A Blog by Kevin Harris
Isn’t it interesting how God takes you through tough seasons in life to prepare you for your future. You may think that you are simply suffering or bored or frustrated but really God is at work preparing you and building you up for what lies ahead. He is the master Architect.
Building a Foundation isn’t flashy but it’s probably the most important phase of building. Regardless, the foundation is certainly the first phase and if you don’t build it now you postpone your dreams.
As you may know Christina and I left Northwood Church in Charleston,SC on June 1st and moved to Tulsa,OK. We had a wonderful experience during our 3 1/2 years at Northwood and were sad to go but we just felt like God wanted us in Tulsa. In fact, last summer while I was in Mexico City I felt like God showed me that that was going to be my last summer in Charleston. Over the next year we continually felt confirmation and I shared this with my pastor on January 2nd. Looking back, I feel so grateful for all that we learned at Northwood.
The last couple of months here in Tulsa have been interesting as I haven’t had a job but God has provided for us. I’ve been getting filled up at church (the past 3 years I’ve been speaking every Sunday morning), praying, spending tons of time with family, exercising, reading and fixing up our rent house (which happens to be the house I grew up in. Yeah, it’s weird).
I recently became interim pastor of the inner-city youth ministry called “Chosen” at Victory Christian Center. As many as 500 teenagers are brought to Chosen on Thursday nights by Victory buses. These young people are the most at-risk kids in Tulsa and I can’t imagine a better chance to affect young lives. So I accepted the position on an interim basis because I’ve got some other things I would like to do in the near future but this was an area I could contribute to immediately.
I don’t come from the same background as most of these students so this type of ministry is very new. I’ve even gotten a few laughs from friends when I’ve told them that I’m the new pastor of “Chosen”. They can’t believe someone as white as I am is in this position! But I’ve always loved outreach and discipleship together and I’ve always wanted experience an intense and challenging ministry like this. So I started my new job a couple of days ago and it’s been fun. I’ve got two incredible interns, Janet and Angelica, sisters from Fort Worth, TX who are juniors at ORU. They are the best! The evening after my first full day we had a Chosen leaders meeting. I was so impressed with the leaders. They were not only passionate about ministry but also completely supportive of me. The leaders were acting like they’ve known me all of my life. Usually when someone new comes in veteran leaders tend to have walls up and won’t get too excited about the new guy. So in a lot of ways this role is very new to me but it’s challenging in a very good way.
Also, I’m teaching a Youth Ministry class at Victory Bible Institute which is also a new challenge that I’m excited about.
So that’s the update. There’s a lot more to it but that’s the shortest version I can give.
If you’re in Tulsa and aren’t doing anything on Thursday nights, I could use your help!
Rick’s son, Trenton Turner
The funeral for my Uncle Rick Turner was today. He was a great man who loved Jesus. We will all miss him very much. But this post is about his 12 year old son Trenton.
Trenton has been playing summer baseball and had been waiting to get his first hit. His team was winless. The last night his Dad was alive he watched Trenton play and get his first hit. He got a solid hit on the ball but the third baseman grabbed it and threw him out before he could get to first. But I know that Rick was proud of his boy anyway.
Trenton’s next game was the day after his Dad passed away and even though it was hard he felt like he should play. The game was against the #1 ranked undefeated team and in the eighth inning the score was tied and Trenton was up to bat. Who knows what kind of emotions this poor kid was experiencing. On the very first pitch Trenton cracked the ball over the second baseman’s head and it rolled to center field and the winning run came home!
There are some stories that only God could write and I know God wrote this one for Rick. I’m sure he was watching on and he is as proud as ever. The funeral was today and, as a testimony to Rick, there were over 500 people in attendance including all of Trenton’s baseball team on the top row dressed in their baseball uniforms.
I was watching the movie “Sneakers” the other day and a scene at the end struck me. The team of good guys have a chance to trade a special computer to the NSA and get almost anything they want in return. While the rest of the team asks for Winnebago’s and trips to Europe, River Phoenix’ character asks for a female NSA Agents’ phone number, which I thought was brilliant. But then Whistler, the blind guy on the team, asks for peace on Earth and goodwill toward men! I love that he asks for that out of all the things to ask for! The agent in charge says “We don’t do that sort of thing” to which the good guys reply “You’re just gonna have to try”.
