We’re less than 10 days away from what’s shaping up to be our biggest 1Day ever, with nearly 20 service projects set up across Hoboken. And because we believe that celebrating is just as important as serving, we’re hosting an epic after-party for everyone who gave up their Saturday to love this city!

Our teams will head to the Turtle Club around 1:30, where there will be plenty of food, cake and incredible door prizes. We’re talking a FitBit, Yankees tickets and Starbucks goodies. You could even win a [Local Barre](http://localbarre.com/pages/LB-classes) studio membership – for a month, or a YEAR!

We’ll kick things off at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 22, at Church Square Park (4th and Willow), then disperse across the city. There’s a [project for everyone](http://hobokengrace.com/blog/one-day-countless-ways-to-make-a-difference/). We’ll be at the Hoboken Historical Society, the Hoboken Shelter, In Jesus’ Name Charities, Hoboken High School, and nearly a dozen other sites across the city.

Don’t forget to invite your friends and [pre-register here](http://hobokengrace.com/1day/).


One Epic After-Party

Have you ever considered leading a dinner group? Maybe the timing was never right, or you weren’t sure about the commitment.

Our church is growing rapidly, and we’re looking for people to lead short-term groups that will meet for 10 weeks, introducing people who are new to Hoboken Grace to the concept of dinner groups. This is an amazing opportunity to welcome people to our church and encourage them in their walk with God, while seeing if this type of leadership is a good fit for you.

 The groups will meet from Sept. 20 to late November, when our groups typically wrap up for the year. Leaders will then have the opportunity to reflect on the experience and can choose to make the group permanent in January when all our groups relaunch.

New leaders won’t be on their own. We’ll walk them through each week, helping structure their meetings and providing training. And leaders can pick whichever time and day of the week works best for them.

If God has placed dinner group leadership on your heart, don’t miss this opportunity to try it out on a short-term basis. For more information, contact Nick at [nick@hobokengrace.com](mailto:nick@hobokengrace.com).


Friending is Trending

Each summer, we join together to see just how much we can do for our city in a single day. This year’s 1Day Hoboken has more opportunities than ever to serve and put love into action.

We’ll kick things off at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 22nd, at Church Square Park (4th and Willow). We’ll disperse across the city to our different service projects, then meet up later for an epic after-party. You can pre-register [here](http://hobokengrace.com/1day/).

No matter what your talents and interests are, you’re sure to find a project that’s just right for the hands and heart God gave you.

**The Foodie**  
If slicing and dicing is your thing, help us prepare and serve lunch at the Hoboken Shelter. Or, if you’re not great in the kitchen but still feel called to reach out to this population, join us for a distribution day for In Jesus’ Name Charities.

**The Parent-Kid Team**  
There will be plenty of child-friendly service opportunities. While the complete list is still being finalized, kids usually do well with our parks projects. They might also enjoy working at one of the schools we’re partnering with, like Mustard Seed, where we will be helping out during its annual community work day to prepare for next year.

**Your Quirky Art Friend**  
For those handy with a paintbrush, we’ll be painting the stage at Hoboken High School and a fence at the Church of the Holy Innocents building on Willow. We’ll also be working with the Hoboken Historical Museum.

**The Stagehand**  
Do you know what a “light lock” is? Great. We’ll be cleaning the one in Hoboken High School’s auditorium, in addition to helping the staff get organized for next year.

**The Outdoorsman**  
What would 1Day be without outdoor projects? We’ll be partnering with the city again at various parks and public areas. We’ll provide the equipment. All you need to do is show up!

Of course, that’s not all. We’ll have about 20 projects total. We can’t wait to demonstrate just how much we love this city!


One Day, Countless Ways to Make a Difference

If you haven’t signed up for a missions trip yet this year, it’s not too late. In fact, Uganda, our last trip of 2015, might be the perfect unconventional service experience for you.

We’ll be working alongside [Restore International](http://restoreinternational.org/), serving at schools, prisons and safehouses.

