Radical Living

This summer I have started reading several books and one of them is this book by Shane Claiborne. The book is called "The Irresistible Revolution" and it is about living as a radical christian in a world that is completely corrupt. There are a lot of incredible things that Shane says throughout this book but there is one paragraph that has really caught my eye and has gotten me thinking.

I know there are people out there who say, "My life was such a mess. I was drinking, partying, sleeping around...and then I met Jesus and my whole life came together." God bless those people. But me, I had it together. I used to be cool. And then I met Jesus and he wrecked my life. The more I read the gospel, the more it messed me up, turning everything upside-down. I am still recovering from my conversion. I know it's hard to imagine, but in high school, I was elected prom king. I was in the in-crowd, popular, ready to make lots of money and buy lots of stuff, on the upward track to success.

Wow. This is pretty a pretty crazy paragraph. This world has convinced us of the american dream. We are supposed to grow up and get a good paying job. We are supposed to get married and have kids, a dog, a big house, and a nice, white picket fence. That is what is put into our brains from day one. To be honest with you guys, this sounds like a great life. I would love to be able to do some job that isn't very hard and make a lot of money. To be able to come home to a wife and kids and just lay back and watch TV. It sounds like the perfect life.

Then this Jesus guy came along. We are always on the track to getting that perfect life and this Jesus guy comes into our lives and totally messes everything up. We realize about the love of Christ and realize that God is calling us to something different than going to our perfect job and perfect home. God is actually calling us to something that is a lot greater. God calls us to the plan that He has set out for us and that is greater than above all things. Yes, I know that that last statement sounded like the same old, stale church answer that we get every Sunday morning. Sometimes, however, the church leaders kinda know what they are talking about and we ought to listen.

Now is the american dream wrong? I think not. I think that it is good to strive for. However as Gandhi said "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed." The moment that we actually take this quote in and learn what it truly means is when I will believe what Jesus meant we he said "To love your neighbor as yourself." Christ meant to take care of our neighbors when they were in trouble. Help them out in time of need. We get so caught up in what we can do for ourselves or how much money that we can make and we always forget that Jesus calls us to love the poor as we love ourselves. Just something to chew on until next time.

Great Quotes

You must be the change you want to see in the world.
-Mahatma Gandhi

Lately I have been reading up some on the historic figures of the world. When I say lately I actually mean today. It's not because I want to be insightful and seem smart to other people either because I think I lost that opportunity a long time ago. But I did pick up the Shane Claiborne book "The Irresistible Revolution" while in Hastings earlier tonight. I have also been lucky enough to actually go and hear Shane Claiborne speak and for those of you that have no idea who Shane Claiborne is then you should Google him right now because he will turn you upside down. His way of living is totally bizarre but is exactly the way that I wish I could be. I unfortunately am not ready to give up all the "things" in my life such as he has. Anyways Shane Claiborne has gotten me interested in historical figures (Gandhi, Mother Teresea, etc.). So I was ready about Gandhi and I found this quote by him. And if this doesn't speak volumes to all the Christ Followers out there then let's be honest....you just aren't passionate about the Savior. So many times we think that we can just sit back as Christians and let the Billy Grahams, Shane Claibornes, Tony Campolos, and the Shirley Phelps-Ropers (that one is a joke...haha) of the world spread the news of the Creator and we can just complain about how the world is going to hell and we just cant believe that this is happening. Well its time that we all got off of our butts and actually did something because the world will only change when all Christians decide that we are passionate about the one that saved us. Anyways...I didn't mean to try and get all preachy about this stuff because that certainly is not my gift but some things just get you fired up and that was it for me. I would like to leave you with another quote from Gandhi just to get you guys thinking.

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
- Mahatma Gandhi

Time for review

So I am sitting here on the couch with absolutely nothing to do because the people at Dish Network have decided that they have no idea what is wrong with our channels. I have decided that after taking a couple of days off I am now going to go ahead and blog about the following week. Also after looking at my other blog posts and looking at Nic's blog posts I have decided to use the numbering system (just to be a little different) so that it will look more organized

1. We took a great group of kids that really have the ability to turn their school and their town upside down if they would just take the time to pull their heads out and actually start listening to what God is trying to tell them
2. The worship services progressively got better as the week went on. I was not impressed by Toby's speaking at first but as the week wore on I think that he started to get more comfortable and the kids started responding to his stories more, making it easier on everyone.
3. The band rocked out and even though there were a couple of problems with them they did a great job of joining us to worship with them and was exactly the right type of music for the kids to listen to all week. I think everyone really responded in the worship through music part of the camp.
4. I had to most amazing Tribe ever. I have included a picture of my Tribe for everyone to see at the top of this blog. For those who don't know our "Tribes" this year were our small groups. I led mine with Tommie Burkland and I thank her for all of her help that she provided me with. But our Tribe (Krunkawa) was pretty much incredible. All of them have a passion for God and did a great job of talking with each other when we were in our small group time. I will definitely miss hanging out with them this week.
   
