Tragedy and Comfort

So it has been a couple of months since my last update, and for that I apologize. There has been a lot going on in the last two months, and in some ways it has flown by and in others it has crept by. One thing I can say with absolute certainty is that God is a good God. In the midst of the crazy things this life throws at me He is always faithful, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

There are moments in our lives where we have some choices. We may not choose the moment, but rather we choose how it is that we react to this moment. We all face these choices. The question is not if we will respond, but how we respond in the face of tragedy or unfortunate circumstances. I found myself facing some of these situations over the last couple of months. To begin I must tell you that we experienced an awesome first summer in Houston (minus the heat) with our youth group. God worked in some awesome ways through some of our kids. It was the end of August, and Karlee and I were exhausted, because for the last 6 weeks we had something going on every week. What happened after that however I was not ready for. I received a call telling me that Papa (my Dad’s father) had gone to the hospital in Dallas. Of course I was concerned but life just kept on trucking. Within a matter of a few days I had another call saying that things were much worse than we had realized and that if I wanted to say goodbye to Papa that I probably needed to do so. Karlee and I headed up to Dallas that evening, and I was able to see him and say my goodbyes. This was not easy as you can imagine, and Tuesday afternoon we came back home to Houston. The coming weekend was Naz Nite at Six Flags Over Texas, and we were planning on taking a rather large group of students and sponsors to the event. In the middle of the night on Thursday night I got the phone call that Papa had passed away. We went on to Six Flags and came back, then left for my Grandma’s house. The funeral was difficult, but also good knowing that he was no longer suffering. I was able to spend some time with family, and enjoy some memories of our time with Papa.

I was in no way ready for this life-changing moment, but ready or not there it was. The cool thing was that even in the midst of the sadness that I was experiencing God was there. The question was what would I do with that? How would I react to God being there? I could have been angry with God and chosen to turn my back, or I could run to him and let him hold me and comfort me. Ultimately the latter was my choice. I realized that God wanted to be there with me and cry with me and comfort me. I dont understand, and am not sure I will ever understand all of the questions that come with the death of a loved one, but I do know that no matter what the God of the universe is faithful to be there and walk through those moments with us.

On our way home from the funeral God showed his faithfulness once again as he blessed Karlee with a teaching job. We were literally on the highway when she got a call. I know it had to be God, because He knew that I needed her by my side at the funeral, and that wouldnt have been possible if she’d had a job. This was the end of a search that had spanned from November to September, and to see God’s timing was an amazing thing.

I once again had an opportunity to trust God later on in September when I was involved in a car accident. My car was totalled, but I never felt panic or anger. Instead I had this peace from the Lord that everything was going to be alright. Yesterday, four weeks from the day of the crash, God allowed Karlee and I to buy a new vehicle.

As I mentioned we each are faced with these moments in life that can make or break us. We don’t always realize it when they are happening, but when they do what is your reaction? I hope that you run to the creator of the universe. There is no comfort like the comfort that comes from Him. There is no peace like the peace that He offers us. God loves you and cares for you regardless of what you have done or will do. He is standing there  next to you. The choice is yours will you let him embrace you or will you run in the opposite direction?

Peace and love.

Birthdays

Birthdays are interesting things. When I think back on my 24 years of life in this world you can always remember certain birthdays. Today is my 24th birthday as I mentioned a moment ago, and being such I thought it appropriate to reflect on birthdays. I’m sure you can remember your own birthdays, some may be happay and others may just be ordinary days, and others still may not have been happy at all.

When I look back at all of my birthdays there are certain ones that stick out. I remember my safari birthday party, my putt-putt birthday party, and of course my 16th birthday party. Those are just a few of the significant parties that I remember, but more than that I remember my family and friends always being there for my birthdays. As I have gotten older that has changed slightly. Not living with Mom and Dad has made it tough to be with them on my birthday, and now that I have moved to Houston it is very different without my close friends here to celebrate with me. Don’t get me wrong my day has been and will be great, but it is a little sad to reflect and remember the days with family and close friends. The cool thing is that now I have a beautiful wife to celebrate with for the rest of my life, and that is awesome.

