Part 2 or Solutions

I realized that this entry really needed to have two sections to it. I didn't like how ending made me feel. I felt kinda bummed so I wanted to end on a happier note. You tell me if this works.


Random thoughts on change, adventure, and risk:
1. Take a day off of work. Somewhere in the middle of the week, preferably when it makes absolutely no sense. Have a blast! Realize that life will still go on without you, people will still go to work, come up with creative solutions to problems, and life will go on without you. In my profession this means realizing that God will do amazing things in the lives of people without me.

2. Add risk and adventure to your weight loss diet. nothing adds a challenge to weight loss like starting your morning off with 4 pieces of bacon, two donuts for a late morning snack, and a slice of cheesecake for desert. This may seem counter productive at first but relax, belch, then focus on your workouts because you need to maximize them never before!

3. Sometimes the Christian life is boring. It just is. I really believe that is our own fault and not God's. Jesus didn't say, "Hey, come follow me and I'll lead you to the most boring, insignificant life filled with lame rituals that will cause others to make you feel guilty for completing them." If this is your mindset, I'd encourage you to change. Here are a few suggestions. Pray boldly for big things to happen! Seriously, try it, see what happens. Try a different spiritual disciple, one that will stretch you. Some might include, fasting for a weekend, memorizing whole chapters or even books of the bible, taking a Wednesday off of work just to sit in silence with God. Experience what it like to be homeless for a night. If you really want to try something different, try living like Jesus for a week. Talk to the people he talked to (prostitutes, tax collectors, hungry, sick and the outcasts of society).

4. Revert back to childhood. Build a tree-house. What's that, no tree? Plant a giant tree so that you can build a tree-house. Make forts in your backyard or in the mud. Camp outside in your backyard. Make popcorn and soda and stay up all night watching your favorite movies on VHS. Get up early to watch the sunrise. Climb something tall. Anything, your house, a building, the local movie theater. It really doesn't matter.

Lastly, DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT! be daring, make people question your sanity and then invite them to go along with you for the ride!

Please leave comments with your own suggestions on how to add adventure to your life.

apathy, motivation and drive, or, blah, blah, blah

There are moments in life when you lose your passion; passion at work, passion for personal development and hobbies, and even passion for the Lord. Why do we lose passion? Why do we burnout, get frustrated, and even… tired?

I certainly don’t know all the answers or cures for this endeavor (or should I say “apathy”?). Experts will tell you to get more sleep, eat fruits and veggies, exercise at least 20 minutes a day, and be around people that challenge and motivate you (ever wonder who challenges and motivates the people motivate you? Or better yet, who motivates the person who motivates and the person that motivates you?).

Although these things may help in the process I don’t believe them to be the cure-all answer for most things in life. The symptom that ill’s me is boredom. The cure, well I’ll get to that in a second. My work environment has gone stale. My hobbies are no longer challenging or exciting. I’ve developed a routine, one that has become predictable, boring, and free of risk! This includes my relationship with Christ. Sometimes I get into a boring routine, which for me, is always a recipe for apathy. My life story is empty of adventure. It lacks rising and falling action, which is the key ingredient for any good storyline. The cure for apathy and meaningless routine is… CHANGE! I need change in my life so I can stay of my toes, challenged, energized, even refreshed.Change brings adventure, adventure brings risk and risk ultimately brings out the passion inside of us. Passion in life helps us to conquer, to overcome, to be victorious in life no matter how big the risk. This is the cure for apathy, boring routine, and lifelessness.

But do I need to drastically make changes or will small ones do?

Where do I start first?

Does it matter where I start?

In what ways have you brought positive change to your life?

Thursday Night Lesson

An important lesson to learn early in life is one of personal responsibility. For the next three weeks our Thursday night teaching series will be grounded in responsibility. This week we are focusing on the principle, you reap what you sow. This principle fits perfectly into our overall theme of personal responsibility.

I was never good at speaking Spanish, let alone understanding it. I struggled through it for the first month of my freshmen year until I decided to take advantage of a good friend of mine. He was Mexican and spoke Spanish fluently at home. So we made a little agreement and he allowed me to copy off his tests for the rest of the year. I passed Spanish 1 with a B+. Not too bad if I do say so myself. The following year Spanish 2 came around and we were going to renew our agreement from the following year. I would copy his work and pass the class. However, there was a breakdown in the plan. He ended up taking Spanish 2 over the summer because he wanted to take auto-shop during the normal school year. Because of his choice (notice I put the blame on him) I now had to fight my way through Spanish 2 learning the basics that I was supposed to have already known while keeping up with the more advanced teachings of my Spanish 2 class. Never has the principle you reap what you sow hit closer to home then my first two years of Spanish class.

I ended up passing the class with a C- thanks to some extra credit reports and a website called freetranslator.com (which it turns out does a horrible job of translating English to Spanish). The website barely helped with my homework. I was able to understand the big picture but not all of the details. Example: I understood that I need to give directions on how to get to the library but I had no idea how to give directions. There was no way I could explain to him that the library was on the other side of town, he needed to take the gray taxi, which cost 5 dollars (cinco pesos?), and cross the street to the left.

If high school students understand that in life we reap what we sow apply it to their life it will be amazing to see what they have accomplished ten years from now. What have you been sowing? Are you scared or excited of what you will be reaping?

The important things in life

For those of you who follow my blog you are well aware that I focus on the serious and important issues in life. I ran across this video and it has helped me out in many social interactions. I hope it will be useful to you as well.

Faith and Doubt

This Thursday's message is dedicated to a student named Chris. His honesty and desire to know Jesus is contagious and inspiring. One night, while we were in the mountains for winter camp, he asked the question, "How do you know God is real"? from that point on I've been challenged to give him an answer that is helpful and honest both biblically and from my own experience.

While studying I searched through the scriptures to see if there were examples of people who doubted the existence of God and the words of Jesus. I was very encouraged. I hope you will be too.

1) John the Baptist: His ministry was dedicated to preparing the way for Jesus. His message was simple; Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. He told everyone that the savior was coming. Fast-forward a bit to Luke 7:20 we read that John the Baptist, now in prison, sent some messengers to Jesus to ask, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" He didn't know!!! He doubted. He wasn't sure that Jesus was really the one! I love that. As a pastor who points people to Jesus sometimes I find myself praying, are you really the one? because I was sort of expecting something a little different to happen...

2) Peter in prison: Acts 12 tells the story of Peter in prison while in Rome and how people from his church gather to pray for his release. Peter has the same prayer and then an angel appears to bring him out of prison and he thinks its a silly dream. Well he ends up at the house where the people had been praying and a servant girl answers the door and is so shocked that he arrived she leaves him outside and runs to tell the others. The others don't believe her as well and Peter is left outside standing at the door! Eventually Peter enters the house and the Bible says everyone was amazed to see him.
They prayed for his release and when it happened, they didn't believe it. I've had so many prayers like this one.

3) The Resurrection of Jesus: When the girls arrive at the disciples house after looking at the empty tomb they tell everyone that Jesus is no longer there. He has risen. And the disciples don't believe them. They have to see it for themselves. These are the guys that walked with Jesus and listened to all he had to say. Jesus told them this would happen and they didn't believe it when it finally did.

Throughout my study this week I have been encouraged by the fact that those who were close to God still had their doubts. My prayer for the students in our ministry is that they would remain faithful to following Christ even though they occasionally have their doubts.