Summer Spotlight: Lauren Walkup

Shining a spotlight on what God is up to in the lives of our congregation, students, and staff. Email lauren@deerlakeumc.org if you're interested in sharing your story.

1.      Coffee or Tea? Defend your answer.

Coffee. Is this even a question? I’ll see you guys at Lucky Goat.

2.      Brief Bio: Who are you? How’d you get here?

A girl from my high school invited me to the Lakes after Sunday church. Nick just so happened to be hiring youth interns around that time, and for some reason, he ended up hiring me a few weeks later! I started following Jesus my senior year of high school and the Lakes was exactly the community I needed. I have awesome parents, an awesome older brother, and two precious puppies. I went to FSU and my Chemistry/Education degree is currently collecting dust in my closet. I wouldn’t have it any other way!

3.      Tell us something unique about you that we’d never think to ask.

I love writing poems!

4.      What are you reading/listening to right now that the congregation needs to know about?

Have y’all ever visited the church library (upstairs in education building)? The other day I found this awesome book called, “Love, Skip, Jump” by Shelene Bryan. The book begins with the author's journey to find out if a sponsorship child in Africa is real or a scam. Shelene's story is an absolutely beautiful one that’s all about what happens when we say “yes” to God. Here’s a spicy quote from it:

“We are not seeing God because in our self-created ‘Christianity Lite’ world, we are not trying anything that only God can do…We have designed our lives so that God never needs to step in.”

5.      Where do you currently see God at work in your life?

Things have felt really broken lately. I think it’s just been a month of realizing that Creation is, in fact, groaning (and so am I). It doesn’t matter if I’m talking to hurting friends, spending time with sick family, scrolling on my phone, or looking in the mirror- brokenness is everywhere. Life is uncontrollably crooked, and I can’t make it straight. In this season, I feel like God has been gently reminding me that I can’t fix every situation and that often people need someone to weep with them (and not to be their life coach). If you’re in a similar season, I really was encouraged by this essay/poem/Instagram caption by Andy Squyres (see below). It's called "Spare the World Your Purpose Driven Life."