williamjonathan

Life has a funny way of turning left, right, and then some direction that you can not place you finger on. So in attempt to follow it I have made some great choices and a few mess-ups alone the way.

I have learned that this part of my life is not just for me, but for whoever wants to journey on it with me.

I have developed a information piece that will give a you away to journey with me.

All you need do is email (will@centercitychurch.net)  three things:

1. Your Name

2. Your Mailing address (snail-mail)

3. Your email address.

Thank you and stay tune.

Love.

current series at Center City.

today started like so many others days. I woke up rolled out of my bed, I took a shower then head out to the office (aka. local coffee shop). Today is our staff meeting, which is something a little bit normal. I guess because we have a little bit of a different meeting then most. Now that I am thinking about it, we are just a little different all together. Which brings me to my point.

Life… For some it is like ice cream, some cookies, so tofu, yet for a lot of us I feel as thought we life like jello, just follow me for a second. Look at how you live your life (at this point there should be those little bubbles coming from you head). How many time do we conform to the ideals of others? How many time do we strive to meet expectations that no one has established? Try to “fit-in”?

When we do this we do a few things… One we in some ways turn into a monotonous blob of jello by embracing others and their ideals, not ours. While we are striving to find our identity in others, we are losing the ourselves.

Now don’t take this the wrong way. I am not say that you should streak naked proving you individualism. I am just say that you need to embrace who you are, and who God made you to be.

I pray that we all embrace who God has made us to be and is calling us to become. This will help us avoid becoming some thing we are not….

Love.

Last night I got a phone call from my mom. She was calling me to inform me that my uncle that has been waiting for a liver transplant was headed to the hospital to receive one. I was full of joy, as my mother continued to tell the story I was over taken back… The liver was given specifically to my uncle. It was a gift. A lady from my aunt and uncles church that had been praying for him that God would heal him or provide away, ended up giving him the liver. Apparently a few days before her son was in some type of accident and was unable to make it through. So she called them and let them know that she wanted him to take the liver.

My mind for a moment was full of emotion. How great is this love, how compassionate, how selfless. I started to cry as I thought about this mother that had just lost her son. From this moment of death life was given, in a single act of selflessness.

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

Love.

I am pretty much a happy person, but over the last little bit. I have been happy for many reasons and many of them have nothing to do with me. Over the past two weeks I have been happy because of the things that are happing in the lives of those who are around me. I have been able to observe things taking place  bring joy to those who I care about.

One of my roommates just got a new car, one is getting lasic eye surgery, two of my friends are getting iphones, one is getting a tattoo, and to top it off amazing things are happing for Center City. Things have shifted off of what is taking place in my life, and is being placed on to the lives of those I care for the most. Don’t get me wrong, I like good things to happen in my life, but that is not where I draw my joy from. I can honestly say that I am happy, and truly happy for those that are around me, rather than myself.

If its ok I want to pray this over you.                                                                                                                                                                                                Open our hearts to draw joy from those around us who are experiencing your blessings in there lives. Let us see you and your grace in their eyes. Let us celebrate with them in their happiness, giving you the glory for it all.

Love.

Its funny to me how so often we feel the need to “chase life”, see others live saying, “I wish we could be them”. When in reality no matter what we think there is someone that is saying the same thing about us, they are wishing that they could have the life that we have.

I think that part of being able to be happy in life is embracing that life that we have. I am not only talking about life as a whole(which we need to do), but in the small things, embracing the moments that are hard, the moments where we wish things were different, the moments we are broken in tears, the moments that we are full of joy, even the moments that we slip and fall on the ice.

These are the times that we will determine our reality. This is easily done in moments of joy or happiness, when we are skipping in meadows of lilies with rainbow filled skies. But we still determine it in the time where the meadow has turned into a dessert with vulture filled skies.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that when you have a horrible day that you should fake it, because that is not real life. Plus your not fooling any one, you are just making yourself look like a fool. But what I am talking about is having a sense of what your life is and moving in it.  We have to sake this false reality that life is always going to go the way we want it to. I am not claiming to have all the answers, but if there is one thing that I have learned in my 23 years it is that. I am not always going to have things go my way.

Over the past year I have made so many mistakes, so many wrong choices, so many right turns, so many dreams have come true, and so many realities have been shoved in my face. In all of these I have had to live, to walk, to continue. I could have lived in my mistakes, and wallowed in the moments fear, letting that determine how I lived my life. But that is not the case, I was not made for that, I am made for much more, and so are you.

