(God-Wrestler)

About a month ago I was shown a news article about the weirdest football game ever played. The other day I stumbled upon a video of the news report about the game. Then todays devo from Henri Nouwen Society addressed caring for others. I feel that the devo and the video go together really well. The devo explains how care for one another can be a cure. The video shows people caring for people in action and you get to see the true results from their care. 
 

God still has big plans for Young Life at Taylor. He answered some big prayers that we've had for sometime now by placing two new volunteer leaders on our team. Josh and Kelly fresh out of new leader training from the University of Cincinnati are now part of team Taylor. The team is the biggest its been in years with six leaders, 3 guys and 3 girls.

I'm so excited to have them join our team. Every time we get new leaders its like a boost of energy. They are always so eager to get out there to be with kids and love kids for Christ. After leading for five years I will say there are days where its hard to go to the school with a smile on my face, but with new leaders I get this renewing of my passion for students and their relationships with Christ. Their excitement poors into me, and not only am I excited for them but I become excited for the ministry.

I wonder where God is going to have us go or what He will have us do with our new team. I think we're on the verge of taking the Three Rivers community by storm. However God works in His own time, maybe we are still preparing the way for the greater things that will come. Either way I am thankful to be apart of this ministry and to be apart of this team. 

I get daily emails from the Henri Nouwen Society. They are like small devotionals and I find most of them to have some good nuggets of wisdom in them. I thought I would share this one with you. 

From Unceasing Thinking to Unceasing Prayer

Our minds are always active. We analyze, reflect, daydream, or dream. There is not a moment during the day or night when we are not thinking. You might say our thinking is "unceasing." Sometimes we wish that we could stop thinking for a while; that would save us from many worries, guilt feelings, and fears. Our ability to think is our greatest gift, but it is also the source of our greatest pain. Do we have to become victims of our unceasing thoughts? No, we can convert our unceasing thinking into unceasing prayer by making our inner monologue into a continuing dialogue with our God, who is the source of all love.

Let's break out of our isolation and realize that Someone who dwells in the center of our beings wants to listen with love to all that occupies and preoccupies our minds.

Is everything I do meaningless? Is the life we live like chasing after the wind, a task so pointless its hard to imagine? There are many moments that I find myself giving into this idea that I live a truly meaningless life. The author of Ecclesiastes addressed this feeling to in chapter 2:10-11.

10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
       I refused my heart no pleasure.
       My heart took delight in all my work,
       and this was the reward for all my labor.
 11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
       and what I had toiled to achieve,
       everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
       nothing was gained under the sun.

Thinking this way begins to truly scare me. We must see that God gives meaning to our lives, that he provides the delightment of our hearts, not the labor we toil over. Our meaning can be found in God, we are told so in Ephesians 2:10 

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Our meaning is found in doing the good works Christ has prepared for us. I would say that if we continue to find no meaning in what we are doing, then we may not be doing what Christ has prepared for us in advance. The meaning could also be lost be cost we do not know our own identity and purpose. I do not know where to find those except for in Christ. Who we are in Christ is a life lived to the full, a life of meaning and purpose.

The Pursuit of God
By: A. W. Tozer

I received this book as a gift for graduating from college last year. When I got it I will admit that no excitement crossed my face. It has been on my bookshelf since then and almost daily it would catch my eye. So I decided to give it a try.

The pace was a change for me because many of the last few books I have read have been by modern day pastors and theologians. Once I slowed down and started to take it seriously I began to connect with Tozer's thoughts and passion right away. I did not want to put it down.

In The Pursuit of God, Tozer address' the never ending cycle of men searching for God. He describes our search as a type of bankruptcy or void that we so long to fill. He goes on in an eloquent manner through scripture describing how our search does not have to be so hard if we realized that God is here.

"The Universal Presence is a fact. God is here. The whole universe is alive with His life. And he is no strange or foreign God, but the familiar Father of our Lord Jesus Christ whose love has for these thousands of years enfolded the sinful race of men. And always He is trying to get our attention, to reveal Himself to us, to communicate with us. We have within us the ability to know Him if we will but respond to His overtures. (And this we call pursuing God!) We will know Him in increasing degree as our receptivity becomes more perfect by faith and love and practice."  Tozer, The Pursuit of God, pg 67

I love this! It was so refreshing to hear. God is pursuing us! He is calling to us more than we have ever called to him. If only we could take the time from the stress and speed of our lives that we whine about so much every day our search could be over. Why, because we will not have to search anywhere but right here and God will find us. Oh! How simple this seems yet I can't even imagine how I will do this. I've heard it said so many times that God is near and that He calls to us, but never as Tozer puts it.

