Dress for the Wedding

This is point #7 of THE CODE of our church.

Upon going through some of Pastor Furtick’s old blogs, I began to ponder this statement.

Dress for the wedding, not the gas station.  Structure your life for where you want to go, not where you are now.

Pastor attributed this concept with church growth, but it also applies well to daily life.  I’ve chosen to build my existence around where I believe God is going to take me, not where I stand in my present circumstances.

I can’t be a loving father later if I don’t demonstrate love to my family now.

I can’t be a faithful husband later if I’m surrounding myself with sexual sin and thoughts now.

I can’t expect others to follow me later if I’m not walking in integrity now.

I can’t walk with humility later if I’m filling myself with pride now.

I must do everything I can to build the right foundation now so that God can build the house later.

This concept isn’t perfect.  Wearing a tux at a gas station is uncomfortable.

On the contrary, realizing you forgot a tux upon arrival at the wedding is far worse.

I’d rather change some things in my life now, so that I don’t arrive later, looking back in hindsight with a sense of regret.

Dress for the wedding, not the gas station.  Structure for where you are going, not where you are now.

Noise.

Captivating, motivating, consuming.

Just as white noise plagues the notes of beautiful music, useless information permeates our perception.

Annoying chatter in a movie drowns out the plot, which is then never understood by the viewer.

Tuning out must happen before tuning in.  Drowning out the meaningless chatter enables wisdom to be intently sought out.

Seeking inward revelation rather than outward expression.

Is a 140 character statement enough to change your perception?  Sure.  But, when it lies amidst 50 other seemingly-irrelevant ’sound bytes’, it becomes difficult to distinguish the bird from the flock.

Consider this:

If knowledge was so abundant that it could be picked off a tree…

Would Americans be in tremendous financial instability right now?  Would we even need prisons?  Would the term “third-world country” exist?

Knowledge breeds awareness.

Awareness brings change.

Change brings experience.

Experience encompasses knowledge.

::

What are you listening to?

First Day

First Day..

Remember when the first day of school consisted of laying out your clothes the night before. taking a picture that morning with your backpack and lunchbox, and laying awake all night thinking about the excitement of the next day?

It’s weird how so much can change over the course of someone’s life.  Even in a life as short as mine.  School gradually became less of a social, interactive, learning environment and became more of a test-based, task-focused ‘day job’.

The schools are designed to output ‘mass-produced mediocrity’.  Your purpose is reduced to a number-  a fraction.  You could be a 95, a 60, or an 83.  You are 1 person out of 2000 (or 1000, or 500.  Doesn’t really matter) others who are there for the same, exact reason.  Pretty crazy, huh?

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

This year I’m trying to approach it with a different perspective.  What if you could do something each day to make one person’s life better?  If you think about the number of interactions you make with other people each day, school suddenly becomes less of a hindrance, and more of an opportunity to impact someone’s existence for the better.

If you go out of your way to introduce yourself to a shy, quiet person, you restore their confidence in their social presence.  One interaction could change the course of a person’s day.  Or their week.  Or their YEAR.

What if every interaction you have with other people is a positive one?  One that simply encourages them.  Just imagine the difference you would see in their lives.

Encouragement literally means “to give courage to.”

What would a school full of courageous, confident people look like?

I’m anxious to find out.

BigStuf Debrief

… More of a sharing of thoughts.  These are in no particular order, but all of them are important to understand.  More will come later, but these are my favorite take-aways from the week:

We as a church, will live by faith and not by sight.

Leaders must exemplify the image of Christ for their followers, for they will be held accountable by God.

The difference between a daydream and a vision is the audacity to act.  (Pastor said this a while back, but the reality of this statement become clear to me on the trip.)

Take advantage of the little opportunities to impact someone-  Everything big always starts small.

Consider the relationships in your life:  Which people need to come first?  Practice selective hearing.

Rules without revelation leads to rebellion.

Sacrifice the temporary fulfillment of now for the incredible reward in the future. (In relation to purity)

People with purpose establish goals and set their plans in action.

Your school doesn’t need one more person who is willing to compromise their integrity.

Purity now leads to intimacy later.

Honor God with your purity-  for it’s a lifestyle, not an after-thought.

If you’re going to play the game, don’t be satisfied with just sitting on the bench.  Get in and play the game with all your heart.

If it’s in the bible, it’s a command, not a suggestion.

After the crucifixion, the separation between God and man would be no more.

Proverbs 24:27 // Prepare your fields, and after that build your house.  Even the most extravagant building can’t stand without a solid foundation.

Stop making excuses about why God can’t use you-  Quit running from your vision and embrace it.

Humility comes before honor.

God is like hide-and-seek.  The seeking is often better than the hiding.

We are called to be serious about our commitment to Christ.

There is strength in numbers-  God will always show up and walk through the fire with a bunch of passionate and committed teens that are willing to stand up for Christ.

Our generation isn’t the one for the future.. We’re the generation of NOW.  Rise up the challenge.

A Few Scattered Thoughts..

A certain friend does this thing with his blog almost every Sunday night.  He just starts to type bullets about his day & his thoughts usually go into a really interesting direction.  I thought I’d try this out for a bit & see what I think.

Every Monday night for the next four weeks (excluding next week-  could end up being posted on Sunday).  I’m going to post some of my thoughts on the weekend, as well as the week ahead.  Play this song while you read-  Could make this post more interesting and make your day a little better at the same time!

