Superfans and Superplans

Last week I was w/ a bunch of my friends, and we were superfans at our high school basketball games. It was a crazy, amazing time and I most definitely lost my voice. While I was there though I came across a crazy concept.

Now every team feeds off of momentum. Momentum is such a big factor in the game of basketball(and any sport for that matter). So as the teams started playing each team started off slow. And then we superfans came and started screaming at the top of our lungs... it was very, very loud and obnoxious. There was an obvious change in play on every team. A spark that ignited a fire. And this fire was huge. To sum it up, every team clobbered the opposing team... it was epic...

It made me think a lot about the Christian body. It's capable of so much. Every single person, especially youth, has the potential to be something big. Often times what the world sees are the players on the court. The people who score points, make passes, devour the enemy... but there is an important part for everyone. There are the cheerleaders... the superfans... they may not be seen on the court, but they make a difference in the game.

So when we think of growing in our Christian walks and doing big things for God, we've got to remember that we aren't always the lead role. Sometimes we're backstage... but not less important. After all, it's not man's glory we're after, but God's approval.

This weekend I've been filled w/ these big thoughts for God and big dreams and changing others and changing the world. Little did I realize that God needed to work in my life too. After the Break-out I thought I would be revitalized, rejuvenated. But my energy had all gone into rejuvenating others. It's this weekend that I just let God work in my life. I stopped worrying about the world... about being revolutionary... I just sat and talked w/ my totally amazing heavenly father... it was peaceful.

And recently this week my Bible teacher came up w/ this talk of freedom and captivity. I think God freed me of a lot of burdens. It's not my job to be the "most Christian", to "change the world"... it's my job to just follow him. That's a freeing job... And it's a freedom that came w/ God's grace. A freedom that gave peace the day I accepted his Amazing Grace. So here's a song I wrote because the hymn means a lot to me as it always reminds me of Elim... It's a song of freedom. Sorry about my voice and all, It's not the greatest... but the lyrics were sort of inspired... here it is. Let God free you a bit today. Of sin, of jobs, of anything but following him.

In the Gentle Whisper

This has been a crazy week and I still look back and see that God has taught me a lot in this little time.

With school starting came drama... and lots of it. Now I'm not the kind of guy that drama happens to... but I am the kind of guy who loves to know about it. I totally forgot about my goal as a man and the fingerprint I want to leave on earth. I was pretty much happy to know the drama rather than remember the purpose God wanted for me. And then today I read an email about a man named Mr. Nelson and the Nelson family. One of the coolest families I will probably ever meet.

Mr. Nelson has stage 4 cancer and he found out that it had spread all over his body. Scary stuff... it's real life... it's real deadly... it scares me. At that moment I felt like I was going back through a nightmare.

I was there... standing in that dreaded hallway. Around me walked every other person in those scrubs and that smell of too many flowers... a hospital. I'm invisible... I feel alone... weak. Why the pain? Why the agony? I walk to school and who knows but me what is going on. My mom is on a hospital bed w/ cancer eating at her body.

I fast forward to the present and let the feeling sink in. This is what the Nelson's feel. This is what a divorced parent's child feels... this is pain. This is what I was called to support. To reach out to those in pain and truly live the epic life.

Heroes live epic lives... but how? Do they live it in selfishness? NO it's the opposite. A true epic life is a life that is given up. To remember that there is a world of hurt out there and I should be using my time and energy. I was called to the epic life....

That time in my life when my mom was sick was my desert. Today in Bible I studied Elijah when he ran from Abijah. He ran to the desert... felt alone... felt let-down... felt pain. And there in that desert God spoke to him. Not in a gigantic way, but a whisper... why? Because it is in the desert that we listen... and that whisper makes a memory... an assurance of the call to an epic life. Elijah lived it... he went through the desert... and he committed himself to an epic life. May I remember God's gentle whispers... for I need that more than the latest high school drama.

The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" 1 Kings 18

What was he doing there... He was listening to a whisper... a whisper of his calling... an epic calling.

A Confident Fingerprint

So this past week after New Years has been quite interesting. The Freshman Break-Out occured and this weekend has been non-stop busy. The Freshman Break-Out went well and it made me think a lot about who I was. To myself (and maybe in the eyes of others) I see myself as a person who becomes obsessed w/ something. For this week it was the break-out and those at the break-out might've seen that I'm passionate about doing big things through the young generation. It made me think of the kind of man God wanted me to be.



So the day after the Break-Out I had soccer fitness training. Now I haven't been training... and most definitely was not ready for running. We ran stadium stairs like the ones in the picture. We hopped up them, ran them, jogged them, did step-ups on them... and suffered on them. As I was running I thought a lot about how they are like life. Running up them is like the struggles in life... You feel tired... and wonder if you can still go on. I felt like this after the Break-out, I was drained of energy... and didn't know how I could keep up my passion. And then there's running down the stairs... the time where you feel God is right there w/ you and life is easy. I felt like that during the Break-out. Then there's those flat parts between stairs where you start to feel dry-mouthed and wonder if the run is really worth it. When God is silent. I wonder... Is it really worth it?

It is... there is no doubt in my mind. For the difference between Christians and non-believers is that there is a goal in the end. The prize that we must run after. What good is running this race of life if we run after nothing. And it is for that motivation that we keep running.

But as I run... I started wondering this weekend if I fully understand that calling... that prize. On Sunday a guy asked me this: "When you leave this world, will people remember that God did something through you... will you leave your fingerprint?" It got me thinking about being a true man of God... a man who was not confident in who he is, but in who God is. And that confidence is what should show through me. That is the confidence of what a man after God's heart should be. But is that who I am?

I come across to a lot of people as confident... starting freshmen in varsity... lion award in middle school... class prez... but who I am is actually nothing. I am who I am because of who God is. So maybe that is the confidence I should look for.

And it is w/ that confidence that I run toward the prize of leaving my fingerprint on this earth. A fingerprint seen through a life of touching other's lives. For in the big perspective of things... It is not more important that I make it up the stairs... but that w/ all my being I carry myself and everyone I can up the stairs w/ the passion and strength God has given me. "So that his light may shine through you that men might see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven." (Matt. 5) A true man is confident in God... A true man can truly run...