Joel Young Blog.com

This morning I gave my son a haircut because in the words of my wife, “He was growing a mini-mullet.” He took pretty well to the buzzing of the razor and it looks pretty good, but what I didn’t notice during the process was that not only did I cut the hair on my son’s head, but I shaved off most of the hair on my left hand. Kinda weird, I know, but it really does look funny. Guess that means I should wear a glove on my left hand until it grows back. No one has ever done that before, have they?

Before I hit the trail and head to the land where internet access still comes from a phone jack (a.k.a. Adams County, OH…the land time forgot…technology’s final frontier…you get the picture) I thought I would make a final post because this has been a year to remember in my books. Some drastic changes have taken place in my family’s life and today as I prepare a message about how God communicates with us in our everyday life I am reminded of how much His whispers have changed my life. Through my experience I see a few things that are key to hearing God and having the ability to put those calls into action.

You have to be willing to do ANYTHING and go ANYWHERE! God can use anyone, anywhere, but that doesn’t mean that we should automatically assume that the place he NEEDS us is the place we currently are. Following God’s direction for your life might cause others to call you crazy or even irresponsible, but you have to be willing to take that criticism if you want to follow God’s leading.

You must have an ear to the ground. As we’ll talk about this week at Horizon it’s hard to hear something that you’re not listen for. If we want to hear what God has to say about His will for our lives, we have to listen carefully to Him through meditation on His Word, prayer, and fasting. It may not be easy, but God never said it would be.

You have to be willing to part with the comfort and stability you currently have in life. Following God’s leading isn’t a guarantee that you’ll live a life of poverty and pain, but it is an open door for comfort and stability to walk out. If we really want to hear what God is speaking into our life we have to understand that what we think is best for our lives isn’t always the right answer.

If there has been one passion of mine that has risen to the top of the pile during my first year as a church planter it has definitely been helping people involve God in their everyday life. To consider His plan for them and make a real effort seek that direction no matter what it costs. I’ll be the first, and probably not the last, to tell you that as a minister the single most important part of my ministry is following God’s leading for my life. I’m thankful that I have a wife and family that feel exactly the same way, and I will be praying for the duration of 2009 that Horizon will be a place that helps people all over the world do this in some way.

Today was a great morning at Horizon. Things just seemed to be clicking on all cylinders. But if I told the truth I would have to say that I struggled with this week’s sermon. It wasn’t super difficult I just didn’t feel like it had a lot of personality. It was a lot of Bible and that was about it. I don’t know why I was worried but that’s just what goes through my mind a lot. I worry about the relateability of every message.

Well, this morning God’s word worked in a huge way. I felt like it spoke some truth into everyone’s life today. And believe it or not God didn’t need the benefit of my wit or charm. God’s word alone was enough.

Funny how even preachers need to be constantly reminded of the power of God’s word and how much it can do all by itself.

Ok, so I was inspired by an old college friend on facebook to answer the question: What are your favorite movie quotes of all time? Like many people of my generation I often like to communicate or respond with quotes from movies. Here’s some of my faves.

“I was checkin’ the rotary…girter…on the…spectrum…”

“You scratch my CD you know!?!”

“Hundreds of people spontaneously combust each year, it’s just not widely publicized.”

“I’m all hopped up on Mountain Dew, Chip. I’m gonna come at you like a spider monkey!”

“I see you’re drinking 1% (milk). Is that because you think you’re fat?”

“Does your plan include sputtering out sentence fragments and lighting things on fire?”

“This one goes to eleven.”

Care to share some of your own?

The last couple week’s have been pretty crazy for me. After getting a much needed few days alone with my wife (and I mean MUCH needed) things seem to have gone straight downhill. Our schedules tightened up, my entire family got sick at once, and since I don’t get sick I was a nurse for a few days. It’s funny how a short vacation can make you realize just how much you really need more vacation time, and amidst all the chaos I have had to juggle many things.

I’m normally very good at multi-tasking, but this was more like ULTRA-multi-tasking. I just kept telling myself that if I slept a little less, spent less time eating, or stopped taking showers (ok that one was a joke), that I would have enough time to get it all done. By the grace of God I was able to get everything done, but it wasn’t pretty.

A short while after I was relaying the story to someone and they politely posed the question, “Aren’t you old enough to know better?” I laughed at the statement, but then I realized that the person wasn’t joking. I then proceeded to feel extremely stupid and immature for the next few days. This person absolutely nailed me with the truth. I am old enough to know better, and I was trying to do too much.

With the craziness of the end of the year I think we all need to take time and ask ourselves, “Aren’t we old enough to know better than to run around like crazy people and waste our lives just getting stuff done?”

Sunday at Horizon we will be starting a new sermon series entitled, “Unwrapping Christmas”. During this series we will be tearing the shiny paper off this annual celebration in order to more clearly see what we are really celebrating. But in order to have a good representation of everyone’s opinion I need your help with the first message of this series. Answer this question by leaving a comment to this post. “What do you anticipate every year at Christmas time?”

I look forward to reading your responses. Thanks.