Tag Archives: Walking with God

Following Jesus Comes With A Cost

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I’ve been doing a great deal of contemplating over the past week as I dove into deeper study of our latest series at church on following Jesus.  It’s easy to say that we are going to follow Jesus.  That we will turn to Him in our lives.  How many of us, however, ever stop and think about the cost of following Jesus.  For some time, I certainly didn’t think about this.  However, to really turn to Jesus and to really become a sold out follower of Christ comes with a heavy cost.  It’s life changing.  The moment you decide that you are all in, your life is completely changed forever.

To truly follow Jesus requires us to leave where we were and never look back.  In Luke 9, starting at verse 57, it states:

“As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” 58And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”59And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” 60But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”61Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.” 62But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

For the first man, Jesus is giving him a warning, almost.  That he has no place to sleep.  No home.  It’s not going to be an easy road.  The next man wants to first go bury his father and the third man wants to say good-bye to family and friends.

At first it is easy to think.  What’s wrong with going to bury your father first or to go back to tell people good-bye.  The point is this.  Once you make the decision that you will follow Jesus, you cannot go back.  You cannot look back.  First, why would you even want to.  Jesus is out to teach us what has been told to us from the very beginning.  To have no other gods before our God.  He is to come first above all things.  He is out to dethrone all those things in our lives that we are so easy to elevate to a position ahead of God.  This includes our own families and our friends.  Jesus + Nothing = Everything.  His desire is that we return to Him and that we make Him first in our hearts.

This is not easy for us to do.  There are always things in this life that are competing for our hearts and desires.  It could be the keeping up with the Jones to give your family the best of everything, that next job promotion, that new car, that boat, that lady you saw at the gym, that porn site, that next drink, that next fix.  It could be anything.  That’s just the surface.  No matter where we are in our faith, we are always going to be tempted by the enemy as those things in this world, those thorns in our flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7), continue to compete for our hearts and try to come in ahead of Jesus in our lives.  To true follow Jesus, we need to leave those things behind.  Shed the old man and put on our new nature (Ephesians 4:24)

This past Sunday, our student ministry pastor talked about being a fan or a follower of Jesus.  Being someone that just wants to admire him or someone that is all into following where He leads.  Many are just fans.  Jesus knew this as it shows in Luke 14:26.  He put tested their willingness to follow him by telling the crowd that, “If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.“

That sounds hard doesn’t.  I must hate my family, including my wife and children?  No, not hate them, but as the NLT says, we must hate everyone by comparison to loving Jesus and following Him.  He must not be diminished below anyone or anything in order to follow Him as a true disciple of Jesus.  This is the challenge that we all must make to ourselves as we evaluate our lives and our faith.  What in our lives do we elevate above Jesus.  What are those idols that have taken precedence over following Jesus.

I have had to reassess all of this in my life.  How I lived as a lone ranger, where I put my priorities in life, and overall how I lived.  I allowed Jesus to do a complete work-over of my heart to where I know now that He has to come first over everything.  I have made the decision to follow Him unconditionally – NO MATTER THE COST!  Even it costs my life or costs me friendships and relationships, I will follow Him.  That invitation is open to everyone willing.  Follow Jesus!

God over everything!

“To be converted to faith in Jesus Christ is to return to the worship of the true God, and to dethrone all rivals to his authority.” – Graham Kendrick

His Yoke Is Easy

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Jesus tells us something very profound and yet simple in Matthew 11.  He says in verse 30, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  We were talking about verses 28-30 this past Sunday at church.  I wrote the other day about the need to be obedient and follow Jesus.  Jesus statement here is something that seems to have been lost by so many in religious culture today.  The simplistic side of faith in Christ that does not carry with it the weight of religious rules and hoops.  Jesus’s yoke, His teachings, are easy.

