Hooray for the Trailblazers.

I've had some good conversations lately. Some happen in the chapel, some have happened in the truck, some have been at Starbucks. All have been good.

A couple nights ago Shaver and I disappeared downtown to a quiet Starbucks and talked honestly about what we've been reading and about what God has been teaching us. The night before I recieved some Godly wisdom that still makes my head hurt.

Today I finished another amazing book, Samson and the Pirate Monks. That too got me thinking. This time about authenticity and accountability. I spent some good time thinking about those I've been honest with in the past and about the honest relationships I look forward to when this summer of service is over and the other part of my normal life returns to me.

In case you wondered, the week was a good one. All the big screw ups were my fault and I fixed errors from last week while managing to create new mess ups in the process. I think I have a spiritual gift for that. At least most of my frustration lands at my own feet which is fine.

It seems like I should have more to say to you at this point but I don't. I still find Furthermore from Jars of Clay to be amazing and Good Monsters is growing on me thanks to Shaver and BJ.

I'm off to call old friends and catch up.

Oh, and I'm happy with the new Blazers. I'm officially back on the bandwagon. Just a little sad we drafted a guy from Duke. Guess you can't win em all?!

Sell Your Soul To Santa

I saw that on a bridge today on my tour of Cincinnati. Week 2 is underway and it is going awesome. The groups are doing some amazing work and I was able to have some conversations that have me thinking.

My real reason for the post though is to let you know of my book of the year. This weekend I took saturday morning and finally met a new friend, In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day.

Seriously, I've read Bell, Tozer, McManus, all them types and this book met me in an amazing way. I'd give you some quotes but basically I'd say everything between the first sentence and the last is worth your time. And you know me, I like books, but I love this one.

I share with you only one quote that dovetails so nicely with our theme for this summer of Know Sweat:

"Seeing and seizing opportunities is an overlooked and underappreciated dimension of spiritual maturity. Every day is filled with countless God-ordained opportunities. Not a day goes by that we don't have an opportunity to love, an opportunity to serve, an opportunity to give, or an opportunity to learn.......Most of us want our opportunities nicely packaged and presented to us as a gift we simply have to unwrap. We want our lions stuffed or caged or cooked medium well and served on a silver platter. But opportunities typically present themselves at the most inopportune time in the most inopportune place.....Now let me take some pressure off. You don't have to manufacture opportunities. In fact, you can't manufacture them. That's part of God's portfolio. He is preparing good works in advance."

And finally:
"Embrace relational uncertainty, It's called romance. Embrace spiritual uncertainty. It's called mystery. Embrace occupational uncertainty. It's called destiny. Embrace emotional uncertainty. It's called joy. Embrace intellectual uncertainty. It's called revelation.

May your day be amazing. May you get off your butt and change the world you are a part of. There are over 175 students, most of them middle schoolers, who are doing just that this week. They showed up to step into a God-ordained moment. After all, as I heard at church Sunday, "we proclaim the God who continues to show up."

Blessings.

I'm Sure I Already Knew This

I've been having a lot of conversations lately, and not all of them have been with myself.
It seems that in the midst of the summer kick off, God is teaching me a number of things through a number of people.

Last night our staff headed to the Levee for dinner and some book shopping. Off on and on over the next few hours it led to discussions about a number of topics mostly regarding prayer, discipliines and all sorts of other matters. The really cool thing was, none of them had anything to do with Know Sweat or "work" related matters. It was just about where we were with God.

Last night, I sat down to read for a while and came across a line that has been bouncing in my head all morning. It's from a book I've been wanting to read for a long time and finally found last night.

"God wants you to get where God wants you to go more than you want to get where God wants you to go."

I find that incredibly freeing. The reminder that we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. So may we find those things, or better yet, may we quit looking and start working.

Week One

What a week. I really, really wish you could have seen it.

Schaffner absolutely knocked it out of the park and Shaver was phenomonal. The comments have been positive and the kids did some really great service work.

The nature of this ministry is that we spend 10 months looking forward to these 2 we are living in right now. It is so cool to see God bring things together and watch this thing gain traction.

I had to laugh as I woke up this morning and it was pouring rain. God is so amazing every summer not just by blessing us with safety but also with a lack of rain. Continue to pray for those things but I find it more than ironic that it rains the day after we're done working. Nice.

A Father's Day

Father's Day became something new for me today. The evolution has gone from the first time I said it to my dad, to the first time I called him to wish him a good day and he was able to say it back to me, to yesterday, the first time my son called me and we had a conversation during which he said Happy Father's Day. We talked about how he'd been swimming, about how I was in Cinseeatee and was going to a baseball game and how we missed each other. It just keeps getting better. I missed out on a milestone of his as he started swimming around a little on his own but got another one that will never go away.



It's now Monday and Know Sweat is under way. Schaffner is here, Shaver is here, they both knocked it out of the park and the projects start tomorrow. It feels so good to get off to a start and the interns are doing a phenomonal job. More updates and pictures to come.

Breaking the Silence

Hello world. I am back.

Not that you cared.

I currently reside in Cincinnati and have been here for the past 2 days. I won't be back in Joplin till August 3rd which right now seems like a long, long time away. It is Know Sweat season and I couldn't be happier. I am spending the first 3 weeks in Cincinnati. It is going to be a great run here with some amazing projects and some great guys leading us in our time with the Word and celebration.

I guess by ways of an update I don' thave one all that much. There is a great group from Chicago already here on campus and its good to finally start to see the students who will serve with us. I don't know if you know this but I love this job. Love it.

The family will be coming to visit in a few weeks and that will complete heaven on earth for me. I promise to start blogging more often and hopefully they are worth something.

I will tell you the same thing I told our interns tonight: Read Micah 6:8 and try to live into it all summer. That would be amazing.