Perfect! It all worked out as expected…

As I planned many months ago, and as you probably already know, I am in the United States preparing for my next adventure.  What might surprise you is that my next adventure will look a lot like my last adventure.  If you are wondering how working to liberate restavek children in Haiti will compare to the academic rigor of a seminary education at Oral Roberts University, you are simply missing out on a few minor details.  Minor detail number one: I deferred my enrollment at the last minute.  Minor detail number two: I am returning to Haiti to work full-time for another 6-months to a year.

I know, i know… You’re thinking “You are soooo random.  When did all of this happen?”  First off, I’m not random… I am actually very, very calculated.  Perhaps my life calculator has more cool buttons than yours.  To you, this may seem very sudden, but i’ve actually been contemplating this decision since as far back as February (if you are still skeptical, I have journal entries to prove it).  Back then it was barely more than a “feeling,” just a thought in the back of my mind that kept telling me to “expect a longer stay.”  In my heart I felt that unexplainable “knowing;” I knew that something was on its way.  I knew that I was a part of a movement that would pick up speed quickly and somehow I knew that it would take me with it…  It was more than a sense of urgency.  I knew that my own destiny is wrapped up in it.  (Now that I say that, I can probably say that this started as far back as October with a word from Pastor Laffoon).

This may all sound weird to some of you, but I’m very accustomed to this feeling… this urge… this wordless “voice” guiding, pushing, and pulling me.  This voice is the main function on my life’s “calculator.”  In fact, nothing in my life ever equates without it.  With it, everything always runs smoother than a dream.  Over the months I have consulted friends and mentors about what I was feeling.  I discussed it with Joycelyne.  I shared it with my dad… but I mostly contemplated it on my own.  Then as the days went by in Haiti, I watched as everything else that I had ever intuitively “known” for the past four years rolled out before my eyes.  Just about everything that God has spoken to me since the beginning of college has been occurring all at once, and it is all so unbelievably connected.

Every day, especially in the months of June and July, I became more and more aware of the need to stay.  Not just for the Restavek Foundation, but for all of the other work that I have going on in Haiti.  The church is at a unique point.  My ministry toward a small group of children has reached a critical point and is ready to be transformed and expanded.  Even the business that I am starting (which I have yet to write about) requires my presence.  I realized that there was no way that grad school in this kyros moment was the best idea.  I would be leaving an opportunity that I would never see again.

At the time that the feeling became its heaviest, Dad began to say exactly what I was thinking: “Junior, I think that you’re leaving right when you should be arriving.”  He said it several times during the two weeks before I was offered a new position with the JRC Restavek Foundation.  For that reason and so much more, from the moment that I was asked, I knew the decision that I need to make, but I prayed a day or two on it.  I asked for council.  The result of both was the same thing that I “knew” all along.  I needed to stay in Haiti.

So, that’s the “new” adventure.  I will be staying in Haiti doing what I have been doing all along in all domains, but on a different scale.  As the new In-Country Direct for the JRC Restavek Foundation, I will be working on a new project to eliminate slavery in the very area in which I live and work, Petite Place Cazeau.  We will be working to see children uplifted and esteemed, seen as the valuable treasure that they are.  This goal is unbelievably connected to the work that I am now doing with the children in my church (who also, consequently, live in the area).  The work in my church is guided by a vision that was shaped by a series of prophetic experiences that lasted from August of 2006, until May of 2007, and an unforgettable dream that I was given on May 25, 2007.  The vision was formed over a period of 9-months… (Only a few of you know why this is so hilariously ironic and why it is important, but I wouldn’t mind explaining it to curious people who ask).  I don’t even have time to discus my new creole-speaking Puerto Rican Jewish friend, whom I met days before my return to the States.  After feeling an urgent compulsion from God, he is moving from Puerto Rico into Petite Place Cazeau to start a children’s ministry.  He stumbled right into our service on a Sunday morning…  Everything is coming together.  Even my Haitian-American co-worker is deferring a second year to stay on board.

God is working on something big here…  Yes… My life is very calculated.  I’m not always the one pushing the buttons, but believe me, it is so much more fun that way.  If I can give a word of advice to any of my Christian brothers and sisters that are struggling with a decision, I’d say don’t allow what you’ve heard from God in the past block out what God is trying to say to you today.  Chances are that your future is not as linear as your thinking.  Expect the unexpected.  Let go and take a ride!

