Halloween.

First let me be clear, I HATE HALLOWEEN!

There is nothing about this "holiday" that I enjoy. Most of it is just personal preference, like I don't like dressing up in costumes, and I'm really picky about candy. I don't like masks, and I hate scary movies, haunted houses, and scary things in people's yards. There is also the overall evil feeling that comes with this time of year. The sense that people can act in a way they wouldn't normally because its Halloween.

I could go on about the things I hate about this day, especially all the truly evil stuff that does actually happen on and around this day.

But I feel like Jesus is asking me to rethink how I spend this day.

Relevant magazine put out a great article dealing with this called: "Why Christians Can Celebrate Halloween". I really encourage you to read it.

Halloween is a dark holiday. It is. Maybe not for everyone, but there are terrible things that happen on Halloween, not to mention the overall celebration of evil and death, something completely opposite of what Christ stood for... 

But Jesus chased us, even though it meant he had to die. He chased us even though it took him to parties at tax collectors houses, eating dinner with "sinners" and hanging around prostitutes. He was associated with the worst of his time. He was friends with people totally opposed to his Father's Law... people who really didn't care about God or anything to do with him.

He loved. He set free. He brought light into darkness. He healed. He cast out demons...

 I don't want to "celebrate" Halloween, but I feel like Jesus is asking me to be with people today, to be light in the darkness... like the Relevant article said, there is no other day where neighbors are so welcoming. Where neighborhoods actually embrace each other. 

Shouldn't Christians be a part of that?!

Shouldn't we walk the streets with our neighbors, welcome them to our home and give them some love through chocolaty treats? 

So this year we are taking our oldest daughter "trick-or-treating" with some of our neighbors that have made it clear they are not Christians. Are we going to get to talk to them about Jesus? Maybe not, but we will get to show them Jesus' love. Will we take this opportunity to explain to them how evil Halloween is? Absolutely not! We will be with them, prayerfully asking God to love them through us. 

Maybe we'll get the chance to tell them a "spooky" story of Jesus casting out demons, but I just pray that God loves them through us tonight.

So if you chose not to celebrate Halloween, that's great, but pray for those that are. Pray that they come to get a glimpse of God's love tonight. Pray that those Christians you know that are participating in some festivities will be able to share Jesus' insanely wonderful, perfect, and complete love with those around them. Pray for protection...

And maybe, at least open your door and say hi to some of your neighbors. Jesus did say the world will know us by the way we love... 

Peace.

"He's right behind me, isn't he?"

We all know this feeling, and no matter if we are saying good or bad about the person, its awkward when we realize they are listening to us without us knowing it.

Rarely do we talk about someone the same way when we know they are listening, good or bad. Its like we watch what we say a bit more when we know they are present. Especially if we are being negative.

I talk about God pretty often, and lately I've been getting this same feeling when I'm talking about him.

I can't explain it very well, but its like I refer to him as a thing, or a belief, or something other than a person who is actually in the room participating in the conversation.

I know God is present all the time, with me everywhere I go, but I don't think I REALLY know it. I think my head believes it, and my heart may even believe it, but it's just not something that I'm always actually aware of. It's not something I am experientially aware of all the time.

God IS always present, always with us, always loving us, guiding us, holding us, teaching us, and inviting us into his presence... but I think I don't really know or expect that in everything I do, in every conversation I have, in every moment of every day.

I do expect to experience God during certan times, like prayer, or worship services, or small group Bible studies and such... but while I am taking the trash out, or washing dishes, or watching tv, or hanging out with friends just chit-chatting... I honestly don't expect him, I am not expectantly open to him in the same way.

But God is always present... always... and he is always inviting us into that experienced reality. Even when it doesn't feel like he is, or it doesn't feel like we want or expected it... He is always in the room with us.

One thing that has helped me open to this more is silent prayer. I'm not talking about praying silently while I'm talking a  in my head, I mean sitting and trying to be still with my loving Father for a certain amount of time.

This is hard, and my body and brain fight back when I try to do this, but that's ok. As frustrating as it may be, it's a time I give to te LORD, and even when I feel like I was fighting off the temptation to daydream or think about other things the whole time, it's never a waste.

If you have never tried this, or tried it but the frustration of a million thoughts racing through your head while doing this has kept you from continuing, then maybe just try this.

