...and I took the one less traveled...

There are many paths to a faith in Jesus Christ. Some grow up in church and begin a relationship at a very early age. Some repent of their sins in college, and some recognize the emptiness they’ve carried around for 40+ years can only be filled with Jesus. Depending on your story, your walk in faith will be characterized with different struggles. Some “career Christians” do everything they can just to not get complacent because it’s hard to know what you’ve got if you’ve always had it. In contrast, the drug addict that spent 10 years living on the street knows exactly what life is like without Jesus and probably doesn’t take it for granted. Instead, they have to deal with the daily temptations a life of sin etched deep into their soul that Jesus can and will heal, but it takes time.

I was 21 when I took my first step forward in Christ. I had been a Christian for two years and was sick and tired of squandering the gift of mercy that had been placed before me. My story is much like the drug addict depicted above. My joy in Christ stems from knowing, without a shadow of a doubt, what life without Jesus felt like and feeling grateful and blessed on a daily basis. I will never go back and I wouldn’t trade my circumstance for anything in the world.

The point of this is to say, what ever your story, know the strengths you gain from your situation and celebrate them first and foremost. God knew what He was doing and you are not a mistake. You have a unique perspective because of your life and that is on purpose. But also know your weakness. Know the pitfalls of your situation and be deliberate in those areas.

Crazy crazy crazy....

To follow up on Fridays blog, this Friday I'll be in Danville, Va and next week I'm going to Kershaw, SC (yes, it's actually a town). I feel like all I do any more is drive and I deeply miss when gas was $1.25 a gallon. I remember the first time I put $20 in my Cadillac and I was so mad...

Life seems to be absolutely flying by since Christmas. I'm not sure where all the time has gone but I can't believe it's almost April. I also can't believe that in a little over 6 weeks I'll be turning 26. Growing up, I never understood why adults didn't look forward to their birthdays, but I understand now.

Kelly and I had a phenomenal time hanging out with Phillip and Anita this past week and we are both very excited to be spending time with Larry and Kelly Hubatka this week. I am planning to steal some time away to play with their 4 awesome girls!! I'm hoping that with Easter past, things will slow down a bit and we can all catch our breaths.

Anyway, nothing deep or spiritual this time by. Just felt like explaining why life has been a bit nuts and I haven't been able to steal much time to myself for deep thought. I am about to rip into Visioneering and I'm sure that will spawn all kinds of creativity. Until then...

Anderson, Charlotte, Atlanta, Savannah

The last week has been quiet an interesting rollercoaster. Thursday I found myself in Anderson, SC at Newspring for Unleash, Friday and Saturday I took the race car up to Atlanta amidst tornados and hail storms, and was able to make it back in time for church on Sunday. Monday and Tuesday were spent putting the sale of the car together and doing some additional job hunting. I don’t really have a clue where Wednesday went aside from small groups, and Thursday was spent meeting Phillip for lunch, going to an interview, meeting Michael for dinner, meeting everyone for Lost, then crashing on Phillips couch for 3.5 hours before driving to Savannah Georgia to instruct for a race school. There’s no real point to this aside to remind myself that I’ve been in 4 different cities in the past week.

BTW, it’s 68 degrees, sunny, gorgeous blue skies, and a very slight breeze. I am chilling under my mesh canopy and LOVING this trip. See you guys tomorrow afternoon!!

And then I missed the whole point.

I have struggled greatly in the last four months. I HATE anticipation. I don’t care if it’s good or bad but knowing something is coming……soon….. kills me. Pretend to poke me and I will smack the snot out of you. Punch me and it’s no big deal. Because I’m wired this way, God has never shown me much of my distant future. I couldn’t take it if he did. I know that God doesn’t typically give anyone distant knowledge, but for me it’s 100 times more than that. He won’t tell me what is in store 4 weeks away because that’s too much for me. I’m a “next step” guy and for me the next step is measured in days or hours.

Four months ago, God spoke to my heart in the most incredible way I’ve experienced since I gave my life to Christ. He told me He had plans for me in the church and that I needed to prepare myself for ministry. This was a BIG DEAL! I hated the thought of working for the church. To me, what could be worse than tedious, stressful work for minimal pay? After all, I had always planned to be a financial giver. (In truth, I was selfish and wanted my 90% or 80% to be as big as possible)

But this time was different. The notion that God would use me to reach lost people and live such a meaningful life almost crushed me. I literally wept for hours and could think of nothing else to do but pray that God would keep my incompetence out of His plan. I have never felt so unworthy, humbled, and full of His grace. Next to my salvation it is the most powerful moment in my life.

So I took steps. God shows me short term and I wanted to get on with His calling in my life. I made a lot of sacrifices to position myself how I thought I should and to explore what area of ministry to enter. I studied, prayed, read, and explored so many resources. Weeks turned into months. Time continued to tick by and I continued to remain faithful to what God was telling me. Soon, I found myself in a very tough spot. I had gone out on a limb to trust God and His direction, but things hadn’t worked out. Four months and I feel no closer now than when I started. I have failed at every attempt to move forward and I couldn’t understand why.

Until tonight at Unleash.

I don’t believe it’s arrogant to admit you have abilities or are good at something. If God puts a calling on your life He’s going to give you the ability and gifts to be successful in that area. God has put in my heart a passion and fervor for students and I believe my whole life has been preparation for this. I believe that I have the gifts and abilities to do it and do it well and yet, the opportunities didn’t appear as I expected and I knew that God was still molding and teaching me. Tonight, WHAT God was teaching has become so clear.

