The Servant Leadership Staff returned today, and we had our SLS Retreat kickoff tonight at the pool.  Dr. Tatlock’s message was right-on and inspiring.  I have grown very frustrated with talking about radical Christianity and true discipleship, though.  Not because it’s a poor topic to talk about, but rather because it remains necessary to talk about it.  It’s high time to let our actions speak.  And if we hear silence, then we will know just what kind of people we are.

I am sensing the tug of daily details that disallow much focus throughout the day.  It is increasingly difficult to set my mind on things above in this always-particularly-busy month.  Cindi and I walked back to Oak Manor from the campus pool tonight, and even the 30 minutes that we were alone in the silence was quite refreshing.  There is a calm and a stillness that comes over my soul when I walk away from a crowd of people and the din fades and the heart relaxes.  I love my brothers and sisters, but I am very thankful for silence.  God so often draws near in those times in special ways.  The value system that our Father has prescribed is so clear and unmistakable and undebatable in those moments of tranquility — life is to be lived for Him and for His glory and for the raising high of Jesus Christ and His cross.

If you pray, please pray for me this week that my heart would be selfless and that I would sense my spiritual emptiness (“poor in spirit”) and would be filled with more of Christ and His character by the Spirit’s work through the Word.