For 5 minutes (just to start, you can do it for longer if you so desire) find a quiet place where you can sit comfortably. If you can't find a quite place, listen to some ambient noise with headphones. Then before starting your time, offer the time to God. Ask him to help you open to  him, not to gain anything other than being with him. Offer the time as a sacrificial gift, something for him to do with as he wants. Then sit, close your eyes, and if it helps say something like "Abba, I belong to you" or "I believe, help my unbelief" or "not my will but yours be done" when thoughts come racing in. Just let those thoughts race out the same way they raced in. Set a timer, and when the time is over, thank God for being present, and I'll normally end the time with the LORD's prayer.

Don't expect anything overwhelming to happen from this, my experience has been that God whispers during these times, and that I often don't even hear it... but as I have kept up with it, I have noticed that I notice God much much more throughout the day, at times when I don't really expect to. I have noticed that this discipline has put my heart in a posture to be more open to him in all that I do.

Also, if this is really hard for you, and your are feeling like you can't stop your brain from racing during these times. Be gentle with yourself, don't beat yourself up, God isn't disappointed with you, you shouldn't be either. Just keep at it, be honest with God about your frustrations, even if you are pissed off that he seems to just hang back and not step in to help. Express that to him, he knows you completely, so he already knows that's how you feel, but he wants you to be honest with him. He wants all of you. 

As hard and frustrating and lonely as these times may be, God is happy you are giving them to him... and that is all the reason to do it.

If you have any questions, or experiences with this kind of prayer, positive or negative, I'd love to hear them.

Remember, God is always in the room, always loving, always inviting you deeper into his presence... even when it feels he is totally absent.

Peace.

Young Life.

In case you didn't know what Young Life is all about, I thought I would share some info on it. Young Life is a really wonderful ministry, and I am very proud to be on full-time staff.

Young Life starts with concerned adults who spend time building bridges of authentic friendship with teens — where they are, as they are. Because their leaders believe in them unconditionally, teenagers begin to see that their lives have great worth, meaning and purpose. Young Life offers teens adventure, hospitality and unconditional friendship.

Young Life staff and leaders build relationships with teenagers, inviting them to various activities, meetings called "club" and camp. Here teens can be themselves, have fun and consider some of life's biggest questions like, "How can we best live our lives?" and, "Why are we here?" For those wanting to explore the spiritual dimensions of their lives more deeply, we offer small group gatherings that allow students to more fully investigate the teaching and life of Jesus of Nazareth. Young Life staff and leaders work alongside families; furthermore they're supported by, and seek to connect teens to, established churches and other ministries in the communities and countries where Young Life is active.

Our Vision:
Every adolescent will have the opportunity to meet Jesus Christ and follow Him.

Our Mission:
Introducing adolescents to Jesus Christ and helping them grow in their faith.

We accomplish our mission by ...
1. Praying for young people.
2. Going where kids are.
3. Building personal relationships with them.
4. Winning the right to be heard.
5. Providing experiences that are fun, adventurous and life-changing.
6. Sharing our lives and the Good News of Jesus Christ with adolescents.
7. Inviting them to personally respond to this Good News.
8. Loving them regardless of their response.
9. Nurturing kids so they might grow in their love for Christ and the knowledge of God's Word and become people who can share their faith with others. 

10. Helping young people develop the skills, assets and attitudes to reach their full God-given potential.
11. Encouraging kids to live connected to the Body of Christ by being an active member of a local congregation. 

12. Working with a team of like-minded individuals -- volunteer leaders, committee members, donors and staff. 

Our Values:
1. Living according to and communicating the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ.
2. Carrying out our mission under the authority of Scripture and relying on the Holy Spirit to empower our ministry. 

3. Encouraging the welfare and spiritual health of those who do this ministry, that they may minister out of a consistent and growing relationship with Christ and His followers. 

4. Researching and developing innovative approaches to reaching uncommitted, disinterested kids around the world. 

5. Reaching adolescents of all social, cultural, economic and ethnic backgrounds throughout the world.
6. Working with followers of Christ from a variety of traditions and local churches around the world.
7. Welcoming all those whom God calls to our mission -- men and women of all races, staff and volunteers -- who are linked to a common purpose of introducing adolescents to Jesus Christ. 

