Dude... You're going to mess up three times. Tonight!

If someone told me I was going to screw up three times in one night, I'd have two things going for me. One - The foresight of your prediction would keep me sharp. Two - My pride itself would make me want to prove you wrong!

To take that a step further... If you told me I would lie about being your friend three times in that same night, surely I would be able to abstain. Right? All you Sunday school warriors probably know where I'm going with this...

Using the above scenario, and add to the fact that I call myself a Christian. One who adheres to a set of morals and ideals, and tries my best to uphold them. So now I've got 4 forces preventing me from falling into your hypothetical prediction - foresight, pride, knowledge of the exact prediction (I guess this would be foresight squared?), and my own moral convictions. There's no way I'm screwing this one up...

However, ALL these things combined are not enough to counter-act the sinful nature. At least the sinful nature of a professional super-Christian who has the sweetest nickname ever... The Rock (much cooler than Dwayne Johnson, as his nickname was self-dubbed).

So here we have this guy Peter, 'The Rock', who was warned twice by Jesus about denying his allegiance to the Christ. This was after Peter charismatically claimed he would never leave Jesus' side.

Matthew 26:34 says,


³⁴ “Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” 


Warning bell number two comes in verse 41,


 ⁴¹ “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (This is where we break into chorus of the song "Light the Fire")

Interesting that Jesus highlights an inner battle between the flesh and the spirit. Sounds familiar, I can relate.

We see Peter's inner battle manifested physically in verses 69-74. Peter's weak flesh is shown when he denies even knowing of Jesus' existence! Keep in mind this is the man who holds the keys to the Pearly Gates... Also interesting is that Matthew portrays these denials to have a very short succession. To me this compounds Peter's inability to control his flesh. Either that or Matthew was taking a jab at his buddy (just kidding).

In verse 75 we see Peter's 'ah-ha' moment,


⁷⁵ Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken:“Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.


So you've got the Babe Ruth of Christians who can't even refrain from repeating the same sin 3 times over a 5 hour period. How much more difficult will it be for the rest of the flock?


The bad news is that even the best Christian is a wretched, uncontrollable sinner. The good news is Ephesians 2:8-9...


⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.


Pretty sweet huh? 


Below are a few pictures of yesterday's hike to Hancock Lake. Pretty sure God took a few more minutes making Hancock Lake than he did on Reno, NV.

Met Jesus in a Vacuum... Cleaner

So today while vacuuming I had a few thoughts... I vacuumed roughly 7k square feet so bear with me.

We as humans all have something we put our 'identity' in. I don't really know how to explain what it means to have your identity in something, but my best explanation is as follows: Your identity is what you find the most joy in, and how you measure success. Example - A child's identity is found in his/her parents. The child is 100% focused on his parents, and their approval or availability. This can be seen when a parent leaves the child with babysitter, or when the child wants to be carried while in a public place. Later on in the teenage years the child becomes way less concerned with the parents, and way more concerned in sports, image, and the opposite sex (no need for explanation or examples here).

Later on in life we lay our identity in careers, families, friends, or even sports teams. This explains the peculiar over-the-top reaction when a college football team loses. Some people literally suffer from short-term sanity loss (for best example see University of Alabama fans).

So you may be asking, what in the world does this have to do with vacuuming. Relax, I'm getting there.

I'm pretty sure I fall in the category of career identity. Prior to working with Young Life, I had a very comfortable job working with a financial software company. I had earned respect from my co-workers and started to take on leadership roles within my department. It was pretty easy to find joy and self-worth in my job.

Now that I'm working with Young Life it has become much less about how important I am to the organization, and more about how I can humbly serve in ways that are less than appealing. This can be a shock to someone who has rooted a lot of their self-worth in career. But today it was awesome.

My thoughts today were more focused on finding my identity in Christ - not career, family, or friends. Christ is a much better place to find identity because guess what, He's not going to fail. He won't fall short like the career identity, or the family identity. Why? Because we were built to live with Christ as the center. Focusing on anything else as the center is like trying to run a gasoline engine with water. It won't run right, and eventually it will break down.

What does identity in Christ look like? Again, not entirely sure. It probably looks like setting your purpose to serve and seek Christ daily, and to bring Him glory. Our only purpose on this planet is to bring God glory (whether in our work, how we love others, or even how we enjoy our favorite activity). Who we are in Christ are children saved by grace. That's a pretty easy place to rest if you ask me. Check out the below verse that might paint the picture a little clearer.

In Matthew 11:30, Jesus shows us what he's about.

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”


Life would be a lot more enjoyable if our burdens were lighter. Why do we make it so difficult? 


Below is a sunset pic I took the other day... Pretty crazy

Faith of a Trapeze

Churches in Buena Vista don't use air conditioning. This means air doesn't circulate, and Oxygen slowly depletes during the hour or so of the service. Pretty funny to see the drummer falling asleep during the second worship set. Thought I would throw that out there as a random fact...

