Airplanes, Autumn, and Americanos.

The world was once a big place. It took hundreds of years for explorers and navigators and adventurers to discover the corners of the earth and realize that there are no actual corners. Today we look at a world that is accessible. Easily traveled, and simply visited. I am sitting on an airplane right now, in my comfortable first class seat. ( I got upgraded for being a frequent flyer. One perk to flying to Africa twice in a year.)
As I recline my seat back and look out of the window a vast scape for as far as the eye can see captures my attention. It sparked this thought; “What a small world.” We hear this said whenever we meet a common friend, or an old acquaintance. The truth is, it is a small world. I am flying to Philadelphia, PA, which is in the complete opposite side of the Continental United States of America. It will take me five hours to fly completely across the country. This summer it took 19 hours to fly half way across the world. What I am trying to express is that we live in a different world. A world that is ripe for the harvest. A world that is set up for the deliverance of a message. With air travel, internet and other communication devices our effectiveness in ministry should be as cutting edge as that ridiculous super jet I just read about in the inflight magazine that flies from the US to England in three hours.
We have the resources, and everything that is necessary to accomplish the Commission. What a small world? What am I doing to affect this small world? Because, straight up it is so ready to be reached.

“The harvest is plentiful, the workers are few.”

I feel very harvesty, just had my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the year. Let autumn begin. Let the harvest begin!

Rendezvous for Nostalgia's Sake!

When you grow up on the east coast, and in the tradition, liberalism and history that is New England you notice the differences from coast to coast. I lived in CT, MA, and PA for my entire life until this past year. Tread where the country was first formed and where faith first found it's identity is something that I do not take for granted. When I go back to the east from California I can sometimes feel the history and the difference in culture. The west coast is still young, new, and the struggle to find relevancy is far easier than on the east. (that is another days blog) There is no doubt that when friends from the east coast find themselves out here in my new region of the USA that I am going to definitely do my part to rendezvous.

I had a few friends who were making there way down the west coast on tour with their band and another band that we had all grown up listening to. It is funny how whenever old friends get together there is the initial catch up glances and pleasantries. After all the primary excitement, you fall back into the friendship as if no time had gone between your visits. (someone said, that is true friendship.) You find yourself sharing old stories about old memories or common friends. Essentially you are filling in the gaps that were created because of your lack of communication. I had the opportunity to spend two nights with my friends, here in Sacramento and again in San Francisco. Each night was different conversations and different memories shared. During it all new memories were made.

After my friends were done playing there set we found ourselves standing stage left, listening to our adolescent musical interest. Here I am, old friends, nostalgic music, and new memories, on a complete opposite coast from where we grew up.

I found myself not knowing any of the new music, but looking forward to the old songs being played. Ultimately, just like in my friendships it was my job to stay up to date on the new releases and singles by this band, otherwise I would be lost, like I was. With friendship it is the same, stay in touch, communicate, share stories and information on friends, be friends. I sometimes joke with friend who I haven't hung with in a while and say, "Hey let's be friends or something sometime soon."

The bottom line is this. For nostalgia's sake, make the extra effort to stay in touch with friends, so those gaps are smaller and smaller each time you rendezvous.

It's Wake Up Time.

The faint distinction of sonar is going off in my head. No I am not underwater or watching the Hunt for Red October. It is my alarm clock. If you have an iphone you know the limited choice in tones. I roll over, debate hitting the snooze button or turn the alarm off and getting started with the day. I get up (thankfully) look out the window at the cold, dark, and quiet morning. It's wake up time.

It is an interesting process for humans, waking up that is. If you watch dogs, they simply get up and start running around, but humans need a good while to wake up, to clear their minds, open their eyes and get going. Every morning is quiet around the office. (I like my mornings quiet.) It is a good time to reflect and think, plan, and organize the day. None of these previously mentioned items can be accomplished while you are sleeping. Sleep is good for the renewal and refreshment of body and mind, very necessary. Yet from a performance stand point.....not the best. Knowing I will sleep over a third of my life away, is enough for me to get up and get going. (most mornings)

This principle parallels with all aspects of our lives. Some of us sleep too much, sleep walk, don't sleep enough, or day dream. Some of us walk through every routine of life with no real productivity or performance. The kid who sleeps in class or church, or the A student that simply goes through the motions just to pass and be eligible for sports. (that was me)

Regardless of how you look at it, we need to wake up. We can't be affective or productive in any way, if we are simply going through the motions and literally or figuratively sleeping our life away. It reminds me of my favorite verse:

Ephesians 5:14

For it is light that makes all things visible.

This is why it is said;

"Wake up of sleeper, let Christ's

light shine upon you."

I love how simple this verse is. We need to apply this to our lives, I need to apply this to my life. If we live with Christ, we are an alarm clock, we are light. We need to make it our mission to wake people up, to give them the opportunities to let Christ's light shine upon them. This is simply not happening if we are hitting the snooze button every day. Think about it, the easiest thing in the world is to hit the snooze button, it takes extra effort to wake up.

All too often we blame our lack of productivity and performance on not setting our alarm clock or our alarm clock not going off. How many times did you say this as a kid when you were late to school. "My alarm clock didn't go off." Please, we are responsible for our alarms not the other way around. No more "five more minutes mom," stuff. Time to wake up, time to share the light.

