YouthFire Blog

About a year ago, two important things happened in my life. The first was that Brianna, a girl in my campus ministry, died in a car accident as she was coming back to school after Thanksgiving break. The second was that I saw It’s a Wonderful Life for the first time.

For those who haven’t seen the movie, it’s about a man who has the opportunity to see the world as it would be if he had never been born. By doing so, he realizes how much of an impact he’s had, and how many lives he’s changed. This really got me thinking deeply about life.

I started thinking about Brianna and why she died and not me. She loved God so much, and she had plans to become a missionary nurse. Her life truly reflected the light of Christ in a way that I’ve seen in so few people. What about me though? What had I done? Whose life had I impacted? What great plans did I have for serving God? If I had never been born, would it really have mattered?

That was a year ago. About a week ago, I started thinking about this again, and I’ve been pondering it ever since. I decided my thinking from a year ago was rather flawed. I came to three conclusions. First, I should never compare myself to others. Ever. Second, I may never know what kind of an impact I had on someone. Third, I still have the present and the future to change lives.

Yesterday I picked up Relevant magazine and started reading an article by Cameron Strang. In it, he talks about how to live with an eternal perspective. He says, “I want to live a life with eternal impact–not out of fear of death, but out of a pure desire to serve God and be the person He’s calling me to be. I don’t want to squander the opportunities He’s given me.”

Yesterday I also picked up The Purpose Driven Life because I decided to read it again with a friend. Chapter 2’s Point to Ponder is “I am not an accident.” I was born for a purpose. While I may have regrets or failings from the past, I have the future to change things and impact lives. Philippians 3:12-14 says, “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (NLT).

It’s not by accident that you are here on earth. You have the power to change lives. So do it! Live each day to the fullest, because you never know which one will be your last.

I’ll close with more words from Cameron Strang:
“Your legacy is completely up to you. Is your life one of impact, love and outward living? Or is it one of selfish ambition, laziness and doubt? I for one want to suck the most I can out of this life. I want to know, love and pursue spiritual things. I want to see God for who He is, and I want to have lasting impact. I want to be used to touch others.”

I recently read through Luke 17:11-19. It’s about 10 lepers who are healed by Jesus, but only one returns to thank him. Since it is Thanksgiving, I thought I would reflect on this story.

So, nine of the former lepers take Jesus for granted and don’t go back to thank him. How often do we take things for granted? How often are we thankful for the little things in life…like elbows, a beating heart, and a working toilet?

Fred Craddock, a minister, said, “It is often the outsider, the stranger, the visitor who sees and appreciates and responds for countless gifts that we have come to take for granted. The visitor in my home talks with and enjoys the children I hardly noticed between coming home and reading the evening paper. The visitor thanks my wife for the meal I have eaten 1,000 times in silence. It is so often the stranger who notices and expresses appreciation for what familiarity has blinded us to. This is the truth that hurts. But it is also truth that can heal. He (Jesus) is not just someone who shows us up for the ingrates we are. He is one sent by God to give us new eyes and ears. And hearts.”

Anyway, I love Thanksgiving. It’s one of my favorite holidays. I love to be around my family at that time and have some good food. I’m really thankful for that. However, we shouldn’t restrict our thankfulness to Thanksgiving day. Don’t take things for granted in your life. Thank God and others for what they do for you. Thank God for your elbow and your beating heart, for providing food for you, and for sending Jesus to shed His blood for you. Thank your parents for taking care of you. Thank your friends for being there for you when you need them. We have so much to be thankful for from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep.

Be thankful…always. If you want to do some further reading, check out Psalm 16, Psalm 103:2, James 1:17, and Philippians 4:10-13.

Happy Thanksgiving!

So, last week I wrote about confession. I must confess that my relationship with God lately has been…bad. I just haven’t spent the time with Him that I should. It’s been a few weeks since I cracked open my Bible, and I haven’t really put prayer at the top of my priority list. I keep making all kinds of excuses about how I’m too busy or too tired or I’m not in the mood.

As a result, I’ve been feeling distant from God. I’ve noticed that I’ve been doing some things that are against my better judgment. Because I’ve been distant from God, I’ve been following the desires of my own heart rather than what God desires for me. Now I’m left feeling guilty and ashamed. If I had been spending time with God, listening to God, I don’t think some of these sins would have happened.

