my life…in text format

I saw a quote on an away message on my buddy list. It said, “If you’re lonely, it means you don’t want to be alone.”

I thought that was profound. I know people who don’t have a problem being by themselves. There are some days I feel like that myself. I just need to get away, relax, enjoy reflecting, reading, watching TV, whatever. Recently though, I’ve begun to look inside myself to find out what that word “lonely” means for me.

I was talking with a friend just recently and I mentioned that as a leader, it gets really lonely having to deal with everything and have everybody look at you as the one to know the answer or take the lead and stay the course. It’s difficult to do that. It’s a lonely road. That’s the nature of leadership. It comes with the territory.

It’s interesting because it forces you to look at every relationship you have. I’ve been faced with this in the previous weeks. My family is a family with a lot of responsibility. We work as leaders of a youth ministry that serves hundreds of teenagers each week. And not just once a week, but 6 days a week. And over the years of watching what God is doing, our family has grown so amazingly close, it’s almost too good to be true. Knowing what I know about the importance of family and seeing the effects of a broken family on the soul of a young person, I cannot take any credit for the way our family lives. It is by the grace of a much bigger God that we are able to function as a single, family unit.

Over the past few weeks, my love for the three other members of my family has grown exponentially and in turn my amazement and love for my God and Savior has grown as well. Every person in my family has made mistakes. Every person that makes up the Denen family has done things they would take back if given the chance. But, we’ve been together. We’ve made those mistakes knowing that. Together. Four. One. Family.

We all have our own situations that we deal with separately. I have things I have to go through a day and deal with that my Father and Sister don’t have to deal with and vice versa.

But we are there for each other. We are together.

I love that. Because I know that if we are broken and flawed and misunderstand each other at times but we are together, how much more can a perfect, flawless, understanding God deliver you when you rely on Him?

This hit me just two nights ago when I was sitting in my parents room talking with my dad and sister about some very important topics to each of us. We are living four separate lives, but we are living them together. When my dad left the room, my sister and I started talking about the similarities between her scenarios and my own scenarios and was astonished at the similarities of what, on the surface, seem to be completely opposite situations.

I love when God reveals things about His character through life…or something like it.

We are living life. Another quote I saw on an away message on my buddy list had this phrase at the end of it, this is a rough paraphrase, unfortunately, I can’t remember the whole thing exactly:

“There’s got to be more to life than just being alive.”

I couldn’t agree more.

This is a very unstructured post, I usually like to take more time to nail down the thoughts, but I thought it was necessary to get this out of my head and written down quickly, so I could chew on it myself.

If it doesn’t make sense…it’s my fault, not yours.

Do you have a family that, no matter what you go through, you go through together? If so, thank God for the grace that He has given you to be in that situation.

If you don’t, it’s certainly not because God has forgotten you or cares about somebody else more. For whatever reason, maybe…once again, because of the poor choices of other people you don’t have that togetherness…listen closely please…

My dad’s mom passed away of breast cancer when he was seven and he didn’t meet his father until he was eighteen and was raised by a grandmother riddled with bitterness due to a failed relationship. It was because of his aunt…who took him to church with her that he was able to find the grace and strength to survive.

And the things that my dad did NOT have when he was growing up are the very things that he worked so hard to provide for me and my family. The reason being he knows what it feels like to not have it. You see, because of the life he grew up with, he was able to really understand the importance of living…and not simply just being alive.

Don’t underestimate the power of a big God because somebody else’s situation is better than yours. Don’t sell God short. Because my dad is a great father, but he’s not perfect. God, on the other hand, is not a reflection of my earthly father…

He’s the perfection of my Father. He’s my Father, perfectly.