It is wake up time. (Also a very good Tom Petty song.)

Everybody likes Milk.

Where the student ministries building is located, it allows me to walk past part of the pre-school campus of Capital Christian School. While walking through today I got to witness one of the things that I may miss most about being a kid. Milk/Nap time! At the same time everyday these kids get a carton of milk, shortly after this snack of vitamin fortified, calcium and mineral rich delight they get a rug square and a pillow and pass out for a half hour or so. Oh to be a kid again where we can sleep when we want to, and have milk served to us.

This milk/nap time spurred a thought in me. Why do they get milk? Why not apple juice or something else? If you take a look at milk it filled with vitamins a, d, b12, riboflavin, phosphorous, and of course calcium. All of these things combined are better than captain planet, they make the most nutrient dense natural substance in the world. Something we call, "Milk." Or you can pronounce it "melk" if you are from the Northeast.

Basically, milk promotes strong bones, growth and development, energy and movement. What a fantastic drink. It reminds me of eating dry cereal, and how it is pretty good, but when you add milk to it, the cereal becomes an amazing meal capable of being consumed for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, dessert, anything! Milk provides taste and draws out the taste in cereal. After all Milk is the mother of the wonderful american treat......ice cream!

1 Peter 2

¹Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. ²Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, ³now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

What a great passage to help understand the importance of our personal devotion to God on a daily basis. Just like milk that children drink, spiritual milk is important to the maturity, growth and development of us as women and men of God. My favorite part about all of this is the simple fact that we learn that the Lord tastes good. Kind like milk and cookies, except this milk has more than vitamin d and calcium, it has "vitamin holy spirit." Yes I just wrote that. ( I am middle school pastor)

It reminds me of a story. My brother Jordan used to love cookies and milk. Yet he had a problem with spill his glass right when he was about to enjoy his snack. The look on his face would say it all, disappointment. So sad, till my mother would with a fresh glass. Kid was excited to drink his milk! Just like Jordan we need to be excited about what we are putting into our soul, what we are feeding our mind with. What we are challenging our spirit with.

So very simply, with the same importance that we recognize in giving our children the vitamins and minerals and substance needed for their growth and development, we need to be applying to our spiritual growth and development. This being spiritual milk. Prayer, devotion, worship all milk. Whether you prefer, 1, 2, whole, skim, hemp, soy, yak, lactaid for the intolerant, or goat milk, it doesn't matter.

Drink some Milk!!!! "It does a body good."

TO THE TOP OF KILIMANJARO.

"The journey began on June 26, 2009 when myself, Randy and 5 other climbers set out from Nairobi, Kenya to Moshii, Tanzania, on a 9 hour shuttle ride. The following day 2 Kenyans, 4 Americans , and one Canadian along with a team of porters and two guides started their ascent to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, also known as Kili. Kili is Africas tallest mountain, and the worlds largest free standing mountain, standing at over 19,200ft. The journey began in a rainforest, and ended atop a glacier, passing through moorlands and desert ecosystems, amongst many cliffs, steep walls and low valleys. We left for the summitt at 12am of the sixth day. With every ounce of energy and strength we pushed towards the goal of Uhuru Peak, the summit. It was an intense physical, emotional, mental and spiritual battle. With very little oxygen in the air, and frozen drinking water in our packs our group was victorious. We shared a prayer at the top and a few pictures before making our way back down the mountain. The severity of the conditions and hardship we endured was beyond ourselves. Randy said, "it was the hardest thing i have ever done." Our accomplishment was great but the cause we climbed for was better. The climb was in cooperation with the organization Dusty Feet, a non profit organization out of Nairobi, Kenya. The campaign was called "Conquer Kilimanjaro, Conquer Trafficking." It was designed to bring awareness to the problem of human trafficking in East africa. A documentary of the climb will be shown on Kenya National News later this summer, right before a informational news story on human trafficking and sex slavery. Overall it was a successful trip and every climber agreed that it was an experience of a lifetime, and the impact that we made was not only on our own lives, but on the issue of human trafficking in which we fought to bring awareness to. We conquered kili, now together we have to work to conquer human trafficking and sex slavery in all of the world. If you would like more information on Dusty Feet or would like to help the cause visit: www.hopestartsnow.com"

What I learned about Gossip.

I am a very privileged person to not only be a part of a church staff where the team mentality is overwhelming but a church staff that truly inspires each other. Today I was sitting in church, in the front row where I like to sit. ( no i don't say that, because that makes me an awesome Christian, I just like the front row) I was listening to Rick Cole deliver a message on gossip, it hit home. Not so much that talking behind peoples backs, but he touched on a topic that I think all of us can relate to. Sometimes we talk about people, and that's ok, but sometimes we gossip. Basically it boils down to us being relational people, and it is natural to talk about our relationships. Yet it is very important to recognize in what way we are speaking about people. Pastor Rick gave us four questions to ask when somebody talks about someone else. He can offer way better insight on this topic, seeing that he spoke on it. So if you are interested you should definitely check out the latest message by clicking the picture below. Good stuff. I am certainly grateful that I can be inspired on a weekly basis at the church that I am a part of and while I am serving. The message should be up.