A few years ago, just before Harbor Ministry was launched, there was this moment….
I was on top of a mountain looking out over Quito, Ecuador. I was there to speak at a conference of youth ministry leaders from around the world, on what it takes to finish well. The crazy thing was, at the time I felt like my personal and leadership life were crashing down. My spiritual life was empty. I was sure that I could not deliver. I just did not think I had what it takes to speak to those men who had gathered there. Everything in me wanted to bolt, and if I hadn’t been in South America, I may have.
Yet somehow in that moment clarity began to come. I had a very strong sense that I did have something to say, that my voice was needed, and I began to settle in.
Thoughts started coming. Help each man remember…
- remember the calling and mission that God has given him
- remember the key times in his own story that God broke through
- remember why he is doing what he is doing.
What followed that night was an incredible time of storytelling, and some moments I will never forget,
So I am reminded again today how powerful remembering can be—remembering the places, the spaces, and the moments where God has intersected our own stories. Today it has kept me inspired, and I find myself wanting more of it.
This thought comes to mind: “When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. Wait for hope to appear” Lamentations 3:28-29, The Message.
So I am determined to find a time to “enter the quiet” in the next few weeks. My life feels like it is in fast forward right now. I need the quiet bad.
