chair lift

There's a moment when you're snowboarding when everything is peaceful. You have a view of the whole slope. The wind still whips past your face... but it's different. People whiz past below you. Bird's eye view for every epic wipe-out.

You're on the lift.

Then comes the moment of truth.

This is the point where I usually freak out. One time, on the chair by myself, I slipped getting off the lift. Screaming, I turned around to grab the chair slowly moving past. The chair didn't stop or slow. I slid down the exit slope and crumpled into a heap of board and body parts.

And even if you get off the lift successfully, you're still at the top of the hill! Ready to navigate the trees, the rocks, the cliffs and the jumps. People who board or ski for fun would say your skill helps you down the mountain. I hear that's how downhill snow sports are enjoyable. To me, after you let go of the chair lift it's anybody's game.

This weekend was the ride on the chairlift. Soul rest. Bird's eye view. The moment where you can watch your spit freeze as it falls for 100 feet.

Tomorrow, my board will try to hit the snow.

Tomorrow begins with junior high Halloween. It's a half-day (because of state budget cuts) so each class period is only 30 minutes long. And I'm giving quizzes to the 7th graders, then expecting them to understand and diagram the components of a pumpkin "system". And I'm asking the 9th graders to design an experiment that demonstrates a Law I only taught them on Friday. And then I'm going to run a lot of errands, meet with some high school senior girls, and hopefully write an entry for my National Boards portfolio. And maybe greet some trick-or-treaters if they show up.

This week is a week of Kingdom work. "Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." Mark 9:38


Our youth team is hosting an illustrated sermon two nights this week, to accommodate a hopeful combined audience of 600 students. Many of my former and current students will be there. They'll hear how Satan continues to lie to us, how he convinces us we are worthless. But they'll hear that God wins, too. They will hear that God has always been there, alongside them. They will hear the Gospel.

Our youth team is ready to bleed and sweat for our students this week. We already cry for them. We already pray for them. We already fight for them. We trust the Lord of the harvest for transformation.

These are the moguls on the ski hill. The moments that take your breath away.

As the week winds down, the 9th graders will take a unit test. I hope they study faithfully. I hope they ask the questions that help me to see what they understand and what they still need to.

Friday, I will pack up their quizzes. I will pack my carry-on bag. I will get into Megan's little white car.

If God wills and Friday comes, I'll get onto a red-eye flight and wake up in Newark, NJ. Praying that the snow has literally melted by next week!!! Then, another flight should take us to Santo Domingo. After two long years (and a few months extra) I will get to be back in the Dominican Republic.

That will begin a week in the DR and Haiti. Collecting stories of how God has transformed lives of students in Barahona's poorest neighborhoods. Collecting stories of how friends from Silverdale are bringing medical healing to families in Barahona. Collecting stories of a church beginning in the border batey of Los Robles. Collecting stories of the new program beginning for 13 students whose lives changed in the January 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Maybe, I'll even meet Isaura, the young woman I sponsor. Or any of the children that my dear friends sponsor in the DR.

I'm starting to see how people can enjoy snowboarding. Skiing even.

Wipeouts are worth it. Lord, use our mistakes to shape us more and more like you.

Coming back from Hispaniola, I'll jump straight back into madness. Conferencing week. Grades due. Catching up on e-mails. Youth leader retreat.

But oh, by Thanksgiving! Resting by the fireplace with family and friends, I hope to look back on this month even more in awe of our great God. In the lodge, all things are made new.

I wonder if we'll get to snowboard in Heaven.

in the moment

I cherish the wise, gracious friends that God has placed in my life for this season.

Yesterday I met with Joy and we talked about the concept of "living in the moment." Worship in each moment. Not analyzing the past. Not worrying over the future. But enjoying, rejoicing, obeying in the present. God has made me to walk the Earth in this moment.

As an immortal soul trapped in time, we get to worship our Creator each moment. Not that I always do this. But that we are able to.

I'm with Megan at the ocean right now. Listening to Pachabel's canon on my iTunes. Drinking an iced soy mocha. Sitting at a table made of reclaimed teak. Watching the rain from our cabin window.

Worship seems simple right now.

What about Monday morning? Will worship be my obvious response? Will I embrace the moment when 9th graders are throwing golfballs at each other as I try to film for National Boards? Lord, give me the strength to worship you in each moment.

Those who know and love me have expressed a lot of concern this week about my boundaries. October is like drinking from a fire hose. I have said "yes" and made myself irreplaceable in far too many situations. Part of the path to living in the moment is to set and defend healthy boundaries for my life. Lord, give me wisdom to set and defend boundaries that allow me to worship you.

"Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD. The LORD is God, and he made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar! You are my God; and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you. Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!" -Psalm 118:19-29

ready for a break

Sasha and I met up for frozen yogurt tonight. It was delicious.

She reinforced the same message I have heard from everyone (literally everyone) who knows me. STOP SAYING YES ALL THE TIME.

My plate is once again too full. I have overachieved myself into a corner. There are not enough hours to accomplish every task I have undertaken, at least to the quality that I desire.

It's time to start saying "no". Not even a trimming the fat sort of no. An under-no-circumstances-can-I-even-consider-saying-"yes" sort of no.

Slowly, I'm stepping back.

Tomorrow night Megan & I are renting an ocean town cabin. The plan was to write one of the four papers I have to finish for National Boards. Maybe I'll just read my Bible and sleep instead.

I have to remember to rest.

If my pillowcases were not in the dryer, I'd go to sleep right now.

Does it count that I said "no" to a band concert tonight? Probably not, since I used the time to answer parent e-mails instead.

I wish boundaries could be respected from a distance. It's hard work defending them every day.

"Be still. Know that I am God" -Psalm 46:10

beauty, goodness, truth

This is the view from my dishwasher desk right now. Laptop set in front of the window so I won't miss a single moment of this inspiring October sunset. What a beautiful, good God to create such a beautiful, good sunset.

I just finished re-reading the chapter in Gabe Lyons' book The Next Christians that's called "Creators, not critics." Tomorrow, I'm leading a training on that chapter for our youth leaders. It's such a clear, but difficult challenge: Respond to situations with the reflex of creativity. We were made to create, just as we were created. We were made to mirror God's glory by returning glory.

The little worksheet I prepared plagiarizes Lyons' book by saying we were made to create culture that:

• celebrates BEAUTY
• affirms GOODNESS
• tells the TRUTH
• SERVES

Some days I feel more creative than others. 

But God is always beautiful. God is always good. God is always true. And God always serves.

"For the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Mark 9:45

If you live in Western Washington, you witnessed the most incredible sunset last night. It was the sort of moment where you stop and worship the God who loves you. 

But after the sun went down and I was STILL at work (going on hour 11) it got harder to worship. I left a work meeting just after 7 pm to squeeze in a quick workout at the Y. Then, driving towards my home I started weeping about how much there was still left to do.

Here's the beauty, the goodness, the truth, of what God calls us to. He doesn't require us to DO. Creating isn't about my own energy. It's not about my own intelligence. Nope. It's a response. A beautiful surrender. That's true creativity.

Creativity is what happens when I weep that "I can't do it, God" and He responds, "You're not meant to." It's the beauty of the Gospel that God stepped in to RESCUE us from the death we chose. It's the goodness of a Savior who gave His life as a RANSOM. And it's the truth that we follow a God who has VICTORY over death. YES! This is the response our God delights in. Worship. (:

Mmmmm. It really has nothing to do with a sunset... worship is a response to the Gospel.

Oh that every day would be worship. So many days, though, I find I have to weep before I can worship.

this time next month

... I'll be sleeping at the Casa in Barahona again.

Praying for God to burst Heaven into Earth. For beautiful Kingdom work to captivate the hearts of God's people. For hope and healing to be stirred up in the hearts of children who CAN and WILL transform their nations.

This time next month, I'll be in Barahona, Dominican Republic. I'm heading down with a local team from Children of the Nations. We're planning to collect student stories for the COTN website. That is, we will talk with children who attend COTN schools and hear how God is working in their lives, their families, and their nations. What an honor.

We'll also travel to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti and meet the 13 students enrolled in the newest COTN sponsorship program. These students were identified as the highest medical risks of the children treated by COTN after the January 2010 earthquake. COTN has only recently begun serving the children and families in Haiti. It will be such a privilege to see God's Spirit move through a largely unreached people group. I've only seen Haiti over the fence of the Pedernales border, before. Humbled by the privilege of traveling past the border next month.

Please pray for God to prepare the way before us. Please pray for the members of our writing and photography team to seek deep, rich communion with God before and during the trip. Pray that our focus would always be on bringing God glory. Pray that we would surrender personal expectations, so that God may accomplish the EXTRAORDINARY.

This time next month, I probably won't be sleeping then, either.

refining the ranks

"Is any man afraid or fainthearted? Let him go home so that his brothers will not become disheartened too." Deuteronomy 20:8


"Since the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy; and He must not see anything indecent among you or He will turn away from you." Deuteronomy 23:14