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Last night I had the pleasure of having my friend Cornell Jordan speak in my youth group. Cornell always tears it up and last night was no different. He spoke on having clean hands before the Lord. Good stuff. Challenging stuff. He loves physical illustrations and the close of the message was three basins for the youth to come up and wash their hands in. A red one for having sin in your life, a black one for something in your life you need to get rid of, and a white one for those that knew they were right with God but just wanted to renew and refresh their walk.
I love how God brings people into our lives. A few years ago I didn't know Cornell at all. I met him when a fellow youth pastor asked me to help with something called Camp X. He was working with the discipleship track and asked me to come. I hesitated, but eventually said yes. However, I wasn't able to attend the last planning meeting. I basically just showed up not knowing what to expect. What I found was that the discipleship track was led by this crazy guy called Cornell. Yeah, first impressions are weird. I soon learned that the "crazy" I saw was really intense passion for the Lord and helping other know the Lord. I've worked three camps with him now, have had him speak in my youth multiple times, and have had him as my youth Fall retreat speaker. I count him as one of my friends.
Cornell is currently ministering as a youth evangelist (although he can just has easily knock the socks off adults). Yeah, this is a promo for him and no, he didn't ask me to so this. Check him out.
www.cornelljordan.org
I was trying to write a chapter review after each chapter. Yet, I discovered that I was intentionally not reading the book in an effort to catch up here. With the uploading problem I'd probably never catch up. So, I made the decision just to plunge forward. I wanted to finish so I did. The book was really good. Mark Batterson makes some very interesting conclusions about how we live our lives in what I basically call fear. Just for time sake, I've put the Lion Chaser Manifesto below. Mark posted this on his blog the beginning of this year. Worth looking over again. Adios.
Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshiping what's right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze new trails. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don't try to be who you're not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away.
Chase the lion.
This past week I read Psalm 27 in my devotions. I was struck by verse 14. "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." I think the hardest thing about waiting for God is...uh, well, the waiting. We know that God has all power and can do something, but it is so difficult to watch nothing happen for so long. I think the Lord knows just how human we are. That's why he encourages to stay strong and take heart while we wait. Answers are coming. The healings we have desperately been seeking are coming. The answer to prayers that have stretched through many years are coming. Let's stay strong and wait.
For any one reading this, trust me, I'm writing this just as much for myself as it is for you.
Any visitor to my blog knows that it doesn't get updated frequently. Not my fault. I still live in the world of dial up internet. I use to be able to upload my site over it. It took a long time, but it worked. Some time in the past two months or so I discovered I could no longer upload the site. I think some software upgrades on my end didn't like trying to upload all the changes that I was making. After much trying, I've finally just come to the conclusion that I can no longer upload the website over my internet. That limits me to uploading to the site on Thursdays when I spend some time at Caribou Coffee with their Wi-Fi. So my dilemma is simple. Do I write blog entries throughout the week and then upload them all at once on Thursday? What about the weeks where I just can't get to Caribou? Still trying to figure out what I'm going to do.
Thanks to a financial blessing that helped eliminate some debt, my wife and I had some money freed up every month. We were seriously discussing the possibility of jumping up to high speed internet. I would love it not only for this blog but for my youth ministry. It was looking like it was going to happen. The money was there every month with plenty left over to help in other areas of our life. This of course is all the build up to the collapse. A letter from my landlord with a rent increase dashed any dreams I had to the ground. There's still money freed up, but I'm practical enough (and maybe even wise enough) to see that it needs to go to other places. So I'm stuck in the realm of the super slow.
I'll try to get stuff uploaded from time to time. I'm farther in the book "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day." Will try to post some more thoughts and reflections soon. Good book.
That's it. Adios.
One of the saddest things I see as a youth pastor are youth that once loved the Lord grow indifferent. It's not that they totally reject God, they just really don't care anymore. Yeah, they still show up. They can still talk about God. Yet, you watch them and see that there's simply nothing there. No substance behind the talk. This problem isn't limited to youth either. It cuts out your heart though watching it happen. There's not much you can even say because again, they just don't care.
Not much more to say. It is weighing heavy on me though.
I'm writing this with approximately ten minutes left in the third quarter. The score is currently 24 to 10. Not looking good for my Buckeyes. But, thankfully my life isn't built upon football. I really enjoy watching it and the Bucks are my favorite team, but it doesn't consume me. That's why in a few minutes I will go to bed with the game still on. I'll go to sleep without knowing the outcome (well, sadly I think I know the outcome already). My life has more importance than a game.
Great, as I write this OSU just gave up another touchdown. Stupid Buckeyes. They couldn't play their way out of a wet paper...oh yeah, it's just a game. Looks like I'll be saying that for another year.
