Me a writer?

Last night I had small group that I lead with the wonderful Chris Ramsey, and we've been going through 2 Corinthians chapter by chapter. It's really been a pretty cool thing, and very challenging for both Chris and myself, as well as obviously and hopefully the younger leaders who are a part of it. This week I was supposed to be leading on the 8th chapter, and after looking it over for a while and reading and re-reading it many times I just didn't feel inspired to try and teach on it at all. It's even just challenging to me in preparing to lead this group because I want to make sure what I present is something that will really challenge these guys to think and pray outside their normal realm of thinking and considering Christ in their lives and the lives of others. With that being said, I just didn't think that chapter 8 was going to do that through me this week. 

Instead I gave somewhat of a sermon, or at least it felt that way when I finished. Kinda felt like I should make an altar call and see if my guys wanted to accept Christ, although if any of them came forward that would be a little disconcerting to say the least. But let's get back on topic ourselves here, shall we? Usually when I lead I'll have a series of significant questions and analogies that help whoever my audience is understand the concepts better and relate it easier to their lives. Last night though, I just spoke; lost my train of thought a couple times, but God shifted me right back on course and it was great. I spoke about how well we know God, as that was the first question that Scott Hamilton posed to us over this past weekend. That night he then wrapped up by asking us what we thought God was trying to tell us in our own lives. If you don't know Him, then you're not going to be able to discern what He is trying to tell you or how He is trying to guide you. 

It just so happened that during our Lenten study with Heritage, it also revolved around knowing God and the study asked us about how well we knew one of our best friends or our spouse if married, which clearly I am not. However in describing three of my closest friends, Andrew Pierce, Kevin McIntyre, and John Slemmer, I realized that in comparison my relationship with Christ wasn't nearly as deep as those, but that I had known Christ almost as long as McIntyre, and longer than Pierce or Slemmer. Convicting stuff I tell ya. Think about it in your own life...

After touching on that I moved into talking about when Elijah was waiting on the Lord and how the Lord didn't come in the mighty wind, the earthquake, or the fire but rather in the whisper. That's when the Lord comes and yet, for Elijah to know that he would have to know Him by spending enough time with Him to recognize His voice well. That's how we all need to be.

When I finished all of this, Ramsey asked me if I had taken the time to write any of what I just said down. To be honest, I really hadn't because it was just a bunch of notes scrapped together and pieced together from all over the place; some of which I've already blogged about, but really that just makes it more all over the place. However it made me pause, and consider how much I've actually enjoyed writing over the years. I have always loved writing and I was always decently successful at it, however I never considered it for a serious career or that I would do anything with it. This was different though, and while I'm not entirely sure how or why, I'm definitely going to look into it. I would love any thoughts that anyone out there has...thanks party people.