wash away the mud

Recently, my sister-in-law recommended I read a book by Erwin Raphael McManus called The Artisan Soul. She said in this book, Erwin argues that everyone is created to create and thought I would really enjoy it since I believe the same thing. I haven't read it yet, but I watched two sermons by Erwin and they gave me a lot to think about. This will be my attempt to share my thoughts on what Erwin talked about.

I've been spending a lot of time reading the gospel of John, trying to learn more about the character of Jesus. I try to always be reading a gospel alongside another book in the Bible at all times. If I want to know more about Jesus and be like Jesus, I should always be studying His life always. In the two sermons I watched, Erwin used John chapter 9 in what he had to say about what it means to be created in the image of a creator.

First, this chapter is close to my heart. It's a story about healing, giving a blind man his sight back and for a while I was blind and desperately needed Jesus to help me see again. When I was 15 years old, I started developing back pain which soon became chronic body pain, over the years growing worse. When I was 20 years old, a close friend of mine called me and told me he was frustrated for me. That he couldn't understand why this was happening to me. But then he read John chapter 9:

      As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

  “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
  
Now, I wasn't born with this pain, and no one really knows why the pain occurs. My close friend said he believes that this has happened to me so that the works of God may (if I respond, if I'm obedient) be displayed in me. 

Erwin broke down this passage from another perspective and I loved it. The way Jesus heals shows His creativity. Jesus, being God and God being a creator, must be a creative person. The way Jesus healed this man was interesting because, since I believe Jesus is God, he could have just healed Him by thought or saying so. He did this sometimes for other people but not for this man. Instead, Jesus spit in the dirt to make mud. He rubbed the mud into the blind man's eyes and instructed him to walk over to the Pool of Siloam and wash himself.

Here is Jesus, who can choose how to heal a man any way He wants, and He chooses spit and dirt. Erwin suggested the man standing there blind, listening to Jesus spit over and over into the dirt to make mud to smear into his eyes, may have felt embarrassed. He may have even felt humiliated. Jesus put mud on his eyes and instructed him to wash himself. If someone put mud in my eyes now, it would be nice for that person to help me out by walking me over to water at least. But Jesus said Go. Wash yourself. He took something that may be thought as ugly, like mud, and did something beautiful with it. He created sight from something that obstructs, something you can't see through. I can't help but wonder why He didn't just give the man his sight back with a simple thought. And I can't help but agree with Erwin that Jesus chose this because creativity is in the essence of who Jesus is. 

 I remember going to Jesus for healing with my pain and nothing happened. I was frustrated for years wondering why Jesus would heal so many people but not me. Why not me? I was losing hope in getting better, I was losing hope in Jesus. I was so angry with Him. Later on I thought, maybe Jesus put mud on my eyes when I came to Him for healing. Maybe I became blind to how He was going to heal me because when He said go, I felt humiliated by Jesus. Maybe Jesus put mud on my eyes and told me to go wash myself because He wanted me to respond to Him, to be obedient.


Some people came to Jesus and were healed instantly. This blind man had to walk over to the pool and wash himself to be healed. Some may be like Paul, and cry out three times to only get the response "My grace is sufficient for you." Paul wasn't physically healed but God gave him the strength to endure his sufferings - for when I am weak, He is strong. Maybe we receive all three and it's just we don't recognize how He's healed us because we're walking around with mud on our eyes because we aren't listening to Him when He says to wash. Jesus has restored my hope in Him. He corrected how I saw my pain - I realized I am not my ailment.
 

My obedience to Jesus will lead to healing, just like the blind man in John chapter 9. I believe your obedience can lead to healing as well. Whether it's physically healing, giving you sight where you are blind, or the realization that His grace is sufficient.

in His grip,

Josh.

One Piece of Advice

Last weekend, we had a region-wide leader gathering for Young Life here in Albuquerque.  Leaders from El Paso, Los Alamos, Las Cruces, Crown Point, Farmington, and Albuquerque came together for a weekend of encouragement, community, and raucous laughter...of course!

