This letter only touches on a tiny bit of what I have learned – but it’s the highlights. If you are reading this and happen to be 19-20, just pray through stuff and see if God has something for you in this. And enjoy the letter.

~ KC

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Dear 19 year old me,

It’s ok. I know you are probably freaking out getting a letter from future you, but trust me – it is for the best. Just take a breath and listen to what I have to say. I mean actually listen, not like you do that half listening thing when you don’t really want to listen to what someone is saying.

Over the next few years you will learn a ton of lessons. So far you have had a great run and done something that many people only dream of doing. But don’t let that go to your head. Pride is the downfall of many people and over the next few years you will deal with learning how not to be prideful, but it isn’t to soon to start now.

You will interact with some really wise people over the next year. They will try to give you some solid advice and you will want to dismiss it, but don’t. Treat your parents with respect and show them love. Be there for your brother every chance you get. Listen to those who you have trusted for years, they know what they are talking about.

Soon you will head to college and that will be it’s own adventure. I don’t want to spoil everything, but learn how to manage relationships now. Talk to mom and dad about how they did relationships and learn from them. Realize that you don’t have to get all A’s, you just have to do your best. And own your faith – but don’t wait till you get to college to do that.

Even when you start to hate college, stick it out. There will be relationships that fail and ones that make lifelong friendships. God has you at college to grow you up, not to push you away. Make your relationship with him the primary focus of your life – even above homework. Oh and when you get stressed, get on your knees and pray. Read the bible more than you do now – and know that God has you in his hands.

You have convictions that have been there all your life – don’t forsake them. Hold strong to them, this will save you from a lot of pain, heartache and problems later. Also know that going in later than other freshman will make things harder on you – things won’t make since and it will be hard to fit in as the years go by. It will be ok. Just continue to follow God in all things.

Enjoy college – don’t stress about everything, don’t worry about every little thing – it always works out (trust me on that one, it may not be how you think it should but it is always best). Take hold of the happy moments and store them away and when things get bad remember those moments.

Protect your heart – it is the wellspring of life. It may take you a little bit to get this, but do it.  Stand with resolve and don’t let anyone sway you from what you believe and what you have been taught. Your parents know a lot more than you give them credit for. Yes, you may chuckle now, but in 3 years you will find yourself knowing what I say is true.

You will experience disappointment, hurt, and loose yourself for a little bit. When this happens, God is moving you to grow – and the other side is amazing. I can’t wait for you to get here.

Don’t take life so seriously, but take God seriously. Learn how to manage friendships and relationships back home as well as the ones up on campus. Ideas at 3am are just a bad idea – don’t do them no matter how great they are. Show love to everyone, even if you don’t want to – and those who may not like you, it’s ok. You will be liked by some, hated by others – but don’t treat them any differently.

It’s ok to mess up. It is ok to not have a clue – learn how to say I don’t know. Learn how to surrender to God and give up your own will. God has some great things for you – I can’t wait to show you in a few years where you have been – it will literally blow your mind.

Priorities – Make God the center, for real not just as a priority you say is the center. Pour into your relationship with mom and dad – it will save your life and make everything so much easier. Friends back home will miss you – don’t neglect them. You will meet new friends, but it’s ok not to trust everything they say – they have good intentions but you are all young and immature.

I wish I could tell you everything that will help you grow in the next few years, but I can’t give it all away. Love one another – and love God. Say you are sorry even if you don’t feel like it, humility is much better than pride, listen to those who are older and follow their advice (stop laughing at me – I’m serious), relax and take it easy, take time to yourself and have a blast.

Always remember that your parents are proud of you – your brother is proud of you and they love you more than anyone you will meet in the next few years ago. And practice what you preach buddy.

Oh and when you go to that concert in November, take the other way home. Just trust me on that.

See you soon buddy – and know that you are loved by your family, friends and most importantly a Creator who is crazy about you.

