See God Everywhere - Reagan Branum

- Hi, good morning. All right, so our theme this year for chapel is the goodness of God. And I don't know about you guys, but if you ever tried to think about the goodness of God, you can't narrow it down. I was trying, I tried my best. I was like, okay, I'm gonna narrow this down. I'm gonna figure it out. I'm gonna get it at least like a good story or two. I couldn't do it. You can't put a number on the goodness of God. It's too big. So, this is my attempt, welcome. So, my approach to how I've seen the goodness of God is through my camera roll. I don't know if you've ever, ooh, sorry, I'm nervous. I don't know if you've ever heard the like saying or whatever, I don't know who said it, but it's like what's in your camera roll is a good reflection of what you value the most. And so, welcome to my camera roll, please be nice. Okay. Okay. So, first thing on my list, I put it first so that you would easily forget about it. I love the snow. I know that's a forbidden word. We don't wanna talk about it. I always love the snow. I'm from the north, I love it. So, we have a picture of me and my brother in a blizzard, all bundled up. And then on the other side is me as a little kid with my cousin, of course, decked out in pink. And I've just, I've always loved the snow. So, oh my goodness. Okay, I'm gonna do that the whole time, apparently. The next thing in my camera roll a lot is the black hills. Oh good, it showed up. Okay, these are two pictures that I think at least capture a smidge of how beautiful where I'm from is. I don't know if you've ever been to the black hills. Please go, it's beautiful. It's a good vacation spot. I can, I know where the best coffee is, I got you. I love the black hills, I love South Dakota. So, that's another place. Next thing is my family. I just love this picture. But, especially emphasis on my mom and dad. They are always my biggest supporters and they're just always fun to be around. I love my parents. And then next is my brother. I love this kid. He is the second funniest person I've ever met in my life. Second to me, of course, because I taught him his humor. And that's not true. We get it from my dad. But, I, he's just such an amazing person and he's actually coming here next year. So, Fufu Tumber is in for me. And then the next in the family category is my cousins. I have so many people, my family that I really love. But, I grew up in a really unique situation with my cousins where we're a lot more like siblings. So, this is at my cousin who's older than me by three months. Reese's wedding where he added my best friend to the family, Katie. And so, I love them a lot. And then next we have church camp. I grew up going to church camp for as long as I can remember. Please excuse my inability to take a selfie in seventh grade. That's a wretched picture. But, I put it up there to show you. I love church camp. And on the one, the guy standing in the corner eating something, that is a piece of squid. We played Ultimate Frisbee with a squid at camp. And it's one of my favorite memories. And that is my cousin trying to eat it. But, if you've ever played Ultimate Frisbee with a squid, it's amazing, but the squid does fall apart as it defaws. So, it's interesting. It's great. Then the next on my list of good is here. I love why you. I have a couple of b-reels because it's hard to just put why you in a couple of pictures. And so, the first one is me and Eliza with some leaves outside of Dr. Best's house. The next one is some of the lunch table. We can't always fit at a table or in a picture. And so, I love that. And this is one is my favorite because it's one my mom visited and she just fit right in with us, which is fun. And then, on the side is me and some of my friends and we just would play all the new playground by sack before we went to our bio class, which is fun. And then next is my actual classes. I don't know if you know this or not, but I'm a nerd. And I actually really love school. I love to learn. And particularly this year, I don't know what it's been about my classes or my professors, but I feel like I'm actually, I'm just learning. I can't learn enough. I can't take enough notes. I can't write in the margins of every book enough. I just love the classes that I'm taking. And so, we have a picture of me and a couple of those classes. Actually, these are both pictures of the same class. Shout out, Dr. Hardy. And that's me and Maddie in one of our b-reels from that class. And then the last thing is dance. I absolutely love to dance. I've done it since I was very little in my lemonade costume there. I love dancing, and I particularly love this time of year where we get to do showcase. When season is done, I love season, but it is kind of a nice release. And so, I love that. And then also shout out to Song Fest. I don't have a picture of our practices, but we've been practicing, and it's been so much fun. Okay. Why do I show you all of these pictures and talk about my list of