And spiritually speaking, it seems like it’s been raining in my life for the last two years.  The storms keep popping up, and I feel like the kid who is staring out the window on a dreary Saturday afternoon wondering when the sun will shine again.

But everyone knows that rain is good because it produces new growth.  I remember hearing a quote recently that I thought was great.  “Lots of sunshine will merely give you a desert.”  Growth will only take place when there is a good balance of rain and sunshine.  Sometimes the growth comes when we would rather be enjoying the sunshine.  If we got to choose when we wanted to grow, we would never grow in a healthy way.  So, sometimes the rain comes at bad times, but that’s when the solid growth takes place. 

While the last couple of years have been difficult, I don’t want to live in a desert. 

So, Lord bring the rain. 

But for my father-in-law’s sake, Lord please stop the physical rain long enough for the harvest to end.

We had a great discussion in staff meeting yesterday about this very issue.  We are reading through a book called, The Volunteer Revolution,  by Bill Hybels.  The discussion centered around serving within your area of passion.  Our Life Groups Pastor shared about how much he loves to work with young couples who are laying a foundation for a good marriage.  He shared how he could spend an hour with a young couple, and it did not feel like work at all.  He then asked each of us to share what that passion looked like for us.

That was easy for me to answer.  I love discipling college guys, and developing them into leaders.  I can spend hours dealing with their off-the-wall questions, and never feel like I am on the clock.  I have this God-given patience for their young, arrogant attitudes coupled with their messed up, lustful minds.

It was interesting to listen to everyone else on the team share about their passion for middle-aged divorcees, young moms, and misfit teens.  I noticed that everyone’s answers had an interesting connection to their own lives.  There seemed to be a connection between the area of passion, and significant personal life change.  For example, my most significant life change happened while I was a young, arrogant, lustful college guy.

God meets us right where we are, and then gives us a passion to meet others right there as well.  Does that mean we don’t minister to others outside of our passion?  Of course not.  But a steady dose of serving within our passion keeps us healthy.  No matter what future staff positions I may hold, I will always enjoy an early morning breakfast with a college guy.

And I humbly pray that God would use me to create life changing moments for future husbands, fathers, and church leaders. 

I was really challenged by the chapter written by John Burke, who is the founding pastor of Gateway Community Church in Austin TX.  The term he uses to describe his church’s philosophy is “incarnational theology”, which basically means being Jesus to the people in your community.  Here’s the short paragaph in his chapter that really challenged me, and I hope it challenges you:

“The problem with practicing this theology comes down to messiness.  If we really live out grace, not just as words we say, but as a way we treat people, all kinds of messy people may just feel accepted enough to crash our church-party, and that would feel a lot different than the party of near-perfect people some of us have come to enjoy.  But that’s how grace works – by making beauty out of ugly things” (pg. 66).

That paragraph was painful for me to read, because it exposed some things in me that I did not want to admit to.  I actually prefer ministering to certain kinds of people, and there are some kinds of people I would prefer not to deal with.  I am still processing this, but I definitely have some things to work through.  I was quickly reminded of when Christ said,

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  Go and learn what this means, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.  For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matt. 9:12-13 ESV)

And from what I understand, sinners are usually “messy” people.

My wife and I lived in Dallas while I was going to Seminary, and if we ate out, it was usually at Whataburger or Taco Bueno.  But poor young couples have to splurge every once and a while, especially on a special occasion like Valentine’s Day.

My wife and I walked into Ruth’s Chris and strolled to our table like we go there all the time.  I had to hide my excitement as a waiter passed us with a sizzling hot steak fresh from the kitchen.  As we surveyed the menu, our waiter filled us in on the surf and turf special, where you get a lobster and steak to split.  Now, I know lobster is expensive, and you never know what to expect when the menu says Market Price.  But we took the plunge and ordered the surf and turf, along with a side of potatoes au gratin, two sodas, and we each got a dessert.

The lobster was great, and the steak was incredible.  I could tell this was going to be a meal to remember.  Then, the check came.

Honestly, I had guessed the lobster would cost around $50 at the most, so I knew the bill would be substantial.  I had no idea.

We don’t usually drop down $180 on a meal for two, but we did that night.  The lobster alone was $100.  Are you kidding me?  We didn’t even finish the lobster.  I almost asked the waiter to bring it back, so that I could pick it clean. 

Panic set in, as we calculated how we planned to live for the next few weeks.  We paid with American Express, and quietly walked out to my truck.  As we headed home, we both just laughed, which must be our way of handling extreme shock.

… but the steak was incredible.

Also, I wanted the name to have a spiritual meaning to reflect my passion to follow Christ and bring glory to His Name.  In Hebrews chapter 5, the author is talking about Christ as the High Priest, and he pauses in verses 11-14 to rebuke the people for becoming “dull of hearing”.  He explains to them that they need to move from the “elementary teachings” and gain a full understanding of Christ.  The author uses the illustration of milk and solid food to drive home his point.  In order to grow, a baby must move from milk to solid food.

Verse 14 explains my purpose for this blog.

“But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” (ESV)

I hope this blog can help others to mature in Christ, and be trained to recognize truth and error.  I have been challenged by the numerous blogs already out there, and I want to allow the Lord to use me as He pleases.  I don’t consider myself much of a writer, but I hope to connect people to some of the better writers I have come across online.