Birthdays are fantastic, and a time to celebrate life! That is what is special to me. I love celebrating not only my life, but just life with other people in general. Life is an amazing journey that we all have the privilege of taking part in. God has blessed me enough to have some amazing friends and family along the way, and to all of them I want to say thank you for making life what it is. I hope that you have the opportunity to celebrate life today, even if it isnt in the form of a birthday. Here’s to life. Peace and love.

Communication

If I were to ask you about the one aspect of daily life that is most important and why; what would you say? As you may have guessed by the title of this particular post I would have to say that communication is the most important for me. I think we take the ability to communicate for granted all the time. It is very rare that I take time to think about the act of communication. Now, this is not to say that I don’t contemplate the way in which I communicate, but rather that I even have the ability to communicate. Think about life without communication…It is hard to even imagine. This would mean no speaking, writing, reading, hand gestures, facial expressions, nothing. Would it even be possible? The world would be complete chaos. In the midst of this chaos would be you and I just floating through trying to make sense of even our thoughts.

All of this leads me to another point, would we be able to exist if it were not for communication? I don’t know. In order to have a relationship with anyone we need communication right? Relationships are built upon this ability to communicate. We communicate feelings, thoughts, humor, etc. and that is how relationships are formed. I love the thought of relationship, but I seldom think about the fact that relationships are built on communication, at least not until communication fails, or there is a miscommunication. This can be very frustrating and disastrous.

Now think about God. How well are you communicating with God? If communication is essential to relationship and God desires a relationship with us then that means that we actually have to talk with him. God wants to know us, even though he knows more about you and I than we do. We were created for relationship. God is relationship. I guess what I am saying is that if communication is basic to an abundant life, then we need to get back to the basics.

I have been burdened by this over the last few weeks. As a youth pastor I spend a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to communicate to teens and families. I have also spent time trying to program something really cool and super engaging for them. However, somewhere in the middle of all of that I have forgotten that programs, games, and sermons are not what is going to make a difference in these teens lives…it is relationships with God and with each other, but in order to achieve that relationship we have to talk to God. This means prayer, and I think that is what we must do in order to see God work in our lives and transform this world around us. It comes back to prayer, and what an incredible gift that God gave us to be able to model relationship just like to ones God has given us here on earth through communication.

Here is the question, what are you doing to communicate with God? It is a tough question, and one that I struggle with myself. I hope that you choose to trust God enough to pray and begin building the relationship with him that he longs for. Peace and love.

Don’t Worry, Be Happy

Life can and often does throw so much junk at us. Most of the time I do ok with sifting through the junk and moving on with the important things in life. However, there are those times when something comes my way and it consumes every aspect of my life. I’m sure you have those moments when there is one thing or situation that completely consumes every thought you have throughout the day. Those are the days that rattle me the most. It seems like no matter how hard I try to think about something else that worry creeps back in and hides in the corners of my mind. I think it just comes as part of being a human being. We worry when we meet a situation that is beyond our control. I mean it seems as though we are doing everything that we can, yet the outcome is still uncertain. This is typically when we let worry consume our being.

Last year as I was getting ready to graduate from SNU I can remember one particular situation that plagued every thought that I had. It was late in the second semester and I had been engaged to my then fiance since September. It was getting closer and closer to the wedding date and the only thought that kept crossing my mind was, “how are we going to make it…I don’t have a job lined up, and I dont have any source of income.” I litteraly would lay in bed wrestling with this thought night after night. I was so worried about what was going to happen, and it only got worse after graduation came, because now it was only two short months before Karlee would become my wife, and at that point it became my responsibility to make sure that she had a place to live and food to eat. It was all that I thought about, and it was distracting to the other things that life was throwing at me.

