nywc: inspirations from my seminar

I'm pretty sure I have the longest title of any seminar here.

Last year (you may remember if you read along) I had a number of struggles with giving this talk. Illness... tech issues... notes issues... issue issues.

This year?

I came early, ready for the worst, prepared for "Plan Z" - which meant me and a Bible. I got everything tested and set up, and surprisingly it all worked. Then I took a walk with God, phoned home to ask for prayer from my wife and boys, and then watched people choose to enter the offering I was going to bring. Finally, I showed up and gave my best swing at letting what needed to pour out come out.

If my radar is healthy today, I think it served the people in the room and honored Jesus. I navigated around the temptation to sling mud at my past heartaches, but instead speak about how God used my "hurdles" to make me stronger for the "marathon."

And now it's out there... people may buy a CD or download it, and for all I know it may make no sense to someone today but three years from now it will matter to that person when they find it, process it, and apply it.

That inspires me - that just as the letters of the Bible are available to me today, so can my finite journey with an infinite God have eternal power and reach. I watched this - sort of - as some folks who didn't even attend the seminar picked up my handout on the overflow table.

Isn't that wild? You and I may not realize it, but the unconscious and intentional words that come out of our mouths today can become a chisel in God's hands tomorrow in the lives of others... and our own.

Forever and ever and ever.