Eulogy/Vision Statement

So I had an interesting assignment giving to me in my Leadership Fundamentals class that I thought I would share with you. The assignment was a one page paper of a mock up eulogy of what you want people to be able to say at your funeral and a half page paper of your vision statement. As morbid as the first paper sounds this assignment turned out to be very beneficial. It is designed to help give you guidance for the direction of your life by pointing out some of your key priorities and things you hope to have accomplished before you die. There is something about writing what we want people to say about us after we die that can inspire us to truly live. The assignment has helped in shifting my focus on who I would like to be and what I would like my life to represent. Below I have typed a copy of the two assignments. I'd like to challenge you with spending some time in prayer and taking the time to dwell and maybe even right down your vision statement for your life as well as what you want people to remember you by. It is powerful stuff! I hope you enjoy mine!

-Eulogy-

When the sand runs out and my time is done on this earth there is a legacy I hope to leave. I don't want people to remember me for the car I drove, house I lived in or even the clothes I wore. I don't want them to remember me as "Terry the AT&T guy". I hope that when God calls me home and I draw my last breath my actions will speak louder than my accomplishments or status quo. I want to be remembered by how I lived life on a daily basis. I want people to remember me as the guy that was always in a positive mood despite his circumstances. I want to be known as the man who built his life on the rock and not the shifting sand and that I was a person who let my faith influence my decisions and not trends or fads. I want to be known as the person who was always looking to serve others needs before his own and always gave back regardless of whether it was noticed or not!

I remember a quote that I believe is from C.S. Lewis "those things that aren't eternal will be eternally useless". Perhaps the most important thing I want to be remembered for is that I lived for something greater then myself. That I invested all I had on things which are eternal and less on things that will pass away. Eternal things such as love, serving, and giving...all which impact relationships. I want to be remembered as a man that utilized all of his God given resources to further influence and help others who needed it. A man that lived everyday as the blessing it is. A person who made the most of every decision, lived with no regrets, and stayed focused on a single task at hand. Not ever dwelling on the past or worried about the future, just lived one day at a time making the most of every opportunity and gift God had given him.

-Vision Statement-

I pledge to live my life to its fullest potential. I will take full advantage of every opportunity given and apply myself to the fullest extent. I will not be perfect but I will learn from my mistakes and use them as a tool to help me grow and further build my character both as a professional and as a person. To my family I pledge to be a Godly leader, directing the family prayerfully towards its best interest and personally safety. As a professional I pledge to exhibit hard work and responsibility. As a student I pledge to be organized and involved. To my church I will be committed, faithful, and always determined. Always looking for ways to help make a difference and provide Godly leadership and influence. Lastly to my community and fellow friends, I pledge to you that I will always be there to assist you in any way you need and to pray for you daily.

Hope you enjoyed!
Thanks for reading!

-Terry-

-Your Love is Strong-

"Your Love is Strong"

The implications of these four simple words are astounding! Each word only one syllable and each word on its own a toddler can understand. Yet when put into a statment like this we can find incredible revelation. That is what happened to me on my drive home a few days ago. I was listening to KLRC as I normally do on my drive home and I heard a familiar song by an artist I can't remembers name, but I can tell you what the Chorus said...Your Love is Strong. I am sure I have heard this song before and have never thought twice about it. But God would use these four words to bring about peace, comfort, confirmation, grace, fufillment to my heart and soul...and tears to my eyes!



Now your probably thinking...whos love is strong? That's the most important question you can ask! Who's? It's that very question that so many seek to find the answer to! There are hundreds of religions in the world today...but only one based on love. Only one based on saving grace. You won't find it in one of the many gods of hinduism, or in the agnostic answers by buddha, take a harder look and muslims don't even have the answer to our brokeness caused by sin.



Acts 4:12 "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

Christ's Love is Strong! If people could understand the implications of this short sentence I believe lives would be radically changed. There is hunger, especially in this day in age, for a love that is strong. With divorce rates as high as they are and the majority of the U.S.'s population sharing in two Christmas'...it is no suprise why we starve for it. Pastor Tim is right when he talks about satans work in destroying the homes. In high school most of my friends came from broken homes, same as I did. I grew up seeing the need for a love that was strong. I grew up understandting the brokeness that comes from the devestation when our conditional love fails us and destroys our homes. But the hurt spills over into all our relationships.

Thats why those four words mean so much...because it is so refreshing to know that in the midst of our brokeness and hurt there is a love that is strong enough to see us through. A love strong enough to endure and carry our sins and short comings. A love strong enough to be obdient to death. A love strong enough to over come the grave. A love strong to accept us as we are...all are uglyness, brokeness and hurts. A love strong enough to out last generations, centuries, milleniums, and still have enough over running to fill us up for years to come! This is what Christ love does, is, and means to us. It is our comfort and peace in trying times such as now. It is our unchanging foundation in an ever shifting world caught up in the "latest and greatest" things. It is our hope for not only a better more fufilling life now but for an eternal life that is most assuredly coming!

We can trust this great, strong love! It has helped millions of christians, over the years, face persecution and even death for the cause of Christ. It has changed the hardest of hearts. It took Paul from a person who persecuted the church and its efforts of sharing the good news of Christ, to dying for that same cause. It inspired John Newton, a former slave trader, to pen the words for "Amazing Grace". This Love is Strong. It reaches over oceans and is not contained by time as it continues to change lives today.