At church today the pastor quoted a Henri Nouwen book. The excerpt taken was from Henri's experience with a group of trapeze performers. Basically there are two roles in a trapeze act. The 'flyer', who's job is to perform acrobatics while flying to the 'catcher'. The catcher's job is to, well, catch the flyer. Pretty simple.

Henri was amazed at the difficulty of the flyer's role. Henri asked how the flyer perfectly timed maneuvers so that he would successfully be caught. Surprisingly the flyer responded that his job was the easiest. It's that catcher who has to time the catch at split-second precision. All the flyer has to do is let go of the bar and wait to be caught. Everything relies on the catcher.

The pastor then drew the correlation of the flyer to our Christian faith. We as Christians essentially do nothing. Our only job is to 'let go' of whatever it is we are holding on to, and wait for God to catch us. Our faith has nothing to do with performing, it's all on the catcher. We can't do anything to help the catcher other than reach out our arms. Pretty powerful illustration.

There's a pretty solid example of this in Matthew 4. Jesus is just starting his ministry and essentially has zero followers (or enemies for that matter). While walking on the beach He meets two brothers who are fisherman, more than likely multi-generational. In Jesus' first interaction with them He asks the brothers to follow him.

¹⁸ As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ¹⁹“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” ²⁰ At once they left their nets and followed him.


The astonishing part of this whole deal is their response. They didn't say, "Wait, I've got some baggage to clean up" or "Let me figure out who will run the fishing business that's kept our family afloat for 5 generations." Peter and Andrew dropped their nets 'at once' and followed. They probably didn't even know Jesus was God incarnate! That sort of Faith can only be God inspired, not a rational decision made by the human. That's the kind of faith I pray for...


On another note... The Colorado stars tonight are Re dic u lous.

Moving Day

Today we moved from our temporary housing to where we will live for the next year. It feels great to settle in and unpack. I've basically been living out of my car for 2 weeks.

Over the past couple of days I've been training on the ropes course. It was a lot of fun to climb trees in the woods and rappel from 130 ft cliffs. I felt like a kid again, climbing trees in makeshift forts in Marsh Landing. The crisp air is refreshing. Our trainer left us with some profound words - "The next year is going to be what you make of it. Also, don't always try to be the blessing for others. Make sure you see the blessing in others."

Today I focused on seeing Christ in everyone I interacted with, which totally changed the way I approached people. The only problem was how quickly I forgot about this new Christ-lens.

Other thought for the day: Pretty sure John the Baptist listened to Southern Rock. Check out the below description of him from Matthew 3:4-6. The guy is a complete redneck and people still trekked through the wilderness to hang out with him. Pretty cool.

⁴ John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵ People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. ⁶ Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.


Should also note that I'm still undefeated in Ping Pong. 

It's All About Attitude

Today we cleaned cabins for the campers who are coming this weekend. Last weekend had over 400 campers, so we basically had to clean every bathroom and organize every bed at camp. We started at 7:00 AM and finished at 8:00 PM.

At first the cleaning wasn't that bad. Cleaning toilets and showers used by high schoolers wasn't the most desirable task, but it was manageable. We had music to listen to and the mood was light. It wasn't until around 11 AM that my attitude was tested.

After cleaning several cabins, I started to list 300 reasons why I shouldn't be cleaning a summer camp dormitory. Every once in a while I would focus on the fact that my purpose here is to glorify God, but this didn't help much. It wasn't until I texted the following to a friend, "I've been cleaning bathrooms all morning. Very humbling." His response was, "At least you're not cleaning your Outlook inbox."

My friend's simple response was eye opening. It caused me to look back 8 months ago, when I was receiving and responding to 100 emails per day. Back then I would have paid you to let me go clean a bathroom.

I began to think about a Bible passage I had read this morning. Philippians 2 says,


'³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.' 


This verse took care of my thoughts around why I shouldn't be cleaning bathrooms. Later in the same chapter Paul writes, '


¹⁴ Do everything without grumbling or arguing, ¹⁵ so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”^[c] Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.'

God was showing me that joy didn't come from the task I was doing. The joy I was looking for comes from doing my work for the glory of God. It doesn't matter if I'm answering emails for clients or cleaning a dirty toilet. After lunch God allowed me to rest on this. Pretty sure I would have been fine digging a ditch with this 'refreshed' state of mind. My prayer is that God will continue to work this concept into my heart.

On a lighter note, I was able to go fishing with Uncle Jim and Mike this past weekend. Below are some pictures of our adventure.

Kansas State of Mind

Monday morning I left St Louis for Colorado Springs, CO. One thing I learned on this drive - Kansas. is. loong.

