Some Days Are Better Than Others

Yesterday was a hard day.  For the past several months we have been working a transition plan with beyond student ministries as I am moving into the associate pastor role at Creekside.  Unfortunately due to some bad decisions on the side of our interns we have asked them to step down and take some time to work on the deeper issues behind their actions.  The guys have complied with this, and last night we announced these changes at our youth gathering.

Those kinds of announcements always suck. Things went better than I thought, and my hope is that Creekside Church and the students at Creekside will support Matt and David.  Our church is full of broken people and we are all working our way closer to Jesus.

This is what I’ve learned in ministry and working with people in general, some days are better than others.  Often we get to determine how we perceive our day, no matter what Crap might be thrown at us, we can trust that there is some good in there.

Today is a good day.

And it’s also the last day in my office for like 2 weeks.  Which is pretty cool in it’s own way, I’ll be in class and then in Michigan.

Church Prayer . . . Moms’ Day

Today I had the privilege to pray during our church service, every time I get to pray is a privilege. Sometimes I know exactly what I am supposed to pray, and other times I don’t know and I start praying and God talks to me while I’m praying. It sounds weird I know, and I can’t explain it. Today I was praying for moms and I said, God is with moms when their babies are crying in the middle of the night, and when moms are crying for their babies in the middle of the night.”

As soon as I said those words I was blown away by how amazing moms are, and how God’s love is evidenced in a mom’s love. I don’t think it’s good form to regularly quote yourself on your own blog, but I wanted to share that thought.

Somedays are better than others

So somedays you might feel like you are working on a problem with no solution.  Can you imagine the kid who started this maze, only to realize that there is no solution?  That would suck.  My three year old would totally flip out.

Circumstances and situations often feel like this, but there is always a solution, sometimes you might just need to break down a wall.  Sometimes you just need to turn the page, and start a new problem.

Just a thought.

Earl Creps – Twitter – Who Cares?

Read this post from Earl Creps about twitter.  He essentially points out that few 18-24 year olds are using twitter, and he presents a variety of reasons for this.  Twitter’s users are generally older than most would assume, many CEO’s, business people, moms, pastors and so on are using twitter, and a large number of boomers are.

Earl seemed to be concerned with the fact that younger people are not using twitter because that challenged his assumptions.  Ultimately who cares?  Twitter is not for everyone, but it’s for some.  I look at twitter the same way I look at blogging, I don’t care who reads it, I started to use these tools to capture thoughts or ideas, or just ramble from time to time.  If other people express some interest in what I’m saying that’s cool, but I don’t really care.

And converesly, I’ve actually been challenged by the blogs I read and the tweets I follow.  That’s been a blessing to me.  Twitter has actually made it a little easier for me to keep my facebook profile active as well, so that’s a bonus.

Does it really matter that there are not as many 18-24 year olds on twitter?  Does everyone need to use twitter?  No.  If you regularly update your facebook status would twitter make that a little easier, yes.  But it’s not really worth it to try to convince people who really don’t even care at all.

That’s just my thoughts.

Peace of Mind

So lately the post that has brought the most traffic to my blog has been the video of Lauryn Hill’s “Gotta Find Peace of Mind.” Is there a better time than this to hear that song? With so much drama in the world around us, it’s hard to truly find peace. There are some many voices telling us so many things that distract or discourage us. And We need to constantly come back to the one person who can provide peace. Jesus.

Jesus, help us to know that you truly are the peace giver. We cannot find peace anywhere else but you. Help us to hear you in all the craziness around us. We want to hear you above the noise. Amen.

My Reading Plan . . . well here’s to hoping

So my new years resolution was to read 75 book in 2009.  I don’t think that’s going to happen, I’ve fallen way off track.  And I also had resolved to read only one book at a time, and that’s definitely not going to be a possibility.  I’ve been swamped for time to read, and I’m currently in paper writing season so my reading is all over the place.

I still think I can get 50 book in this year fairly easy, but 75 might be a bit far reaching.  If you care, you can see the books that I’m reading at my readings tab.

I know this post isn’t really life changing to anyone, but it helps me to get this goal off my brain, and do so in a kind of public way.