Stephanie Kantonen

    "Just let Me love you." This has been the theme of my life for the past year.

     I came to AFLBS last fall with the knowledge that I was a sinful human being who was called by a holy God. After a few months of striving to please God by my own efforts, I reached a point of frustration. I was sitting in the chapel service one Tuesday morning and prayed, "God, I can't do this anymore." I was led to Psalm 103:8, 11-12: "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love [...] For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us." As a believer in Jesus Christ, I have been set free! God does not look at my sin anymore but at Jesus who lives in us!

    I headed into my summer with a growing love for my Savior and a desire to serve Him. He had shown me so much love, and I wanted to give back. I spent my summer on an AFLBS summer team teaching VBS, and all I wanted was to be the best. I thought I had to be. I wanted to love, serve, and teach these kids and thought it would be so easy, but it wasn't. It was hard! By the middle of the summer I was getting burned out, and I didn't understand why. I asked God all the time why it wasn't working. That's when I realized for the first time that you cannot keep pouring yourself out unless you are being filled up. In the words of Francis Chan, "God didn't want a good slave who tried really hard. He wanted me to see that He was a good Father. He wants intimacy."

    Jesus calls us to be His own. God told the children of Israel in Isaiah 43:1, "I have called you by my name, you are mine." Over the course of my time at AFLBS God has taught me that being loved by Him and loving Him back is the most important part of life, and I am so thankful for that!