Francis Chan Quote That Spoke

"But God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn't come through"  Francis Chan

I came across this Francis Chan quote today and it just spoke to me.  I know for myself I am constantly battling the temptation to just be comfortable.  I have heard this quote before and use it as my motto when it comes to doing contact work and meeting kids as a YL leader.  I try to always remind myself that if I am comfortable in a situation I am probably not putting myself in the right spot or giving God enough trust.  But I am not very good at actually living that out.  I am very good at putting myself in comfortable situations and then convincing myself that I am doing enough for God.

  Well, it' a lie.  God wants us to live risky lives for Him.  This is seen all throughout scripture and is not just the words of a really cool Asian guy.  Matthew 14:23-33 is the story of Jesus walking on water.  Peter initially trusts in the Lord as he puts himself in a very uncomfortable situation, walking on water.  He takes his eyes off of Jesus and loses trust and begins to slip under the water, Jesus reaches out and grabs him.  Peter put himself in a spot where he would be in trouble if Jesus did not come through, and of course Jesus came through.  

Another example is Jeremiah 17:5-8.  "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.  He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit."

  And there is a lot more scripture to support Chan's quote.  Each person in their heart knows whether they are living this out, being uncomfortable for Christ and it will look different for everyone. It  just important to strive for this, I fail at it all the time but I know tat I need to reach this point in my faith where I trust God enough to put myself in very uncomfortable spots.  As Nick Palermo would say "Get comfortable being uncomfortable."

   Just some quick thoughts.

 Get out of the boat and step out into the water.

Opher

Capernaum Weekend

This past weekend I traveled to Young Life's Lake Champion in New York for a YL Capernaum weekend.  Capernaum is a ministry devoted to kids with disabilities.  It is YL for those kids.  Most people who know me know that I have a huge passion for kids with more moderate to severe disabilities and that it is and has been on my heart to share my love of Jesus with them.  This weekend I got to learn more about the ministry and how to go about starting and maintaining it.  I went with three other people from my YL Region.  Pat, a staff intern, KP a cool old guy who is on regional committee and is very wise, and Ellie whom shares a similar passion with me and is hoping to see a Capernaum club in Hudson Ohio.
   The 9 hour trip for me went by fairly quick as I was getting to know my companions.  I also realized that another friend of mine, one who I really looked up to especially as a frosh in college, J. Hauge, would be at the camp doing program for a WYld Life weekend.  So it was sweet getting to see him at the meals and talking a little bit.  There were about 50 people there for the Capernaum weekend and I found that I had strange connections to about half of them.  YL makes the world a lot smaller, everyone sees to know everyone.  So that was really neat.
   The key note speaker was Nick Palermo who is the founder of YL Capernaum.  He shared with us why and how Capernaum got started and it is a great story.  The guy is a great man of God and pretty dang funny as well.  I could see his passion for these kids and his wish to see the ministry grow and move into new parts of the country.  It was truly an honor to get to talk and listen to him.  God certainly spoke through him this weekend.  I also got to talk to several other great people who offered support and a lot of suggestions and advice for how to go about starting Capernaum in Toledo.
   The main things that I wanted to share through this post however are some quotes from the weekend.  "Be comfortable being uncomfortable"  It will be uncomfortable at times working with these kids but we got to be comfortable with the uncomfortable.
"It's a ministry with, not a ministry to."  We are not preaching to these kids and are certainly no better or more loved by God than these kids.  They will probably show us who Christ is way more than we can show them.  In Mark 2 Jesus is speaking in a crowded house when suddenly a hole is dug in the roof and a paralyzed man on a mat is lowered down by his friends.  The man's sins are forgiven and he walks away.  His non disabled friends loved him and took him to the house and lowered him through the roof and he was forgiven of sins, yes, but him being humble enough to allow his friends to take him and him having the courage to do that before Jesus and a large crowd certainly had an impact on his friends as well.  We live this life together and are equals.
   I could go on and on and on but simply put I am very excited for what is in store for my life and the mission God has put on my heart.

