THE LAST 5 DAYS

I spent Tuesday through Thursday at a youth pastors gig called "the gathering" at Saddleback in Lake Forrest. I am one of their "state mentors", so it was a group of those type of folks gathering around and rebuilding/building old and new friendships and such. I also got a chance to have lunch with a friend from Simply Youth Ministry and talk about some future writing stuff.

Then came home for like 14 hours before flying to Nor Cal to do a wedding for a former student "couple" from my Powerhouse days (Congrats to Kacy [Key] and Drew Walton on their new marriage) on Friday night. This morning was a small funeral/celebration for my grandma at my parent's house.

Here's my observations from the last week:

• I love to write. I need to make time to do that more. I've got at least 3 book ideas in my head and for the first time every, I actually have options as to how to get them published. I'm gonna have to do something about that soon. (Randomly at my grandma's funeral one of the women there asked me if I'd written any books she could read. That was weird)

• I do have lots of friends. They are just really spread out. I wish I could pile them all up in one place instead of running into many of them all over the globe for a day or so here and there.

• I have some full time ministry friends- like 4 I can name right off the top of my head- whose homes are so beautiful inside they make me part motivated to keep improving mine, part jealous, and part happy for them. Some days one part rises above the others significantly.
  

• Leadership is intentional. When leaders start to wing it because they can or because they are stressed or because they think no one will notice, they lose their leadership.

• When the bowling scoreboard also includes a mph rating for your lane, bowling is way more fun.

• My grandma was one cool cat. I should have told her so more often.

• Skype is cool. My sister and brother in law were able to attend my grandma's funeral live over the internet. That's crazy.
  

• I have a lot of students both in my youth ministry currently and from my past who are not, and will not choose to put Jesus in the center of their life as adults. This truth pains me in both healthy and unhealthy ways. Going to events where I will see them is always a mixed bag of emotions for me.
  

• I need to be intentional about almost every decision I make with my time, money, and energy these days. Self leadership is at an all-time high priority for me right now.