seeking His face

This summer has been great. God has taught and showed me so many amazing things through my internship at Kingsland and through my friends. First of all, I quickly learned that this summer was going to be one of testing. I was going to be tested by being put in difficult situations at my internship that I knew I could not handle on my own which in turn brought me to where I'm sure God intended, which was desperately needing to trust in Him. One scenario after the next I was at a point of trusting God with everything I had. Throughout the summer I learned some other valuable lessons in ministry like how to use your time wisely and not overwork yourself and some things to do and not to do. But just last night I was told something that I won't soon forget. Many people seek, search, and desire to just see an angel at any point in their life. If they could just get a glimpse of that huge, holy, angelic figure standing guard over them as they are praying then they would be content. Now I don't believe this is necessarily Biblically sound so don't count this as fact, but what if angels knew that if we so desire to see and angel more than anything, that revealing themselves to us would in fact distract us from what we should be focusing on, Jesus Himself! We should be seeking the face of Jesus more than anything of this world or not of this world. Whenever you hear stories of people seeing angels watching over them and fighting for them, don't covet that experience, instead desire to see the face of Jesus Himself, the Son of the living God, who died for yours and my sins. Now I'm not belittling those who have seen angels, that was obviously for some reason that an angel made himself known to you so please don't take any offense. None the less, my friend who shared this opinion with me certainly had an impact on my life and made me rethink what I should be seeking everyday.

Awesome God

One thing that I have noticed over the years, with much credit due to my mom, is how much people use the word awesome for everyday things and then turn around and use it to describe God. For most people I'm sure it's just habit and that's what you are used to saying, but I don't really think that is an okay excuse. First of all, do you know what awesome really means? According to webster is means awe inspiring, or I've also heard it mean awe inspiring in the sense of fear or reverence. So does that new car, or really cool video game, or really great Super Bowl game really inspire awe inside of you, even to the point of fear or reverence? If you are being honest I would have to think that it does not. With that being said, even if it is something extraordinary according to most things here on earth, is it really fair to the all powerful, all knowing, God that is in full control of everything and created everything to be compared to whatever earthly thing that He Himself created? DEFINITELY not. So when we say that whatever thing we see or experience here on earth, outside of God Himself, is awesome and then say that God is awesome, we are putting God on the same level as whatever that thing is. Now I don't say this to condemn anyone because I use it from time to time as well, but growing up with a mom that discouraged using the word awesome except for when talking about God, has really helped me to keep that word holy and set apart for Him and Him alone. So, I do say all this to challenge and encourage everyone to think about what you are saying before you say it. Is whatever you are talking about truly as awesome as God? If not, then don't say it is. This might take some time to get used to and even look weird to everyone else, especially if you begin encouraging your friends to do the same, but it's worth it. Having a higher reverence for God's name is never a bad thing, at least not in His eyes, and honestly, His is the only opinion that matters.

Now on a topic dealing with how awesome God is, and dealing with the things He created, I have come to find that I love nature, particularly really beautiful views. To some, this may seem a little feminine since guys aren't supposed to say beautiful, but when I see something so beautiful, I can't help but think of the fact that God created that and how awesome He is. Seeing many different sights because of my travels, whether it be moving to different countries, going on hockey tournaments, traveling on vacations, or going on mission trips, has truly grown my love for that type of thing. I can vividly remember going up a ski lift in Calgary during a hockey tournament and looking out over all the snow covered mountains that poked through the clouds and thinking of how awesome God is and marveling at what He created. Another thing that I can't help sitting in awe of God is when I'm scuba diving at the bottom of the ocean floor and I look up and all around and see never ending ocean and all the animals that God created. Simply marveling at God's glory underwater is one of the reasons I love to scuba dive. Lastly, going on a mission trip to Nicaragua the summer after my junior year of high school was probably one of the coolest experiences I've had. Seeing the trees around us, the volcanoes in the distance, the thunder storms at night, and the sunrise and sunset (which the picture at the top of the page is from our trip there) are some of the coolest sights I've seen and brought me so much closer to God once I stopped and realized who created those things and that He did so to bring Himself glory. So the next time you see a beautiful sunset, mountains in the distance, or something that puts you in awe, think of who created that and give Him the glory.

Tattoo in Ministry?

