Posting

It has been increasingly difficult for me to find time to post this quarter. This quarter for me has easily been the most demanding of my time of all my time in college so far. I am taking 6 classes, 4 of which commonly assign between 200-300 pages of reading per week. I think its the 5th week of the quarter and one of my professors has yet to assign less than 100 pages of reading between any of the classes that meet 3 times a week. So basically I don't sleep and I read a lot. Along with that work is still a big part of my schedule. I can't say enough about how great my job is though. I get paid well for what I do, and they are incredibly flexible with my school and YL schedule. Sometimes my boss is kinda micromanagy, but he gets the big picture of church ministry really well. In general the people I work with are a great support to me in all of the things I do.

In YL things are going quite well at Wyoming. I am getting to know many kids, and time at the school has been fantastic. We had an "Ambassador Team Meeting" last week which is like our key supporting parents, and for the first time as a leader I genuinely felt like the parents in the community care a great deal about there kids knowing Christ. These parents are not only excited about their kids knowing Christ, but they agree with us leaders that YL is a great tool for encouraging that relationship. We have a group of "Junior Leaders" who pretty much run everything for us at club. It seems like every week there is one thing out of place that we have to pick up, but in general they do a great job putting everything together, picking up kids, and generally making YL Club a success at their school. It is so encouraging to see kids that own their faith and have a vision for their peers to do the same. This Monday at club was the "Sin" talk and campaigners this week was all about figuring out what sin is about; where it comes from, how it affects our lives, what the consequences are, how the devil attacks us. It's so great because to make campaigners happen we just start with some scripture and a general idea and the kids take over. Its more like a led discussion than anything else. Campaigners in Wyoming is what campaigners is supposed to look like. Next week is the cross talk, and I am so excited to see how the kids respond, especially some of the new kids.

I am continuing to learn about how inadequate I am and how great God is. I have really worked hard to carve out time everyday for devotions and prayer. Somehow I missed for the first few years that prayer is at least as important as reading scripture to having a solid relationship with God. I may finally have begun to understand how to listen for what God is saying into my life. My attitude towards the things that I am consistently in prayer about seems to change. There is something about allowing myself to be open to what God is saying, even when I don't know what to listen for, that aligns my heart with Gods heart. Time in prayer is time where we allow God to align our will with His will. It's sad really that so commonly people brush off the Christian "pray about it" when really its not a bad idea in almost every situation. Prayer is much more tangible and practical than it sounds.

I am off to work here soon and have some more reading to do so I am going to have to keep this brief, but things are going really well. I am being stretched and grown in many areas of my life, and am continually reminded to look at God for the things I need. I hope that I get a chance to write some more before the end of the quarter but at this rate things are only looking worse. One other thing I have learned about myself is that I love to write. I am sure that when I have time again, maybe before I have time again, I will start to journal as part of my devotionals.

Sabatical Over

I haven't posted in something like a month. I have written a lot in that time, just nothing worth sharing. My thoughts have been so scattered lately partly because I am young and unorganized, and partly because I have a lot going on in many areas of my life. In my opinion the most significant thing going on in my life is that I am learning how to love God not just know him. Throughout the past few months I have learned so many things about the character of God; things like His relentless pursuit of our everything, His power over everything even the minutia of life, His vested interest in the lives of each individual, and His will for His children to see Him clearly. In the practical sense of things my life is being all rearranged around this idea of loving God.

For starters I am now a leader at a new school, Wyoming. Around the end of February the decision to leave Mt. Healthy became final. For a variety of reasons it was one of the most difficult decisions I have ever been a part of, however near the end I felt wholly peaceful about leaving the school in God's hands alone. Learning to surrender ministry to God has been one of the hardest lessons I have ever learned as a Christian, but the freedom in that realization is enormous. I have, for the first time I think, started to view ministry as what God is doing and not what I am doing. If God goes and I don't go with Him, He can still accomplish whatever he wants. If I go and He doesn't I can accomplish nothing I want. If I go with God I am only then privileged to both witness and participate in what God is doing as well as grow my faith by walking with Christ through the different struggles of doing ministry. Philemon 1:6 Possibly the most significant part of this thinking is that ministry does not hinge upon my abilities, kids salvation does not hang on whether or not I effectively communicate the gospel at my next club talk, but on Christ alone. His great strength is in my weakness. God's glory is revealed most when He overcomes a challenge to accomplish the impossible. It's a whole new ministry in Wyoming and I am going into it with a whole new mentality of what ministry is about. That's exciting!

In addition to a new ministry I am taking my most challenging quarter of college yet. Five of my six classes will require in the neighborhood of 100 pages of reading per week including one class that has assigned over 100 pages of reading each day of the class thus far except 1. This might be the quarter I learn to read fast... Despite the higher than usual workload I like all of my classes except one. I am learning about things I like from professors I largely enjoy learning from. Not to mention I am reading some Orwell for one of my classes. In 8 and a half more weeks though, this too shall pass.

All in all I am doing well. I realize now that I can't be expected to have it all together, that it's ok for me to be messed up. Because of that my day to day life is much more dependent on Christ than it has ever been. I am still learning to adjust to being ok with my inadequacies all the time, there always seems to be the temptation to try to be more than I am. I said this a while ago in one of my posts, but I want my life to be about transparency. I want the people around me to see me for who I am, and see Christ, and the powerful work he is doing in me, for who He is. Philippians 1:6