THE HEART OF THE MATTER…

Lately, I have been extremely busy with so much happening at work that I have some what pushed everything else to the side. Nope, that is not right nor is it fair to my family or friends who have to suffer from my lack of concern. (If you are one of those people, please forgive me!) I just have to let all of the girls out there that I love you and I really do want to know you and serve you and love you! Some times in this journey of learning more about ministry I feel like I am missing the BIG PICTURE! The big picture is that God is good, just, compassionate, and unconditional!  I have been reading more in the Bible, Forgotten God (F. Chan) and 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die (J.Piper). They have been knocking me down and punching me in the face with the fact that I don’t know nearly enough about the goodness of the Lord or HIS Word. I have been missing the big picture. Tonight, I was talking to my mentor about how I have been staying overwhelmed and feeling completely ineffective. As always, she knows just the right things to say in such a GOD timing way, if that makes sense. During those weak moments I am most vulnerable to the devil creeping in and taking captive my thoughts and actions. Luckily, God has been merciful towards me and used my self-righteous and lazy efforts to reach out further than I could ever imagine. Definitely a humbling experience, but I am thankful for it! (Maybe not now in this moment, but I know I am going to be!) I’ve been missing the big picture. Are you?

HOMECOMING…

Last week at CSU we had all of the Homecoming festivities. I had a blast hanging out with students and supporting the different clubs and groups. Some of the highlights…

• Lauren beat out everyone in the Hot Wings Eating Contest in the CAF with 35 wings in a six minute time span!
• FallFest turned out to be a great evening of fellowship and music. The Elevate band did an excellent job leading. The Pep Rally went over very well and the bonfire was OUTSTANDING (thanks to REZ LIFE)!
• Friday night after the Movie Night there was a RAVE in Quad 3. At first, I was thinking this was going to be a bust but then when I showed up and had a little bit of encouragement I jumped right in the middle. Eventually, I made my way in with some water bottles to cool everyone off.
• Saturday was so encouraging because I had people telling me that they felt like they went to a real school with all of the people, excitement, and activities. Bucky made his appearance! Katie Tull (WBB) won Homecoming Queen.

DIG FOR THE CURE:

Tuesday night the Women’s Volleyball team head a fundraiser and night dedicated to Breast Cancer Awareness and Research. Just stating the facts… The Lady Bucs WHOOPED up on Coastal! The crowd was AMAZING! There was PINK everywhere! A.Hill got back on her A game and Nichole and Sam’s seniority shined during that match! (More pics can be seen on Facebook.)

TIM ELMORE:

Today we had some awesome time with Tim Elmore, CEO of Growing Leaders, come speak at our Convocation. He talked about how at some point in your life you have to make a conscience decision to move from the passenger seat to the driver seat. He used an example from 2 Samuel 11 when David slept with Bathsheba. He went from being a driver in the first part of his life to being a passenger. Tim shared 4 ways you know you’re slipping from the driver’s seat to the passenger seat: (1) drift from the discipline we demand of others, (2) Believing others owe us whatever use we can make of them, (3)Attempting fix things up rather than make things right, and (4) Refusing to accept that we could be blindly out of God’s will.

The other thing that really stood out to me was he shared one of the Habitudes with the Student Leaders called Big Rocks First. This principle is that you put in the big rocks in your life first then fill in around those. The big rocks are the things in your life that are HIGH priority. He said, “the issue is not scheduling priorities but rather prioritizing your schedule.”

Then he challenged us to take a self-examination of why we felt like people followed us. Here is a list that I would challenge you to use as a tool to self-examine yourself too!  He said figure out how YOU do it and do it THAT way!

1. insight and knowledge
2. relationships
3. sacrifice
4. character
5. abilities
6. passion
7. humility

TLC:

I have been so excited about Tara Leigh Cobble ever since I discovered her through Twitter a year ago. I have been following her and even told Clark a while back that I wish I just thought like her half the time! We ended up booking her to come to CSU and I got her book, Here’s to Hindsight. Mind you, I read this book in one day while sitting in the airport. I could not put it down because I was amazed that she was dealing with the same heart issues that I was and am struggling with! Anywho – She came to CSU today and I became an even greater fan! I will def. post some pics from lunch tomorrow and Elevate!  Follow her on twitter (http://www.twitter.com/taraleighcobble)