This life, this world gets so bogged down.  We carry on us so many burdens and weight trying t life.  Trying to keep up with the demands of the world.  It’s amazing that something so profound gets so lost, especially in religious circles.  I can tell you this.  I cannot, absolutely cannot stand religion.  It drives so many people away from true faith in Christ.  It drives so many people away from Him altogether and they end up living lives for themselves.  Jesus tells us to take His yoke and learn from Him and through His humbleness, gentleness, and Truth we will find rest for our souls.  It’s not religious non-sense.  It’s real Truth locked into a real relationship in Him, if we will but open ourselves to Him.

We spend so much time, especially in our faith, trying to keep up with demands of the religious.  The world has created for itself growing bondage through the religious fog that makes faith so difficult and drives us away.  It drove me away for many years.  Look at the southern United States, in what has been called the Bible belt.  Our pastor, Tim, refers to it as the Bondage belt.  That’s exactly what it has become.  You see it everywhere.  Religion blurring what true faith in Christ is.  What real Joy, Love, and Peace in Christ is.

His yoke is easy and His burden is light.  That’s because it is for us all.  It is not made for the religious elite alone.  Jesus came for all of us and the door remains open for all of us, if we will just get out of our own self-righteous and self-reliant way and let Him in and choose to follow Him.

1 John 5:3 tells us, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.”  Be honest here.  How hard is it to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and love our neighbor as ourselves.  All of the commandments and teaching stem from these two commandments.  If we can get out of our old self and follow Christ, this becomes a lot easier than you may ever think.  Is it always easy in this world?  Of course not.  There will always be people that piss us off in some way.  There will things that happen in life that will try get us to question God or even doubt Him.

Jesus is the example to follow, though.  1 Peter 2:21, “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”  We have to choose to follow in His steps though.  When you learn to do this, you will find your true self, because He will show it to you.  You will become to come out from behind the fig leaf and stop living from the false self when you can make the choice live your entire life with the focal point of following Jesus.  C.S Lewis said, “Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self.”

Just think about this folks.  Choosing to follow Jesus is a big step for everyone.  Once you have made that choice, you can’t be half-way in.  I’ve been there and I know.  It’s not as difficult as you think, though.  Choosing faith in Christ and choosing to follow Him and actually following Him, is not difficult and overbearing.  Jesus says that Himself.  His yoke is easy and His burden is light.  Let’s choose to follow Him.

Our Struggles With Obedience

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On Sunday evening, I had the honor of leading the evenings lesson in my and Amber’s small group.  First, I have to say what a humbling honor that was to be asked to do that when our group leader was away.  Amber and I just started with this group this year, but I have to say, it sometimes feels like we’ve known them for a while.  A truly awesome bunch of people.  While this may have been just a small lesson with a small audience, it was a big deal to me to step out even with people I know and do this.  Anyway…I digress and move to the reason I’m writing this.

Our teaching on Sunday revolved around something that for many of us today, even those in the Christian faith struggle with at one time or another.  That is obedience to God.  The example from Scripture we study from is from Joshua 6, when the Israelites stands before Jericho and God gives Joshua instruction, as odd as it may sound to march around the city walls once for 7 days with seven priests each blowing a rams’ horn along with the full army and the Ark of the Covenant.  On the 7th day the march around 7 times, then after the 7th time around, first just imagine how long this took to get everyone around 7 times, and I’m sure they were exhausted, then the entire nation shouted and the walls of Jericho came crashing down allowing them to take the city.

This story exemplifies what trust and obedience in God’s commands can do for us. There were numerous stories of this through Scripture and also examples of where disobedience and the consequences that can come with that.  1 Samuel 15 came to mind when Saul did not follow God’s instruction to destroy the Amalekites completely and spared King Agag and kept the best of all the king had.  This lead to David’s anointing as king.  Also there was Jonah who was instructed to go to Nineveh, but he fled to Tarshish instead, and wound up in the belly of a giant fish.

