Stories
Did you know that Easter traditionally is celebrated in the liturgical calendar for seven weeks? It all culminates on Pentecost, which this year is May 31st, 2020.
So in keeping with this amazing season our team member Stephen Carter has given us some great reflections. We will post these throughout the week leading up to the last Feast of Easter, Pentecost. Take it away Stephen!
At our last Advanced Camp I shared a few things as 'food for thought' for the campers. Each suggest was selected not as any particular endorsement or agreement, just something to think about and consider. Ultimately the goal was to give the men something to wrestle with as an exercise in critical thinking.
I don’t get up at 6:00am. I never get up at 6:00am. I make software for a living and one of the reasons I chose that career was because it never ever requires me to get up at 6:00am. But there I was rubbing my eyes and envying my still-snoozing wife. Dressing in the near dark, layering fleece over flannel over cotton and hoping that it would be enough in the frigid November air, I fought against the bulk as I stretched to tie my shoes.
Life just hasn’t turned out the way I had hoped.” I have heard that from several people lately, often in conversations with friends once the chitchat and small talk turns to deeper things of the heart.We all have dreams, aspirations and hopes. We keep going through disappointments and detours. Think of all the things you set out to do all those years back as a little child. You were going to save the world with a cape and some spidey underwear, the outlaws were going to fear you as you rode into town with your mighty posse.
Paul is telling Timothy what he needs to know and says "...be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction." (NIV 2Tim 4:2) It's a verse I've heard many times of course but this last week was, for me, a pretty extreme example of its reality and application. I was on the road to San Francisco…
I like clouds a lot and God the Father knows this. It is sort of hard to fathom why the creator of the universe cares that much about "our details" but he does. He knows our likes and loves and he often meets us on that level. In the same way, He cares about all the rest too. The good, the bad and the ugly. He wants us to invite him into all those areas.Do you want exposure to eternal things? If you don't get anything else from this story, get this...we can invite God into all of "our details."
