salty thoughts about preparing for the work ahead of me

Michael and I just returned from San Clemente North.  It was my second experience with using my fins.  It truly was exercise, and I exclaimed to him after he mentioned being out of shape (nothing too unusual in the company of guys filled with ideals) that we could always be better, but this time we were in enough shape not to die.  Not that the swells were too big, but on my last ride I was able to catch the swell, but dove straight in with a crashing wave eerily shadowing me.  It tossed me and luckily salinized my nasal passages.

During the drive I was thinking about Matt Chandler's talk I heard one night in Abilene.  I believe it was the last time he spoke before he left for Dallas, but he was encouraging an auditorium filled with university students to live out their Christianity.  He wished, "That one day I would come back to Grace on Tuesday night and not see a single person in the building.  He wished that on that day, people were living out their faith in service to God and others instead of cloistering off themselves in the comfort of their own community."

It was here that I realized that I would love to be involved in the movement and mobilization of people that come to church.  This has been a goal upon my return from China, but I have done very little to achieve this goal.  Specifically, in terms of studying what others have to say about their experience of God, ie Hebrews, 1st century christians, and other great thinkers, so that I can lay a foundation in my mind in order to prepare myself for service in the church.  Also, I would actually like to do something about it. 

No better time than now, right?

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