Last night I went with some of our students to an event sponsored by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) at Fort Mill High.

Four students -- not from Good Shepherd but from the different FCAs in York County -- gave testimonies.

The speaking was not polished.

The biblical interpretation was not always exactly accurate.

The hermeneutics and exegesis were somewhat lacking.

But boy did it speak to me.

There's something about the sheer simplicity of . . .

• "I was broken and Jesus put me back together" and

• "I was lonely and God brought me company" and

• "I was dying and the church changed my life"

. . . that never gets old.

As someone who wrestles with a cynical attitude and a jaded spirit, I need the refreshing perspective of just how profoundly faith can change the lives of people -- especially young people.

So yeah, hermeneutics, exegesis, and context all matter. A lot.

But nothing compares with the raw simplicity of new found faith.

In Exodus 3, God introduces himself to Moses.

Here's what God says as part of the introduction, and I have put the verbs in bold:

7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

What a remarkable list.

God sees, hears, shows concern, comes down, rescues, and brings up. Why is this God so active?

To deliver his people from captivity.

I believe the same is true today. He is still in the releasing business . . . whether the captivity is literal as with so many of our brother and sister Christians around the world or it is figurative as with so many of my friends mired in addiction.

God defines himself by verbs. And he is moving to deliver . . . even you, even today.

Over the past weekend, I saw two small acts of kindness that communicated large measures of grace.

Both of them involved teenagers, and both were reminders that God is still at work in the world.

First, on Friday night as we were watching Riley's football game -- they lost a close, well-played game to their archrival, taking their record to 4-2 -- I looked up and saw a father and son from our church. Now Good Shepherd is on the other side of town from Charlotte Christian, so I rarely see people from church at school.

But the man I saw is Riley's small group leader at our BigHouse Student Ministry. Not a paid pastor, mind you, but a volunteer youth counselor. He took in on himself to drive across town on a Friday night to cheer on a student in his group.

As a parent of that teen, that kind of support is simply priceless. An act of grace.

The second thing I saw happened during the 11:30 service yesterday. We concluded our worship by celebrating Holy Communion. A large group of teenagers sat two rows behind me. In the row between us was a woman with developmental disabilities. She is a regular in worship.

Anyway, one of the teens noticed that the woman was unable to leave her seat to come up and receive communion. So, without being asked to do so, he brought the elements to her.

It was a small gesture with large meaning. It made me feel good to know students with that kind of heart and that level of insight.

To what signs of grace are your eyes open today?

To say that Hagar is not a biblical hero is something of an understatement.

We easily preach sermons on Abraham, Moses, Ruth, and even Jacob.

But Hagar? Not so much.

She's a maidservant for goodness sakes. She's "the other woman" -- in a sense used by Abraham for procreation purposes when it appeared Sarah was barren. And Ishmael, her son by Abraham, does not carry the covenant in the way his half-brother Isaac does.

Yet in spite of her inherent disadvantages, Hagar utters one of Scripture's most beautiful sentences in the aftermath of Ishmael's birth:

"You are the God who sees me, [for] I have now seen the One who sees me." (Genesis 16:13)

The God who sees me.

It's still true.

When you feel invisible in the midst of your family of origin, you have a God who sees you.

When you feel invisible because of a lack of tangible professional success, you have a God who sees you.

When you feel invisible because your marriage or your romance hasn't worked out, you have a God who sees you.

And yes, when you feel invisible because you are travelling on business and with that anonymity act in ways contrary to your deepest beliefs, you have a God who sees you.

When you feel invisible because grief overwhelms you, you have a God who sees you.

When you feel invisible because it seems as though you are an outcast in your family, on your job, or even in this country, you have a God who sees you.

God saw Hagar when few others did.

And he sees you as well.

Hebrews 3:1 says it this way: