Joel Young Blog.com

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend a Jr. High Believe conference with our church’s Middle School students. In the course of my life I have probably attened somwhere in the neighborhood of 10 CIY conferences with probably 4 of them being Believe conferences, and this was by far the most fun I have ever had at one. I think for one it was because I was going as a sponsor and not the youth minister in charge. I mean I didn’t have to worry about going to the adult meetings or registering everyone or none of that. I was just able to let loose and act like a Jr. Higher again. And as a CCU alum it seems like every CIY conference is a big class reunion so that was nice to see some of my old buds a hear about what they are up to. I mean, where else can you play hacky-sack, run around in blow up obsticale courses, and leave worship in a shirt soaked with sweat? The answer is NOWHERE!

But more important than all the fun we had doing those things I was really able to see some kids change their attitude about the way they are living their lives. I truly saw 6th graders interested in changing their lifestyle to become a more passionate follower of Christ. We prayed together, we worshipped together, and now we get to try to live out those ambitions together. If that doesn’t make your day, then nothing will. This weekend was truly awesome!

You know how sometimes you look back at your week with a great deal of satisfaction and contentness? Well, as rare as that is it happened to me this last week. I can truly say that I had a phenominal week. It was the coolest and most creative worship team rehearsal we have ever had and it was capped off with a great worship service that following Sunday. I feel like I have the coolest job anyone could ever have, which is not always how ministers feel so this is a huge blessing. My wife is starting to come out of the worst part of pregnancy and things are returning to normal in both of our lives. And to top it all off we actually got a little snow here in L-Ville and we were able to finally go sledding (and no I didn’t get hurt).

I just think it is awesome that God gives us those kinds of victories everyday. Sometimes we are too busy to stop and see the awesomeness in the ordinary, but I am going to make an effort to do it more often. In the immortal words of Joe Dirt, “Life’s a garden, dig it!”

I’m not the kind of person that will post some message saying something about how awesome the superbowl was, even though it was a great game, but I saw something worth mentioning last night. Most people don’t bother to stay and watch the trophy presentations after the game, but for some reason we all did at the party I was at, and we were plesently surprised. Watch this video of the trophy presentation and about 2:00 minutes in you will see what Coach Dungy has to say. It truly is truly awesome to see someone give all the credit to God for what the world sees as his accomplishment. I witnessed Dungy doing this in several interviews and I was very impressed. I wasn’t that big of a Colts fan, but now I think I could be.