At the time I was so stressed, and didn’t know what else I could do other than put out my resume and try to get some responses. As hard as I tried it was still out of my hands, and so I worried. There came a time in the middle of all of this that I was reminded of a scripture in Matthew chapter 6 that talks about worry. As soon as I read that I looked at my situation and decided that it was not worth worring about. I can only do what is within my limitations, and the rest was out of my hands. The moment I stopped trying and worrying was the exact moment that God dropped this amazing opportunity for ministry in my lap. This scripture in Matthew asks why we worry. Don’t we know that God is taking care of us. If God cares enough to take care of the birds and the grass of the field, how much more does he care about us? Instead of worrying about the situations we find ourselves in we should trust God to take care of them. I realize that this is often easier said than done, but it is truth none the less. God cares about us, and what is going on in our lives. He does not just leave us to fend for ourselves. God loves us enough to take care of anything that we would worry about. And if you don’t believe it just look back at your life up to now and the situations that you worried about and then look to see how it turned out. For me more times than not God saw me through those moments and those situations.

There is an interesting quote that I heard a couple of years ago with regards to worry. It goes like this, “Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.” I know that can be a little confusing but when I look at that I realize that I am going through something today that I worried about yesterday, and God is right here beside me taking care of me and my worries. There is no need to worry when we just let god have the situation. It is ultimately out of our hands anyways, so why not let the master take care of the problem instead of us. I hope something about this passage brings you peace in whatever you are going through. I know that life is not always easy, and it can in fact become quite worrisom in a  hurry. I pray that you would slow down and give over all your worries to the one true God that loves and cares for you deeply. Peace and love.

Beards, Assemblies, and Blessings

I have lived a good 23 years of life so far, and up until about a month ago I have never had the desire to grow any more facial hair than the gotee I already had. It was a Friday morning, and I was going through my usual morning routine when it came time to shave. Now, I have often shaved off the gotee, just for a fresh start. This morning however, I made the decision that I was going to shave off the gotee and begin to grow a full beard. That is exactly what I did, and for the last month I have let it grow. I’m not exactly sure what brought this on, but it was just an urge that came out of nowhere. I think part of it was just to see if I could even grow a beard (turns out that I can). I have not trimmed the beard yet, but I don’t think I can go all Joaquin Phoenix, so trimming it up every now and then will be neccessary. I can’t say how long this beard will last. I might wake up tomorrow and decide that I no longer want it and shave it all off. However, I do know one thing is for certain after the beard comes a fumanchu (which probably won’t last long, but it will be fun). I have gotten several compliments on the beard, and some suggestions, but overall I must say that it hasn’t been half bad.

This past weekend was quite a busy one. Our church hosted the South Texas District Assembly. The whole place was over run by people from all over the district (most of them older, and they are very into church politics). Although there was plenty of work to do surrounding the Assembly, it wasn’t too bad as I was able to connect with several youth pastors around the district as well as a couple of senior pastors that I know well. The beard was a great topic among some of the youth pastors. The best part about the weekend was Friday night when we got to hear Reggie McNeal speak. It was captivating and challenging. I’m not sure if life will ever be the same.

Those were just a couple of updates on what has been happening in life for me lately. God is so good, and I can’t believe the kind of blessings that He has sent my way. While Reggie was speaking God really began to work on my heart, especially as a pastor. What have I done to further God’s kingdom? Well the simple answer to that question is that I am a pastor and I communicate with people about kingdom business on a daily basis. But, that doesn’t seem like enough. Why do I have events and expect people to come? And furthermore how am I winning lost souls with an event? Don’t get me wrong events are fun, and needed (especially for teens), but why am I standing at the doors of the church and telling people to come in so that they can experience Jesus. For so long that is what I was taught, and that is how things worked for the church. But the world doesn’t care that you are having a game night at the church. The bottom line is that we have to stop standing at the door and leave the doors to go out into the world. We as Christians should be a blessing to everyone we meet, not just to the people we see every Sunday in the pews at church. If we are truly salt then we need to get out of the salt shaker and into the world. Can you imagine what this world would look like if we were no longer satisfied with putting an announcement in the bulletin and actually living life out among the sinners of this world. Jesus Christ came to give life to everyone, not just the people that come to church. Now some may agree with what I’m saying but ask the question how? When you see people in need of love, give it freely. Ask someone, “how can I ask God to bless you?” You see when we ask that question God is on the line, not us, not the church, but God. From my experience God will not let them down. When we pray for other people, even strangers, God can work miracles. Church is not about programs, it is about people. We must start thinking about church as a who, and not as an it. Go and be a blessing to someone, anyone, everyone. Sorry about the soap box. Peace and love.

