Something's Up!!!

So...I think today may be the day that will go down as one of the most vital days of my life. God has been absolutely tearing my head and my heart up for the past several weeks and the only thing that I've got to show for it is confusion. Sara and I just moved back to NWA about 5 weeks ago and I can honestly say that this has been HARD! Not that we weren't supposed to move back, because I'm sure of that, but every other question you can think of has been racing through my head...one because I feel like we were called back to this area for a HUGE reason, and two, I haven't found a job yet which means I'm just sitting around filling out applications, sending off resumes and pretty much doing nothing else other than house work while my wife is working her tail off until I can find something. As I sit here and type I'm reminded of someone I'm supposed to send my resume to...so, now that that's done, I can continue!

Well, to keep from boring you with the details, here is the short of it...I've been challenged here recently to really seek after God, not just be a Christian, but pursue God with all I've got. I've toyed with the thought and I think God is disappointed with my effort so far, but honestly, it scares me...I think that may be healthy. I've been reading and watching videos of great leaders here recently that has done nothing but challenge me to stop being scared of what God may be able to do in me, and start seeking after God and do whatever he lays on my heart. This freaks me out because its what you call becoming completely vulnerable and open. Now to some, you may ask me what I'm really talking about because you know me, but this is real, raw, faith...not just something you accomplish by going to church on Sunday. I recently heard someone challenge Christians by saying that if you are not going to the bible to seek after God, but you have other intentions...such as only going to the bible for answers or for something to teach on, then you don't get it. This is a key in my life that has been tearing me up since I heard it. I've always had a reason to pick up the bible, but rather than having something I'm needing to get out of it, I realized that I don't spend time in God's word enough just to be with God and let HIM SPEAK to me. This week, I'm going to dive into the love of God through His word, and rather than looking for something to teach, needing an answer, or asking for something, I just want to learn and listen to His guidance. God's word is vital, but how can I stand behind some of the things I tell people, if I'm not willing to let God leading me through His word. So...here we go, if you want to join, call me or shoot me a message. This may even make no sense to you and if not, that's cool...but God has something in store for me and I'm jacked up about it, but also freaked out at what He may ask me to do...but you know, if I don't listen, then all of this is pointless and I'm living in and of myself.

I'm going to be posting as close to daily as I can during this process and who knows what will come of it. I don't have a 30 day plan, or a reading plan, I don't have a date I'm shooting for or anything like that. Only expectation I have is to have my world rocked and become what God is calling me to be RIGHT NOW! So no more procrastination of Faith, it's on. Pray for me and as I said, join me if you want...I'll be praying for you all! God's about to rock my world and I would love to have you along with me for this journey but only if God is calling you to it!

I'll let you know tonight or tomorrow what God has revealed to me as my first steps in this process for me. All I can say is SEEK GOD, then do whatever it takes to do what he says!

Thank You

So...as you may have heard, or for those of you that haven't, we're moving...again! But this time is probably one of our most interesting moves. We're moving back home, or what we would consider home, Northwest Arkansas. God has been pushing us to follow our hearts, and that is where our hearts are leading us, and with some of the confirmations we've had in the past couple of weeks, we know we are going where He is wanting us to go.

The reason I'm asking everyone to read this is because we can't possibly sit down and try to contact everyone that has meant something to us over the past year and a half. From those of you that were there that first couple of weeks we were in Wilmington, to the ones that we have went to church with, to the ones who we have learned to do life with, we have the highest gratitude, respect and thankfulness. It would take us a couple of weeks to contact everyone that has made a difference in our lives the past couple of years and we will forever be changed by the friendships we have made with you all. From the bottom of our hearts, we say THANK YOU and we love and will miss you all, but we will be back to visit frequently! If you are ever in Arkansas, give us a call and we'll treat you to the best burger, fries and shake you'll ever have, and our door is always open for visitors!!!

Control

So...God has an interesting plan for us all, and he often does things in very strange and interesting ways, BUT it is ALWAYS done to teach us something whether we are in the mood to learn or not! God has released us from a ministry, that, while a great opportunity, we just didn't fit. We had the opportunity to see several of the students come to a relationship with Christ and get Baptized, and I believe that is why I was there, not to save them, but to give God the stage to draw them back to Him! There is nothing that we did or nothing that the church did that caused us to be leaving Barefoot Church, it was based on philosophy and direction, and we just didn't fit. Now does that mean that there is something wrong with Barefoot Church...NO...and shame on you who think that I would say yes. God is using Barefoot Church in amazing ways, but those ways are different than how He wants to use Sara and I, and that's perfect. Now the question is, What's Next?

I can't really say at this moment what we are going to do next, but whatever/wherever that is, we are following our hearts. God has shown us things in the past year and a half that will forever change our view of Him and ministry. I could take you on the journey we've been on, but not at this time, COMING SOON!!! One of the several things that I've learned is how to completely trust His direction. It's amazing how God is just waiting on us to give up control and let Him lead us so that we can be used for what we were made for!

Control is something that I've always enjoyed. Take sports for example. If you've been around me very long, you know that I'm extremely competitive and love sports. When I played baseball, I didn't really love baseball as a whole, but I loved PITCHING! I CONTROLLED the entire game with every pitch. And if I didn't have control, I wasn't successful. I wish I had some sweet analogy or something to make my point (I tried and would have completely confused everyone who reads this except for other reminiscing pitchers) but I don't, it is the point. I love being in control, knowing what is going to happen, how I'm supposed to get there, what I need to do next. I HAVE NO CLUE RIGHT NOW! And at first it freaked me out, but then I took some time to think about it, spent some time with some great friends back in Wilmington, and then realized everything that we had been a part of and how God was teaching and using us even through this.

