Fifteenth

This could be one of my favorite new artists, she is probably not new but I still like her. Her name is Yael Naim.



As I sit here drinking my cup of coffee I can't help think about my friends who are living with no hope. I met a young woman at the gym here in town and I asked a question to strike up a conversation (she was cute but my intentions were not to get her number) the question, "Is this what you want to do with the rest of your life?" Now I understand that could sound like a harsh question but it is all in the tone of your voice (my mom taught me that), and my tone was gentle and sincere, I really did want to know if this is what she wanted to do. She responded with an answer I feel a lot of people have, "To be honest chris, I don't know what I want anymore." (you ever have those times when you just know a conversation is going to be longer than expected, this was one of those.) She began to tell me her story of how she graduated from college with a bachelors in fitness training and started in a job she hated, so she left. And was now working at this fitness place which she liked but she told me she has more to her life than fitness, she likes being fit but doesn't know if it is what she wants to do with her life. She said she has been working so much lately that she is feeling tired and just knows there is more to her life than a gym. (again have you ever felt that someone is on the verge of a life change, I felt this for her) I asked her when the last time she had a day off, "at least 3 weeks ago, I work 8-6 everyday." My advice to her was to ask for a weekend off where she doesn't go near a gym, where she can go and sit outside and just rest.

I think so many of us have put so much ahead of what is important. Our families are getting pushed back becuase we have got to get those documents filed or we have to do something at the office becuase no one else will. Truth is, it will get done. Take time to rest, resting has become something alien in our society. REST. take today and just relax, if not today soemtime very soon. Pray.

I told this young lady that I would pray for her day off and her finding what she wants in this life, she was taken back. Literally she took a step back, like I had just punched her, she asked why? Simply put, "I care about you and where your life is going and I don't want to see someone living a meaningless life." (Now if there was ever a time to ask for a number this would have been it, but I didn't) She said thanks and, that, I am certain sparked something in her mind that there is more to life than work. I will see her again today as I head to the gym to torture my body and I can only hope God has put something on her mind.

My prayer for you, whoever you are reading this in the same boat as my friend, will take a day to just relax. Trust me it helps. If you believe in God, pray, if you don't believe in God and want something more, pray (have a conversation with God). And if you haven't done so in a while maybe strike up a conversation with someone, you will learn a lot about yourslef. Shalom.

Love Loudly..Live Graciously..Be Conversational..

Fourteenth

Did you see the mud-stained, fly infested man
babbling quietly by the wall?
Did you see the hardened, youthful menace
glaring at the world with hate filled eyes?
Did you see the strung out, poisoned addict
shaking, pleading for a chemical assist?
Did you see the rail-thin young man
pleading for a cure, through tear stained eyes?
Did you see the painted, street-corner mannequin
asking everyone about a "good time?"
Did you see the little boy with bloated belly
watching the world with empty eyes?
Did you see the pillar of your community
staring at the forbidden, late into the night?
Did you see...
And just stroll be with irritated eyes?
-Carl Wunsch

Thirteenth

Well, I am here...and here is what I am listening to...



yes I am watching and listening to sermons, mainly the series on starving Jesus.

Well I arrived in Indy last week. I can already tell that this place will be a blessing. I am already learning and already feeling aprat of the team here at Traders Point. People here love Christ, but it goes much deeper than that. Not only do they Love the Lord they Love people. Constantly people are going out of there way to help others, I feel I have heard the statement "I have been blessed and I want to bless others" at least 50 times.(And I am encouraged by statements like this) This place has been blessed but more importantly they are blessing others. They are opening doors for many people.

As far as my journey, things are crazy.(my mom will freak when she reads this, sorry mom) At my last internship in Lexington I started feeling something tugging at my heart to plant a church. But when school started back up and I stopped praying about it, it left.(besides a small stint where I was thinking about quitting school and moving to plant, that was such a wierd time of my life) But now that "thing" is coming back into my heart. It seems like when I really start to focus and pray more diligently I feel something pulling me to plant a church. I don't know what it means, all I can do is to continue to pray about it. There is a fear, however, when I think about it, I mean when I graduate school I will only be 24 with little experiance in ministry. But this I know was the Spirit speaking to me, this past week this statement was taught to me:

…”I was 31 when I became the president of a Bible College. I wasn’t fully prepared for that, but I was confident that God had called me and that he would equip me with all that I needed to be successful, just as long as I kept my focus upon Him.” Then he said this, “God will make you adequate.”

this was in Aarons sermon and something one of his mentors told him. But that same thing is speaking straight to me, am I going to plant a church? I have no idea but I know that as long as my focus is on God and I understand that "my ministry" is not my ministry (it's His)then everything will work out. I want to do what God has creadted me to do.(I am just waiting on that whisper telling me where to go.)

Thanks for your prayers but also thanks for being interested in what I have to say, it is encouraging in itself.

Love Loudly..Live Graciously..Be Conversational..

Twelfth (i think thats right)

For so long I have felt the calling to ministry by God, but I have never fully known what that means I am supposed to do. I found it today:
-I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made it clear to me. And I will make every effort to that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things. (2 Peter 1:12-15)

Here is something else I fell in love with during my study:
-I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
-Mary Oliver

today was simple to understand...i hope

Eleventh

Music right not: Yes it's Coldplay, new song from the new cd(which is love).


My mind is so jumbled, so confused, so tired, and though all that is going on I am still learning. It never fails, I open my mouth to say something and sure enough someone corrects my idiocy. I have to set this story up: I was at a graduation party talking with a person who is leaving for college in a few months and we started talking about churches in the area for her to check out. Well we both know a person who is doing a church plant near the area. She started talking about the church but didn't know the guy as well as I did. So feeling led to gossip(that's not a leading, I was being sarcastic)I told her that it would not be a wise choice to go there. Why? Because my interpretation of the guy was bad and I felt it wouldn't be a good fit for her.(This is where I am called out and felt stupid) My close friend Justin makes this simple statement, and says it quiet enough for me to hear and said said softly enough not to offend, "Don't destroy the crop."

don't destroy the crop? If anything I was helping a girl who could be led astray.(or so I thought) Justin and I went on and never brought it back up. But I was just sitting and reflecting and it hit me. Don't destroy the crop. I wasn't helping her, I was hurting her, her opinions of the guy and her opinions of the yet to be planted church. Which in turn she may say something to someone else about the this guy and then I have created a whole mess of things out of my, interpretation of a man. I understand after reflecting, that God is still in control of what's going on. By me gossiping this girl got a one sided view of another person(probably the wrong view at that). As long as people are searching for God they will find Him, nothing will throw a person off from that.

Sure we can get distracted from God by sin, but as long as we "keep swimming upstream"(as one of my close friends Joe would say) we will remain alive. If God is who we are searching for and desiring to find, sure enough he will be there. This new church plant may help some people find their way to God, who am I to know? If their goal was to throw people off track from finding God, then I have faith that God would not allow the plant to happen. Therefore, my gossip and my words were close to "killing the crop."

This is why I say I am all confused(and now your probably just as confused....sorry)but feel free to shed some light onto this, because after all, I know little.

Love Loudly..Live Graciously..Be Conversational..Swim Upstream