Restore International calls it a “vision trip,” and Cindy, this year’s trip leader, thinks that description is accurate.

“It’s just different from other mission trips,” she says. “This one is all about being adventurous and letting the day or moment take us where we see a need and can make a difference.”

This will be Cindy’s third trip to Uganda with Restore International.

“When I am serving God abroad, I feel more alive than at any other time,” she says. “It’s one of the only times when I really don’t think about myself at all, but instead I just move in love where He directs me.”

The people of Uganda and her service there have become a huge part of Cindy’s [story.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRbo3Ef1O8I&index=9&list=PLA35UzWJbgHARJv3dbdrJTa7TWTmF7gXV)

“Africa is so beautiful,” she says. “I see God everywhere, especially in the smiles of the children. There’s just a simplicity about life there. And even though they have nothing, they live like they have everything.”

The dates for this year’s Uganda trip are Sept. 5-14\. You can sign up for the trip [here](http://hobokengrace.com/mission-trips/). Or, to learn more about the trip, join us for an info meeting at 301 Garden St. this Sunday at noon. In the meantime, check out these [photos](https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.716290668414884.1073741832.155692037808086&type=1) of Restore International’s past trips.


Going To Uganda

Sometimes I find it hard to trust God. I have experienced His love and grace in such richness throughout my life, so I know He will prove faithful yet again. However during difficult seasons, my heart can easily seize up, unable to believe that He will truly meet me in the midst of my pain. My prayers become desperate with each passing day they remain unanswered: God, please fix this. Please heal this person, please show up in this situation, please restore, please show mercy. Please. Please.

So what happens when our prayers go unanswered? It can seem easier to give up on communicating with God altogether, enacting a kind of silent treatment against our Creator. We barely open the Bible because we don’t believe God will use it to speak to our particular situation. Surrounded by pain and questions, we allow ourselves to be ruled by anxiety, often adding to an already difficult circumstance.

Having become so focused on the end-goal of having God solve our problem, we can forget to simply appreciate that He is there listening with love. God is patient with us as we list off the things we want Him to do, the people we want him to take care of, and the pleas for that elusive perfect job. God delights in giving his children good gifts, but His greatest desire is that that we would live our lives by the direction and power of the Holy Spirit, completely trusting in and depending on Him.

What if our view of God has been too small? We hear that He is all-powerful, but do we truly expect to experience that personally? What would happen if we were able to talk to God like a friend, laying our emotions bare before him? In order to truly begin to follow Christ, we actually have to be in intimate relationship with him. Building trust takes time. We have to come to him with every aspect of our lives, even the painful ones, and ask Him, “How do you want to use this? What are you trying to teach me?”

We should expect God not only to listen, but to answer – through the timeless stories of His Word and that still, small voice in the recesses of our minds. This kind of prayer is not always easy to do – it feels silly or unproductive, sitting around waiting for God to show up. But Our Father, who is eager to answer our prayers and to bless His children when they ask, wants us to understand why He does this in the first place. He just wants to be with you. He wants you to know that He values you simply because you are his son or daughter. He knows and feels your joy and your pain, and will walk alongside you through both. Because you are loved by Him, you can walk forward in confidence knowing your prayers have been heard, and you are never alone.

_Erika is a Dinner Group Leader at Hoboken Grace and you can read more about faith, relationships, and life lessons on her blog [Married in Mile Square City](http://marriedinmilesquarecity.com)._


Praying Through Pain

As Paul writes in 1st Corinthians, every believer has been blessed with a spiritual gift. Some of us are sympathetic listeners, while others are powerful speakers. Some of us serve quietly behind the scenes, while others lead publicly. We are all specially gifted to play a unique and vital role in the body of Christ.

At Hoboken Grace, a member of the Spoken Word team, Evelina, is blessed with the ability to express God’s love and power through personal artistic expression.