Mountain Climbing with JRC – A Miraculous Journey

Wow… I thank God that my life is not boring.  If it were any less interesting, I may have had a bit more time to tell you more about it…. oh well.  As usual, again there is much to tell, but I’ll choose one thing from two weeks ago…

On the week of July 5th, Jean-Robert and I set out to visit a child that we returned home in the area of Jacmel last year.  She was a restavek for about a year and suffered unbelievable physical, emotional, and psychological abuse.  Her Gran Moun (owner) was a former neighbor of her family that had moved to Port-au-Prince.  This woman convinced the little girl’s mother that she would take care of her, put her through school, and make sure that her life was rosy, but every single promise was a lie.  This woman put the little girl through so much hell that she ran away.  She was found by the police, who took her to social affairs, who dropped her off at a girls shelter that we work with, and Jean-Robert took the 9-hour trek (one way) over the mountains, swam a river in the rain season, and walked for miles to her house, just to see her happily home with her mother again.  Then he took the long way back home in the middle of the night.  (For the record: There is not a man on earth with more compassion than Jean-Robert.  I thought that I loved people until he introduced me to a new standard).

We had not seen the girl for more than a year because she lived so far away.  We went to visit her because she was due a visit, but also because we were hoping that she would be the perfect candidate for the story that CNN was working on two weekends ago.  If you have seen the report (and if you watch tonight) you will notice that this “perfect” story was not chosen (mainly because we were crunched for time and could not go that far out of the traveling alone), but our trip made for an interesting experience, nonetheless.

We made our first attempt to Jacmel on Tuesday, July 7th.  (Yes, I said first attempt.  There were three attempts total).  We needed a big SUV to make it up the mountains, but we only needed the car for one day.  Big cars are on high demand in Haiti, so the smaller, local rental companies are often reluctant to rent out a big car for one day, fearful of missing a longer contract… so they charge you big bucks for it.  Everyone was asking more than we could afford to pay.  Everyone but this one man, whom we had rented from many times before.  It was a pick-up truck.  The car had its flaws, but  to me, it seemed healthy enough to make the trip (I had never been up those treacherous mountains, so I relied more on JR’s judgment).  We had already spent too much time shuffling around to get a car, so we were in a rush to get up the mountains.  We took off quickly after a cursory check up of the car.

We spent a good two hours or so in stop and go traffic, so there was no way for us to know the first problem that we uncovered until it was too late.  Once we started getting out past Mariani and Gressier we noticed that the car began to shake as we went above a certain speed.  We contacted the renter to let him know the problem.  He through out some sort of wild explanation and asked us what we wanted to do.  But we were already so far out that if we waited or went back, the trip would have been canceled.  In hindsight, that should have been our choice.  We continued on cautiously.  Not less than an hour later, our front tire went flat.  We got out quickly to change the tire only to realize that our trusty spare was also flat and balding.  Not only that, the jack that was in the car was no good… it didn’t even have its proper handle.  Someone had really neglected the regular check-ups on this car.  This was my first experience with renting in Haiti, and these are things that you don’t think of in the U.S., but I should have known better here.

Thank God we went flat near some sort of stone/gravel mining operation, and one of the men who worked there went downtown to find someone who helped us fix our spare.  It took a long time, but he did it.  By then, it was too late to go up the mountain, so we headed home.  We got a refund later that week and the man who rented the car to us may be in trouble with his job for being so negligent.  I felt really bad that day because Joycelyne decided to take a break from her studies to go with us.  It was her first road trip in Haiti and all she got out of it was fatigue, hunger, and “tet chaje” (a headache).  I’m sorry Sweetie…  Maybe in December.

We tried to rent a car the next day.  We ran into the same problem as before… no one wanted to rent it to us for such a short amount of time.  We decided to go ahead and get it for three days (the usual minimum), but when we decided to do that, we lost that contract to someone who wanted it for five.  It was like losing an ebay auction at the last minute…  There were no more of the super-big cars that we needed…  Nothing was in our favor that Wednesday, so Jean-Robert went home and I went on to try to pick up a package at the airport for my new business (there will be more on that headache soon).