8. Observing the highest standards of stewardship of all the resources placed in our trust.

Our approach is relational. We go where kids are in order to build friendships with them and earn the right to make a positive impact on their lives. We want them to know that they are loved and valued.

We believe that all kids have the right to know about God, to hear the truth about Jesus Christ and who He said He was. Young Life leaders communicate that truth in casual conversation, at weekly club meetings and through our camping program.

Eighty-three percent of any gifts you make to Young Life stay right in the local area to support the ministry to kids there. The other 17 percent, known as the service charge, is sent to the Young Life Service Center and to the area’s corresponding regional office to fund technical and administrative services that serve local areas.

Why we need support

"Asking for money is super fun!' said no one, ever.

I am going on Young Life staff. That will be my job, and, LORD willing, it will be for years to come. The thing I did not really think about much before now about actually having YL be my full-time job is that I have to raise my own paycheck... every paycheck.

Asking someone to give you money is hard. Honestly, I would rather not do it. 

I knew that God had called me into youth ministry, and I always assumed it would be my full-time job at some point... but I thought it would include a "secure" paycheck. Don't get me wrong, I never thought we would have loads of money, or even very much of it, but I thought we would be able to sit back and collect a paycheck from a church or organization and not have to worry about raising that money ourselves.

This had always been the catch with working for Young Life. Working with kids, showing them that Jesus loves them is challenging enough, but then having to raise your salary on top of that... no thanks.

But here we are, after walking away from Young Life 6 years ago, and things have changed. 

First, I don't really think I am asking people to give me money so that I can slack off, maybe hang out with a few kids, and live a plush easy life. Asking for money is tough, its not a cake job having to raise your own support... and youth ministry, while incredibly rewarding, can be really stinking rough at times. I love kids, and I completely enjoy getting to walk through life with them, showing them Jesus' love, but there are times when I would just rather be getting paid somewhere I could clock in and out of.

Second, and this may seem like manipulation (frick, honestly, this whole post may seem like manipulation on some level), I am not just asking people to pay my salary, I'm asking people to invest in the Kingdom. I'm asking you to invest in the work God is doing through me, through Young Life, and through the partnerships we will make. Kids will come to know Jesus through this, and you have an opportunity to be a part of that, without ever having to play a messy game, or try to get a bunch of middle schoolers to listen to you give a talk.

Third, I am convinced that this is where God is leading me, and even if people say "no," over and over, I know God will provide. I am not the one that is going to raise the money, God will, and he already has it set aside. If this is God's plan, what is money to stand in the way. As long as I am diligent in doing my part (asking people for money) he will provide. 

Fourth, this will be such a learning, stretching, growing, and humbling experience that I might be thankful for this part of it in the end. Fundraising like this is going to bring some of my weaknesses right up to the surface, and then those weaknesses will hang out and have a party with some of my fears and insecurities... and I will have a chance to walk with God right into the middle of all that, then watch as he takes them all away. The only way to really defeat fear is to walk right into it.

Fifth, and this is the last one, I am looking forward to the relationships that will come from this. I'm not the best at staying in touch with people. Its a GIANT character flaw, and I really wish I was better at it. I'm really hoping that this process will rekindle some old friendships that I miss dearly, ignite some new ones, and introduce me to some fellow followers of Jesus I may not know yet. 

So yeah, I'm not looking forward to raising money, to asking people to give me their cash... but I am excited to see what it brings, and excited to get to invite people into what God is doing. 

So if you would like to be a part of what God is doing in kids lives through me and my family, then please click here. Your gift will not just benefit me and my family, but may be directly responsible for bringing a kid in touch with the love of Christ. 

Peace.

How the "SH" word helped me open to Christ

"It tastes like sh_t."

Hearing this come out of my Young Life leader's mouth changed my life. I will never forget it, though I'm pretty sure he doesn't remember it at all.

It was the first time I realized that you could be totally in love with Jesus and be yourself too.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that loving Jesus and growing in that love won't change your life in a way that has moral implications. I'm saying that up until that point I thought I had to try to be someone different than I was on the inside... I basically thought I had to just try to be a different "better" person, that I had to fake it till it became reality.