Sincerely,

22 Year old me

1. Leadership is high risk, high reward, and high cost

One of the best examples I have of this concept (which is really nothing new to anyone) comes out of my stent as the Honor Guard Commander for Civil Air Patrol in the state of Georgia. I didn’t ask for the position, it kindof just landed in my lap one day after the current commander stepped down. At first, leading an Honor Guard was easy. We had about 5 people from my squadron that served on the guard and that made things easy. But as I began to lead, I realized that there were so many other cadets that would probably love to do this thing. So we opened it up to the whole wing. A few months later I found myself in front of about 30 cadets. They weren’t all the model cadets, most of them were the people that didn’t have a place in their unit. Somehow, I ended up with all of these cadets on what was supposed to be the most professional group of cadets in the wing. They represented everything that Civil Air Patrol represented and now I had to make them into these professional, high standards cadets. I honestly had no idea how I was going to do it.

I remember thinking in the early days that I had gotten in way to deep. I wasn’t ready for this challenge. It was through these cadets that I learned the most about leadership, integrity, and how to care for others that no one else did. I was under pressure from the wing to make this program succeed, but I knew I couldn’t do this on my own. With the grace of God and some watching of the cadets, I selected 4 to serve on my staff. They weren’t cadets that my superiors thought should be on staff, let alone on the guard, but I believed in each of them.

Through that belief, I was able to see passion come alive. I took risk in giving them task that had to be executed perfectly and I still smile when I remember how they took those task and accomplished them like a boss. Those cadets were some of the most outstanding kids I have ever served with in my life. The band of ragtags became one of the closest group of friends and the most professional kids you have ever seen. All I did was take a risk and believe in them. Thats where I learned one of many life changing approaches to leadership: If you believe in your people, they will fail you, but they will work their butt off to do better and rise above your expectations.

Yes, this took a huge risk on my part. I risked my reputation, my status, my position, and at times even my relationships with others because I believed in these cadets. I smile just thinking about how proud each of them made me, and even today how I am still proud to call them friends. Leadership is a high risk, but high reward job. Sometimes the risk is much higher than the short term reward, but the long term reward is totally worth the risk.

Leadership is also a high cost business. Not only does it cost you money (I don’t even want to count the amount that I spent while commanding the honor guard), it cost you reputation, friendships, sleep, personal time, and even parts of your sanity. I spent days and days organizing, planning, calling, talking, and working on things for Honor Guard. Countless hours spent on the phone with cadets talking with them about their lives (something that most people believe leaders shouldn’t do) and even talking some out of suicides. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I did learn that leadership is not for the weak nor the faint.

My leadership on honor guard also taught me what I believe is the greatest lesson that a leader can ever learn (I’m sure one day I will learn something that is even more monumental than this, but for now, this is my earth shattering discovery). I learned that when push comes to shove, the people above you don’t really matter.

I’m not saying that they shouldn’t matter as people, but when asked to make changes that will hurt your subordinates, a leader stands up and fights. A leader protects those under them, not because the leader has something to prove or anything but that the leader cares for their people.

I remember when I was faced with a choice that would have kept me in good graces with the powers above but I would have had to sacrifice about 10 of the cadets on my honor guard. The new rule would allow me to keep my position but make limitations for the others. I would get to keep my nice title and probably wouldn’t even miss a beat, but those kids would. I spent days thinking about every possible outcome but in the end I choose to say that my cadets were more important than the wishes of my superiors. That was a high risk and high cost move. Ultimately, my stand cost me my reputation, friends, sleep, my position and my livelihood within CAP. Because I choose to protect my cadets and be loyal to them, everything we had spent years building was destroyed in a few months. The aftermath was horrible. Tears were shed, but I found out something. Those people above me are no longer in my life. Those below me, my cadets – they still keep in contact with me and share their lives with me. I consider it an honor to be regarded by them as someone they look up to as a leader. In the middle of the ugly stuff, I stayed true to the people that mattered most – and they had my back.

