I should really spend more time updating this thing. Or maybe I shouldn't. Maybe I should only write when I feel the need to write. Maybe I should adopt that mindset on preaching and teaching. Maybe I should only participate in those activities when everything thing within me is crying out a clear and concise message. Maybe that's the problem with the church in America. We have a tendency to preach out of obligation, but not always out of full bodied passion for whatever God has placed on our hearts. Maybe the preachers who yell and scream and get fired up for Jesus have something going. They clearly have the passion, maybe we can work on the substance with some of them. I have been working my way through the book of James this past summer with the youth group. Trying to teach on having authentic faith. I feel like it has been a struggle trying to get the students to engage this subject matter. My desire is to build a safe place for teenagers to gather and grow in their faith. And I think the first step is that authenticity. Maybe I'll just preach this whole series over again to get the point across. I doubt it but maybe that would get the job done. :o) Who knows. God is really shaking up my spirit lately. Some things have been going on that have frustrated me and I would like to get to the heart of it. I have shared my frustrations with the frustrations and I have not seen any major results. We'll see what happens. The fact that I voiced my frustrations is a major victory for me. Usually I have a tendency to hold everything in and let it build beyond the point of meltdown, but I am learning from my lovely wife that that doesn't actually solve anything. So I am taking risks in these relationships and not just being a pushover. I have no problems helping people but I don't want to always make up for their negligence or (sometimes) incompetence. But like I said, we'll see what happens. Writing things down helps my stress levels a lot though so I think I'll be posting a lot more often now.