For a couple of years now I have been contemplating getting a tattoo, but have had the recurring question in my mind.... How would having a tattoo affect my ministry? Sure I've had people tell me of the verse in Leviticus about not marking your body, but how much relevance does that have today? I'm not really sure to tell you the truth. The way I see it, is that if what you get a tattoo of glorifies God and not yourself and truly honors Christ, then I feel like it is okay. Now before you start criticizing or on the other hand deciding to go get a ton of tattoos, first hear that I don't know everything or by any means have all the right answers about this subject, and I would probably not agree with just getting any tattoo, especially while serving in ministry. I feel like it is something that needs to be prayed about a lot and not taken lightly because of course... it's permanent. One thing that concerned me was the aspect of getting a job in ministry while having a tattoo. Now to me this doesn't seem like a big enough deal to not get hired, especially if it is something that does glorify God. However, I can see certain churches having a problem with a pastor having a tattoo which I can understand to some extent because of the kind of example it sets for the church body, and especially a youth pastor because of the affect it can have on the students. Something I would stress if I did have a tattoo and was a youth pastor is why I have it and the fact that I didn't just go get some random tattoo that looked cool on a whim just because I felt like it at the moment. I can understand some parents being upset at first because their students might be more inclined to go get a tattoo because their youth pastor has one, but once they hear why I had one, I would hope that would change. Back to the idea of getting a job, someone once told me that if the church has such a problem with you having a tattoo that they wouldn't hire you, then there might be more contradictory things with what you and the church believe that it might not be a good idea to be there anyway. Once again, I don't know if this is scripturally sound or not, but I feel inclined to agree with what this person told me. I also heard a story of someone who had a whole sleeve of tattoos and that he could cover them up with wearing a long sleeve shirt or expose them by simply pushing his sleeves up just a bit. He would cover them while witnessing to certain people and then slightly expose them when witnessing to others. Not saying that this is always true, but I would have to believe that some people would feel more comfortable talking to someone who seems more like them (for instance if this person had tattoos and felt rejected at church before). Now, where I am wanting to get a tattoo wouldn't be outright visible so this theory doesn't necessarily apply to me but I think the concept still does.

So like I said, I don't know all the answers so please don't take anything I said as absolute truth and please don't take any offense to anything because I truly was not intending to offend anyone. Also, I would love to hear what you have to say about the subject so please comment.

Why OU?

A few people have asked me this question, personally I think it's a dumb question because where else would I go? OU is only the best university ever, I mean what else can you ask for? But seriously, the reason I came to OU starts with growing up as a Sooner and being a loyal fan my whole life, which I guess technically starts with my family being from Oklahoma and my dad and his dad attending OU and influencing our family in the proper way of living :). Being a loyal fan means liking OU and continuing to support them and root for them even if they lose, which I know is easy to do because they don't lose very often. Despite all of this, I didn't really know where I wanted to go to college or had any intention of attending OU up until around sophomore year of high school. During that year I came up to Norman to visit the campus and stayed with Jude Dysart, a good friend of mine and my family. I stayed at his house here on campus and got a glimpse of Brothers Under Christ fraternity, the campus itself, and not to mention our amazing football team. After staying those couple of days and going to BYX family weekend, I was hooked. It wasn't long before I had brought my best friends Zach and Kevin up to visit and they liked it just the same, I mean how could one not? Soon after that, friends started coming up to visit like crazy and before I knew it, 10 to 15 of my close friends were planning on attending OU after high school. This made the decision even easier. Ever since I have been here at OU, I have loved every part of it and wouldn't choose any other school over it, as well as absolutely loving the city of Norman and the community that goes along with it. So in short....

BOOMER SOONER!!

My Ring

Many people ask about my ring, most likely because it is in a different language, that being Hebrew. It says כי אל אשר תלכי אלך (kee ahl-asher tel-leh-kee ahl-lek) which means "I will go where you go" which is quoted from the book of Ruth. This ring is originally intended to be a wedding band however I received it as a true love waits ring. For those who don't know, true love waits is a promise to abstain from sexual activity until marriage (hints waiting for your true love). This is a promise I made back in 8th grade and have been proud of and stood up for it ever since. What my ring means to me is kind of three different things. First of all, it means what I promised back in 8th grade, to wait for my wife. That was the original intention of getting this ring. Second, it is a promise to my wife when I am married that I will go where she goes and never leave her. No matter how tough things are I won't leave her for anything. Third, it is a promise to God that no matter where He is leading me in life I will follow and trust Him every step of the way. I will go where He goes, though it may seem wrong to me, I know it's what's best.

And as many people have asked me before... no, I'm not Jewish

A Call to Service

Growing up going to church is something that I am very thankful for, however while I was growing up, sometime in elementary school, I thought that working in the church would be the most boring thing ever. As I started getting involved in the student ministry at Kingsland I developed a love for God and came to realize what my relationship with Him truly meant. After growing a lot in my faith freshman year of high school in Life Groups, I started to feel called into ministry. For a while I wasn't really sure if I was cut out for this type of thing, seeing that I wasn't a very good public speaker and not really knowing how to study the Bible that well not to mention prepare a sermon. For a couple of years I had been praying for God to give me some kind of sign or speak to me loud and clear so that I would KNOW that I was for sure called into ministry. The summer after my senior year I was given the great opportunity to go on the 7th and 8th grade mission trip to Groves, TX as a leader. At first I was pretty bummed about missing my very last mission trip with the senior class, but after realizing what a great opportunity the trip to Groves could be, I was more than excited to go. A couple of days into the trip, I believe it was thursday, God led me to 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 where Paul is talking about how he came to the Corinthians without great wisdom or clever words or good speech, so that they might trust and believe in God's message, not his. At this point I KNEW that God was for sure calling me into ministry and I felt as though He was speaking loud and clear telling me that I can't do anything or am good at anything on my own but He will give me strength so that those who I am sent to will not believe because of what I can do or how well I can talk, but that they will believe because of what God is saying to them through me. Ever since this call to ministry I feel as though I am called to the specific ministry of students. I am currently being trained in this area as an intern at Bethel Student Ministry where I love serving the Lord and I love those who I work with as well as truly loving and caring for all the students in the youth group. I am excited for what God has in store for my life even though I don't always know what's around the corner. I know He is leading my footsteps and Him being in control is one of the most comforting things I will ever experience.