I highly reccomend this book. It may have an older tone to it, but the passion and ideas of it are so true for the world we live in.
Here is one last quote;

"God Wants the whole person and He will not rest till He gets us in entirety. No part of the man will do." Tozer, The Pursuit of God, pg 101

 Go and search for God by letting Him find you!

Back to the Basics of Young Life
By: John Miller

The ministry of Young Life has been effectively reaching teenagers for Christ for many decades now. John Miller was there almost right from the begining of Young Life's journey into figuring out just how to become so entrenched among the lives of so many teenagers. Back to the Basics is John's account of this faith testing start and how the minsitry shaped his family and so many others.

John recalls his first interactions with Jim Rayburn the founder of Young Life and how he heard his call into the uncharted waters of the Young Life ministry. He explains the sacrafice and faith that went into following the call of God into this new profession. Along the way John discusses the underlying theology and ideaology of why Young Life is the way it is.

If you are in Young Life now you need to read this book. It will give a glimpse of the big picture that you are apart of and just how important your role is to the ministry. For those of you who have never done anything with Young Life, I highly suggest giving this book a read over. I believe once you are done with it there will be no way you won't want to get involved with Young Life and it's simply radical ideaology for reaching youth for Christ.

Messy Spirituality: God's Annoying Love for Imperfect People  
By: Mike Yaconelli

If you feel like you just suck at your spiritual life or Christianity in general then this book will be a breath of fresh air for you. Mike Yaconelli lays it down plain and simple that there is room for us to be screw ups within the Gospel of Christ. This book helped me to really ask myself if I truly experience freedom in Christ and allow real grace into my life.

Mike Yaconelli lived a somewhat radical and uncoventual life but he knew how to relate God's amazing love to the things we go through in this life. Messy Spirituality by no means says we are free to sin and live as we please but it assures us that when we do experience times when our faith is small God's grace and love can still reach us.

I say go ahead give this book a chance, it may surprise you.

This weekend is our fall weekend trip for Taylor Young Life. I love fall weekend, I mean it's the best weekend of the fall! This weekend every year is nothing but absolute fun, building relationships, and Christ. This weekend is completely bathed in Love. You can't help but to feel the presence of God at a Young Life fall Weekend. Maybe I have a little biased few considering that I first met Christ at fall weekend, but I know for many this weekend will be there first encounter with Christ.

I feel slightly overwhelmed about this weekend. For one I'm older and no where near in the shape I used to be in, and all the games and football are gonna tire me out. Second, we have a lot of guys coming. I am so used to like 5 or 7 guys between Mike and I but there is gonna be more than that this time and I don't know how I'm going to keep up with them.

Friends, please pray for our weekend. We have a few guys who don't know the Love of Christ and I pray that they will find that this weekend. We also have a group of girls who will encounter Christ for the first time this weekend. Please pray that we can have good, deep, and meaningful conversations. That we don't get tired and stay strong. That we can ask the questions that no one else will. That we will be real and unconditional with our friends. Pray that God is there in a big way!

Thank you all!

So I haven't been in the mood or really wanting to write anything lately. I feel like all the creative juice has just been sucked out of me. If you weren't aware I actually have a job now. Well its a job in the fact that they pay me for being there. I took the night auditor position at Forest Park Suites. If you can't tell i'm not the least bit excited about this except for the fact that i will actually be bringing some income in.

I had so many dreams, desires, and ambitions. They all seemed to fly out the window when i started working here. This is not what i had in mind at all and well it has sunk me into a reality that i never saw coming. I would venture to say that i am depressed. Well as depressed as my personality will let me be. There is nothing happy about this job, but I am trying to learn the joy that this job can offer me. I know God has to be using this situation in my life for something, I guess i was hoping that i was past this learning phase of my life.

I was hoping that I would be doing something that I found meaningful. I know that I do many meaningful things through young life and sharing my life with others but I just wanted my job to also have a greater purpose than just taking people's money and printing useless reports.

I don't know what more to say, I'm tired of saying it. Just pray for me that God gives me peace with this job or leads me to something new.