Easter

Easter is now over, and all of the things we gave up for Lent are now back in play. Some people I am sure are very excited about this. This weekend was absolutely fantastic! I honestly don’t know if I have ever experienced an Easter weekend as powerful as this weekend was. I think that God really opened my eyes to all of the mighty works that he is doing in my life, and in the lives of those around me. He is so awesome and I know that I don’t ever give him the credit that he deserves.

For me the power of God started to move on Wednesday night. It happened in the middle of my sermon. I don’t know exactly what happened, but somewhere along the way a switch was flipped, and God just began to pour out his spirit upon us there in the youth room. I was speaking about the death of Jesus. I was going through and talking about how horrible and embarassing a thing it was to be crucified, and that Jesus went through that for us. Nothing overly complex about the message, but as I spoke, I began to listen to the words that were coming out of my mouth, and my heart began to break when I started to realize exactly what it was that Jesus did for me. I can’t believe that he paid the price for me, even when I don’t deserve it, and even when I turn my back, none of that changes what Christ did on the cross for me. This is the message of Easter, and it came through in a powerful way.

On Friday night we had a Good Friday service. It was a simple one hour service with some songs, a brief message, and communion. However, something struck me as Pastor Scott was ending his sermon. He began to talk about the blood of Jesus. He talked about how in the Old Testament the Jews were not to eat any meat with the blood still in it. They were to let all of the blood out of the animal, because to them the blood is the life of the creature, and they were to let all of the life out before partaking of it. He then explained how radical it was then to have Jesus say eat of my flesh and drink of my blood. It was in this moment that I realized that if the life is in the blood then we must be a part of it so that we may enherit a life that is way more abundant than anything we could ever imagine.

Saturday I had my men’s group in the morning, and it was good. It was basically my systematic theology class packed into one hour. The cool thing about Saturday happened right after men’s group. I was able to sit down with a friend, and he shared his incredible story with me. he talked about the bondage that he had been held under, and then the freedom that God gave him. There is a lot to his story, and it was so cool to see the way that God has and is working in his life. He has a joy that can only come from God. The only thing I can think of to compare it to is when Moses came back from seeing God’s glory, and he was glowing so much that they had to cover his face. This is the kind of joy that was beaming from him. I want that for my life, I want that kind of transformation.

Then came Sunday! For me Easter Sunday began before the sun had come up as I went and attended the sunrise service with our Spanish speaking congregation. It was really neat to worship on Easter with a different culture than what I am acustomed to. Then we went to the English service at 10, and the Lord was there and moved in a powerful way. This service was jam packed. We had many songs of joy and celebration combined with 16 baptisms, 3 powerful testimonies, and a great sermon. The theme of the day was, “The Same Power that Conquered the Grave Lives in Me!” What an awesome concept. The very same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is available to me. It is the power to change and transform lives. It is the power to resurrect our lives out of the sin and darkness that we have been living in. This is the power of God!

This week was amazing for me, and all I can do is praise the one who created me and died for me. If you made it all the way through this post God bless you. I hope that you were able to experience the same life changing power that I was this Easter, and I hope that you never forget the price that our Lord paid so that you may be free from oppression. Peace and Love.

Hide and Seek

When I was a youngster I can remember loving the game of hide and seek. I don’t know, there was just something about it that drew me in every single time. I’m also not quite sure what was more exciting hiding or seeking. They both brought a lot of fun to the table. There was a certain adrenaline rush that I would get as a kid playing this game. Not much has changed over the years. I still enjoy a game of hide and seek every now and again. However, today the rules have changed a little bit so as to spice things up a bit. For instance I can’t just play hide and seek. If I am going to play it has to be dark, and we have to just miander around in the dark cloak of the night and try to find one another. This definitely makes things a little bit more exciting. There are also many different versions of this game out there. There is Sardines (basically everyone trying to find just one person and hide with that person), and of course Cops and Robbers (One group is hiding/running and the other group is searching for the other group). There is definitely an infatuation that we have with this game as humans. We enjoy trying to outsmart each other and outrun each other.

