Evan Almighty

I wasn't a huge fan of "Bruce Almighty," but I have to tell you- I absolutely loved "Evan Almighty." Great, great movie.

You should run, not walk, to go check it out.

Ah, the life of a pastor...

Is there any better or more romantic way to spend your 2 year wedding anniversary than helping out with VBS all day at the church? Methinks not.

Teen camp and an aching heart.

This past Monday through Friday, my teens and I attended our district's summer teen camp. Overall, we had a fantastic time. If you forget about the food, you would have a hard time finding anything negative about the way camp was run this year.

Attention, youth pastors and camp directors---One of our speakers' name was Scott Regester. This guy was absolutely phenomenal. If you have any need for a speaker, look him up. He lives in Oklahoma, so how hard could it be to find him?

I took a group of 17. On the last night, the speaker asked which teenagers felt that God may be leading them into the ministry some day. 6 of my teens went forward. It is always incredibly moving to see teens in your ministry willing to answer God's call on their lives.

Here's the main event that affected me this year: It seems that every year at camp, there is some sequence of events that absolutely humbles me. This year, it started before we could even load up the vans to leave for camp. I had a girl who was signed up for camp drop out at the last second because she was sick. Her payment was nonrefundable, so I scrambled to find someone to take her place. Eventually, the girlfriend of a guy in my group was able to take the last spot.

I should have known that there was a greater plan than mine, with the way that events unfolded to get this girl to camp. Little did I know how much this girl needed to feel loved.

One night this girl and I were talking, and I asked her what her home life was like. She immediately started crying and told me that the last 12 months have been the worst in her life. What she then told me absolutely broke my heart.

About a year ago, this girl was raped by a complete stranger and got pregnant. The person who did this was never caught. Her pregnancy ultimately ended in a miscarriage. Her mother, who is an alcoholic, hasn't been around for much. Most every day, this girl comes home to an empty house, where she has to also play the role of mom for her 10 year old brother. She cooks all the meals. She helps him with his homework. She puts him to bed. She can't remember the last time she went out with friends, because she always chooses to stay home so her brother doesn't have to be lonely. When her mom is home, she tells her daughter that she's worthless, ugly, fat, and stupid. In my opinion she is none of these things.

Here is a 15 year old girl who has been forced to deal with more tragedy in a year, than I have known my entire life. Not only that, but she is having to force herself to be strong for the sake of her brother.

The theme of our camp was simple- "Used." How are you going to let God use you? The girl made some huge decisions this week, and is convinced that God is going to use her to tough her family. She knows it will not be easy, but she seems to be very determined.

Please join me in prayer for her.

They're doing amazing things with fountain drink technology

Well, if you saw my last post you know that I went on a bit of a road trip last weekend (the swim wasnt that bad). Well, I ran across something on my trip that changed my life in an instant.

My friend and I stop at a random gas station in Tupelo, Mississippi. By all accounts, it appeared to be merely your average, run of the mill gas station. That, my friends, was wrong.

My eyes scanned the gas station as I tried to locate something to drink. I saw a big sign above a brightly lit up fountain machine that simply read "BURST". As I walked over towards the fountain drink machine, I noticed that there seemed to be a ridiculously high number of buttons on this particular machine. As I drew near, I saw that beside each drink choice was three extra buttons. One button was cherry flavoring, one was vanilla, and one was lime.

Turns out you can select up to two flavors to add to your cool beverage free of charge! You want a cherry vanilla coke? No problem! What about a lime vanilla diet sprite? Go to town!

I thought you'd be impressed...

No time to talk- must train!

The googles are funny.

I am going to be out of town this weekend. I am meeting a friend at the airport in Little Rock, Arkansas. I went on to my trusty maps.google.com to get directions from here to the airport. For some reason I thought that LRA was the abbreviation for Little Rock's airport, but apparently this is in fact an airport in Greece.

Naturally, google still gave me directions to this little Grecian airport. I would like to direct your attention to step 34 of the directions they gave me.

"Swim across the Atlantic Ocean. 3,462 miles."