Early on Thursday, we went in and got a Nissan Patrol for 7-days (since our director was coming in the next day), and took off.  That transaction went much smoother.  We checked everything on that car.  I flipped things over, punched the tires, took pictures… everything.  It was in great shape.  We went on up to the mountains without a problem… except for the fact that it was a LOOONG bumpy trip, and we left at an hour in which all roadside food was cold. (Bumpy is an understatement… perhaps “jerky” or “jarring” would be more appropriate).  We arrived seven hours after our departure.  It took us a while to find the family, but when we did, they were very happy to see us.  (Well, at least they were happy to see Jean-Robert… they didn’t know me yet).

We made a very short visit, talked to everyone, ate some grilled corn, passion-fruit, and drank some coconuts and headed home.  By then it was already past 5pm.  We had a seven hour drive to make home… so we thought.  A few hours into our trip jerky trip up and down the rocky hills, a miracle happened…  We suddenly arrived on the main road.  Jean-Robert and I just looked at each other.  How did we skip two hours of hill-climbing?  I thought that I had fallen asleep, but Jean-Robert’s confusion justified my own.  We proceeded up the winding roads to Port-au-Prince, still wondering about all of the things that we didn’t pass to get to the main road.  It is possible that we got lost, but usually when you get lost you don’t gain two hours.  Also, these mountain roads have very few turning options and very few entrances and exits.  I don’t know how we happened to find the “right one.”

As we drove into Gressier the car started to shake the same way that the pick-up did.  It was late, it was dark, and we had no tools… We had no choice but to continue.  We moved on through Carrefour and just as we pass a police checkpoint, we lose our steering.  Thankfully, we lost it on a straight away, and the car practically “parked” itself out of harms way.  So get this… we are in front of a police checkpoint, so danger is minimal.  We ask the police officer what they can do for us and they offer to take us to a hotel.  Then, when the realize that we had a rental car, they told us that we couldn’t leave it there or we would only find half of it in the morning.  By “chance” the police officer knew a mechanic in the area, and in that moment (11pm) the mechanic was sitting near the street with some friends joking around (Port-au-prince is usually dead asleep by 10).  In no time, the mechanic got under the car, replaced a bolt that got lost in the steering system with a random piece of iron, and we were on our way home.  Even after the quick fix we arrived two hours early…

The next day, Jean-Robert and I awoke to the reality that we could have died several times the night before.  If we hadn’t found the “shortcut” and continued on the rocky mountains, the bolt may have dislodged faster.  Then, if we had lost steering while navigating the treacherous curves, we could have driven right off of the edge and into the sea.  If our car had lost steering a mile before the police checkpoint, we would have been in danger and we would have had no way home.  There would have been no one there to protect us, we would have never found a mechanic, and by that time, a hotel (if we could have ever found one) was out of the question.  The whole experience was Miraculous.

I don’t know about you… but I don’t believe in chance.  I’m starting to get used to this “my life is in His hands” thing.  It makes me feel invincible.

Desire [Re]defined

On November 8, 2008, God set me on the most exciting journey that I have ever ventured into.  He has given me the honor and privilege of courting his most beautiful and wonderful daughter, Joycelyne Absolu.  From the beginning, I have struggled to find words to express the depth of emotion that I feel toward her, and how I feel every day when I hear her voice, when I see the way that she looks at me, and as I contemplate her encouraging words toward me… wow.  I feel it now just writing about it.  Joycelyne is Absolutely amazing.  But like every other word that I have ever used to describe her or this experience of courtship, I feel like that was an understatement.  Every day, I find my limited vocabulary being stretched as its words are redefined by this joyous experience.

Before I continue, I want to acknowledge that I know that my readers are probably from one of two opposite camps.  Some of you are praying this will become a sanctified version of a Danielle Steele romance novel, full of juicy details, but for those of you who fear that I might turn into mush right before your eyes, let me assure you that there is a lesson to be learned in this blog.  If you make it to the last few paragraphs, I believe that you will get a little insight on the way that your maker looks at you and desires you.

