Far More

10:30 PM - Normal night activities of brushing my teeth, taking Gunner out to use the restroom one final time, locking up the doors and heading to bed to get a good nights rest for work tomorrow. I'm exhausted... Haven't been able to sleep to well this week. You see, Austin Stone has been doing a series called Far More. This series is stemming from the scripture Ephesians 3:20:

"Now to Him who is able to do far more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

The challenge throughout this series was to get everyone to take a step further in the different areas of their mission. That may be financially, prayer life, worship habits, or serving.

Serve: to perform duties or services for another person or organization.

1:00 AM - Still awake. I can't stop thinking about Peru. The faces of the little boys and girls who received clean water for the first time in their life. The thankfulness in their smiles and the gratitude in their eyes. Even though we were speaking in completely different tongues, we had a common bond. What that bond was... I wish I could tell you. But I brought it back to the States with me, and I can't get over it. I dream about them. I pray for them. I yearn to go back and see them. 

3:00 AM- Is the current time. I gave up on counting sheep and decided to blog for the first time since July of 2013. I have been challenged by my cousin Will and our good friend and brother Nick Brandt to blog once a week for a whole year. That would be 52 blogs! (Actually just 50 for me, I joined the party a little late).

I'm excited about getting back into the blogging world. I spent countless hours on the back porch of La Chosa in TamboGrande, Peru, blogging about the work the Lord was doing in our lives. It is fun to go back and read all those posts and look at pictures of the fun times we had over there.

We were so caught up in helping others, serving others, and most importantly loving others, that we lost the joy of this world and found joy in the journey of this world.

You may not understand what I mean by that, but if you read most of my blogs they all contain this underlying theme of living for something greater than yourself. I've tried to live for many things... School, girls, football and work, and none of these satisfy what our heart truly yearns for. We were wired that way. And the only thing to fill that void is to live in the way Christ lived... Loving everyone he came in contact with.

So my question is this, how do we serve in a world that is unfamiliar to that concept? How do we serve in our communities, work force, and families? It shouldn't take flying all the way to Peru to love people and serve people. Here, right where we have been planted for the meantime, let's find a way to do FAR MORE.