When I heard this guy use the "sh" word so flippantly, like nothing happened, I felt like Jesus was inviting me into a new life of love and acceptance. Like he was saying loving him was enough, he could take care of the rest.

It was freeing, enough that I remember it 16 years later.

Jesus invites us to be ourselves. He invites us into his love for us as we are, not as we should be, or as we've been told we should be, or as we think we should be. He loves us totally and completely now, as we are.

It would do us good to live in that reality more, it's through living in that love, and knowing that love, that we will actually begin to become more like him.

So thank you Joe Bahr, Jesus spoke through you that day and I have not forgotten it.

Because He first loved us...

Jesus loved us FIRST. 

Before we knew him, before we "asked him to come into our hearts," before we did anything for him, HE FIRST LOVED US. 

There are huge implications in this. 

This is first love. It's not tied at all to anything we do, anything we don't do, or anything we should do. We cannot shake this first love, we cannot escape it. All other love we receive in life is, at some level, conditional. The love we get from parents, husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, friends, and everyone else has conditions built into it... there are things we can do to diminish those loves... 

BUT NOT WITH JESUS. HE LOVED US FIRST. 

Lord God, make this a known and lived in reality for me. Make this my identity.

Abba's presence.

LORD, Abba, help me to open to your always present presence. Help me to open to you and connect with what you are doing in and around me. Give me eyes to see and ears to hear... and an open heart and mind. You are always active, always loving, always relating to me, help me be more and more attentive to that.

"Jesus is right here."

A conversation with Hazel (my 4 year old) a few mornings ago:

Haze: Daddy, what were you doing down here?

Me: Praying.

Haze: To God, to Jesus?

Me: Yes.

Haze: Jesus is right here (pointing to the empty spot next to her on the chair)... but I can't see him (said with a bit of disappointment).

Me: I know honey, but we will see him soon (said with a tear brewing as I connect with the longing in my heart to see him, smell him, touch him, and embrace him physically).

Honestly, I often think and relate to Jesus, the Spirit, and God as if they are ideas, abstract ideas that are more like beliefs than personalities to be related to. Trying to explain that Jesus is always actually present to a four year old makes me look inside at my own ACTUAL beliefs... if I really believe he is always present with me, why do I so often act like it's really just a theory, or a nice sentimental thought?

LORD, Abba, help me to open to your always present presence. Help me to open to you and connect with what you are doing in and around me. Give me eyes to see and ears to hear... and an open heart and mind. You are always active, always loving, always relating to me, help me be more and more attentive to that.

Life apart from Jesus

Jesus: Apart from me, you can do nothing.

Me: Doubt that.

I would never really admit to this, but it's the way I act. 

Even in my approach to growing more and more like Jesus. I try to do it on my own... mostly because I want to be in control, I want to know what is going to happen next... I don't REALLY trust him with my entire life. 

This always leads to deep spiritual dryness and failure, a feeling that God is distant and I am alone. 

The fact is, I cannot do life WITH God, with Jesus on MY terms, I MUST ACTUALLY TRUST HIM... there is a structure to it, and there are disciplines that may help open me to transformation, but it is his job, HE is the only one that is able... 

But I will continue to try on my own, and continue to learn that it's silly, that it leads to failure, and then he will be lovingly waiting to pick me up, embrace me, and walk a little further with me. 

EVERY TIME.

Peace.

Failure

Lord, help me to accept that failure is not as dreadful as I think it is. That anything worth doing is worth trying and failing at. That you work, love, and hold in the midst of failure... and that everything is for you, even if its a swing and a miss, and you are happy with that.

Some of my story...

I was born in El Paso, TX. I grew up in a really great home with God, and life with God always being a major part of our lives. I remember asking Jesus to “come into my heart” when I was about eight years old, but it was not until the 8th grade that I remember actually giving Christ my life. 

High school was a rough time for me, and it was the grace of God that got me through it (literally, I wanted to drop out my senior year). Young Life was a big part of my life during that time, and the relationships I made with my leaders were sources of life for me. I attended camp once, and then I was on work crew twice and summer staff once. I also had the opportunity to go on two Wilderness trips that had deep impacts on my life, and I will never forget some of the intimate times I experienced with God on those trips. 

