Well, I have had a short two-day visit to my house. It’s nice to be able to sit by the fire in my rocking chair. It’s also nice to be able to wash clothes and catch up on a couple of programs on TV. But for the most part I was at school or at the Y. Now my bags are almost packed. I will get up around 4:45 in the morning and head back down to the airport. Tomorrow I’m off to Redding CA with Ben and Kerri Barfield. We will be attending an International Sozo Summit. It is for Sozo ministry leaders around the world.
It should be a great time and I am definitely loking forward to connect with people that we met last year when we went. We will be staying at our favorite Bed and Breakfast, Apples River House. It is only about 5 miles from the church and backs up to the Sacremento River Trail. The bad news is that we will be super busy and it will be raining all week. It doesn’t look like I will be able to get out and run the trail any. Julia and I found this Bed and Breakfast a couple of years ago, and we stayed there a number of times. We stayed there last November when we went out for the first Sozo Summit. So it’s going to be different without her. She will be greatly missed as she always is. But I will miss her especially these next few days in Redding.
On the home front, I was able to get a few Christmas decorations up while I was home. I put the two little outside trees up on each side of the front door, and then put Julia’s light green table tree on the table in front of the front window. With the lights on, they look pretty. That’s probably the extent of my decorations here since we will be in Hilton Head for Christmas. I’ll take some decorations to the beach to make it more like home. Now all I have to do is to finish off my Christmas shopping and I will be ready. It is really coming fast. I work 7 days by the 15th and then I will be off the rest of the month. I’m already looking forward to seeing all the kids together. I know that there will be some issues to work out, but it will all be worth it.
In school tonight, Scott spoke on Leadership. He took a little different tack. He was focusing on us as leaders in the church first having to learn to lead ourselves. He mentioned Passion, Power, Integrity and character. He might have mentioned some other areas but those are the ones that come to mind right now. We have to know how to burn alone. We as leaders have to leak the presence of God, and be able to bring forth passion even when we don’t feel like it. For the past few days, I haven’t felt like it either. I don’t know why. Maybe I’m feeling more down over Julia’s birthday and the season than I realize. Or maybe it’s just that I am tired. At any rate, I found myself last night not really wanting to press into what we were doing. I realized that I just didn’t feel any passion. I really wanted just to stay in the background. But I realized that it was my responsibility to stir up passion, even in myself. I have to learn to burn alone. My passion for God and the things of the Spirit is not based on my feelings. I can’t allow my feelings to dictate my passion. My passion for God is based on His worth, not my feelings. I have to learn to constantly be passionate about Him, no matter how I feel Anyway, I did stir up the passion within and overall, I felt better after than.
So, It’s time to go to bed and once again go off to the airport. Julia was right when she said all we needed a house in Atlanta for was to have as a base of operations. Next stop Redding!
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