Where Do I Go From Here?

What do I put my hope in? Where do I invest my time? Where do I place my value? Recently I'm thinking I may have gotten these BIG questions wrong. I was doing it wrong. I put a lot of hope in a system, which God is taking from me. I've put a lot of time into that same system and the people there, and now God is moving me out of it. And I have received my value from the people in this system.


But some truth:
My hope is in Christ. And Christ alone. He is my strength and shield, my protector, my provider, and my best friend. The days that I'm not running after Him, I'm chasing nothing. And it took being a Christian for almost 9 years for me to get this as much as I do now, which may only be the tip of another iceberg.

How does one invest more time with Jesus other than in the word? yea. I'm still figuring that one out. But of all these questions, that's the only one I feel I have been doing better in for a while now.

My value is determined by Christ. By God. Not by what others say or think or how they react or act towards me... but out of all of these big questions, this one is the hardest to get over.

Missions Occur Where Ever the Lost People Are

I'm from Gilbert, Arizona. It's a small little farm town on the outskirts of Phoenix, one of the largest cities and one of the fastest growing in the US. Growing up in Gilbert, and especially being a teenager, provided me with the ability to have something to do in the city, while still having a very safe home. Not that Phoenix is all that dangerous anyway, but Gilbert is the kinda place where you can accidentally leave your doors open and nothing will get stolen.

Last week a murder occurred in Gilbert, Arizona. One of the safest places I can think of in the world. It's one of those: I go running at 3AM when I'm home and can't sleep, safe places. The biggest thing that happens to us is when tractors make traffic slow or kids toilet paper houses when it rains.

It's not that it freaks me out that my hometown isn't safe. If anything, Gilbert is more of a vacation residence for me, but I get the feeling that so many other people's lives were shaken up by the events. People in Gilbert base a lot of life purpose in possessions and things, in the idea of money making the world go round and living to be the "leave it to Beaver" family. Family's have cars and mopeds and 4-wheelers and boats, houses with more rooms than people and garages with more cars than licensed drivers. This is a place where "how it looks" is far more important than anything else.

I often think that the people who live to share their walks with Jesus with people in Gilbert are so much stronger than I. How do you advertise Christ to people who have EVERYTHING and whatever they don't have they could buy? Please send a quick prayer up for all the missionaries of Gilbert. They have their work cut out for them.