Now look at Jesus.  He was one that showed complete obedience throughout His time here on earth following the Fathers will through everything, even to the point of willingly, despite the suffering he endured, to be nailed to a cross and give his life to allow us to return to the Father through Him. Our Sunday sermon at church talked about following Jesus.  This is another example of being obedient.  We are called to follow Him, walk with Him, not accept Him.  Too many just say they accept Jesus as their savior, but no real backing behind that to show that Christ has changed them.  We are called to walk with Him.  Look at the example of the ragamuffins that Jesus had with Him as His disciples.   They dropped everything to follow Jesus in obedience and the world was never the same from there.

Obedience is such a struggle throughout our lives.  Even when we know the Spirit is leading us somewhere or to do something completely different than anything we’ve ever known, we have difficulty with that.  We struggle with what will people think?  Can we really do what we’re being asked to do?  Is this really what God is calling on me to do?  Or just think it’s such so outlandish that we could never do this.

As difficult as obedience may seem and as odd a direction may seem, you can’t go wrong with following and obeying God’s lead.  This goes with all aspects of life, from career, to family and friends, to church and community.  We have to learn to follow and obey.  Yes, the word obey just seems a little old school to some.  For others it may just seem to churchy to talk about being obedient.  A.W. Tozer said, “Our Lord told His disciples that love and obedience were organically united. The final test of love is obedience.” This statement is so true.  Truly walking in the love of God leads to obedience in Him.  A desire to walk with Him, seek Him each day, to disciple and fellowship with others, to engage in the spiritual warfare we encounter.  We are in Christ there’s no other way to be, but obedient in Him.

2015 is the year I’ve recognized this.  It’s been a year of drastic transformation.  A transformation that continues, but has lead me to follow God down a path that I have never gone before.  Each day is now unscripted, but I follow God in obedience and with full faith in where He leads, even though it is now uncharted waters for my life and for my family.  As I’ve said before, it’s all in God’s hands, but seriously…Is there any other way to live?  I mean truly live?

“The Bible recognizes no faith that does not lead to obedience, nor does it recognize any obedience that does not spring from faith. The two are at opposite sides of the same coin.” –  A.W. Tozer

My Timeless Truths – A Lifelong Journey

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These last few weeks, my church family has been in a teaching series called 11,000 Days – A Beautiful Struggle.  It began with our lead pastor sharing his journey to give us a look at, a vulnerable look as to where he came from in his 30 years (11,000 days) walking with Christ.  Along the way, we heard some other awesome testimonies from people within our church body on their own lives.  It has been a revealing look not just at how God touched each of these awesome people, but also how each one of our stories has significance and matters as one part of God’s larger, epic story.

This past Sunday, a few more people from our church family shared in short snippets, a timeless truth that they have discovered in their own personal journey.  At the end, we were challenged on our own to sit down and write out some timeless truths that have been huge in our own journeys.  As any of you know that follows my blog, I love to write.  My writing has been a way to not just share, but to take some of what would be my own personal journaling and put out there things I think about.  Never one to shy away from a challenge, I am going to take some a little bit to share some of my own timeless truths that God has revealed to me on my journey.

First, I look at my journey in two parts.  On the day I am writing this, it has been 1,501 days since I first opened up God’s Word and began to read it daily.  September 22, 2011.  For the first 1,227 days, my life was all about learning.  Taking it one step at a time, I was on a journey to learn about God on a deeper level than I had ever known.  One thing that was significant about most of this timeframe is that I did most of this leg of my journey on my own.  I was venturing out of 2 years of darkness in my own life finding some sense of meaning after my Dad’s death.  I reference that a lot, but it was a defining point for me.  During this time, it was about absorbing what I could and then process it over time.