2:30 am pen session

Never know what will be

To turn the page

Or read once more

To think knowledge is there

To be found dumb

With hints of genius

Waiting to see what comes

Time will reveal all

But prophet I am not

To not know slowly kills

The answer may be on that page

But it may be chapters ahead

The story writes itself

One of love

Or one of heartbreak

Both could be the same

So on I read

On I wait

Because in the end

We never know what will be

My AT Adventure

This past weekend my dad (Waldo) and I went down to Georgia and did a 30 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail.  Hiking on the AT is beginning to become a tradition in my family.  In 2009 my brother, trail name being Huck Finn, through hiked the entire trail.  My dad then got jealous and has since been section hiking the trail.  Meaning he is not doing the whole thing at once due to work and such so instead he is just doing small hiking trips as often as possible in hopes of one day doing the whole thing.  I am the unhealthy and out of shape one but I still love hiking and being on the trail so I joined Waldo for this one.
   We started at Woody Gap which is the 20 mile marker on the trail and went to Unicoi Gap which is mile 50.  I knew the terrain would be tough, several large climbs and descents but figured I would be able to suck it up.  Well the trip became one I would not remember.  First off, it is an 8 hour drive from Hamilton to where Woody Gap is, we wanted to leave around 5:30 Thursday evening but due to my flat tire did not leave until close to 7. We got to our hotel at 2 am and only got about 4 hours of sleep that night.  As we began our hike on Friday we thought that it may rain some Friday but would be ok.  Well it pretty much rained all of Friday, not hard but enough to get us wet and cold.  There were some amazing views, or so we think, but because of the dense fog we did not get to see any of them.  We got on top of Blood Mountain which is considered one of the best views in Georgia and could see maybe 10 yards off the mountain.  We found a place to pitch a tent around 6 that evening after hiking 13.5 miles which was the farthest I had hiked in a day with a full pack on.  That night it was pretty chilly but I have a good sleeping bag and so I was fine.
   Saturday morning we awoke to rain.  And it never stopped.  We wanted to hike 15 miles that day but it was simply miserable.  It literally rained for almost 20 hours strait and it was about 45 degrees so that made it all the worse.  The wind was gusting at about 25 mph, it sucked!  We also had one of the toughest climbs I have ever done, there were several other hikers doing it at the same time and all of us were struggling up it.  After 8ish miles of hiking, roughly 4 hours, I made it to a shelter. Waldo had been there for 15 minutes waiting on me, that shows you how slow i was going.  I thought I was dying and was ready to be done for the day, it was only 1.  The shelter was full of hikers who were calling it quits early and so if we stopped there we would have to pitch our tent anyways.  So after some food my dad convinced me to move on.  We went another 4ish miles, ended up doing about 13 that day.  We made camp at 430 and took shelter from the rain.  Almost as soon as we made camp the skies opened up and the rain turned to an outright down pour.  We did not leave our tent from 4:30 until 7:30 the net morning. I had one dry shirt and pair of pants and my sleeping back was wet.  It was a miserable night to say the least.
    The morning cold but it had stopped raining and we had only a 4 mile hike to the truck.  I froze the whole way due to the lack of dry clothing.  It was a tough 4 miles, my boots were soaked from the previous day which made my feet very sore.  We had a big climb and then a big descent.  Despite popular belief, hiking down hill is not easy.  We went downhill for about a mile and it was extremely steep and rocky, not to mention the trail was essentially a creek at this point.  When we made it back to the car I could barely move.  Even today, a full day after the hike ended, my feet feel as if they are falling off.
   All in all it was a good hike.  We met several through hikers who are hoping to make it all 2175 miles.  Statistics show that roughly 1 out of every 4 to start the journey actually finishes, so few of the guys we met will probably reach Katahdin.  Even with the horrible weather I had a blast and cannot wait to get back on the trail!!
Opher, trail name Dough Boy.