Buckhorn Trail - Colorado Springs

I went on a hike this past weekend with a few friends.

It was a loop hike, meaning we were going to make a circle and end up where we started.

About halfway in the hike we were a bit lost. We didn’t have a map, just a hunch on which direction to go.

Adrenaline kicks up a bit when this happens. What also kicked up for me was excitement.

Sometimes when I have a predictable path to a predictable destination life can feel a little … hmmm … blah?

Looping this back around (get that reference … nice?) I began to think about God’s will in my life.

I’d love to know what life will be like in a year, five years, ten years, and more. Will I still be alive? Will I still be married? How much will I weight? Will I still be this good looking?

This is where trusting comes in.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29:11

Do I really believe that? Do I really trust that?

The answer is yes, yes I do.

Do I ever feel like my life is somewhere in that hike, lost? Yes, yes I do. But God has plans to “prosper me” and “not to harm me”. I can trust in that.

Lord, help me to trust, even when I feel like I’m lost, help me to trust.

As I’m working on the posts for that I figured I’d share with you the 3 songs we used during the worship porting. Good stuff.

Enjoy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Phone rang, it was my Mom. I was in a meeting so I didn’t answer it. She left a voicemail. Usually not a good sign.

I called her back and it’s not good news. My Pop (Mom’s Dad) fell and hit his head. I guess he was doing alright after the initial fall, but then things got worse. EMT ended up at their house and rushed him to the hospital.

Internal bleeding in the brain. Not good. Doctors do not recommend operating.

Currently as I write this post I have all four of my grandparents alive. For being 33 that is pretty good. But I knew this day would come. The call. THAT call.

I’m gonna spend some time praying tonight. Praying for a miracle, kinda like the miracle that brought Pop back from the dead 5 years ago.

I’m not confident these prayers will be answered in the way I want. Life here in these bodies is finite, meaning it’s gonna end. We’re all gonna go someday. I just pray Pop can hang in there a little longer. He hasn’t got to meet Sydney yet. I know he’d love on her like he does all his other grandkids. He’s a great Pop to us.

That’s all I’m gonna write for now. We’ll see what happens with Pop. A miracle? I don’t know. Praying for one.

“I’m going forward for prayer.” said the man.

“For healing?” said the woman with him.

And off he went.

I was impressed with both of their faith in the power of prayer, something I’ve been having my doubts with lately, prayer.

Driving home I thought to myself  ”man, I wish I believed in prayer like those two people.” I see all these bumper stickers “prayer is power”, they believe it, why can’t I?

Fast forward to this week. I’ve been tearing through Tozer’s The Pursuit of God, and have been applying that to my own life, my own pursuit.

One of the chapters talks about laying down your “self”. I’m a pretty proud person and that’s hard. I thought  I could really use some help with that, I could really use some prayer on that.

So this week I vowed to go forward after the service, something I haven’t done since I was probably 8 years old, I know, I suck.

After the service was done people went filing out, talking about football, food, kids, anything but prayer. I gave a glance from the back of the room and couldn’t spot a pastor. “Sweet, I can just leave.”

But then I spotted one, standing alone.

My feet felt like concrete blocks but I went forward. I told the pastor I needed some prayer. “Prayer for what?” “I don’t know, my pursuit of God in 2011.”

The pastor prayed a very beautiful, sincere prayer on my behalf. A bright light didn’t shine on me but I did feel like I did the right thing, the thing I needed, prayer.

I left feeling about the same as I did going in to church. I’m still somewhat skeptic, but the prayer was made.

Now the question is will it make any difference?

I’m gonna do this in an interview format. Me interviewing myself.

Mike: Where did this idea come from?
Mike: Well I haven’t read the book The Happiness Project but I have logged some hours on http://happiness-project.com and I like what she’s done. Basically given people various ideas on what will make them happy. I’ve built upon that.

Mike: So you copied her idea?
Mike: *laughs* No no no. I took her idea and put my own spin on it. I don’t want to use the word “christian” spin, but I’ve drawn the idea from what the Bible talks about regarding serving. And I firmly believe that serving others is what leads to happiness…among other things.

