SRMMX

take aways from SRMMX

- small group encouragement: this is the first time that i have really gotten to be around my small group for an extended period of time and i would have to say that i rather enjoyed it. sure, my guys are bone-heads at times but they are really a good group of guys. God has truly blessed me with the guys that i have. they make it a joy to be a leader in one28.

- the greatness of suffering: i would say that i have suffered more in my life compared to the normal person. i would also say that i do not, at all, have it bad. my life is really not that hard. the suffering that i have encountered though has been difficult to handle at times but it is good to see and reflect on all the good that has come from it. my death has greatly altered the majority of the people around me, including myself, and if i can effect the amount of people that i have effected again by suffering more, i gladly would suffer more. even just the change in my own dad has been amazing to see. there is also the change that has occurred in myself that i would not exchange for anything in the world. sure, i will probably never run again (mostly because i am to lazy to work out slowly [i'm really not patient]) i am, in fact, completely alright with that, i actually have always hated running, though i do miss soccer and bball occasionally. but God is so good, He is totally worth it.

i actually can't remember why i wrote down my next two points but i will list them even though i can't expand them like i did the other two. first, the art of breaking. second, taking care of our souls. again, i can't remember the context behind these quotes, sorry.

lastly, the easy burden of living on unseen things: this is perhaps the most contradictory statement i have ever said, which if you have been around me long, i say a lot of contradictory statements (they make people think). so, while living on unseen things is perhaps the hardest thing to imagine doing in a persons life, once you do it, it is so easy and care free. Christ says in Matthew 11:28-30 that while we may have many worries on this earth, we are to take up His burden. in order to put up His burden, we must first take off our own. when we take off our burden, the cares of this world, and put on Christ yoke, life will be easy. sure, His yoke will bring pain and suffering and persecution, but those things are so small compared to what we have set our eyes upon. we must look to heaven and the things that are unseen in this world in order to make it through this world. if we don't have a heavenly focus, then we are focusing on the crap that is around us and it will only bring us down to hell to be consumed along with it.
so i encourage you to look not at those thing which are around you but to those things that are ahead of us, look to unseen things, look to heaven, look to God.