The game of hide and seek is fun, but sometimes we all too often try to play a game of hiding in our own lives. We do not want people to know all of our junk. So what do we do…we hide it, and dont ever let anyone know what is really happening in our own lives. We just decide that we are going to put on a happy face and let everyone think that we are doing just fine, and that there is not a weakness in us. The fact of the matter is this, no matter what we do to try and cover up our stuff it is still there.

When we decide to hide from other people then all of the sudden we begin to give away control of our lives to whatever it is that we are hiding. Instead of just living life out in the open we begin to focus on how can I keep anyone from knowing who I really am on the inside. So this hidden issue begins to dictate the way that we live life, and before we know it this thing has taken us captive and we are slaves. It takes us and puts us in bondage.

Why is playing hide and seek in the dark more fun than it is in the light? I believe that it is because the darkness is a good cover. In the same way it is easy for us to hide our secrets in the dark. We don’t want to let our secrets out into the light, because then everyone will see what is really going on. But the reality is that God already knows what we are trying to hide, and we cannot hide it from him. The only way we will ever be free from the bondage is when we confess and let our sins be seen in the light. That is what God does when we confess. All of the sudden our anger, addiction, eating disorder, self esteem, and our whole lives are put out into the light, and when that happens they can no longer control our lives, becasue we are no longer trying to hide, instead we make the commitment to living in the light.

God wants us to be able to live in freedom, and not in bondage. When we confess our sin and expose it then we can begin to live life to the fullest, and we don’t have to constantly look over our shoulder, and we don’t have to cover our footsteps. We are then free to let people see the real person that we have been hiding under the mask, and that in and of itself is liberating to know that there is nothing to hide, and we are who we are. I love hide and seek, but we should just leave it at a fun game to play with our friends, and not a lifestyle that we try to live. God loves you no matter what you are hiding, so trust him, and let him free you from the chains that you have been carrying. Peace and love.

Transformation

Have you ever felt like you have just fallen in a rut, and you just keep doing the same thing day in and day out? Maybe a better question would be who hasn’t. Up until a couple of weeks ago I was feeling this way. You know the feeling; wake up, get out of bed (only after hitting the snooze button a couple of times), feed the dog, get dressed, brush your teeth, go to work, come home, watch recorded tv (which is actually pretty cool, and I dont know if that will ever get old), go to bed, then wake up and do it all over again. This is the aformentioned rut that I am speaking about. The same routine can get a little old when you do it day after day. Eventually you need something to happen that is exciting and different from the normal.

Over the last week despite being sick and my wife being out of town, I feel revitalized, and ready to take on the world again. This week has been about transformation. This week I introduced the new name and logo of our student ministry here at Living Word. As my one or two readers already know (The only readers that I have are my close friends, and they were involved with the unveiling) the new name is Transformed Student Ministries. So as you might imagine I have been dwelling on the thought of transformation over the course of this week. I am excited about what this name/theme change can do for us as a student ministry, but I am also excited about what it is going to do for myself, and the way that I live out my life.

As I mentioned I have felt like I have been in a rut, and I needed to be transformed. I needed to change the way I look at life. I need to have more optimism and see opportunities that are always out there. I really do want to transform my life. I’m tired of going with the norm and just blending in to the crowd. I want to swim upstream. This is not an easy journey, in fact it will be a difficult one, but I believe that if I choose not to go this way then I will loose my opportunity to show the love of Christ to others. However, the only way that I can begin to get out of this rut is to allow my life to be transformed. It is one thing to really want some kind of transformation to happen, and it is another to allow yourself to be transformed. People love the idea of becoming something new and better, but very few want to do the work to get there. That is our challenge. We have to let it happen, without resistance.

There is a cool passage in Job 28:5-6. It talks about how everyday elements (rocks and dirt) can be transformed into something valuable. This is not something that just happens one day, instead there is a process and it happens over time. This process involves heat and pressure. In the same way for us to be transformed we must go through the pressures and heat that life brings, but in the end we can come out as something of worth. We all have the availability of transformation but we must allow God to take us through the difficult process.