That principle has shaped the way that I lead. That time years ago was not the only time this has happened, there are a few others much more recent than that. Same senario, different people and events. But in the middle of that first time, something was woven into me that taught me to protect the people that you lead. Maybe I’m a rebel – or maybe I just have a radical form of leadership. Either way, the short term pain is worth the long term reward.

I don’t know if I have introduced anything new to you reading this blog. Hopefully you are encouraged if you are a leader like me or maybe this challenges you to evaluate your own leadership. Hopefully time will allow me to continue to blog about leadership more regularly, but until that time comes I will leave you with a quote:

“If you are a leader and you turn around and no one is following you, you are just out for a walk” – John Maxwell

In Christ,

Kyle

God. Stop and think on that word for a moment. A word that we toss around, that we say sometimes even in a flippant manner. I don’t want to try to redeem the word, but remind us of something I have been reminded of recently.

Last week was 24/7 prayer on our campus. I remember having the conversations about 3 years ago with some of the people who have really put time and effort into it. It was a crazy dream, 24/7 for one full week. But it was a dream that they felt God saying would be worthwile. And it has been. I couldn’t wait until this year’s 24/7. I felt like God was going to do something – and one of the things that he has brought into my mind is realizing that we are powerful (through Christ of course).

God had the chance to have some conversations with me over the past week – redeeming and refreshing conversations. After getting the honor to pray during the first prayer slot of 24/7, I felt God leading me to read scripture out loud. I don’t know why, but it made the scripture come alive. Even though I didn’t know where to start, God drew me to read Psalms. So I just started reading – but not just flat line, but the more I read the more excited I got. It was like I got a front seat view to what David was going through as he wrote. From the good to the bad, I began to see God’s love story unfold – even just in the first 30ish chapters. And for some reason I was drawn to Ps 18.

Psalm 18 tells the story of when David was being chased by his enemies. He was hunkered down and had no idea how he was going to come out of this place. Death was surly upon him. But he trusted in God, so he cried out to him. And like God does, he heard his cries – and descended from the Heavens on huge clouds of lightning and fought against the enemies with David – bringing David to victory.

I think there are a few things to learn from this scripture – one that I would normally just go and continue reading past. I see a man – David – who is under attack, both spiritually and physically. And the first thing he did wasn’t to go to his mentor, his friends, his advisors or his roommate. He fell before God. God was his first line of communication. I know that I took from this that God is asking me to run to him first – because he wants to be actively involved in our lives. He wants to hear our cries so he can answer them. But not only that – but David started by praising God.

I know that I’m not great at this – praising God first, then trusting, then requesting – but in that moment while reading the Psalm out loud, God seemed to tap on my heart. Maybe he is tapping on yours. You may be scared, or even a bit worried that you aren’t hearing things right. But the Psalm doesn’t stop there. That’s the cool part.

If you doubt that there is a payoff – the psalm goes on to speak of the Lord responding directly to the cries of David. He brings David victory. But not just victory from his oppression, but he honors David. I desire to have that – to be honored by the most high God. God responds to us, but he wants us to commit to trust him first and foremost.

Maybe the key to this passage is that David didn’t utter any words that we don’t utter when we pray. I think the difference is that David trusted with all his heart, mind and soul. Even if God had chosen not to save him, David’s cries were still heard. If the story would have stopped there – I believe that David would still believe without a doubt that his God was on the throne.

So often we have a conditional trust with God. I think we forget to listen to him and allow him to respond, so we get in this cycle of praying, asking for things, “trusting” and then when things don’t get answered – we stop trusting. But trust built out of love isn’t something we can just stop doing – so how does your trust in God relate to your love for him? Can you really love God and still not trust him fully in everything?

I think that we want to trust him, but instead we treat God as a personal vending machine. We trust him to provide for us in everything, when he has something better for us if we just trust him. If we just love him. And most of all, if we love him, we have got to stop taking the trust back and doing it ourselves. We have got to allow ourselves in prayer to stop praying. We need to sit in his presence. That is how we know the father – by studying scriptures and sitting with him.

