What is God trying to teach me?

Let me start off by saying that I absolutely love when God uses the words of someone to teach you something, and then immediately gives you a situation to test whether you really learned it. Maybe it's because I'm stubborn, but I feel like God does this to me constantly.

For example, this past weekend, I was lucky enough to be able to visit the Church of the Four Corners in Independence, MO, where a couple of friends from college go these days. It's a new church plant, and the pastor is a young, dynamic speaker (and he has a Macklemore-style hipster vibe to him, which is cool too). His message on Sunday was the beginning of their 3-week series on Phillipians, simply titled Joy. He discussed how Paul didn't ask God "Why me?" about his less-than-ideal circumstances (Paul wrote this particular letter from a Roman prison), but instead modeled a life where we ask God "What are You trying to teach me?" through our circumstances.

After church let out, I drove to my friend Ben's new apartment in Westport. The plan was to allow him to drop off his truck and trailer with all his stuff in it, and then drive back to Independence in my car and meet our friends for lunch after church. But as I pulled on to Ben's street, my radio turned off. Then the lights on my dash went out. Then I could feel the engine start to die. The same thing happened the previous day, and obviously the new battery I put in wasn't the actual solution. My car died completely shortly thereafter, and there I was, stuck in KC without a working vehicle.

Now this wouldn't have really been an issue, but I had appointments set up with several people later that day and the next day, so my first instinct was to get upset. I was going to have to cancel those. I was going to have to pay a bunch of money to get my car fixed. Things were not going to go the way I planned them to go.

But then the words of that morning's sermon came back to me. I realized that God was allowing me an opportunity to show that I actually learned something. So I took the bait. I asked Him "What do You want me to learn from this?"

The thing is, I don't know if I really know the answer to that question still. When I started writing this post, I thought it would be super profound and by the end I would have come to some grandiose conclusion that my life had been forever changed. Sorry if you thought the same as you began reading. But I just can't put my finger on one thing that this weekends' events have taught me. My faith has been growing like crazy the past couple of months, and I have been learning a ton. My car trouble this weekend was just another event in my life that I believe God is using to mold me into the man that He wants me to be, and He is constantly using things like a simple sermon to help change the way I think about the world. And I could not be more excited about that.

Reflections on my Easter

Easter this year was not what I planned it was going to be. But that's ok. It was exactly what I needed.

When I was thinking about how I was going to spend my Easter last week, I figured I would go to the Crossing with my parents. For those unfamiliar with Columbia, the Crossing is probably the closest thing we have to a "mega-church," but without any of the theological issues I usually hear about with churches of its size. It's an amazing church that has done a ton of good in town, and even for my family specifically. The Crossing, simply put, is where I would be going permanently if I didn't feel called to campus ministry.

Anyways, I figured I would go to the Crossing on Easter. I went with my parents to a Good Friday service there, and very much enjoyed it. It was extremely well put together, and I honestly was excited to see the "sequel" to that on Easter morning.

But then a friend texted me on Saturday and said he and his wife were going to be visiting the Rock on Sunday. And then I invited a couple buddies from the Rock to come to Easter dinner after church. And with that, I realized it would just be easier to go to the Rock.

Easter morning with my Rock church family

Now, this may be confusing to a lot of you. You'll read my bio at the top of this blog and think to yourself, "Wait, isn't he on staff with the Rock? What gives?" and you won't be wrong. I am on staff at the Rock. It is my church home. But during this phase of my life, I am not actually attending Rock services regularly, because my focus needs to be on getting fully-supported, so that I can come back to campus and focus my energies 100% on college ministry. I completely understand this and am in full agreement with it, but that doesn't make it any easier. It's super hard to be away from my church family during this segment of my life.

So anyways, going to the Rock was not exactly what I had planned for my Easter morning. But it ended up being exactly what I needed. Just being back in an environment completely made up of college students was refreshing for me. It helped me re-focus, and it was an awesome reminder of my calling to college ministry. I love the production-value and the amazing teachings and the scale of everything at the Crossing, and have definitely enjoyed my time going there these last few months. But to me, there's just something about Middlebush Auditorium that feels like home.

"Good" Friday

The nickname given to the Friday before Easter always used to puzzle me. I mean, it's the commemoration of one of the most brutal executions in the history of the world, what is so "good" about that?