For Whistler (and the rest of the team) it was a defining moment, which is “a point at which the essential nature or character of a person is revealed or identified”. As the saying goes: adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it. We are building our own character, good or bad, everyday. If we are careful we can hide the weaknesses in our character but at some point when we are stressed, stretched and tempted our true character will be revealed. When that time comes I can only hope to be as sharp as the blind guy from “Sneakers”.
I went for a run the other day and I was listening to an excellent podcast by Andy Stanley. Before I knew it I had run further than I ever have before. A lot of times I think “I just need to focus!” but my run reminded me that focus can be bad if you’re focused on the wrong thing. If I go for a run without my ipod it ends up being a terrible run. The whole time I’m thinking about how difficult it is and when it will end. We all know people that talk constantly about their problems. That’s like staring at the rear-view mirror while your trying to drive forward. Maybe we can go further than we ever have if we focus on the solution instead of the problem.
As I was playing disc golf today I noticed my disc had landed near some poison ivy. You need to understand that I am a magnet for poison ivy. I’ve had it spread all over my body and usually at the worst of times, like when the IMT school year first started and I was meeting all of the new interns with a rash all over my face! I’ve taken everything there is to take to treat it and in the process I’ve learned everything there is to know about the demonic plant.
So when I noticed my disc had fallen near some ivy I took serious action. An ivy plant produces oil that most people are allergic to. This oil takes about 3 hours to bond to your skin and cause a reaction. So after I finished my round of disc golf I came home and immediately kicked off my shoes and took careful note of everything I touched on my way to the shower. After my shower I got out the latex gloves and cleaned the doorknobs, car keys, phone, wallet, water bottle, shoes, discs and I put my clothes in the wash. Christina was beginning to think I had committed a murder. I can’t be too careful when it comes to poison ivy because I know all to well it’s potential.
It got me thinking. What if I feared the destruction sin can cause as much as I fear the itchy inconvenience of poison ivy? What if I realized how much sin had hurt me inwardly? (Aren’t we always so conscious of what affects us outwardly? The things we can’t hide) What if I took such careful precautions to avoid the terrible effects sin can have on me? What if I walked away from temptation like I carefully walk away from poison ivy?
Poison ivy oil can stick to your shoes and can still attach to you after a year if it’s not washed off. Like sin, you can’t get away from it unless it’s cleansed.
I’m sick of negativity. It’s everywhere. Criticism and cynicism sometimes get a free pass because those that spew it say “I’m just being honest”. Honesty is good, right? Yes but the Bible goes further. It instructs us to speak the truth in love. “But I do love that person I’m degrading”. Maybe, but the question is are you speaking in love? Another excuse: “I will say it to their face”. I believe you, but will it hurt them? Because if you will say something to someone’s face knowing it will hurt them….you’re a jerk. You’ve got darkness in your life. I understand the need to confront but it must be done in love and with a genuine desire to help (not to complain). Negative people also claim that they only want the best out of people and can therefore criticize them in the name of “excellence”. The problem is that critics tend to 1) focus on the bad and forget the good 2) criticize constantly, even when it is unwanted 3) fail to recognize that mistakes are a part of the learning process and 4) forget that they make plenty of their own mistakes.
There is a group of people, however, that never get criticized. These people are the ones that never try. They never do anything to stand out. They stay in the safe zone because of, most likely, fear of criticism. It makes you wonder though, if there were less critics would more people step out and try the things that are in their heart? Check out one of my favorite quotes:
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.” -Theodore Roosevelt
Here’s some good things to think about BEFORE you open your mouth:
What will I accomplish by saying this?
Would I say it directly to that person? (If not, DON’T SAY IT!)
Would it hurt them?
Are you genuinely trying to help them?
Is it really necessary to say these things in the presence of anyone else?
My Pastor Fred Richard once said, “How can you be a youth pastor if you aren’t any good at ping pong?” That’s coming from a true legend of ministry and ping pong (he’s beaten us all). And so a great tradition at Northwood Church has been carried on. I laugh when I think of how serious we take ping pong sometimes. I love it that we don’t stick to the formal rules of table tennis choosing instead to play by “street rules” or as Matt Gilbert would call it “Prison Rules”. As if there are gangs out there partaking in borderline criminal ping pong. But maybe there is some truth to the theory that you can lose “street cred” from a teenager if he kicks your butt in ping pong.
more about "Skiing Wolf Creek", posted with vodpod
|
