Ice Cream (I Scream)

The other night I was going on a run (slow jog) in Sewickley.  It was a beautiful summer evening, dusk, about 7:30pm, and right as I was running through the main street in town I passed by a family who was eating ice cream in their parked car on the side of the street.

A strange feeling came over me in that moment that caused me to whisper under my short breaths: “God, I don’t want to eat ice cream in my car.”

I still don’t fully know what that meant.  All I know is that in that moment, I decided I never want to eat ice cream in my car.

Eating ice cream in your car is a little like lighting a lamp and then putting it under a bowl.  Or moving mountains with your faith and then not loving the people around you.

By God’s grace, the very next night I found myself eating ice cream outside on the steps of a beautiful church in the city with three Spirit-filled women who reached out to me at a particularly perfect time.  I love that God continues to write redemption in the little details of life.

“I wanna yell it from the rooftops, I’ll wear a sign on my chest, it’s the least I can do”  -Gavin

Weak = Strong

My 17 year-old "little" brother, Evan, is wise beyond his years!  I am so proud of the man of God he has become, and I look up to his poise and character.  Read this guest blog post from him below.

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12:9,10)

It's so easy to look at our weaknesses and tell ourselves we are, well, weak. But as God told Paul, His power is made perfect in our weakness, so we shouldn't discourage ourselves over our (God-given) weaknesses but rather delight in them because we are strong (through Him) when we are weak. And I truly believe and have gratefully experienced that when we delight in our weaknesses, God will reveal Himself to us and through us.

We all have weaknesses: we can't all belt it like Adele, we don't all 'enjoy doing math' like one Mr. Tom Lebo (shout out to my favorite brother), and we can't all toss the pigskin like Tebow.

Sure, those may be weaknesses, but I think we all know that those aren't our true weaknesses. Our true weaknesses might sound a little like this: we're afraid to stand up for our God, or we don't devote enough time to worshipping the Lord or resting in the Word, or, like in my case, we struggle to put 100 percent of our trust and faith in our Lord and Savior.

But, as I encourage you to strive to do, I'm learning to not be ashamed of those weaknesses and difficulties but instead first, cast my weaknesses upon our loving and gracious God and second, delight in those weaknesses so Christ's power may rest on me, because as the Lord told Paul "my power is made perfect in weakness." So remember, weak=strong.