The Desert Place
Howdy from Atlanta! Of course most of y'all won't see this ‘til sometime Wednesday or later, it is officially 3:13 eastern time for me on Monday afternoon. For the first time I have had a somewhat free moment to sit down and try to synthesize some thoughts into text.I must say that I am overwhelmed. To pack this much information into 4 days and also the element of spiritual challenge, I'm pretty drained. Program goes ‘til 11:30pm; I am of course still on mountain time and also a social butterfly wanting to meet as many people as I possibly can, so thus I get to bed around 1:30, and then I'm back up at 7 to make it to the 8am seminar on time.
However, all whining aside, I have met some incredible people. I have been running with a community of loners - several of us who came here with nobody and have bonded together in the common need of fellowship. I have gotten excited about changing students lives - I feel like returning to Gateway proclaiming, here I come kids!!!
Even more challenging, I got busted up last night. For no apparent reason, they showed a video of a youth pastor from San Clemente, CA who has been through a challenging time of two deaths close together in time. I know exactly how she feels. The video brought many of the emotions that I am still dealing with to the surface, and the music following that video brought me to a point of sobbing tears. After twenty minutes of crying and an intense time of worship and emotional struggle and confusion, this is what I wrote. This happened Sunday night at the general session.
How hard it is for myself to sing words like "how good you are to me" immediately following the remembrance of all the crap and death that has come in my life. But then to sing a song like amazing grace and remember my life as an insignificant vapor who is defined as a child of the LIVING GOD, redeemed by the blood of Christ, prince in the kingdom of God, and loved dearly by the creator of the universe, I can't help but be overwhelmed and remember how good He truly is to me.
Then the message came. A message about the deserts in our lives. The speaker brought up an interesting point - we so often fear the desert, but the desert is a place that God BRINGS US TO... so that we may be challenged and grounded in Him. There are many examples of biblical characters being brought into the desert - only to be planted and renewed in God. Wow.
I have had so much information thrown at me that I've forgotten most of everything that I haven't heard today. Thank God for notes! I have taken pages and pages of them. Somebody did give some good advice though this week - that I take at least half a day within the week after I get home and process everything - the notes, the tapes - and journal about how to apply all the information to the ministry in general and my life.
Well, that's all I have for you now. Thanks for reading and praying for me.
posted by Devo @ 3:17 PM
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