The last 274 days was about complete transformation.  Standing in the snow filled mountains of Colorado, in the heart of winter I completely surrendered my life, finally.  Not out of a sense of duty or the right thing to do, but because I knew Christ was changing my heart and I could not go another day of my life not locked into Him.  I wrote about this journey a couple months back, comparing it to that of the prodigal son.  In 2011, I began to start my journey home, like the prodigal son who was broken and lost.  In the mountains of Colorado, God saw me coming, met me there and embraced me, like the father meeting the prodigal son.  It was on from that day.

So in this 1,501 day journey, there are some timeless truths that God has cemented in my heart.  The first of these is that God has never given up on me, just as He has never given up on you.  You may have seen me reference this a couple of times on my blog, but while in Virginia for school, I put together something called a Spiritual Life Map, where I drew out a timeline of my life and marked high and low points of my life and points where God’s hands were there.  What I discovered in this exercise is that God never once gave up on me.  He was pursuing me from the get go.  Even when I was turned away and living life for myself and living behind the fig leaf of my false self, He still pursued me.  Even when I was lost and broken and questioning His goodness after we lost Dad, He still pursued me.  In fact, He used that pull me out of the depths of myself to start me on the journey home.

He never gave up on me.  That can honestly be seen as such a cliché statement.  Oh sure, God never gave up on me.  Let me tell you something.  This timeless truth is relevant to us all.  Just look at Scripture.  It is a 66 book love letter of God showing that He never once gave up on us.  3 chapters into the story, man blew it.  We were fallen and in sin and lost, through each story, from Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to Joshua, to Ruth, to David, to Jesus, are story after story and through the ultimate invasion and rescue with Jesus, are examples of how God has pursued us from the very beginning.

It’s so easy in this life for us to give up on God; to just turn our backs for any little anything.  Sometimes it’s through traumatic circumstances, other times it’s because we’ve become dazed, cynical, or burned by religion.  So we look at the world we have surrounding us today.  I was writing about this in my counseling studies.  So much brokenness.  So much disorder in the world and so many that have completely turned from God because of their own circumstances, no matter the reason.  Yet, God is there always.  Never once turning his back and giving up on us, even when we give-up and turn away from Him.  The suffering we encounter, God uses as a means to bring about our healing and restoration.  Trust me.  He did it to me.  Broke me down and then lifted me up to the new and real me.  God never gave up on me and he will never give up on you.

I could honestly go on and on forever and the funny thing is, my journey is still so new.  My journey since my full surrender is even fresher, yet I’ve learned so much in this short time and I know God will reveal so much more over the course of my life.  That being said, I have one more timeless truth to share.  This truth came at the start of the last 274 days of my journey.  That timeless truth is I, make that we, cannot do this alone.  If you recall, I wrote that the first 1,227 days I spent walking alone.  I attended church occasionally; I talked with my family about faith, occasionally.  Actually, my wife and I would sometimes argue about certain things regarding faith, because I was going to convince her that I was right, even when many times, I still didn’t know.  I would just buy into things that sounded good.  Otherwise, most of the time, it was a solo journey of reading, some journaling and writing, and studying on my own.  I was going to figure this out.  You see the pattern there.  It was about me, me, me.

Then on January 21st, one week before my Colorado trip, I was sitting in our men’s Bible study and we were talking about Psalm 51.  The beautiful thing about our church family is that it is all about relationship and connection.  There was talk about connecting and doing life with others.  The question was asked during the time there if there were any of us that do not have people we walk with in the faith.  The Holy Spirit pierced me that night and my hand went up.  I knew I had been a lone ranger for so long.  It played into my personality well and unfortunately was beginning to resonate into the personalities of my family.  I knew I had to change my life and hopefully would infect change into the home.

The first guy to throw his arms around me was a brother named Russell.  It was huge moment for me.  From there, the connections have just grown more and more, from my church family to the men I met in Colorado and still connect with.  I firmly believe God used that night as a stepping stone to what He was about to do to my life the following week.  There was so much spiritual warfare I was contending with trying to keep me from going and this was almost the catalyst to say, “yep…you’re ready.”

