Friends...One of God's Greatest Blessings...

i taught this past week at dig on relationships: us with others, and it was one of those lessons where afterwards i realized that it had a lot to speak personally to me.

i talked about the model of relationships that Jesus had: the crowds, the 72, the 12, and the inner 3...and about how we need to strive to have a similar model in our own lives. we also talked about what our role needs to be in each of these types of relationships...

and God has really shown me some amazing things in the past week. i feel like He was calling me to grow and change, especially when it comes to "the 12" and "the inner 3". that i needed to be more intentional and that i needed to invest more and be more vulnerable in those relationships...

and over the past few days, God has given me opportunities to go deeper with my friends, to be vulnerable, to hold each other accountable and to really take steps to grow to what i believe is much more of what He desires...

and yeah...i still have many ways that i need to grow in order to truly be like Christ...

but it has been so good...and i am reminded that life is so much better when it is shared with friends in truly, meaningful, Godly relationships...

it makes me excited to continue to invest and strive and grow and be challenged to see where God might take things...

Nothing Like a Little Quiet Time...

so i was thinking this morning about how crucial it is for me to get some solid time with God in the morning before i get into the rest of my day...

to have some time to simply sit, and be quiet, and to talk with Him and allow Him to talk to me has nothing short of a monumental impact on the rest of my day...

and yet it seems so often that i forget that and that so often if find the idea of a few more minutes of sleep to be so much more exciting. and so this morning was just a really good reminder for me in that. a great reminder of what is really important and what, without a doubt, gets my days started out the best...

i just pray that i can continue to remember that more and more!

A Uniquely Individual Need...

as i get more and more one-on-one meetings and what you might call "counseling" under my belt, i am realizing more and more just how non-formulaic it is...

i am realizing that with just about every student there is a different type or style of need to be met. with some students they are really looking for spiritual growth and help moving to a deeper relationship with God...while other students simply need help processing through challenges of life.

and then within those categories, there seem to be a plethora of sub-categories that exist...

i am realizing that i need to strive to understand more and more what these differences are and how they play out and even how i recognize them and what approaches are needed for each type. in some ways, it is a very challenging realization...but in other ways, it is a simplifying realization because i feel like it helps me to take progressive steps in being able to help these students...

Victory...

i want to stop and remember and celebrate a victory today...a major victory in my mind...

since this shows up in a public forum, i am going to withhold the details, but today i feel like i made a major breakthrough in leading people. and this is coming from a leader of people who often feels like he doesn't do a very good job of leading people. in my mind, it is nothing less than a monumental step for me personally.

granted, it most be only one step in a growing process, but nonetheless...i truly believe that it was a major step...and a step that i don't want to soon forget...

Campus Culture...

what is the culture of the campus here at UCM...

what types of things "connect with" and "resound with" these students...

those are tough questions...

you would think that the answers to those questions would be universal for college students on every campus, but i would strongly disagree with that. in my experience, it is quite unique from university to university...and that is challenging...very challenging...

i am not entirely sure what that means for me and for this ministry...

it makes me wonder what i need to do to engage the culture more and to more fully understand what "connects with" and "resounds with" these students.

i guess in some senses, i really need to be a sponge in soaking up every last little thing that i see in the students that surround me.

Birth: The Visited Planet (Ch. 2)

in chapter two of The Jesus I Never Knew, yancey looks at the christmas story...it is a different look at the story...an intriguing look...

here are a few thoughts and quotes...

he talks again about images...images of Jesus...the images that we see at christmas time...

"Inside, the cards stress sunny words like love, goodwill, cheer, happiness, and warmth. It is a fine thing, I suppose, that we honor a sacred holiday with such homey sentiments. And yet when I turn to the gospel accounts of the first Christmas, I hear a very different tone and sense mainly disruption at work."

"If Jesus came to reveal God to us, then what do I learn about God from that first Christmas?

The word associations that come to mind as I ponder that question take me by surprise. Humble, approachable, underdog, courageous - these hardly seem appropriate words to apply to deity."

yancey then goes on to talk about each of these four descriptors...

humble...

"That God is little, that is the truth which Jesus taught man. The God who roared, who could order armies and empires about like pawns on a chessboard, this God emerged in Palestine as a baby who could not speak or eat solid food or control his bladder, who depended on a teenager for shelter, food, and love."

approachable...

"What can be less scary than a newborn with his limbs wrapped tight against his body? In Jesus, God found a way of relating to human beings that did not involve fear."

underdog...

"Growing up, Jesus' sensibilities were affected most deeply by the poor, the powerless, the oppressed - in short, the underdogs."

courageous...

"It took courage to risk descent to a planet known for its clumsy violence, among a race known for rejecting its prophets. What more foolhardy thing could God have done?"

The Jesus I Never Knew

first, i appologize...i don't know that there is really anyone out there still reading this or checking it, but if there is, i appologize because it has been nearly forever since i last wrote. and i guess maybe, even if there is no one reading this, i still need to appologize to myself, because there is something implicitly good that comes for me in writing here...something good in my head and my spirit...a processing if you will...

so...that said...i started back into reading The Jesus I Never Knew...i am reading it partially for myself, as is always the case when i read or study...but also seeking to put together teaching thoughts...and as i read, i am also going to write...write here, in this place...

so...here is a thought from chapter one...

what is your image of Jesus? i mean, what does he look like, but also, how does he act, what type of person is he, to you personally. how do you interact with him, if you see yourself interacting with him at all. what are his tendencies and typical emotions? is he emotional at all?

and these things that you think...the images that you have of Jesus...where do they come from? what has shaped them? do they come from scripture? from your thoughts? from pieces of the life around you? how has the culture around you developed these thoughts? mislead you in these thoughts?

is our image of Jesus tamed? trimmed around the edges? do we have even a shadow of an understanding of just how world changing Jesus was...and is?

here is an absolutely amazing quote by Walter Wink, "If Jesus had never lived, we would never have been able to invent him."...ponder that for a little while...