Are We There YET?

Are we there yet? That is the question most every parent, student minister, and driver hates to hear especially if you do not know if you are almost “there” yet or not.On a recent trip to Boone, NC with a good friend of mine, Justin Thrasher, we had to take a bit of an unexpected detour.

The average trip to Boone is usually an easy two hour drive up the boring stretch of 321. I have made the drive way too many times in the past 6 years! You know you are getting close when you hit the bottom of the mountain and the altitude begins to rise pretty fast. There is a lot of construction happening on the mountain stretch of 321 and on this particular day I felt like I was in a rush because I was ready to be with Jenna and see some friends that I haven’t seen in a while.So of course we hit traffic and it wasn’t JUST traffic it was a complete standstill except for the occasional movement to close the gaps from the cars who turned around.

As Thrasher and I inched our way up the mountain we noticed cars turning down this one steep dirt road, and my years of driving to Boone I never saw anyone entering or exiting this road, but they were going somewhere!So like any guy would do we look at each other at the same time and say “let’s go for it!” So we did, we went for it! We went for a detour down a road that we had never been on before and had no clue where it was going to take us. ADVENTURE! 

Below is a time lapse of the detour we took…
 

Life and ministry is this way a lot of times: We head into certain things, certain callings with everything planned out. How we are getting there, How long it is going to take, and sometimes we leave no room for flexibility or a detour.

I had fun on this detour even in the midst of questioning if the road we randomly took was going to get us anywhere close to where we needed to be. We should take some time to evaluate where we are at, where we are headed, and ask ourselves “are we there yet?”. What was interesting was we were behind the same car for most of the detour and somehow we thought this car new where they were going…we were wrong… It took a phone call, yahoo, and photographic memory to get us on the right road. So, 1 hr 15 min later we arrived there…

with that…
Have fun on the detours of life, the random off-the-path endeavors, travel the roads you never would have ever dreamed of traveling, and know that when you get “there” it will be amazing!

rock on–
~Justin

Mind Freak

 

Our mind is a powerful thing and one look around the room you are in proves that (especially if you have a Mac…genius…).

We have extreme potential from the time we are born to learn and use our minds in all sorts of areas of life. There is a trend, that is simply human nature, to fix our minds on the present and a lot of our innovative efforts to better humanity are done to fix are to make better our present reality.My trend is to fix my mind on today and tomorrow and if I am lucky I may get to next week, but i get consumed with today and all of its joys and struggles.

Recently, God has put things in my life that is causing my mind to freak out little. My mind is being consumed by the comforting and exciting things that my future holds:

1: Marriage…I am getting married to Jenna on June 28 and I cannot wait for that…it leaves me speechless!
2: Honeymoon…Jenna and I booked our Honeymoon last week to the Occidental Grand Xcaret All-inclusive resort in the Riviera Maya on the Caribbean side of Mexico…again…speechless.
3: Kinetic Church and the Student Ministry: Amazing things are happening and doors are opening up and God has so much in store…again…yes…speechless.

Thinking beyond our present reality is extremely difficult, but in the letter to the church at Colossae Paul encourages them to set their minds on things above and not on earthly things. This does not mean we aren’t supposed to enjoy and cherish the things here on earth, but we should hold on to these things loosely.

Our minds cannot intellectually perceive eternity and something that has no end.

Cherishing the things God has put in our lives to enjoy here on earth are amazing, but it is not all their is. I cherish and look forward to so much in my life and it is extremely comforting knowing that someone bigger than me and my intellectual capacity is in control.

On the flipside of that there is also a danger in ONLY looking to the future that we forget today. Jesus said not to worry about tomorrow, in essence tomorrow is going to come and today there is so much to be thankful for.

Cherish the people in your life. Cherish the gifts you have and set your mind on things above.

Ready for the Riviera,~Justin

I.L.U.: 1000 Sunkist and Still Going…

                           

So if you have been to our office in the past few months one thing that you probably have noticed when you first walk in the door is the mountain of pineapple and strawberry Sunkist that line the walls. So one of the big things we had to tackle was what should we do with them?

This past Wednesday a group of Kinetic students and friends passed out the first 1,000 of the 3,000 drinks that we have. If you were on campus on Wednesday from 12:30-2:30 you couldn’t have missed us.So you may be wandering “why were you passing out a 1,000 Sunkist drinks at UNCC?” “To raise money?” NO, “To promote Kinetic?” NO, Not really “Ohh…you guys were bored?” NO. Well I’ll explain shortly…

As of last night, after a long battle, an official organization was created on the campus called KINETIC. We are now an official campus organization which opens up a whole flood of opportunities for the students at Kinetic Church. We are not 100% what this group will look like a be a year from now, but right now we have a mission and desire to serve the campus through the I.L.U. “campaign”.The first week was AMAZING! I’ll leave it at that. We will be on campus for the next two weeks passing out the rest of our drinks.

I want to thank these key people in making this possible:Brandon Hoffman: dude, you have been amazing and you were vital in us becoming a campus organization. Weston Keith: you are the man, Chad Keith, Rachel, Luke Anthony, Haley and friend, Vidal at UNCC. Here are a few pictures:

Sometimes I Feel Like a Rockstar

              
Yes…you read it correctly sometimes I do feel like a rockstar.  However, that happens on rare occasions and in various ways.  Two weekends ago I was back on the road again playing drums with the band for a Disciple Now weekend in Hartsville, SC for 250 students or so.  You are probably wondering how playing drums for 250 middle and high schoolers could make you feel like a rockstar?  Honestly being in a band is not a bad gig.  You get a lot of attention, sometimes you get paid a good bit, free food, hotel rooms, you get to play music, and all of this STUFF…(oh yeah I can’t leave out those awesome free t-shirts).

Since that weekend I have been reflecting on what rockstardom really is.  A good friend of ours, Chad Keith, filled in on lead guitar for that weekend and on the drive down we were swapping stories about playing in bands growing up and we both had REALLY crazy stories that only indie musicians can probably understand.  Through all of this stuff it brought back a flood of memories, memories that I would not change for ANYTHING.I would not change the feeling I had that caused us to go play anywhere, for anything, and for nothing.  No money, no food, no attention, and sometimes no people would show up.  I loved it though!  It just felt like a rockstar to be able to do what I loved, to do what God called me to do, and all for the hope of connecting people to God through music. 

What happened?  What changed inside of me?  Our motives shift sometimes.  We get caught up in numbers, money, and pleasing everyone that we forget our unique and specific task that we get to do.  

 I desperately wish to get back to that place of feeling no hold backs.  I want to know what it feels like to be a rockstar without all of the rockstardom and rockstar STUFF. 

~Justin