I have been so confident in the tools Jesus has gifted me that I have carried on these past few months on my own strength. I have the knowledge, I have the passion, I have the dedication. In truth, Jesus has everything! Somewhere along the path, between weeping on my bedroom floor and Unleash 4 months later, I lost touch with the fact that Jesus sustains me. Jesus lifts me up. Jesus is not just my everything; He is the reason for my everything! I guess I still have so much further to go….

Unleash Recap

Note: This blog was written 4 days ago but I have been without internet.

Unleash has come and gone and it certainly was an experience. There are so many thoughts and feelings that I have that I wasn’t expecting.

1. My work with student ministry and student small groups lately has been a tremendous eye opener. I was involved in the middle school ministry at Newspring for over 4 years as a small group leader and volunteer before getting the opportunity to serve as a ministry leader within Elevation. That role forced me to look at so many things from my past and I now realize how many times I failed at being a great small group leader in the past. I hope I have an opportunity to help our new small group leaders avoid the mistakes I made and do better myself when I get my own group.
2. Alden Ellis and Brad Cooper were amazing during their breakout. I really expected to hear so many things that I already knew (I was involved in their ministry just 6 months ago) but they did a phenomenal job explaining not just what they did, but why they do it. They shared their goals in the ministry and related all of their activities to those. It was tremendously helpful and I am so grateful that God has placed the two of them in the position they are in.
3. God solidified AGAIN that I have a ridiculous passion for student ministry.
4. Perry Noble is amazing! I think at some point I started taking him for granted when I went to Newspring, especially the last year I was there. I don’t know if it was the separation over the last 6 months or the culture of honoring our Pastor as the man of God that is called to lead the church (thank you Elevation) that has changed my mind but I am so grateful for Perry and his heart. Seeing him up on stage preaching and sharing gave me such a tremendous amount of respect for him and I really want to apologize for taking him for granted. Perry had such a tremendous impact on my walk and I don’t know why I let that fact slip away. Every step I took in the first 4 years of my walk with Christ I took at Newspring Church. Thank you so much Perry for being unapologetic and uncompromising in bringing the word of God. Thank you for pouring yourself into the church, your staff, and your congregation. And thank you for pouring your resources into Elevation and Pastor Steven!
5. On that same note, Perry’s message was fantastic. Coming from Orange Tour a month ago, I was expecting witty teaching, radical new ideas, and creative activities. What I got was the word of God, the word of God, and the word of God. Unleash for me was a time to reflect, refocus, and reexamine things. Perry once again spurred me in my walk with Christ and as a “leader” there is no greater concept than ultimate hunger for Jesus.
6. Just before coming to Elevation, God really pulled my heart away from Newspring. I knew and saw all the amazing things around me but I just couldn’t engage with them on the same level anymore. Even when I came back to visit, it never was the same. Today though, about 20 miles away, I started to get tremendously excited. I mean Elevation Level excitement!! By the time my feet hit the parking lot I wanted to scream and hug every volunteer there. My heart was bursting with joy at the sight of the church and the volunteers. Seeing old friends and being continuously welcomed in amazing over the top ways made my day. I want to thank each and every one of my friends, pastors, and volunteers because you reminded me how important those relationships are/were and how much I value our friendship.
7. Every volunteer at Newspring was a freaking nut and it was amazing!!!! Put some blue shirts on them and they could have passed for Elevators. It was crazy for me to see my old friends run up to me, scream, high five, and get pumped to see me. The ridiculously awesome thing though, was to see dozens of volunteers that I’ve never met before and had no idea I use to be one of them do the exact same thing. Kudos +2 for the volunteers at Unleash!!

OK, those are enough random thoughts for tonight. I have an entirely separate blog planned for what God taught me at Unleash that I’m going to start working on right now.

Unleash

It's coming and I'm pumped! Elevation is taking 150 volunteers to Newspring's conference this year and considering most of my friends at church are part of that volunteer base, I get to go on a field trip with all me new friends. And, I get to go see all my old friends. I didn't realize how much I missed everyone and I am so excited to be going back to see how things are going.

I am so grateful that God has placed me in this city and at a church that values the volunteers that work so hard every week. I fully expect a party Elevation style!

Hunting 2

Still job hunting. I've had a few interviews so far but nothing concrete. It occurs to me that I really wish I learned things faster so that God would move faster in my life. One of the things I'm learning is that I need to chillax a bit and take a breath every now and then. Recently, I've realized that I want to see things develop at a very fast pace, and letting things take their time is annoying. I'm working on it....

My life is a headache...

I don't know what it is about my head but it is always causing me problems. Either my sinuses are trashed because of dust or allergies, or I get headaches. So far I have found I get headaches when I...

• Don't eat enough (high metabolism)
• Drink a lot of soft drinks then stop (caffeine withdrawal)
• Have an irregular sleep schedule
• Sleep restlessly

Then there are the times I get them and don't know why. One thing is for sure though, if I go to sleep with even a mild headache, I wake up with a bad migraine. I have learned to take Advil before going to sleep or else I will ruin the next day almost guarenteed. Last night, I went to sleep with a headache. I woke up three hours later with a bad migraine. Why? Because I was to lazy/tired/stupid to take some Advil.

Isn't it interesting how we all wander into sin the exact same way? If we are honest, we know better don't we? We know when we're on the edge of a dangerous situation, and we know how to get out of it. How many guys have gone down the wrong path because they were careless on the internet one night? How many girls have slipped because they couldn't walk away from a relationship they knew was going to be damaging?

When the Holy Spirit is shouting at us that we have a headache, we need to take our Advil and stop the process before it leads to a full blown migraine. It's always the little things that lead to the full blown mistakes!