Being joyful at midnight...

**This did not post for some reason last night, So I am posting it now.. as yesterday's (Sunday) Challenge**

Today has been a ridiculously horrible day.. well only athletically.. I woke up with only one thought on my mind.. the SEC championship game.. I went to church with Sharon and Beth to a new church (for me) called Biltmore Baptist.. it was very big, but the service was pretty enjoyable and worshipful.. While there the preacher spoke on being strong in your faith and joyful even at "midnight", he used the example of Paul and Silas being arrested, and thrown into the depths of the prison only to begin singing psalms (he mentioned theologians think the Psalms were 118-123ish) , so the gist of the sermon was no matter how upset/mad/down/in trouble you are remember your faith and where it comes from..

OH MAN, did I not know he was preparing me for my day.. You probably know if you follow college basketball at all what went down today.. 1st we lost to UK (with some sketchy calls!?) in OT (again) to lose the SEC Championship game, and after beating UF, and Vandy and lets be honest.. practically UK on a neutral site, we get snubbed by the NCAA tournament committee.. yeah, we had some bad losses earlier in the season.. but you can not tell me that 23 wins and being one of the hottest teams in tourney play in the country doesnt make us better than say.. Houston or Cornell or East TN State to get in the tourney.. ugh.. ok enough about that..

The point of this blog is not to vent about today's happenings.. although i just did a little, it is to say I was reminded, after getting so upset, almost to tears after the game today, that I remembered where it lies in the grand scheme of life... Don't get me wrong.. Mississippi State and Sports rank high on my life priorities list, of course behind the important things, but I do have to remind myself, I am blessed to even have the opportunity to cheer for that team, God has given me so much to be joyful about in this world, there is no reason for me to sulk about not making the NCAA.. I will praise him through this small time of frustration.. it is almost silly now that I have calmed down and thought it out..

Psalm 118:28-29
"You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
you are my God; I will extol you.
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good
His love endures forever!"

P.S. -- I hate the NCAA and UK right now

P.S.S-- Lets win the NIT

Love God. Love People. STILL Hail State.

Grace and Peace
Seth

Birthday Weekend..

Well this weekend is fun.. I am house/dogsitting for my boss, Phil, and it has been a great time, it is real nice to be in a real house again, and especially a house that is pretty much a picture perfect house in my mind. I also had some ridiculous, but amazing options for this weekend, that I had to not do.. like driving 9 hours to Destin for the weekend, or driving to Charleston to see another group of awesome friends, or drive to Nashville to the SEC tourney which is turning out to be awesome (Hail State!!) ... but luckily I decided to stay here in Asheville to celebrate my birthday weekend with my co-worker Sharon, whose bday is on Monday... and mine is Tuesday (hint).. anyway, I will be watching the game tomorrow and for us to beat Kentucky. But anyway this weekend is going great, although I do miss Spring Break greatly, like for real.. I can feel summer getting so much closer and I am extremely excited/nervous about that. I can't wait for it to all happen.

I have to be honest today about my challenge.. I just, being so busy and lazy at the same time.. yes that is possible, did not even take time to chill out and spend my time with God today.. so I am not going to fake anything specific that I learned or found out about God today.. but I am thankful for all he has blessed me with again.. great friends, a great job and place to live, and great times..

Everyone should watch and cheer on the Dawgs tomorrow...

Love God. Love People. Hail State.

Grace and Peace,

Seth

Take pleasure in my work....

2 John 1:8
Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full reward.

With all of this Spring Break talk by all of my friends, I had to turn to the Word to make me feel better about not having a SB10 and not be in Destin on the beach with all my friends.. so I remembered this little jewel. I need to remember that I am working towards a great goal to provide a great summer for about 1,000 kids and 80 staff this summer and the return will be this summer. I praise God for the opportunity he has given me with this job, and I should not fret just because I do not have one week off for Spring Break.. although it is hard.. ha


Love God. Love People. Hail State!

Oh yeah.. I really hope we win the game tonight in the SEC tourney, but I cant watch it, because the ACC tourney is on the same station ugh.. so I will just go to my Derek Webb concert at tonight.. WOO HOO


Grace and Peace,
Seth

Be joyful.. at all times

James is one of my favorite books.. and just from lack of time and being in the office all day, I am going to leave you with a little encouragement/charge for today that I have found helpful lately!

