Okay, let's try this again....

I already had a post mostly written but I deleted it.  It was all over the place and frankly fairly negative.  I'll say that it's been a good week, but it's been long. 28 hours this week so far and another 20 to go. Pray for me, I need it!

So I'm going to try to just share positive things that are happening.  First of all, I'm very excited for the Northwest conference next week.  I'm so excited to see so many friends that I haven't seen in well over a year (or more) from all over the northwest.  I am house-sitting/dog-sitting that weekend for some friends from the church here and I found out that a very close brother is going to be in town for the conference that weekend and is going to be able to stay there with me for the weekend.  That will be so good for my heart to have someone there that knows me very well and is a mature and strong brother.  I can't wait for that!

I find it so hard to build relationships in this church.  This is the first time I've really struggled with this, I don't know what to do about it.  Seattle is a wonderful place, but there is such a focus on the richness of life, but with that can come a blind spot that there are real needs all around.  I don't for a minute believe that EVERYONE acts like this, but it is nonetheless true.  This is not meant to offended anyone, but it is meant to encourage you to look around to see who could use encouragement: an ear, a specific need met, for you to be a friend.

What ever God has given you in abundance, you should spread around. There are so many needs.  People are lonely, hurting and poor in spirit, health and every other way.  This world needs you to look for needs, to show Christ through our lives, to meet needs and not just see people as "undesirable" or worse, as a burden, lazy, or sinful.  We all have strengths and weaknesses, we all have successes and failures, but every person has a heart, and needs someone to believe in them, trust them and fight for them.

This is my plea to YOU tonight. GO!!! Find someone to love.  Do it, and you'll never be the same.  LOVE!!! You'll never regret it!  FIGHT! You'll be victorious no matter what the outcome! You can never lose when you love someone with all your heart!

Happy 4th of July everyone!  Have a safe time, and make sure to love someone new this week!