27 years ago when I was, a couple of weeks before my 14th birthday, I started making these time capsules. I was always intrigued with the passage of time. Several times I would gaze at the time capsule in the small town where I grew up. I thought it would be cool to save some memories from my childhood and “send them ahead to the future” (Back To The Future was big around that time).

Tonight (2 years late), I opened my first 2 time capsules. It was kind of cool.

I convey this idea to my students because I want them to do the same. While they are in a place of being spiritually fed right now, I want them to bottle some of that up for later in life. During this spiritually fertile time in their lives, I want them to send some memories of God’s goodness in their lives ahead to a time hen they may not feel so close to God.

When my students graduate high school, their spiritual formation will require a lot more effort on their part. Distractions and other pursuits, possibly even tragedy, can take their focus off of the goodness of God and their dedication to him. Time capsules from better times can be a path back to being restored to God and finding healing in their lives.

Late tonight Pastor Rick Warren sent out a note on Twitter recommending this blog to youth ministry volunteers. As you’ll see in the chart below it had quite an impact on the amount of traffic I got in the last hour and a half of the day. Today’s been pretty amazing, too.

While it’s fun to get the exposure, this is a great example of a bigger youth ministry lesson. Our words as youth workers can breath life into our students like Rick’s words breathed life into this blog. We need to be continually breathing words of life, encouragement and potential into them so they’ll be an impact in the lives of others for Christ.

It’s not enough that we get God’s Word into them, we’ve got to insire them to look for what God wants to do through them. Pastor Rick sent a lot of people to my blog last night. My blog has a lot of great stuff on it from the past few years I’ve been writing it. Somehow his mention tonight has inspired me to be even more diligent in my work with students and sharing what I learn with others. That’s exactly the effect we should have in the lives of our students if we inspire them the way Christ wants us to.

Temptation…

… Reminds me of God’s grace and my free choice to follow God’s way or my own way – I don’t always choose right, but God’s grace is always there for me. I’m so much happier when I make the right choice from the start
… Gives me an opportunity to reaffirm my commitment to follow and obey Christ. In this way, rejecting temptation is an act of worship
… Acts as a cue for me to show compassion to others who struggle – we all fall and are only helped by God’s work and grace in our lives
… Causes me to evaluate my efforts to be daily connected with Him – times of temptation can be a warning that I’m straying from God
… Creates a connection between me and my Creator as I look to Him for guidance. My dependence on Him bonds us closer together

Temptation can be used as a great opportunity for strengthening my Christian walk or as a devastating weapon to bring me down. It’s all in the way I choose to look at it and react to it.

The other day I felt God telling me to call a friend I hadn’t seen in a long time. It was an unusually specific message that this person was having marital problems and I should call him to encourage him. This was strange and I passed it off as something I should do, but let it become a passing thought. I believed I was imagining the message because my friend has a good marriage to a solid wife who I’ve known for about 10 years.

Tonight I came across my friend’s step-daughter who asked me to call him because he and her mom were getting a divorce. As the words were coming out of her mouth, I knew what she was going to say. What I had passed off as a random thought that I didn’t really believe was from God and wouldn’t be real was, in fact, true.

All of this to say, tonight’s events are a strange, but certain reminder that I need to act with obedience on the words I hear from God. If they turn out to be from my imagination, I’m not any worse off for acting in faith. In the case of my friend, however, I delayed giving comfort to a friend in need. The good news is I have another example of how the Holy Spirit is actively guiding us if we are willing to pay attention to his leading.

One of my students studied abroad last semester. That, however, didn’t stop him from spending quality time with his family. They are on a video chat in this picture having a great time playing poker together. He would tell them how to play his hand. It’s pretty odd, but it’s funny and a great memory for them.

Why in the world would I put this on my blog? It’s a great way to illustrate that the families who genuinely value family time will find a way to make it happen. Spending quality time with family can be messy, but it’s incredibly important for the development of each member.

In a panel discussion I participated in with youth workers, the question came up from a student, “Why does life suck?”. While I’m sure we all wonder this some time, I had a little bit of unique perspective. I’ve recently worked my way through a particularly frustrating journey through life “sucking”.

