His Love Is Sweeter Than Honey...

So I'm sorry for not writing on this blog over the summer. My words were invested in another blog that can be read here if you so desire: http://newzealand.adventures.org. The reason I blogged there and not here is because I was in New Zealand for the summer on a mission trip. Oh, what a summer it was. I left this past semester aching inside. It had been a messy semester and though Jesus had promised that He would redeem it, I was having trouble finding Him as I looked back over the past few months. All I could see was mounds of boy issues, friend drama, and dreams that I had held dear being taken out of my hands. I was left with literally nothing. If my life were a movie, this would be the time that I pack my bags and leave for a whirlwind adventure, and for once, art imitated life. The door had opened for me to spend two months doing ministry in New Zealand (a country I had always dreamed of visiting), and I ran through it! And the Lord met me there and began the healing process. He began to take me through some of the wounds I had been walking with and showed me where He had been all along (right by my side, protecting me. I am so blind when I want to be!) He picked me up and put me in a beautiful community of believers. No, the people I spent two months with were not perfect. There were tensions and hurts and things that needed to be worked out even in New Zealand. But I got to fully experience what the Lord has always desired the Church to look like. I was in daily community with older, more experienced believers who I came to regard as my spiritual parents, peers my own age who I worked alongside with and encouraged and rejoiced with, and children who blessed my heart more than I could ever fully express. The Lord began to show me some of His dreams, and things that are on His heart for this earth. And above all else, for the first time in my entire life, I found myself in a place where all I needed or asked for was Jesus' love. His love was the only thing that could heal my aching wounds, still my racing heart, and comfort my unspoken fears. I'm now back in the United States and that constant hunger for Jesus' love has only grown stronger. This summer was priceless, and I will forever thank Jesus for taking me on such a beautiful journey. As I've been back, one song has been stuck in my head and it's a song I've been singing to Jesus over and over again. I'd heard it before many times, but after this summer, the lyrics have come alive for me. I'm including it here at the bottom. His love is sweeter than honey. His love is stronger than death. His love lifts me of my burdens and teaches me to dance!