We had the incredible opportunity to hear from Bob and Claudia Mitchell during this time.  A little background on these two incredible people.  Bob is a former president of Young Life and one of the first Young Life kids EVER. As in this dude and his family hosted some of the first Young Life clubs at their house, and his leader was Jim Rayburn, the founder of Young Life. Anyway, enough of the celeb status laundry list.  In my mind, this man - "Mitch" as he's known - is a pillar of faith beyond the Young Life community.  Last weekend he told us about how he fought from within the mission during the '60s and '70s to make a place for women and African-Americans in leadership.  He told us about moments of frustration and triumph as he has walked faithfully with the Lord for close to 80 years.

I was fortunate enough to hear from Bob and Claudia during New Staff Training in Florida, as well.  It was equally as cool to be exposed to their experiences there, but it was awesome to actually get to meet them, talk with them, and laugh with them on such a personal level here in Albuquerque.

I'm gonna call this as it is for a minute. I don't know about you, but when I meet "big wigs" as my mom would call them, I am often times disappointed.  Usually these people are not as terrific as they're made out to be.  Less personable, less eloquent, etc.

Not so with Mitch.  Meeting him, shaking his hand, being close to him, I saw such genuine kindness in his face, I heard authentic love in his voice.  Like who is this guy?? He rocks.  He's hilarious. He loves Claudia in such a precious way.

This personal interaction made me listen in a totally different manner this time around.  And this is what I heard and keep hearing a week later.

We had a question and answer time with Bob and Claudia.  One of the leaders asked what advice Mitch would give to a Young Life leader now. He sat and thought in his characteristic way for just a moment before continuing with no preface:  "Cultivate your own relationship with Christ before anything else.  That's the greatest thing you can do."

Wow.

If anyone could give Young Life leading tips, it's Bob Mitchell.  But instead of advising us on how to run a good program and get kids to camp or enlightening us on the most effective contact work strategies, Mitch said one thing: Know. Jesus.

I was reminded of the time Jesus clarified something to us in Matthew 22:37-40 about the Law and the commandments.  He says (without introductory material, either), "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

So here we are - here I am.  We get caught up in program, logistics, doing.  We forget that Jesus gave us the CliffNotes version of the Old Testament.  And I'm not saying don't read the OT - as an English teacher, I will ALWAYS encourage the actual reading of primary material.  But here it is, the bare bones of what we as Christians are called to do:

Love God. Be with Him. That's the greatest thing we can do.
Then.
Love people. Be with them.

I think one of the reasons I am so struck by Mitch's advice is because I've heard him tell of the way he lived this out.  One story in particular stood out to me.  At New Staff Training, Mitch told of his first night in the San Francisco Bay area.  He had just moved to this city, no friends, an empty home, a new part of the country.  He drove to the top of a hill overlooking the city, the sea of lights stretching out before him and absolutely overwhelming him with where to even begin in reaching out to the kids of San Fran.  Mitch teared up as he told us of his cry to God in that moment, the raw "where do I even begin" honesty he poured out on that hill.

What's striking to me about this is that before Mitch settled in, met the neighbors, found a church, went to a school, he first retreated to be with the Lord.  To surrender his upcoming months and years in the bay area to the Lord.  To love the Lord before he commenced doing.  Mitch realized that without Jesus at the center, he would never find his way in that city.  Mitch realized that cultivating his relationship with Christ was then and would always be the most effective ministry strategy in Young Life, the church...heck, anywhere. This piece of advice was not just a repetition of a hugely important piece of the Bible.  It was a tested and lived out truth of Mitch's life.

And so that's why his words - really Jesus' words -  keep ringing in my ears: Love God with all you have.  Give Him the first fruits of your life.

This is - and always will be - the great commandment.

Peace and Blessings, y'all!
Sarah

Timeless People

I want to be somebody.
I want to have purpose.

My mom told me that when I was little I wished my name was Mike Piazza, best known for being the New York Mets catcher. I wanted his name because I thought you had to have a cool name like Mike Piazza in order to become a professional baseball player. Mike Piazza was somebody, he had purpose. He made an impact on the Major League Baseball world; my catcher's mitt has his named imprinted on the palm. I wanted what he had, even his name apparently.

Michael Jackson
Sacagawea
John Lennon
Rosa Parks
Steve Jobs
Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhar

Amelia Earhar

There's a group of people that seem to live outside of time. This list of people could go on and on and despite their deaths, they seem to still exist. They have made such an impact on this world that what they did has lasted generations and probably will continue to thrive into the future. My kids' kids will probably be wearings Beatles T-shirts listening to their iPod's containing music from Jackson because he is the "King of Pop". Everyone knows their names, they were all somebodies.