After graduating, I moved outside of Denver, CO and started attending Colorado Christian University. The Metro Director for Young Life El Paso had called ahead and set up some meetings with me and some area directors in Lakewood. They asked me to start a club at an underprivileged high school close to where I was going to college. I was 19. I was young and immature and just assumed that it was God. I did not pray much about it, and was excited for the opportunity. I say this because while I believe deeply that God worked through me, and the team I put together there, I wasn’t ready, and I needed so much more help than I ever asked for.

I put a team together and we started having club the next semester. It was a really fun time. It was messy, and raw, and by the grace of God the club was still alive and going the last time I checked. 

A couple years later, after leading some middle school kids from a church back in El Paso at a camp in CO, I felt very strongly that God was asking me to give up my dream life in Colorado and move back to El Paso to continue life with these kids. I had promised myself that once I left El Paso I would never look back, but after three years, I packed my stuff in my truck and moved back home.

I eventually became the youth pastor of a small Lutheran church in El Paso, and got to be a part of something special there. God was on the move, and I am so grateful that he chose me to be a part of it. I started a junior high group, that was really a WyldeLife club (we even attended YL camps) and started training high schoolers to be leaders. I also got to work with high school and college kids. This was a wonderful time of my life, but it was also extremely taxing. The church could only pay half-time so I was working another job and still going to school on top of that. I was burning out.

Then, after 2 years, I came home to hear my mom tell me that she was “pretty sure” her and my dad were going to get divorced. I never though anything like this would happen to our family. What happened over the next few years completely crushed me. I had been talking about and interviewing for a staff position with Young Life in Huntington Beach already, and in the aftermath of what I learned about my parents, I was told to come out early and they would make something work for me. I moved out in March of 2004, and lived on the couch of some YL Irvine leaders for a few months before finding a place to live. 

By the time I got out here I was emotionally, spiritually, and physically drained. I told Young Life I could not be on staff, and began working as a volunteer with the WyldeLife group in Huntington. 

Over the next 5 years, God began to strip me of all I felt made me safe, comfortable, valuable, “good”, worthy, and lovable and slowly began to show me how deep and wide his everlasting love for me actually was, not because I was a good youth worker, or even a good member of the church or society, but just because he created me to love me, and nothing will ever change that. This was a hard time mixed with depression, confusion, anger, frustration, disillusionment, doubt, and darkness, but God was always faithful to give me enough to keep me going.

I met and married the best girl in the world during this time, and we now have two amazing daughters. I also finally finished my undergraduate work and did something else I vowed I would never do: went on to seminary.

Now, I can look back over all the loss, and mess, and darkness of the last 7 years, and see so much beauty and love in it. I truly feel that God was setting me free to love, to actually love and be loved. I now believe with everything I am that the only way to experience life is to lose it, and that GOD IS LOVE. No matter who you are. I have always wanted to share this more than anything with others, but now it goes so much deeper than it did before. Its no longer just a sentimental/emotional thing, but something as real as gravity, or the air we breath... and something just as vital.

Please allow me to introduce myself...

I am a beloved child of God, a follower of Jesus, a husband, a father, a son, a brother, and friend. I believe with all my heart that God desires that everyone accept his love and will chase them relentlessly, and I want to be a part of that chase. I want to be a part of helping people be set free, both from the power of sin, and the power of guilt and shame in the name of “tradition” or “religion” or whatever you want to call it. I want to walk with broken people, and help them see that their brokeness is a big part of what makes them beautiful.

I am easily excited. I love to get people to rally behind a cause, and I love to share what I love with others, hoping that they will love it too. 

I love spending extended amounts of time in silent prayer, and I enjoy learning different spiritual disciplines. I also love going on and leading people on retreats centered around silent time with Abba, and finding more knowledge and love of self (in a true way that leads to the giving of self, not a false way that leads to a insecure selfishness) and God.

I love to have fun, and need to be physically active to remain emotionally healthy... and I like that.

I love being outside.

In the past I would have said that I was introverted, but lately I have been seeing that I have more of an extroverted side than I thought (a personality test we had to take my first semester at Talbot actually said I was more extroverted), but I still need time alone, and have come to embrace my introvertedness instead of feeling like it is something I must change if I am going to be “in ministry.”

