I leave for South Korea in 12 days! Trip paid in FULL (for everyone), and we have one more team meeting before the launch. I probably won't blog while I'm over there, but I'm in charge of recording stories and testimonies for the trip so I'll definitely have a lot to share when I come back! We're praying HUGE for this trip, so please join us in that from March 22 - April 4.
My best bud Chris Harris visited for a week so we explored Redding, shot some guns, played ultimate frisbee (oh hey cardio!) and ended the trip in San Francisco. Here's the crew marching up the ridiculously steep Lombard Street:
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| Aaron's doing his famous long jump ski pose |
Here's the view from the top! With part of the Bay:
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| Part of it looked like pictures of Brazil or Central America |
So since that week, I've applied for 2nd Year here, gotten caught up on homework, looked at some apartments, and enjoyed the bits of sunshine we've had (February seemed to be the month of rain). Today I found this awesome flower:
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| Spring is coming! |
As I prepare for South Korea, I've been thinking about my core values and why it's important to know them before you need them. Decisions aren't as hard in the heat of battle when you've already decided beforehand how to act. As my venerable small group leader, Ron, said to us, the best soldiers can risk it all because they've already died to themselves before the battle. When we get to this point with Jesus, where we consider ourselves crucified with him and no longer living for ourselves (Galatians 2:20), it really frees us to be brave. Dead people also don't care what others think of them.
So what are your core values? We have a bunch here at BSSM, but I have 4 simple ones that I think about almost daily: Love, Honor, Purity, Power. I try to do everything with these in mind. Even though every situation is different, I can usually make a pretty quick decision about whether something fits in with the character I want to portray by thinking about these words. They might mean slightly different things to you than they do to me so here's a very brief explanation: Love means caring for and helping people through sacrifice. Honor means seeing everyone like God sees them and treating them likewise. Purity means fleeing from sin and keeping my eyes and thoughts on Christ. Power means taking responsibility for myself as well as displaying the full gospel, revealing the God of the universe to humanity.
Don't let every situation sway your values, but rather establish your identity in Christ and many will flock to the security that you have in the Father.
Here's a new song from Hillsong United's new remix album, the White Album: Like an Avalanche