Romans 8:26-28 (The Message)

26-28Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

So I feel like I'm stuck in pit of quick sand. The more I try the more it feels like I'm seeking. I got no help in sight. I can't get a job anywhere. At this point I applied for over 110 different positions and have only had two interviews which have gone no where. I have given up on going for jobs that I want and have applied for anything that seems to be feasible. I'm not asking for much, just an entry level salary and decent hours.

I guess a bachelors degree just doesn't cut it anymore. I am either not qualified for the position or I look over qualified. I can't seem to get a call back on a stupid retail job. Needless to say I am beginning to get very discouraged and losing any bit of motivation I have.

One positive thing I am trying to get out of this is how I am defining myself. I see that in most peoples lives today the define themselves essentially on the jobs they have. Ask somebody who they are and most of the time they would reply with well I'm so and so I work for blah. I want to say, I'm Randy and I live for Christ. Christ is the only hope that I have right now. I have faith that he will provide me with any needs I have.

Zondervan is putting together a new version of the NIV bible. It will be a hand written version, and some of the writing can be done by you. They have put together a cross country trip in an RV stopping through many cities and letting people contribute by writing a verse in the new bible.

On Friday October, 3rd they will be in Cincinnati, OH at the Berean Christian Store 1183 Smiley Ave. Cincinnati, OH 45240, from 10am to 6pm.

I plan on going to put my mark in this new bible. I hope you have the opportunity too.

I got this feeling that something big is about to happen. That God is getting ready to throw me into something that he wants me to be apart of. What or when that is, I have no clue. All I know is that I'm starting to become anguish.

So here are some questions that I have been chewing on. I found them on a blog post by Craig Groeschel, the pastor of Lifechurch.tv.

• What are YOU passionate about?
• What has God put in YOU?
• What needs can God use YOU to meet?
• What breaks YOUR heart?
• What are YOU uniquely equipped and called to do?

At a quick glance I found these questions to be easy to answer, however when it was time to write out the answers the questions took on new meanings and they became more real. These are some tough questions that I feel I need to pray over some more before I can truly answer them.

I have officially lost my motivation to do pretty much anything. I don't think I have ever been like this before, but I don't care about doing anything. I don't feel the need to do anything, and I have no reason to seriously get out of bed. This job search has really taken it all out of me. I have now put out ruffly fifty applications and have barely received any responses.

I should be excited about all of this "free time" that I have now. I could work on so many projects that I have desired to do but never had the time too. I could clean my room and organize my life, but instead I sit in front of the TV with my laptop not paying any attention to the TV or doing anything on my laptop but waiting for an email to come through. My life has always been so busy and now it has come to a complete stop.

You would think that this would be great for me to really spend sometime with God, but it has really been a distraction for me. I keep saying, "I have all day to do that," and then never get around to spending time with the one I love. I am just waiting as patiently as I can. I am waiting for the Lord to move in my life, to give me the direction I have been needing on where my life is going now. I might be missing that if I can't really listen to Him.

If you were to ask me a few years ago what my life would like now, it would not resemble anything like this. I would have never said that I would be 23 living with my parents, unemployed with a college degree, and over weight with out a girlfriend. I feel like such a loser. To top it all off my high school reunion is this coming weekend and well I don't feel good about it at all.

I can, however, say that I am where I'm at while following Christ and part of me wants to believe I am right where Christ's wants me and is preparing me for greater things in life. Its becoming harder and harder to truly believe that though. So, I will sit here patiently and wait on the Lord.

Lamentations 3:24
I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."

So one thing that was asked of me during summer staff was if I had a verse that was the my life theme. What piece of scripture do you look at as the the guiding principle of my life? Well I had no answer. I don't know if that is good or bad. I mean I have lots of verses that mean a lot to me and that I try to apply daily. I also feel that the bible as a whole is a theme for me. I mean its all God's word and God's direction in my life. So is it right/good to have just one theme verse in your life or does that limit the power the scripture as a whole has to work in your life?

Is there a balance I need to find to where one bit of scripture I focus on daily while I chew on other scripture in my life? Can I find different scripture during different phases in my life to act as the theme of my life? All I know is that when it was asked of me and I had no answer I was given the "are you serious what kind of a christian are you look." But in all honesty I don't know if its a bad thing to not have a theme verse for my life.

I would like to know your thoughts on this. Please let me know if you have a theme verse or what you think about this idea.

To hope is to love, to love is to seek God, to seek God is Righteousness

just a thought i had....