I am outside on my drive way, on one knee, reaching out an tying up my shoes getting ready for my daily run. As I am stretching out I look up to the sky, and clouds of rain are moving in from the south and I know that a storm is forming. Quickly my mind starts telling me not to run in to the storm. My mind throws at me a barrage of excuses design to keep me from running. Somehow, my will is stronger, and I start running towards the storm.
Obviously, I?ve had a lot of changes lately; new house, new job, and on the list goes. As a result I?ve been reflecting on some of the things God has taught me through the places He has taken me. One of which is compassion through spending time with those ?crazy teenagers? around the country.
The older I get the younger they seem. At camp I often wonder if I could have been that loud or that silly or that caught up with the cool factor of my life. Surely the speaker to my teenage ears wasn?t sharing the deep truths I am now presenting. If so I would have never passed notes but instead taken a journal full. Oh, the chapter of life called ?teenager,? a time no one truly understands (even the teen). My summer has been filled with thousands of them. Loud ones outside my window (even worse outside Greyson?s window), cool ones that give me that sarcastic ?another adult trying to connect with me? look, kind encouragers, and ?thanks for noticing me? smiles. I must admit it is a challenge some days to speak to this crew. More than once I?ve been on stage about to begin and I thought ?I don?t wanna do this.? Or ?I?m in my thirties now, what am I doing here?? But thankfully God meets with me a few moments before He meets with them and refreshes my passion for students. The most frequent refresher has been, Matthew 9:36 ?When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them??
So, I want to share with you guys a letter I wrote to a friend of mine. I asked her permission to post my response but I will not mention her name, so stop trying to guess who it is :-). My Friend's age range is 18-22 (I don't want to reveal her exact age), Basically and in short she wrote me explaining that she was feeling "helpless and hopeless". She wrote: "...you seem to always be happy and positive no matter whats going on around you. So my question is; how do you do it?"
So I wrote to her:
Thanks so much for writing to me about your problem, which is really something we all deal with very often in our lives. I don't claim to have great wisdom but let me share with you my own experience.
I was raised to think that having a low self esteem was godly. It was vain to look in a mirror, and far worse to accept a compliment without rebuttal. Now I know better. Now I know that what God wants most is for our self esteem to come from Him! How do we do this?
What an interesting place to be. After a thousand miles, 4 new tires (I had a blow out and decided to also change the remaining three), and now 6,000 feet above sea level, I sit in an unfamiliar town. A town in which bike racks adorn vehicles instead of EZ Tags for the toll way and the scenery?s default color is evergreen instead of concrete gray. Houston is truly a world away. Kelly and Greyson have been here awhile and now they are on a plane headed home. I trust deeply that the Lord has something for me in ?the lonely places?. Something that the distraction of familiarity can?t cultivate, something that can?t be emailed, faxed, or programmed in from a touch tone phone, something from Him. A word, a vision, a directing, a warmth, which comes only on the ultimate Father & son retreat.
A while back I was involved in the gang?s life, where for approximately 8 years I was faithful to my barrio and homies. This was when I was surrounded 380 degrees by my enemies, when in many occasions I was jumped, stabbed and shot. Thank God I am still alive and free.
In return that God has forgiven my past life I have now learned to forgive my own enemies, and many of them have also forgiven me. My life now is very different than what it was yesterday. I will never return back to the past life. Now living out of that life I can differentiate one life from the other. For example; I have not been jumped, shot at or have gone back to jail to be a prisoner. Now I am free and enjoy my freedom
The story of fishermen turned followers is familiar. But personalizing it brings it home. These guys stood tired from a long day?s work and Jesus was asking to do it all over again. He wanted to put the boats out in the water and go even farther out. Imagine leaving the office at 8pm after a solid 12 hours of work and there stands Jesus saying let?s go back to the desk for another couple hours. ?You can?t be serious.? ?Yes, back in and even further out.?
Imagine you are in the or the lobby of the auto repair shop or doctor?s waiting room. You just signed in to either have your car or yourself tune up so you move to the public couches to take a seat. Invariably, the proprietors have provide to something to pass the time. Usually it is a stack of magazines or a TV, either way the goal is the same; something to do while you wait. They are hoping that the time will pass a tad quicker because of the waiting room waiting tools. The article or show determines how many looks at the watch or signs until our name is called.
Read Ecclesiastes 2:1-11, 24 &25
Then imagine if Solomon had submitted the book of Ecclesiastes for publication this may have been the reply?
Mr. Solomon
123 Wisdom Way
Jerusalem, Israel
RE: Submission of Ecclesiastes for publication
Mr. Solomon
Thank you for your submission of Ecclesiastes for publication. I must say the reading of it bristled my feathers and left me angry, neither of which is a goal for our readers. On a good note your statements about life being ?vanity? increased my commitment to the contrary.
The production of the eighth season of the Xtremo radio show has started. Victor J Cardnas, Jeffrey de Leon and Lucas Leyes join comments and ideas to project a new and staggering message
At 7:30 two years ago on any given week night you would have found me watching ?The O?Reilly Factor? or ?Biography? but now a freshly bathed little boy sits in my lap. Instead of learning (at least that?s what I try to call my TV watching) about the world we live in, I read books about cars, planes, and Clifford. I savor those times when the Johnson?s Baby Shampoo smell combines with a good story and colorful pictures! Tonight we read ?Baby?s First Bible? which is basically each page with one picture and one sentence dedicated to all of the famous stories. The usual characters are present Adam, Eve, Noah, Moses, Jesus, and the little boy with two fish and some bread (I?ve found he is very popular in cardboard paged books, I guess it is preparation for sharing your snack at school). The character that caught my attention tonight was Daniel in the lion?s den. So once put Greyson to bed, I read through Daniel 6. The one sentence on that rigid shingle called a page didn?t do the story justice.
Moncho, its awesome, you alls new CD is really good, I had not had the opportunity to hear it until it got to our city, and, surprise, there are no more Zona 7 CDs left
Read More 
