Going from "WHY?" to "What?"

A lot of times when I find myself in a bad situation or in a "pickle," I spend most of my time asking myself "why." For instance, "Why did this happen to me?" or "Is there a reason why this happened?" 

Instead of asking yourself "why?" all the time, we need to embrace the reality of "what?" What are you gonna do about the situation? The situation is here, it's real, it happened. Stop dealing with riddles and trying to figure out the mystery of "why?" and start dealing with the reality of "what?"

No matter what your situation is or what you are dealing with, it's real, it's here, and it happened. What are you gonna do about it?

It's all about perspective.

Wednesday Night Ramblings.

So from now on I plan on typing out my sermon notes from Wednesday nights just so I can get a better grasp on them. Or if you are reading this and do not attend compass church (well at least our youth ministry) then feel free to dive in as well. Let's begin shall we?

I Corinthians 10

Wesley began by saying that he doesn't feel as strong in his faith as he thinks he is. He then went on to elaborate on why he felt this way, describing the Israelites crossing the red sea. He mentioned how when he read that he wondered why God wouldn't do something THAT huge in his life, and felt pretty discouraged by it. Sometimes I think we all feel as if we "need" to see God do the incredible things he did all throughout the bible (such as the burning bush incident or making the sun stand still). 

I think I too envy these experiences. Sometimes have thoughts that say "if God would do THAT in my life there is no way I wouldn't follow Him!" But here is the catch, He has done some incredible things already! God has shown up and shown off in our lives time and time again, but we forget at times how He did it. What's ironic about this story is the same people we envy also turned their back on God. We wonder how anyone could turn their back on God after having such a huge experience like crossing the red sea, but we are right in the same boat they are. We turn our back on God and doubt his power all the time (I know I sure do anyways). 

How do we solve this problem? Wesley's solution is this. He made a book. A "God's Awesome" book, if you will, and every time God shows up in his life for any situation, he writes it down in this book. I believe this is a great way to remind ourselves of His almighty power and how capable He is to come through when we need Him to. We can fall away from God really fast, we need to fight for our relationship with Christ (Matthew 5:6/James 4:8)! 

Satan knows our potential and he is ready to take it away from us.

The Desire to be Desired

This is a quote from a song from what is soon to become one of my favorite bands (anberlin) from a song called the runaways, but that has nothing to do with what it is I am talking about. I don't wanna talk about the meaning of this song or how it "speaks to me," but I do wanna focus on this particular line for a moment. The desire to be desired. It's an interesting line and I believe this is something that each of us as human beings desire. We all wanna be loved, if not by someone, than something. There is something about us that makes us long for being desired. 

For a while now I have been trying to embrace this as best as possible. At times it can be quite challenging and very difficult, especially around people I wouldn't normally hang out with. But I always try and picture myself in the person I am speaking with's shoes. How they are feeling, whatever struggle they are going through. It could be small, could be huge. But there is usually something. I find that a lot of the times when I speak to kids who don't have a lot of friends that there number one desire is to be desired. And at times, that is why they don't have friends, they try too hard to be liked and it makes them come across as "strange" or "weird" to other people. 

As I pondered this, I came to this realization: maybe these people wouldn't have to try as hard if someone would give them what it is they are searching for. We all wanna be loved, for some people it's easier than others to be liked, some people have to try hard, but deep down, we all have the desire to be desired. 

Who is it in my life that I need to reach out to some more and show myself a friend?

Saying Goodbye...

Tonight was my last night of work at chick-fil-a. To those of you who do not know, I turned in my two weeks notice a while back in order to pursue a greater calling. I was contacted by our student pastor, wesley odum, about a month ago about coming on church staff as an intern. Without question I told him "absolutely!" This has been something that God had laid on my heart that I would do that if I was ever asked to do something like this, I would say yes, so I did. Tonight was my last night of work. It was quite the weird moment, but I'm actually quite sad to say goodbye. 