I cannot do this alone.  It’s such a huge thing for me now.   I get to connect and dialogue now with some real men of God now and it’s been tremendous for me and my family as well.  I look to Scripture when I think of the importance of this.  We see fellowship and men doing life in circles all through Scripture.  Jesus is the prime example.  He took under his wing 12 ragamuffins who were from all walks of life.  Men who had really no clue about what they were really in for.  But Jesus walked with them and disciple them and taught them.  They grew together as a tight group of buddies.  We all need those connections in our life.  I just wish it didn’t take me 36 years to figure this out.

I don’t have this all figured out.  I still work daily to get out of my own shell to put myself out there to connect with others in fellowship and discipleship.  I am a natural born introvert from a family of introverts, married to an introvert, raising 3 introverts.  I have my work cut out for me. That being said, I will part with one final timeless truth that I believe is true for all of us who choose to do so. I (you) can break the cycle.  It starts with me (you).

“Let God have your life; He can do more with it than you can.” – D.L. Moody

No Matter Where You Turn He’s There – Psalm 139

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I’ve taken part in a couple of exercises this month that have painted a really vivid picture of my life.  I wrote about the spiritual life map I put together when I was in Virginia for my campus Intensive course at Liberty.  That was a tough exercise, but it helped me to gain a real clear picture of the journey that God has had me on from the very beginning.  It helped me to visualize many different parts of my life, the good and bad, and from it, I came to a distinct realization that through it all, God never abandoned me.

This past Sunday, my pastor issued a very unique challenge to us.  We are in a series talking about not only his journey, but that of others in the church who have come up to share their own personal testimony.  First, we are often challenged to memorize verses.  This week was Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  A short and simple verse, but the meaning behind that is so powerful.  I was breaking it down this morning in my own study and what that verse really means.  Condemnation is derived from the Greek word katakrima which means penalty.  We were under a penalty of death before Christ because of our fall.  In Romans 5:16, Paul says that judgement came from one transgression, from Adam, which resulted in our condemnation, but God gave us the free gift of Jesus Christ, who arose from many transgressions, which justifies us in Him.  Jesus took all of our sin and filth on Himself.  Conquered it and the grave, and rose to life to the Father’s right hand, interceding for us.

So we all have a story and journey that brings us through good and bad times.  Through sin and out of sin.  The challenge issued that was unique, was to read Psalm 139.  Then not only read it, but personalize it.  Re-write it a way that was personal to ourselves.  It was a very unique challenge.  Something I had not done before, taking a piece a Scripture and personalizing it to my life.  Here are the first 4 verses of this Psalm:

1O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
2You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
3You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
4Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You know it all.

So this was a challenge and I was up to, or so I thought.  I didn’t know how I would tackle it.  I sat down Tuesday and read the Psalm a few times and in a couple different translations.  It was a daunting task it seemed at this point.  How do I personalize this Psalm to me?  I opened my journal and before I knew, pen began to go to work.  At first it was very generic, yes the Lord knows me, even before I was conceived, He knew me.  But then it began to get personal.  It went into the depths of my life.  No matter what the next statement was, it always included you were there or you knew or your hands were there.

I’ve had some powerful experiences with God, especially in 2015.  This experience pierced me right in the heart.  It seems so cliche to say and I think often times we take this for granted, if we even think about it.  The simple Truth of it all that I’ve discovered my walk with Him and in this exercise is that God is in every single aspect of our lives, whether we know it or not or whether we want to accept Him or not.  He knew  and knows every single decision we are going to make, whether it turns away from Him or not.  He knows every single aspect of our being; our spirit, soul, and body, our heart, mind, and will.  He created it, so of course He knows us.

