Jesus In Disguise

No, I’m not dead. I have been really busy though the last few months. Among other things, I worked in a trip to New York City with a group of our high school students.

I received this story in my email today. I know it’s slightly corny, but I’ve been asking God a lot lately what my purpose is here on earth, and I think this was just a reminder today that He’s got it all in control and I just need to keep trusting in him until he reveals his plan more to me.

Nashville is a place I love. I’ve been there probably a half dozen times, and each time I come away from the trip loving the South more and more. Maybe it helps that my sister graduated from Belmont, or maybe it’s how friendly the people are, celebrities or not. My sister showed me the fantastic food at McDougal’s and Pancake Pantry, and I’ve loved spending time in Gruhn’s Guitars looking at the amazing guitars and banjos. I can still remember one banjo that was all decked out in gold, red, white and blue. I wanted to take it home, but I think the thing cost like $10,000 or something. These are some of the reasons why I’ve been so devastated by the destruction caused by massive flooding a week or so ago.

After watching the news for the last few weeks, I think possibly more than ever, this book came out at exactly the right time. As I watch oil creep towards the beaches in the Gulf of Mexico, and as the flood waters recede from Nashville, I think many people are seeing their “Plan A” going down the drain and are wondering what to do, and I think this book really lives up to it’s title when addressing our Plan B.

As you know, I work with high school students at my church. The ministry is called Vertical, and we have it at each of our three locations. We decided recently to do what we call a “Big Push.” Basically, we pull out all the stops when it comes to advertising on the radio, tv, and billboards around town over the course of a few weeks leading into a new series. We do this twice a year with our weekend services to try and reach those that don’t normally attend church. This was the first time we’ve done it for our high school ministry.

Tonight, I sat here and asked God why.

I love the Tiger Woods story. No, it’s not because I love hearing about someone’s juicy personal life, or how the “mighty have fallen.” It’s because of the amazing possibility for redemption.

Jesus talks in Matthew 25:40 of doing things for the “least of these.” In other words, those who for whatever reason cannot do it themselves. Whether it’s to provide food, clothing, shelter, medicine, etc, we as Christians are supposed to take care of everyone. An organization that is doing an amazing job at this is Thrive Africa.

‘m tired. I’m tired of all the people I see hurting on a daily basis. Multiple people I spoke with today alone; this was one of the worst days of their lives. Maybe not the absolute worst, but it ranks up there pretty highly. These weren’t just “ah, I had a bad day” worst day, but more like a “someone broke into my house and stole my stuff” worst day.

I spent the weekend at a winter retreat with a group of our high school students from our church. It was more of a serious retreat, with the main focus of the retreat being Worship. We were taught what worship was, the many different ways to worship, and then put many of those ways into practice through bible reading, prayer, silence and solitude, and even a concert of prayer. It was all really awesome.