I want a life like David lived. He was one messed up guy in some areas, but he knew that his power came from God. He spent time with God – not just durring a scheduled devotional or prayer time – but actually spent time with him. If David was here today, I think he would encourage us to live a Ps. 18 life. A life that runs to God first, trust him above all else – regardless of what he does. Instead of running to others, we need to start getting on our knees before Christ and not only praising him, but spending time just soaking in his presence. He wants to take us on an adventure – one that is crazy by the worlds standards – one that pushes us to our limits. One that requires more than we have to give – not so that we give up, but so we learn to allow God to fill in the gaps.

As for God, his way is perfect;
the word of the LORD is flawless.
He is a shield
for all who take refuge in him.
~ Ps 18:30

Dive Deep,
Kyle

After seeing that movie, one thing that has always stuck with me is when the conflict is rising, Lilo tells Stitch a new word, Ohana. When he asks what it means she replies:

Ohana means family, family means nobody gets left behind. Or forgotten.

Recently I have been thinking more about family and how much it has been forsaken. Maybe this comes from hearing friends talk about how they don’t want a relationship with their family or watching families all over the place be torn apart. I think that it is time for a change. And this change starts with us.

I find that most Christians don’t have a problem with loving others. We actually try to one up each other all the time by being more loving. Because it is easy. On the other hand, it can become hard to love our family – both biological and our family of believers. We have to do life with each member of our family every day sometimes. We have a past with them, we remember the times they hurt us and the times we have hurt them. We take that hurt and shield ourselves to only love them as much as it is comfortable. This is where we make the mistake. We begin to put more stock in loving others but we fail to love the people closest to us. Because our families are broken and have hurt us, it makes showing love to them hard. This flows into how we love our brothers and sisters in Christ. It matters most that we learn how to love those who are closest.

We all have an idea of what family should look like. Maybe some of you reading this blog think your family is messed up, and maybe they are. Maybe some of you come from a great family, but there is no depth. So what is family?

Again, we have to go back to something that Stitch says later in the movie. It gives me an added perspective on family, and I think it captures most of our family lives as well:

This is my family. I found it, all on my own. Is little, and broken, but still good. Yeah, still good.

When was the last time that you thought that about your family? Maybe we need to understand that even though these people are family, we are still broken. We still have issues. We still mess up. And above all, we still need love – usually more than the people that we usually show love to.

Fairly often in conversation about family, people ask how do you do it. There isn’t a special word or a way that you instantly fix your family. My family is great and I love each of them more than others may ever understand, but it was tough work to get to this great family unit. It starts with placing God at the center. Walking through trials, going through stuff that is just ucky and nasty. We had to do life together in the worst times so that the good times actually meant something. But at the center of it all, love and grace run throughout our family. We fail, sometimes in the same area more than we ever want to admit. But family has become a safe place for us to be real. We don’t allow elephants, we talk about issues and have hard conversations, we do crazy things, we don’t have it all down. We probably never will. But we have our family.

Your relationship with your family is probably the most important relationships that you will ever have. If you want to know how you are doing with your relationship with God and how you will do in relationship with others, look at how you are doing with your family. By this, I don’t mean look at how your family acts with you, but how you act with your family. How do you show love to them?

Sometimes we feel like our parents can’t understand us. They really do, but sometimes they don’t know how to show us or maybe even love us in the way we need. But then again, sometimes we do the same thing don’t we? The difference is that we are learning how to do things differently, and sometimes change is harder for others than it is for us.

As a 20something, you have the ability to change your family. But it doesn’t start with making them different, it starts by changing yourself. Practically, this means stepping up and showing more love. Taking time out of your day to be involved in each of their lives. Praying for them daily (have you ever noticed it is impossible to be upset at someone who you constantly pray for?) and doing things to show them love. It sometimes can take a 20something dawning on the skin of Christ each morning and shining light at home to make things different. Is the problem with you? Maybe, maybe not. That isn’t for me to say. But can you make things different? Yes – by being different. By being the person who God has called you to be to the people who should be the most important to you.

