I WANT TO BE DONE HIBERNATING!!

It's getting crazy super gorgeous up in Western WA as of late. I'm so thankful for this rad sunshine and heat, but it brings out some sort of lack of fulfillment. I would say that most people are like bears. :) Bears go in to hibernation for a season of time and then, they go back in the world doing crazy bear stuff. I think that people in WA similarly "hibernate" during the Winter time, but when Summer approaches, everyone starts getting stoked about life and desires to be in community... ya know, just chillin' with friends at the beach or in the back yard cooking up some BBQ.

I am someone who has been a part of a community for my entire life and it's been really, sort of easy for me to connect to people. But since I've moved, I feel that I have been taken hostage from a community. Father God has created each of us to long for community, and I'm positive He's created me that way... just ten times more intense then others.

I've recently started Youth Pastoring in a church that is filled with two groups, the toddlers and oldies. Besides the two main age-groups, there are maybe one handful of kids that are of "youth group" age, and Hanna and I complete the Young Adults.

I love the church family I've been a part of lately, but I have never had such a difficult time connecting to people. I believe this is the case because the cultural personalities of my church family, whom have been influenced by this city, have created a "speed bump" in my ability to connect. I've been told dozens of times by dozens of people that I have a gift of relating to all sorts of people and I praise the Lord for the people that have helped me realize that gift. But the Lord has truly placed me in a city that I do not know how to reach the lost or even connect to His people.

I think of the Apostle Paul and the amount of time he spent evangelizing in different cities. I'm sure that some cities just fell in love with Christ instantly, while others took forever to grasp the concept of relationship with Christ. But to go beyond each city understanding and believing in Christ, Paul had to first learn how to be culturally sensitive to those cities with the gospel message. I believe that God has placed me here in North Kitsap to endure trials and hardships so that I can grow in the knowledge and power of the Lord.

The coffee shop is closing now so I'll close with...

Hebrews 12:1, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perserverance the race marked out for each of us."

As I said before and I truly believe with my entire heart, the Holy Spirit is fully active and aware that without His power and the death of Christ, we, "cloud of witnesses," wouldn't be able to be unite in spirit and mind.

We are drawn in to and made for community... to be surrounded by a "great cloud of witnesses!" And although I feel like a bear who's prematurely woken from hibernation, I have to find a way out of the hindersom quicksand and continue to run, and run, and keep running the race that God has placed me in.

I love you all. The Lord is good and wants us to run with perservance the race we each have been placed in, whether that's working in a cubicle 40 hrs a week, or going to school and volunteering as a youth leader at a church.... God loves us so much and He wants to hear our heart's cry because He will never put us in a situation that we can't handle. AND He wants to be our Savior over and over and over and over and over again so that we, His cloud of witnesses, will continually rest in Him and sing out at the top of our lungs...

"Hallelujah!"