REDEFINE

I have embarked on a journey that is unfamiliar for me. I have decided to pick up a book and read for fun! Now what I have chosen is not a book most people would think is for fun, but for me to read for fun is reading anything that I am not forced to read for class. It was recommended that I read Radical by David Platt. Now I just finished the first chapter and I have so many question running through my head. He is dealing with examining the words of Christ against our modern Middle American Christianity. He starts off by telling a story of when he was serving overseas meeting with leaders of underground churches in Asia that struck me to the core. How these leaders had members of their churches being openly persecuted for faith in Christ Jesus and I have take my own faith for granted on numerous occasions.

Now I am hoping for the sake of the Gospel this book will allow me to take the harsh statements of Christ and mold me life around them instead of molding the statements to fit my life. Platt in taking a harsh look at the American Church points out that Jesus' message is basically "Give up everything you have, carry a cross (an instrument of torture), and hate your family. All of this he backs up using the words of Christ in the Gospels. I don't know about you, but that is tough for me to swallow.

One of the toughest images that Platt pulls out in the first chapter is found in Luke 9:59-60 where he tells a man to follow me and he responds let me go bury my father for he just died. Jesus responded with, "let the dead bury the dead and you proclaim the Kingdom of God." Now this is tough for me because I am all that my dad really has left as far as family goes. Then to have Jesus tell me to let someone else take care of his funeral arrangement is hard to hear but one that I know I have to come to terms with.

I will leave you now with these thoughts and will reflect after I have read more of the book.

SO I WAS CALLED A YANKEE THE OTHER DAY!

This past week I had the opportunity to go and hangout with the youth group that I will be working with come August. I was welcomed in right away as one of their own. It was one of the best feelings in the world to know that you were doing exactly what God wanted you to be doing. I not only got to know the youth but aslo some of their parents. That was a trip. I met one mom who is the lost Sugarbaker sister(reference to an old tv sitcom), along with another mom who could pass a Paula Dean.

One of the middle school youth called me one of the most hurtful things I have heard in a while. They said I was a yankee. I am know to them I am because I live farther north then them but I live below the Mason-Dixon Line and that make me a southerner. Then they said I had a cool accent and I said well it is Kentucky Redneck. They thought that was funny.

Now my youth are great! There is a group of guys that I feel like I am going to be able to connect really easy with cause they love sports. Also this is a small world cause I move to southern GA and the church I am working with has a family in it from Kentucky. Now I know I will not have to watch the UK games alone this next year.

So that is my two cents worth of what is going on in my life!

Washington DC

I am visiting some friends in the DC area this week, but today they both had to work so I had the opportunity to go and explore. I rode the metro and started doing some people watching and discovered that no matter where you are people have needs that are not that different where ever you happen to be standing. They all have baggage and some know how to deal with it and other people need someone to help with figuring out what to do with their baggage. But back to the real reason that I decided to write this post. I was walking the National Mall seeing all the memorials and monuments. Every time I see them it takes my breath away. Today I went and sat at the World War II memorial today and just watched all the school age children running around having a good ole time and filling out their packets of information (because it is a school trip you have to learn something). It was nice to see that our country despite all the stupid thing that our Government has done over the past few years we are still a united people from many different backgrounds.

Also, word of advice: DO NOT TRIP AND FALL BY THE REFLECTING POOL. I did this and there were some awesome people who stopped and helped me mend up my bloody knee, but there was one lady that I thought was going to have a nervous break down. She was pacing back and forth and almost crying over a little blood. I look back (about 2 hours ago) and find this kind of funny now.

If someone was that upset and worried over me having a little blood on my knee it makes me think how serious should we take the act of obedience that Christ did for us when he poured out his blood for all of the world's sins. That means he took care of all my sins that I have committed and will commit.

OK so I have been processing through some tough issues over the past 4 days and I have come up with an answer that to some people it will not shock them others it may. Men are sinful and prideful. That is the great re-revelation from the past few days. I saw a close friend burned by people who claim to be Godly men but have allowed their pride to step in and cloud their decision making abilities. I have run through the gamut of emotions and now I am drained. The hardest one for me to deal with was anger. I was angry that there was nothing that I could not say because I was asked not to say anything. Then after I dealt with my anger I had the overwhelming feeling of courage and compassion. I do not understand how God works but he does and I love him for it. The next step is for me to try my best to support those who are in the thick of the mess and encourage them to stay strong. I still have love for those who have wronged my friend because God commands that we are to love our brothers and sisters in Christ.

If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar.
For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen,
cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
1 John 4:20

After reading this and really letting this scripture set in I was ashamed that my first thought was not to love those who have done wrong but to turn on them and make them my enemy.


Love is our proof of identity that we live in Christ and I must keep my checking my heart and mind.

We As a Generation are in Big Trouble!

So over the past few months I have noticed a trend among people my age! That is to say those of the college ranks. This trend makes me become really sad and extremely angry. I have noticed that we are really excited and willing to commit to something, that is the easy part. The part that makes me mad is that when it comes time to actually follow through on our promise we seem to flake out. I do not know what our deal is but we as a generation are starting to develop and identity that is not very flattering. I wish we would live up to a higher standard like we are called. I know that some people are reading this and are calling me a hypocrite but I am including myself in this. If you go back and read I used the words "we" and "us". So this is a plea from me to my generation to step up and let our "yes" be "yes" and our "no" be "no". That means if you know that you are not going to be able to complete a task that someone asks you to do then tell them no so they can find someone else. Now I understand that things come up but I feel that we are double booking ourselves and when that happens people get short changed and hurt. Especially in ministry this is true. I know more people who have had ministry events fail because they do not have people that have bought into their overall vision and allow God to work is way in the situation.

A short reflection!

Talk about an up and down time in my! I am about to depart from a chapter in my life where I have had more personal growth then I could ever have imagined. I walked on to the campus of WKU in the fall of 2005 and had an idea of where I was going and who I was. Well that all changed and I ended with a better understanding of who I am in Christ and where my calling in life leads. The process that I went through was not always an easy one and I am not proud of the way I handled some of the situations but I learned one thing that will carry me throughout the rest of my life and is God will work everything out no matter what has happened for his glory. I have people who I know God placed in my life to be beacons of light to help me along the way and to them I cannot tell you how much that means. You all were there for me in the good and specially through the bad. You saw me at my low and picked me up and told me it will be ok and to not give up.

This thought process came about from sitting and reflecting back on the past 5 years and realizing all who have invested and encouraged me through some of the toughest times of my life so far.

It is official! I will be the Youth Intern for First Baptist Church Tifton, GA starting Sunday August 1st! I am really excited about all opportunities that God has placed in front of me over the past several years that has led me to this point. It was not an easy journey but one with a great reward in the end. If you have been reading my past blogs you know some of what I am talking about. The best part is that my family is really excited for me which makes this whole transition a lot easier! It just goes to show that HE has everything under control and it will happen in His timing which is sometimes hard to wait on, but that is why you have to have faith.