Love is our highest calling.

[NathanATX]

The following is an excerpt from this week's email to FUEL, the young adult ministry of MCC Austin. I hope these words encourage you. If you're near Austin, TX and you'd like more info on FUEL--an awesome group of lesbian/gay/straight/bi/trans young people who are "making friends, growing spiritually, & loving their lives" visit www.fuelmccaustin.com. If you want info on our church, visit www.mccaustin.com.

Peace,
Nate

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Prayer Needs
There seems to be a lot of stuff going on in people's lives and I want all of you to know that you are being remembered in prayer. Please remember to keep everyone in prayer, our church, our leadership, our friends & family members. Know you are loved. Know that God is present and working in your life.

RENEW Your Mind
If you're like me, I'm sure you've sometimes had a nagging little voice in your head tell you that something you said or did wasn't loving or kind. 1st Corinthians chapter 13 is a beautiful explanation of what it means to have love and to be loving. Remember, that love is our highest calling: To love God and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Here's the scripture reading:

1 Cor. 13 (The Message)

"If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love."

[Liberal Crozier]

Nathan,

Your faith community rocks !!!! (as on this rock, I will build My Church ).

I promise to attend your parish church if ever I am in the Austin city limits.
Moreover, I promise to attend your ordination, even if we have to travel from our forever home in Canada.

This group is just what is needed to counteract the $$$$M of dollars spent by the opposing forces to turn back a tolerant and compassionate youth generation into a generation that mirrors and more, expands their religious bigotry.

[NathanATX]

Originally Posted by Liberal Crozier

Nathan,

Your faith community rocks !!!! (as on this rock, I will build My Church ).

I promise to attend your parish church if ever I am in the Austin city limits.
Moreover, I promise to attend your ordination, even if we have to travel from our forever home in Canada.

This group is just what is needed to counteract the $$$$M of dollars spent by the opposing forces to turn back a tolerant and compassionate youth generation into a generation that mirrors and more, expands their religious bigotry.

Wow! Thank you so much for your encouraging & exciting words!

I would be incredibly honored to have you attend my ordination... now only if that whole process could just move faster! All in good time, though...

[Jennifer5]

... do you know how long it will take to get through seminary? ... I would love to be at you ordination if it was possible to make it all the way down there.


Amazing words Nate... your church will be packed when the time comes... there's no way it couldn't be

[NathanATX]

You are *too* sweet. .

It's probably three to four years to complete my education. Hopefully
ordination would happen soon after graduation.

Plenty of time to shop for the right outfit!

[Jennifer5]

from my point of view it's better to take a long time... if I'm 18 I have a better chance of being able to make it there! You should try to have it in the summer if you have any say about it... then you can get a ton of people from here maybe!

[Vanessa White]

Nate: I am on board for this one, right along with Jen and Crozier. I would also like to see you reach that milestone after your hard work, and what shows itself as true LOVE and dedication to your beliefs. I admire you and find your words inspiring and oh so true. Keep on keepin' on!!!

[tdogg]

It would be an awesome experience!!!

Ok, penciling in my planner - tentatively planned for 3 - 4 years from now! Gotcha! Count me in....

For now, it would be great Nate if you could keep us 'posted' on your scholarly goings-on - sort of a diary maybe?

[Rainbow kittens]

Nate,
We also would be willing to travel. Don't lose touch with us all! Oh, little Mick is jumping up and down and saying "Me too. I want to go!
Peace and Love
Jade, Angela and Mick