Nothing in my circumstances have changed. I still have the same stuff going wrong on a continual basis. My attitude toward those incidents, however, has made all the difference. By choosing not to get so frustrated and having a more positive outlook, I really don’t notice the pin pricks of life that, until recently, set me back.

I believe a negative attitude can come from a variety of sources. For me, it was allowing each annoyance to reinforce the disappointment of the previous event. My dissatisfaction with life, then, was self-perpetuating; a seemingly endless cycle that I allowed to steal some of my joy.

For me, a great way out of the cycle was thankfulness. Thankfulness at its best comes in the form of praise directed toward God. Once I can got my focus on something other than myself, my frustrations commanded less of my attention.

The other day I was at Wally’s funeral. I never got to meet him before he got debilitated because of a brain tumor 6 years ago. I did, however, have the joy of having the younger of his 2 sons in my small group Bible study. It was at Wally’s funeral that I got a much better understanding of his son’s driven nature.

Wally tried rock climbing, liked it and became an expert. When his sons started playing soccer, he decided it looked like fun so he learned the game and joined an adult league. When Wally learned how to ski in Europe, he heard about a 23-mile ski path down a mountain. He and his wife completed it (including the 50-foot stretch across a ledge). In college he got a job that required him to go from Michigan to Oregon in 2 days in order to start. He did this on his motorcycle with few stops, using the table outside a restaurant as his bed one night.

I could never be Wally or even keep up with him. I can, however, be challenged by him. Although his life was cut short, I think he squeezed every ounce out if that he could. I can learn from that.

- He followed through on his interests instead of putting a bunch of self-imposed roadblocks (commonly known as “someday I’ll” or “When I finally ______, I’ll be able to ______)
- His passion was contagious – it rubbed off on his sons (Both eager to learn – went to Ivy League universities – and very active in sports and being Christian leaders – his oldest is on a 2-year mission trip in Africa)

As a volunteer youth leader with no family of my own, my take-away from Wally’s life is to be a more proactive leader who inspires my students to follow their dreams while finding some dreams of my own to make happen.

Thanks, Wally, for living your life in a way that others can be inspired to capture some of what you had.

I’ve been striving for an elusive goal for 10 years. I can never seem to nail this down. I’ve got the skill set needed, tons of experience, the drive to accomplish it and the passion to back it up. I just can’t seem to make it happen.

Tonight I had a few thoughts about this on the way home from my adult small group:

1. Many of God’s promises to people in the Bible weren’t fulfilled until later in life or even after death
   - While I hope that’s not the case for me, it does give me some perspective
2. I wonder what God is saving me from by not allowing me to achieve this goal
3. If fulfilling this goal isn’t his plan, I wonder what God is preparing me for
   - My goal may only be his way of preparing me to fulfill another goal I have no idea about

As I struggle to work through what God is up to… giving me everything I need to accomplish the goal, but not being able to fulfill it… I’m learning the how to release my ambition and trust he’s got it all figured out. It’s not fun, but it is educational. I get frustrated, but when that subsides, I feel a little further down the road.

This weekend I’m in Dallas visiting my sister and her family so this morning I got to visit their church. It was great being in a different church and being exposed to fresh ideas. It’s a great reminder of how easy it is to be stuck in a bubble in my own church. It’s healthy to take a break now and then to visit other churches, listen to a podcast of a speaker from another church, or attend a workshop for youth leaders.

I’m grateful for my time this morning at my sister’s church. I have some fresh ideas and perspectives to take home to my students. I love how learning makes me a better leader. I won’t dump all of the ideas on them this week, but they will come in handy over time.

My mom travels a lot this time of year. When she’s gone, I water her plants for her. Because we’re having the hottest weather of the year right now, I got to thinking I better put a lot of water on her flower beds. By being generous with the water, it can absorb deeper into the soil so it doesn’t all evaporate when the day is at it’s hottest.

As I’m doing this, it occurs to me how that’s a great illustration of an important spiritual principle. When I’m spending time with God in his word, through prayer, worship, service, etc, I can can have a quick, shallow visit with him. When I don’t allow myself to be saturated with him through the process, I get a shallow experience that evaporates when life heats up.

This is a valuable illustration for teaching my small group students about connecting with God on a deeper level. However, it’s definitely something that helps me think through my own connection with God, as well. I like the idea of being saturated as I spend time with him. I can tell the difference when I’m not.