Mike: That’s nonsense.
Mike: Think about this. So Saturday is coming up, you could take one of the ideas from The Happiness Project, say, start a collection, and do that. I personally think that’s a good idea. My spin would say start collecting something that you could serve to another. So start collecting canned goods from neighbors to take to a food pantry. See how I did that?

Mike: Yes, I do. So you think folks will buy into this?
Mike: I don’t know, I doubt it, but I think it’s worth trying. I think there’s a big movement among young people that they don’t want to write checks to organizations anymore, they want to get dirty. They want to “do work”. I know in my personal life that’s how I feel. I’d rather spend a Saturday serving than cut a check and say “I served via checkbook”. I don’t think I’m the minority here.

Mike: When will you launch this site?
Mike: *smiles* When people like you leave me alone long enough to get working on it. Geesh *laughs again*

Mike: Thanks for your time and good luck. By the way you are looking mighty fine these days.
Mike: *laughs* Ha…you too…you too

I recently sat down with one of the authors I work with at David C Cook, Kimberly L Smith. She shared a very powerful story of one of the ladies she works with in Darfur.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This was not what I expected. Eh, not what I wanted. But, it is.

As I sit here writing this blog one of the babies is sleeping next to me. He’s smiling in his sleep. And farting…in his sleep. How do you NOT love a kid that does that?

I can’t keep thinking about the rough life these two babies are headed for.  I don’t know if they’ll get to even hear of their Creator. Their real Father. And my heart is broken.

I look at their innocent faces and weep. I weep for their eternal future and I pray for them. The odds are stacked against them…big time. But I serve a powerful God and I’m not counting these two out for an eternal glory.

What these babies have done for me is renewed my motivation for evangelism. I need to speak with people more about who God is and why I serve Him. And I need to do this with people that are not in my comfort zone. People who have had their children taken away. People who aren’t what most would describe as good parents, good people. People who NEED Jesus.

I’ve been preparing for this time for a while now, waiting on God to speak (verbally) about what he wants me to say. I haven’t heard anything (verbally) yet, but I have grown closer to Him with my prep time.

When you know you’re going to be giving a message to 60-70 incarcerated teens you know you need to be prepared for anything. So that’s what I’ve been studying, everything. This has led me down some pretty crazy paths, and some pretty crazy books (future blog post to come).

I’ve put together the outline and I’ll be giving my testimony (briefly) and then talking about God. I figure when you talk about God that keeps things interesting. We shall see.

And speaking of preaching here’s a snippet from one of my favorite sermons by Louie Giglio.

When I tell people I do foster care many of them say “I’d love to do that, but I couldn’t deal with letting a child go.” I’ll tell ya, me either. It was hard to say goodbye to such a great kid. She had been with us for nearly a year and was part of the family. But, she has her own family, and she’s where she belongs.

One of the coolest moments about saying goodbye was when her Mom gave my wife a hug and said “thank you”. That doesn’t happen a lot in foster care and it was pretty cool to see and was , well, gratifying.

During our foster care support group one of the new foster parents said “how do you let a child go that’s been with you for a long time.” A veteran foster parent (I believe she’s had 65+ kids come and go in her home) said “you grieve…and then you pray that God prepares your heart for the next child.”

So, we’re grieving…and preparing. God has a plan and he knows what’s coming next, and that’s what we’re trusting.

The first thing that popped in my head was “man she has a huge reward coming her way when she gets to heaven”. I imagined her walking into the pearly gates and God saying “Well done. Here’s is your reward.” And then points to a spread that would make Bill Gates’ house look like a doghouse.

I know a lot of people who say, “hey I just want to get IN, I don’t care if they put me in a tool shed, at least I’ll be there.” Ok, I guess. But how many of us in life live to “just stay alive”? Where’s the motivation for “more”? And not being greedy, but think about it. The God of the universe who created you and me has rewards for us. I don’t think God’s sitting up there with iPads to pass out, he’s got something special up his sleeve. Me, well, I don’t want to miss out on ANYTHING God has to offer.