My Epic Journey

I receive wisdom and guidance from two places in this world:  regular Bible reading/study and the fortune cookie I get every month when we eat at the Asian Garden Buffet.  Guess what?  Tonight we ate the Asian Garden Buffet.  I always pray for two things when I go into the AGB, 1) the sugar donut thingies are fresh and numerous, and 2) that I get a good fortune cookie . . . wait, I also pray that meat really is chicken.

Tonight, after I anxiously went through my "fortune-cookie-breaking-and-eating" routine, I read this on my fortune cookie:

Your lucky numbers are 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, & 42 (anyone know the significance of those numbers?)–jk, those weren’t really my numbers.

Then I turned over the paper and my fortune was:

Be moderate where pleasure is concerned, avoid fatigue.

I found this message very pertinent to my life right now.  Let me explain.  I love everything I am doing now.  Family, ministry, school, etc, but I am finding that I am also constantly overwhelmed and tired about all of these things at the same time. 

In family life, things are becoming crazy with baseball season for the boys, Anna’s mom is moving to Columbus, keeping up with Emma.  I love it but it is a lot.

In ministry, we are getting ready for the summer months, re-evaluating how student ministry is done at Grace Point, re-organizing leadership, kicking off monthly middle school outreach events, etc.–not to mention what is going on in the bigger picture of the church.  I am passionate about ministry–but it is hectic.

In school, I am being challenged, learning how to be a better counselor, reading interesting books, research studies, and journal articles.  I has been good–but a lot.

What I realized tonight is that even though we may love something and are passionate about, if we don’t take things moderately and in God’s timing, we will eventually burnout and become ineffective.  I immediately think of Jesus, who developed His mission and purpose for 33 years on this earth.  He took his time in picking and developing the disciples, teaching those who followed Him and healing those in need.  And He also took regular sabbaticals, or periods of rest, so that He could re-focus.  Jesus was most certainly passionate and loved what and who He was called to but He also did what He could to moderate himself and avoid fatigue.

For me, I don’t want to be ineffective in ANY of those above categories.  Perhaps you are like me and feel as if you are running a hundred miles an hour doing the things you love–but you are tired.

Take some time to rest.

Refocus your purpose and love.

and then Tackle your passion and purpose moderately.

Oh, and by the way, I really don’t LIVE for fortune cookie prophecies, though it was interesting that Noah’s (our 7 year old) tonight said, "you will soon come into some unexpected money."  Tonight, when we got home, he lost a tooth.

EPIC Student Ministries is about ready to pull off one of its biggest events called, the REVOLT.

What is the REVOLT?

The REVOLT will be a three night, high-energy event geared toward introducing students to the love of Christ. From October 25-27, 2008. This event runs from 6:30-8:30 pm each night. We hope to host 300-500 students (both Middle School and High School) from our community. Students will be split into four teams and compete in BIG games each. After the games, all students will be fed as they listen/watch the band, Salient, perform. Salient is a Christian rock band who comes to us from Nashville, TN. We are excited about their involvement with us this year.

The REVOLT will be taking place at Grace Point Community Church (2393 Peachblow Road, Lewis Center, OH 43035).

Join us for this exciting event.  If you can’t be here, please pray for us!