Next week at Elevate we are starting a new series called "I AM Legend." Throughout the Old Testament God made himself known to his people by his name, Jesus continued that in the new Testament by sharing who he was; saying "I am..." This is going to be a powerful series for the simple fact that when we begin to learn about God and his faithfulness it begins to reinforce our faith. Life is tough, we get hurt, we hurt people, we get busy and stressed, this causes us to look at our circumstances and life situations as being huge and overwhelming. In short we take our eyes of God and lose faith. Faith is the driving force in living a life of impact, and having an understanding of Gods grace, mercy and power propels us to new heights in our daily walk. I am looking forward to learning more about God and allowing him to change me form the inside out.

Wisdom Balance and Friendship

Tonight I was able to take the evening off, I went to my sons school musical and then took my family out for ice cream afterwards. The amazing thing is that I was completely relaxed and was able to not even think about the fact that usually I am running crazy on Tuesday nights making sure everything is ready to roll for elevate. The reason for that peace is that I have some great people in my life that are willing and capable of running things completely fine without me. Its not easy for an ego to take the cold hard facts, that life can go on without me. It is awesome to have a great Friend like John step in and be a part of the teaching team, and having Mike be such an amazing partner in ministry. And then having a Leadership team like Elevate's who are all so willing to just jump right in and get things done- I am very blessed and very thankful.
So to all you who make my life so enjoyable- Thank you from the bottom of my heart. There is a great verse in Proverbs 24:18 that says there are a lot of friends that come and go, but there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. That Friend is not only the Amazing God of heaven, but also many people who demonstrate Gods love on a daily basis. These friendships make it easier to live a life of balance- to help me understand that I am not in complete control and that although I know I have a significant calling on my life from God, there are so many people around me who's calling is just as significant.

OK, so I am starting to ramble but it is 11:30 and I slepts a total of 5 hours last night. All this to say: I appreciate my friends who help bring balance to my life- and give me a tangible expression of God's unconditional love

FIX IT DAY

Today I am working on one of those "honey-do" list for my wife, we are making some adjustments around the house to fix somethings that need fixin', and making some minor improvements.
I have shared in previous post that I am a perpetual procrastinator, but when I start doing something I get into it and cannot stop, I will keep on plowing through until I get finished, don't talk to me don't disturb me I am on a mission to get something done. My thought today is on balance, I wish I could find a happy medium between my procrastination and my "get out of the way, I'm getting this done." Somewhere in between those things is a unknown place to me, a place of good results on my work minus the stress of trying to beat a deadline or having to work harder on something because of consequences of waiting.
So in my quest to implement Wisdom into my Life- I am going to shoot for some balance.
This takes a little more effort and also overcoming some of the ways I have been doing things for years.

Proverbs talks much about diligence and quick action; I know in my head that doing things methodically rather than frantically is better, its just that most of the time I convince myself that this is just how I am and that I thrive better with pressure.

Balance will also make things a lot easier on the most significant people in my life, mainly my wife and kids. There has been many times that I have turned down a meaningful game of catch with my son because of the "tyranny of the urgent" created by my lack of diligence and planning.

So Balance here I come, looking forward to it, balance is Wisdom, and according to proverbs it is looking for us, we just have to start looking in the right place.

Quick note: I should have learned some balance before last night, I went from not playing basketball in 3 years to playing 10 games of full court 5-5. I can't move! I hurt! but it was fun.

From Guest Blogger Glen Bryant

Quick note from Joel: If you haven't met Glen yet you really need to, Glen is on the leadership team for elevate and has a great story to share how God found him and gave him a new life. Glen runs our media on Tuesday nights, but more importantly he has a passion to share the love of Jesus with our generation, here is his blog submission:

Healing Power of Jesus: (True Story)
Several years ago I had an opportunity to go to a conference for youth leaders. It was in Sacramento and several top Christian artists were going to be there, so it promised to be a good time of fun and worship. There was a group of six of us going from my church and we piled in the car and set out for Sacramento. I was driving, and while on the way I started feeling a pain in my shoulder. It was a deep, aching pain that was literally sucking the life out of me. It was nothing new though. This pain had been bothering me for months and there appeared to be no specific cause, and I couldn’t find any relief from the pain no matter what I tried. It was there and then it would be gone again. It might last ten minutes, or more than an hour. I just had to “ride it out”.

So we arrived in Sacramento, got checked in to our hotel, and headed for the conference. It was great. Chris Tomlin was our worship leader for the first two days and there was so much energy in the room. Youth leaders are kind of crazy anyway so imagine hundreds of them all together in one building worshipping, unashamed, with their hands raised toward heaven, praising our awesome savior. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. But on day two, during the evening service, it happened again. The pain returned. It was right in the middle of a worship set with Chris Tomlin leading. I remember vividly how I tried to raise my arms in the air and had to bring them down because it was making the pain worse. I was frustrated that the pain would have to come now. How unfair. It was stealing my joy.