Here’s to not just being alive, but really living…

  On a hot Spring day, I think it might have been Memorial Day, my dad wanted me to help him in the yard with some landscaping. I was tired, I had prepared myself for a relaxing day, school was pretty hectic and I was working as well, so in my young mind I thought I had a good excuse for doing nothing. Dad had other plans. He wanted both my sister and myself to help him outside. Needless to say, I was frustrated, I didn’t want to be out there, it was hotter than I was bargaining for and, I just wasn’t in the mood. He assured me it wouldn’t take that long, but of course, things like that always stretch out. Begrudgingly I got my work shoes on and headed outside.One of the things he wanted me to do later in the day was edge around the mulch beds so we can lay new mulch. By this time I was actually in a much better mood, ready to do whatever he needed. I edged and I edged, I was very proud of my work. You know, working with dirt and earth and the ground is oddly rewarding and satisfying. I finished what I considered to be a wonderful piece of work and was really happy about my addition to the history of landscaping mastery. Dad walked over and I was waiting on a, “wow, that looks great. good job.” Instead what I got was a, “hand me the shovel, let me show you what it’s supposed to look like.” Not in a degrading way, mind you, but in a Fatherly, teaching kind of way.What does this have to do with why I follow Jesus?You see, I was finished with my work, I was satisfied with what I had done. If it were up to me, I would have put the shovel down, washed the dirt off my hands and had a nice glass of iced tea. But my dad, knowing what it should look like completed the job.Which brings me to another reason I follow Jesus.When Jesus does something He does it completely. He doesn’t leave the work half-done and walk away satisfied that He showed some effort. When He was on the cross and He sucked in one of those last waning breaths and cried out, “It is finished,” He wasn’t saying that He was finished the way I was finished with my edging.No, He was saying, the deed has been completely done. No longer do you have to come to God the way you’ve come to Him all these years. You can now come through me, you can now follow me to God. When Jesus does something He does it completely.My dad spent two minutes on what I thought was an amazing piece of handy work. When He was done, it looked nothing like what I had created. Through the mastery of his expert hand and the beauty of what he created, it was revealed to me how short I had come of what could be.We are the same way with God.We do things ourselves, we work hard to get things right, we do what we are supposed to do…or what we think we are supposed to do. But through the mastery of His expert hand we are shown what really can be and are reminded of how short we come apart from Him. I love Jesus for that, among many other things.That’s just another reason I follow Jesus.More to come. 

Craig Groeschel is an author that is quickly becoming a must read for me. There are some authors I love and will read whatever book they write just because I love their way of communicating. Craig Groeschel is one of those authors. His new book “Going All The Way” just came out and I can’t wait to read it. Chazown and Confessions of A Pastor are both great reads and what he is doing with lifechurch.tv is amazing.

We all long for lasting relationships, get this book and find out some practical Biblical principles to make that happen!

It was great being in church today. We missed three weeks when we were on vacation and it was nice to be back with our community of fellow believers. You don’t realize how important it is to worship with a community of people until you are away from it and come back to it. I missed my extended family. I’m glad to be back.

I heard a great statement from John Maxwell at the Catalyst conference a couple of years back.

I don’t know if this is his statement of if he was quoting somebody else.

“Don’t get so caught up in doing a great work for God, that you forget to let God do a great work in you.”

I am being reminded of this.

 God wants to do something great in you. IN YOU. In You.

Your heart, your mind, the stuff that makes you, you. God wants to do a great work in you.

My prayer is that you let Him do that.

Some things from the beach today…

1. Those birds that nose dive into the ocean for fish. Those guys are cool.

2. Some people get really mad when your beach umbrella accidentally gets blown away and almost hits them.

3. Walk half-naked into a mall and you get arrested…walk half-naked around a beach, you fit righ in. That’s just interesting.

4. Miss one small spot on your body with the sun-tan lotion…it hurts…badly.

5. Dried sand on your hands = dried sand on the food you snack on at the beach = gross crunchy string cheese

6. The ocean seems to get more beautiful every time I see it.

7. God is amazing to create something so breathtaking.

8. One day I want to walk the beach hand in hand with the special lady I’ve grown old with.

9. I’m really really small.

10. I can’t wait to go back tomorrow.

More to come from Pawley’s Island, SC.

Our vacation has officially begun. We are in South Carolina at a hotel and will go the rest of the way to Pawley’s Island tomorrow! Boogie boarding, fishing, sun bathing, catching up on reading, rest and relaxation are all soon to come.

You can be jealous if you want, but don’t be too jealous, I’ll feel bad!

Yesterday I walked donwstairs to see what my parents were up to and I couldn’t find any of them in the house. My dad was outside working on a shed he had built in our backyard so I scanned the house to find my mom….no where to be found. I peeked outside the kitchen window knowing where I would find her. She was sitting on the swing underneath the pavilion in our back yard. Just reading. I thought, “wow, that’s nice, she’s enjoying the nice day.” Then I saw her glance over to my dad while he was working. Then I knew the real reason she was out there. She wasn’t out there to read, that’s just what she was doing, she was out there to be in close proximity to my dad. She just wanted to be close to him, near him while he worked. She wanted to enjoy his company and have her company enjoyed. It was an impacting moment seeing my mom simply glance over to see my dad work. It made me think of how marriage is a picture, a flawed, human picture of course, but a picture nonetheless of how Christ views the church. We are all called to be members of God’s family. Christ is the bridegroom and the church is His bride. I wondered how often I want to be in the presence of Jesus just to watch Him work. I get so caught up in helping Him work that I forget to just watch Him work.

I want to see my Savior work in the lives of others. I want to be in close proximity to Him, just to enjoy His presence and have my presence enjoyed. He enjoys me more than I enjoy Him. That’s something to think about.