The Threads Blog

I’m sitting at my desk, in the unnatural quiet of a holiday workplace - which means the place is deserted, and I’m wondering why I didn’t take more vacation days myself! But, it’s a great time to catch up on ‘cleaning house’, physically and mentally, so that I can start the New Year free of clutter.

I’ve been in Nashville a little over a year, and much of the past year has been spent settling in, one way or another. Now that I’ve been settled for a few months, I’m getting restless to pursue some of the interests that have been forced to lie dormant while I worked on other priorities. Here are some of the things I’ll be pursuing in 2007…

Okay, I have to admit it. Up until this past week I’ve really been feeling the “I’m already burnt out on Christmas” feeling pretty much 24-7. I’m normally not the humbug type, so the prospect of finding myself dragging through the Christmas season was equally depressing as much as it was cynical. I think all of the ‘getting ready’ for Christmas and the lack of let down in busyness had just added up to this feeling that I was going to find myself on the other side of the holidays wondering what happened.

“I don’t know enough”, “I’m not trained”, “I’m too young”, “I’m too old” - these are just some of the things that can hold me back from acting when the Spirit nudges me.

But, I was inspired as I read about two 22-year-old missionaries who are making a difference in a low-income neighborshood in Des Moines, Iowa, by playing ball. Together, they mobilized 75 college students from nearby Drake University to create a soccer league for inner-city children. Now in its third year, they coached 28 teams and in the closing awards ceremony, shared the gospel with over 700 people - inner city kids and their family members. Read more how these young men used their passions to make a big difference in people’s lives here Central City Soccer article

Our willingness to let others see our brokenness allows them to connect to us through empathy, and that empathy is what fuels passionate intercessory prayers.

This week, I was reminded of this, as we gathered - a tiny outpost on a mission - and prayed with an intensity that carried us all away.

Waiting really stinks. I know that none of us really have the answers to life all laid out in front of us but we sure would like to have success now! I believe that God works through the hard waiting times to show us himself. Anyway, I am starting a Blog even though I don’t know how to do one, to talk about how to encounter God while we are waiting. It’s going to be posted every Wednesday and I hope you join this community of people trying to do life together while we wait on God to show up and move in our lives.

Have you seen anything lately that caused you to lose it with laughter?

I thought I had seen everything until I turned the corner and walked into the bathroom at the Phoenix airport.

One thing I learned: Do not attempt to dry your pants with a cigarette lighter.