Beautiful Feet

I just got back from a trip to the Twin Cities for a national missions conference for college students called Beautiful Feet. I was so inspired by these young people! It was amazing to rub shoulders with them the last couple days and hear about what God is up to in their life.

Many of the students came to this conference to receive more knowledge on the many global and urban mission opportunities that are available to them. I met people who had served Christ in Peru, Nigeria, the Philippines, Japan, inner-city St. Louis, Mexico, Guatemala, Ghana, and Botswana (I know there are others that I am missing). It's incredible to think that many of the students that I met at this conference are going to end up serving the Lord in many nations all across the globe.

I heard numerous students over the weekend comment on the mission that God has them on right now. This really hit home for me. Many times I find myself looking for that big open door to speak to someone about Christ or for a trip where I can set aside "me time" for serving others with the love of Jesus. What these young leaders taught me this week was that the mission field is right in front of us! People are dying for a friend. They are wondering if anyone has the time to just sit and listen to them.

Someone you know right now is just looking for that person to chill with them and just be real. Another guy is feeling crappy cause his job is not cutting it. He wants more out of life. There is a woman that is not going to let anybody in to her life unless she knows and believes that they're not going to stab her in the back again like so many others before. Open your eyes...you don't have to look far.

What is up?

So, I have been absent on this blog for what has been now 43 days. I wish I could say that there is some biblical significance to the number 43 that would explain my silence....but that would be giving myself too much credit.

The real deal is that I am in seminary now and am getting readjusted to the world of academia (rather, I believe it is readjusting me). It has been good to get back to the books and I am in amazing program through Concordia Seminary that allows me the freedom to continue work full-time with LINC North Texas and also receive the necessary training to become a pastor.

Anyways....that is not why I write today.

What is up?

I ask this question of the many circumstances I find myself in the midst of from time to time. Why is this happening? What does this mean? How come things are not working out the way that I told God I wanted them to go? What is up, God?

Plain and simple....God is what's up. That is not to say that God is behind everything that happens, for we know that we live in a messed up world. Many times the crap hits the fan...and when it does, it doesn't distribute evenly.

But God is always up to something. He is up to things around you and is always wanting you to join Him in what he is up to. Here are the issues, though....

Issue # 1 - Are we looking to see what God is up to?
Issue #2 - Are we willing to join Him in what He desires for us to be a part of?
Issue #3 - Are we so consumed with throwing our plans at God that we can't even see the better thing that He is already doing around us?

I don't know about you, but I got an awful lot of plans that I have been throwing God's way and I find that a lot of them aren't getting his stamp of approval. Why?

Because...believe it or not...I am not all knowing....I don't create things...I am not God.

We do have a God that sits by and listens to our plans for our lives and they register with him. He doesn't quit on us when we come back with some ideas that our less than what is really best for us. He resonates with our broken condition and sent His son Jesus to free us from our tangled idea's of what our lives should look like.

The challenge today - We gotta stop it with throwing our grandiose plans at God and slow down enough to see what God is up to already. Many times we dismiss situations that God brings us into as mere coincidences. Perhaps we should embrace these circumstances as opportunities to bring glory to God and to actually do the very thing that will make us fly....the thing he created for us to do!

That's what is up....