Convicted

Lauren called me a couple of weeks ago to ask if I would go running with her and we've been running together about every other day since. She's really opened up doors in my own personal quiet time with God and has shared such insight (including bible verses). Yesterday we began reading Elisabeth Elliot's Passion and Purity and will continue reading a chapter after every time we run until we finish. Fyi, Elisabeth Elliot is the widow of Jim Elliot, the missionary who was martyred in the 1950's. ("He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." -Jim Elliot, talking of life, of course).

Anyway, Lauren and I somehow got on the subject of the 2 cliques in the girls of the junior (soon to be senior) class at Northland. It has been the 2 cliques for as long we can remember. No clique has ever done anything that you can point a finger at and say "for shame", but no clique has ever done anything to the other group that could be actually praised. Lauren and I began to feel convicted about our....not behavior, but our attitudes towards "them". We really feel like it is imperative that we get together as soon as possible with the other group of junior girls and simply ask for their forgiveness. Their forgiveness for not befriending them, their forgiveness for never venturing deeper than forced small-talk, their forgiveness for not inviting everyone to every party, their forgiveness for not loving them with reckless abandon like Jesus loves us.

We know that just asking them to forgive us (for not loving them like we should have) will not make everything peachy-keen, but we do know that it is the step God is calling us to take and it is a step in the right direction. We've called Mrs. Gritter (she's kind of like the other girls' mentor, just 'cus she connects really well with them, though Ms. G is awesome and I know I can talk to her about anything too) and asked her to help us do this and do it so that we don't just totally ambush the girls. I've called the girls who are kind of in "my group" and they have all expressed that same feelings and 2 even said that they had been feeling convicted lately about the way things are between the 2 groups.

Even though I will not be a part of Northland next year because I will be in Kentucky, I feel that this is something I still need to be a part of and, though I am nervous, I am ready and willing to see how God is working in all of us ("us" meaning everyone at Northland, but also the world in general).