I am in the midst of being transformed by the loving Spirit... and will be for the rest of my life. “Ever forming, never formed.”

Peace

Giving Online Support

You can give gifts online to support Young Life, and what God is doing through me, my family, and our ministry here

1. Go to the website and select the option for "A Young Life Staff Member's Ministry"

2. Click search and enter my last name (Bright)

3. Click the option with my name (Luke Bright) and the area name (South County- CA247)

4. If this is a recurring gift please make sure that option is selected as well

5. Click "Add Gift"

 6. Click "Check Out"

7. Enter the appropriate information as needed

8. Complete donation

All gifts are tax deductible and you will be given receipts for all donations for tax purposes.

 Please contact me here once you are done so that I can make sure your gift has been received and then thank you profusely for your support.


Peace

You can't do it.

No matter how hard you try, you cannot become more like Jesus.

It's true.

It is only the Spirit that can transform us to be more like Jesus. It's his job, not ours. 

This may sound familiar, but I don't think I've really let it sink in. Most of the time I process it something like this, "Ok, through the Spirit I can become Christ-like... Well, I have to try to ACT more like Jesus. I have to try to ACT more like I think he did. I have to TRY to be nicer, love people more, think less about myself, be encouraging to others, care for the poor more... even if inside it's really hard and I feel like I'm faking it."

But it never really seems to work, and old sinful habits seem to remain alive and well, popping up when I least expect, and making me wonder why I'm so bad at following Jesus.

In Romans 8 Paul tells us that it is only through the Spirit that we can put our old sinful nature to death... meaning, we, through trying, will never be able to do it. If we could, the cross was pointless and the Holy Spirit nothing more than a glorified Jimminy Cricket.

Trying to be more like Jesus, even stopping and asking "WWJD" will not produce true inner transformation that leads to true Christ-likeness. It will possibly change some outward behavior, maybe even make us a little more patient and loving, but it will be a far cry from the life available to us in the Spirit, true Christ-likeness. 

What we need to do is open to the Spirit. Ask the Spirit to open our hearts, minds, ears and eyes to where/how he is moving. There are things we can do to help put us in a posture to be more open to this transformation, but nothing we do will really change us at all, it will be God that changes us.

So, if you feel burnt out, discouraged, disillusioned, defeated, deppressed, doubtful, or just plain tired, then pause, find a quiet place, and ask God to help you open to his Spirit and the transforming work he wants to continue. Ask God to show you where he has already been working, and see all of the changes that have come from that.

Be careful not to think that you have accomplished it, be happy about it, but humbly thank God for the work he is doing. Confess that you have tried to do things on your own, and then ask him to help you willingly open to Him.

There is hope, it's more mysterious than we might want it to be, it may look different than we want it to look, it might be harder to explain, but it will be true, it will be good, and we may actually find that it is easier (though in a different way) than expected. This is taking the yoke of Jesus, letting him lead and do the work. It is easy, and light, and will lead us into true humility, love, and joy in Christ.

Peace.

Waste time with God

This may sound shocking. It did to me the fist time I heard it. "Waste time with God?! No way!" 

But if you sit back and think about it, you may find that you waste the most time with the people you are closest to... you may even find that wasting time with these people has deepened your relationship, affection for, and experiential knowledge of them as much as anything else.

I heard Eugene Perterson say something along these lines one time in regards to prayer and our time spent with God. Most of us have a relationship with God that is more like our relationship with the person who serves us at our favorite restaraunts than it is with our best friend, or our lover. We make petitions, say thank you, sometimes complain about things... but we do most the talking and the majority of it has some sort of purpose. It's more like transactional language and speech form than anything else.

Even if we have a healthy discipline of listening, or trying to listen for God in silence, we are normally expecting something useful, helpful, or immediately applicable for our lives to come out of that time, and when that doesn't happen, we may create the experience ourselves, or leave that time bummed out, feeling God is distant.

But imagine if we had this same attitude with our closest relationships? Imagine if all the time spent with our kids, our closest friends, our boyfriends or girlfriends, or our spouses had to always be purposeful... how empty and shallow would those relationships be. Some of the most full time I spend with my wife is spent just beeing together, talking about stuff that doesn't matter, or just sitting holding each other not saying anything.

