WHY I'LL NEVER TEACH A LESSON ON PATIENCE

During the summer our church has a YOUTH RALLY every other week. Last night our youth pastor was gone and he asked me to teach. Yesterday I had the cruddiest day. Have you ever had one of those days when everything you tried to do was difficult? From the moment I rolled out of bed I felt like a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest. Yes, I actually said that. And I know it's not nice but I still have a little grump on me from last night so I'm going to leave it there for now.
Anywhoooo- we had some technical difficulties last night, and I promised the kids I would post the videos I couldn't play.
I talked about the world's view of perseverance and what that looks like. Our culture says that if you work hard enough, and persevere long enough, you can have everything you dream of. Then I talked about what the Bible says about perseverance; making ourselves smaller, to become part of something bigger. We talked about WHY(God is God, the future reward is bigger, it's not just about you). We looked at HOW (run to win, face forward in life) and we learned WHAT we're striving for: to be like Christ. A life that strives to be like Christ looks different. It feels different. It moves us on a deeper level. I shared a comment that was made by my cousin JARED recently. We talked about a certain race in the ancient olympics in which the goal was not to just finish first, but to finish with your torch still burning. I want to run the race in such a way that my flame is still going strong when it's all over. I encourage you to take a few minutes and watch this video about Tony Melendez. It will blow your mind. THIS is the kind of faith I want. And you know what? By the end of the day, when all was said and done, I figured out I have a lot to be thankful for.