Josh Jack Carl

Once upon a time a handsome prince met a beautiful servant girl, they fell madly in love despite the opposition being Recieved from the princes’ family. They married, had children and lived happily ever after.

This is not that kind of story. This is no fairy tale ending.

Often times we think, no, we expect, that if we work hard, respect others, live a good life that we deserve that fairy tale ending. Truth is life is not fair and we don’t deserve anything.

I think we as Christians often get stuck in this fairy tale like bubble. If we obey the teachings of Jesus and follow all the commandments, tithe and serve in the community regularly then we will live happily ever after. But that is not how Christianity works, that is not what it’s for. It’s true we may have that fairy tale ending every now and then but it’s not because of anything we did.

How easy would it be to live a “Christian” life, follow the teachings of the bible and obey God when, as a result, you receive that fairy tale ending? Very, I think.

How hard is it to continue to trust God, obey his commands and put all your faith in him when things are not going your way and continue not to for quite sometime? You feel like you just can’t win and you hit wall after wall after wall of obstacles and opposition. You’ve already reached what you think is your limit but it just doesn’t stop.  How long before we get mad, yell, break down? A month? Half a year? A year? How long? If God gave us a time frame wouldn’t that make it so much easier? It would, but then it wouldn’t require any faith, just maybe a little patience. True faith comes when we don’t see an end and have no idea how much longer we have to endure the hardships.

I wrote this because this is where I am right now, this is where I am struggling. I made the assumption that following God’s call to pack up, move, help start a church in what would be a new city for me would be be hard yes, but once I got there life would just be grand. Smooth sailing and fairy tale endings. That was my mistake.

It has not. If anything it’s gotten harder and harder. No sign of calm seas ahead, no hope that what I am feeling and going through will end anytime soon. It’s almost been a full year since I committed to God to move out here.  A year of sorrow, frustration, anger, begging and crying out to God for things to get better, easier. And they haven’t. So what does one do? Throw in the towel, call it quits, pull the “me” card and say “I have to look out for myself”? What does one do? I can only think of one word.

Persevere.

“3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts throug the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

Persevere. This is all that I know to do right now.

I encourage you not to give up but to persevere and know that you are not alone and that your struggles and hardships will not be in vain but that one day you shall be rewarded and you will have your happily ever after.

First of all it always amazes me how and when God decides to teach  you something or reveal something to you. This particularl revelation happened yesterday during Easter. I was at a friends house and we had Easter dinner. Then after dinner we had a little Easter egg hunt with their oldest child. The eggs, of course, were full of candy. After we found them all, he was allowed to have one eggs worth full of candy. And he did. But then he wanted more, but this was not allowed. So instead he just played with it. He never ate it.  He was holding it, smelling it, almost consuming it but never actually eating it. A few times he tried to sneak a few but was caught. It was entertaining to watch. How close could he get to almost eating it without actually eating it. If he held it long enough and part of the candy shell melted onto his hand and he licked his fingers did that count? He was testing not only his boundaries but also unknowingly testing his strength and endurance to obey the rule. The closer he got to eating the candy the more likely he was going to actually eat it.

This reminded me a lot of sin. Our sin is a lot like his candy. How close can we get to eating the candy with out actually eating it? How far can we push the envelop and still be comfortable with our decisions? From my experience if you keep walking that line, seeing how close you can get without actually crossing it you will either fall over the line or eventually you will reluctantly give in and cross over it.

Let’s say you didn’t want to make tacos*(not sure why, tacos are delicious). But you buy taco meat. As long as you don’t buy the rest you’re not having tacos. Seems fine. But then maybe the next time you buy meat and lettuce. You have the mindset of “Im a strong person, I can buy more ingedients and still be able to not have tacos.” So you buy meat, lettuce and cheese, tomatoes and anything else just short of purchasing taco shells. You can only push it this far and resist it for so long. Eventually you will find your sell walking down that grocery isle past the taco shells and the temptation will just be too strong, you’ve already gone gone 95% of the way, have only have 5% strength left to resist, and you fail. And they taste amazing, they always do, but you regret it later. If only you had never even bought the meat to begin with you wouldn’t be in this situation.

