You Found Me

I've seen some pretty cool things lately. I feel like all I have done is work, but outside of that it really seems like God is after some people surrounding me. I have been doing this Bible study with some HS guys on Wednesday nights. Basically we are reading through John a couple chapters per week. It's primarily Joe and I every week, then some other friends of Joe's sort of come and go. Some of these guys I've known for a long time, some of them I meet when I show up. The crazy thing is I feel like there has been some consistency from not only Joe, but also some of his friends. In general the kids have been reading the material beforehand, which is crazy! I love it for a few reasons which I will make into a list, because I like lists.

1.) All I have to do is read and show up.

2.) It's at chipotle and its just fun to have some built in time just hanging out with guys and eating food every week.

3.) The kids have been reading, and wouldn't you know it the Bible seems to have something to say to them.

4.) My boy Joe is seeing what it's like to invest in his friends and see fruit from it.

5.) Honestly some of the things the guys share are genuinely awesome incites.

So I love this thing, it's like the brightest part of the bright spot for me right now. It seems like a silly thing to say (or a really obvious thing to say), but I don't feel like I have to try so hard at this. My approach is that I know Joe will be there every week, and if it's just him, great we can hang out; but every week some other guys end up coming having read and thought through the stuff a little bit. I don't prepare anything besides taking notes like I would for my quiet times, but to be honest I haven't really been reading anything besides the stuff in John and some Psalms. I just come and see what God is going to do every week, and I love it. I think it was Theresa who said something like "relax in the ministry" to me or our team or something this semester. That has never been my approach though. I always try to do "to much." I always try to be Jesus for people. I know I'm not, but still, I'm an idiot. I think I am starting to look at being used by God differently. It doesn't necessarily mean personally manifesting what I think God should be doing for the people around me, it means something more along the lines of trying to be in a good position so that if God wants to manifest something with His power through my life I am available and aware. It's a complicated idea that I don't really understand yet so good luck with this... Let me try an analogy (this is in part stolen from a certain Mr. Young).

Haggai 2:23 "My servant, declares the LORD, I will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you," declares the Lord of hosts."

I think when I am walking with Christ He is changing and arranging things in my life so that I am more like Him. This applies to everything, but some of the big ones I am noticing lately are my heart (the things I want or desire), my ministry, and my personality. So Christ moulds them, like a ring. A signet ring is the ring an emissary or king would use to make an impression upon wax that was poured to seal an envelope. This would signify that the document was from the person to whom the ring belonged. If Christ is making me into a Signet ring, I think it could me that He is moulding me so that when He uses me somewhere, it leaves His mark on the place/person/transformers movie... So here's my analogy; It's not so much my job to do the stamping just to hold the shape He moulds me into as best I can and be available so that when He wants to do some stamping He can. Maybe this is cheap and lame, but I like the imagery and it's my blog.

Windows to Heaven

Saturday night James and I had some kids over to the Buehler's (I'm house sitting while they ski in Utah) to hang out and play some Killer Bunnies and the Journey to Jupiter. Some people wanted to get some Chipotle so we headed up to the one in Finneytown. I was standing in line next to a guy who knew, but I couldn't place where or how exactly. Finally I said that I remembered him from somewhere, but didn't know from where. He said "Well I know who you are. Your name is Matt right?"

I still didn't know how I knew him until he said "When I was a freshman at Mt. Healthy high school I played basketball and you came to every game. You were the only one who supported us and we were horrible. I thought you were my only friend in the world."

It was like getting punched in the gut. That was the first semester I was leading. I remember one of the things someone said in NLT was that its a good idea to pick a sport and then go to every game, so I did. They won 3 games that season. I thought it was totally wasted time honestly. I never got to hang out with any of those kids even once. I never saw any of them come to Christ, or do anything like that. We closed down Young Life their junior year at which time one of the kids was in juvie. We say in Young Life that you never know the impact you make. To be honest I never bought into that much, at least I never fully believed it, but here was a case where exactly that happened. It was crazy!

We didn't talk about anything faith related. He told me he was at ITT Tech working on a Computer Drafting program. He is doing a co-op next semester. This conversation was a gift to me I think. It gave me a fresh faith to do contact work and spend time investing in kids even when I think they don't notice. Thinking about it later I realized again that god is faithful even when I am not.

After we got our food he left and we stayed. I'll probably never see him again, but that wasn't the end of this story. Maybe the best part was still about to happen. Joe, one of my guys, is a senior at CCS and wants to lead next year when he goes to UC. He saw this whole conversation unfold and thought it was sort of creepy and awkward. He asked me about it, and I saw a great opportunity to give something away. I got to talk with Joe about contact work and what leading Young Life is about, and most importantly about the faithfulness of God. It was one of my best moments as a leader.

I think its interesting that this whole set of interactions had nothing to do with me and everything to do with God really. I was focused on getting some burrito, and God was orchestrating something amazing in my life and in Joe's.