A Tale of 2 Stories

The dust on the dirt road was kicked up from the truck driving by and made me cough. I rolled up my window, but then changed my mind and reversed my action. It was too hot to keep it up seeing as my magnificent car, Dustin, doesn’t offer me the luxury of air conditioning. No, no, my air is never conditioned, just straight up. Maybe one day I will enjoy this indulgence, but today was not that day. My destination was Falcon, Colorado. Falcon is the place where a family and a friend that are very dear to me rest their heads at night and call home…so, Falcon, I was coming for you.

I pulled into the rock covered drive way, turned off my engine, and pulled up my obnoxious E-brake. I was welcomed by Melodie with a smile and embrace, and three dogs trying to lick my scab on my knee….gross, but true. We proceeded up the stairs and were greeted by Stephanie. She was being her usual, fabulous self and was sewing a beautiful apron. Mel and I made lunch and everything felt peaceful.

Now, if you put Melodie, Stephanie and I in a room alone one of three things will happen. 1.) Giggles galore. 2.) Conversations of great magnitude and depth. 3.) Silence because we just finished a conversation of great magnitude and depth and need to think about it. It usually follows that order. I could write about many things we discussed. I could write about how often humanity gets lost in miscommunications. I could entertain you with a witty writing of the Church vs. the church. I could even unpack the simple truths of how often we don’t feel worthy, but those are not what made me STOP.

Every so often someone will say something that makes you STOP. Thoughts are sometimes like ear plugs, it goes in and everything seems to fall silent. The world around you continues, but you are brewing in your own thoughts. Frozen. Soundless. The conversation had turned to an instance that Mel was recalling and telling me to what conclusion she had arrived. I won’t give all the details, but Mel was simply talking about a camera and said something... something that hit me. It felt like being clothes lined; one second you are running and then next thing you know you're on the ground writhing in pain and trying to decipher what just happened.

“I was so excited about it at first, and now…now it’s not enough for me.”

Shoes. Car. Phone. Guitar. Books. Those where the things that instantly flashed before me. Excited about them at first…then not enough. My thoughts then decided to take a dark turn. As if my thoughts were all piled in a car and then saw a dark, abandoned alley and made a sudden jerk to see what evils may lurk down such a passage.

Friendships. Ministry. Churches. Romantic relationships. Traveling. The Word. Prayer. And to my shame, Christ himself flashed into my mind. Excited is often swept away by the wind of not enough. What starts off as a passionate, infatuated relationship with Christ often finds itself running into the wall of apathy and dissatisfaction. Next thing we know this faith is swept away by a strong gust of wind, and we desperately try to grab hold of it again. Most of us have seen somone who loses a paper or money in the wind and then tries to recapture it and rarely does it turn out well. They must either wait for the wind to die down or look like a fool who is literally chasing after the wind.

I forget so often how broken I was….how shattered and hopeless I was before Christ. Before He came, I was a stranger even to myself. I had no idea who I was so I tried out different facades. The majority of my middle school and high school career was a massive masquerade. Then Jesus grabbed a hold of my heart and literally TOLD me who I was, and began to change me to that person, and he still is. Yet, now… I have so easily forgotten to cherish my forgiveness and my identity in Christ. So I’m begging for God to allow me to remember. I’m forgiven, clean, and loved by Christ.

“If we forget then worship is damaged, joy is damaged, pleasure is damaged, the reflection of the perfect reality of Christ is damaged.” –Matt Chandler

Do you believe that He is enough for you? Were you excited about Him and all of this at first and now He is simply not seeming good enough? Are you a naturally inconsistent person, so even your relationship with God is affected, but your excuse is, That’s just how I am, inconsistent. What does a life drastically changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ look like for you?

Jeremy (the Younglife director for Tri-Lakes) always says to us as youth leaders, “You should have 2 stories constantly in your back pocket. One about what you are seeing God do in a specific young person’s life. Two something that you are seeing God do in your life.” The first time he said that I thought to myself fair enough, but then he followed it up with, “And those stories should change every week…” He said that the point is that God is a God who is constantly moving in the lives of youth and you, and your job is to simply ask him to open your eyes to that. Awareness is key. He tells us we never have to try to generate something, but merely get caught up in what God is already doing; like getting caught in the current of the ocean. The ocean is too powerful to try to create your own current. All you have to do is relax, trust the ocean and you will be swept away by something more magnificent, powerful, vast, difficult, and stunning than you could ever imagine.

What are your stories this week? Are you so involved with others you don’t have a story for yourself? Maybe you are so encased by yourself you haven no idea what God is doing in others. Where is the tide sweeping in your life? May you be swept away by the currents of Yahweh.