Oct 23 2010
What is Stressing you Out?
One of the things we lead our Discovery Bible study is the question, “What is stressing you out? and what are you thankful for?” It is a proto prayer for our non-believers and a prompt for prayer for our believers. Well this is a week where there are a few things stressing me out. I’m leading a training tomorrow (Saturday) that I don’t feel all that ready for. I am taking Jonathan to a Faith and Science seminar http://vibrantdance.org/ all next week in Austin as a way to build up my apologetics skill but even more important to help him to see that intelligent men can believe in Jesus.
We went on a regional staff retreat in St. Louis. I was challenged by several talks about putting borders in different areas of your life. The most challenging is making sure I get enough sleep. I believe this was a God-send. (it’s 1:30AM… maybe I still need some work.) I did get a lot of needed rest though during the retreat and learned a lot from others who do international student ministry in our region.- Our family celebrated our “reward” for each of us completing 50 hours of exercise this summer with a night a Great Wolf Lodge. This was a way to keep our kids (and us) active when school was out.
Sitting here, thinking about what to put in this prayer update, I realize I could tell you about many events, such as the Big Howdy party that drew more than 500 international students, the annual Stephenville campout, where students got to stay on a real cowboy ranch and get a real Texas experience as well as a chance to hear the gospel, about the awesome Friday night groups in which many students are participating in Discovery Bible Study, as often as not led by a student, about the special training that some of the believing students are getting to develop them into Christian leaders, Roy & Tim’s scout adventure, our sharing at VBS at Calvary Church in California.
But instead I’d like to share about some things that God is teaching me lately. It mostly has to do with the nature of faith, believing God even when I don’t know what He’s up to. Lately some of the most challenging conversations I’ve had about God have been with my own kids. Our oldest is sorting through a lot of ideas right now, forming his world view. He’s being influenced by music and ideologies that dance around the truth (this is a really messed up world), but don’t offer a satisfying solution. He’s skeptical whether the Christian faith really offers that solution either. I’ve had to understand that no one comes to God unless the Father draws him. God doesn’t beckon us with logical arguments. . . he beckons us with authentic relationship.
I’m also being challenged in how to respond to Roy when I’m feeling the strain of our busy schedule. It’s so easy to lash out and be angry at our mates when we’re under stress, but I recently was at a women’s event where the speaker reminded us of the importance of the soft answer. It’s hard to work as a team when we are blaming each other. Instead, we (okay, I) need to be slower to take offense and quicker to affirm that I want to work together, not against each other.
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind for me, our team and our family. At TCU we had family weekend where parents of freshmen come on out to visit. We had a special tailgate party for the international students who did not have parents come all the way out. The following week, I had to travel to Colorado Springs for a meeting to discuss new ways of doing ministry to international students with our national leadership. Some of our team learned about how to reach Muslims from former Muslims who chose to follow Christ. Finally several major initiatives that I am intimately connected to are gearing up all at once. I honestly am getting tired of answering the question, “How is it going?” with, “It’s really been as busy as its ever been…” Still its is fun to be in the middle of some stuff that God is doing where He is pulling much of the weight.
Pray also for clarity in Tim’s scout pack that Lisa and Roy are in leadership with. We are struggling at the pack level though our den is going strong. Pray for a fishing trip we are taking the boys on this Saturday.
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