For a long time I have held this theory about relationships.  I believe that every relationship on earth exists to teach us more about God, and I believe that strong relationship with God, in its various forms and paradigms (i.e. father to son, friend to friend, or lover to lover) will help us to be stronger in our earthly relationships.  I have never known this to be more true than I do now.  I now know that when I am touched by the way that Joycelyne looks at me, I am only feeling a glimpse of what the Lover of my Soul feels when I look toward him with a look that expresses honor, esteem, worth, and desire (See Song of Songs 4:9).

In the last few days, the word “desire” has been redefined for me.  I am currently in Haiti, and communication between Joycelyne & I has been, to say the least, very inconvenient.  I left my cell phone SIM in the U.S., so now I’m borrowing my Dad’s until mine is mailed to me.  Dad had our home land-line fixed, but it has been very inconsistent, working some mornings, or some evenings, but cutting us off very often.  Joycelyne often tries to call me through an international account that I set up in the U.S., but not only is it expensive, but has also proven to be very unreliable.  So, due to all of this, and also due to unreliable electricity, Joycelyne and I had not had a real conversation for nearly a week (up until yesterday afternoon).

I was frustrated.  I checked everything that could be wrong with my internet connection in order to get the home phone working.  I could not do anything to fix it.  Joycelyne tried calling me through my International Account since it is cheaper for her to call me… but she couldn’t get through.  Last night, Dad told me about a special that Haitel has on international calls.  This morning I found out that his Haitel phone was not working.  Everything was against me.  The two-and-a-half day electric blackout was the final blow, cutting off even email.

Frustration wasn’t the only emotion that I felt as I dealt with this issue all week, nor was it the strongest.  The most prominent was a familiar one, yet much stronger than I’ve ever felt before.  It was desire.  I just wanted to hear her voice.  I just wanted to encourage her in her work.  I wanted to pray with her.  I wanted to see her smile and know that she was happy.  I wanted to see her eyes one more time.  But I couldn’t, no matter how much I wanted to.

God spoke to me one morning as I was inspecting a cable that connects us to the internet, already “knowing” in my heart that my efforts were in vain.  (I was guilty of cutting my quiet time short in order to check into this problem, hoping I could talk to Joycelyne before she went to work.)  He said to me, with a hint of jealousy in his voice, “I wish you would try this hard to connect to me when it feels impossible.  Even more than you want time with her, I want time with you.”

I was floored by the thought of it.  My head started spinning with thoughts.  I had seen a glimpse of what Joycelyne was experiencing on her end through our little conversation snippets.  She was also trying everything that she could to connect to me, and probably also wondering what I was doing to connect to her.  Did I miss her like she missed me?  Had this disconnection negatively affected the way that I feel toward her?  She had no way of knowing what I was thinking or feeling.

Have you ever felt like you can’t connect to God?  You’ve done everything that you know to do, but you just can’t get through to him.  You wonder what he’s thinking of you.  Does he miss “the good times” as much as you do?  Maybe he doesn’t even care that you are trying to get through to him.  Maybe you should just stop trying.

DON’T STOP!  I can guarantee you that God is doing all that he can to fix the lines of communication so that he can have sweet communion with you again.  He desires to hear your voice even more than you desire to be heard.  He desires to speak to you even more than you want to hear him.  We may not understand the thing that stands between us and God and what happens to make it hard to communicate with him at times, but if courtship can be likened in any way to our relationship with God, then I can guarantee you that God awaits a breakthrough in communication with deeper longing and desire than you do.  Keep pressing into him.  One day you’ll get through, satisfying your heart and His very own desire.

Signs of Life: Epitaph

After discussing the lives of several members of the “Hall of Fame of Faith,” the writer of Hebrews makes the most glorious statement about those who have suffered for their faith.

“35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 THE WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY OF THEM—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.”

—Hebrews 11:35-38

I ponder this scripture often.  It is written on my door in Haiti, and I would read it as I would leave for the day.  Over the years in college, I have had it posted on walls and computer wallpaper to remind me of the ultimate prize that I want to focus on.  I wonder what would it look like to live a life that is worthy of such an honorable statement.  These men and women were cast out and persecuted as if they were the ones who were unworthy of the world, but God had a different perspective on their lives.  It was, in fact, the world that was not worthy of their presence, so God brought them Home.

