One Year

One year ago I was working part-time at the mall. (Sure it was for one of the greatest companies on the planet, but still...)

One year ago I was living by myself in an ancient apartment next to the railroad tracks.

One year ago I was completely debt free.

One year ago I was still kind of contemplating ditching everything here and heading back east.

One year ago I was not married.

One year ago Parkside's River Campus didn't exist.

One year ago I turned 30.

I never thought my 30's would be a time of new beginnings. It always seemed to me that the 30's were a time to reap some of the rewards of hard work in your 20's. It was a time to get serious and bear down. It was a time to stop having so much fun and really focus. It was a time to be an adult. Boy, I was wrong and I was right.

Year 30 saw me starting a job, starting a marriage, starting yet another project/house, starting a new car payment and starting a new church campus. I should be starting to feel a little overwhelmed by all the change and flux, but somehow I'm not.

If year 30 was the year for breaking ground, year 31 should be the year for building a firm foundation. Our house is about 106 years old. I've owned houses with slab foundations (229 N. 5th St), poured foundations (9522 Damascus Dr) and block foundations (2647 Ocosta Ave), but this is the first with a stone foundation and it is by far the oldest.

Each stone is unique, they all have their own characteristics, yet they are properly placed and fitted together. They are bonded with mortar that has kept them solid for a century. It is much more work to make a foundation from unique, individual stones. Blocks are all identical, they are designed to fit together perfectly, quickly and easily. Poured foundations and slabs are made in huge chunks by creating a form and then filling with concrete. None of these require the time and attention to detail that a stone foundation does. They are quick and easy.

What kind of foundation am I going to build in year 31?

The Beginning

In the grand scheme of things, what is Christmas?

It is the time where Jesus enters into history in a new, concrete way. But, he doesn't really do anything for a while.

It is the beginning of a transition for the Holy Spirit, moving from being an occasional helper to a constant companion. But, that transition is still years away.

It is the first step in God's sacrifice for us. He alone knew the grand plan of redemption at this point. He alone knew what this baby would become, what he would go through, what he would sacrifice. It was the beginning of 30+ years of agony because of that knowledge.

What is is beginning in your life this Christmas?

The Me Report (pt. 1)

One of the best gifts I’ve ever received included a reproduction of an assignment I completed when I was 11 years old. It was called “The Me Report” and closely resembled one of those internet forwards where you fill in the blanks about yourself and then send it to 20 of your closest friends or else you’ll break your leg or lose $50 or some other such nonsense. Anyway, according to this report, I loved penguins and skateboarding and planned on becoming an orthopedic surgeon. (Not bad for 5th grade, huh?) I know a minister who has something similar in his office - only he filled out his when he was 6 and even then he knew he wanted to be a minister. If only things were so neatly laid out for all of us, right?

When I was in high-school I did all the things you are supposed to do when deciding what you should do with your life. I talked to guidance counselors and took the skills tests they recommended. I interviewed professionals and did internships on the job. From many peoples’ point of view, it would seem that all this effort was put to good use. I graduated from Messiah College with a dual degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering and landed what many would see as the perfect job working for a defense contractor in Virginia.

I had a great job, a nice car and a house before some of my friends were even done with school. And I was happy, at least at first. At the end of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (The real one, not the one with Johnny Depp.), Wonka asks and answers, “Do you know what happened to the boy who got everything he ever wanted? - He lived happily ever after.” While I wouldn’t say I had everything I ever wanted, it was fair to say I had quite a bit. You might think that would make the happiness last for quite a while, but you’d be wrong.

In time I started to realize that while I liked what I was doing and while I was good at what I did, it wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing. There was more for me out there, I was wasting my life doing something that only seemed really important.

Meanwhile, I realized that I had been interviewing some other professionals and doing some unofficial internships with the ministers at Antioch Christian Church. There, I met Paul and Dave, two ministers who were in their own ways a lot more like me than any ministers I had met before. What’s more, they took the time to get to know me as a person, to build a relationship with me and show me what its really like to live in the ministry. The more I got to know them, the more I knew what had been true all along - God did have a different calling for me.

What may seem like a big decision became no decision at all. I knew what I had to do, it was just a matter of diving in and not looking back. So, I resigned, put up the for sale sign and headed to Cincinnati, CCU and the next step in the journey that God had known all along.

Click Here for Part 2.