James 1:2-3 Count it all as joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance

Amen

Love God. Love People. Hail State

Grace and Peace,
Seth

Living out the message..

There are a good bit of things going through my mind here lately, but one that has been on the forefront since this past weekend, is if I am as deep of a steward of the Word as I should be.. I feel that I am not. I feel that I live a life that people can look at and see that I have a growing relationship by how I treat people and live day to day.. But I have started thinking here lately I need to get deeper in the Word and really begin to be a steward of it. I started my journey to read the whole Bible cover to cover, this year, and I am already slacking greatly. I just find myself putting off the reading for other things and justifying that with excuses that do not come close to covering for my shortcomings. When reading a little devotional today, I read John 6:63 that says "The words I speak to you are spirit, they are life" so not only do the words He provides for us are life, but they should be exhibited in our lives.. I then began to search and found this little tidbit that proves my point."Preach the Word" 2 Timothy 4:2.. So not only are we called to learn the words, but to be stewards of the Word. Go take a little side challenge with me to dive into His Word and live it out and use it for all aspects of life. hope this made sense.. it does in my head, ha.

Day 10

Grace and Peace,
Seth

Love God. Love People. Hail State.

Late night posting..

Challenge day 9.. crazy..

So today was a weird non conventional day.. had to wake up early, which was no fun, because I have not gotten good sleep since like last Wednesday night, anyway, we as "Ridgecrest Summer Camps" employees went to a CCCA (Christian Camping and Conference Association) Regional meeting and lead a little meeting thing to teach people how to do recruit staff effectively, well actually Phil and Sharon taught it.. Kathleen and I were more like cheerleaders and support, it was a 3 hour drive over there, then we were there for like 2 hours then drove 3 hours back.. it was more driving, not what I needed in life haha. So anyway, when we got back I finished the workday, then went to see Alice in Wonderland 3D, all by my lonesome.. I really wanted to see it but no one wanted to go with, so I just set out on my own. I enjoyed it, it was entertaining, but nothing to "write home about". Then vegged out in front of the TV to Idol, Glee!, and some random sports on ESPN.. it is March Madness time you know.

As for what the Lord taught me today.. this is the day I have been dreading to write about.. I was so busy today and caught up in me that I didnt look for those "blessings" today.. I feel really bad about it, The challenge works I got back to camp and realized I had not blogged then realized I had nothing really profound to blog about today either, I did wake up in an amazing mood, because we were blessed with great weather today, but no meat or anything today.. I guess not every day is filled with groundbreaking revelations from God, or maybe even that we discredit things that are smaller. Like I just said that nothing really happened today and as I write this out and think about it, it's pretty stinking amazing He even allowed me to experience another day on this amazing earth.. and one that had beautiful weather on top of that. So I change my mind.. I did learn something today.. well was reminded of something.. take joy in the blessings that we have daily, another moment to live on His earth.. and rejoice that we can have days like this and realize He is sufficient for us in all we do. Even the little things in life.

Will leave you with a scripture that I have read lately that I enjoy
"Prove me, O Lord, and try me
test my heart and mind.
For your steadfast love is before my eyes
and I walk in your faithfulness"
Psalm 26:2-3

Grace and Peace,
Seth

Love God. Love People. Hail State.

Long weekend, but God was working

Sorry for the 3 day break guys, that will be the last time i will NOT post for the rest of the month.. it was a excused hiatus from the Blog part of the challenge, because I worked a Disciple Now weekend in Birmingham at a church that I have been working with since my Freshman year at State... I have been leading the same guys for 5 years now.. their 8th grade year through this year, their Senior year. It has been truly a blessing in my life to work with these guys and get to know them over the past 5 years we had a great time learning about Christ together and just talking about their futures.. and appropriately the theme of the weekend was "Purpose" and it was something I needed as well as these guys at these transition times in our lives. We talked a lot about how Christ has to be first in our lives and our main focus and how that is sufficient in life.
It was a great weekend where God taught me a lot and made me count my blessing again in life with the opportunities I have received in my life to serve him in unique and amazing ways. Isn't it amazing having a God you can approach and be personal with? I like Him.. A lot.

And it was great to see a good group of State people! Miss that place..

Love God. Love People. Hail State.

Grace and Peace
Seth