Fight for family and they will fight for you. Love family, and over time they will love you. But remember, love isn’t just a word. It means action. It means becoming vulnerable, it means not being reactive, it means loving in any situation. How you do family now will not stop when you move out, but it will be the same way you do family when you have one.

Lets start loving those closest to us with the love that we show to everyone else and bring back Ohana into our culture. It is our time to make the change, are you with us?

“Love is hard. If it isn’t hard, you are not doing it right”

Kyle

The idea of apathy has entered my mind for a while now, thinking of how much this applies to our generation. I know that even I am apathetic more than I want to be in areas that should matter more, so know that I write this post not only with you in mind, but with me as well. We are all in this together, but I think we have a problem. But it is a problem that a bunch of 20somethings can change.

lack of feeling or emotion : impassiveness : lack of interest or concern : indifference

~ Apathy

Don’t wanna leave this world, knowing I’ve lived in vain.
No time for myself; so sorry, so ashamed.
Don’t wanna leave this life, knowing I’ve barely tried.
Chase down all my dreams that I’ve hid away on the inside.

Live; I wanna live on fire.
Die; I wanna burn out brighter.
Brighter than the Northern Lights.
Wanna live to feel the daylight.
The more I live I see, this life’s not about me.

~ Anberlin,  Burn Out Brighter (Northern Lights)

Incidentally one of the things that has been on my mind lately is about the selfishness of our generation. We are all selfish to a point, no one is immune from it and if you are drop me a line and give me some advice on that. So we have to begin to understand the fact that humans, as people, are selfish.

The most common area of selfishness deals with how we interact with other people. Selfish people usually are inward focused all the time. They feel like their friends are there to serve them. They walk around with an attitude that says that they are entitled to whatever it is that they want. They complain about every little thing that isn’t right in their little world. I’m sure you either know these type of people, are this type of person or have been this type of person in the past. I think that selflessness, which should be the direction we are going, will never be fully obtained. That doesn’t mean we don’t strive for it.

There isn’t any exact way that we can fully overcome selfishness, but there are a few ways that we can practice that make the battle against our flesh a ton easier. I think that it starts with understanding that we are unworthy of anything. We are even unworthy to be living. Most people wonder why God lets bad things happen to good people, but I wonder why do good things happen to anyone. We don’t deserve a bit of anything that we receive. We aren’t entitled, and the God that is allows us the ability to choose if we are going to be about ourselves or him.

We all get caught up in the lies of the world. The “me” syndrome. We have made everything in our own little world about us. But in the end, this life isn’t about us. It is about everyone else but us. We have to learn to view ourselves as meaningless so that God can show us what it is like to truly be selfless. We can’t do it with our own power though, we have to allow God to humble us.

Take a few minutes and count your blessings. I don’t just mean the whole “I’m glad that I have a family” stuff, although those are great blessings. What about the fact that you don’t have to think about breathing, it just happens. You don’t have to tell your hands what to do, they already know. What about the sunrise you caught a glimpse of earlier today, or the cloud that floated by, or maybe even the bird that you saw. What about the fact that you can see? All of these things we take forgranted as a generation. And we miss out on what truly matters.

Lets be honest, it really doesn’t matter what type of car you have, what type of clothes you buy, what things that you do that glorify yourself. No one cares about you because they are all too busy caring about themselves. Now here is where I think we come in, we have to care about everyone else because they don’t care about us. Exactly – we have to love those who don’t even give us the time of day just as much as we do our best friends.

In the end, our lives mean nothing if we are just about ourselves. When Christ said that the first shall be last and the last shall be first, he was trying to show us that we are supposed to be the ones lifting others up, being around for others more, being a better friend, boy/girlfriend, son, daughter, leader, follower, and the list goes on. We have to learn to live our lives in a way that we are always pointing up. That means we don’t get the credit, but we get something even more. We get to know that we are doing what God has called us to do. I have never met anyone who practices this that didn’t get pure joy out of helping someone else. Yes, it means forsaking your needs and wants. It means being more about everyone else and even sometimes neglecting yourself for others. But the payoff is amazing. You become a friend that people want to be around, you become someone who people look up to and admire, not because you are special, but because God is working through your life. And selfless people don’t do things for recognition, because in the end it doesn’t matter.