Albert Einstein
Leonardo da Vinci
Harriet Tubman
Issac Newton
Whitney Houston

Millions of people file through the Louvre Museum to see a painting claimed to be one of the most famous paintings in the world and the creator has been dead for almost 500 years. The Sistine Chapel draws in a similar crowd and these Renaissance artists have more than just fine arts to carry on their name. Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman decided to create four crime fighting turtles and name them after four 15th and 16th century artists, including da Vinci and Michelangelo. I bet they had no idea they would one day be teen-aged, crime-fighting mutant-ninja turtles. They probably were doing what they loved and never thought half a millennium later, people would know be making films and writing books about them.

From time to time, I wonder what my future holds. If I will ever be someone who is spoken about hundreds of years from now. I want to know if my life will have purpose. I remember my time at UNM and trying to figure out what I want to do with my life, thinking I had to choose "right" when it came to my career. I didn't want to go through life thinking no one would remember me and I would choose the "wrong" career path. And because of my decision, I wouldn't have an impact on this earth.

I tend to stray away, like a lost sheep, from Jesus. I forget about the promises He has made and when He makes promises, He upholds them. I sometimes forget to see myself the way He sees me.

I am gifted.
I am chosen.
I am the salt of the earth.

I forget that I am already somebody, that my life already has purpose. We all are somebody and we all have purpose. I won't go through this life forgotten because He knows me. I don't have to build an empire of music, iPods, or solve some algorithm to be remembered by Him. I am the salt of the earth, like Russ was saying on Tuesday. Salt makes food taste better, with the right amount, and salt preserves. I really enjoyed the story Russ told, the story of the lady giving him salt while running his marathon but he didn't know he was supposed to eat it to stop the cramping. My purpose is to share the salt, to be the salt for others to help the cramping of the world. And what I do on earth, sharing Jesus with others, lasts longer than a life time. If God uses me to impact some one's life and help them know Jesus, it lasts an eternity. Jesus really is a timeless person, and He gives us the opportunity to be timeless too.

in His grip,

Josh

#waytobe

I love hashtags.

This confession might be career suicide seeing as how I am getting my Masters in English Lit, and I am a writing instructor at UNM. I am supposed to be the slayer of all fragments, the bane of improper capitalization.  But I can't help it. I think hashtags are fun, catchy, and a unique form of communication that we have recently embraced.

Also, Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon do a hashtag skit, and it's one of my favorite things ever. Funny how Jimmy seems to be at the root of many of my favorite things...

Anyways, Russ and Jamie share my passion for this mode of communication so for the past two years, we've introduced a new hashtag each semester to our students. We started with #allthingsnew and moved into #identity, #courageous, and now #waytobe, each of them directly correlating to our topic for that particular semester. We ask students to tag Instagrams, Facebook posts, and Tweets with these hashtags so that we can create an online community connection as we pursue the Lord together.

This semester - #waytobe - has me thinking:  what is the "way to be"?  We've been talking about the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount for the past several Tuesdays.  Jamie talked about how when Jesus delivered these words to His followers, He flipped the normal way of being on its head. His message was radical.  His message was hard.

Not a whole lot has changed about Jesus' message over the past 2000 or so years. It's still radical. It's still hard.  I think about other "way" passages in the Bible, and I'm reminded of Jesus' words in John 14:6..."I am the way, and the truth, and the life."  These statements of Jesus are deceptively simple.  I find myself so often repeating these words with an attitude of: "Of course, You're the way. Of course, You're the truth.  Of course, You're the life."  But I rarely stop and actually think about these characteristics of Jesus.

This weekend, I had the awesome opportunity to spend time at Lone Tree Ranch with my friend Morgan. We rappelled, we ate, we watched men in tights and capes ride fixed gear bikes, we napped, we sang, we listened, we learned how many gallons of water are contained in a toilet as we watched it pour onto the floor of our cabin, and we hiked. Eventful to say the least, yet also relaxing and fun.

One of the songs we sang several times at the Ranch is by United Pursuit Band.  It's called "Nothing I Hold On To" - you can listen to it here.  One of the lines says, "I give it all to you God, trusting that You'll make something beautiful out of me."  We sang it over and over. Honestly, I was getting tired of it. Until I realized God was trying to get me to actually listen to what was coming out of my mouth.  That in giving all (that means EVERYTHING) to Him and trusting that He's doing something in me, I am confessing that I am not the way, that I am not the truth, and that I am not the life. I have given those things up to Jesus when I gave up all.