Evelina, one of the team’s newest members, shares God’s patient love and unending grace through spoken-word poetry – or poetry that is written and performed for an audience. It’s a rhythm-rich, improvisational style that sings without music.

“I’ve always had an interest in poetry, language, literature and theater,” says Evelina, who majored in theater arts and TV production at Rutgers-Newark. “I have always written poems, lyrics, little rhymes here and there. In my spare time I have kept many journals.”

But Evelina had never performed personal poetry in front of an audience, she says, until joining the team at Hoboken Grace. The team had been looking to showcase unconventional talents, and a friend recommended her. Since then, she has worked on several series, writing poems for the messages that personally resonate.

“I like to connect the Word to my life,” she says. “When I go through difficulties, I can write down my feelings, and give God praise for rescuing me each time.”

We are thankful for Evelina, her giftedness, and her boldness in declaring His love.


Performing Personal Poetry

One day, one square mile, one goal – making the biggest impact possible in our city in just 1Day.

The fifth annual 1Day Hoboken is shaping up to be our largest ever, with nearly 20 service opportunities within in our community. We’ll be lending a hand to local organizations, beautifying parks and helping schools prepare for the fall. (The day coincides with the Mustard Seed School’s community work day, just to name one of the projects.) Many of the tasks will be family-friendly.

So join us on Saturday, Aug. 22nd, at Church Square Park (4th and Willow). We’ll kick things off at 10 a.m., disperse across the city, and then reconvene at our after-party, with plenty of food and door prizes.

And don’t forget to bring your friends! We can’t wait to see how much we can accomplish in just 1 Day. Pre-register [here](http://hobokengrace.com/1day/).

Check out the [pictures](https://flic.kr/s/aHsk2vycT7) from 1Day last year!


1Day To Make A Difference

I used to be such a stiff when it came to worship. Lifting my hands felt so awkward. I found it so hard to let go of wondering what people might be thinking of me.

Then one May evening in 2009, everything changed. I was at a concert for one of my favorite bands, an indie group from Kansas City called The Get Up Kids. When the band had broken up in 2005, my brother and I had gone all the way to Kansas City to catch their last show. Now that the band was back together – I was there.

When the band came on I was ecstatic. I started dancing and throwing my hands in the air. I sang every word at the top of my lungs. I felt so free. I couldn’t care less what people thought of me.

Then, right in the middle of losing myself in the song, I felt God say to me, “You’re having so much fun. Why can’t you worship me this way?”

It was a turning point for me. It liberated me from the prison I had placed myself in on a Sunday morning. If I didn’t worry about what I looked like at a concert, why should I worry about it at church? Why would I celebrate a band getting back together more than the One who sacrificed everything to give me life? And if the person next to me isn’t throwing up their hands, that’s cool, but it’s not going to stop me from celebrating with everything I have.


How A Rock Concert Changed The Way I Worship

Pete Jones and Jordan Dansky are on a mission to change the world through daily intentional living. When they first started coming to Hoboken Grace last year, they felt powerfully drawn to our church’s mission of bringing people closer to God while meeting them where they’re at.

“It was amazing to experience being in a church where all these young people were not embarrassed or ashamed to worship, and you can see how much they love God,” exclaimed Pete, who grew up in a more traditional setting. “I had never experienced anything like this, and Jordan and I were hooked from the first day.”

Jordan said she had no idea what to expect at Hoboken Grace. But she found it incredibly empowering to be encouraged to have open conversations with God.

“They didn’t have to be quiet prayers anymore, I didn’t have to keep my relationship with God only to myself anymore,” she explained. The energy and passion to celebrate God was joyfully on display.

Pete and Jordan have launched a website that promotes living lives full of purpose. [Quarter for your Crisis](http://www.quarterforyourcrisis.com) is a place where millenials are encouraged to explore the world and share wisdom from their experiences. As part of this initiative, they interview people who “follow their fears, shift their definition of success and turn their thoughts into action.” They also share expert tools and resources in order to shed light on common struggles faced during our quarter life crisis years.

