#27

so remember when I said I would try to blog more? like 2 posts ago, I planned on writing every other day or so? well, while it may seem I've botched that, in all truth, I really just took a break for my birthday. who wants to blog on their birthday? 

anyways, year 27 is here for me. It's so far about the same as 26. Frankly, it's the same as 25 too, in some ways at least. We'll undergo some major changes this year though, most of which will happen this summer. (that means baby time for those of you I haven't seen in person lately) In all honesty, I'm ready for things to change. All of life has some level of change in it, jobs, money situation, having things payed off or being in debt still. But one thing we lack is big changes it seems. Like for me, I know that the person I was in early high school is dramatically different from the person I was in late high school. And the person I was then isn't the same as I was in college. And I shouldn't be the same either. I should be constantly changing and growing as a person, and as a follower of Jesus. And that's the part that should change the most, but for me and for others too I'd guess, that's the part we never change enough of. Not that we should be rocked by every little thing, but if Jesus in all his bigness is really living in me, then why am I not changing and growing in that identity more and more? Are we scared of the change? Is it a lack of commitment? Or do we just not pay enough attention to see the opportunity to change and not take it? 

As the caffeine junky I am, I had coffee with a good friend last week. He put it this way: we don't have enough adventure in our lives. His neighbor across the street for example. He lives in a neighborhood in mid-Oklahoma City, near a historic neighborhood, but not IN the historic neighborhood. Not the newest or richest place by any means, but not a horrible place either. But this guy was WAY involved in the Apollo project back in the day. So he's a NASA genius. But when NASA decided to do away with Apollo, he got laid off. His wife freaked out about it and left him, and he decided to travel for almost 2 years, just going places. Now he lives in a fair house in a fair neighborhood just living and doing his thing. While that might seem a bit mundane, he did something really amazing at some point in his life. Had a hand in putting people on the moon! And somehow, things didn't pan out like he hoped, but he still found adventure and things to do with himself. My question is: are we all so obsessed with having a new house, new cars, and the american dream, that we chase "the dream" generic when our own dream might be staring us in the face where we are? What if this generic thing we all chase of a house, kids, and vacation wasn't for all of us? I bet it isn't. But do we chase "specific" dreams for ourselves at all? Or do we lose them to the american dream?

gotta go staff meeting time. hope to hear back from you.

live deeper. . .

road lag. . .

Well, we're back from our Passion regional, and it was great. I am directionally challenged in Dallas, Texas apparently (especially when I use I-35W instead of I-35E in the rain), but less that, it was really great. BIG THANKS to Todd for letting us raid his house at midnight, even though he & his wife had to go to work at 5 am. If you look at the Passion website, we're apparently the only regional event to be sold out too, which explains a lot.

One of the things that was so cool was the ways that Passion pushed people to give so much this weekend, and how much people responded. Out of 6,000 people that were there, they donated 3,700 towels and 17,800 pairs of socks to the city of Dallas for people in need. Along with that, they were raising money for Blood:Water Mission, an organization that builds permanent wells for people in Africa. They cost about $3000 a piece. Passion Dallas raised $18,992 for BWM, so 6 wells that will give people water for the rest of their lives. 

Oh, and then there was the "world tour" they're doing soon. Passion is going international next fall, and Dallas was directly sponsoring the event in Seoul, Korea, so that they can attend for free. They raised $80,040 for the regional event. "Poor" college students gave $98,000 in 24 hours. 

One more thing too: Passion also adopted Union University (not the best story on it, but it's the best I found), that was completely destroyed in a tornado recently. What was so cool about this, is that Louie asked the 6,000 students to donate any extra clothing they might have with them for the students at Union, and they are going to give out the clothing in a "student store" of sorts, because almost all of the students lost EVERYthing in this tornado. 