God is pushing us right now to follow our hearts, and you'd think it'd be easy, but when you take a leap like we did half way across the country, little bits of our hearts are left everywhere we've been. So where are our hearts? Great question, but right now its just a waiting game to get out of our lease on our current house. God is in full control of us, and I think I'm starting to be cool with Him being the pitcher so to speak...wow, lame, I know...but I'm serious. I've been in some form of control for the last couple years, or so I thought. It's funny how you think that you've mastered patience and then God decides to show you that it's not really patience that He's trying to teach you, He's trying to break you of control. Read about Jesus leading his disciples, He's constantly teaching them to release control of their own lives so that they can be used by God for greatness!

True Creativity

So, I added an album of pictures just to the right of the screen that has these pictures of the flowers that Sara planted this past spring that are in full bloom now! It brings me no greater joy than to see my wife take joy in her hobbies, check out her blog to truly see what I mean because she decided this past year that she was going to start a garden...little to my knowledge she was actually dreaming up a small farm in our backyard! But hey, last night was by far the best pepper I've ever had, not to mention the fresh green beans, broccoli, squash, and soon to be much more!

Most of the time when Sara says she has something in her mind that she wants to do, I have to realize that she already has her heart set on it and her mind working on how to do it, like with her sewing, her photography, etc...so, I think my wife is just CREATIVE and needs outlets for that...and so this is why we have an amazing camera, to take the amazing pictures of her flowers that were just kind of a side thought to her garden! Then you've got her bags that she's made that are being sold at the SURF HOUSE in Carolina Beach, NC that just blows my mind. She also decided that she was going to teach herself photoshop...which she uses over at Ribbet Salon & Shop for Kids over in Wilmington, NC...you should check out the graphics, some of which are her handiwork! It blows my mind to realize how amazing my wife is, and it took me encouraging her to take pictures this morning of her flowers to remind myself of that!

God has an amazing way of revealing things to us through his creation, and I think this is a big reason why my wife is so Creative, because she can see God work in and through a lot of her creativity that most don't recognize! For most of us we see flowers, but God created them, check some of these pics out and just look at the creativity that went into making each one different. I have to slow down sometimes and take notes from my wife when it comes to creativity, because she draws from the master of creativity...GOD, and maybe I should look into being a bit more creative!

I can't wait to spend this evening on the beach with my wife, friends, and students from Barefoot Students. I'm truly blessed and I get to enjoy God's creativity daily...we just have to open our eyes and look for it! Plus I get to SURF!

Effective or just busy?

WOW...it's been over 3 months since I've written something on here, and it feels kinda weird! Life has been nuts, and that is partially responsible for fueling this post. Here lately God has been pushing on my heart to evaluate what I'm doing and see if it is effective or if I'm just doing things that make me look busy! Since my last post, the Barefoot Student ministry is finally moving in the right direction. After figuring out where and how I fit, I started getting a vision for the student ministry from God and I've been plugging at that ever since. I mean, we've got 5 students getting Baptized this weekend, can I get an AMEN (for all my Southern Baptist Family back home). There are alot of things that I do throughout the day, and some I've already stopped that just make me seem like I'm busy, but actually when I evaluated their effectiveness, seem like a huge waste of time.

When I was at the UofA, I remember spending(wasting) HOURS on Facebook seeing what everyone and now literally their Dog is up to! Pet facebook...come on people, your dog and cat don't need you living their lives for them through a fantasy social network, Sorry, just weird to me!!! Anyways, I've truly seen it all. I've been a member of facebook since the beginning of my freshman year..oh yeah, by the way, it launched in february of that same year! That is back when only MAJOR Universities had it, you had to go through an application process that the Chancellor of your school had to approve! A year or so later they opened it up to anyone with a University/College email...and I remember when I thought the world was coming to an end when they allowed High School Students to sign up!!! Now, as I said...EVERYONE AND THEIR DOG!!! So, is it a social network, marketing scheme, conspiracy? Who knows, but all I know is that I evaluated its effectiveness at reaching our students...and I had more adults and staff members on our Student Ministry Fan Page than we had students...I'm not kidding, like 6-10% of the "Fans" were actual students. And that was the trend for Twitter as well!

Now on to why I started this post. With Facebook and now Twitter, your week could get lost TWEETING, RE-TWEETING, Checking facebook status' and looking at pictures that your "friends" posted that you really didn't even talk to back when you were IN high school. I just feel like someone needs to say this, I'm a realist and to me this just doesn't seem RIGHT!

I'm a math mind, so bear with me for a sec and I'll explain! Say you spend 30sec tweeting every time you tweet, you tweet 15 times a day...that's nearly and hour a week tweeting...I'm being generous here! Then you add in all of the time you spend reading others tweets, re-tweeting, and direct messaging others when you could just call or text them, and you've probably got at least another hour if not more there!

2 Hours a week on TWITTER...now I don't even want to go into the math that is involved with Facebook, but for a social network to bring people together, it sure has made interactions with others even more secluded and shallow than ever, not to mention a huge chunk of time wasted!

Now don't get me wrong, I do have both twitter and facebook and no plans of getting rid of them anytime soon because they can be great tools to connect people...So...God has really pushed me to re-evaluate the way I spend my time, the way I use things like Facebook and Twitter in my ministry, and is pushing me to think even more strategically when it comes to my ministry. God is really pushing me right now to clean up areas of my life that, although may not be bad, are not the best for my ministry. What is God telling you to do next? How much time do you spend being antisocial on Social Networks where you could be spending that time with God? What's the first thing you do in the morning, recognize your SAVIOR, or update your status? These are all questions I've asked myself in the last several months and they can be painful to own up to, but God wants your best, not just good!