What would it be like to live a life so abandoned, so bold, and so extravagant that there is no prize on Earth that is “worthy” of me?  What if I could catch the same heavenly perspective that these men and women caught and really let go of all need for human recognition, any fear of the negative opinions of others, any desire for material wealth, and any craving for a comfortable life?  What could a man accomplish if he was free of any desire for what the world considers to be worthwhile?  What if it could be said of me: “The world was not worth of this man, so God took him.”

Most people don’t realize it, but we actually get to choose what is written on our own tombstone.  We choose it by the way that we live.  This epitaph, this final statement engraved in marble marking our final earthly resting place, is a summary, a testimony of all that we stood for.  I pray to God that I can make it known through my actions that I stand for and live for something that cannot be found in this world.  It is a lofty goal.  In fact, I believe it is the highest goal.  I know that this world is not my home, but as arrogant as it may sound, I want to live for God in such a way that it can also be said that this world was not worthy of my presence.

So what about you? What do you want on your tombstone?

Godly Investment: Duke CCF Devotional

Focal scripture: Colossians 1:3-14

“…As indeed in the whole world [the gospel] is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth… For this reason, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God… “
–Verses 6, 9 & 10

In the face of the current financial crisis, many Americans have been suddenly re-introduced to the concept of “smart spending” and “smart investment.”  Many are beginning to learn the difference between a luxury and a necessity, when they once thought them to be one in the same.  By working part-time at classy restaurant, I am witnessing first-hand that many are learning to forgo the regular splurge on an expensive meal to embrace the culinary arts at home.  When resources are scarce, we wise up.

What is interesting to me about this scripture, is that Paul assumes that God is also a wise and frugal investor, even though the resources of his knowledge are unlimited.  If you step back a few verses to verse 6, you will see that Paul and his partners prayed for the Colossians relentlessly because of the fruit being produced by their faithfulness to the word that they received.  Paul saw a chance for a “great return” on God’s further investment into the Colossians, so he prayed that God would give them more.  We do not see the result of his prayer in scripture, but I can guarantee, based on other scriptures (namely the parable of the talents–See Matthew 25:14-30), that God surely answered that prayer.

We all want to know God more.  We all want to know His will.  As you pray and fast today, I challenge you to examine the fruit of the gospel that you received.  God gives more to the faithful.  Pray that he will do just that for Christians on this Campus.  Pray that he will exalt the knowledge of the faithful, in increase the faithfulness of the knowledgeable.

Whatever Happened to the SABBATH?

Last year I had an amazing revelation.  Ready For it?  It will Change your life.  Here goes: The Sabbath day is supposed to be kept HOLY!

Pretty simple right… After all, it is one of the Ten Commandments.  But we seemed to have forgotten that “rule” in the midst of the rest of the rules through the modern fight against legalistic thinking and living.  We are all about living free from the law and under grace.  We are so for it that we often forget that the law was never abolished by Christ, and that to this day, it exists for our own benefit, even though we are “free” from it.  Sure we can eat all of the pork chops we want, but we all know that God was probably trying to protect our health by keeping us away from that filthy animal.  And in this particular case, under grace, we are no longer legally bound to the Sabbath… But why work when you can rest?  I know what you’re thinking: “Because I have soooo much to do, and so little time.  God understands, right?” Sounds legit.  After all, God wants us to succeed in all of our endeavors.  So since it is a bit too easy to give a reason why we should take advantage of our chance to “live under grace” and ignore the law of the Sabbath in the name of productivity, I will attempt to answer an opposite question: “Why should we be diligent to rest according to God’s prescription?”

Most of the following comes from an old journal entry from June of 2006:

“[In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.]  By the end of day 6, He saw through to the end of the world and He wasn’t/isn’t worried one bit.  [Even] his plan for redemption was established before the fall (Rev 13:8).  Genesis 2:2 says God finished all of his work.  [Considering the eternal weight of his words, I don't believe that our eternal God would have called anything "good" without first looking at it's end.]  God who exists outside of time worked ahead of time to make sure that all would be well for us.  He does not sit on the edge of His seat looking to see how to respond to our mistakes and the Enemy’s attacks.  He already responded [to the entire future in the beginning], and when he saw the end, He said it was ‘VERY Good,’ [and He rested.  And now, He invites us into HIS rest] (Hebrews 4).“

What is the “rest of God?”  What does it require?  How do we access it?  The rest of God is assurance, it requires trust, and it is accessed by faith.

