It's a Lifestyle

Being a youth leader is not just a weekly event, it is a lifestyle and a calling

It’s rejoicing over every decision that your students make to follow God rather than the world

It’s Saturday night sleepovers and dance parties

It’s heart to heart talks and crying sessions on late night drop offs

It’s worship session around a campfire

It’s sharing not only the gospel, but your life as well (and don’t forget the fridge too J)

It’s the denial that with each passing year your students advance another grade and another year older

It’s celebrating their 12^th birthday seven years in a row

It’s the shocking look people give you when you start talking about your kids

It’s sneaking on the high school campus to share lunch with the students and blending right in

It’s interrupting all talks of boys with the essential question: “Does he love Jesus?”

It’s replacing all alcoholic references in songs to drinking lemonade

It’s driving a 12 passenger van with the back seat removed so you don’t need a special license

It’s summer camp and weekend retreats

It’s Tuesday Bible Study, Thursday Youth Group, and Sunday Church

It’s constant accountability

It’s coffee dates and walks on the beach

It’s last minute bowling nights, and long anticipated broomball outings

It’s dressing fancy to go mini-golfing, and wacky outfits acceptable for every occasion

It’s bringing in the New Year with prayer and worship

It’s random texts and calls just to say you love them

It’s Skype calls and Instagram pictures

It’s footie pajamas and face masks

 

It's mission trips to Mexico and working hard in the dirt

It’s tea parties and gift exchanges

It’s learning to love and be selfless even when you are pushed to the limits

It’s learning to give what you didn’t even know you had
 

It’s sharing your regrets and mistakes in hopes that you prevent someone else’s

It’s lifelong friends and sisters in Christ

There are so many things that have defined my past six years as a youth leader, but the biggest definition aside from this list is the amazing students I have been able to work with! Whether here in California, or back in Colorado I am so thankful for all the students, specifically young ladies God has put in my life.  I know that this is what I was called to do, and I am so happy to do it!

To view a picture slideshow click here

I am a Loser

Okay, so I have realized that I am not good at all at keeping up with a blog, but here goes nothing.  The last time I blogged was over a year ago so to catch you up, I now live in Colorado and I still work at OfficeMax.  I am no longer going to school, but simply working, pursuing God through ministry and seeking out his will and timing for my life. Enough on the "me" update, here is how God has been working in my life:
I was talking with a friend the other day about how lately I feel like such a loser.  I mean people ask me all the time, "What are you studying?" "Where do you go to school?" "Where do you work?" "What are your plans for the future?" To all these questions I kind of just put my head down in shame and honestly answer that I am not going to school right now, I work a part-time job as an associate at OfficeMax, and my future is very uncertain aside from the fact that I want to follow God wherever He leads.  I can't help but notice the look of disappointment or confusion from the person who asked me these questions.  It seems crazy that someone like me wouldn't be pursuing an education or career or doing something to advance myself towards "The American Dream."  The truth is sometimes I even disappoint and confuse myself.  Why does it feel like I am at a stand-still in my life and nothing seems to be moving forward?  To be honest, I can't even answer that question, but somehow I feel like I am where God needs me to be.
There is a passage I came across a couple of days ago that has really given me comfort in all of this, so here it is:
^"For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God." 1Corinthians 1:26-29
This verse has encouraged me that God uses the nobodies of this world to bring himself glory.  I have been praying this verse over my life and asking God to use me.  When the world may see my life on paper and not be impressed God sees me as someone with great potential to do his will.  So if you are like me and feeling like a loser, be reminded that you are exactly where you need to be for God to glorify himself through your life.  God is in the business of taking nobodies, giving them his strength and ability, and turning them into somebodies!

An Undesireable God

Is God desireable?
From what I read God is, "a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness." Psalm 86:15 
Now that sounds like someone I want to know, someone I want to run to no matter the cost.  If this is the case, why are so many people running away from God? Obviously this is happening for many reasons, but I think one of the main reasons is because of God's followers; because of Christians.  We all know people who label themselves a Christian but then go around and spread the wrong image of God, and we all do the same thing to some extent.  All of us who claim to be Christians should be striving to be more and more like Christ and yet we live lives that are far from it.  Where God is compassionate and gracious, we are harsh and ungiving.  Where God is slow to anger, we are ticking time bombs.  Where God is abounding in love and faithfullness, we are abounding in judgement and inconsistency.  No wonder people run from God.  If we are to ever effectively comunicate the gospel we must first effectively display the desireable characteristics of God.  I am not trying to say that there is no room for error and we must constantly live perfect lives or no one will turn to God, God is bigger than our failures.  What I am trying to say is that we have to start examining our own lives to see the ways in which we are creating an undesireable God.  I encourage all of us to continue pursuing God with all that we have and continuing to become more like Christ!

An undesireable God only exists when we improperly manifest the characteristics of God

All I Have

This is my story;
My plans for the future,
My current thoughts and struggles,
My retelling of the past,
Who I am,
Who I want to be,
And most importantly how God has changed and is changing me.
I started a blog two years ago and did a terrible job keeping up with it and now it constantly gets spamed so here I am for a fresh start in the blogging world.
I am twenty years old and simply trying to figure out what God has in store for me without overlooking what he has already placed in front of me.

God has given me all he has, and so he now gets all I have (that isn't much since I am a poor college student).  But all joking aside, I am trying to hand over my life and desires to the one who has promised to give me the desires of my heart if only I delight myself in him.
"Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart" Psalm 37:4

Welcome to my story! I know this one was a short post, but hopefully I will be feeling more inspired down the road.  Oh, and by the way, if you want to check out my old blog, here is the link http://aboundinginlove.weebly.com

~Alex