Green Pepper Pinnacle

Life is complete when your name is etched in green peppers in pizza. The pinnacle of my existence has been reached. God, take me now.

As much fun as it was writing my name in a pizza, alas, that was not the sole purpose of my existence. And speaking of which, I’m still trying to figure that out. I’m not any closer to concrete answers–other than to glorify God…but in what capacity?–but God’s provided some cool opportunities for me this fall. I’m excited to see how God will use these opportunities to reveal His will for me.

First of all, my church (Harvest Bible Chapel Lancaster) is offering a school of discipleship class called Lifeⁿ, which is essentially a course on being a good steward of the life God has given you–exploring how your past has shaped you, examining what you’re doing in the present, and extrapolating future goals, all with the end goal of exacting a prayerfully considered plan for your life. (Can we all just take a moment and notice what a great HBCL member I am? Explore, examine, extrapolate, and exact. Pastor Jamie would be so proud.) I’m excited to learn more about myself throughout this course, and I’m teaming up with God as I go through this because I’m counting on Him to reveal some juicy tidbits of information about my future.

The second opportunity that has presented itself is coming in October: I’ll be attending Harvest University in Chicago. Harvest University is a leadership conference of sorts; it’s a four-day event packed full of sessions addressing many areas of church ministry. I’m looking forward to attending some sessions on worship/music in the church as well as a session on telling story through video. I have hopes to meet and connect with some people who may have been in a similar situation to me–stranded without a clear direction but filled with lots of different desires. I’m hoping to receive some advice, insight, and encouragement, and I have no doubt that God will use Harvest University to impact my life in some incredible way.

The third opportunity has the potential to be really cool or it could be a flop. But I’m leaning towards the cool side. A good friend and phenomenal writer, Leah Sweeney, and I have decided to attempt writing a novel together. We both attended Houghton College and we became friends through a writing class called Shorts–a class in which we wrote a piece of flash fiction (aka very short story) every week off of a prompt. Though some stories were better than others, my biggest takeaway from the class was the friendship and encouragement of Leah. While other people in the class wrote stories about the loss of innocence or the symbolic nature of a certain record, Leah and I wrote about people forgetting to put on shoes or a husband who was called Mr. Pickles. Anyways, we discovered that our style of writing was similar and we were quick to pair up when it came to read each others’ stories and offer criticism. Well, the semester ended, Leah graduated, and I decided to take a year off of school. Then, recently, we re-connected and sporadically decided to co-author a novel together. Writing has been on my mind a lot this summer (I’ve set a goal for myself to publish something by 2016) and writing a book with someone else is a good way to hone my skill and to have someone else there to push through with when the going gets tough. We’re both hoping that God uses this experience to grow us and provide some direction for our individual lives.

So be prepared to see a novel by Sweeney and Sell sometime in the not-too-distant future.

In way of conclusion, I’d like to throw an idea out to the masses reading this (ha): I’d love to have some more interaction on this blog, so feel free to comment with thoughts, questions, or propositions (especially if it involves needing a cellist for your wedding–yes, I’m available).

I’m also open to prayer requests–I certainly appreciate any prayer. Prayer is a powerful thing, and God is teaching me and reminding me again and again of my need for it.

Adios, mis amigos.