Life and Reality is what it is. Yes there will be things that are out of your control. Yes “bad” things will happen to “good” people, and “good” things will happen to “bad” people… live with it.

I am coming to place… where I am standing looking around to every side and come what may, nothing will take my joy, my peace, and my dreams.

Because while I determine my reality and  joy, it is based not in myself but in Jesus Christ and what He did for me.

Proverbs 30:11  Romans 5:8 Nehemiah 8:10 Galatians 2:20

tonight the snow falls.

it covers the grown.

then it melts.

tomorrow the sun will come up .

tomorrow the sun will go down.

tonight I sleep.

tomorrow I awake.

the moments between.

are the moments seen.

some in white.

some in flight

both day and night.

love.

over the past little bit life has been a little crazy, and yet so amazing.  I have been dealing with way more than I can handle, only to make it though each moment. One thing that I have been able to do is read, reading is my escape, my secret hideout. I have been finding myself just yearning for time to read and to be alone. I know that might seem a little different yet. But to be honest it has been the part of me just calling to get alone with God and rest in Him.

I read a lot of dead guys. I just love there thoughts. I aspire to be like them. I laugh under my breath as I write. One of my mentors that died in 1944, applied for his doctorate at the age of 21! I am not sure what to think of this. At times to be honest it is almost discouraging. Honestly I am full of passion and want to impact the world for God. So to see the greatness of those I dream of becoming like, has both been encouraging and discouraging. I have been asking God to help me process all these thoughts and how to feel. Then the  other day as I was reading it hit me.

i am like them.

I thought and placed my self in the seat of evaluation before the Lord. I though about who I  am, who they were, and who He is. As I spent time meditating of the facts I looked finding there was one thing placing me in this same group with my mentors. The Grace of God. Not a single one of us is worthy or deserving of the calling and gifts that Christ has placed in our lives. Ephesians 1.7 ” In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” There is nothing that they did, or anything I can do. “For by grace you(I) have been saved through faith. And it is NOT of your(my) own doing; it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2.8

Honestly, I had been dealing with this, and it was so simple that I was dumbfounded. when it hit me I sat in my chair as I was writing and just stared.

i am like them. so are you.

love.

Last night I left the hospital a little earlier than normal because earlier in the day I had received a call from a close friend  from college. She was going to be in town for the night because the organization she works with is stn. (an amazing non-prof), and they were helping at an event. snf and a fashion line Jedidiah have teamed up together to make a bangin’ short film about surfing in Bangladesh, and last night was a showing. So on a whim that I would be in Jacksonville she email me and I was, so I went happily to see her.

Once I arrived she informed me that another one of my friends was going to be joining us for the evening, which only made my night better.

I got there a little before the even was scheduled to be able to spend some time with my friends. When I first got there I was mock for asking what there micro where (I still don’t think that it makes me weird). So the conversation was going great and just as they were starting my second friend arrived. We watch  the film and it was on. I am not sure if it was because of everything that was going on plus the very moving shots, but I was at a few point hold back and wiping tears from my face.

After the movie the conversation pick back up. At first it started with very light matters and then I opened my mouth (which I have been working on) and the  conversation jump from casual to super serious. I finished running my mouth for a few minutes and apologized for nothing like I do most of the time. So then we all took turns talking about all the things that had happened in our lives in the past months since graduation. I am now helping plant a church, one of my friends is working for a non-profit in Hawaii, and the other is out at IHOP. I mean we all have and are embracing all that God has called us too. It is funny to sit back and look back at all that is taking place in all our live and we all just happened to be in the same place on this day. I love the was Holy Spirit works in our lives.

As the conversation moved on few honestly hours with out us noticing, we went over to a friends house. Where I fell in love with his art work and old cameras. Enjoyed a great cup of tea, thank you.

Before I left I knew that I wanted to pray with my friends. So we went into a room and prayed. At first it was rather funny, but then we just surrendered to what Holy Spirit was trying to do. Then I knew what the first thing I needed to pray was:

Matthew 6:9-15 the Lord’s Prayer

Then honestly for the next hour plus we just spent time in prayer for each other and what God was calling each of us too.

I am a radio!

Last night was a night of grace, I have been going through so much over this past season in my life, not even including what has just transpired over the past week. It was so refreshing and such a blessing to hear the amazing things that are taking place in others lives. Last night was a night that I needed, a night of grace, thank you.

love.

Hey sorry I have not been posting I have been helping everything get going with Alex’s page, www.alexrossupdates.com

I am hoping to write a couple of my own today.

Thank you for you prayers and support.

Love.