The couple has left their jobs in consulting and pharmaceuticals to backpack through Latin America. They want to be completely dependent on God’s guidance for their lives and they want to unite a community of people who think differently.

“At Hoboken Grace, we saw a community of people who strive to have God be the center of their lives. We saw the power of community, especially in dinner groups,” they said.

As they continue their journey and move away to pursue unconventional dreams, Pete and Jordan emphasized that they are hopeful they’ll find a church similar to Hoboken Grace.

We’ll be praying for safe travels, passion for pursuing Christ and loving community, wherever life takes them.


Living On A Soul Kick

What do you do when there’s nothing you can do? What do you do when you have a problem that seems to have no solution? How do you move forward when your job, your marriage, or your life is stuck? If you’ve ever found yourself trapped in a situation with no good options out, join us this summer for our next series, as we work through these questions together!


This Summer

It’s amazing to watch our dinner group members support one another, but also to see groups that work together to support the community.

That’s what happened last Monday, when a dozen volunteers helped dismantle old chalkboards at the local Mustard Seed School. Two dinner groups worked on the project, along with a few other volunteers from Hoboken Grace.

“The chalkboards were extremely heavy, so we needed all the help we could get to carry them out to the dumpster,” said CJ Neral, the leader of one of the dinner groups.

In addition to hauling out the old boards, the volunteers helped tidy up some of the classrooms in preparation for next year.

“We think the world of Mustard Seed School,” CJ said. “We felt privileged to have an opportunity to help out there.”

In fact, we’re so passionate about Mustard Seed and the environment of love and growth it provides, that we’ll be back volunteering at the school this fall as part of our 1Day service event.

It can be hard to get to know your neighbors in a city like Hoboken, but our church family is committed to not only knowing, but also loving and serving those around us.


A Local School Relationship

Paul Manansala dreams of a church at the heart of Jersey City’s bustling intersections, where people from all walks of life come together to discover God’s love.

This December, he’ll launch Crossroad Community Church in the city’s West Side – a passion project God has been leading him to his whole life.

Paul grew up in a church in Jersey City, one of many that his father helped launch.

“Whenever we would drive past places, it was just in him,” he explained. “He’d say, ‘Oh, look, there’s a mall closing down. It’d be a great spot for a church plant.’ ”

Years later, Paul was working with high school and college students at a church his father started in Garfield. When one of the services became full, he launched his own.

That experience, he said, and watching his father’s enthusiasm over the years, inspired him and his wife to start dreaming about church planting in Jersey City. A friend pointed them to Hoboken Grace, and they started attending in 2012.

“I chased Chris down in between services, and just asked him, ‘Are you guys interested in Jersey City at all?’ ” Paul said. “And he said, ‘Yeah, we’re actually planting the Hamilton Park location in about four months.”

The conversation changed their lives dramatically. They got more involved with the church, moved and joined the Hamilton Park launch team. And soon after, Paul was admitted to a fellows program with Tim Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian.

The program required full-time ministry, so Paul decided to quit his IT job.

“We knew we couldn’t miss this opportunity,” he said. “It’s one of the best urban church-planting leadership development programs out there.”

In addition to having classes with Tim Keller, Paul and the other fellows have learned from each other. A church planter from an equally diverse neighborhood in Queens, for example, encouraged Paul to start connecting the people in his community through service projects. The program wrapped up three weeks ago, but Paul will start another development program at Redeemer, “Incubator,” in the fall.

He also became a church plant intern at Hoboken Grace, learning from the rest of the staff and the speaking team.

“Seeing the Hamilton Park location launch this year into Downtown Community Church, and Wayne being a great friend – it’s been very beneficial to see someone do it before me, just to see what the process looks like,” he said.

His own church, Crossroad, will start with preview services in December, and an official launch on Easter. It will serve several parts of the city, including McGinley Square, Lincoln Park, Bergen-Lafayette and some of Journal Square.