That’s when it happened. A vision of a scene from the movie “The Passion of the Christ” flashed into my mind. It was when Jesus was carrying the cross through town on His way to be crucified. He was beaten, bloody, spit upon, and cursed at. He fell down under the weight of the cross He was carrying and they began to beat Him more. I could see the blood all over Him, dripping to the ground and the pain in His eyes as He carried our sins to that hill. I watched Him rise back onto His feet and continue along the road. The vision was only seconds long.

That’s when I told myself that if Jesus could endure that pain for me, that I could handle the pain of lifting my hands in the air to honor Him. So that’s what I did. I raised my arms as high as I could and for as long as I could. Both my arms were actually burning in pain by the time the song was over and I felt my joy return in the pain I was sharing with my redeemer, with my savior, with the one who died to save me. I will never forget that night as long as I live. Even now, when I’m standing in church, or at a conference, and I start to feel a pain in my legs or arms, from standing or raising my hands to God, I remember that night in Sacramento, when I found joy in suffering with Christ. I don’t sit down, I don’t lower my arms. The pain in my muscles always bring that picture back to my mind of Jesus carrying that cross, and I smile and praise Him all the more.

We had a great time at the conference and came home with joyful hearts and sore throats (from all the singing). It was actually about two weeks later that I realized something. Remember the pain in my shoulder I talked about? It suddenly dawned on me that I didn’t remember feeling that pain lately. In fact I couldn’t remember having that pain since that night at the conference. I thought that was pretty cool. It was nice to have two weeks of pain free days and nights. But you know what’s even more awesome than that? That was over three years ago, and the pain has never returned! That’s the healing power of Jesus my friends. Jesus is our faithful friend.

By Glen Bryant

Sharpening my Perspective

I am thankful for the people that God has put in my life to help me in area's where I am weak (which is a ton.) Today I was able to have coffee with a great friend who wasn't trying to help me on purpose, we were just doing life together. But today, just some of the things he was pondering, provoked a thought process of my own, which really helped clear up my perspective on some personal and spiritual issues. I am my own worst critic and have grown up in a "Christian culture" that is heavy on the guilt and light on the grace of Jesus. I know I wasn't taught this on purpose- but what came across is that the guiltier you feel the closer you are to God and the more spiritual you become- which is a load of you know what. I am learning that my relationship with Christ has nothing to do with guilt, he took my guilt and shame on the Cross with him, and I can come to him right where I am at. He wants me to come to him with a confident humbleness, not because of who I am but because of who he is and what he has done.
So through my conversation today, I believe my heart is starting to catch up with what I am learning to be true: growing closer to God and living a meaningful life as a Christ follower is less complicated and guilt filled than I try to make it.
So today I am embracing my weaknesses as well as being thankful for them, because they are opportunities for God to show his strength and also to show his grace to some who doesn't deserve it.
Proverbs tells me that "As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens another." I am thankful for my sharpening time today. The cool thing is that that simply came about by having a cup of coffee and sharing our stories... I believe that is the type of church and community Jesus intended for us to be a part of.

His Wisdom is Perfect

I am very hard on myself, sometimes I deserve it and sometimes I don't, but I tend to beat myself up over stupid mistakes and when I feel like I don't meet standards I have set for myself. Last night at Elevate was a perfect example, to be honest I felt very scatter-brained and all over the place (even more than my usual ADD self.) After finishing I truly had this thought: I just wasted 25 minutes of these peoples life, thank God that John and the band lead people in an amazing worship set to clean up my mess. So after feeling bad about myself and drowning my sorrows in a bowl of dibs (ice cream you can eat with your fingers- how awesome is that?) I checked my email, and to my surprise I got several emails from people who said that God had spoken to their heart through the message and they were very encouraged- it was exactly what they needed to hear. Talk about being humbled!
After going through this battle, I wish I could force my heart to understand something, I have no power on my own to make a difference in people's lives. It is only through God's strength that anyone can leave a mark for His Glory in this life on anyone. I still have a responsibility to study and grow and seek to give the people God has put in my life the best I can, but that can only come through his power, not my own.
That takes a lot of pressure of the outcome off my shoulders when it comes to results, my Job is to get as close to God as I possibly can and simply listen and allow him to to touch others.
We truly serve an amazing God who uses broken people to be a part of what He is doing!

Cardinals Update

OK, no umpiring for me today, just one of those crazy dads on the sideline who thinks his son is the next Mickey Mantle just needing a breakout game. Jonah is on a great team and they won today 10-3 to make us 7-0 for the season. If you think I am kidding about crazy parents, we actually had one of the opposing coaches check one of our players bat today to see if it was regulation. The great things was it was a girl on on our team and she can flat out hit- I think she got a hit every time up, if I wasn't a mature full grown man- I might be sticking my tongue out and putting my thumbs in my ears to the opposing coach and say nanananana..... Ok so that would not be wise, but come on, checking a 7 year old girl for a corked bat, I was waiting for them to start a petition for random drug testing...

Wisdom tells me to just be quiet and enjoy, I will work on that!!!