To sum up in one word the answer I have come to over the years: EVERYTHING.

From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani?" - which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 

When some of those standing there heard this, they said, "He's calling Elijah."  

Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to save him." 

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

Matthew 27:45-50

If the casual reader saw these words, they'd seriously question why Christ's followers now celebrate the anniversary of this day. This seems dark, and foreboding, and not at all worthy of celebrating, let alone calling it anything close to "good."

But these verses only give part of the story. The day isn't referred to as "good" Friday because of what happened on that day, but because of the reason that event had to happen. Jesus wasn't the King that the Jews of the time expected. He hadn't come to overthrow Roman rule. But he was nevertheless the prophesied Messiah. He was the Lamb, the perfect sacrifice for the sin of man, past, present, and future. He was betrayed by one of His disciples, given over to the Sanhedrin, and crucified between common thieves. He had to die so that we can truly live.

And then, just three days later, on what is now celebrated as Easter, the following happened:

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. 

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. 

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him. Now I have told you."

Matthew 28:1-7

Good Friday is not celebrated because Jesus was murdered. Good Friday is celebrated because of what His death signified for the world. Through His death on Good Friday, and His resurrection on Easter, we can share in His ultimate victory over death, and spend eternity with Him.

And that sounds pretty darn "good" to me.

One of the best Good Friday/Easter songs ever written. Enjoy.

Networking

Networking.

If you went to school for any sort of business management, you've heard this word a hundred times. A thousand times. Maybe even a million times.

When you're in school, it becomes a dirty word. Something you HAVE to do to get a job, to get ahead in life, to even survive. When you're in school, it's an awkward, awful process of going to "events" where recruiters from different companies drink a lot and hand out business cards and do little else.

But now, as I try to get my feet underneath me as a college missionary, I absolutely love the process known as "networking." It should be obvious to everyone that this looks a lot differently for me than it does for a senior in college that's scrambling for a job. But it's still networking.

And it's going to take a lot of networking for me to reach my goal of getting back on campus by this fall. The average GCM missionary needs to get in contact with around 900 people in order to get fully-supported. My list of people to get in touch with is right at 250 currently. So I have a long way to go.

But luckily, I know I serve a God that provides. Even if I don't get back to campus by my goal date of August 21st, 2014, I know God is going to get me there eventually. I know that if it takes longer, it's because God wants to show me something through this process that is going to take longer than the next couple of months.

But anyways. Networking. It really is a cool thing. So for those of you out there still in college, try to actually pay attention to that. And for those of you not in college anymore, I really would love to connect.

Thanks.

Character over Comfort

"God is more interested in your character than your comfort, and he's more concerned about your holiness than your happiness." - Rick Warren

This quote was presented to me a couple days ago, and I've been meditating on just what exactly it means ever since. I'm still not 100% sure I understand the exact magnitude of this statement, but I do believe I'm beginning to wrap my head around it.

Up until now, everything that has happened to me or around me, I've looked at through comfort-colored glasses. When I start to have a hard time (which is pretty much every day during support-raising), I question whether God cares about me, because don't I deserve to be comfortable? Shouldn't everything be easy for me? Isn't that the goal of life? To get a nice car and a hot wife and a big house and have 3 cute little kids playing in the in-ground pool in the backyard? Isn't having a "comfortable" life the point of all this work we do?

Simply put, no. Now, nothing is inherently wrong with having any of those things I listed above, so if you're reading this and have any of those things, please don't take that as an accusation. But that is definitely not what life is about. Life is about becoming more like Christ, in both character and deed.

Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. - 1 John 2:6

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. - Phillipians 1:21

When Paul says in Phillipians that "to die is gain," that doesn't exactly sound like God has a plan to make us super comfortable all the time. Once again, I have no qualms with being comfortable. I enjoy good food, good company, and good sports teams just as much as the next guy. I do find a sense of comfort in those things. But if that is what my life is all about, then I've missed the point.

My prayer these last few days, and for the coming months, has been and will be that I am consistently being transformed to the image of Christ, that I can live out the words from scripture above, that I would truly live and love like Jesus did, and that I would find my ultimate satisfaction and comfort in the arms of Christ.

Thanks for reading.