Here's To Starting Over...

I'm 30 years old...been married almost 7 years...I'm 1 1/2 years into being a father...I'm 2 years "young" as a pastor... I've tried life my way. I've lived according to my own abilities and strengths...with my own hands...by my own mind...from my own dreams...through my own heart...and I'm done with that. Read this verse and you'll see where I'm going with this. We can all love on our own...but our love is small. We can all think up great ideas...but they all fall short. We can all hope from our own hope...but eventually we stop hoping. We can all lead from our own leadership "styles"...but a month later we'll be reading the next book on leadership trying to find where we went wrong. We can all dream from our own dreams...but they all get boring after a while. We can teach from our own knowledge...but nobody will really ever know anything. We can do so many things in our own power...but in the end, there's simply no sustaining fruit. This Easter season is rich for me. Yeah, the Easter service will rock...and yeah "Spring Fest" was amazing last weekend...but this year's Easter is different for me. Everything that we are teaching thru...everything that Jesus wants us to get about Easter...I'm actually - finally - getting. To die to self...to be in relentless pursuit of REAL LIFE...to partner with Him in changing the world...to live in community - not in isolation...and to be the kind of person that is constantly imagining what it would be like to live this way... So, here's to starting over my friends...