I urge you all to go spend some time with God. Making God priority and spending time with Him is something I don’t regret, but sinning is something I do regret. I’d rather not have regrets…

…so I’m off to spend some much needed time with God.

I’ve been meaning to blog on here since about Friday, but I’ve just been busy or not in the mood or distracted or whatever. In fact, I don’t even remember what I was going to blog about. Then something came up today that I deemed more “blogworthy.”

Tonight I was at my campus ministry meeting, and the praise band was leading worship. The songs were great and seriously, the praise band was probably the best that I had ever heard. I was standing and singing…and…that’s just it…I was just singing. I was not worshiping. I felt like there was some sort of barrier between me and God.

I left the room, found a secluded spot, and just spilled my sins to God. I had done some pretty bad things during the day, and I’d been doing some pretty stupid things with my life in general. I just needed to confess that and get it out to God.

I went back to the group to listen to the lesson. Guess what the minister was talking about? Confession. There are just things in our lives that keep us from having a healthy relationship with God, and those things also prevent us from having honest relationships with other people. Remember how I wrote about the church last week and how we thought the church should be about openness, honesty, and vulnerability? Sin is just one of those things that we need to get out in order for us to be true to God and true to those in the church.

There are things we can do about the sin and guilt in our lives. First of all, we can confess it to God through prayer. Not only should we confess our sins, we should confess them right after they happen. I know sometimes we wait until right before Communion to “get ourselves right” with God or that we wait until our special “prayer time,” but I really don’t think we should wait that long. That sin can affect a relationship with God until the time of confession.

Next, writing about sin and temptations is good. Talk about how it made you feel, how you should respond next time, that sort of thing. Keep it private and really let your feelings out. You can burn the paper later if it makes you feel better. Writing about things just helps to sort stuff out. Later on, if you happen to save your journal, you can look back to see how you’ve overcome something or how you’ve grown or how much you still need to learn.

Finally, it’s good to talk to others about what’s going on in our lives. James 5:16 says, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” Also, in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 it says, “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.” It’s good to have someone around to share the load.

Confess.

I just got back from a “Whiteboard Society” meeting. Basically, three of my friends and I got together around a whiteboard and discussed deep thoughts, questions, and ideas. It ranged from baptism to private schools to shaving and we ended our night talking about the church. We made two categories on the whiteboard. One section was about what’s wrong with the church and the other section was about what the church should be. We brainstormed and wrote and wrote and brainstormed and wrote some more. Then we discussed.

We decided to focus on what the church should be rather than to whine and complain and go off on tangents of what’s wrong in the church. It was rather interesting. I think the things that jumped out to me most were comments on how the church should be open, honest, and vulnerable. The church should share things with each other in a place where they can feel safe doing so without being judged.

I think the church should be more than just a building we go to on Sundays. It’s a community of believers. It’s fellowship, it’s service, it’s worshiping together. I recently blogged about how blessed I am to be a part of several wonderful churches. I have my home church, which I feel is kind of an extended family to me. I also have the campus ministry I’m involved with and a small group Bible study. It just seems to me that while we’re not to the point of complete openness and honesty, we’re getting there. We share our struggles, our joys, our sorrows. And I think it’s incredible.

Anyway, I think YouthFire is also a church. It’s a group of believers who get together and share their life experiences. I hope all of you who read this can continue being open and honest with each other, loving one another, lifting one another up, and serving God together. Come talk to me sometime! I want to hear about your life and share my life with you.

In closing, I leave you with some more of my thoughts on the church that I blogged about a few weeks ago:

“Sometimes Christians don’t always agree with each other, and I think that’s okay. The early Christians didn’t always agree on things either. We haven’t figured things out. It’s okay to question things. What matters is that we trust and believe that Christ died for us and rose again. When we have unity in that, isn’t that what matters? Philippians 2:1-4 says, ‘If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.’

I think this is the beauty of the church. When we can put aside our piddly little differences and focus on Christ, it’s an awesome thing. When we can look out for each other, it’s beautiful. I see this in the churches I belong to. I think I forget this sometimes, so it’s just really cool to be reminded of how blessed I am to be part of a wonderful group of Christians.”

“But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.” ~ James 1:22-25 (Emphasis by me)

I’ve been thinking a lot about servanthood lately. I’ve been thinking a lot about Jesus lately too, and how he was such a servant. He touched the lives of the people he met, whether they be prostitutes, tax collectors, lepers. He loved them, he served them, he saved them.

