Just some stuff....

It’s my first day back in the office and already my day required me to hit the ground running. Many people return from a mission trip with a new sense of perspective on their life often vowing to make lasting changes like slowing down, being more content, shifting their priorities.

If that were my case, today really would have thrown me for a loop. My work day is almost over, and I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of what I really wanted to accomplish.

But the mission trip didn’t necessarily change my perspective on my life, or shift my priorities. It did, however, reinforce and tweak the direction I am already headed. For example, here’s just some stuff I brought back from Costa Rica with me....

• I should be bolder in sharing God’s with others. But relationships are still the key. God has given me good relationships with people who are far from Him right now. I can and should become more intentional in those relationships for God’s purposes.

• I am a Shepherd. But I’m a Shepherd Leader….or maybe it’s a Leader Shepherd. God has put me out front of the church….for the church….to be pointing the direction we as a church should be going as well as how we as Christ Followers should be going there.

• Sometimes the leader out front is the one that gets shot at the most, but that’s where God asks His Shepherd Leaders (or Leader Shepherds) to be.

• God can be trusted. One of the biggest concerns for Kim and I and this trip was how to make sure our daughter Taylor followed her rigid eating system a doctor designed to stabilize her immune system. There were meals I found myself silently praying; “God, please provide something Taylor can eat right now.” And each meal…even every snack….He provided something. Maybe not always what we would have chosen, but a meal or snack none the less.

This is just some stuff God did in me and around me over the last week. This wasn’t my first mission trip, so maybe that’s why it wasn’t a life altering experience. More like a life affirming experience for me. Don’t get me wrong. I think these trips are fantastic opportunities for us to experience God working in us and thru us.

But you don’t have to go to a foreign mission field to do that. Do you?

I saw people…friends…Crossbridgers having ah-ha experiences through the week. And as happy as I was for them, part of me couldn’t help but think; “That’s exactly the kind of stuff we’ve been talking about at C3 in our series…from the stage…in Small Groups.”

On one hand, I’m thrilled that thru a mission trip experience, some light bulbs turned on and perspectives were changed…or maybe simply re-inforced. And on the other hand, I want so badly for people…friends…Crossbridgers….myself included….to live our lives daily in a way that we are attentive and open to God’s promptings….His Pointings….His Whispers. And when we see it, even think we hear it, or definitely experience it…..that we embrace it and let it transform us more and more into who God is shaping us to be.

That’s just some stuff I brought back with me from Costa Rica.