Philippians 1:3-11
3Every time I think of you, I thank my God. 4And whenever I mention you in my prayers, it makes me happy. 5This is because you have taken part with me in spreading the good news from the first day you heard about it. 6God is the one who began this good work in you, and I am certain that he won’t stop before it is complete on the day that Christ Jesus returns.
7You have a special place in my heart. So it is only natural for me to feel the way I do. All of you have helped in the work that God has given me, as I defend the good news and tell about it here in jail. 8God himself knows how much I want to see you. He knows that I care for you in the same way that Christ Jesus does.
9I pray that your love will keep on growing and that you will fully know and understand 10how to make the right choices. Then you will still be pure and innocent when Christ returns. And until that day, 11Jesus Christ will keep you busy doing good deeds that bring glory and praise to God.

Do you have someone who helps push you on toward the goal of Christ? Niccole, here at MI, would ask: do you have someone pouring into you? While in college, these words that Paul writes in the opening of his letter to the church of Philippi were words that were used by one to express their feelings towards another. I had a friend who handwrote these words to the person they wanted to marry. They were hoping to be able to “pour” into another more through a God centered relationship; helping push them on toward the goal that Christ has set for us. However, it feels like years since I have thought about these words as a form of personal expression. It is with these words that I am reminded of the faces of the people in my past. It reminds me of people that I was busy doing good deeds with during our times of serving others. It is through these times of doing that I have come closer in connecting with the rest of a person’s life. Through the action of manual labor, I have connected more with others than just simply sitting by them. Don’t get me wrong, there are times to listen and talk over food, but while doing labor, planning and plugging through the harder times of doing good, I have found true friends and have gotten to know the life of another.

This past week we had students from Milligan come share their Spring Break with us and serve the people of Indianapolis as the hands and feet of Christ. During this time of labor is when I got to know these students best. We would joke and have fun, working together; doing the good deeds that God calls us to do daily. No matter the act of labor: cutting, measuring, mixing or simply eating lunch together, we had fun working. We thank these students for giving of their time to be working instead of doing something else that typically is thought of as Spring Break for college students. They were giving to the body of Christ and expressing it not in words as Paul did, but through their physical presence and giving of their time and gifts. These students will have a “special place in [our] heart that is only natural for me to feel this way” because of the work that we have done together.

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