Elevate :: Day 1

Not too much of an eventful day, since we spent most of it on the bus. I-75 is still doing construction in the same spot... I think for 10 years now. Anyhow, we had safe, but fun travels... watched a few movies, took a few naps, talked and talked some more.

We had a good southern-style dinner at the Cracker Barrel and then our hats went off to Jack, our bus driver, for getting us safely up the hairpins turns of Lookout Mountain Drive.

Our opening session with Wayne and the band was a good start to our camp week and we were challenged about our focus and hearing from God this week.

Enjoy some pics from today!

the power of denial

Peter. The Rock. He was a guy in Scripture that got a great name change. He’s one of my favorities when it comes to character studies. This guy lived petal to the medal, all out, full-on with reckless abandon for Christ. Yet when Peter would fall – he would fall hard. But Peter had a unique way of bouncing back after hard falls.
I’m thinking specifically of the time when Peter (who probably thought he was at the top of his game) denied Christ. Not just a brick shot at the hoop, but a total air ball. No net, backboard, iron – no nothing.

That must have been devastating. But instead of sitting the second half out – Peter wants back in the game. His next step was to surrender to God’s strength. He realized he was operating out of his own abilities and what he thought was strength. It looked great from the outside – on fire, speak what’s on my mind, going all the way, I’ll never deny you attitude… but what his mind and heart desired, couldn’t be sustained by his strength alone.

Lesson learned. For Peter that is. For me… well… still learning. Jesus said it this way, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Jesus says deny your own strength, abilities and talents and let me support your passion and desires.

This is so opposite from what we hear in the world around us. I was raised here in the do it yourself, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, if you want to be it – believe it culture of “success”. Yet as true to form, the Kingdom operates quite opposite of culture. Every day of my life, I must come to the place where I fall on my face and say, “God I can’t do this on my own. I give up.” The power of denial.
That’s where it must all begin… it must begin at the end of ourselves.

God bring me to the end of myself – the place where I rest in your strength alone.

busy pastor

I was recently captivated and challenged by a quote from Eugene Peterson in his book The Contemplative Pastor, where he says that the adjective 'busy' describing 'pastor' ought to sound to us as jarring as 'adulterous' and 'husband' or 'embezzling' and 'banker'.

Here are some more quotes from Peterson's book and really have implications to any profession (beyond pastors) and simply in how we live our lives and structure our days.

“I (and most pastors, I believe) become busy for two reasons; both are ignoble.

“I am busy because I am vain.

“I want to appear important. Significant. What better way than to be busy?… I live in a society in which crowded schedules and harassed conditions are evidence of importance, so I develop a crowded schedule and harassed conditions. When others notice, they acknowledge my significance, and my vanity is fed.

“I am busy because I am lazy.

“I indolently let others decide what I will do instead of resolutely deciding myself. Let people who do not understand the work of the pastor write the agenda for my day’s work because I am too slipshod to write it myself…. It was a favorite theme of C. S. Lewis that only lazy people work hard. By lazily abdicating the essential work of deciding and directing, establishing values and setting goals, other people do it for us; then we find ourselves frantically at the last minute, trying to satisfy a half dozen different demands on our time, none of which I essential to our vocation, to stave off the disaster of disappointing someone…."

I don't know if my life fits these descriptions or just simply "I'm busy because I don't know how to operate otherwise!" Meaning I can't get everything done that is asked of me and haven't learned how to prioritize or say "No".

All I can say is that I'm really challenged by this. I desire to focus on what is important to God. I want to invest in the Kingdom and eternal things. I've taken some words of Paul from Philippians 3 to speak into this area of my life, "As a result, I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I can learn what it means to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that, somehow, I can experience the resurrection from the dead!

Basically, can I know Christ is such a way to overcome busyness? Can I be raised to new life and experience the power that allowed Him to minister out of the overflow of His connection with His Father? Can I keep the main thing the main thing and invest like Jesus did in what matters?

Relational Struggles

I wrapped up a series with the students last night that I called 30 Days to Live, based on the book 1 Month to Live, by Chris & Kerry Shook (great read by the way). Last night we focused on "Fighting for Peace" in our relationships. The main focus was that life is too short to live with broken relationships, bitterness or relational pain.

God has divinely wired us to long for relationships. It was part of His creative design in forming us in His image. God exists in relationship, created us for relationships with each other and longs to have the broken relationship with all of us (humanity) restored through His Son. Yet relationships are difficult, messy and just plain hard!

After I finished last night, I could sense that God had really done a work and communicated His message to the hearts present. The relational pain was even evident on some faces in the room. I was encouraged when I was able to field some good questions and hear some of our students' stories on Facebook last night. It seems that there is no such "innocence of youth" when it comes to broken, strained or even dysfunctional relationships. It affects all of us. No one is exempt. Life in a fallen world.

