FIGHTING FOR THE LOVELESS!

TRUE love doesn't give up. It presses on even when things are crashing. Even when everything is taken away, it reaches to find the one. True love invests, true love reaches, true love pursues, true love sacrifices. True love won't let go of a hand. True love will grasp at everything until it finds what it is looking for. TRUE LOVE IS OF GOD!

GOD's LOVE calls us into a world that is beat up, cut down, broken down, forgotten, crushed, unwanted, un-healed, troubled, hurting, lost, and beacons us to fight for them. I see their faces. Most days their faces haunt me. They don't have a father or mother, no one loves them, they cut themselves, they starve themselves, they talk about how unlovely they are, they talk about how abused they are, they talk about how they are told they are nothing, they try drugs, they are haunted by the images they look at, they have no self resect, they look for love in all the wrong places....AND YET MOST PEOPLE DON'T TAKE TIMET TO NOTICE A GENERATION UNLOVED!

I fight for a generation that is haunted by feeling LOVELESS. A fight for a generation that has never been hugged. I fight for a generation that has never been told that they are proud of them. I fight for a generation that has never been told they are lovely. I fight for a generation that has never been told about a love--a love that is not like any other love. A love that never abandons, never leaves, never judges, never beats, never cuts down with words, BUT A LOVE THAT HEALS....A LOVE THAT RESTORE....THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST!

Call me a sentimental youth pastor...but I am fighting to LOVE MY STUDENTS with the LOVE OF GOD that will save them, restore them, and enable them to do great things with their lives for GOD!

All because of LOVE!

I am in love with God. I love him so much. This love for God has led me to do crazy, somewhat strange, untraditional, and seemingly impossible things with my life. I step back from it all--and can't help but still feel propelled to do so much more for God!

Out of my love for GOD...I love students! They make up my purpose for life. I am called to be a youth pastor. I love my kids. One thing that I know is that I can't reach them with my own love, but only through the love of God in my heart!

Lately, I have felt this crushing reality that I need God more than ever. I have been in a struggle. I know my calling, know my mission field, but the enemy is out to devour the dream, the passion, the mission. He tries to block perspective. He tries to tear down motivation. He tries to beat down the spirit inside this woman. But one thing he cannot steal is the LOVE of GOD in my heart! God's LOVE sings over me, revives me, gives me passion, shows the mission yet again, calls me, propels me forward, and causes me to fight for my students!

I will not give up on Willard, the students, their families! The love of God propels me tonight to love them....reach them....pray them into the KINGDOM OF GOD!

Letting GO!

Tonight I feel....sad to let go!

The sadness of a goodbye

Tonight I said goodbye to two of my most faithful leaders since the beginning of Element. It was probably one of the hardest things to do to let them go. I know they are going to go and do great things. They will find new students, new people to love and their lives will never be the same. However, it does not make saying good-bye any easier.

So tonight I have decided that I am not a fan of GOODBYES--!

I am sad tonight but deep down I rejoice that God gave me them for the time he did! Thank you Lord for that gift!