**Mustard Seed Distributed**

This is Jesus. Be with me. Trust. In all His wisdom. Splendor and Majesty. Jesus. Listen. King. What is a king? Who is your king? Jesus. Jesus. Listen. Will you listen? Always and Forever. Will you listen? With me. To the Lord. Jesus. Listen. King. What is this? It is my kingdom. What do you see? With my eyes? Listen. Jesus. King. Sold for a price. Bartered for your life. Jesus. King. Listen

Today brings much joy in that after school today, we are officially on Christmas break. It has been a challenging fall as you may well know. But God continues to strengthen me. It is amazing that we are 'so dull' as Jesus asked his disciples while they actually lived with him in community and proximity and experienced his humility in person leading up to his ultimate sacrifice: "Are you so dull?" "Do you still not understand?" When I spend time reading the Word, when I ask God for forgiveness, when I ask the Holy Spirit to guide my steps, the light shines on my path. It opens my eyes to the path I should go down as opposed to the path I want to go down. Just as it says in Acts 14: '...strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said." It is hard to go down the well lit path. It is counter cultural - just like Jesus' teachin...

This is a message that came to me today as I walked up the flights and flights of stairs. At the school, I am located on the 4th floor. I never use the elevator, I always walk the stairs (although it was challenging today after so dang many squats in my workout yesterday), and as of late, I have been 'running' the stairs. Not the andrews way of running as if I were practicing for the run up the empire state building, but quickly taking each step instead of the slow walk. But I digress. The teachers gave me a gift card to starbucks, complete with my new middle name/nickname that 'blast off' gave me. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. Starbucks. Joy overwhelms me in the fact that a - they know me; b - the card said 'thank you for keepin' it REAL'; c - people get you gifts because they are thankful (i.e. - I am making a difference); and d - I get to enjoy starbucks. But that's not even what this post is about. If I had a ritalin salt lick today, ...

This fall has been a challenge to me, I'm not going to lie. Working in a new position that I was so very excited about has turned into challenges I did not expect, and more difficult than I envisioned the work being. Losing your mother doesn't seem to be a pleasant experience to me thus far, either. Living in a city that I have grown to love also wears on your spirit in so many ways. The 'grind' never had this meaning as I lived in MI, my guess is that that term was developed here in nyc, as this city does tend to grind on you. This is not a negative nelly post, but reality. Working in a school that was at one point identified as the one that I might open in a quite challenging environment is not necessarily my idea of joy to my spirit. But this is what I have learned this week -----AGAIN. (Insert Capital Duh.) Life sucks. There are 'powers and principalities' in control of this world that we live in, and that blows also. Evil has crept into the crevi...

It's really not just my daughter. All three of the kelly girls are pretty much amazing to me. Superstar helped with the pta holiday bazaar today at Liv's school. As I walked in, there were literally at least 100 people milling about, enjoying each other, buying some things for christmas, or not, and it was a great time to just chill and see some of the kids' friends' parents. If I can write it like that. It was fabulous. Superstar worked very hard to provide not just a fun day and community building, but to serve others before herself. And Alli's dance studio was there to perform some selections for the crowd. Out of the 9 people that are in her junior dance company, she was the only one to show up. When the studio head asked her about being the only one, and if alli would be ok dancing by herself - her answer: 'sure'. She is such a beautiful young lady. I am so proud of her, and watching her dance today was beautiful. She is a special person in ...

Humility is, in my opinion, one of the hardest things to live out and demonstrate in your daily life. It means you make yourself nothing. You lower yourself to a position where every single other person in the world is more important than you. It is so hard for me to be humble and to live out humility. But here's the rub. It's not hard for me with people that demonstrate gratitude. It's not hard for me with people that are appreciative, or thank you for your humility. It's hard for me when people are completely oblivious to you providing an act of humility for them. Which is really quite stupid on my part. Because humility doesn't mean that the other person(s) notices or is thankful. When Jesus was nailed to the cross and took my afflictions and my sin upon himself (by the by, he took yours and everyone else's as well), he wasn't ticked off with me that I didn't appreciate it. He still loved me and sought me out. That's where my current s...

It is really wild to me to think that I started this blog three years ago (yesterday - get off my back man, I was too busy yesterday goign to bed early to write anything!) Three years ago, I really felt like God was calling me to do something BIG. And I didn't really know what that really meant, or what was really going to happen with it all. But I have learned the last three years that God calls me to trust in him today. Even on my blogiversary. Today I sit in my apartment in Brooklyn, NY. I have left friends and family and great people back in Michigan. I look out and watch the planes headed to LaGuardia. I read the New York Times on the weekends. I go to work on the subway. I take the Brooklyn Bridge when I go to our gatherings on Sunday. I get to meet with pastor on a regular basis, and we do it in places like the new park overlooking lower Manhattan, the Pig'n Whistle Bar, Times Square, the Gemini Diner, Prospect Park, Central Park, UWS, along the East River, or...

It is sometimes a challenge to listen to the world around you. Why? Because you are focused on your selfish little world. Yesterday, I took some time to just sit and listen to God while I was on the train, and leading up to a planning meeting I attended. God really just spoke to me, and it seems simple. Sit down. Shut up. Listen. Those are very simple simon easy weasy. And yet, we idiots - I mean humans - don't take the time to do that. Here are the questions that I heard: Where is your treasure? Where is your heart? Do they match? What are you looking at? What do you see? Who is your master? Where is your worry? How can you be made salty again? What do you need to accomplish that? Do others see your light shining? Tough questions to listen to. Even tougher answers to wrestle with. So today, I strive to figure out the answers to these questions. And my selfish broken human condition continues to get in the way of my answers and my thinking. Last week, I had a vision...