“Jersey City is a crossroads of all different types of people, especially in our neighborhood. We were looking at the demographics, and it’s ridiculously diverse,” he said. “The pie graph is completely equal divided between all different types of people. But also, when it comes to socioeconomic status, even within the same cultures … it’s all over the map.”

Paul’s wife grew up in the area, and the couple moved there in December. He’s been meeting as many people as he can, and laying the foundation of his church by connecting those people through meetings and community service events with groups such as the New City Kids.

“We want to be able to meet people where they’re at, which a lot of the time with people in our neighborhood is a lot of instability, a lot of question marks, and dealing with different crossroads with their family and all that,” he said. “So we want to meet them there and lead them to the love of God that we’ve experienced.”

Residents and entrepreneurs have flocked to Jersey City in the past few years, and now churches are needed more than ever, Paul explained. Working with Hoboken Grace’s Hamilton Park location has shown him that God is already doing something there.

“There are amazing people in the city,” he said, “and it seems like God is starting something.”


Crossroads. Where passion meets a need.

Fireworks may have been moved to the east river this year, but that won’t stop us from having some fun!!

Come celebrate Independence Day with Hoboken Grace! We’ll stake out a prime spot on Maxwell Place Park for a few hours and play some games – just look for the orange balloons. Bring a friend, a blanket, and a snack to share. If you have any lawn games or sporting equipment you’d like to bring, feel free to bring them as well.

Here is a schedule of the official games:

12:30 – 1:30 – Kickball  
1:45 – 2:45 – Flag Football  
3:00 – 4:00 – Ultimate Frisbee

There will also be Cornhole and other games to play throughout the party.

Come by and spend a few hours in the sun with us! We’ll see you there.


Add this to your Star Spangled Planner

It’s a perplexing problem – just what are you supposed to do with your hands during church? Twiddle your thumbs? Shred a napkin quietly in your lap? Hold the hand of your significant other, and squeeze it meaningfully everytime the message really speaks to their issues?

How about take out your smartphone and follow along? That’s right, we want you to have your phone out in church.

Last year, we retired our overworked and underpaid printer and launched our paperless Online Program.

We still hand out connection cards – and yes, pens – at the door. And we encourage everyone to fill it out and stay connected.

But during our services everything you need to follow along with our series and stay connected during the week is at your fingertips thanks to our online program. Here’s what you’ll find waiting for you every Sunday morning, the memory verse, access to all passages from the message, 1st time guest information, Grace Kids Information and more!

And just to make this even more convenient and seamless, you can sign up for a Text Alert that will send you a link to the online program every Sunday before service. Just click “Get Text Alerts” at the bottom of the online program page to sign up!


Bring Your Phone

Dozens of people dispersed across Jersey City this past Saturday with yard tools, paintbrushes and the goal of making a difference in a day.

The 65 volunteers at Go! Jersey City, took on projects big and small all around the community. They weeded parks, painted schools and cared for a cemetery that dates back centuries.

“It was great to see how dedicated and excited this year’s volunteers were,” said Wayne Burton, pastor of Downtown Community Church, which organized the event.

The volunteers reached nearly every corner of the city, serving Hamilton Park, New City Kids, St. Anthony’s High School, the Liberty Humane Society, Van Vorst Park, Harsimus Cemetery and Liberty State Park. With trash hauled away, pathways cleared and walls freshly painted, each site was left improved.

It’s amazing how a few hours can impact countless people! 


What It Meant To Go!

If you’ve been attending any of our services regularly the past month or so, you may have noticed a few things.

We’ve started a dance team that choreographed and performed an original piece about baptism, our spoken word team has been writing and creating beautiful, poetic works, we’ve installed backdrops made from scratch, we created powerful activities at Teams Night to allow people to step closer to God and we’ve introduced some new \[and old\] original tunes written by the worship band.

It’s okay to say it. We’ve gotten a little artsy fartsy.

Now all this is really exciting for me, and also just plain cool. But in the midst of all these new things, I’ve had some questions about why we do all them.

