help-portrait post-event...

Hope you've had a chance to see the Help-Portrait recap video. If not, it's a part of the blog. Check it out. It was such a great day, for so many different reasons. The first of course being the chance to do something incredible for people in need. That was so great. Meeting the people, and getting to hang out together with them was a great thing. Getting to borrow someone's super nice photography setup wasn't too bad either. I shot with some incredible lights and backdrop for a while, and it's given me the "buy nice gear" bug. But that's for another time later in life.

Here is one of the things I really enjoyed about this project: I got to be a part of something bigger than me, just for me. I wasn't doing it because I had to, and I wasn't doing it because I am the youth pastor and it's a part of my job. I got to do this just because there was a great opportunity to do something good for someone else. And that was great.

Don't get me wrong, I love my job (most days). And I love getting to lead students out on missions and different things to try and point to a lifestyle of being missional. I think without an intentional bent on missional living, Christianity is a joke. It's like driving a car with no tires. To those who follow Jesus it's an insult to the redemptive work He did to never get outside the walls of the church. To those that don't follow Jesus, it points to the problem that caused society to move to a post-church mindset: that church and following Jesus is all about ME, and what I get out of the deal. And that we never get out and actually care about people. Okay, that's a post for another time. I am stepping off my soapbox now.

And so while I love what I get to do on that front in my job, I LOVED getting to help lead something and be a part of a team of people all working towards the same end. It felt so great to just go and love people, and not have to worry about too many logistics. It was fantastic. LOVED it. We are already talking about doing another one in the spring.

Which leads me to a question to end with: What are you doing to create good out there? How are you dropping bombs of hope and love on people who don't have any? How can you? Is it through your job? your hobbies? Can the things you do for a living or in your free time impact others around you?

They should.


Live deeper.