good? Is because in each of these things, I have seen God. As I slow it a bit, I can't believe it. So, Reagan, how do you see God in the snow? It covers you. And it's a reminder that even though sometimes you'll go a long time without seeing the sunlight, God still sends his light in a different form because I don't know if you've ever walked outside the snow, but you're just blinded temporarily, and that's the best thing in the world. Because even though you can't necessarily see the sun through the clouds, there's still sun on the ground. And I just, I love that. Plus, it's like glitter and who doesn't love glitter. And I mean, we serve the God of creation, and the God that can create my home. And even I've found it now. I found beauty in Nebraska. It's taken a little bit, but I do love Nebraska now. But there's beauty everywhere, especially in creation. And so I absolutely love the outdoors, and I've seen God there. And I've seen God a lot in my parents. They chose to serve God and love God. They planted a church up in spearfish. And we, I was just raised where loving God was everything. And I'm so grateful for that. They actually gave me my first Bible, which I brought with me. I got this in for Valentine's Day in 2012. So sorry to make some people feel old, but that was 13 years ago. And I love this Bible. It's my first big, big kid Bible. And they raised me to love God the way that they do. And how I see God in my brother is he is a disciple maker. He is, he's an amazing, oh, I'm so proud of this kid. He is every, I think it's like Friday's at lunch. He'll take a couple of freshmen, and they go, and they sit in the parking lot, and they do a discipleship study together where they read the Bible in like in the part, it means kind of weird in the parking lot. Like they're just reading the Bible, but I love it because those freshmen I've talked to them, and they've spoken at church now and seen how, like Jack took them and they're like, "Why do you think that why are you doing discipleship group?" And their answer has always been, because Jack is the Christian leader on campus on our school, and when he leaves, they don't want that to end. He doesn't want that to end, so he's passing the baton to us. I'm like, like, kid knows what's up. That's all I'm gonna say about that. I can't speak highly enough of my brother. My cousins love God so much, and they, we just laugh so much together, and I think that God is in laughter. And they just, they love people so well, and I'm so proud of each of them, and they love me very well also. And from camp, I have learned almost everything I know about my faith has come from camp or from someone I've met at camp or at church, and I just absolutely love camp. The picture, the selfie of me with those two, are two mentors that I've had in my life that just keep continually feeding me with the word and just speaking life over me. And it's also where I found my gifts. One of them is not catching a squid in case you were wondering, but it's where I found my gift to serve and my gift to just be the hands and feet of Jesus and what that looks like. And in my friends and at why you, I've just found a lot of people that are chasing God together and just lots of laughter along with that. And then in my classes, I'm learning how to be equipped to be on mission. This is kind of our little huddle before we break out and go into the world and do our own things. And what I'm learning here is just so valuable. And not only do I get to learn so that I can complete the mission that I think God has put on my life, but I'm also learning alongside of a lot of amazing people that share the same love for things that I love. And with dance, if dances taught me to laugh when life is hard, my team has taught me to laugh when life is hard, my coach has taught me that and that hard work will always pay off and that nothing's wrong with a little bit of expression. And so I just absolutely love what dances taught me and how it's built me as a person. And even though I don't have a picture, shout out beta and acts again, but they're just such a club full of joy as we're doing different things and trying new things. And I also love that. So these are my last few pictures that I show you because the number one thing on my list of good is that I am a child of God. And that I can be 100% myself and I can have peace when I shouldn't necessarily have peace. And I can choose to follow Jesus. Okay, sorry, I have to find the next button I have on there. So I have a little note here that I wrote, I remember this because my handwriting is terrible. I wrote this in church camp and it has one of my favorite verses on it. It says, "Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us "from God our Father who created it with all the lights "in the heavens. "He never changes or casts a shifting shadow." And so even though I don't have any pictures of God, God is in every single one of my pictures. And so that's all I have for you today. - Thank you.