When we decide that transformation is something that we desire then we can begin to go out and transform others around us. And we know that no matter what God is always going to be there walking beside us and helping us to walk in the kingdom. I hope that you might decide to take this journey of transformation, because it will pull you out of the rut of life and set you on a new and exciting path. So take the plunge and feel the freedom that comes when you decide to be transformed. Peace and love.

Rain

Over the last four days or so it has been raining here in Houston. Now when I say rain I don’t mean like a storm has rolled through everyday, its more like God just turned on the faucet and forgot to turn it off over a four day period. I was indoors for most of the time, because of the fact that it was cold and wet (as I described just a moment ago). I actually enjoy rainy days. I enjoy the stillness that they often bring, and the relaxation that comes with the pitter-patter of rain drops on my roof. The only thing missing from the rain this weekend, was some good ‘ole thunder and lightning. If only those elements were included with this particular shower then it would have been complete. I love the peace that comes with a good shower. I find myself at rest and in a place where everything else just melts away with the rain that has come. This weekend was no different, because I did get to enjoy the rain and bask in the peacefulness that it brought. And by the looks of things this morning it was looking like today was going to be a carbon copy of the days before. However, it has turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day outside, and as much as I enjoy the rain, it is nice to see the sun shine again and see new life that the rain has brought.

I think we can look at life and often compare it to the weather. Sometimes life is really great, and its beautiful outside, and sometimes it really has us down and the clouds have rolled in and it looks like a storm. Sometimes the storm looks like its going to last for days on end, and then suddenly it clears, and there is a newness that we experience. The cool thing about the rain this last weekend was that we needed it. It sure was great to have a few weeks where the weather was nice and warm, but over time the grass grew more yellow, and the trees did not look fresh. Then the rain came, and today as the sun is shining I can look out my window and see wonderful green trees and green grass.

Sometimes we go through storms so that we can be made into something beautiful afterwards. It is not easy, and sometimes it is a cold and wet path that we must travel down to get there. However, the end product is more fulfilling than we ever could have imagined. This is how God works. He sends us into the storms to make us stronger, and help us to realize that He is the only one that we can lean on in times of trouble. I have found that I am constantly going through these rainy days so that I can enjoy the beauty after the storm has passed. God wants this for all of us. So the next you find yourself staring at the oncoming storm of life remember that the storms come to strengthen us. Peace to you.

Self Discipline

This week marks the beginning of the season of Lent in the church. It started on Wednesday, and will continue through Easter. Now I am sure many of you know about Lent and why it is an important season to comemorate. However, this week for me has been a focus on self-discipline. I have been thinking about things that I need to better about in my life, and things that I have let slide. When I sit back and think about the things in my life that I need to get back on track I have to think about self-discipline. There is a reason that it takes commitment to follow through. Its not easy to make yourself do something you dont feel motivated to do.

The practice of self-discipline is a difficult thing to master, because many times you are the only one that can keep yourself accountable to the commitment you made to yourself. For this reason many people struggle with the thought of Lent. I know that I have been hesitant in the past to “give up” something during this season, and that is because I am not sure I have enough self-discipline to hold myself accountable. However, over the years as I have realized more and more the meaning of Lent it has become easier to accept this idea of self discipline. When I think about the self-discipline and sacrafice that Jesus took on for our sake it motivates me to strive for that. I mean if Jesus had enough self-discipline to give up his life for me then surely I can complete my task over the course of fourty days.

The Lord is constantly calling me to self-discipline as I live out my daily life. I hope that I can continue to strive for that. I know that I have my work cut out for me, as most of us do when it comes to being dicsiplined enough in our lives, but i also know that I have a God that is going to stand by my side and hold me accountable to him. I have to realize that it is all for the betterment of not only my life, but also the lives of those around me. When I can learn to master the art of self-discipline, then I can in turn begin to make an impact upon the lives  of others that I come in contact with on a daily basis. They can begin to see the impact that God has made in my life in a certain area, and they benefit from that. I thank God for everything that He is revealing to me in my life, and I cannot wait to see what he has in store for me next. My prayer is that I have enough self-discipline to continue seeking his revelation in my life and the lives of others. peace and love.