5. The morning worship time was really cool to listen to. All three of the guys that spoke (Doug from Pflugerville, Nic, and Bill from Connections) did an incredible job of getting the message that God laid on their hearts out. I got a lot out of every morning worship time and am glad that I got to be a part of it.
   
6. This is the last point and it is about the most disturbing but best part of the week. Those incoming freshmen guys. If anyone read my twitter updates through the week you noticed that I sometimes can not stand any of those idiots. But at the same time I love them all to death. They are some great kids but really need to reconsider what they are living for. Every single one of them has so much potential and if they could just live up to it then this world would never be the same. I hope that those guys took this week seriously and that they learned something. Please be praying for all of those guys as they go back into the real world this week and living their life among people who dont always have the same beliefs as our camp did.

So that was my review of Beach Break 2008. It was a great week and if I hadnt of gotten sunburned and possibly fractured my left foot then it may have been the greatest week of all time. Now if you guys have time I would suggest that you follow my link list over to JMob's blog where you can see a video of a media guy and a fat guy trying to skimboard.

Day One Down

So today was the first full day of Beach Break 2008. It was a pretty amazing day. It was pretty interesting to start out. We woke up early and had a quick breakfast and all of the kids spread out for their morning quiet time. It was a good time to get away and start a new chapter in my "Lord, Save us from your Followers" book (more to come about that book btw). After that we went outside and sat on the grass to get read for our morning Bible Study time. Apparently they don't enjoy Christian gatherings because the sprinklers turned on right in the middle of the Happy Birthday to Julie Tate ballad that we were busting out. So we moved to the pool where we had worship through music and listened to Dougie speak. He did a cool thing where he taught from the middle of the pool. He did it just so that everyone could hear him but it was really cool consider that the theme of the week is to PLUNGE so I thought that was cool. We then got in our Tribes (go Krunkawa) and had some talkback time and had rec time. We did a scavenger hunt that was pretty cool. After that we ate some lunch and headed to the beach and pool for some free time. It was really hot out today and a few of us got a little too much sun. By the time worship had arrived we were all pretty worn out. Toby did a decent job and the band did a good job leading us in worship tonight. We had some more talkback time and then had our church group time where our kids got to share what God has been teaching them over the week. Even though we have only been through one day it is pretty cool to see the beauty of the ocean and the beach and all the creation of God. Please just keep praying that God would enter into the lives of our students this week and that He would totally destroy everything that they think is more important than him in their everyday, minuscule lives. Show them that all the other crap just isn't important. More to come about our week here.

Beach Break 2008

Tonight was pretty nuts. Nic's family came down for the day to hang out so his Mom, Brother, and Cousin came down and were chillin in the house while we were all trying to do our last minute packing for camp. I am so pumped about this upcoming week. I have been praying about this week for quite a while now and I hope that all of my readers out there have been doing the same. I am really looking forward to see what God is going to teach our students this week. For those who don't know what Beach Break is it is our high school camp. We head down to Port Aransas for the week and hang out with each other. We bring in a band and a speaker and have worship services at night while we fellowship during the day. After a lot of failed attempts to find a decent camp while I was in Nic's youth group he decided to start his own. We have been doing our own camp for four years now and every year it gets bigger. We are going with two other churches this year and plan on taking somewhere around 120 people. It is a great idea that Nic had to start his own camp at the beach. It is a great time to get away from the pressure and temptations of everyday life and just admire the beauty that God has given us. There is nothing more spectacular than walking on the beach at night and listening to the waves and realizing that the same God that made all of it cares about us and knows us by name. If that doesn't excite you then I don't know what will. Anyways I ask for all of you to be praying for our students this week but also for our adult sponsors. As much as the kids learn on these trips I always feels that God shows me twice as much. So I gotta finish packing but will be updating throughout the week so be sure to check it out.