Now, scripture reference time! Read this:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%201:9-11;&version=31;

It's kinda weird to me that an angel would say this to the disciples after witnessing what they saw. I mean, Jesus just freakin rose into heaven! If I were them, I would be staring too! But I think the angel had to remind them the urgency of what was going on. They had no time to spare as far as spreading the gospel and they had a world to reach for Christ. No time could have been wasted!

I kinda had that moment tonight. As I was leaving work for the last time, I couldn't help but stare and reflect on what had gone on the past year or so I had worked there. Lot's of good memories, but I must remind myself, don't stand looking for too long, I have a new mission now. The way I am choosing to view my quitting of this job is that I am leaving something good for something great. I have a new mission now, time of reflection is over, we have a world to reach, Let's get to it!

-andy

Keeping your vision in sight...

I will go ahead and give you a quick summary of my story and what it is I feel God is calling me to. 

About a year ago I was sitting in an auditorium of about 1200 students worshiping together at a camp known as summit. This was our first night at summit and I had recently graduated high school just a month beforehand. I remember vividly sitting in my chair listening to the words of a song (for the life of me I have no idea which song it was) that just broke my heart. I sat in my chair praying to God finally realizing that I need to start taking my future seriously. I screwed around in high school and never really put any thought towards what it was that I wanted to do with my life, or the more important thought, what God wanted to do with my life through me. After pouring my heart out to my fellow students that night in small group I received warm welcoming and understanding from everyone around me and I'm sure many prayed for me on the spot. 

Later that night, I was texting a friend and telling her the scary realization that had come across my heart. Immediately her response was this "you should be a youth pastor." I don't know how to describe it, but I felt as if in that one text God got a hold of my heart and said "LISTEN!" After much surrendering and arguing with God, I told him I would follow wherever he led me in life. I believe this is where he has called me. 

Now, read this: 

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=I%20kings%2018:41-44;&version=31;

Elijah, a prophet of God, was told by God that there would be a drought for three years in the land of Israel and after those three years were up that it would rain. Elijah had heard from God, got down on his face on the top of a mountain after the three years were up and prayed. Seven times he had to tell his servant "go back" and and six times his servant responded "there is nothing there..."

He had clearly heard the voice of God but what he had heard wasn't matching up with what he was seeing. 

Man do I feel like this sometimes. Especially when people (critics of what I believe God has called me to do) tell me "there is nothing there..." What really sucks is when I hear this from people I consider friends. It breaks my heart whenever they look at me weird when I start talking about this great calling that has been placed on my life. But like Elijah, I'm holding on to what I have heard. God is not one who would lie, He is fully capable of full filling everything He has already initiated in your life. I am not backing down from what I have heard! Even though there may not be anything to see now, eventually those same people who are criticizing my vision will come back and say "a cloud the size of a man's hand is rising from the sea" (well maybe they won't say EXACTLY that, but you get the idea)

No matter who you are or what you feel God has laid on your heart, here are my words of encouragement: Hold on to what you have heard! Even if what you have heard doesn't match up with what you are seeing, the payoff is coming! In between the promise and the payoff is the process, and it's usually a painful process. But the more painful the process, the more beautiful the payoff is gonna be! Keep your vision in sight! Even when there is nothing to see...

-andy

*this post was inspired by a talk I heard about 8 months ago at Catalyst. 

First Blog

Well lately I have felt as if I have way too much going on in my head (such as random thoughts, consuming thoughts, idea's, and even devotional words God has placed on my heart) that i needed to write them down somewhere. So, i went out and bought a journal. Shortly after buying this journal i realized i hate writing (takes too long), but typing is another story for me.

See, i am already online a lot anyways, so i think this way i can get all my thoughts out here on a blog (which aparently is free, i had no idea).

Anyways, thought i would just write out what it is i plan on writing on here and why i am even writing them (mainly, to help keep my sanity). 

-andy.