That's right, they recommend that I swim across the Atlantic. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go train if I'm ever going to make it across the pond...

Humans- The Poetry of God

Here is the lesson that I am giving tonight. I hope it speaks to you like it did to me.

Prayer

Activity

Divide into groups for poem

• About how one member of your team is so great
• At least 10 lines, must rhyme
• Bonus points if your team acts it out!

Lesson

We are going to talk a little bit more about poetry tonight- not like you do in English class, though

• It is going to help us see how God looks at us, and how we should respond in light of that

Any fans of poetry in here?

• Any particular poets or poems that are your favorites?
• Anyone write your own as a way to vent or just be creative?
• How do you tell good poems from bad poems?

Some people think they are being really great, colorful writers- but in reality they aren’t that good- here are some examples of actual lines from really bad poems and stories

• Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.
• Every minute without you feels like 60 seconds.
• Her parting words lingered heavily inside me like last night's Taco Bell.
• He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

So, you see that there is some really bad writing out there- and hopefully you are getting curious as to what all this has to do with the way God sees us.

Speaking of poetry- did you know that you are all poems yourselves?

• It’s true- you are a living, breathing work of art that God made- that every day appears before the world as either a beautiful poem, or a trainwreck like some of those writers we heard from earlier

To prove to you I’m telling the truth, let’s turn to Ephesians 2:10

• For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago
• Different translations say this a few different ways
• “what he has made us” “creation” “masterpiece”
• The reason there are so many different translations for this is because there isn’t an English word that really has the same meaning as the Greek word used
• The Greek word in question is this: poema- look familiar?

Every Christian is God’s living poem- and every day we had a new line to that poem

Group Discussion Questions

So how do we make our lives end up as masterpieces- beautiful works of art instead of becoming trainwrecks?

• Easy answer- in the second half of the verse-
• He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago

Think about it this way- long before you were a sparkle in your parents’ eyes- you were a complete story- a complete poem in God’s imagination

• Before the world began- God the poet had already pulled out the paper and pen and was thinking about his next creation
• And just like a poet who had a great line pop into his head, God smiled when he thought about what you (his poem) would look like if you decided to “do the good things he planned for us long ago”

God began this poem in his mind long, long ago

• And when you finally showed up on this earth, he actually handed over the paper and pen to you- so you could finish the poem however you chose to

You could have chosen to not fulfill the vision God had for you- you could have chosen to write a really crappy poem

• Or hopefully you chose to continue writing your poem as beautifully as God planned for you

Either way, it’s your choice

I don’t know about you, but that’s what I want for my life- I want to be a beautiful poem that God would be proud to show off to everyone around Him

• And the way I try to do that is by living every day the way I think God would want me to
• I try to handle every situation like Christ himself would- I try to share the love of God with those around me.

And you know what- every time you show God’s love to someone around you….every time you handle a situation exactly like a Christian should…. You are adding a beautiful new line to the living poem that is your life.

I want all of us to bow our heads and we are going to close in prayer

• But first- I want you to think to yourself what your poem has looked like until this point
• Has it been all good stuff, or are there some lines in there that don’t belong?
• Think if there have been any lines added that you really wish you could go back and erase
• I want you to take just a few seconds now and I want you to do two things
• Tell God you are sorry for the bad lines in the poem, for the times you’ve messed up
• And end your prayer by telling God that you are committed to living your life the way He envisioned for you- End by telling him that you want beautiful poetry to your life with the way you handle every situation in every day.

I close with quick prayer.

Update

First of all, the teen in my group that was having such terrible physical problems is doing much better. Thanks to any that might have joined with me in praying for him.

Secondly, District Assembly was honestly not that bad. I met several people that will be good for me to know... NYI president, Camp director, NYC Director, District Superintendent, etc. As far as the actually assembly itself- it had it's moments. If you can get past the droning business sections and incessant NPH pimping, there were some really excellent visions for the future cast.

Oh well, I'm about to head to youth group... I'll give you all another morsel of information soon!