Jesus is the Subject; I am a Verb

A little more than 16 years ago, I started out this ministry gig with the attitude that in order to do what God was calling me to do that I had to be concerned first and foremost with making church "cool." I was committed to leading a "cutting edge" student ministry and help develop a "cutting edge" church. A couple of years in, as I was studying God brought me to this passage about doing "a new thing" that rocked my world: See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. -Isaiah 43:19 My thoughts about being "cutting edge" resurfaced, but God began redefining this in me.  Cutting edge ministry isn't to be about being "cool."  A stream cuts across the desert, causing life to spring up and flourish in the wasteland.  Jesus was and is the Stream in the desert.  As the stream cuts through the desert, giving life, Jesus cut through histo

Did you ever have one of those weeks?   Yes, I mean one of THOSE weeks.      A “those” week is when pretty much nothing goes as planned, and it’s usually because of some type of trouble or stress, right?     As for me and my house, this has been one of those. As I arrived home about 6:30 Monday evening, Shelly told me that while Jericho (our 3 year old) seems to be better (he had been sick to his stomach), Christian (our 17 year old) was now VERY sick.     By 11 PM, I was also VERY sick.     By 2 AM, Nile (the 2 year old) was ALSO VERY sick.     For the next 48 hours I would be oblivious to pretty much everything but my bed, my bathroom, and the constant marathon repeat of the movie, “Cars,” that Jericho insisted would make me feel better.    With Tuesday and Wednesday completely shot, I began shifting gears in my head to make Thursday (today) nothing less than amazingly productive with the style and power of Lightening McQueen!      Except Nile