One of the absolute greatest pleasures of working with students is watching them encounter the love of God. Students have a way of seeing God through a lens that we often can’t see. They experience God with an innocence and freedom which isn’t restricted with over-thinking and analyzing. For the past few months I have been talking and counseling a 7th grade student through some serious issues. This student had been battling some dark times but a few months ago this student began to follow Jesus and the love of God began to overwhelm them...
Read More#IntentionalStep - Common Prayer
Updated Experience...
"Liturgy is a workout for the imagination, because we are invited to see the reality of the universe through a new lens. Liturgy offers us another way of seeing the world." - Shane Claiborne
I like that description, "a workout for the imagination." Several times over the past week that is exactly what it felt like...a workout. It all seemed annoying, stopping everything I was doing for a mid-day prayer, or rushing around the house trying to get out the door in the morning only to hear my alarm go off reminding me to stop for morning prayer. By far, this #IntentionalStep may have been the most inconvenient
Read More#IntentionalStep - Thankful
Updated Experience...
So if you have been paying attention to the blog at all, it has been two weeks since I posted about my experience about the last #IntentionalStep entitled, "Thankful." And unfortunately that is because it took me two weeks to accomplish this task. It was amazing to me how quickly, when my schedule got busy that I reverted back to living accidentally. I immediately fell back to living in a rut. My default mode kicked in and I let life consume me. Interestingly enough, it occurred during the week I was challenged to think outside of myself and focus on those around me. It's so easy to think the world revolves around our busy lives, isn't it? As deadlines, and meetings, and tasks begin to...
Read More#IntentionalStep - Empty Wallets
This week’s #IntentionalStep is a simple one to do, but I have a feeling will not be easy to carry out...
Starting this morning, Lindsey and I will not...
Read More#IntentionalStep - Early Rise
Updated Experience...
As an update, currently I am fighting the urge to fall asleep on the couch after already drinking two cups of coffee and a mocha. This is the final day of this week’s #IntentionalStep (read below for the post from a week ago explaining this week’s challenge). My goal was to make it out of bed by 6am every morning (2 hours earlier than my normal wake-up time). So Sunday night around 1:30am (I guess that’s actually Monday morning) I set my alarm for 5:45am. Monday the alarm seemed to come real quick, but nonetheless I woke up excited about the new challenge and was out of bed at 6:01am. Lindsey and I sat tiredly on the couch and sipped our coffee in our unusually quiet house and watched the sunrise out of our living room window. We enjoyed the silence and the time with each other. We talked together about how nice it was to have time in the morning and not wake up rushing...
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