Starbucks Thoughts

I just finished Donald Miller's book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. I enjoyed the book, but it took me until the end to truly appreciate it. The following are a couple excerpts from the book, that provided a reminder of great truth, about marriage and life, for my life:

(this is another author's response to the question "is there one true love for every person?" and then Donald Miller's commentary following)
"[the other author] essentially said no. And she said that with her husband sitting right there in the audience. She said she and her husband believed they were a cherished prize for each other, and they would probably drive any other people mad. But then she said something I thought was wise. She said she had married a guy, and he was just a guy. He wasn't going to make all her problems go away, because he was just a guy. And that freed her to really love him as a guy, not as an ultimate problem solver. And because her husband believed she was just a girl, he was free to really love her too. Neither needed the other to make everything okay. They were simply content to have good company through life's conflicts. I thought that was beautiful.....All of this may sound depressing to you, but I don't mean it to be. I've lived some good stories now, and those stories have improved the quality of my life. But I've also let go of the idea things will ever be made perfect, at least while I'm walking around on this planet. I've let go of the idea that this life has a climax....And the thing is, it works. When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are. And when you stop expecting material possessions to complete you, you'd be surprised at how much pleasure you get in material possessions. And when you stop expecting God to end all your troubles, you'd be surprised how much you like spending time with God....Do I still think there will be a day when all wrongs are made right, when our souls find the completion they are looking for? I do. But when all things are made right, it won't be because of some preacher or snake-oil salesman or politician or writer making promises in his book. I think, instead, this will be done by Jesus. And it will be at a wedding. And there will be a feast."

(back to Tyler Crosson's thoughts) I'm not entirely sure why I'm posting this, other than the fact that I was in Starbucks today from about 3p-6:30p(ish) and I felt overwhelmingly struck by this truth. I hope that you allow yourself to marinate on all this. Maybe Miller's words are just hitting me where I am right now...but maybe you can see some truth through this as well.

I got much love for you...

I'm Proof

The week leading up to Easter has once again proven to be a great season of growth in my walk with the Lord. Obviously as this momentous day approaches, the day of celebration that my Savior is no longer dead and lifeless, the more I dwell on that fact and my complete unworthiness to call Him my Savior and "gain from His reward". But I digress. I have a great friend that sent me some love in mail today as a celebration of this day, and in the box, she included some Truth for my life. The Lord proceeded to master me from that point on. Here's the verse she sent me:

"Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life." 1 Timothy 1:15-16

What perfect timing for this verse being in the middle of Resurrection week? The Lord immediately reminded me of how much I do not deserve this eternal life. You can ask my friends...they can tell you how absurd I really am and the sin that too often dominates my life. Furthermore, ask the Lord. He can tell you how many times I've grieved His heart with my sin. I really am such a sinner, and so much in need of my Savior. I am utterly confident of that. There is good news to this story, and it is clearly demonstrated during Resurrection Week. Jesus hung on the cross to pay the very debt that I cannot. He died, but that wasn't Game Over. Because He rose! My soul is overjoyed at the thought.

Furthermore in this verse, it spells out why Jesus has anything to do with me. Deep, deep love. If He was willing to be the sacrifice for my sin...to rescue this kid from the punishment that I've earned, He's willing to do the same for you. Through my rescue, both Paul (who wrote this passage from first Timothy) and myself can claim the fact that Jesus is using us as an example of his unlimited patience.


I'm living proof that if Christ would do such a thing for me, He will do so for you. The reason He displays this unlimited patience is love. Deep, unexplainable, incomprehensible love. That's the bottom line. That's why the pain, the mocking, the beating, the torture, the death. Love. For me and for you. Doesn't make sense? I agree. I can't understand it. But I'm completely confident that it is truth in my life, and it could be truth in yours.

"He rose. Jesus, He rose.
My life's been forgiven. This world holds no power.
He rose. Jesus, He rose.
My life's been redeemed. This prisoner set free.
Death where's your sting? Cause He rose."
-He Rose by Jeff Johnson.

Speechless. Happy Easter because He is risen! I got much love for you...

You Are Here.

YOU ARE HERE:

I am 25 years old. I have a BA in Psychology and am one semester away from an M.Div. in Christian Education (whatever that means). When I graduate I will be 26 years old. I have good credit. I have great and very encouraging friends and family. I have a passion for loving and connecting with people.
I have no debt. No wife/kids. Very little money. No strings attached.

What does this mean? It means that once I graduate in December, my life is WIDE OPEN. Intimidating? Slightly. Exciting? Completely. I will literally be in a position that the possibilities are seemingly endless for me to move on to whatever is next.

I haven't posted recently. A)I've been insanely busy traveling for preaching opps or pleasure. B)It was a busy month for school assignments. C)There is a girl that I'm completely fond of. D)I've been trying to wrap my head around what this next year is going to look like for me. While all of those keep me busy, trying to understand or figure out what an infinite God is planning and scheming for me to do, is trumping any other thoughts I may be having.

