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…and I just can’t hide it…I’m about to lose control and I think I like it!

For those of you around my age, you’ll recognize that tag line as lyrics from a Pointer Sisters’ song from the 1980’s. All I can say is I wouldn’t trade the time I spent living in the 80’s for another decade, and that I am so excited for the One Prayer project we are about to participate in during the month of June.

Hats off to Craig Groeschel and the LifeChurch.tv team for actually doing something that God will use to help unify churches throughout the world!

I feel like I’m more of a small church pastor with a vision of seeing like-minded ministries planted throughout the land. If we are involved in planting churches and spinning off people and resources to do so, it’s hard to see Revolution Church Sacramento growing to mega church status. However, it’s projects such as One Prayer that open my eyes to how important larger churches are in affecting the kingdom on a larger scale. They have the resources to initiate such a project, but being small allows us to be flexible and able to connect with things like One Prayer.

God is doing some amazing things in the church this year and I can’t wait to see how people in our community receive the call to pray for the church-at-large and be standing alongside over 900 churches with over 560,000 members from all over the world.

Craig at LifeChurch.tv challenged some of us to speak about the topic, “If God could answer one prayer for the church, what would your prayer be?” For me, I chose something that I think will be somewhat unique. My prayer would be for God to “Make us uncomfortable.” It’s during times of being uncomfortable that God is preparing us to rely on Him completely. What would your prayer be?

Stop for a minute and take a look at what today’s date is. Can you believe this year has gone by this fast already? It’s kind of funny, but the older I get, the faster time seems to slip by.

So many things I’d like to do, but I just don’t get to them. Too many people to connect with that I end up overlooking someone. Places I’d like to go, but never have the opportunities. Is it really all just a matter of lost time?

Being 41 years old, I remember a lot of songs from the 1970’s. As I thought about how fast time has been passing me by this year, I was reminded of a song from Jim Croce called “Time in a Bottle” from 1972. The first verse is a very familiar one and it goes like this:

If I could save Time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day
‘Til Eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

Unfortunately, there is no way to put time in a bottle. Days come and days go–we can’t live in the past. I need to make a dedicated effort to be more concerned with the affairs of my life today rather than being so focused on the future. It’s a recurring theme with me as I set my sights on carrying out an exciting and life-changing vision I believe God has me journeying through. However, I need to trust God for tomorrow, make wise choices today, and stop and smell the roses that won’t be around tomorrow.

If I have not spent time with you because I’ve been too busy, I apologize. It’s easy to hide behind the idea that God’s work must come first, but I must receive my friends and family as the blessings that they are instead of considering them (consciously or subconsciously) to be burdens that take away my time from doing God’s work. I need to love God and love others ahead of loving my calling or enjoying the work of ministry.

As I right my course and re-direct my time to enjoy and appreciate those people that I have been fortunate to have in my life, I pray that God will season these relationships with grace and that we may pick up where we left off, almost as if time were in a bottle.