Habitat for Humanity devotions

"Grace, don't you want to do the morning devotions?" the Habitat for Humanity vice-chair looked at me pointedly.

I shake my head vigorously. Noooo way.

For those of you who don't know, Habitat for Humanity International is a "nonprofit, ecumenical Christian organization, [...] dedicated to eliminating substandard housing and homelessness worldwide and to making adequate, affordable shelter a matter of conscience and action". So when the branch at my university recently held its weeklong International Student Build in the holidays, it meant someone had to do the morning devotions.. Me?

Sure, why not? I was someone who genuinely loved Jesus, pretty good at handling groups of people, and had been trained quite well in giving small talks at my church... But inside I was freaking out. No-one really knew it was a Christian organization, so the majority of the people coming probably wouldn't be Christian, and deep down I knew it was mostly 'cause I didn't want to be 'that' Christian girl.

But two weeks later, I find myself volunteering to take them. Despite my hesitation, I realized what an awesome opportunity this was (that is, after sharing my fears and being told to 'suck it up' a few times by my caring siblings and others). I also found it a good rebuke to be shown how much value I placed in human opinion, and not in God's.. Fear the Lord, not people.

So the challenge was this: to prepare five short devotions for a group of people who probably didn't know Jesus, and didn't care about the Christian roots of the organization they were helping on, being clear about Jesus, and also keeping it interesting and relevant. This is what I came up with...