Yet what often causes us the most pain, God challenges us to push into in even greater depth and to actually fight for peace, reconciliation and to love deeply. We're called to be people that are irrational forgivers - to forgive when we are hurt and wounded in the fashion of Christ calling out on the cross "Father, forgive the very ones who put me here. Forgive the ones who have caused me so much pain."

My heart's desire is that God would impress on my heart exactly what David prayed in Psalm 93: "LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, and that my life is fleeing away. My life is no longer than the width of my hand. An entire lifetime is just a moment to you; human existence is but a breath."

24

It all started with a phone call at 1am from AA letting me know my 8 am flight to Miami was canceled but they could put me on a 6pm flight. Small minor problem being Mike and Rachel's wedding started at 5pm. I spent about an hour on the phone with AA and they booked me on a Delta flight (which of course would have to go through Atlanta) and then on to Miami. The bright spot at this point was supposed to leave around noon so I could go to Brock's soccer game in the morning.


So off to the airport I go, being optimistic, but concerned about the weather moving through the southeast. I get my boarding pass and of course would be randomly selected for the pat you down, unpack your luggage and take away your toothpaste security check. Get to the Delta gate and they inform me that the plane is late coming in (due to weather) and I'll only have about 20 minutes to make my connection. No problem, right? I've run through airports before.

But then the gentleman suggests that I go down a few gates and see about the direct Delta flight to Miami. Sounds awesome, but no seats left. I beg, plead, offer to ride with the cargo, but to no avail. So back down a gate and about 15 mintues later I hear "Paging Todd Veleber" over the speakers. The guy says, "Run, they have one seat left!" I ran. I was the last to board and sat in the only open seat.

Not that I doubted, but at this point I knew God was looking out for me. Good flight to Miami. It took almost 1 1/2 to get out of the airport and through the rental car process. Needless to say if I would have been on my booked flight (that was to arrive at 3:40p) I wouldn't have made the wedding.

I did make it. The wedding & reception was awesome. Congrats Mike & Rachel! I love you guys!

At this point, I'm halfway through my journey. I caught only a few hours sleep since I had to get up at 3:30am to leave Ft. Lauderdale to give time to drive to Miami, check in the car and get through the airport. Relatively uneventful flight back. Touched down in Tally at 8:40am in time to drive straight to church to be ready to teach middle school students and then corporate worship and then a student ministry summer missions meeting.

I'm beyond exhausted and I guess that is why I'm posting a blog entry rather than sleeping. I'm sure I'll crash soon. Here's hoping my next 24 hours are a little less hectic!

30 Days to Live

I just started a series with my students on Wednesday nights I'm calling "30 days to live" which has been inspired by the book I'm reading, "One Month to Live" by Chris & Kerry Shook. How would you live your life if you had 30 days left to live? It's not a new question... I assume it has been around since death. Even though it is hard to think about, it really does bring incredible clarity to life when you try to answer it.

I've invited them to join me in living the next 30 days (which happen to be the last 30 days of their school year) with a no-regrets mindset - in total devotion to live for the glory of God.

Death is such a powerful word. People don't like to think about it, much less talk about it. Yet throughout Scripture we are reminded to live in the moment... to live every day as if it were our last since we aren't promised tomorrow. The focus isn't on death, but on life.

My heart desires to embrace Paul's passionate understanding that to live is Christ, but to die is gain. I want to live life with a reckless abandon to the cause of Christ - to be about Kingdom things, investing in things that matter. I want to live in the moment. I want to love deeply, serve passionately, plunge into the depths of relationships, receive God's grace freely, move missionally, speak the Gospel unashamedly and follow God closely.

I pray that my journey in "life" these next 30 days will result in my life more fully yielded to God. To be able to live as a true Christ-follower, based on His example. Jesus at age 12 said, "I must be about my Father's business" and then 21 years later, with his dying breath said, "I've completed the work you called me to do."

Collide

We wrapped up our DiscipleNow 2008 this past weekend. It was an awesome yet exhausting weekend all in one. Our theme was collide as we journeyed toward understanding a Christ-centered worldview... learning to live in the world but not of the world.

This is the tension of the life of a Christ-follower. A daily battle between the old nature and the Spirit of the living God within us - redeeming us and making us new. I'm amazed at how strong the pull of the world can be... enticing the desire of my flesh to be the boss and live to please myself. Yet we are challenged in Romans 12 not to be squeezed into the world's mold, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

Some days I fight well, or better said, I follow the Spirit's lead and let Him fight on my behalf. Other days are more bleak. But I'm challenged by 1 John 2:6 that says, "Whoever claims to be in Christ must walk as Jesus did." Praise God for giving us a great example to follow. My prayer coming out of this weekend is that I would be faithful to walk as Jesus' walked, and that the desire for the things of God would continue to captivate my heart's attention.