what are You trying to teach me, Daddy?

okay... so lately i have been inundated with a couple of distinct messages... "What are You trying to teach me, Daddy?"

the first is... evangelism... i have been overwhelmed with messages about evangelism - a whole bunch of sermons lately and a class about it this summer... i was even reading a friend's blog and was challenged to share my faith in a brand new way... in my journal a few sundays ago, i was writing the words, "what am i doing to share my faith? do i care about the lost? how will i make a genuine effort to share?" - questions like that... to top it off... i'm on the worship planning committee for my church (basically i just add variety to the group and help try to plan the worship services on sunday... i think that they keep me around for laughs). the direction of the services has changed and the next several sundays are going to be centered around evangelism... as soon as the words came out of pastor's mouth, i am sure the look on my face gave me away... "what are You trying to teach me, Daddy?" as if it's not obvious enough.

the church... while i was hanging out with my friend nikki yesterday afternoon, we listened to derek webb... i had listened to his cd several months ago, and pushed it aside, not because i didn't like it, but just because i didn't take the time to invest in it... and last night, i was writing a response to a review for class (that was due last thursday) about braveheart... and i began to see the parallels of william wallace's love for murron and Christ's love for His bride... i even thought about derek webb's cd when writing it... so today, i decided it was time for me to go buy the cd. 2 stores later, i had it in hand. (www.derekwebb.com) in trying to plan stuff for sunday, i had brought up a song by ross king (random song off of a cd that is no longer in print) and we were trying to find more information about it. i ended up on ross king's website today (www.rosskingmusic.com) and was looking through an old journal article of his on his website, and what was it about? the Church - also related to derek webb's cd... lately i have felt really encouraged by church - not just sermons and worship - but by the community of the church and the purpose and intent and the whole of it... but at the same time, i can see how the christian culture that i have often been a part of (and was exposed to largely in the south) has damaged what the church is and how we "do" church... "what are You trying to teach me, Daddy?" this one is not quite as obvious...

so i'm trying to keep my eyes and ears open... i have been talking with a few people about a few different things in my life... one is about God's reign in my life and the other is camp (more details to come) - and now with these two teaching issues - i am pre-amazed at what Daddy has in store... i've never heard anyone use the term 'pre-amazed'... someone tried to say 'anticipation' in its place... but it's better than that... excited hopeful confident anticipation (i don't even think that covers it)... something huge is on the horizon... and it's going to be incredible...