We are just the candle, we just sit here and allow ourselves to display the light. I would much rather chase after this idea of selflessness than to live a life all about me. There are so many more things outside of your own little world. If you want to learn how to live like Christ, you first have to become all about others. Yes, it is tough, but God will honor you beyond your wildest dreams.

Men and Women, it is time for our generation to rise up and combat this selfishness. The plague of the heart that is going on will kill us. And before you run and start telling others that they have it all wrong, love them first. Show love – it is the best way to overcome selfishness, because loving others is what we were called to do. It is our time to make a change, lets show the world what it really means to follow God by going against the way of the world. It is a battle that we all have to fight, but we get to fight it together in community. Come join the battle that leads to victory in Christ Jesus!

Dive Deep,

Kyle

In almost all versions of the prayer of salvation, there is a specific line that talks about giving God your life. I briefly spoke about it in my last post about how we are called to give God everything that we have. That is what I want to talk about tonight.

Have you ever stopped to think about those words “Jesus, I give you my life”? While we may casually say them, I don’t think Christians understand what they mean , because if they do we are doing a horrible job of living it out. Christians have been classified as some of the most judging and hypocritical people in the world – I don’t think that sounds like people who have given their full life to Christ.

I thin that the problem lies with our human need for control. We all want to have a part of our lives, we want to give God most of our lives, but in some areas continue to hold onto them. Just to be clear, I have the same problem – but it doesn’t mean that it is right. God ask for us to give him our lives, every part of them. But why would a God want our lives? It makes him sound like some sort of control freak who just wants things his way. I think this is far from true.

God knows a lot about you. He created you – exactly how you are. He also knows what human nature and free will is all about. He knows that humans are fallen creatures. But God is holy and pure, He is perfect in all his ways. And he is asking for your life.

I had a conversation with a friend that has sadly become more and more common to have with others. I was talking to them about how, at that time in my life, I felt like I needed to give God more of me. Their response was like all the others “But I’m not ready to give this to God yet.” It almost seems like we view giving our life to God as a chore. Or maybe we are scared of what he will do with us. Maybe we are afraid that he will hurt us or something – or maybe we are just afraid of change. The fear consumes us and we stay giving half of our life to God, living a mediocre faith in a mediocre world. The saddest thing is that we are ok with this.

God isn’t asking us for our life as an exchange. He is desiring our life. He isn’t asking because he just casually wants to live within us, but that he yearns to be with us. The God of the universe – the creator – wants us to give him our life so that He can live with us! He wants to give us the ability to become more than we are now. Instead of being a shell, he is asking that we join him in this life. He loves us so much that he yearns to be with us – as dirty and unclean as we are. And another thing, God always does what is best for us. Maybe you have, but I have never looked back at something that God has done and gone “Wow, that was the worst thing ever.” I know plenty that I have looked back and thought about how much I screwed up, but God never does. If I don’t think that God is doing something good in me, I realize that I’m not to the place where I can see it yet.

God wants you. He desires you. He loves you. When you love someone here on earth and you get married to them, you become one with them – emotionally, spiritually and physically. You love them and they love you – most of the time. Think about this, when you sign onto the journey of Christ, God wants to become one with you emotionally and spiritually. He wants to infuse his heart into yours, but we sit here and hold things back from him. We can’t feel his heart because we haven’t given him ours. He wants to do things through you, all you have to do is trust him. You have to learn what faith is like when you have to give the last thing you have control over to him. We limit him and his power by what we give him.

I don’t know about you, but I seek for God to use me in great ways. Yes, he will change me. Yes, I will have to forsake human desires. But I think that trusting my life to the one who created me would be the most amazing thing ever – if for no other reason than to experience his love.