There are so many great mysteries that God has yet to unveil, but His presence in our lives is one that is laid out before us and we are told vividly about.  God loves us and is with us through all of our high and low points in life.  When are turn away and when we call out to Him.  Yes, He knows our sin and the darkness of our lives, but through His son Jesus Christ, we are no longer condemned to the punishment we deserve.  That being said, God is always there looking to pull us out of the depths of our sin.  He’s never abandoned us even when we can’t feel it and our so overwhelmed by guilt, shame, wounds, and just life in general.  He is always there and is out to restore each of us to Him.  No matter where you turn, He is there to pursue you.

I will re-issue the same challenge. Read Psalm 139 and the sit down and personalize it to you. You won’t be disappointed, I promise.

A Distorted View of Success

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About 3 years ago, just shortly after I started writing on the original version of this blog, I had the opportunity to meet some people who were truly passionate about what they did.  After the weekend, I wrote a post about that and being surrounded by passion and success.  When I reflect back on that time and in the years before that, I truly realize that I had a real distorted view of what success looked like.  For years, success always stemmed from business and career successes, whether starting your own business and working your way up the ladder in a company.  While continued growth in theses areas can certainly be good, there is one fatal flaw that I didn’t realize before.  None of this can be considered success, especially if a key ingredient is missing from it all.  That key is none other than Jesus Christ.

It’s quite interesting to look at life in this way and how being transformed and made new in Christ, not only changed my life, but changed my thoughts and how I see the world.  Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”  That’s what happens when you finally let go and let your life fall onto the only one that can restore you.  Your thoughts and views completely change.

Back to looking at success, this renewing of the mind helps me to see that success in this life only comes through Jesus.  Our significance in this life is only possible through Christ.  In short, that is the only source of success.  I am not going to be defined by the money I make or where I work.  It is just not going to happen any longer.  So where does that leave me in this life.  Essentially, it opens the doors to a freedom I had never known before.  A freedom that cannot come through things of this world.  It allowed me to see that the focus of life had to change and I needed to begin doing life in a way that brings glory to God, not shut Him out.  So now we move forward with a new outlook and a renewed understanding of purpose.

This is something critical for everyone to remember.  In our fallen state, it’s so easy to search for our significance in this life in what we do and then think that doing well there or anywhere else means success. The distortion of the enemy is that this is not possible.  Significance in this life is not possible apart from Christ.  Larry Crabb makes a great point that, “so much of our Christian activity (or may I add, any other activity for that matter) is motivated by a personal desire to win someone’s approval and hence become acceptable.” We are justified in Christ however and therefore the approval of anyone is not needed because Christ deemed us acceptable by His works.

So think about your motivations in this world.  See what is driving you.  If your motivations are self-driven, then it’s time to reassess.  Let God consume you and your perspective will be completely different.  Trust me!

“When you become consumed by God’s call on your life, everything will take on new meaning and significance. You will begin to see every facet of your life – including your pain – as a means through which God can work to bring others to Himself.” –   Charles Stanley

The Power of Our Story…It Matters

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What a phenomenal time the last week has been.  Getting the privilege to be around many other developing counselors like me, all of whom share a faith in Christ.  My wife asked me if it was nice being in a school environment like that and the simple answer was yes.  Never experiencing anything like that in all my years of schooling was phenomenal.  It changes your whole perspective,that’s for sure.  Aside from that, I received some great inspiration.  The day I left and then yesterday, the day after coming home, my pastor began a teaching journey to begin to share his story.  His personal walk through life and then coming to faith in Christ. In addition, we have others that will be sharing their story.  It’s reminded me of something very significant.  Each one of our stories matters, as our stories a part of God’s epic story.

About 18 months ago, I stood in front of a camera at a local park and laid out a part of my journey after a challenge was issued.  You can see that video on this site.  That story was not fully complete though.  At the time, I was growing.  I was building my faith, but I was not yet, in all honesty, sold out for Christ.  I had not completely surrendered control to Him.  That came in January in this year when he radically transformed my life.

