Tornado

Its been awhile. I have been busy this week no doubt.

This week I am blessed with an amazing group of people from St. Paul for the servant event.

I'm going to be honest. (Readers like it I hear, this honesty thing)

I was beat. Exhausted. Tired. You name it.

Somehow without fail God manages to give us energy or whatever we need. Right when we need it.

Learning guitar is still going well.

Reading " to own a dragon" by Donald Miller as well as having conversations with our local creation science dude is blessing me so greatly.

Just after father's day it hits me how tremendous of a calling that being a father is. Donald talked through a friend as to how miraculous being a father is. Loving someone instantly from birth. Not needing them to earn it or anything of the sort. I have that from my pops and he got me around 8. Let alone we all have that from God and we are all born into sin. He loves us no matter what.
Big deal I know. Most of us knew that from Sunday school. But on the real.

before we were born. He loved us unconditionally. He sent his only real son even though we defied Him. I heard all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God somewhere. But He still sent his only Son for us.

Wow

Much Love

ø Connor ø

Fingers

Today marks a first.

First day in the process of learning guitar.

Ask any guitarist and I'm sure they will talk about how much their fingers hurt. Including my fellow shakers. One who is a skilled guitarist. The other owns a guitar (I'm not sure as to the extent of his experience. So lets assume he's like a guy from dragonforce)

It hurts.

Enough complaining.  Those posts aren't fun to write.

I had special needs campers this weekend. I loved it. They are so content with everything that's given to them ( for the most part =) they still have such an innocence about them.

Actually one of the best moments was when one of them tooted particularly loud during singing and campfire. I broke down laughing and stopped when he looked at me. Upon exchanging glances we both knew that fart was hilarious.

A camp counselor and his sonshine camper almost in tears. We got the awkward look from onlookers and loved it.

The craziest thing is that I get paid.

I realize my continual reminders as to me loving my job and where God has me must be getting old. I'm gonna work on it.

Much love

ø Connor ø

Doorknob

Week one is finished.

Its almost a surreal feeling. Kids staying back to hang with you. Clinging to whatever they can of you before time becomes a fork in the road.

Graduation is still hitting me.

I don't know if the impact these kids have on me will ever hit. Even scarier is that I am affecting them.

Enough with my apprehensions.

I want this post to speak. I want these words to move you. Yes you.

I recently found out that one of my favorite teachers just lost her husband. Needless to say. I was stunned and filled with sympathy.

This was not fair to her. You could even say God was not fair.

She loved her job as an English teacher. Actually she had roughly 200 kids a semester and she would have taken any one of them in.

She helped inspire me to speak at graduation.

She would sit and talk with me for hours about life. Her dreams. My dreams. Camping. Everything.

I rocked that speech. I loved it and gave it my best.

I'm still holding that word for you. I hope you are still holding onto yours.

I hope it moves you now. Having a word is one thing. But now is when that word should move you. Shake you to the core.

I'm going think about and pray for you a lot in the coming months and years. A lot is being asked of you. Raising two girls while holding a career.

Tall order.

You could argue God is unfair because we don't see what He has in store for us. But He never gives us more than we can handle.

Go camping.

It will hurt. It will be hard. You will feel broken for a great length of time. But things will get better.

You have made a difference in our lives. I speak on behalf of all your students because it's true.

One last thing Jefferson. Could you make me a promise.  When times get tough. When you don't think you can pull through. Think about that word. Come back to loved ones here in alexandria and know this.

You can make it.

Much love

ø Connor ø

Priorities

Where we spend our time is ultimately what we treasure most.

Holy smokes.... If that saying is true, I need to re-prioritize things.

I'll be honest with you, my friends. My list probably goes as follows:
1) Computer
2) Xbox
3) Hanging with people (family, friends)
4) Doing nothing
5) Reading the Word

I'm having a hard time getting into the Word. I think I'm thinking that, since I grew up in the church reading the Bible, I know a lot of it. So the novelty has worn off.