I had two midterm exams today (Tuesday).  As soon as those were finished, I had to read as much of 80 pages of an academic psychology document that I could in order to post a coherant comment on Blackboard by 5pm.  After working all weekend, spending one entire night in prayer at church, and taking care of a couple random issues that showed up on my doorstep over the weekend, I had very little time to study on Sunday.  I did as much as I could and went to bed, excited about Monday.  What is so great about Monday?  Monday is my chosen day for a Sabbath (Lord knows that my Sunday’s ain’t restful… and forget about Saturdays.  The grace I choose to access is the grace that allows me to choose the day).  Yesterday morning, I woke up early and spent the whole morning with God.  Then, at noon, I had a scheduled lunch with a new friend of mine.  Following our lunch, I went back to my appartment and started a new book.  Later on, I had a great conversation with one of our new worship team members, then I went on to play my guitar for a couple hours as I waited for the start of Monday Night Live.  At the end of MNL, I stuck around for a couple more hours strumming away.  It was a great day… and the last thing on my mind was my exams and my readings.

Then the night came to an end, so I sacrificed my first few hours of Tuesday to be sure that I was ready for the first exam.  I was pretty confident about it, so I went to bed.  I awoke three hours later, surprisingly refreshed and ready to go.  I studied for a couple more hours, then went in and killed the test (if you don’t understand my slang… that’s a good thing).  Two hours of studying later, I went into my demography class and killed that exam too.  I blanked out on one part of the last question on the exam, but it was definitely not enough for me to regret a wonderful day’s rest.  Finally, after an hour’s worth of reading, I posted what I thought to be 2 brilliant discussion questions.  I was able to rest because I knew that God had my back.  On my sixth day (Sunday), I looked at the work that I had done in the week, then looked forward to Tuesday, and by looking at it from God’s perspective, I was able to see that “it was [gonna be] very, very good.”  So I rested.  I rested and I enjoyed his presence with me all day.  And guess what… everything really did work out.

So the question I am asking is “why should we be diligent to rest?”, but the real question is “why not?”  The Sabbath rest is about trust, and God is worthy of it.  I’ve been doing this Sabbath thing for awhile now, and although it may seem contradictory, I had never accomplished more in my life in a given seven-day week than I am able to do now in six.  (Maybe it is partly because I take my six work-days more seriously.  The first part of the Sabbath command is to “work six days,” so I try to honor both parts of the command to the best of my ability).  I can only rest to the degree that I can trust God.  When he said “it is good,” I believe that he was also looking forward to my own individual future.  He is not worried about me.  He saw my end.  My destiny has already been assured, and every week he reminds me that he’s got everything covered.  Every week, I learn in a new way that he is faithful to that word.

If your boss gives you paid vacation, you’re gonna take it.  So think of it this way.  When God set the Sabbath apart, he was giving you 1/7th of your life as “vacation” from your your own agenda.  He gives it with a guarantee (payment) that everything will still be “very good” in the end.  All you have to do is trust him enough to rest, free from worry.  So I ask again, why would you break your neck trying to “get things done,” when God promises that you can accomplish all that really needs to be done when you trust him enough to “waste” an entire day on Him?  I challenge you to take Him at his word.  Pick a day, spend it with him, grab a book, buy a guitar, get in front of a piano, spend time with your family, enjoy the world that he created as a gift for you.  Do what you had always wanted to do and never had time.  Do it regardless of what tomorrow holds.  Since God is the one who told you to do it, I think that you will be surprised at how everything else perfectly and amazingly falls into place.

Doing MY Part

It was getting really hard to read and hear about what Haiti was going through and feeling unable to do anything significant.  I was committed to participating in what the Haitian Student Alliance at Duke was/is doing, but I felt a greater responsibility that I could not escape if I wanted to. But how… with 4.5 classes, a new job, multiple responsibilities in our local ministry, guitar practice, exercise, worship leading, Bible studies, mentoring, and I can’t forget graduating (which means job and grad school applications)… what more could I handle than what was already on my plate?

