Nothing Substantial Here

Currently Listening To: Mat Kearney: Acoustic EP

I had Starbucks with 2 youth ministers yesterday.

Just that statement fills me with joy.

I really, really like youth ministry. I believe in it.

We need more people who will step up and be great youth leaders. We don’t need more lazy ones who live for events. We don’t need programmers. We need people who minister to and with youth.

I finished my reread of Velvet Elvis last night. I think I enjoyed it more and found better stuff the second time around. I found more I disagreed with and some thoughts that I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around but I like nonetheless.

Here are a couple lines that I’ve been chewing on for the past 24 hours.

“Missions is less about the transportation of God from one place to another and more about the identification of a God who is already there.”

“Your job is the relentless pursuit of who God has made you to be and anything else you do is sin and you need to repent of it.”

This has been a nerve wracking time for me. I hate the registration deadline. I know it’s not all about the numbers but I find myself tying my self worth and ego to how many people like Know Sweat. Some of it is a frustration to me when I sit in people’s living rooms and want to help them but don’t know if enough people will sign up that we can help them.

We were talking in the office the other day about ego. Ego sucks. How we allow ourselves to take the wrong things personally, how we worry so much more about what other people think than even what God thinks. Forget that, we worry more about others than what our spouse might tell us at times.

And somewhere in all this rippling of life, I was reading about a peace that transcends understanding. And I liked that thought.

I started a new book last night that comes recommended from my buddy Wilson. I find that if he recommends a book or a CD, it is usually worth my time. I’ll put it this way, I can’t remember a time he told me to check something out and after doing so I thought I should send him a flaming bag of poo.

It’s about shedding religion to find God.

I’m finding a tension between two thoughts. One is all about numbers. The other is all about maintenance and status quo. Materialism and maintenance. Maybe that is too harsh. I find it in my own personal life.
I have 5 things in my Moleskine right now that are written under the heading “thoughts to explore”. One of them is the last 10 minutes of a sermon I heard recently while I was traveling. One of them is this idea that “perfect love casts out fear.” Actually, that isn’t an idea it’s I John 4:18 which means I need to do more than think about it. I’ve been fascinated by this word fear. What do we really fear and what is fear really all about. And in the midst of this is the challenge of Philippians to live up to what we’ve already attained. Being holy namely.

Right now I’m watching a squirrel dig up my grass. Actually he’s either looking for where he buried nuts last fall or he’s burying some. The way he is acting, I’d say he’s hungry and a little TO’d because he can’t remember where he buried dinner for Thursday night.

I wonder what it would be like to bury nourishment all over the place and then be able to go dig it up when I needed it.