Who I Am

“By the grace of God I am a Christian, 

by my deeds a great sinner, 

and by my calling a homeless wanderer of humblest origin, 

Or, maybe it isn’t so much “roaming” as it is following. I’ve cleaned houses for a living, managed a coffee shop, been a stripper (of floors, that is), probation officer, youth pastor, ran a Middle Eastern restaurant, and been around the world and back, but for me it hasn’t come by a simple roll of the dice of destiny. God’s done this to me, for me, and I wouldn’t trade what I’ve done or where I’ve been for anything. 

Officially, I go around the world on mission trips with college 

age students for short amounts of time. 

In actuality, I don’t feel like that at all gives a solid description of what I do. My life consists of short term trips, yes, but in each of those moments of trip leading, I find that I myself have become more changed. Living in community (living with myself!) is both messy and beautiful, and it can be scary to venture into unknown territory, but I do it for a good reason: I’m addicted to the contagious passion of that age group. They have the guts to believe they can actually change the world! And, as crazy as it might sound…I believe them. So I go with them, the world changers that they are, and together we see God do some incredible things so that the people of the world may know Him and love Him. 

What I do is wrapped up in who I am. As I continue to understand my role as a child of God, I find that the desires that drive me become these: to become less so that He may become more, to love others deeply, to be increasingly abandoned to my low set goals and selfish wants, and to pursue the glory of God above all else. I will go down fighting for the glory of God because I wholeheartedly believe that is the only thing worth fighting – or dying – for. Like Daniel, I want to be a person of resolve, dead set on the things that matter most, and to walk in the understanding that God’s glory is at the very top of that list. To love God and love people. And to live in the reality that our Heavenly Father wants us to be well so that we can help others be well, too. 

I intend to spend the rest of my life pursuing those truths.