Last week at the Lifegroup for the Worship Team, Joy talked about the concept of “values management” as opposed to “time management.”  Her comments summed up a great deal of what I have learned throughout my college years.  You are never going to have enough time to manage in order to do everything that you have on your plate.  Really, think about it… have you ever accomplished everything that there is to do in a given week?  I cannot point to one week in my recent life where I was able to do that.  Can you?  Probably not.  So forget time management… As Joy insisted, and as I have been learning, we need to invest our time into what is the most “valuable” at the moment.  Don’t passively accept what life throws onto your plate.  Life’s a buffet with an endless amount of stuff to fill your plate.  And at a buffet, the waiters always bring you bread, salad, and 3 glasses of soda at a time in order to fill you up and keep you from getting to the really good stuff.  Don’t let this happen in your life.  I say skip the bread and salad and maybe even let it pile up at the table.  Go for the good stuff, the stuff you really came for.  Decide in advance what is important and determine to do that.  The rest will take care of itself. (It really, really will).

For me, relief for Haiti is one of those valuable priorities.  So I took some time out of my schedule to send a few emails, make a few phone calls, and set up a few meetings.  On the weekend of October 17th, I will have a chance to speak to the Freshmen & Senior classes at my old High School.  I won’t speak to them about Haiti directly.  I will challenge the Freshmen to rebel against the rediculously low expectations we have for young people and do something hard and meaningful.  To the Seniors, who are about to go out into the “real world,” I will speak about living a real life of purpose, a life that is “greater than themselves.”  (My graduation speech can pretty much sum that one up for you).  I am who I am and I do what I do, in part, because of two men who believed that I was more than I thought I was at the age of 15.  They were right, and I am still finding that out more and more today.  I am committed to helping other young people make that same discovery before they have too many years to look back upon with regret for wasted years (another one of my valuable priorities).  This time, when I am done inspiring these teens to step outside of the box, I will point them toward Haiti as a practical application of my talk.  I will grab a handful of them to organize a city wide (Cincinnati area, that is) relief drive.  On Monday, Oct 20, I will meet with them, the student council, and the National Honor Society to piece this beast of a plan together.

That’s not all…  On the Sunday of that weekend I will have the opportunity to speak in two different churches.  Once to the general congregation at Felicity United Methodist Church, and secondly to the Youth at Bethel United Methodist Church (and other invited churches and youth groups).  The message will be basically the same, but explicitly Christian (you can be sure that Jesus will make the cut for my other “secular” speeches as well).  I will draw from my own experiences as well as the experiences of my friends who have given their lives over to serving God in various ways to show that living for God is a lifestyle, not some grandiose decision to go live as a missionary.  Its a decision that everyone needs to make.  Its about viewing the world through God’s eyes, and stepping out as he would step out.  Doing what the Father is doing.  That is how I want to direct them toward what is going on in Haiti.  When they see what is happening there, do they feel what God feels?  What would God do?  What WILL they do?  What CAN they do?  Well, the first thing that they can do is participate in another branch of our relief drive.

What will YOU do?

It’s funny, yesterday someone asked me out to lunch and when I explained to him that I had to plan and lead worship practice he asked me how I do have time to do all that I do.  Without really thinking about it, my response was simply “that’s a really good question…”  I said that because I don’t feel like I fully accomplish all that I set out to do, and It’s a good question because I am still trying to figure out how to finally be successful at stretching myself.  After thinking about it further, and discussing it again with the worship team yesterday, I remembered that the answer is in Matthew 6:33–”Seek first the Kingdom of God.”  I’m not the best at doing it, but I do think that I have the principle in mind as I set out on (most of) my endeavors.  We should seek God’s Kingdom IN all of our activities.  We should do so until the point that they are no longer ours alone, and they become yet another mechanism for the furthering of His Kingdom.  When you take this perspective, you begin to value what he values.  Suddenly you are living a purpose greater than yourself; you are living for a purpose as big as God’s own extravagant dream.  This means that you are in over your head… so The One Much Greater than you steps in to help you handle your business because you so wisely tied it up into His.

What do you value?  What does God value?  When you have aligned the two and you choose first to do what is important to you and to Him, the rest will follow.  It really, really will.

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Ransom33 read this post and referred me to a post in her blog that had the following video in it.  It takes a second to get started, but the message is great.  Jesus was able to say “no” to some things (expectations of man) because he had already said “yes” to One Thing (pleasing the Father).  Enjoy it… Let it challenge you.