It has been a long while since I have posted something, this post will be connected to the last on community. As a graduate removed about a year or so, I have been in a place where I have been asking a lot of questions from: Why in the world am I not able to live on my own?; Why is it hard to find a newer job where I can make descent money? Where are you God? Can I continue down this road? When am I going to find that special woman? When am I going to get ahead?... There is a list that could gone for a long, long, long time in a galaxy far away from here, but I won't bore you all with those. Have you notice a theme in those questions (questions that wrong to ask, but it is the tone I have been asking them in towards people and towards our Lord Jesus), it is all about ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME....
I realize this not a shock to any of my close friends, for they can tell you when I am all about me, and not much else. Though I try hard not to make it about me, but at the end of the day, it is about me and my selfish wants.
What does this have to do with understanding my draw? What is your draw Mike? Well I am about to tell you, first my draw is to the Heart of God, "the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;" Ps. 19:8
This is what has allowed me to come to this conclusion this far, and I tell you honestly if God allowed to be a pit viper I would be dead by now... I have had a passion for youth for a long time, probably since I was in high school, I knew then I wanted to work with students, did not how or in what manner. Then my 20's hit, man they were a blur, like a 1960's acid trip party, where did they go. Around my mid twenties I sense I had a passion for College age students as well, maybe I was just graduating with those high schoolers, maybe not. Then as God would have it, he brought me to a place a small place in a Upland area, where I can see now that God started to reveal more of what it is I am to do. Simply and shortly put... Family Ministry, Youth, and College. Why? Well If anybody has read one of my first posts, they can assume that my life as a child suck, it did mostly. I have always wonder what a normal family was like, or as normal as we can make it, but a better statement is thus, what is true community, how does this play out in Church, Society, and individuals. There is no place more essential then a family to understand as parents, children, young adults, mature adults, relatives of all kinds, fictive included how community it lived out.
It is in these settings that followers of Jesus Christ, aka Christians, should, need to, have no choice, better do it, or else, display community. I know your mind is racing with: what does this look like, how is this done, how does the larger Church play in this role, etc... I am not saying I have any answers, for in myself I have no wife, nor children I am raising, but what I am saying is that I understand this is the target group in which my focus will be on. I do know that as I humble myself before the Lord, He will direct my path in how to discover answers to people's questions, and even the ones I have.
I am grateful for the many brethren that have help formed and shaped me into the man I am today, I know without that community of brethren I am could not be here today typing this blog in this fashion. So if any of you are reading this, THANK YOU for giving to the Lord, in which was given to me. Wow I have said a lot, that is what I get for not posting in along time. The adventure began 32 years ago, and it is still on going, I am looking forward to what is in store.
I leave with this... " In a Christian community everything depends upon whether each individual is an indispensable link in a chain. Only when even the smallest link is securely interlocked is the chain unbreakable." Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from Life Together