Many of you who will read this already know most of my testimony. I will spare you the many details of the broken, lost soul I was. But I will say that it was by His love alone that I am here today! His Love not only paid for my sins so that I can have eternal life with Him...it also gives me strength everyday to continue to live for Him. It provides me with mercy and grace when I screw up, as I often do. It provides me with perspective as I learn to love my family and friends more and more then I ever had. It teaches me the important things of life. The value of real things that matter like relationships, service, and investing in a cause and purpose greater then myself. His Love heals my brokeness, heals my familys brokeness, and restores that which was lost.

Jesus Christs Love is far more and has done far more then I can express. I am so blessed to see His Love continue to shape and change lives all around me. Lives that I would never expect or feared weren't changeable. God has reached down and has touched so many I know in such powerful ways. I also love how His love is sculpting our church! I am blessed to be apart of an awesome church that is fully reliant on Gods love and guidance! Christs love still continues to amaze me...it'll causes me to dance in the most un-likely places, sing at the top of my lungs, cry like a baby, raise my hands to praise. But most importantly it causes me to fall more and more in love with my Savior and Creator! I want to live every single one of my days as an expression of love and gratitude and praise for His love that has changed me! His unconditional, everlasting, perfect Love.

"Your Love is Strong." I hope those words have a more profound meaning now. I hope you know that you are cherished and deeply loved by an awesome God. It doesn't matter where you come from, what you did, or where your at now. His love is strong enough to save you, to change you, to fufill you. Its the only thing you'll ever need. I hope that the next time your feeling hurt, lonely, angery, frustrated, hopeless, lost, broken, or depressed...you will allow Him to embrace you with His spirit. That you will listen closely as He tells you Himself....

"My Love is Strong!"

Thanks for reading!

-Terry-

Finding His Grace through suffering!

Its amazing how nice it is when 6p.m. roles around. I'm usually at work alone and it rarely is busy! I enjoy the alone time before the relaxing drive home. I also have the best view to watch the sun fade in the west before disappearing and I always find it a blessing that God seems to clear up my schedule, for the thirty minutes or so it takes, so that I can enjoy it.

I am excited about tonight. It will be our second group bible study. I say group because its only the second time we have hosted a bible study at our apartment that other people (who don't live there) come. Last week was incredible! Josh spoke on the importance of fellowship as well as finding grace through suffering. Its a funny thing that those two points have literally been the subjects of my last week.

God has done some pretty amazing stuff through my Mema's sudden illness. She has been in the hospital since last Friday and it has been a rollercoaster of emotions. Never knowing what to expect with each call has been a re-ocurring fear that I have learned to live with the past few days. Although she seems better spiritual (the best I have seen her since I was a little kid), physically the doctors just don't know what to do! It is here that i'm reminded that I serve the great physcian and that nothing is beyond our faith (thanks again for those of you who are praying). I have learned a great deal from her suffering though. Much of it is very simple too.

I have learned:
-The value and blessing of family. My family has never been closer, (my dad and sister talked for the first time in two years!). I can't tell you what a joy it has been to be able to share in this with my mom and dad together. It is so easy to be petty and to take our family for granit especailly because they are usually apart of our lives on a daily basis. I have been guilty of this and never really saw it till this weekend. God didn't even reveal it through the suffering of my Mema but in the coming together as one...being broken together, restoring relationships together, and even praying together (something I haven't done with my dad's of the family in a long long time). Your family is a blessing from God and it is important that we recognize that and start treating them like that. Praying for one another...loving one another...sharing with one another. Every day, not just because tragedy has struck but even in the good moments!

-The value of friendship. I don't know where I would be if it weren't for some of the prayers of my friends. I know that most of the time it's thier faith over me that protects me instead of mine. I love what the word says in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12. This verse is a reminder that when we stand together and pray for one another we are not easily broken! What a powerful affirmation of the impact of good friendship and accountability. I know that in times of suffering it is important to have those around you who are there just to listen or to pray. I'm thankful that I have that and it is my prayer that I can offer the same in return for others.

-That God can/will use the toughest of circumstances for His glory. I have seen God in alot of ways the past few days but never as evident as in the affections of those restoring thier relationships. I don't think I have seen so much spritual healing as I have in my family these past few days. It has been one of the biggest blessings in my life. I know that no matter how dark a circumstance may be God is there and He is working behind the scenes restoring people's spirits and mending thier hearts.

I feel very blessed and I am so thankful for the things that have taken place in the last week, as weird as that might seem. The doctors say there is nothing they can do for my Mema except give her some medicine and send her home with all her arteries clogged and hope for the best. She is at peace with it though. I believe that is because there is something powerful about the peace of Christ and His healing through restoration. I know that no matter what happens to my Mema this is not the end...another joy I get to share in as a child of God. I also know that Jesus does make all things new and He alone is the author and finisher of our faith! So I continue to put my trust in him and praise him in the "rain".
Because the same grace we see through His suffering...we can find in ours!

Thanks for reading!
-Love you guys-

1st Blog

So this is my first post. I am new to this...it is my first blog. Currently I am sitting at work. I was contemplating the past 72 hours and what all has happened. It was then that I thought blogging sounded like a good hobby. Sort of a public expression of my thoughts. I have always wanted to be the journaling type but lack the motivation to write (I hate it!). Maybe this will help!