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Yesterday, I had the blessing of attending a friend's voice recital. She's a beautiful singer AND an amazing songwriter and she performed some of her original works. In one of her songs, she described that mountains were a place to be inspired and see God's presence in the valleys she'd traveled through, but that ultimately, she was made to walk in the valleys. It's a faithful, long trek, and although it can be hard to see more than a few steps at a time, God is with us and He does great works through our obedience in the little everyday things. I deeply resonated with this truth. There are few moments in life where I feel like I'm on a mountain and everything makes sense. More often, I'm in the valleys, walking day by day, often doing the mundane tasks and only able to see far enough to do the next thing. Her song was a reminder to me that God is at work in the everyday and I can rejoice in that. I also saw this illustrated on my spring break mission trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. During the week we were there, our team hiked up to several lookouts and saw incredible views of the valleys, Salt Lake City, and the snow-covered mountains in the distance. It almost felt unreal to be up so high and to be able to see so much. At such a height, it was easy to distance from everything else and just enjoy the view, but as soon as we descended back into the valley, the reality of life in Utah as a Christian became very real. Throughout our week we were able to have really good conversations with many Latter Day Saints, and other unbelievers. We also were able to hear the stories of four different churches that had been planted in and around Salt Lake City. Each pastor emphasized similar themes. For the sake of the gospel, many of them had left good jobs, and nearby family and friends, to go to a place that is spiritually dark and desperately needy. I was struck by the sacrifices they had been willing to make and the challenges they had endured, but I was even more struck by the faithfulness they had shown in daily following Christ, even in the seemingly mundane things of going to work, getting groceries, spending time with their family, and serving in the church. They were not engaged in some glorious movement that was plastered across the internet. In fact, they told us multiple times that moving to Utah as they had done would not make them be remembered. They knew that they would be and had been forgotten by people and friends back east and they would never go down in history for what they were doing. But they were willing to give their one life in the service of proclaiming the gospel and making disciples. One day, my group did some doorhanging in a run-down neighborhood. We were putting flyers on door handles for the Easter service of the nearest church. There were several moments where I questioned why I had taken my spring break to come to Utah to walk down streets, climb the stairs of dirty apartment buildings, and wrestle a flyer onto doorhandles, all without interacting with anyone. However, as I walked up to a house with a pride flag in the window, God prompted me to pray for the door I was walking up to. Even though I didn't know who was inside, even though I didn't have a chance to interact with them, even though I was doing the "meat and potatoes" of serving, there was a chance that the flyer I was leaving might be the open door to attending a Christian church for the first time and hearing the true gospel of grace and forgiveness for sins. While I would never see the impact, God was still using me and that was enough to know. I was humbled in that moment and realized that where I often wanted to do something to be remembered for, God was asking me to be faithful in the small things and let Him use me to do things I couldn't even fathom doing on my own. Now, a few weeks after coming back to school and settling into the regular grind of school, with graduation and a new job on the horizon, I'm still thinking about this lesson. I'm thrilled and excited for all the new changes headed my way, but I know that whether on the mountaintops or in the valleys, once I settle into a routine, I want to be found faithful in the everyday things that matter. Spending time in God's Word, working hard, building relationships, loving my church well, and faithfully doing what God sets before me.

Have you ever realized how stories are a part of everything we do? We love to hear them, we tell them to others, and we dream about them. Stories come in all shapes, sizes, and genres. Growing up, my mom and dad would read to my four siblings and me every night before bed. My mom loved the classics and picture books. She introduced us to so many beautiful stories. My dad, on the other hand, took us on wild adventures across space and through the mines of Moria. Today, my entire family loves stories. If someone gets a new book, we all get in line to have a turn to read it so we can talk about it together. So what makes stories so powerful and why do they impact us so deeply? Well, one reason is that we remember them more easily than we remember a list of facts. We've been hard-wired by our Creator to tell stories. When I call friends or family, they tell me stories of what's been happening in their lives, and I tell them stories about my own. Stories form a connection between our own experiences and the experiences of someone else. This is just as true in a fictional story as in real life. We are drawn into a story because we become connected to the character and the challenges and joys that they encounter. We're also curious creatures. We want to know what happens, and so we continue to read, watch, or listen. This concept of connection is intimately related to why stories impact us so deeply. A well-written story and characters can touch a reader's heart. We often see something in a character that we can relate to. Either we have similar challenges or flaws, or we've been through similar circumstances. A story is beautiful because it gives the reader and audience time to interact with, confront, and wrestle with the ideas and beliefs that an author is trying to convey. A proposition or statement of facts is logical—black and white. Either you accept it or you don’t. However, stories explore life with all the mistakes, sacrifices, and love that comes with them. Stories engage our hearts and our minds. They may demand an answer from us, but they may also ask us to consider something. The best stories are those that leave us with a powerful thought long after we've read the final sentence. I'm so glad that God gave us a love of storytelling. I believe we've each been commissioned to share stories, first His story, and then our own. Ours is just a piece of the greater story that He is writing. Why do I write? I write for the little child living in a dark place, not so that she can escape it, but so that she can go and return, carrying back with her a flicker of hope that the best is yet to come and that good always triumphs over evil. I write for those my own age, who are growing up in a world consumed by self, to remind them that the best life is that which is lived for a greater purpose than oneself. I write because through my words, I can tell others what I care about and why. It's an invitation to come and consider and to be a part of the story. So, what's important for you to communicate to others? Why do you tell stories?

This week we're going to celebrate a special day that's quickly being overwhelmed by the holiday that comes after it. I do enjoy Christmas and I'm already pulling out the Christmas playlists, but I don't want to miss Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving for me means memories of warm kitchens, people bustling everywhere, laughter, and delicious food. I remember eating rolls slathered in butter and having second helpings of cranberry sauce and turkey. I grew up listening to my mom read Cranberry Thanksgiving , a book about a girl and her grandmother who live in a cranberry bog in New England. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend! Thanksgiving also means memories of a turkey so big that my dad had to run out to the barn and build a cutting board big enough to hold it! Or the times my siblings and I would make turkey hands to set up on the table. It's a wonderful time of year to come together with family and celebrate all we have to be thankful for. Colossians 2:6-7 says, " Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. " I don't want to miss or pass over the reality, however, that for many, Thanksgiving is a time of tension or grief for the loss of a loved one. I've never known what that felt like until this year. Several relatives, some closer than others passed away this year. Thanksgiving won't look exactly the same and it won't be easy, but God has shown me that even here in the pain of a broken world, He is with me. That's something I've learned and been shown again and again over the past few months. It doesn't take away the pain of loss, but it's a comfort and a truth to cling too that we have a God who walks beside us in the paths of deepest darkness and suffering. He doesn't always take away the sorrow or suffering. Most of the time He won't. But he will walk beside us through it, leading and guiding us. That's how we learn to depend on Him. We also don't grieve as those who have no hope (1 Thess. 4:13). One day, all who believe in Christ for salvation will be raised to eternal life with Him. That is glorious news! However your Thanksgiving looks this year, I hope you will not forget the One who gives us all we need, who provides for us in joy and in sadness, and who is worthy of our lives, our worship, our all. Happy Thanksgiving!