God, here's my future. Do what You do.

The Weight of Sin...or lack thereof

My journey with the Lord has landed me reading through the book of 1 Kings currently. From that passage, the Lord really rocked my world with a thought tonight...interesting how when one prays for the Holy Spirit to speak through His word, He will, huh? Anyway, in chapter 11, I noticed an all too often commonality in my life with the life of then King Solomon. Solomon decided to start taking wives from "foreign women" (ESV translation). Man, I do that all the time!

...

But seriously, his taking wives from "foreign women," meant that he was taking lightly the commands of God and engaging in sin. Solomon did not think these wives would do any harm. He did not continue to place the true weight of sin on the situation. You see, God specifically instructed the Israelites not to marry these people because He knew that their pagan ways would distract and lead the Israelites away from Him. Sure enough, that very thing happened to THE wise King Solomon. Solomon treated his sin lightly.

In that moment, Solomon did NOT understand the weight of his sin. Unfortunately too often in my own life, I do not truly see sin as what it is. Filthy, ugly, despicable, grotesque, complete disobedience, lack of respect, lack of trust, self-centered, etc. Sin separates me from God. What is the result of sin? DEATH. Period. The wages of sin is death. Does that mean I'm going to immediately die a physical death as a result of my sin? Unlikely. But, it is a complete disgrace to my God. For Solomon it resulted in God allowing adversaries to rise up against him and the nation of Israel and be successful...because of his sin.

God does not take sin lightly. Too often in my life, I do. That's terrible and I'm embarrassed. Moreover, I am very good at justifying my sin, especially the "no big deal" sins. How ridiculous can I be? The thing that I was confronted with today was that there are consequences for sin. No questions asked. No matter how big or small, my sin will be dealt with and it will lead to death. Thank the Lord for His grace and Christ's sacrifice on the cross for the punishment of my sin.

I suppose my challenge to myself and you is to see sin as sin. In its full disgustingness (take that word to the bank). We must recognize the severity of our sin, and not take it lightly, even the "no big deal" ones. Getting a firm grasp on our sin would most certainly make the Gospel that much more valuable to us! God reached down a long way to pull this sinner from the pits. I'm thankful for His continued display of grace in my life.

Father, help me to understand the weight of my sin. Help me to understand how horrific it is to you. Help me to not take lightly sin in my life. Help me to not stand for it, not support it, and not settle for it. Help me to see sin as You do. Father, save me from the punishment of my sin. Thank you for the grace that you have provided for me and for the sacrifice that Christ was on the cross. Forgive me for where I fall short, and help me to stand back up and pursue holiness!

What about you? I hope you have a better grasp of the weight of sin that I too often do in my life.

...'Till He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ, I stand.

I got much love for you...

From Point A to B or The Space in Between

I turned in a paper this week that was very difficult for me to complete. It is not uncommon for me to struggle with some of my papers in seminary over the content or the emotion it elicits from me, but this is the first paper to give me trouble of its kind. The paper was not designed to force me to deal with and work through some of my weaknesses in ministry, but it surely did. I am so glad to finally have gotten that paper finished! This is what was confirmed to me about myself and my ministry:

Doing the Point A and doing the Point B are no problem for me, and I enjoy them. The space in between those points is not part of my strengths. What are those points? I'm glad you asked. Point A is the dreaming or visioning aspect of ministry. Every ministry needs a plan. We must be in tune to what and how God is moving among us and how He desires us to respond and be involved with Him. Dreaming and "casting" a vision is a way that He communicates, at least to me, what He is up to. I can see where He is leading and where He desires us (myself and those I'm with). I love doing that. I love seeing what the Lord is up to! This is Point A.

Point B is about doing, living and loving. Point B is what all the efforts of the dreaming and vision play out. I love getting to know people. I love interacting with them. I love hearing their stories. I love to engage them. I love to connect with them (in spite of my shy nature). Point B is a fantastic place for me to dwell because I love being a part of the process of walking life and being with people.

This paper was completely about the space in between points A and B. The planning, the paperwork, the administration, the organization and the preparation in order to connect these two points. I'm not a fan of it! In fact, I do not even remotely enjoy it. The project was to design and implement a church and community ministry. I loved the dreaming up aspect of the paper. I loved trying to figure out ways to meet people's needs. I loved thinking about the doing of the ministry. Meeting the needs. Walking life with those my "ministry" was going to reach. Unfortunately the paper was all the details in between. About 1-2 pages of the 15 page project was the part that I enjoy. The rest was the space in between.

So what did I learn? Well I do still dislike writing papers, which probably comes as no surprise to you. I also learned that I need to be diligent to surround myself with people who are strong in doing the space in between. Two people that come to mind for me: Jason Dorriety and Bud Harlan. I think the time I was able to serve with both of them was phenomenal because we complemented each other (me with Jason and me with Bud). I am not saying that either of them are weak in the Dreaming/Vision or Doing aspects, I'm just saying that are definitely good at the administrative stuff. I'm so desperately thankful for the Lord's allowing me to work with them in the capacities that I did, and I would LOVE to be able to be teamed with them again in some form or fashion.

