Who or What was in your path today?

    I just read this insightful blog from SimplyKurt.com titled "In Your Path" (check it out here). Anyway in his post Junior High Pastor Kurt Johnston talked about a message he gave on how different people influenced his life growing up by how they chose to react when they found him in they're path. 

   As I was thinking about this and it's application in my own life, I realized that the principle goes  much deeper. You see it's not only who was in your path today and how did you choose to react to them, but also what was in your path. For instance here is a quick example from last night:

Three 12-Packs, three chances to do the right thing.

          Sarah (my wife) came home to our apartment with some groceries from the store. She was unable to carry everything up and left two twelve packs down the stairs in the car. I gladly offered to go down and get them. When I came back up with the soda I had to resist the urge to simply drop them on the table and return to watching the box in the corner with all the flashy images (it's mesmerizing really), opening the pantry door I found a large pile of empty soda containers, and I do mean a large pile. Again resisting the urge to be lazy and throw the new cases on top of the pile I moved the cases and piled them next to the trash can. Lining up the full containers I shut the pantry door and returned to watching the flashy lights. Unfortunately in true man fashion I left the huge pile of empty boxes next to the trash can instead of taking it down to the dumpster. Later when my wife returned from putting our 19 month old to bed she was needless to say not amused with my pile of boxes. Now I must admit my initial reaction was one of irritation, I mean I gladly brought up the soda's, I didn't just leave them on the table and I had cleaned out the pantry, what more could she want?? But the truth is I had left the job incomplete. A series of obstacles had been placed in my path and while I had overcome the first two I chose to ignore the third one, which ultimately negated the lesson I could have learned finishing the task before me. The situation could have left me with a sense of personal satisfaction instead it left me irritated. 

      Movie Time.

Later that evening my wife and I crawled into bed to watch a movie together before going to bed. My wife had rented "Taken" from RedBox, and so the next few hours were comprised of both visual entertainment and relational closeness. Now it was a great movie and great time spent with my wife, but was that all? You see I can either pass through the moment enjoy it and move on or I can stop and wonder "was there some significance to this event on my path?". Now I am firm believer that God can talk to me anytime through any means He chooses. God didn't say "darn it, he started watching a movie. Guess I'll have to talk to him some other time." It didn't need to be a quote Christian movie for God to speak through it, all it took was for me to say "wait a minute, what is God saying through this". I think on some level I realized this, but sadly I would have walked away spiritually untouched  if not for a profound statement by my wife which caught me square between the eyes. "He came for her. Just as Christ came for us." From the mouth of babes... (and we always thought this meant children). What a powerful statement, sermon's could be preached, lessons could be taught, and most assuredly a blog post could be written about such a statement. It touched me to the core, but I could have easily missed it. I could have rolled over and gone to bed, thinking how sad it is that human trafficking is happening in our world today, but ultimately untouched and unchanged. 

I whole heartedly agree with Pastor Kurt on this one, but why settle for just looking at why certain people cross our paths each day (which is definitely something I personally need to work on)? Why not also look into the events as well, why not look for God in every moment of every day. We might just catch a glimpse of something special, that would have missed.  

Well it's getting late, until next time keep your eyes open

Aaron

Nearing the end as I approach the beginning

     As I enter into the weekend of our second and last week of Summer vacation from our degree completion program through life pacific college, I find myself both refreshed and equally exhausted. These two weeks have been a much needed respite from school, however these two weeks have also been really busy at work as I have been scrambling to finish up projects due to be shipped to Mexico sometime in mid July, as well as upgrading the safety features of three of our the biggest lines in the plant by the end of June. Needless to say it's been somewhat hectic. 

   Anyway when it comes to the youth group Sarah and I have both been excited about the new directions things have been going. This last week was arguably one of our best weeks ever, the message, media and activity flowed together perfectly. One would think that the better things get the more satisfied we would become, however I find in my life the opposite to be true. The better things get the more I want to raise the bar. I'm not complaining it's far to easy in this life to get complacent and I for one know that I could greatly benefit from a little drive in my life and ministry. 

Sarah and I have many new ideas we want to roll out over the course of the summer and still more we want to kick off in the fall. Look for further posts as we plan for and implement these ideas. 

Aaron