I've still got a lot stewing from the weekend, but I was REALLY impressed by the amazing stuff that happened this weekend. It's so crazy what can happen when 6,000 people who deeply love Jesus band together and give things away to others. It makes me wonder why we don't do that more. It makes me wonder what would happen if we did. We may not have the "latest and greatest" stuff in our churches, our church buildings might not even be all that great or perfect, but, what if we all gave away like that? 

If we all were so willing to give away, and people knew that it was from our love of Jesus, the world would be a dramatically different place. I wish we all "got it" like that.

road trip!

My creative writing teacher in high school always told me that I should write everyday, regardless of if I feel like I have something of value to say. After this week, it's a week of forced writing for sure. Coffee helps. And I've got to tell you, french press coffee is definitely the best. It's a bit gritty today, I think the coffee might be a bit too finely ground. Details. It is still tasty. Awful for your teeth in comparison to "regular" coffee, but delicious none the less.

Well, I'm off for the next couple days. Going to stay at a friend's house, while we go to a Passion regional event. I'm really looking forward to it. After my last post, of wanting to have some really intentional time for me, as much as I'm going to be in charge of things this weekend, I know it will be a great time for us all. I would love your prayers for our trip, as we're going on a weekend where it's supposed to be icy coming back home.

Sorry if this post is a bit all over the place. My mind is still a bit distracted this week. Plus, my mind is checking off things to do before I leave whilst I write. Let me leave you with some fun. I'm completely excited for this: 

And, if I ever won the lottery, I'd almost consider buying this, if I lived on a coast.

Have a great weekend everyone. See ya next week.

mentally dead, but physically here. . .

Hello to you all, especially to those of you on blogspot, as I'm a newb here. Today is a mixed day for me. actually, it's been a mixed week all the way around. I've felt somewhat "mentally dead" the last few days. it's been sort of odd really. I think the last time I really had one of these days was about 4 months ago. I think I get them every few months maybe. One of my friends gets a bad migraine about once a year, and it keeps him out for a few days; I think that's how my mentally dead days are. Once every few months, and I am useless for a few days. Such is life.

Actually, I feel the pull and need to get out of town for a couple days really. Working in youth ministry, I feel the pull to get out of town occasionally and re-center if you will. I suppose that would be the case with any job really, but I notice it more here. For me, it's all about the fact that for me to lead well, and to lead the way I want to lead, I feel a need to lead from my heart. It's like this: if I feel like God is calling us a certain direction, then I can only lead us as far as my heart is going that direction. If my relationship with God is lacking, or off-kilter, then I feel, I can derail us easily if I don't pay attention to what I'm doing. And this job feels too important to just let things go. It's not working on a teller line or anything. 

Anyways, so that is where I find myself. I feel my heart saying "get out, find some fuel for yourself" and I think I'm gonna have to do it soon. 

Not really a related thought per se, but I figure that picture is making no sense in context at all, so let me explain. Today some friends have signed up for this thing called "love is the movement" on facebook, which is an "unofficial" extension (as far as I can tell) of "To Write Love On Her Arms," which is an AMAZING group of people. And I have a friend, who was a student I met for 20 minutes once at a superbowl game about a year ago that has a strong tie to them, and asked us all to participate, and I can't turn down that offer. She is one that I think Jesus would "ditch church & religious people" to go hang out with if He was physically walking the Earth right now. And really, it's a prayer of sorts for me too, for us all. That we would find hope in the fact that in the end, Love will win. We lose sight of that way too often, myself especially, since I get lost in the in's & out's of ministry. Administrative office work frustrates me for that reason, and stirs up a hornets nest in my heart & head, but that's a different blog for a different day. Maybe I'll flesh it out in the next couple days, but I've spent enough time here for now. My goal is to try and write every other day, if not more often than that.

Oh, and for you south-central american types who know what Mardel is, here's some "Jesus junk" as my buddy Marko calls it, that will probably be here in no time next to the Jesus guitar pics and test-a-mints. Thanks to my buddy Tyler for passing this along to me: Jesus cosmetics in Singapore.

Live deeper.