I really like this picture. I’ve been trying to learn how to capture lens flare intentionally… I just happen to catch this at the right moment as this seagul flew overhead. (No poop was a bonus!)
Category: hmm… thoughts
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Back to Minneapolis
Photo by stevelyon via Flickr (Creative Commons) This week I’m headed to Minneapolis for a week of meetings and team building. Since YS is a now part of YouthWorks, we get to be a part of their semi-annual gatherings where they come together to celebrate all that God is doing. I’m digging that.
Here’s a couple of fun things I’ve been learning about YouthWorks.
- The missions team has more than 36,000 people registered for mission trips this summer. Most of them are middle and high schoolers.
- We are in the process of hiring about 350 summer staff.
- We have about 65 full-time, year-round staff. (Including the YS staff)
- YouthWorks has a foundation which gives back to the communities which host missions trips.
This week I’m hoping to connect with some folks and figure out what people do. It should be big fun in the frozen tundra. Since I’ll be back their at least quarterly– my sidebar hope is to find some fun, funky places to explore.
Yes, more fun than Chingy and Snoop at the Holiday Inn.
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Poll: How much cash do you typically carry?
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m shocked to see how many people carry $50-$100 in cash in their wallets. Just so I know if I’m weird or not, humor me and let me know how much you typically have on you. (Totally secret, no way for me to know who said what.)
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What inspires you?
This question has been on my mind a lot lately.
Here’s what I know: When people are inspired emotionally they take action physically.
Conversely, when I see people mired in inaction– I know that they are deeply uninspired.
Inspired people are an unstoppable force. Uninspired look for excuses.
Here are some things that inspire me:
- Listening to an artist show and explain his work.
- Meeting people for the first time.
- Road trips.
- Uninterrupted time to breathe, rest, play.
- Biographies of ordinary people.
- Teachers. I mean, how do they do it?
- Short stories.
What are things that inspire you to action? What causes you to dream big dreams, big enough to go for them?
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Faith & Fear
The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. Genesis 12:1
Can you imagine? 75 years old you hear from God loud and clear– leave, start a new life, leave everything behind.
Abram’s entire life was judged based on this one decision! Would his life be defined by faith or by fear?
The first thing that comes to my mind as I try to put myself in Abram’s shoes is fear:
- How will I make the trip?
- How will I start over?
- My wife will kill me.
- I’m 75 years old, the only move I’m making is to Florida
Yesterday, I was doing a little check-in on Tash’s morning radio show in Auckland. (You know, I’m huge there! Well… er, probably not.) And she asked me the one question I don’t have an answer for right now, “So Adam, what is going to change as a result of your trip to do relief work in Haiti?”
It is the question I’m afraid of. I don’t really have an answer for that yet.
If I tally the faith I exhibit in my life I see a difference in the reconciliation. Fear is winning over faith.
As I talked to the Lord about it I kept coming back to that central question… right back to the defining moment in Tin Cup… “Will your life be a life defined by radical faith, or will it be defined by an avoidance of fear?”
What about you? What are ways you a living a life driven by faith and not fear? Teach me!
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Ephesians 5:14 and You
A young man prays in Carrefour, the epicenter of the January 12th earthquake “Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:14I first memorized Ephesians 5 with Kristen in 1995. We were dating and we had discovered that memorizing Scripture together was a way to channel our, um, energy for one another. It worked!
This passage of Scripture has been illuminated to me in new ways since I returned from Haiti a few days ago.
On the one hand– I need to shake the trip, to focus on the action items ahead of me, to move on with being a leader, husband, and father here in San Diego. I am needed here and there is no denying it. That much is clear.
On the other hand– everywhere I go I encounter something I cannot reconcile with what I have seen. Yesterday, I spent most of my day in a coffee shop sipping mochas and working on a freelance project for some friends. I am proud of the work I did yesterday. It turned out great. I love the opportunity it provides both for my family and the organization this work will benefit. But as I walked through my neighborhood I couldn’t help but think of the contrast to what I was doing just a week prior. Last Saturday, sounds of thousands praising Jesus and shouting prayers filled every neighborhood in Port-au-Prince and Carrefour. Even as night fell and we rested in our mission station we could hear the loud speakers in the distance… people singing and praising well into the humid darkness. Yesterday, back home in my neighborhood– nearly silence. The only sounds heard were children playing soccer in the park.
One place was awake. The other asleep.
Paul doesn’t leave me there, he continues, “Be very careful, then, how you live–not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” Ephesians 5:15-17
My prayer while in Haiti were verses 15-17. I overlooked verse 14. My teammates kind of poked fun at me because I barely slept the whole week. I’d go to bed after they were asleep and they’d wake up and I’d already be up. It’s was this verse… I was doing what I could to make the most of every opportunity. I could sleep on the plane.
But it is verse 14 which stirs me now. Now I have to sort out how I can be awake to both realities.