Last week, as a part of our learning, we had draw out something called a spiritual life map.  A valuable tool to have.  This is basically a time like of my life showing the high and low points and where God’s hands have been there.  As I review my life map and then talked with others on theirs, I was reminded that for each of us, no matter where God takes us, our story matters.  It is all an intricate part of God’s epic story that He is using for His glory.

What a powerful exercise that was, just being completely open and honest and putting the good out there with the bad.  It showed me something else.  Through the midst of the struggles and the awesome times of my life, God’s hands were always there and He never gave up on me, just as He never gave up on you.  Why?  Because to Him, your story matters.  In Ephesians 1:4, Paul reminds us that “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.”  God has always had us in mind from before creation.  In Matthew 25:34, Jesus said, “Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”  Each one of our spiritual life maps look different.  They are all unique in their design.  God designed it all that way and to see it laid out in that way is so tremendous.

Now for some of you, you may have never really looked at your story or shared a testimony with people.  You may think to yourself, I don’t really have a story to share.  Let me tell you, you do and that story matters.  If your unsure of how the story unfolds, then I would challenge you to create a spiritual life map for yourself.  Just draw out a time line of your life of key events, starting whenever you want, birth, or last year.  It’s up to you.  Then mark key points of your life, when things happened, ups and downs.  Times where God’s hand was in your life and other times when you may have turned away.  Believe me, when you look at in this way, you can see His hands in he mix and it all begins to unfold.

You will see from this that your story is powerful.  Your story has been touched by God or you may see where God is calling you to come back to Him.  You don’t have to have some big mountain top experience like I did, literally, but you will see where God has been at work, if you’re honest and real about it.  Your story does matter.  Everyone’s story matters.

“Your story matters; as it is a part of God’s epic story.” – Me

I Can Learn Something New!!!

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I’ve often joked before that I feel like I will be in school for the rest of my life.  I’ve already been in college on some level for over half of my married life.  Makes me feel like Pauly Shore in the move “Son In Law” where he says, “It’s cool…I’ve majored in almost everything.”  While learning never ends at any point, how much more can spend in the academic world.  Being here at Liberty University this week has shown me one cool fact.  I can actually learn something new.  This comes from not just the learning in the lecture sessions, but sitting down and actually doing real and raw counseling sessions with my fellow classmates has been tremendous.

From the very first session, there was a sense of calm about it all.  It was just a short 5 minute practice session with the person sitting next to me in class, but getting into the heart of it all helped me to realize that yes, I can actually do this.  It was an amazing feeling to sit there in the practice sessions those first couple of days and get to practice.  I got the chance to first be in the client seat, which gave me empathy for the people I will be counseling and understanding on some level what they are going through.  It was a great experience.

On night two, I met with two other classmates who are considered my triad and we had to conduct the first of 3 video recorded counseling sessions.  Knowing I was on video definitely added an element of nerves to the experience.  It was a longer 15 minute session as well, which in that first situations just seemed to go on and on.  When I had to go back and watch the session, I could see areas I did well, but certainly see where the nerves effected me.

Coming to today, we had to conduct our second video session.  Wow…what a difference after seeing myself the first time and learning from the valuable feedback from my classmates as well as guidance from my awesome professor.  The smoothness of the sessions and being able to allow the client to really get into the heart of the issues.  It was tremendous and then on top of that, 15+ minutes flew by like it was nothing because I was more relaxed by it all.

As I sit here at Panera Bread eating dinner right now and look over everything and ponder over it, this led me to realize, hey, I can learn something new.  I can actually do this and as I learn my grove will be able to do it well.  First my first week of counseling anyone in a formal setting, it’s impressive to see how far things have moved.  Especially realizing that from all of the reading, all of the theory, I don’t need to over complicate it.  The basics are much simpler than you realize when you get your thoughts out of the way and just stay present with the person.