But this brings me back to Jesus' radical words. Am I willing to let Jesus turn my life upside down? Am I ready to let my way of being reflect that I have made Jesus the way of my life, that I have made Jesus the truth of my life, that I have made Jesus the life of my life? My answer to these questions currently is "yes, sometimes."  This semester, I'm hoping to inch closer and closer to "yes, always."

So what's my #waytobe?  My way to be is like Jesus.  How do I do that? I don't know exactly, but I think it starts somewhere around "yes, always."

Peace and blessings, y'all!
Sarah

People

I love reading.

Reading is one of my favorite things to do. I love getting lost in a well-told story, letting my mind make up what the characters look like and imagining what their lives are like.  A book I recently read that I thoroughly enjoyed was  Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. It’s not your classic mind boggling piece of literature, but the reason I enjoy this particular book so much is because the characters feel real. It’s a darker book following the lives of a few high school students in Pittsburgh, PA and doesn’t necessarily have the happiest of endings. Nonetheless, the characters are real and their stories are captivating.

I never get tired of captivating stories.

Young Life was where I started my relationship with Jesus and was the first ministry where I wanted to get involved. I thought Young Life was the best ministry and I loved hearing the stories of those involved with Young Life.  I started realizing I didn’t have to go to books to find captivating stories, all I had to do was live life and meet others. The stories I heard were ones that you couldn’t script and bind within a cover with some hipster title like “The Silence Between the Rain” (The title of a story I’m currently writing ha).  These stories were real and I loved getting to hear them.

In 2013, I stepped back from Young Life and I thought the captivating stories were going to end and that I would have to turn to fabricated ones in books once again (Don’t get me wrong, I still LOVE a great book with a great story). You could say that this thinking captivating stories will end because Young Life was removed from my life was the result of naiveness or ignorance. I thought no other ministry was as good as Young Life.

A person once told me “Ministry is people”. This was eye opening. I realized people were everywhere I went, no matter what organization I was involved in. Young Life was just a tool for me to meet people with amazing stories. Every one has a story and every one’s story is captivating because it’s theirs. Your story is one I can’t go to the local bookstore and read about. I was reminded of the quote “Ministry is people” because of Young Life College. Young Life College teamed up with the Mission, a ministry that reaches out to people. Both organizations are involved in Laundry Love, another ministry that reaches out to people. This past Tuesday Night, there was an announcement about a ministry called Joni and Friends and yes, they reach out to people as well. I look at Jesus' life and He reached out to people too. And it wasn't certain people who belonged to certain groups or organizations, but to all people. 

Lately I have been reminding myself to focus less on the name of a ministry and focus more on the name of Him who did ministry best. When I do this, I truly care about people and not because of the ministry I am a part of but because of who they are to Him. I want to hear their one of a kind story and perhaps have the opportunity to share Jesus’ story with them.

In His grip,

Josh

Treadmills, TDs, and Trust

Perhaps this video is an accurate representation of how you feel at the beginning of a semester - I know that this, at least, is how I feel in mid-January, almost every year. Somehow, I never fail to feel behind when everything is just starting up.  I feel like I'm jumping on an already moving treadmill and - like the poor girl above - I get tossed right off, flailing about.

This feeling seems to sit in direct tension with one of my favorite quotes from any movie ever. If you haven't watched Remember the Titans, please go do so now. Anyway, in this cinematic masterpiece, Gary Bertier says, "Listen, when something unexpected comes, you just gotta pick it up and run with it."

I never expect semesters to start, progress, and end the way they do. I never expect my week to start, progress, and end the way it does. I never even expect my day to start, progress, and end the way it does. Sometimes I feel like I absolutely cannot get started on that treadmill. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the amount of unexpected things flying at me, and I want to yell at Gary Bertier that we don't all have the hands of Dez Bryant, and I can't pick up All. Of. This. Stuff!

