equally serve us, it is like we are saying we are not equals. This is wrong because if they are Christians, then we are equal co-heirs to the inheritance of heaven. We will both end up in the same place.
The rest of my week at Link Year was pretty fun! I spent Friday in Fayetteville and got to see my best friend from high school. I also got to see the LY Lions basketball team play and win, so that was really fun! This past weekend at LY was parents weekend. My parents were not able to make it, however I still had a blast this weekend. We spent the afternoon playing archery tag with all the parents and students, which was super fun! A large group of us spent almost two hours playing the stupid ninja game and the pterodactyl game. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life (my abs physically hurt from laughing so much the next day)!
Thanks for reading about my week at LY and what I've been learning :)
