Hey y’all! I am so excited we get the opportunity to blog our time as Fellows this year and I can’t believe it’s already been almost a month of this new normal. When I stumbled upon the Fellows blog several months ago, I was a college student curious about what the Raleigh program looked like, and honestly, what even was a Fellow. I was surprised how insightful and transparent the posts were. I could read a post written by a stranger and somehow feel seen by what thy had experienced the Lord doing in their lives. I also found joy in reading what life could look like as a Fellow. So, it feels almost full circle to be adding my name to the list of contributing authors, and more gratifying to get to share a little of what the Lord is already teaching me.
Three weeks ago, a group of strangers started a journey together, entering the controlled chaos that comes with kicking off a Fellows year. Awkward handshakes in the Fellows lounge on a Tuesday morning and continually asking people to resend their names in the group chat somehow gave way to fighting over the aux in the Doxology kitchen while making dinner, countless rounds of charades filled with subpar acting, waiting in the coffee queue each morning, swapping stories of college and home, cheating allegations during game nights, and spending hours in the water laughing, whipping around the jet skis or jumping off the dock. Additionally, we settled into ourselves, began creating community and seeking new rhythms amongst the group. Who knew a week at Lake Gaston could become so special and sacred to a girl who didn’t even know it existed a month ago? In the middle of all these introductions, both to the program and to one another, one thing in particular stood out to me, the Crutchfield family motto: Love God. Make Friends. Change the World. My initial thought was that it sounded almost too simple. Three phrases that seem easy enough to understand, but the more I sat with them, the more I realized what they demanded of us beneath the surface.
Love God
This sounds like the most obvious of the three. But what does it actually mean to love God? I have found myself wondering how often I approach God because I want something from Him rather than simply because I want to be with Him. C.S. Lewis describes the difference between approaching God as a means to an end and approaching Him as the end itself. That distinction challenged me because it is so easy to turn faith into a means of getting somewhere: receiving peace, becoming successful, or figuring what comes next. But what if the goal is simply to know God more? Maybe loving God begins with learning to slow down enough to listen. Silence and solitude are not things I naturally reach for or practice often. They require me to put down my to-do list, stop trying to be productive, and simply be with the Lord. Like a muscle, it is a discipline that has to be worked in order to grow. I anticipate that this will be an area the Lord invites me to grow in throughout the year.
Make Friends
Of course we want to make friends. We were made to be in relationship with one another. Matthew 22:36-40 tells us to love God and love our neighbor, but friendship asks us to go a step further into the messiness of actually knowing people. That idea feels especially relevant for a group of young adults entering a year where so much of life can revolve around work, productivity, and trying to make the most of every opportunity. Relationships require us to slow down. They ask us to make room, listen well, and show up.
This is where a particular word has begun to shape how I am thinking about this year: expectant. I am expectant that the Lord will form something deeper among our Fellows class than simply a group of people who happen to spend a year together. He put us in this class and in each other’s lives for a purpose. I am expectant to watch friendships evolve, to build the kind of community where we can be honest about what is hard, celebrate what is good, and remind each other that we were never meant to carry everything by ourselves.
Change the World
How on earth are a bunch of twenty-somethings supposed to change the world?
After initially feeling like this is unattainable, I find myself coming back to the order of the phrases. We don’t begin by trying to change the world. We start by loving God and making friends. From those two things we are sent into the world. Maybe changing the world looks less like accomplishing something extraordinary and more like allowing Jesus to work through the ordinary parts of our lives. An unexpected friendship, a willingness to listen, an act of generosity, or simply noticing the person God has placed directly in front of us.
I certainly don’t feel like I’ve mastered any of these things. I am still learning what it means to love God for who He is, to choose relationships over efficiency, and to surrender to Him daily. Maybe that is what makes this motto such a fitting invitation for this year. It isn’t a checklist to complete, it’s a way of living to grow into. And for that, I am grateful.
Thanks be to God for Google Maps, walks with friends, Spotify Jam sessions, pontoon boats, conversations over coffee, and a new Fellows class!
-Katherine Lennon