A Retreat, Family, and a Random Thought...

last week cailyn and i got a chance to go to a campus ministers retreat in southern indiana and then we headed up north to spend some time with our families. it was all very good and very refreshing.

being with our families is always good, especially when it is at the lake. we are just very blessed to have the families that we have...

and the retreat....was awesome...

being the first year that we are doing ministry in a lead role, it was particularly good to be able to spend time with other ministers and to reconnect with old friends. it is always good to get back with the people that i love and have learned so much from at Purdue. we also had a chance to listen to a great speaker, don everts. he was incredibly dynamic in his speaking, but more than that, he was down to earth and real, and a great time to hang out with. basketball, disc golf, and poker....it was awesome!


on a side note, i am realizing that i am not all that good at debriefing/breaking down the conversations that i have with other, and particularly students, to figure out how i move forward in my relations with them. it is something that i hope to work on and grow in.

The Sacredness of Life...

it is sobering and yet some how refocusing to realize the fragility and shortness of life...

i just got off the phone with my best friend from high school, and he told me that just a couple of days ago that his wife had given birth to their twin boys at 19 weeks of pregnancy, a baby doesn't really have a realistic chance of living until 23 weeks, and so the lived just a few short moments and then went to be with their Heavenly Father...

it is so hard to no what to say in a situation like that...to know how to love, support, and encourage someone who has just lost something like that...something that they are so excited about and have been hoping for for so long...

i am reminded about just how short life can be....i am reminded about what really matters in life, love...i am reminded about how God has a plan that is far bigger than our own and that it is something that we can't even fathom or imagine at times...

i am amazed and encouraged by dave's attitude and spiritual maturity in a time of tragedy like this. to hear him talking about God having a plan and God seeing the bigger picture and that the boys are in Heaven with God and that they will continue to try to have children and simply trust God through the process no matter what that might look like...

i pray for him and his wife as they move through this time of grieving and pain and heartache...

Dealing with People and Being a Follower of Christ...

as i have mentioned before, cailyn and i just finished up building a house, which as you might guess means dealing with and interacting with a variety of different people. so, yesterday we were supposed to get th las of our work done that needed to be done by an outside source. it was heating and cooling work...

so, i met them at the house and talked through what needed to get done and then headed off to the office to get some stuff done for the day. i fully expected that when i returned home last night, things would be done and in order. well, unfortunately, when i returned home i found that one of the jobs that was supposed to be done appeared to have been "forgotten" and there was also a large gouge missing from the wall in our stairway. needless to say, it was not what i expected to find when i returned home...

so here is my dilemma...i am not good at understanding how to deal with people in situations like this, especially as a Christ follower. i want to be able to love people and to treat them as Christ would above all else, but at the same time i do desire to get the work done that needs to be done. it is just a struggle for me to figure out how to do both at the same time. it is something that i am trying to learn as i grow in my process of being a follower of Christ...

A Long Break...

it has been a number of weeks since i have last written. it has been a really crazy time ober the last few weeks. the school year has wrapped up, which brought with it a number of different events and activities that we don't usually have in a typical week.

then as soon as school was over, i began to put together thoughts and lists of things that i/we need to get done during the summer. it has taken a good amount of time to compile the list of things that need to be done and then to begin to transition into the summer mode of laying things to accomplish and then systematically working through them one at a time.

i am beginning to feel like i am in the swing of things for the summer, just in time to start taking some vacations and time off, that will no doubt mess with my routine. next week cailyn and i will be heading to southern indiana for 3 days of a campus ministers retreat and then up to my parents lake cottage for 3 or 4 days before we head back to missouri.

there are not going to be too many full weeks of work in the month of june, which means that i really need to take advantage of the time that i do have to work and to really get things accomplished.

currently i am working on reading through some books to get some thoughts together and figure out some teaching direction and some new thoughts for the upcoming year. currently, i am reading through a book called The Tangible Kingdom. it has some really good thoughts and i think it is going to get me thinking is some really great ways!

Buried with Christ...

this past weekend, we had our spring retreat down at the lake of the ozarks with many of the other campus ministries from the area. despite being very tired from a long week leading into it...it was a really good time with about 30 of our students!

by far the highlight of the weekend for me though was getting to do my first baptism. i had the opportunity (in some extremely cold water) to baptize jenna! congratulation jenna!!

what an awesome image of being buried with Christ and then being raised again to new life!!

Metamorpha...

i recently started reading a new book called Metamorpha by Kyle Strobel...

i really like the thoughts that he has and the ways that he is thinking through faith and God and whatnot. Here are a couple of small sections of what he has to say about this metamorpha life that we are to be living...

"The metamorpha life is one of continual deconstruction and reconstruction of our views."

"In this setting, the whole point of Christian growth is the process. Such churches do not ignore any ideal about the Christian life, but they see it as a point on the horizon to journey toward, not a point in the past that we have already achieved that then permits us to just walk through life unchanged."

i really like these thoughts and it is my hope and prayer that as i continue through this book and as i continue to kick around these thoughts, that it will truly help to deconstruct and reconstruct the way that i think about both my personal relationship with Christ and also the way that i lead a ministry and the way that i direct students in our ministry...

A Busy Time....

for the few of your that actually read my blog, i know that it has been a while since i have written...

there has been so much going on....it has kept me unbelievably busy. things at campus house have been super busy as the year winds down and we try to get all of the end of the year things together while also starting to look ahead to the things of next year. it is just a crazy time because you get to the point where you just want to be done and have a break and relax and re-energize and whatnot, but to really make next year be all that it can be, there has to be a considerable amount of time and effort put in now into thinking about next year.

and then there has been personal busyness as well. this past weekend, cailyn and i moved into our new home! it is very exciting to actually be living in our very own home. this past saturday we were incredibly blessed to have the help of so many of our amazing friends to help us move. it was amazing...in less than 6 hours, they were able to help us load, move, and unload all of our stuff. amazing!!

it is certainly an awesome thing to be surrounded by such an amazing community that cares for us and takes care of one another so well! what a blessing...

now the challenge is that there are many little projects that need to be finished on the house and also many boxes that need to be sorted through and given a permanent home. we are just going to have to be patient and know that things will get done in the end.