So what are your weaknesses in ministry? Who are your compliments? I am definitely NOT saying that this is my only ministerial weakness! I'm sure you could name a few about me yourself, and I can absolutely guarantee that Jason and Bud could write a dissertation on it, with love of course. My point is this paper really made me realize that it is most assuredly important to surround ourselves in ministry with people that compliment us. People that can be strong where we are weak. Hopefully this was something to think about...maybe?

I got much love for you...

The Saints Have Come Awake

Unless you've had your head in the sand, I'm going to assume that you have heard that the mighty New Orleans Saints have won the NFC Championship and a spot in the Super Bowl. The is the first time in the Saints' franchise history that they have gotten this far. Historically, the Saints have been terrible. Absolutely terrible. I have heard stories about people putting bags over their heads when they attended the games out of shame. I have also heard that people used to simply put their Saints tickets in between their windshield and windshield wipers offering people to take them so they didn't have to watch the embarrassment that WAS the Saints.

*I confess that this post is going to take a seminary boy turn from here on out...bail if you must, but you've been warned.* I've told you before that the Lord uses some bizarre things to communicate to me, and currently He is using the Saints and Matt Maher's music. One thing that strikes me as I pull for the Saints, is that, as Christians, we are all called to be representatives for Christ....through Christ, we are saints. Not perfect, by any means, but we have been sanctified through Christ, thus we are saints. So every time I watch or hear about the New Orleans Saints, the idea of me and you being saints is at least present in my brain.

The problem is, I believe that we as saints, are acting much like the New Orleans Saints of old. We almost seem to be asleep. Not much going on. BORING. This is where Matt Maher comes in. He has a song called "Christ is Risen" and there is a lyric that says, "Christ is risen from the grave, trampling over death by death. Come Awake! Come Awake!" That's a pretty dynamite lyric. (I recommend you check out the song.) Anyway, I took a look at my own life. Does my life exemplify a life that has "come awake" in response to Christ? I want people to look at my life and wholly recognize that I'm awake as a believer! Just like the New Orleans Saints have finally come awake in terms of actually fielding a team and playing football, I hope that my life is lived in a way that would be described as awake!

Psalm 57:7-11
"My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast;
I will sing and make music.

Awake, my soul!
Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.

I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.

For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
let your glory be over all the earth."

Christ is alive! He has defeated death. So let's go! Let's live our lives as if that's the case. Come Awake! Come awake!

I hope this post made sense to you. I know I'm weird, there's no need to remind me.

I got much love for you.

Connections

One thing that I have been talking with the Lord and my friends much about lately is the idea of connecting with people. Why, you may ask? Good question. Connecting with people is an integral part of ministry. Connecting with people is a way for us as Christians to communicate to a person their worth, my love for them because they're a child of God, and ultimately God's love for them. Here's the catch...I question how well I'm able to do that. If you would have caught me about 2-3 weeks ago, I would have told you that I'm alright at connecting. I have digressed.

Here's what I feel is at the heart of connecting with someone: To connect requires me to give something of myself to a person. If I am truly going to connect with people, then when I leave that moment with that person, said person should walk away with something from me: Truth of scripture, love, money, time, resources, energy, etc. In my giving of myself in that manner, I have hopefully communicated to that person, "you're worth it to me". You're worth my money, my time, my whatever. In that moment of connection I have ideally communicated to that person their worth to me, my love for them, and like I said, ideally and ultimately Christ's love for them.

I have since realized that I have no idea how to do that. I believe that forming a connection can come from the giving of any number of things, thus causing connections to look vastly different at times. My question is, how do you connect? Let me go on to say that I believe that I do connect with people. I have seen it. I have experienced it. I'm just unsure of how it happened. I was a Bible study leader for a dynamite group of 7/8th grade guys a week ago. I believe I connected with all 5 guys in my group. I just don't know what happened. How am I supposed to continue connecting with people if I don't know how to do it? Irony. Furthermore, I have decided that it is because of these connections with people that causes me to have such a hard time leaving people after I've spent a D-Now weekend with them, for example. Our connection, and thus the love formed, has bonded us, and I think that's a good thing, albeit painful.

The enemy has me puzzled on this one, and I have battled some feelings of worthlessness over it. Here's what I do know: This has absolutely led me to the Lord with this prayer: God, I have no idea how to do what you're calling me to do, but here is what I'm confident of...I want You to do some ridiculous things through me for Your glory, so do what You do! I feel like I'm good at being clueless, and I'll gladly maintain that feeling as long as the Lord will work through me. So my prayer today is that the Lord will continue to give me opportunities to connect with and love on folks, so I can continue to beg Him to use me to communicate His truth to them.

How well are you connecting with people? I believe this connection, this formation and display of love, should be at the heart of us, as believers. So are we connecting? Do we truly care enough about people to try to connect? I'm probably not doing a great job.

I got much love for you...