Wow...

Every once in a while you I think God smacks us upside our head and seriously asks us what we were thinking. Lately I have been thinking that I deserve a new truck. If any of you have seen my current truck then you may see why I may want a new one. But I have been telling myself that I deserve a new truck and that I should start getting the funds together to buy one. So I have talked to a couple of people and even gone to some dealerships to test drive a new truck and then this morning I met with a student for some breakfast and a talk about life. I don't know what it was about that meeting but it left me thinking about how stupid I have been acting lately. I sometimes get this feeling where I have actually accomplished something. I kinda think to myself "Wow, I am an intern for a youth group and I help kids in their daily walk with God. God should really bless me for that." I sometimes get in that mindset and start thinking that I deserve things that I dont really deserve at all. So after I realized what an idiot I had been acting like I have decided to put together a list of things that I have that I don't really deserve....and here it is.....

1. I have an incredible family that helps me out no matter what I am going through. My mom has worked harder than anyone I have ever known so that she could provide for me and my brothers and I thank God that He blessed me with such a wonderful family that I am so close to
2. I have awesome friends that I don't even come close to deserving. I am probably the biggest jerk that anyone has ever met and these people choose to put up with me and all of my crap. At least with my family they are kind of forced to but with my friends they make the choice to put up with it. I'm not gonna name all of them here but you people know who you are.
3. I have tons of THINGS that I dont deserve at all (truck, phone, computer, apartment, etc.). I sometimes look at these things and think about how I could use a better "fill in the blank". The truth is that I should consider myself lucky that God has seen fit to provide me with these things and not take them away from me.
4. I have a good job that I don't hate at all. The office part gets tedious but it has to be done. I am lucky to have Nic, JMob, and Dusty to work alongside with for the summer to make the office part manageable. When I am not in the office I am hanging out with students and doing my very best to mentor them in a Christlike lifestyle and there is nothing else in this world that I would rather be doing. It is my passion and I thank God for giving me the opportunity to do it for the summer.
5. I have an incredible girlfriend that puts up with me more than anyone. There isn't anyone that has to put up with more crap than her. She is there through it all and even though she gets upset sometimes she never gets tired of it. She is the one that keeps me in line and keeps me from doing some of the stupid stuff that most are used to seeing from me. Thank you Jenna.
   
6. Finally, and this is the most important one, I have an amazing God that loves me despite all of my screw-ups. Even though I deliberately defy him he still takes me back every time I need him. He is a God of compassion and a God of love and there is nothing that I could ever be more thankful for.

These are just a couple of things that I don't deserve but I have decided to recognize but certainly not all that I have.

It has begun....

After my Scrubs plug from the other day I will actually be blogging about things that mean something to everyone else. So today was the 1st official day of summer. It started off at about 8:30 this morning with Nic and I heading up to the office to get a head start on what we had to do for the day. We jumped on all of the stuff that we had to do and were joined shortly after by Dusty and JMob. We worked right up until lunch and went and had a great meal at McDonalds. Afterwards Nic went back to the office while he gave the interns the task of taking a couple of students to the river for the day. We all headed to San Marcos to do a little swimming for the day and had a great time. Cody Datesman, a youth here at Lockhart, was with me and we went to Walmart and changed clothes and then headed over to Johnny Carino's for an early dinner with Jenna. It was really good and I was very happy for the chance to get to see my girlfriend for the day. We headed back home and I fell asleep on the couch after such a long day. I woke up when Nic and Jo got back from the Pittman's house and we watched Cloverfield and then the Great Debaters. I really have no idea why would we stay up this late seeing as how Vacation Bible School starts tomorrow and we have to be at the church at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. I am not looking forward to that at all but there is a lot of work that needs to be done this week so we must press on. Our high school camp is next week and we are leaving on Sunday. Everyone keep us in your prayers please as we start this very busy time of the year. Also be praying for VBS (yeah I said it) and Beach Break. Be praying that our students would be ready not only for an incredible week at the beach but most importantly that they would open their hearts and be ready for what God has to teach them during that week. Let them realize that there is a lot more important things that go on in life then what happens inside the walls of Lockhart High School. Also be praying that us as adult workers and youth minister that we would be prepared for what God has to tell us because this is a crucial time for us to be still and hear what God is trying to tell us.