California

I love California. For the past couple days, I have woken up to see the Pacific Ocean. Even when the thermometer reads 55, the sun has no clouds. Not only the beautiful weather, but for the past three days my friend and I have listened to a great lineup of thinkers, authors, and pastors at a conference called Catalyst. These individuals had a good handle on what they deemed significant and important in their lives.

This conference allowed me to take inventory of those areas which I deem as important. A couple questions surfaced. Does my life communicate their importance? Do I even like the things that I deem important? Would people know without me telling them? Here goes a couple passions, non-negotiables, and important facets of my life.

- Jesus Christ- Far and wide the most altering and significant facet of my life and also the most cliché. A Carpenter who walked this world for 33 years, later became a rabbi, and then died on a cross to rise from the dead three days later, has reconciled my life to God. One element of all people who follow Him remains the same, we who were once far away from Him were brought near by His grace.

- Family- Few people you can text at 4:30am to meet you at a Denver airport. Rarely do newly married couples take in their little seminary brother. My folks have driven to any crazy event I have invited to enough times to go to CA and back. Yet beyond my blood family, have been people who are like family. Those people who have shared their lives and have opened their homes. I feel so blessed by both family members who God chose and the others who have become family. I hope you know you are, but in most cases I think you do.

- Pastoring/Discipleship- I’m not quite sure how phrase this one, maybe it would be better titled as church. Basically, since I was 13 years old I have felt a call to share my life with people in the context of church. In my mind there is nothing like people responding to God’s work in their lives God has been so gracious to give me some wonderful opportunities. Sometimes it looks like communicating God’s Word and other times it serving.

- Studying- I have a constant problem of buying more books than I have time to read. More times of refreshing have come at a Starbucks with a book in my hand than I can count. Over and over again the Bible just blows my mind. No matter how many times I read the books of Ephesians, I Peter, and Thessalonians they draw something new. Yet, authors like Malcolm Gladwell, John Ortberg, John Piper, and Kathleen Norris have convicted and inspired me. There’s just nothing like a good one liner.

- Creativity and Communicating- Interestingly enough I took an assessment that said out 21 points of extraversion my score was 19. That does not mean just talking. I’ve been journaling for about six years now. I love to put ideas to a keyboard or on paper. Creating thoughtful dialogue and sharing in the human experience have vastly affected me.

What does this all mean? I still love Starbucks, Jets, Yankees, Nets, and any random situation worth putting on social media, but the firm conviction of my life is to communicate those things that have value and importance in my life whether by photos, blogs, tweets, or updates. Twice, speakers quoted Abraham Kuyper by saying, “In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign, does not declare, 'That is mine!'” All of which I hope can be true of my motivations and use of this arena.

Hopefully, social media allows all of us to cultivate a space to share our lives with each other. Please value people and their privacy. As always remember not to over-tweet with trivial so that people do not miss the important, and give extraverts grace to share. Open the conversation with thoughtful dialogue and do not discourage. Here we go…