rare opportunity

Once in a while something comes along that is indeed a rare opportunity. Yesterday was mine.

I got to fly out and spend a day at WillowCreek. I cannot begin to describe the surreal day I experienced. For so long we have looked to them for resources, leadership training, and much much more.

I got to watch it up close and personal yesterday and I will never forget it, never.

next week's opportunities

I have begun to look around to see what God would have us do for Christmas this year at Crossroads. I found one beautiful new song that may serve as a key piece this year. But beyond that, just in the beginning stages of research, but...

What I get to participate next week is nothing short of miraculous!

I will be attending the WillowCreek Brown Bag event where creative leaders and worship leaders from the Chicago area will be coming together to brainstorm and discuss their concepts for Christmas...my thankfulness to Willow and to the Lord for creating such opportunities is nearly indescribable!

I then have the further privilege of sitting in on an additional meeting with one of the Creative Team's from Willow...I might faint! How did this happen?

God is stretching me.

Along with great anticipation comes some hesitation that I may be stepping into something way out of my league, but I am available to His leading. And I rest in the fact that God cares deeply about everything I do. He cares about what I invest my life in. This opportunity I pray will be just that, an investment in becoming a stronger more creative leader at Crossroads. Please pray for me!

what I learned today

I found this excerpt in a book I'm reading by Gordon McKenzie formerly with Hallmark. The excerpt is taken from an old comic in a newspaper...

Garfield, leaping, Rambo-like, through the open door of a pet shop, announces himself: "Freedom Fighter"!

He charges through the shop, flinging open the cages of the confined pets, proclaiming: "You're Free! You're Free!"

But, instead of rejoicing in this sudden gift of liberation, the cats and dogs and birds all remain in their open cages, intimitated by the unknown possibilities ..

Have you ever felt like this? Intimidated by unknown possibilities? I have, but I am working really hard to get over it!

I ask more often then I used to.

The old phrase "the worst they can do is say no" is SO true! And most of the time, if what you ask is well thought out, and if you are prepared to take care of the details, they will say yes.

I have joked with my friends many times about how much scares and intimidates me. I grew up in a household with hard working parents that didn't ask anyone for anything unless it was absolutely necessary, so I get it honestly! What I realize now is how many opportunities I have let slip away because of being scared as well as being too stubborn to ask for what I wanted. There definitely is a security in the ordinary. It takes no explanation, no thought really, but how sad to spend our lives there.

The challenge of creating can be both paralyzing and exhilarating depending on the reason for which you create. If you've committed the decisions of your life and creativeness to Christ, then there is no reason to fear freedom or opportunity! God promises lives full of the extraordinary, in fact a God affected life is our only hope of experiencing the extraordinary this side of heaven.

What I learned today is when God released me from the cage of eternal bondage - I wasted a lot of time reluctant to venture out into His possibilities...no more