Lets go and live that. My challenge to you is that you begin to pray for God to take your whole life and let him do it. Give him the ability to use you and change you – because God won’t relent until  he has it all.

Pointing up,

Kyle

I got the chance before I headed out to a bible study (which feels a lot like FLOOD) to stop off at Wendy’s, grab a root beer float and read some of David Platt. One of his main questions that he asks in the book I was reading was “Is this really all that there is to life?” Do we really want to live out our faith inside the confides of our house, our church with the comfy seats, our normal, everyday lives? I have begun to ask the question more often of myself – and I think there is so much more that we are missing out on.

Life is meant to be lived. We as a generation of young people spend way to much time staying within our routine, our comfort zone. For some reason we have this fear of stepping out and doing something. Even if it is just changing one night from going home and using Facebook or playing video games. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that these things are bad – but just there has to be something more. We spend to much time worrying about what is coming, rather than the now. God is not I will be, he calls himself the great “I am.” Present tense. We are supposed to live now. Not any other time. This moment is what matters.

In asking this question, it has lead me to continue down the path. I want more. Like a hungry lion about that searches high and low for prey, I want that. I hope that I’m not the only one on this journey, because I want to share this with you – but even if I am, I know in the end it is totally worth it. But as I learn that there is more to life, more to God, more to existence than even where I am now – I’m learning that it requires me to continually give things over to God. And as this journey continues, it gets easier and easier to trust God with everything. Yes, I trust God – but I keep finding that as he takes over more things that I let go of, they turn out a ton better than I ever though they could. But then again, God has never done anything that would hurt me or harm me – he has always done what is best.

If I could take a quote that really encompasses what I want from my faith walk – David Platt sets it up nicely in his book The Radical Question: What is Jesus worth to you? saying:

To sacrifice everything in radical devotion to Jesus means to surrender our lives, our rights, our ambitions, our plans, our dreams, our families, our relationships, our possessions, our safety, our security, our past, our present, and our future to the absolute lordship of Jesus

I want that. I don’t have all of those things given over, but I want to. I desire to. I’m finding that as I give things over to God, it doesn’t mean that I don’t get to have any say in the matter anymore. I just have a new way to look at them. God allows me to be part of the decision making process, but he helps me see the decisions clearly.

This isn’t a radical new concept probably to any of us. But there is a disconnect between saying that we want this and actually doing this. Sometimes we loose focus, sometimes we go off on our own, but God wants us to have more of him. There is so much more to God that you have yet to even discover, I’ve spent most of my life as a Christian and there are still things that amaze me each day.

We were never called to be normal. We were called to step out. We were called to follow in full devotion to God. So if you are comfortable with your faith right now, get uncomfortable. If you like where you are with God, desire more. If you have spent the last months talking about how much you want to change – do it. Our time is now men and women. Stop living like this is generation you – this life isn’t about you. This is our generation – and we have some leading to do. But before we can lead, we must follow the one who is the ultimate leader, Jesus Christ.

Moving at the speed of life and loving every second of it,

Kyle

Have you ever noticed how much things on earth really don’t matter? Cars, houses, iPods and the like in the long run don’t really matter. While at a retreat that I went on a few weeks ago and we were talking about life as a rope. Our speaker had about 100 ft of rope and one of the ends was about 2 inches and frayed. He said that we live life making decisions based on the here and now (which in some context isn’t a bad thing) but we should be making choices based on eternity. It has started me on a journey of renewed focus.

I feel like for a while I have tended to make a few more decisions based on the frayed end of the rope. So often I used to chose the temporary over the eternal. Then I started to ask the question, why does it matter? Why does it matter if I have money, fame, status, popularity, or anything like that. I couldn’t think of a reason. I guess this is what it means to fully understand (again) what Paul says about throwing off all things so we can run to Christ. God is our focus and we should make it our focus to follow him no matter what.

