I can't begin to put words to the sheer giddiness and excitement I feel about tomorrow, err, later today. In a turn of amazing grace and luck my good buddy Andy got us two tickets to this year's UT-Oklahoma game. As I sit and try to contain myself, it's hard for me to not contextualize the parallels in my life right now.
This is actually the first time I've been to this amazing circus of a game and needless to say, it's exhilarating. We went to the State Fair today and the atmosphere was thick with excitement, anticipation and the smell of every fried food ever conceived by man. Everyone here seems to be in a sort of calm trance before the storm. I can't help but feel a little of that myself in my personal life. I remember when I told Jonathan (the director of the internship I'm currently serving in) all the things God had 'taken out' of my life in the months prior to me joining the internship, he made the analogy of an archer drawing on the string of his bow. At one distance, it's not too difficult to draw the string back and release, but the more you draw on that string, the more tension you build and obviously the more speed and distance the arrow covers. For some time I was a little bitter and bent out of shape at God, Jonathan, my friends, my roommates, my old job, my neighbors, my post man, my high school counselor, my neighbor's dog and just about anyone and everyone else I had come into contact with in the last 26 years. Because I felt like somehow I had missed out. Somehow I had missed out and it was everyone's fault. Somehow I had missed out on that awesome career, that awesome girlfriend, that awesome life. But as I let more and more stuff slip out of my life, God has been faithful to replace those things with more amazing opportunities and more amazing responsibilities I could have only imagined a few months ago.
Last week Jonathan let me have some creative control and direction with our campus ministry at UT. I was honored and excited at the same time. A few days after that, he offered me the opportunity to speak at our next service while he goes out of town. It took me a little bit to realize that I am effectively 'living my dream.' For the last three years I have been praying, bribing and pleading with God to allow me to be a part of full time ministry in almost any capacity, but specifically with youth and college aged students—not that I necessarily adore the 14 hour days, not that I enjoy this perpetual feeling of 'what am I forgetting?' not even that I like the stress of trying to come up with some semi-entertaining material to hold a college audience captive for about 30 minutes. But I genuinely, truly love pouring into people in that age group—I'll save the details for some other time, but that has honestly been my heart for about three years now. And the opportunity to do that at UT—the greatest school in the world?! I can't begin to put words to the sheer giddiness and excitement I feel about this opportunity. I'm not playing in any grand arena—we meet at The Union in front of a Wendy's and next to a Taco Bell, but the opportunity to speak into the lives of college kids at the greatest school on the planet? Yeah I get a little psyched about that. So enjoy the calm before the storm my friends, enjoy the corn dogs, the friend Oreos and fried ribs. Tomorrow is Game Day and as long as I've been a fan, my God has always shown up and done something amazing. Come along, let's watch Him run up the score. Blessings.
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