“What is the purpose of the dance team?”

“Why did you decide to build the backdrops?”

“Spoken word is cool, but what is the point?”

Before I send my inner melancholy-tempermented artist to the corner to sulk about people not understanding her art, let me take a minute to calm her (and you) down and to break it down.

First let’s back up and realize that we are not all designed the same and that is a beautiful thing. God made us each unique and beautiful in His image – the bible talks about it:

_For you created my inmost being;_  
_you knit me together in my mother’s womb._ 
**_14_** _I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;_  
_your works are wonderful,_ 
_I know that full well._ 
**_15_** _My frame was not hidden from you_  
_when I was made in the secret place,_ 
_when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. –Psalms 139:13-15_

God knows us intricately and He made us with unique gifts and personalities. It’s no surprise then that we may find ourselves interacting with Him in a bunch of different ways.

For instance, I can attest that I definitely connect with God through music. Whether it has words or it’s just a beautiful piece of classical music, for some reason I’m able to experience a conversation with Him through that vehicle.

But not everyone does. And that’s okay. And maybe you haven’t even figured out what that relationship looks like, how you interact with each other clearly, etc. Like any relationship, it takes time.

But maybe, over time, you find you’re able to clear your mind and listen for God best when you take a walk, when you’re reading, when you’re creating something with your hands. Maybe you have to find a place to be completely still and quiet. Or maybe you can’t stand the quiet and love to talk to him through ridiculously loud music.

Whatever it is, you get the idea. We are all uniquely, beautifully made and the result is a lot of different ways to have a conversation.

And a lot of different ways to come before Him and worship.

Over and over, as we’re walking with God, we’re going to be reminded of Christ on the cross. For us. When we walk with Him the beauty of it is only amplified as we experience Him more – the beauty of that sacrifice, that debt-cancelling act. It draws us to God and draws us to worship with everything we have.

_Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. –Romans 12:1_

So back to the questions. Why do we have all these things at church? Why do we write songs, choreograph dances, write poetry – why do we create? Simple – we create to demonstrate our utmost worship to Him in the way he created us to. All of these things that we create are just an explosion of US wanting to share what HE has done.

And when you think about it, isn’t that just the coolest thought in the world? That maybe the reason you start to act like a crazy person when your favorite worship song comes on is that He wanted to demonstrate joy through you in that moment? Maybe the reason you get so excited about building something from nothing is that He designed you to create things that reflect his beauty. Maybe the reason that you can’t stand the noise is because he wants you to come hang out with him by reading something. The point is there isn’t really a wrong answer when it comes to worshiping God (and if you’re worried about being weird, I have another read for you [here](http://hobokengrace.com/blog/everyones-thinking-it-no-ones-saying-it/)). And so if that means we’ve gone a little artsy fartsy, so be it.

I’ll leave you with a piece of music that never fails to pull me in. It’s somewhat lengthy, every time I listen to the Firebird Suite by Stravinsky, I can’t help but think of the triumph of Christ defeating the grave and daydream with God about what He has in store for us. Listen.


Why We Create

Months before Marcie stood on stage to take the step of baptism and declare that she would follow Jesus anywhere, she sensed a small but growing voice leading her there.

At first it was a occasional whisper, she explained. And then it was an overwhelming desire in her heart.

It started when she joined a dinner group at the beginning of the year. The connections she made there, helped strengthen her relationship with God and reaffirmed the path she was on.

But the small nudges she felt toward baptism were mostly brushed aside until she could no longer ignore them. No matter how many times she stifled them, they only grew stronger.

And after several “baby steps” over the past few months, she realized she needed to take another step forward in her walk with God, or risk coming to a standstill.

“I needed to grow,” she said.

Once she decided to get baptized, several things in her life began to fall into place. What’s more, she knew she didn’t need to be perfect to take that step.

Weeks later, she emerged from the water, hands soaring through the air as she was flooded with a sense of peace unlike any she had ever experienced.

