Where God leads me...

Well, its been quite a long time since my last post. Maybe I ran out of things to say. Maybe I just got busy. Maybe I just forgot.
If you're reading this blog, my guess is that we're friends on facebook, so I'll let you get picture updates on Addison and other important events like that on there. To try and get back into the habit of posting on here, I figured I'd skip the "update" part and just jump right in to sharing some thoughts that I've felt God teaching me over the last few months.

I've been reading a couple of books that have been really good - Crazy Love & Forgotten God, both by Francis Chan. I've also had a few experiences that I won't go in to on here, but basically, with the books and these experiences, I've felt the "need" & desire to know what it is God has planned for me. In life, in ministry, in my family, in all areas, really. And I've talked with many other people that feel the same way. And just when I think I've figured out what it is that God has in store for me, of course, He shows me that I don't really know anything.

I've asked God to show me what His plan is, and I've tried to just trust Him and take whatever answer He gives. But most of the time, I'm expecting something like a road map, and if not the whole map, at least a good-sized section of the map. And then I get frustrated when He doesn't show me what I want. Last week, I was taking a drive through the mountains, enjoying the colors of the changing leaves on the Aspen trees, and I began to see what I think is God's answer to those prayers when I ask Him to show me what's coming next.I always picture in my mind, that God is going to show me an aerial view, where I can see the turns and what's coming ahead. Or if I'm picturing the road itself, I'm wanting to see a long stretch of road, and honestly wanting it to be a pretty straight stretch of road. But I think that this picture shows more accurately what God shows us. Not even a quarter-mile of road, right before a big turn where you can't see anything else. You know the road goes on, you can even see some really cool things far off in the distance...but as far as the road itself, God only shows me what I need to see for right now. As the turn gets closer, He'll let me see what I need to at that point. But for now, I just need to enjoy the view and quit worrying about what's around the corner.

As I said, I've got many friends who I know have asked the same thing of God, to show us the path laid out before us so we can know His plan. One of the things the books I've been reading have reinforced to me is that God wants me to trust Him with TODAY, not just my LIFE. Because if I can't trust him for the things that are happening right now, how can He expect me to really trust Him (and how can I expect myself to be able to) with the whole trip, if I can't simply trust Him with the short stretch of road I'm on right now?

Maybe you're one of my friends who can relate to this, and if so, I hope this thought can help you. If not, maybe you can just enjoy the view in the picture.

I'm just sayin'...

"Too Familiar" with Jesus?

God's timing is sometimes pretty frustrating. And sometimes its pretty amazing.
This morning's lesson in our High School class was from Matthew 11, where Jesus speaks of the cities that did not repent even though they saw Him do wondrous miracles and Matthew 13 where He speaks about a prophet having no honor in his hometown. After reading the two passages, I asked the teens the question, "Can we become TOO familiar with Jesus?" We likened it to knowing someone before they become famous. No matter what great things they do with their celebrity, we only see them as "just that kid" who used to do this and that.
Do we see Jesus as "just that guy" who used to do this and that? Do we see Him as just a character in a story that we read about when we were kids? In light of my previous post about getting bored with the facts...do we know all the "facts" about Jesus yet not really know Him at all?
Here's what we came up with in our class discussion - If we only know the facts about Jesus, then we are like the people in His hometown that only knew "about" Him and did not know His purpose and reason for being here. But if we only try to "know" Him without knowing about Him, then we are like the cities that saw all His miracles and considered Him a magician of sorts, yet did not listen to His teachings or let Him change their life.
You can't really come to "know" Jesus and have a relationship with Him if you're not going to learn the facts about Him. But if that's all you do, then you will never truly "know" Him as your Savior. You have to have both the facts and the applications.
So I guess we're keeping the boring classes! ;)

But I Don't Want to Learn!

Over the past couple of months, I've been trying to spend some One-on-One time with each teen in the Youth Group. I simply set up an "appointment" or whatever to meet the kid for lunch or pick them up after school and just go sit and talk about random topics. For some of the kids I'll have a few specific things that I want to try and bring up, but for several of them its just been a "so how are things going?" kind of talk. They've all gone really well, and I only have 10 left before I've done one with each UYG teen. I'm already looking forward to doing it again soon.

One of the recent ones I had was with one of our High School girls, and one of the questions I asked her was how she thought the Youth Group was doing. This question is one that I've asked most of the teens and its been really interesting to see the 32 different perspectives that I've gotten. When I asked this girl the question, she had great things to say about the group itself and all the fun activities we do, but when talking about our classes she said, "Classes are just so boring, though."

This surprised me a little, because most of the comments I've gotten from the other teens have been pretty complimentary of our classes & teachers. Most of the teens have really loved our discussions (especially on Wednesday nights) and the lessons that the teachers have been sharing. So I asked this girl to tell me a little bit about why she thought the classes were boring, and her response was one that I just did not know how to react to. She said, "I just don't understand why we have to keep learning new stuff all the time. I mean, when are we ever going to need to use this?" I honestly had to look down at my french fries and try not to laugh at the response out of shock that it came out of a High Schooler who has been in the church all of her life. Has she just not been paying attention? Have we just not done a good enough job of teaching the applications? Have we been too focused on the "facts"? Is that even a bad thing?

So, I'm interested to get your opinions whether you're in Youth Ministry, have teens of your own, or don't even go to church. Why do we have to keep learning this stuff about the Bible and God? Is that just an immature response, or does she have a point?

Looking forward to hearing from you about this!