.: more of you - less of me :.

The next big adventure of my summer is just around the corner! Next Sunday, I will be packing my car and heading out to Santa Cruz (California) to serve as a Staff Counselor at Mount Hermon Conference Center. I am totally excited to be down there, offering my gifts and energy for the sake of ministry, but with that comes a sense of knowing that this is something brand new to me and I will surely be stretched. I already know that there are elements about this 3 month job that, had I known would be part of serving down there, I wouldn't have applied for it. But that is part of the excitement and immense challenge - knowing that it won't be all that I expected, along with the hope that it is richer and more meaningful than what I already picture it will be like.

As I search my own heart, I know that the biggest challenge I will face as a team of leaders who facilitate and guide the summer staffers for the season is that of leading with confidence and humility. Being a newbie to that place, I already know that my tendency will be to get people to "be on my side", to like me and accept my leadership style. The reality is that if I hope to offer this phase of my life up to Christ, it will have to come from seeking to honor Him in the ways that I lead (especially in terms of how I grow and mature as a leader) rather than being funny and seeking safety as a means of survival. My "cruise control" attitude is that of drawing the spotlight on myself, doing outrageous stuff to gain attention, and trying to be "edgy" to attract people as friends. But the greater reality is that those are "old Dave issues", and being where I am in life - being who I am in life - I am more aware of those tendencies and am desiring to not allow those acts of "unfaith" to fulfill my own will and self-centered desires.

Bottom line: I want to be liked. I want to be accepted and approved of. And in fact, I was built for such loving acceptance, but it needs to come in good ways - not at the cost of what God desires to have happen this summer in and through me. I need to let Christ be the center of everything I say and do - allowing that to guide my words, thoughts, attitudes, and actions - rather than to function out of a mode of survival and status. To be liberated from that, to be given freedom from that sort of self-manipulation and pressure (both inward and perceived outwardly), would look like permission to become the person that God has called into that unique role and position. This is my heart and prayer for the summer, and as your own heart and mind are reminded of my ministry down at Mount Hermon, I invite you to pray for these very things along with me (and I thank you in advance for partnering with me as I move boldly into that place as a friend, leader, encourager, motivator, and servant of Christ)!