This is kind of extreme but nonetheless a very unsettling thought as I type it. Today I did get back in the Word by following along to a podcast from Steven Furtick at Elevation Church. The series was on James 1:13-18.

It says God does not tempt us. He's brings us trials but He is not the one that tempts us. And it's not even that He puts us in the trial to see us fail. It's the very opposite. He puts you in trials so that you might have the opportunity to conquer in His name and you can learn from the situation if you fail.

So don't blame God for bad circumstances. Instead, turn to Him and ask Him to help you along. He's on your side.

-sam
Song of the Day: You're On Fire by MXPX

Plunge

Its only the first week of campers.

Wowza.

Let me be the first to say that I got crazy blessed to have these guys in my cabin. They are so alive. Full of life, and lots of it. Its going to be hard to say goodbye on Friday.

My watch also broke.

Out of all the analogies I could pull out of my life. I got nothing. I'm beat. After week one. I know I can do this.

I gave a devotion the other night about how God has set no limit to what He believes we cab do. In John Jesus talks about how through Him we have life and life to the fullest. In Revelations it says God opened a door for us no one can shut.

Wowza. My parents tell me I can do whatever I put my mind to. I love them dearly for that. But wow. A door nobody can shut.

Ooh doggie.

All things aside. I love my geographic location. And my occupation.

Much love.

ø Connor ø

Lessons from Norway

I saw a guy smoking while riding a mo-ped.

Kids, first of all, don't smoke. But if you are going to smoke (which I really hope you don't) don't have the audacity to smoke while riding a motorcycle or mo-ped or anything of the sort.

Anyway, that was my random sighting today. Onto some other content...

I had the privilege to sit down and have some ice cream with one of the Norwegian foreign exchange students that I had the pleasure to get to know better this year. She went back today (wednesday). This morning to be more precise. But we had a good talk before she left. The thing that really stuck out to me when we were talking was what she had to say about Christianity over in Norway.

She said that people here in America focus and talk a lot more about Heaven while in Norway they focus more about the journey, (life). I like this because this causes people focus on the road getting to eternity rather than jumping straight to the ending.

This is one lesson that I have learned this year, as I look back at this crazy fast year. If I would have fast-forwarded time straight to the end of the school year, I would have missed out on the lessons I learned such as being patient when you really want something, being intentional about living and talking about my faith, and also trying to not to place myself on a pedestal and love others like Jesus loved others, which is no small feat.

All in all, I'm a wretch trying to obey God and help others along with me. The road is rocky and may have lots of potholes, but be encouraged, Christian; you're not alone. As Red Green says, "Keep your stick on the ice. We're all in this together."

Go serve your King.
-sam
Song of the Day: Healing Begins by Tenth Avenue North

Refresh (part 2)

Well if anybody was wondering. My cabin is having an army worm Olympics.

Splendid

Also I had another of those moments where God answers a prayer. Not how you want it or anything. Perfect.

But you can't argue with your Creator it doesn't work like that.

What answered it ended up being Blue Like Jazz.

Don talked about metaphors. The ones we use for things like cancer and relationships. We always battle cancer. We value people. Thinking about love like currency is wrong.

I was wrong.

Part one of this series was accurate to how I felt about the situation. Raw. How writing should be. It was my honest gut. Looking back a lot can be taken from the post. Whether you want to trust my perceptions is up to you.

I was looking at the wrong solution. I was making love a money thing. Saying the relationship was worth less because of a disagreement. No matter how big or offended I got. I needed to remember one thing.

God's love transcends all grudges and divisions our sin makes.

The real solution was to pour on love.

In extreme amounts

So at the end of this two day  journey I took a lot away. As for the readers and everyone else. I hope and pray you apply This lesson to conflicts. And when the problems arise. Embrace them. Jesus did promise them.

Much love
ø Connor ø