This brings a lot of excitement.  This week has also helped further reaffirm in my heart that God has me right where I am supposed to be.  I move into the final day of Intensive and beyond with greater confidence.  In my mind I constantly here the words, “I’m walking with the confidence of ten men.”  It’s definitely a Holy Spirit led journey and I walk tall, or as tall as I can :), to the next chapters.

Brain Fried and Confidence Building

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What an incredible start to the week here at Liberty University for the first of my on campus intensive courses.  As I wrote in my last post, before coming here, I had no idea what to expect.  While I was amped up and excited, I was also quaking with in my boots not knowing what I was going to encounter.  Now I sit in my hotel room after completing my second day here.  I can honestly say, that although my brain is fried with all of the learning and work, my confidence level continues to grow.  As I’ve shared, counseling is a new realm for me.  I did not know how I would be actually sitting down and working with someone, but this week, so far, has showed me that I can do this and that God has me right where he wants me.

Talk about a nerve wracking experience sitting in front of people I just met and having their share their story and their struggles with me.  While, of course, I’m still learning this process and starting with the basics, I was really surprised just how easily so of this stuff has already to come.  It’s like God has used a lifetime of experiences and interactions to prepare me for this time and this real purpose.

I made an observation today during our practice sessions before having to actually video a real session.  That is, for one, I’m not alone in this journey.  There are 65 others here on the same journey for all different reasons and purposes, but all God led.  The other is that through all of our unique pains and struggles, God has used each of our struggles in unique ways to pull us back to Him and to live a life driven by Him.  We’re all at different places in our journey, spiritually.  There are many here younger than me, some my age, and then others that are older.  We are from all walks of life, but all called to help people.  We can fix people, but we can help lead them in to the healing they are seeking to find

I’m pumped about the rest of the week.  I’m sure by Friday, I’ll be ready to just sleep for a week, but at the same time, I eagerly wait for the next step of this God led journey.  As I wrote today, during class, it’s all in God’s hands for here on out.

Picture I took over Liberty after team sessions

Led on Another Adventure

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Tomorrow, I will hit the road to embark on a new leg of this journey.  I will head up to Liberty University in Virginia for a campus intensive for the next week getting to some of the theory and processes in counseling I have studied about into practice.  It’s a huge part of this journey as I continue to learn the ins and outs of being a professional counselor.  While I’m extremely excited about this trip, the learning, and experience, I told Amber this afternoon that I’m also shaking on the inside with fear.  It’s not fear of the trip, while I hate leaving Amber and the kids to go out of town, but rather, it’s another journey into the unknown.  I look forward to it, but part of me is filled with fear as I continue to follow God’s lead.  As I’ve shared before, this is a complete life change for me and my family, so moving deeper into the unknown definitely leaves anxieties.

It’s amazing, however.  Not only is my wife so supportive and encouraging of me, but this week, I’ve received so much encouragement from people, which also fills me with with confidence.  A lot of the encouragement comes from people I’ve just met or talked to in passing usually, but this past week, I found myself engaged in deeper conversations with people at church and even at my gym in the mornings, and the encouragement about it all has been tremendous.  It fills me with greater and greater confidence that I am truly following where the Lord is leading.

I come back to a real significant truth.  Coming to a point in my life where I am completely depended on the Lord, allows me to see that trying to find significance and meaning and purpose in life in anything outside of Christ only leads to emptiness.  That’s where I was before, trying to find all my significance in life in completely self-driven aspirations.  Since, I turned all of this around, it’s been amazing and the Lord continues to amaze me each day with the people He has allowed me to encounter to and the direction He continues to lead me.

This is a short post, but I saw all of that to say this.  Everyday from here on is a new adventure.  I continue into the unknown, but I walk with the confidence of being made new and being alive in Christ.  While there is some fear of the unknown, I move forward confidently, knowing that I am now led by the Holy Spirit and each step continues to sanctify me in Christ and will help me to prayerfully lead others to find their restoration in Christ through this work.  I’ll share about the experience after I return.  Praise God for all He continues to bless us with.