I look back at life and see the times where I have chased the silver and gold in my life. Status I wanted to achieve, things I wanted to have happen and tried so hard to make work, but in the end I’m finding that following God matters the most. I replaced God with sliver and gold. Tonight while watching “Morning Glory” and listening to the song “Silver and Gold,” it served as a reminder that in the end, it will leave me empty and void. I will not be viewed by God in light of how popular I was, how high I was in a company or what things I started, but by how I loved others. How I loved God.

Admittedly, I’m not great at this. I don’t love as much as I want to love, I don’t care as much as I want to care, I don’t always give my all. I think we could all say this about ourselves but that doesn’t give us an excuse. I want to love others because I see them how God sees them. This means being there, helping them, calling them out in love (which is super hard to do if we don’t do it through the eyes of God).

I think we all have a relationship with God that has times where we end up a few feet (or more) off from where we want to be. In my own life I can see where I have focused more on the silver and gold instead of God. As silly as it is looking back, some of those things were my pursuit. I want to pursue God more than my silver and gold. I want to live sold out for him.

So where are you pursuing silver and gold? It takes many forms but at the root of it, silver and gold is anything that gets in the way of your relationship with God. The “I don’t have time for God” excuse doesn’t exist in a world where we put God above our silver and gold. I would rather go through life and only learn how to love God than anything else.

So lets make a change. Don’t just identify the problem but go after God with a new passion. We can walk this road together, we don’t have it together, we have to rely on grace but I pray that God would give us a passion for him like none other. A passion that doesn’t allow for anything to come before God.

I want more of God, and the point of this blog isn’t to tell you to pursue God because I am doing it and think you should. I just want you to think about it. Where can you pursue God deeper? How can you do this? Give it prayer and then go after it.

May God’s blessing be upon you.

Kyle

At the core of everything though, I feel like God has chosen each of us to do something big for him. While we may not be starting a huge mega church that will reach thousands, starting a movement that helps bring equality to people or becoming a world leader, God still has something big for us. The more that I think on this I realize that some of the things that have held me back shouldn’t be holding me back at all. The excuse that I’m not good enough doesn’t work, that I don’t have the ability to do what I’m being asked, that I will be ridiculed and mocked, or that I don’t know how can no longer infiltrate my mind.

God doesn’t care where we have come from or what our past holds. He called Moses to lead his people out of Israel after Moses had killed an Egyptian. He called David to leadership and kingship after his affair with Bathsheeba. God calls all of us from where we are. Just because we aren’t perfect doesn’t mean we can’t do something for Him. Our big thing that God is calling us to be might be to be a great student, a great friend, a great doctor, lawyer, or the like. Maybe he is calling you to something more like to lead a church, company, or organization. Maybe he is calling you to lead the movement of the next generation. Whatever it is that he is calling you to, God has an ask of us. He wants us to DO SOMETHING! I am reminded of one of my favorite passages in 1 Timothy 4:12 which says:

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

It doesn’t matter that I’m only 21 years old, God still has something he wants me to do. While sometimes I can get fixated on what the big thing is that God has called me to do, I realize more and more that he will take care of that when I get there. Right now, I need to be the best that I can be for Him. This is all he ever wants from us, is for us to do our best and give him our all and let him do the rest.

David, Moses, Martin Luther, or Martin Luther King, Jr didn’t do things on their own. God used them to accomplish what He had in store.  This is all about his story, not ours.

So I guess this year I am going to call it my year of doing something. What that something is will probably not be fully clear, and it will be a challenge, but I’m going to start by being obedient to God. I hope that you will join me in saying yes without a question when God prompts you to do something. Some say that faith is blind, but I propose that is the only faith that we should have. Let us follow along after God blindly so that He can lead us. And furthermore, lets do something. Lets stop talking about sharing our faith and do it. Lets stop saying we are going to love others and just do it. Lets stop saying that we are going to wake up each morning and spend time with God and do it. Lets do this stuff. Together. In community.

That is the way life should be. It will be a challenge, but I’m in fully. The question you have to ask yourself is are you going to let life hold you back, or are you going to give it all you got for Christ gain? We play for an audience of one, so to me the decision seems clear. Lets go live it.

Kyle