badminton

I play badminton twice a week. It is my favourite sport and I have often felt guilty for loving it too much. I got my boss into it and now he is crazier about it than I am. Im not sure if because of him or not but I have recently become much more relaxed about it. I almost feel like it is a distraction from what I really want (Jesus :) but I keep going because it is good exercise and I know I need that. It is also good to have a physical outlet for all the anxieties of work.

Today I played in my second tournament since moving to Winnipeg. I did pretty poorly in my first tournament, and in this tournament our result was much better. Without explaining how it works, with these badminton tournaments, there are basically 4 pools that you get sifted into as you win and lose matches. A, B, C and D. 'A' being better than Ill ever dream of being, and 'D' being approximately where I'm at, lol. My first tournament I ended in the 'D' pool and today Alex (my boss and partner for the tournament) and I ended in the C pool. So I am quite happy about that. It doesn't really mean that much however because the size of the tournament was much smaller than the last one and it totally depends on who you play. For instance, there were players in the 'B' pool who would have been completely destroyed by some of the 'C' pool players.

I am thankful for some of the things that God has been teaching me through badminton recently. After last tournament it was glaringly obvious that I have some confidence issues. And I have recently been learning of both the positive and negative aspects of communication and its incredible importance. I also need to learn how to communicate more effectively. Badminton is a helpful way of working on these things.

One thing that keeps coming up is that I make mistakes. A lot. That has been the biggest, most consistent issue with my entire badminton career (if I can call it that). I have an 'ok' amount of skill, a fairly decent technical knowledge of the sport, I understand the tactics, concepts and strategies of badminton and can even teach much of it. But I keep making mistakes! Every game I hit a shot out, I hit the shuttle into the net, I completely miss hitting the shuttle when I shouldn't. Mistakes plague me all the time and it is so frustrating. I have sometimes video taped myself trying to learn how to improve my play and when I watch it becomes so obvious that I won't really get any better results until I can stop making mistakes. As you are reading this you are likely thinking: "It's just a game, relax. There are much bigger issues in life to worry about!" That is true but I really think that my mistake making in badminton is simply a manifestation of something that inevitably affects much of my life. but what?!? I don't know... lack of confidence? inability to focus? lack of motivation? I don't know. However, it is a psychological hurdle that I greatly desire to conquer.

Here are some quotes that struck me during my time at IHOP for the OneThing 2010 conference and even recently as I have re-listened to these messages:

Corey Russel, on why the fire dies 2-3 weeks after a major conference: "Could it be that your life is in direct opposition to containing and stewarding the impartation that you received?"

Corey Russel: "The biggest besetting sin, in this generation, is laziness."

Corey Russel: "Do you know what I want to see take place over these next four days? A voice go out, and you immediately change your life and find yourself in the midst of communities and companies embracing prayer, fasting, sermon on the mount lifestyle and preparation for the coming kingdom of Jesus Christ."

Lou Engle: "If we get the same revelation as Peter, 'thou art the Christ,' the gates of hell everywhere are in trouble."

Lou Engle: "I don't want just revival. I want reformation."

Shelley Hundley's salvation prayer: "I will never humiliate myself like this again, so if you're gonna do something you better do it now."

Shelley Hundley: "Oh my goodness, a human being can feel what He feels! A human being can actually reach into the depths of the resources of God's love. How high, how deep, how wide and how long, and can feel the measure of it."

Stephen Venable: "If you just view Christianity as a lifestyle, then maybe that lifestyle might be different in the 20th century, than it was in the 1st century. Just maybe. But, if discipleship and Christianity is about conformity to a person, and if that person is the same yesterday, today and forever, then the Christian life does not change with the passing centuries. Because discipleship and Christianity is like being like Jesus. And increasingly, the greatest single crisis that the church faces, in this hour, is that there is more and more, all sorts of things being done, under the banner of Christianity, that is drifting further and further and further away from the identity, the life, the teaching of Jesus Christ."

Stephen Venable: "...The problem is, Jesus is presented, almost only, as a means to those ends [of our happiness], rather than our life being a means to the end of His glory and His fame....The Christian message has almost been reduced to, 'God loves you and has a great plan for your life',"

Stephen Venable: "Does Jesus exist to give us stuff, and to affirm us, or do we exist to deny ourselves and give Him glory?"

Stephen Venable: "Have we so suburbanized godliness that it couldn't possibly offend anyone? We are just falling over ourselves trying to make Jesus and His demands palatable to the world."

Stephen Venable: "Our version of Jesus that we have, He's our therapist, our life-coach, and our little mascot and our sugar daddy who just gives us anything we want. That will never evoke a sacrificial lifestyle. The glorious Jesus of the Bible, who created everything, and sustains everything right now by His word, and who took on flesh for our sake, and gave himself over to death, and was raised again from the dead and ascended into heaven and rules over all things and is coming again to set up an everlasting kingdom. That Jesus might compel us into a life of sacrifice. But the version of Jesus that is preached in modernity will never do it."

Stephen Venable: "We have to give ourselves unreservedly, with abandonment, to the study, to the meditation, to the adoration of the LORD Jesus, as found in the Word of God."

Whom the Son Sets Free is Free Indeed

"Whom the Son sets free is free indeed, and there aint no chains that can hinder me."

There are 28,000 people singing and jumping to the beat. We are all shaking our hands back and forth in the air to symbolize shaking the chains off. The joy can't be contained and the presence of God is a beautiful fragrance to our souls.

Last week I was at the International House of Prayer's (IHOP) OneThing 2010 conference. The purpose of the conference is to challenge and equip young adults for a life of reckless abandonment for, and desperate pursuit of, Jesus Christ. It feels weird to be in such a crowd of mostly young adults, who are all in love with Jesus. The atmosphere is so obviously different from anywhere else. Life, joy and peace. It is so refreshing. However, the atmosphere isn't simply a social or emotional overtone (which is good) caused by lots of Christians being in one place. It is the tangible, manifest presence of God, welcomed by hours and hours and hours of deep, fervent prayer and continuous worship.

I am not confident of the theology of this next comment, but: it is as if the very spiritual realm is affected and free from the devil's influence in that physical location. While I am there I am more free to pray and worship and sing and dance and love and laugh. And when I come home to the North End it is quite different. And so I say: to that END I am here in Winnipeg. That the presence and glory of God would be manifest in my neighbourhood, (in my life), in ways I cannot imagine. Why? HE is worthy.

My overall highlight of this last OneThing conference is the clarity, specificity, and intimacy with which God spoke to me. I was hoping that I would hear from God about a few things. And then He met me in so many places, at so many levels and about so many different things. His love is intoxicating (literally!). I know that in some circles there is a lot of controversy about the gift of prophecy but I assure you that when it is properly exercised, God can melt your heart like wax.

A declaration of faith, a declaration into the heavenly realms: North End for Jesus.