“It was like it was just me and God,” she said of the experience on May 31.

She’s still taking steps forward, working alongside one of the teams at Hoboken Grace, planning a missions trip and waiting to see where God leads next.

And that overwhelming sense of peace? It hasn’t left her.


Baptism: Another Step Forward

New York is not a city that believes in personal space – physical or mental. We stand nose to nose with total strangers on the subway, and continuously feed our minds an endless stream of news, emails and tweets. We’ve adapted to it, but for many of us, this noise and crush has become so familiar that we feel lost when we are alone, or feel frightened by silence. This week, we’re sharing how one of our church family members, Sherylene, learned to be alone and how this transformed her experience of God.

I don’t like to be alone. Maybe it has to do with me being Latina, but I am the most content when I’m surrounded by people. I seek out jobs that require community relationship-building because it’s my thing. I’m good at it. It’s also a good thing. In fact, God calls us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves in Mark 12:31\. Jesus seems to always be surrounded by people in the bible, while healing them, teaching them or even just eating with them.

I was recently in Peru for six months and had no technology for days on end. Being cut off in this way caused me almost unbearable anxiety. I was scared I was missing out on my loved one’s important life events. I felt alone, abandoned and lost. I was addicted to being connected with everyone through the internet and it was the first time I noticed it. I also felt like I didn’t belong in Peru, that the whole trip was a mistake. I had a hard time making friends too, because most of the people in the town where I stayed, spoke an indigenous language. I prayed different prayers every day. One day I prayed that God would expedite my time there. And the next day, I prayed that He would help me enjoy every day and be grateful for the experience.

Many months and tears later, God showed me that I needed that time alone in Peru with Him and that I couldn’t escape it. I’m accustomed to living in New York and spending time in large family gatherings full of Dominican dancing and chatter. I’m most comfortable when surrounded by noise and people, but I learned that this quiet season in my life was good too, and very necessary.

God showed me that overcoming the fear of being alone was going to reveal beauty. He showed me that through Him I could pour more love into the children I worked with in Peru. He woke me up at 5am every morning to catch the sunrise while I was living by the mountains – fourteen thousand feet above sea level – overlooking Lake Titicaca. There, I had the most intimate quiet time with God. He reminded me that no one will ever be able to fill my empty places but Him. He reminded me that holding on to Him was enough.

God created that beautiful sunrise, He created those mountains, that lake, that bird that sang a beautiful song to me every morning. Who else could do that? No one. I stood still in His creation and was speechless many mornings, as I basked in all His love for me. It was the purest form of romanticism. It was natural and unexplainable, like nothing else I have experienced.

When I go back to the Bible, I am also reminded how during his most difficult moments, Jesus retreated from everyone and everything and had one on one time with His Creator. Often times, he escaped to the wilderness to pray (Luke 5:16). After feeding five thousand and before walking on water, he escaped to the mountainside to pray (Mark 6:46). Even before his arrest in Gethsemane, Jesus prayed alone (Mark 14:32-42). Every major decision he made was influenced by God’s guidance.

It’s not easy to be in complete solitude while living in the second most densely populated city in the country. It’s easy to run back to my comfort zone. But in life, you have to fight for everything that is worth it and this is so, so worth it.

I am grateful that God can take my biggest fear, loneliness, to teach me the biggest life lessons. It’s still an ongoing process, but I’m overcoming it little by little. He’s teaching me that in overcoming my fear, I am trusting God in everything I do, and releasing worry and anxiety for the future. He’s teaching me that when I spend quality alone time with Him, I can love people more. But most importantly, He teaches me that I don’t even have to be afraid of loneliness because if I have Him, I will never, ever be alone.


That Fear Can Show You the Most Beauty

Blog

A Diverse, Growing, Contemporary, Community Church in Hoboken

Everything we do revolves around our mission of helping people find their way back to God. Our goal is to demonstrate who God really is and to let others know that God wants a relationship with each and every one of us.

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