• Love the fact that I go to a church that isn’t afraid to topple the ’sacred cows’ that the Church as a whole is too afraid to even address.
• Took too many notes on yesterday’s sermon.  Ran out of room to write and there was still five minutes to go in the message.  We should offer bigger worship guides to frantic note-takers.
• Seems that I’ve been forgetting to eat lately.  I ran around all day yesterday on just two cups of coffee and a Nutri-grain bar.  Wish I knew where my energy came from!
• Discovered one of my favorite guitar lines to play EVER.  And from a worship tune-  Check out this guy do a semi-ok job  of covering it.  Love the stripped-down simplicity, yet harmonic tone of the melody.  Sounds much better when I play it though! 
• Spent a total of five hours at Starbucks today and yesterday.  Could be a Pro, could be a Con.  You decide.
• Really, really pumped about my future.  Wish I could skip the rest of high school & keep doing what I’m doing now.
• That’s not reality, however.  I WILL go into this next school year with Spiritual armor and a desire to see change in my generation.
• Been constantly reminding myself of this line from a sermon lately:  “What is the one thing you would do for God if you knew you could not fail?  Now do it-  because you are a coward that doubts God’s power if you believe He won’t move you in a position to fulfill that task.“   INTENSE!
• On a less heavy note, I really like my new Mac.  Always felt like a Mac person at heart-  bound to a sentence of using PCs. 
• Installed Covenant Eyes on it too.  Didn’t feel like risking the integrity of my future for a dangerous temptation that I don’t even need in the first place.  I feel so much better, and you should do the same.
• The entire church staff is volunteering with some great people tomorrow-  Get to head up some ‘Olympic Games’ for summer camp kids.  It involves water!
• Discovered the Mac app ‘Things’.  I really like it-  but still trying to convince myself that paying the $50 to keep it is worth it when the trial time is up.. Going to be a tough call.
• I feel like my greatest desire to write comes late at night.  So weird.
• Shared vision with a great guy today-  Hard to find people with the same level of commitment and passion to serve that he possesses.  So encouraging!

That’s all I’ve got for you, folks.  Please give me feedback if you like these kinds of posts-  Not used to them, so they feel a little random.

Night!

Silence

I’ve forgotten what silence means.  And it’s become a problem.

I can’t remember the last time I secluded myself for more than 10 minutes without reading a tweet, checking my Facebook, responding to email, watching TV, listening to music, reading a magazine, typing a text, talking to someone, reading a blog.. You get the picture.

What I thought:  Information brings knowledge.  The more people I follow on Twitter, the more music I buy, the more blogs I read, the more knowledge I’ll gain.  This made sense for a while.

What I’ve learned:  

True understanding cannot be obtained through a lifestyle of noise.  

In the same way, are close whispers heard at a crowded concert?  Can the cry of one sheep be distinguished from a flock of hundreds?

My point is, I can’t hear from God if I’m busy filling my mind with information that’s not relevant to my life from the get-go.

If I’m to fully confide in Him with all my heart, soul, and being, why am I placing my obsession with information above His ultimate intention for my life?

I’ve decided to cut back.  Less blogs, less tweets, less information.  I’m reaffirming the integrity of my foundation to allow God’s purpose for my life to permeate my soul.  Silence brings revelation, revelation brings understanding, and understanding brings security.

New Title

I’ve always wanted to find something in writing that represents my aspirations as a follower of Christ.  One verse in the bible has always stood out among the others.  I think it represents this current phase of my life more than anything else.

1 Timothy 4:12 // ¹²Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.

The 54th book of the Bible, the fourth book, and the twelfth verse.

That’s it.  I could go my entire life on that one verse and never open the bible again.  I wouldn’t advise that of course, but consider this:

As someone that is still “learning the ropes” in life, so to speak, I’ve been given an incredible opportunity to alter the course of my generation.  My perspective has deeply changed over the past year or so.  My generation is living their lives with an entirely different outlook on life.  Their view of purpose, or self-worth, is the backwards representation of God’s definition of purpose.

Why would I want to go on living like every other teen, when I can live with a renewed sense of purpose while carrying out God’s desire for my life?

Don’t get me wrong, living for Christ is difficult for me.  It will never be easy.  We were never promised a path without struggle.  I heard a Pastor say once, “The process is the point.”  If God wanted living for Him to be easy, why would He allow sin to permeate the world we live in?

On the days when I feel it would be easier to just give up and fall into the same fate as so many others, I turn to that verse.  1 Timothy 4:12.  Set an example.

How can I set an example if I won’t leave the crowd?

I’m back.. Maybe.

Today is June 12, 2009.  Perhaps six months since my last post.  Lots has changed since then.

Just felt like writing a little bit today.. We’ll see how it goes.

Over the past few months I’ve been blessed in so many ways.  I was given a car to drive.  I was given the opportunity to intern for the job of my dreams.  And, on top of that, I get to work at my favorite place in the world.  I made it through this school year with mostly A’s and only two B’s, and I’ve got an incredible family to back me up in all that I do.

Something was missing though.  A weird emptiness occupied my heart.  With every new blessing, that emptiness just seemed to grow.  I tried waiting it out and shoving it aside with a passive attitude.  It didn’t go away.  More friends didn’t fill the gap.  A great job didn’t fill the gap.  A front-row seat to an incredible spiritual movement didn’t even fill it.  People were looking to me as a role model; an image of how a ‘good christian’ was supposed to act.  I wasn’t feeling it.  Pastor Steven did a series a while back that would imply that I’d hit “The Dip” in my spiritual walk. Here’s what I came upon in my sermon notes a few weeks ago:

Trusting God is not a passive gesture, it’s an active movement.

I can’t assume that I can do everything on my own and pass off the “big problems” to God.  It took getting everything I desired to realize that I wasn’t actively pursuing the one who blessed me in the first place.

God doesn’t want my spiritual “left-overs” or half-hearted gifts.  He wants my active pursuit of His word and the life in which He is preparing for me.

Are you doing the same?