So, if you have been a reader of this blog for some time you will notice over the past month or two that posting frequency has gone way down, there are a couple reason for that. The first is I have not made it a priority in my new rhythm of life, it has been put on the back-burner so to speak. The other reason is that I have intentionally been placing other areas in my life in a higher place than this blog. Much of this came when I was at Soma School in January. I realized that living an intentional life to build relationships and love people was not high on my to-do list, so to make room for that I started to think through my blogging efforts.

Too Many Plates - 

As I was thinking through what God has placed in my life, I quickly realized that to have time to love my city and my neighbors I needed to allow a couple plates to be set aside until some margins were opened in my life. If I were not to do this, then I believe many more plates would have been broken between now and when God forced me to stop doing something. Between working 20 hours a week for Trade-Mark R Productions, planting Redemption Hill, helping to cast vision and leading Gospel Alliance New England and 3 conferences in the next 10 months (The Calling, The Rooted Conference and Lead 2012), a writing project that has opened up and not to mention the opportunities that God has given me to build some amazing relationships with new friends, this was the only option.

When I measured the effectiveness of what I was doing and what was most needed for the Kingdom, I realized that the blog was not high on the list, for now.

From Here - 

So the plan is that I will be taking the next few months off, or slowing down, from posting here on the blog. My hope is to post a couple times a month, either with helpful links or to other things I have been writing – I do plan to do some writing, but most of it will be for other blogs (Gospel Alliance, Rooted Conference to name a few) and a couple other projects I am working on.

So, thanks for reading, and being part of my life here on the blog, I love the community God has on here for me. I would encourage you to hang around, as I will return to blog more, once God opens up the time in my life to do so and I believe it will be much much better, because it will be empowered by God, not Josh, which is good for everyone.

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[Since many of you have already failed your New Years resolution, or are quickly on their way to doing so, I thought I would post a short encouragement of sorts.]

So think about it, and pray about it. Maybe this year, God will rock your world. Maybe He won’t, but that is not up to us. It is only by and through His grace and mercy either way. So trust deeper in Jesus and stop trying so hard.

I was working in the office at EABC this past Friday, and I wrote the following.

With just under two weeks left at EABC, there is a flood of emotions. I feel hope for what I am about to step into and what God will do both in the new venture and within the ministry of EABC. There is also fear as I step into the unknown of church planting. I have read articles, books, I have listened to audio and sermons on it, I have talked to men who have planted, yet there is a difference between learning and doing. The “doing” part will be very different than I have imagined, I would imagine. On top of these emotions I am also filled with sadness as I leave the ministry that I have called home for the past 22 years. EABC has been such a large part of who I am and now it will take on a whole new and undefined roll within my life.

It is hard to articulate what it will be like not to get ready and make the mile and a half trek that has become my commute. It will be strange not to turn the corner and see the church building, park in my parking spot and walk into my office (I plan to steal the name plate off my door so I will have a little bit of EABC with me in my new study). All of these things that have been such a normal part of my life for the past 5+ years will no longer be. To be honest, I am not entirely sure what type of emotions and feelings will be present come January when we launch Redemption Hill and I start 2 new jobs.* Even though the unknown factor is large in my life right now, the feelings of hope and excitement are just as large.

There will be moments of sadness and if there isn’t, something’s wrong. But we can know from Scriptures that sadness itself, is not wrong (Ecc. 3.4). Jesus was full of sorrow at certain times (Jn. 11.35) even to the point of sweating drops of blood (Lk. 22.44). So sorrow will come and my prayer is that I will not dwell upon these sorrows, but I will dwell upon the hope that is found in Jesus. No matter what, it is going to be an interesting couple months – even years!

*I got a great part time job. More on that another time.