This weekend was action packed for me. First off, my son Judah, was sick. He wasn’t holding on to any of his food. So he was pooping and puking and it was horrible. It’s heart breaking when he is sick. There is literally nothing that we can do for him in those situations, and he can’t tell us what he wants or needs. It’s really rough.
Then on saturday night we took some students to Jet City Improv, which started at 10:30pm. It was hilarious and everyone had fun. But the down side was the whole daylight savings time. I didn’t get home until 1 am-ish, and so really 2 am and I was on to preach on Sunday morning. So That was neat. It was worth it though because it was hilarious.
Sunday Morning I woke up with a start, I like to give myself a lot of time to prepare in the morning and to rest and relax, and that just didn’t happen, I woke up and had to leave in 45 minutes so I felt pretty rushed.
Got to church made sure that everything was done and taken care of. All was well. I was excited to preach, it’s honestly one of my favorite things in the world. I really look at preaching like my craft. Some people like to paint, others to sing, others to build stuff, I love to talk about God and hopefully make a heart connection with people through what God has been teaching me. It’s really a journey of sorts, and I love to take people on the journey. If I wasn’t a pastor I would probably go try to work as the Jungle Boat Skipper at Disneyland.
I talked about worry, from Matthew 6, you can download it here if you like. I talked about the biggest thing that I worry about, our student ministry. Part of what I was trying to say is that worry about our students and our ministry, but Jesus is helping me to set my treasure on what really matters. And I went on to talk about comparison, and envy, and success, and all. I was nervous because I was being really vulnerable. We wrapped up by celebrating communion, as we do every week. And we had index cards in the programs and I had everyone write what they worry about on the index card and as we came to receive the elements of communion we put down our worries and took up Christ. it was a really beautiful moment.
I received a lot of good feedback, there were guest there who I had a chance to meet and they seemed to dig it so that was cool. But one thing that I don’t think I made clear is that Jesus is helping me to not worry about youth ministry as I give it over to him. I’ve received second hand some people who felt bad for me. And that was not the point of my message, so if you were at Creekside yesterday and thought I was depressed then please hear my heart and know that I’m not, and I really have great joy working with our students. And my wins are changing from butts in seats and events and programs to relationships.
For instance. Last night was started a new cell group. It wasn’t the ideal situation, because our host home dude was sick, so instead of going to his place and making him feel like he had to host us, we went to McDonalds. the group is made up of guys who I love deeply, and I love to hang out with. I had a lot of fun with them and the conversation went well. There are two other guys that I am chasing to try to get into our group.
I’m really excited to actually be leading a cell group. For two months I was supported the other two groups but I felt homeless, so now I’m back in the groove and I get to love on students.
But as we were leaving I was hit with some really sad news. A youth pastor friend I know confessed that he had an adulterous relationship. This is the first youth pastor friend of mine that has fallen. It hits in a hard way. This is a colleague, a friend, a brother in Christ who has made a tragic mistake. All I can do is pray for him and his wife, and hope that healing occurs in their life.
So I had a pretty crazy day. And Monday I’m sitting here with my beautiful wife, and amazingly healthy (today) son and I am thanking Jesus for all that he has blessed me with, an amazing family, a great church, the best students in the world, and delicious coffee.
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