Followership Conference

There are two men sitting North Northeast of my direction chatting about a church conference they are planning. Swapping stories about all the Christian celebrities they have heard; dropping their names like they live next door. Apparently they want to set up a new leadership conference in the area.

If you aren't involved in a church, or if you are and have your head buried in the sand, you might not have heard of a leadership conference. Otherwise you might have been invited to at least twenty three in the past month (Yes this is hyperbole, like Jesus used). Which has caused me to wonder, where is the followership conference? It seems Jesus talked about following a lot more than he talked about leadership.

I would set this up but that might involve leadership, which would be counterproductive to the goals of the conference.

The Best Year of My Life.

I took a walk this morning through the forest that sits a few blocks from my apartment. My companion was the Book of Common Prayer and its morning liturgy. Liturgy makes you, no forces you to reflect on what has been and apply it to the present and future. This mornings air carried an extra dose of clarity, delivered joyfully by a band of feathered musicians. I took a deep breath of the clarity then exhaled, letting the clarity pass over the vocal chords of my mind, causing the nerves of my brain to reverberate: This has been the best year of my life.

Certainly by Hollywood standards it's rather lackluster, I just consulted my wife to see if a deluxe hot dog from Goshen's hot dog man was an acceptable luxury. So it's not the finances. It's tempting to think that this past year's success has been entirely due to my lovely bride. Sure, that plays an important role, but it's something more than that. As I tried to take apart this past year like a swiss watch I found every gear that made the every day tick was coated in a glow of gold.

Part of my reading this morning from the book of common prayer was a section from Psalm 51 "Give me the joy of your saving help again and sustain me with your bountiful spirit." It is tempting for me to think I am neglecting some charismatic response, that I am supposed to have some sort of hormonal rush for God like I had for girls when I first hit puberty. Not today. I reflected on my previous thoughts of this past year and acknowledged that the best year of my life is attributable only to the saving help of God. The little tweaks and minor adjustments he made like a pair of gracious braces on the twisted teeth of my heart.

As far as lifestyle goes, I feel like I have so much, but only because God has shown me what things in life are actually valuable. What I have with Courtney has been amazing, but only because God has shown us that our selfishness doesn't get us what we really want.

The great part about all this is that how good this year has been has not been dependent on changeable things, but what and unchangeable God has done with changeable things. Which leads me to believe that next year might get even better.