I Never Want To Drive Again...

I have been in the car for over eight hours today...driving my wife's little Nissan Sentra. A friend and I headed down to south east Texas today (and I mean WAY SOUTH and WAY EAST) to pick up a former student of mine. He has been having a lot of family problems that have basically ended up with him moving in with Johanna and I. Yeah, its crazy I know, but it will be different for us. We will have adjustments to make and we will have to be flexible and learning again with someone else living with us. The guy is one of my former students from another church I served and is an older high school student. He was really having a bad time with his family and after praying about it Johanna and I feel that the most-like-Jesus thing we can do is to allow him to move in with us, to teach him some things, offer him love and support, and try to give him a chance to get on his feet in life...Sometimes all people need to succeed is for others to believe in them, model a good lifestyle for them, and then just give them a chance.

While we are at Mission Arlington one of the MA leaders talked about how when you are growing in following Christ, there are times when God calls you to take deeper steps of trust to show you really and truly rely on him and are following him no matter what. Basically, he is seeing how far we are willing to go to follow and trust him. This is one of those times for us. We know it will take extra money and patience and time and we're not sure where a lot of that is coming from, but we know that Christ has called us to do this, even if some people think we're nuts...Heck, I even think we're nuts sometimes, but when He says Go, you go.

One of the coolest things in all this is how great Johanna has been in it all. It is incredible to serve and share my life and ministry with a godly woman who really wants to embody Christ and doesn't see ministry as "MY job," but rather OUR CALLING. Knowing, even if only partially, that this will require some major adjustments and sacrifices for us, she has jumped in with both feet...And I think that has probably impacted this young man with the love of Christ more than anything, because she is so willing to accept him into our home.

All this to say pray for us. Lift us and our new family member up. We will certainly need it as we adjust and follow him together.