Now, is this a waste of time? Is it a waste of time when you ask your child to tell you how their day was even if you already know? Is it a waste of time to hear a friend talk about how much they enjoyed something they experienced with you because you were there also? Is it a waste of time to just sit and talk about meaningless things with a person you are just beginning a romantic relationship with? 

Of course it's not!! Those are, or at least should be, some of the foundational aspects of our relationships. 

It's the same with God.

If God uses Father/son language and the picture of marriage to clue us in on our relationship with him, wasting time with him doesn't seem to be a waste at all.

One time, when Candice and I were first dating, we stayed up till 5am talking, not "purposeful" talking, just chit chatting. I fell in love with her that night.

So, as foreign as it may seem, and it may even take some practice/getting used to, I encourage you to make time to regularly waste time with God, with the one who loves you more completely than anyone else. 

I can't imagine it will really be a waste at all.

Peace.

Hidden wounds wound

I  am wounded, and there is a really good chance you are wounded as well. We live in a world where it is impossible to live life injury free. It's going to happen at some point, and then countless other times as well. That's just a part of life.

We are all wounded. 

But what I am discovering is how my wounds wound others. Especially the ones I keep hidden. The ones I want to forget about. The ones I have let fester and get infected and become a part of my unconscious life.

These wounds are probably responsible for the majority of the pain I cause those closest to me: my wife, my daughters, my closest friends, people I am with so often that I cannot always keep my mask on. At some point what is going on deep inside me is going to come out. Often this surprises even me.

I don't want to hurt anyone, but there are times I withdraw from my wife after saying something hurtful, I loose my temper with my girls, or I cut friends out of my life... why? There are so many times I sit and ask, "Why the hell did I just do that?!"

Hidden wounds are toxic. They continue to hurt us, and we then hurt others because of them. 

We all need healing. Complete and total healing... and through the Spirit we can experience just that.

Jesus said that he came to bring what is hidden into the light, to set us free, and to lead us into everlasting life. 

This is available to us now. We can experience healing now. We can taste everlasting life now.

But we have to open to it. We have to be willing to let Jesus both expose our hidden festering wounding wounds, and then let him heal them.

This sounds like a no brainer, but it can be a lot more difficult than it may seem. 

We have hidden these wounds for a reason. They are painful and we don't want to experience them. But the more we hide them, the more we end up perpetually experiencing them in other ways, and the more we inflict them on others.

Also, as crazy as this may seem, we may not REALLY want to kiss them goodby. We may be so accustomed to living hurting, that we can't comprehend what it would be like to live wound free. For me personally, some of my deepest wounds have become like a badge of honor, a part of my identity... and I find comfort in that, even while hating it.

Jesus wants to set us free. Jesus is waiting to walk us through total and complete healing through in Him, through the Spirit. He knows us completely, far better than we know ourselves, and he loves us far more than we love ourselves.

Even though it will most likely be painful, uncomfortable, and frightening at times, walking through our infected, festering, hidden wounds with Jesus is something we must be willing to do. We will not be alone in it. The Spirit is waiting to walk with us, guiding us, and holding our hearts as they begin to heal.

If this is something you want to open to, don't force it, just begin to ask God to expose old wounds you may have hidden, and bring healing. Express to him that you are ready to go through them with him... and then wait. Don't force this, let God lead. When the time is right he will invite you into them, all we need to do is be willing, and ask that he help us recognize his invitation.

Also, don't do this alone. Share what you are going through with a close trusted friend. It could be extremely helpful to get a spiritual director to help you in this, or even a therapist.

It's not the easiest thing to do, but it's worth it, and it will lead to transformation in Christ, and a new knowledge of his love.

Peace.

Here We Go...

Hi.

My name is Luke and this is a blog of stuff I care about.

I am not a "blogger" and I have no idea of what I am doing, but, I have some things I would love to share.

I am starting this blog for a couple reasons:

1. I like to write when I am inspired, or convicted, or just in awe of something. I like to share things that I think God has revealed to me in hopes they may touch you, help you, make you think, or just make you smile.

2. I am going on Young Life staff and want to have a place where people that care about, have financially supported me (THANK YOU!!), or are concerned about what is happening with the ministry that I am involved in can keep updated and stay in touch with me.

So, with that being said, here we go.