Why do we walk the line so much? Instead of pushing ourselves to that 95%, don’t we need to set up boundaries to avoid going down there to begin with. If you are walking down a trail and it splits off but one of them has a gate that says no trespassing then you stay clear of that trail. It has a sign there for a reason, it’s unsafe and you will probably get lost. Where do you need to put those “No Trespassing” signs in your life? I encourage you to examine the areas where you may need to place a sign. It would make no sense to put the no trespassing sign at the end of the trail, it’s there to prevent you from going on the trail at all. Witt hat said, enjoy your eater c

* I love tacos and in no way am against the purchasing, cooking and consumption of tacos.

So I have officially been living in Indianapolis for one month and wanted to give and updated on my new life so far. Read on if you are interested. Watch this if you are not: http://goo.gl/4E7CM

The journey here has been long and has not been easy. I made the mistake of assuming that once I arrived it would get easier, but to be truthful it has not. It has been a constant exercise in trust knowing that God will provide for me all that I need. “Need” is the key word there. It has most certainly been a humbling experience going form a well paying job in GA to working for tips at a Buffalo Wild Wings here.

And here is what I have learned. God provides. He may not provide what we WANT but he will provide what we NEED. It’s amazing how easily we take for granted simple luxuries such as Cable, DVR, internet, cellphones and many other things. None of these things we need to survive. If we don’t have one or any of the following it will not kill us, or be harmful to our health. If you want internet then the library offeres it for free. Sure it may be “inconvenient” but it doesn’t cost you anything. DVR and Cable TV are a luxury.

These are not things God ever promised he would provide us with. He will take care of us, just maybe not how we may want or desire. This is what I am learning. The less you have the more you seem to rely on God for simple provisions. It’s quite amazing.

I am also working toward getting my teaching certification to teach either High School English or Theatre. This is something I would greately appreciate prayers for. There are quite a few tests involved in the certification process and I am a HORRIBLE test taker. Always have been.

Lastly but most importantly is Generation Church. We are in the begining stages of raising money for GC. Here are a few things you can pray about about and possibly some ways that you can contribute!!

1) GC wants to raise its entire years budget before our launch service September 16th 2012. This is a huge goal but no task is too large for God to accomplish.

2) GC wants to have 500 people at its launch service. This as well is a huge goal. Not many churches launch with 500. Most launch with 10-50. But again, nothing is impossible with God.

3) You can pray for our leadership team. 7 of us in total. Every single one of us seem to be experiencing sone kind of spiritual warfare. Family, job, financial, health. We are being attacked and frankly, it’s exciting. We must be up to something good if we’re are trying to be stopped before we have even started! There are still at lot of the staff trying to raise the funds to move out here! If you would be interested in helping to assist any of the rest of the staff let me know!

4) If you are a part of a church or a youth group and you have no plans yet for this summer, consider coming out to Indianapolis and helping us impact the communities that we plan to reach when we launch. If you would be interested or like more info let me know!

5) Donate. Obviously. When you are a church who does not exist yet you can’t exactly hold an offering. We are always looking for partners to help us in this journey. Let me know if you would like to contribute financialy! You can also visit generationchurch.cc and click on the “Give” tab.

Thank you all who have been praying with me through this adventure. And thank you to all those who have help out financially so far! This adventure is, in fact, just begining!

-Josh Jack

JoshJack@generationchurch.cc

The other day I worked a 12 hour day with no breaks. It was rough. At about the 8 hour mark all I wanted to do was take a break, just 15 minutes. But with the nature of the service industry that doesn’t always make that an easy request to fulfill. 12 hours and all I desired somewhere in there was 15 minutes. 15 minutes to myself, to sit, breathe and recollect. But alas, it was not possible. It got me thinking about Jesus.

¹³ When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴ When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Matthew 14:13-14

³ Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. ⁴ The Jewish Passover Festival was near. ⁵ When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” John 6:3-5

 ¹ When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. Matthew 8:1

 ²³ Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him.²⁴ Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. ²⁵ The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”²⁶ He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?”Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. Matthew 8:23-26

I’m sure there are more times or examples than this but a lot of times Jesus went to be alone he was followed. I’m sure there were plenty of times Jesus just wanted 15 minutes to himself. “But he had compassion on them.” Something that isn’t an easy thing for me to do all the time. And this was a constant occurance for Jesus. Nonstop. How was he NOT annoyed!?! But then again he is Jesus and I am not. I can only hope to strive to be like him as much as I can. Now if you will excuse me I am going to go take 15 minutes to myself!