Salt Lake City - After (it's a long one!)

You are here...
...to help the hurting
...to encounter Christ
...to lead.

What an amazing week! To be honest, I'm still kind of shocked it's over (though we returned a week ago). I wish I hadn't wasted Sunday and Monday struggling with my own attitude, but I awoke Tuesday with renewed energy and joy at being in Salt Lake City. Praise God that I was able to get past myself at least a little and be fully there. It was a blessing and a privilege to hear the students process this week and all they heard. We got to spend time Tuesday night with my former youth pastor and hear his charge to our students. Wednesday night Kelly and I got to hear the girls process an incredible presentation on leadership! Seriously, it was incredible!

I am so excited to see what happens not only in the ministry I serve in at large but also in my own life and leadership! One thing I was reminded of this week was that God is bigger - than anything I could ever fear or worry about or wonder about or get stressed over. When something seems too big all I need to do is take a deep breath, remember He is bigger, He is in control, and take it all one step at a time.

Some thoughts and questions I boxed while taking notes:

• Where does your passion lie?
• (Rev. 4) How do you see God?
• (Acts 16:11-34) Show the Gospel by our radical generosity, inexplicable love, and our possession of radical joy in the midst of hardship and persecution.
• Valuing something more than life itself - that is what we worship.
• The love of Christ compels me...
• Where is your heart, your home?
• (John 4) What things do you rely on to make you happy? - Where do you seek fulfillment? - God is the only source for joy, love, fulfillment.
• Spend time with God.
• When headed somewhere you aren't quite sure how God can use you - ask Him why, be open to whatever He might have for you in that place.
• It's about surrender - you and God.
• (Dan 3) What are you willing to give up? That shows the value you put on God.
• What you focus on expands.
• Be a river flowing, not a flood destroying (Pr. 29:18)
• Remember the iceberg - your character is the 90% below the surface and it will always be the part that sinks the ship (Lk 6)
• Your greatest value is what is inside (2 Cor 5:17)
• Light a candle, don't curse the darkness.
• Why are we embarrassed by Jesus?
• Count the cost.
• Love people - listen to them.
• God is with you
• Pray for opportunity
• What God starts, God provides the resources to finish.

This isn't even everything. It's years of life lessons crammed into one week. Good reminders, new lessons, challenges and promises. I can count the cost, seek God, serve Him, live for Him, love and be a fool for Him - He is bigger, He is the only one that will never fail me, and He is reaching out to this generation, to every generation, to stand up and fight against the world, one soul at a time. Me first.

Salt Lake City - before

For those of you who don't know, I am headed out this very early morning to Salt Lake City, UT with 25 students from the HS ministry at my church and 3 leaders for the Challenge Youth Conference. I am excited about this week! I really have no idea what is going to happen in the lives of the students or my own life. I am eager to see what God will do through and in each and every one of us. We get back July 4, and I am sure I will have many stories to tell! Please pray for us, may we have servant's hearts and teachable spirits, listening ears and ready hands and come away challenged to live life for nothing aside from Christ.

if only...

If I could work outside where the sun was always shining, the temperature a steady 75 degrees with a pleasant breeze, no fear of sunburn, melanoma or skin damage, I would be quite happy. Of course, it's kind of difficult to see a computer screen in direct sunlight... but then I would be sitting in the shade of a beautiful tree.

Class of 2008, you are dismissed!

My brother Stephen graduated from the United States Air Force Academy on Wednesday, May 28th. I am proud of him. I have loaded a few pictures and will load more as I get a few minutes to do so each evening. Please take a look - click on the link, from there you can view the "USAFA Graduation" and "Breckenridge" albums.

This has been one of the most memorable weeks of my life, one of those pivotal moments, it seems, in more ways than one. I am praising God for my family, His faithfulness to us, and the gifts He gives me each and every day. I am so thankful Paul was able to join me this week in celebrating with my family. I am thankful for Paul. I was reminded Sunday of the vital importance of praising God for all He gives. I praise Him for all my friends and family, people without whom I wouldn't be who I am or where I am.

engraved in stone

"What truly matters in this life is helping others win, even if it means slowing down and changing our course." - unknown

We talked about the 2 wisdoms in James on Sunday. I have been thinking a lot about "selfish ambition." What does the opposite look like? The above quote, which I found today in my 2007 journal, is part of the answer. We must be looking to help others, raise them up, not ourselves.

Dick Iverson says "What I am a part of is more important than the part I play."

Last night at our high school ministry's leader's meeting, our fearless leader mentioned being a witness for Christ and the importance of it - God uses us! to reveal Himself to others.

I do not believe these contradict. The second we focus more on the part we play than the source of the story we try to tell and the story itself, we lose the entire point.

I often struggle with the thought of what I have to offer others. Do I really have anything of worth to say? share? show? I pray and pray, crying out to God, How do I even begin to prepare to come alongside the hearts and lives of those You bring into my path? The answer over and over again:

"Seek Me."
"Surrender."
"Give your life away."

A question focused on ME - answered with HIM.

I was talking to one of my girls about this struggle and the following analogy came to me: I can carve a message into a stone and tell you all about it, maybe even give you a glimpse of it. It isn't worth much unless I give it to you. My life is a stone that needs to be given away - engraved with the Greatest Story ever told. I must seek the Lord and allow Him to carve His story into my life.

Nearly 2 years ago I saw a quote that shook me to the core: "Stop protecting yourself - pursue God" (Luci Swindoll). It's the greatest thing I will ever do.