Category Archives: Personal
Catalyst West 2010
This morning I woke up at 5:30am to drive up to Irvine to attend my first Catalyst West conference, and after one day I can say its been well worth it. This is turning out to be one of my favorite Christian conferences that I’ve ever attended. The innovation, passion, and energy in this place is contagious. It was crazy walking into the plenary this morning to see large confetti filled balloons and helium filled “UFO” saucers being bumped around to club music! Read the rest of this entry
Stormy Day
8 days into my media/meat/dessert fast and I’m really starting to feel it. Maybe its having a day off after a ministry filled weekend. Maybe the post conference lull is finally getting to me. Or maybe it’s the fact that it’s raining like mad right now (by San Diego standards, it’s like the end of the world… click map for visual). But I woke up this morning and felt very alone…
The feeling didn’t go away through the day and more than ever I found myself wanting to drown out the feeling in front of the tube, stalking people on Facebook, eating my room mates chocolate, or chatting away on AIM. At one point, I was looking at my iPhone and the games that I had left on my phone from before my fast had the same appeal to me as crack cocaine.
As I laid there in bed, trying to get my day started somehow, I began to realize how much “stuff” I do to keep myself from facing my poverty of loneliness. I mean I wonder how much of my life is driven by the need to feel connected to someone or something. The way I do ministry, the attention I give to my friends/family, the time I waste online… is it really all done to just cover up this gaping need in my heart to feel connected? Read the rest of this entry
Urbana Reflection: Modern Day Tabernacle
In the months leading up to Urbana I had numerous students asking me if it was really worth $800 to go to Urbana. I remember at the time really wrestling over this question. I mean I couldn’t exactly promise that it would be an amazing life changing experience and that they would receive their life’s calling (as many students might have expected). So I kept my answer simple. There is nothing else like the experience of worshipping with 20,000 people and hearing from international speakers. Yet deep in my heart I wrestled with the question, was that really worth the $800-$1000 that my students had to pay?
I remember the night before the conference, the prayer team gathered in the dome to pray for the start of the conference. About a hundred prayer folks gathered to pray and we proceeded into the dome in two lines taking turns reading the Psalms of Accent. The Psalms of Accent (Psalms 120-134) were the Psalms that the Israelite people read as the climbed up toward the temple in Jerusalem.
Walking through the empty dome was a unique experience. With no one in it, it felt HUGE, and I was filled with awe at how many people were about to fill this place. As we recited the Psalms, I was struck by how symbolic this act was. We were sharing in the act of preparation that the Israelites took as they drew near to the tabernacle, the dwelling place of the Lord. Read the rest of this entry
