Remembering Mercy

Last week at the CIY Move conference I was tremendously blessed to serve with phenomenally talented, God-focused kingdom workers. Our worship was led by the Aaron Pelsue Band* and their devotion to God and relational transparency were palpable. There was one song in particular that resonated deeply with me-especially one line in particular: "I deserve all the worst, yet You offer mercy."

This is a simple recognition of who I am and what I have done that is cast aside because of great love of God for me. It is a phrase that gives me hope and reminds me of how much my Father cares for me, His son. It is a lyric that erases my horrible past and propels me forward to the promise of a better future. 

I am so thankful for His mercy that makes me clean and new when I have done nothing to deserve it.

Hear my cries Lord, Hear my plea

All around me, All I see

Are canyons of heartache, rivers of mistakes

They’re calling out, longing for me

Hide me under Your wings of grace

Let Your love be my hiding place

Wash me clean, come make me holy

For I deserve all the worst, yet You offer mercy

I deserve all the worst, yet You offer mercy

When I’m parched, Lord, give me drink

Pull me up from, on the brink

Dangers abounding, my head is pounding

It’s clouding up my clarity

O Lord have mercy on me

Kyrie, kyrie eleison, O Lord have mercy on me

Kyrie, kyrie, eleison

*Please check out their website and purchase their music online. Their songs are powerful expressions of worship and they are genuinely Christ-centered. You won't be disappointed.

Built to Last

We have the potential to experience special spiritual moments that challenge and touch us more deeply than others. It could be a mission trip that changes our perspective, a week at camp that shows us new things about ourselves, or a week at CIY Move that exposes us to new direction for our lives. These become markers of maturity that we look back on with great fondness and that hopefully spur us on to something new and fresh in our faith. The great challenge is always in maintaining the intensity that we find in these moments.

It's obviously not possible to stay at the exact same level that we experience in these big events and in fact, we wouldn't want to. Being exposed to varying degrees of intensity makes each moment special and reminds us of the journey that we are on towards maturity. Each experience then becomes a catalyst that propels us forward toward God and teaches us something new as it becomes part of our faith history. Our hope is to take these occasions and add to them so that we maintain a steady commitment to a life that honors God. It's not a matter of relying entirely on these special times for impact, but combining them with our daily faith and watching God work in us all year long.

That is something that will last.

Get Ready

I just returned from another powerful week in Tennessee at the CIY Move conference for high school youth. I was honored to be the campus pastor this week which gave me an opportunity to invest in the lives of the adults that traveled with their high school youth. I had several adults admit to me that while they knew the conference was specifically intended to reach high schoolers, they were also deeply impacted.

Obviously, I wasn't surprised by this shared revelation. I would always tell our high school youth partners three things before we would head off to this conference:

1. Suspend your disbelief. Trust that everything we do will support the main point even if it may seem silly. If we (as adults) will engage in what's going on without being dubious our youth will do the same.

2. This event isn't for you. Please keep any negative talk away from our teens and preferably don't engage in it at all. If there is a legitimate issue please bring it to me so we can make it right.

3. Be ready for what God will do in all of us. Even though this event isn't for you, you will be impacted if you are open to it.

When we are willing to boldly share God's message our intended audience will not be the only ones affected. The message of surrendering your life and being transformed by the Holy Spirit is applicable to all ages. In fact, we will find nuggets of powerful truth in everything around us if we are willing to pay attention and do something with it once we receive it.

No See-ums

I haven't stumbled upon these in Georgia yet, but in Florida we had these gnat-type bugs called "no see-ums." They were quite annoying as they would flit about your ankles or arms and cause you to swipe at them even though you couldn't see them. My lack of ability to see them had no effect on their actual impact either.

Ministry and spiritual growth can happen in the same fashion (not in the annoying way-at least not in this particular blog post.) So much of the change and spiritual development is happening beneath the surface and it can be difficult to gauge what is actually occurring. That does not take away from the impact of the Holy Spirit however, nor does it decrease the faithfulness of the Kingdom workers that are striving to see that great work move forward. It does take a faithfulness in God's great redemptive plan and that He will see His work brought to completion-and even choose to do it through us if we are obedient to leading others.

Father, continue to bring about change that I can and cannot see. May I have the faith to trust that You are the one that will bring it to completion.