But Saturday morning, I was reminded of a scripture I've known for a long time, though now I feel like I've read it in a new way.  Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." (I have this resistance to "coffee cup" verses a lot of the time which is dumb because the reason they're on coffee cups is because they're awesome. So...) I spent some time with these verses. This is what I see:

• I possess the ability for trust and acknowledgement. God possesses understanding and direction (along with a billion other things).  
• What if I trusted and acknowledged and leaned on my Lord instead of myself? I think that treadmill might start to seem a bit more manageable.  I think I would be able to pick up a few more things but also know when to let some other things go.
• What if when life got unexpected, when I felt a little wobbly, I ran with Jesus instead of away from Him? I don't know why this has seemed like such a novel idea to me recently. But all of this talk of paths reminded me of another verse, Psalm 119:32.  "I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!" I first learned this verse in the NIV translation which says, "I run in the path of your commands," but I like the ESV's emphasis on God's enlarging of our hearts which, remember Proverbs, is where our trust in the Lord pours out of.

I don't think I'll ever live my life in a totally spontaneous, totally flexible way. That's just not who I am. I won't be able to catch all of those unexpected passes that Gary Bertier alludes to (my dad always said I'd be more of a linebacker than a wide receiver anyway).  But I also think that, if I trust and acknowledge that God has and grants me understanding and direction, then I'll spend less time frantically running to keep up with a fast moving world.  And maybe my heart will grow because of trust and not because I'm out of breath.

Peace and blessings, y'all!

Sarah

the coolness of the mist

"Time is not just a commodity, it's your most valuable one."

I always enjoy December 31st. We always try to gather as many people as possible under one roof to bring in the New Year. Nothing complex, just a bunch of friends gathering around, taking part in great conversations. Soon enough people start reminiscing about the past year and chatting about resolutions for 2015.

The New Year always comes so fast. I started thinking about moments of 2014, memories where I wanted to remain, but time was persistent on not stopping. I want to share some of those memories with you.

Starting an epic road trip at 1am with two of New Mexico's finest gents, Noah Monagle and Felix Orpinel.

Watching Noah get kicked awake by security after falling asleep in Phoenix's Metro mall.

Walking beneath misters as we entered a Starbucks on a scorching Phoenix day in July.

Standing up in the sound booth watching hundreds of middle school kids start a relationship with Jesus.

Sitting in the Kimo Theater watching all our hard work be worth it as our short film was screened at the Albuquerque film festival.

Taking a selfie with Vince Harrison and the rest of the graduating class of 2014 after receiving our Bachelor degrees.

I could go on forever, but these are the first memories that pop into my mind as I write. These are the kinds of moments I remember, and going into 2015, I hope I can make similar ones. But for some reason, when I think of 2015 resolutions, my mind races in another direction. Every year, I seem to set goals to be more successful. I think of a number and say, "this is how much I will make this year." I want to pay off my student loan debt, if not all at least put a decent dent in it. I want my business to flourish. These are the kind of things that come to the forefront of my mind and yet, these kinds of goals aren't the moments I remember. I don't remember how much money it cost to volunteer a month at a summer camp, I remember the people I traveled with and the people I lived life with. I don't remember the amount of money I invested into the production of our short film but the feeling of seeing it finally finished and the relationships that came out of it. Looking back on graduation, I don't see how much student loan debt I'm in but the gratification of achieving a life milestone.

The money I invested in my short film, my travels, and my degree is a commodity I will get back. The time invested, I will not.

A great man once told me time is your most valuable commodity. It made me look at time from a new perspective. The things we value are the things we invest the most time in. I say I love people but how much time do I spend with people? How many times do I say I will be somewhere and I don't show up? How many times do I show up late to a meeting? When I don't show up where I say I will be, my actions say being there for you isn't worth my limited time. Showing up late to a meeting says your limited time isn't worth mine.

I want to refocus my resolutions for 2015 to reflect time being my most valuable commodity.

I want to show up early every meeting.

I want to spend my time growing relationships and starting new ones. 

I want to see time as a limited commodity.

I want to live my life in the moments I won't get back.


Walking under the mist on that hot Phoenix day was a moment that felt so good. I almost let the Phoenix summer weather blind me to how refreshing the heavenly haze of H20 felt raining down on me, and I think life can be like that sometimes. We focus so much on the blazing heat of life, knowing when we leave the mist, the heat will return. We forget to acknowledge the finite moments we are in and to take in the coolness of the mist.


In His grip,

Josh

"Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."

James 4:14