Big and Exciting Things are Afoot

Oh man... where to begin?  So, last year the leaders of Cru thought that it would be a good idea to introduce an "areas" concept.  Brough, Pomfret, Northside.  This was to help break campus up into chunks to help make the task of "Putting the Gospel within arms reach of everyone on campus" and ensuring that "everyone on campus would know someone that passionately follows Jesus Christ" wouldn't look and feel more daunting.  It's a good technique.  When you have a big job to do, one of the best ways to help you accomplish your goal is to put it into bit size chunks.  So each area has a team, comprised of those that lead bible studies in that area.  Then, each area has a male and female leader for the men and women's bible study leaders in the area.  "Leaders of Leaders" as they are called.  They are the "managers" of the area.  There duty is to be the liaison between the bible study leaders and Cru staff.  They are problem solvers, prayer warriors, orchestrators, planners, senders, mobilizers.  It's a huge task to undertake.  One of my close friends, Brandon Mckay, was in charge of the area with Hope Petersen this year.

     I mentioned earlier in a post today (which I wrote on Monday) the importance of going hard these next 6 months.  I made a commitment for a year to focus hard on pursuing God, growing as a man, and specifically growing as a leader.  Some of my close spiritual friends told me to be prepared, because God would challenge me.  When we choose to follow God, then he puts things in our way to cause us to grow.  I've often heard the metaphor of God being a great author, and it's one that I personally, being a writer myself, can identify with and can definitely see the truth in.  The point of a story is that you have a character that undergoes a change.  Without change there can be no story.  Conflict causes a character to change.  There can be no story without conflict, without some obstruction, some difficulty, some challenge that is placed before the character, forcing them to grow.  (This is the part where I make a shameless plug for Donald Miller's "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years where he explores this idea of story, character, conflict, and God as an author, and the story not about a tree, but about an entire forest)  God definitely doesn't forget and I think he's had his mind on that commitment I made for a while, my desire to grow as a leader for him.  He's slowly been dropping me crumbs from the table, giving me taste of slightly more solid food every time, offering a challenge meant to push me beyond what I have experienced before so that I may adhere to that commitment and be grown by him.  Tuesday night, I was offered the biggest challenge yet.  I was asked to be the next Brandon.  I was asked to be the men's leader for the Brough area next year.

     Excitement, wonder, confusion, surprise, giddiness... these were all emotions that I've felt since then.  "Why me?" Why would the staff choose me?  I'm flattered, but what have I done to show that I'm capable?  I don't know, I'm not sure that I've done anything to show that I'm ready, that I'm mature enough, etc.  But you know what?  It doesn't matter.  In the end, we are all "inadequate" but yet God chooses us anyway.  God's in control and knows what he's doing.  I wouldn't have been given this opportunity if it were not in God's will.  He probably knows what he's doing.  He's been using "inadequate" people for years and that's the point.  This isn't about relying on myself or what I know or what I've got to do this job, it's about relying on God to do this job through me and praying and using the tools he's given me, the person that I am and the personality I have and being a warrior for God.  It's time to reject a little passivity eh?  I love a good battle, and a crazy adventure.  God likes them too.

Quiet Time 4-11

So in an attempt to help enrich my quiet times and become more regular, and to get the writing practice I so desperately need, I'm going to try to blog some about my quiet times and what I'm thinking/learning.  I originally posted this in the old blog, but it was being quite contrary that night, probably further proof of a need for a new beginning (don't we all have that need?)

I started on Romans today, 1:1-12.  I have some thoughts that don't pertain to this at all, and some that do.

1.) Evan as Christians, we must remember the point is not to change so that we can be closer to God.  We need to move closer to God and allow him to change us and remove that sin from our lives.  The idea of "I have to handle this before I can have God time" is foolish and won't help fight the sin that is causing the problem.  So often, I let my sin dissuade me from spending time with God.  "Oh, I just did 'x', how can I possibly go spend time with God when I just did 'x'?"  This is crazy.  But sometimes it just makes me feel dirty (as it should, pointing out the fact that I am sick and am in need of a doctor) and instead of using it as a reason to run to God faster like a child needing love and reassurance, I let it keep me at bay.

2.) I have six months remaining in a journey I chose to take with God and while the real journey continues for beyond that, for life, there's still the fact that I've set aside this specific time for a specific purpose, one I don't feel I've been following hard enough but now I have much more of a "plan" for the "how" unlike I did then and I can't wait to live this next 6 months hard and really hit the heart of where I've been wanting to grow.  It should be a wild ride and I can't wait to see where it takes me especially after.

Roman 1:5 Paul talks about "obedience that comes from faith" - to me, that sounds like he's saying, not necessarily that faith directly causes us to obey, but more like obedience is derived from faith.  We are obedient to God because we have faith in him and that his ways are just and wise and he knows what's up.

1:8 Paul had heard reports of their faith.  Say what?  Dude is in like the 1st century, MILES away from Rome, and the Roman Christians are living their faith so hard that WORD has spread all the way to where ever Paul is, in Corinth or one of the other many places he's in?  That's pretty crazy, and it's crazy that they were living life this hard with no "The Gospel of Jesus, according to blah blah blah" like us lucky 21st Century Christians had.  All they have is word of mouth to go by.  Crazy.  And they're living so hard.

1:10  And paul is praying with all he has that he can someday see these people? (which will lead to his imprisonment and execution, but he'll get his chance to minister to them).  That just goes to show how much Paul cares.  He'd never even seen them before but he loved them because of the strong brotherhood Paul had in Christ.

1:12 My favorite verse here is in 12 where Paul makes a statement about about being encouraged by their faith.  This is a lesson to all of us, that we should find encouragement from the faith of our friends and fellowship.  We were meant to live in community with each other and help each other to walk the walk AND talk the talk.

and that's it for today kiddos!

A New Start

So for about the past year, I've had a different blog on blogspot.  The old one started with a decision to go to Juneau, AK on summer project with Campus Crusade for Christ and went on to chronicle that journey.  Since returning though, the blog has pretty much died.  I kind of hate that since I love writing so much but I feel like the focus of that blog was too narrow, which ultimately led to it's demise.  So, I've opted for a fresh start, a new beginning, a new blog.  Before, it was about a trip to Alaska.  Now, it's about the rest of my life and the adventure that comes with going after the manliest man I've ever known, Jesus Christ.