There are so many opportunities in our lives to be servants, even in our everyday lives. I encourage you to serve those around you.

This isn’t really the point of this post though. I’ve been thinking a lot about Africa lately. It seems like such a faraway place, doesn’t it? I personally feel really disconnected from it. Do you remember when the tsunami happened? I know it wasn’t in Africa, but it was still in a faraway place. Then Hurricane Katrina happened, and somehow that affected me more. I think it’s just because Louisiana and Mississippi are closer than Asia. How could I have been so uncaring? Both places needed help.

Anyway, I think we need to start thinking about Africa. I could blow you away with statistics here, like about how many people die of AIDS every year, how many people die of diarrhea, or how many are killed because of civil wars. I’m not going to go into specifics though. All I’m going to say is that Africa needs our help. While African governments ignore or can’t do anything about the problems, other world governments are ignoring it too. That’s why it’s up to us to do something.

I watched a documentary last night called Invisible Children. It’s about children in Uganda who are abducted and brainwashed into becoming child soldiers. These children are between the ages of 5 and 12. Can you imagine your younger siblings or younger kids at church being kidnapped and forced to kill other people? These children are living without hope. You can do something about this. I encourage you to order the video to watch with your youth group. Then you can think of creative ideas to raise money to help these kids. You could even organize a trip to Africa with your youth group. Check out http://www.invisiblechildren.com/ for more information.

While Angel Tree and Salvation Army collect gifts for the poor and needy children in the United States, I think little is done for other countries. Operation Christmas Child is a way to help those in other countries. You can go to http://www.samaritanspurse.org/OCC for more information about how you and your youth group (or your family) can put together a shoebox full of school supplies, hygiene items, and toys for a child in another country.

Are you looking for an easier way to help? Check out http://www.TheHungerSite.com and its affiliates. The Hunger Site provided 48,017,486 cups of food last year to the hungry in various countries, including Africa. You don’t have to send money or food or anything to help. All you have to do is click the button once a day. The Child Health Site provided critical health services for more than 486,000 children worldwide last year. Again, all it takes is one click per day to help out. It’s simple, it’s easy, it’s effective, and it saves lives.

Finally, go to http://www.bloodwatermission.com for information on the importance of clean water in African countries. Did you know that more people die from diarrhea than from anything else? People drink water from unclean places, get diarrhea, get dehydrated, and have nothing except contaminated water to replenish themselves. It’s a vicious cycle. I encourage you and your youth group to raise money to build wells, or even go to Africa to dig a well! In a group I was involved with, we drank water for two weeks in place of all other beverages, then used the money that we would have paid for those drinks to send to bloodwatermission. It’s not a bad idea to do the same thing! It also is a sacrifice to do something like that…you’ll learn a lot!

I know this verse I’ll close with is kind of a punch in the face, but it needs to be said. James 4:17 says, “Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.” We all know we ought to help others. I feel the tug. Do you?

I was reading chapter nine of Searching for God knows What by Donald Miller earlier this evening. The chapter just made me smile. In it, Don (he seems like the guy who wouldn’t care if you referred to him informally) reflects on who Jesus is after reading the Gospels about 10 times. I mean, I know who Jesus is, and I’ve read about Jesus several times in the Gospels, but sometimes it’s just cool to be reminded about Him.

I feel special and worthwhile when someone I consider popular/prestigious/well-liked/powerful spends time with me. It’s not so much that I want all their characteristics to rub off on me, it’s that they take the time to genuinely get to know little me. It’s like someone significant having a real concern about someone insignificant. I’m not saying I’m insignificant, but I’m not popular or in a position of power or anything like that.

Anyhow, Don’s words kind of reminded me of that. Jesus is so much the same way. He’s someone who was significant (though people during His time may not have known that) who had a genuine interest in those the world considered insignifcant. The same is true today. He chooses to have relationships with people who are seemingly insignificant. I mean, come on, the God of the universe wants to have a personal relationship with me. How can I ignore that?

I feel special. I feel worthwhile. I feel loved.

Guess what? I love Him too.

“And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.” - Ephesians 3:17-18

This is my hope for all of you, that you may actually grasp the love of God. It’s endless, and it’s beginning was before time. You are loved more than we’re even able to comprehend, and that love continues through eternity. Live in that knowledge, and then share it.