Some free time

I actually got home before nine tonight and have some spare time. Can you believe it? I know I can't. I pretty much don't know what to do with myself, so I figured I'd try my hand at a little blogging tonight. Not too much of interest is going on so it will probably be a short one. While I was in California a couple weeks ago, I was actually able to go to a Christian bookstore. For those out of state, that might not seem like an even worth noting, but when there hasn't been a Christian bookstore around here for over a year and Barnes & Noble has the best Christian selection around, the opportunity to visit a real, live Christian bookstore is pretty cool. We went to the Calvary Chapel school store because my brother-in-law needed to get some stuff from there and talk to the people in the office and get some transcript stuff taken care of. While there, I picked up Derek Webb's cd "One Zero" which has a bunch of acoustic stuff on it. Suffice to say, it is a really good cd. I think his song "Wedding Dress" is one of my all-time favorites. It's amazing. I love the lyrics and the music. It's all really good. I even know how to play it to a degree, so I'm really loving it.

Starting last week, I'm teaching the junior-highers on Wednesday night. For those who don't know, our church is a church plant and we join our youth groups on Wednesdays. Up until now, I had been helping out with the high-schoolers, but now I'm teaching the junior-highers. I decided (on Kellen's suggestion) to go through Titus. So far it's been a blessing and I hope the kids are getting a lot out of it (I can never really tell if they're completely listening). But I'm really excited to go through that. So this is my weekly schedule for anybody interested:

Sunday - I get to the church by 8 to set up for worship, and I teach youth Sunday school (we're going through I John - it's awesome)
Monday - House church at 6:30 (what my church calls small groups)
Tuesday - Bible Study with Nino. I get to his house between 5:30 and 6
Wednesday - Youth Group. I get to the church by 4, lead worship and teach junior-highers
Thursday - Worship practice at 7 or volleyball around 6:30
Friday - A free night!!! (except not this Friday because I'm helping the youth with a worship night)
Saturday - My Sabbath!! I usually hang out with friends, try to do some reading, and go over my lesson for Sunday

Combined with a 40 hour work week, I'm pretty tired. But it's really good. God's really teaching me discipline and how to redeem the time I have. However, that being said, I'm seriously contemplating cutting out some of those responsibilities. I'm really starting to feel like I spend all of my time doing Christianity and not nearly enough time being a Christian. I feel like I'm becoming shallower in my walk and not communing with God nearly enough. If you wouldn't mind, I could really use some prayer about this. I don't want to cut anything out, but this might be one of those holy ambition things (John Piper on Romans 15:18-24 - great sermon) where I have to stop doing something I like doing in order to really devote myself to what God has called me. Add on top of that, I'm looking at renting a place with one of the college guys at my church and if that happens I would like to start a Bible study/fellowship time for whoever would want to come. I think I might be on the verge of foolishness with how thinly I'm spreading myself. I'm hoping that the feeling of becoming shallower as a Christian is more of a desire to go even deeper with Christ than an actual lessening of the depth of my relationship with him. But I fear that may only be a wish than reality. I think I'm in one of those states where I'm running so fast I never take the time to slow down and marvel at who God is and what he's done. Either way, I could use some prayer. The next few months don't look like they're slowing down anytime soon. But at least summer looks like it might be a bit more laid back.

To the only wise God be glory and honor