The best way I can describe it is a 9 round boxing match with a world champion opponent, who's 2 weight classes below you. First three rounds - Not that bad. Pretty sure I can take this guy. Next three rounds - holy crap, he's got a little more fight than I thought. Last three rounds - just take me to submission. All that said, I made it to Colorado Springs.

Tuesday was by far the best driving day. 2 hours of driving and pure rocky mountain beauty. I checked into camp around 11 AM, and met the other interns for lunch in Buena Vista. It was very cool meeting the rest of the team. We are all different but have similar senses of humor, which has helped us bond quickly. I'm very excited about the next year and think I'll make some great friends.

Today (Wednesday) was mostly orientation and addressing housekeeping items. Zach and Amanda, our coordinators, talked about the program and what to expect. It was very humbling hearing their expectations from us, as well as our 'role' as interns. We spent some time in the Word, looking at various passages. One passage we looked at was in John, talking about Mary Magdalene. We looked at how faithful she was to Jesus, and how she loved Him deeply. Even after Peter and John left the Christ's tomb, Mary sat and grieved. We compared Mary to our views of discipleship, which made me reflect on how I follow Christ. I realized how far I fall short of Mary's loyalty and passion. It was incredibly humbling and reminded me how sinful I am, and that I'm in desperate need of a savior.

The next few days will be filled with more orientation. We start training for the ropes course next week. Looking forward to getting acclimated to the altitude!

Mid Westventure

From Knoxville to St Louis

Woke up from John and Meghan's this morning and got on the rode at 8:30 AM. It was a nice drive through central Tennessee. Very cool scenery just north of Nashville. After that I had a short drive in Kentucky, followed by a longer leg in Illi-noise. Saw several bumper stickers that said something to the effect of 'Sick and tired? Vote Democrat'. I bet the sweet tea in Illinois is terrible .

Had a lot of time to think today, which was very cool. God is showing me how to be reliant on Him, rather than the comforts I've built around myself. Let me rephrase, God is showing me that I need to be reliant on him - the implementation of this is in process! It's crazy how much security we (or I) find in friends/family/home. My prayer is that I will find security/joy in Him, as He is the only true source. All other 'sources' are mirages.

Glad I spent a lot of time with family and friends over the past few months. Great memories with Mom and Bill, working on the boats at the house. Chris, get that tennis game ready. Below are a few shots from the drive. Photography by Chiang from Chiangs Chinese Chicken (unsafe for me to shoot pics while driving).

Crimmis Trees

Gateway Arch

This was the third fountain I saw people swimming in. St Lousers love swimming in fountains.

Blues fest. Taken from Morgan Street

Le Arch

Rolling Out...

I've decided to start a blog to document my next year in Colorado. I promise not to document every mundane detail, but you may notice more details around my drive out west. Figured this would be a good way to create a lexicon scrapbook of sort, and might even serve as cheap therapy - for me at least.

Thursday Morning: Grabbed some breakfast with friends and family before hitting the road. It was great to see everyone and say goodbyes. Quiet anxiety over the past few days is starting to manifest. I really didn't think I was nervous about leaving, but boy was I wrong.

Compared to the longer legs of my drive to Colorado, the Jax to Atl leg was seemingly harmless. What I didn't account for was the wall I hit on I-75. Don't worry Mom, it wasn't a concrete or brick wall. Just a wall of doubt and fear of the unknown. 30 miles north of I-10 I found myself pacing towards a tractor on a construction site, convincing myself that I'm making the right decision. After very candid conversation with the 'Big Guy', I decided to press on. Fast forward 200 miles and three more 'rest stops', I reach Atlanta. 

Tacqueria Del Sol for dinner with Wade and Kenny. It was great to see these guys, as they were both big advocates of my going out west. Their words of encouragement at dinner were much needed, and netted a few of the monster butterflies that had been traveling with me thus far. Both of these guys are huge answers to prayer and would probably pop-up under google search 'Brother in Christ'.

Friday: After 18 holes of disc golf with Wade I head out to Knoxville. Atlanta traffic and Volunteer game day traffic turned a 3 hour drive into 5 plus. I can smell college football in the air. Grabbed a quick burrito with John, Meghan, and baby Luke (baller). Time to go to the rock show. 

Chris Doody and the gang put on a stellar show in 'Guvs' fashion. The Dirty Guv'Nahs are a breath of fresh air, and know how to bring southern rock. The show started at 8 PM and was at the historic Tennessee theater. The theater reminded me of a cross between The Fox in Atlanta and The Florida Theater in Jax. Almost all 1600 seats were packed out - I have a feeling we are going to be hearing a lot more from the Guvs. 

Saturday: Breakfast with John, followed by relaxing at the house. Opening day of college football, life is good. Heading to St. Louis tomorrow for brunch with Nelly. War Eagle.

Picture of the new parents on Game Day. Luke pimping his Auburn gear.