The Effects of Work

During this last week I have done Work! I have used my body to move something and change its form so that it retains value. This work has been back breaking and ensures that I eat a lot of food and sleep well at night! As I look around down here in the Bahamas I see a lot of people on vacation its fun to see families having a great time enjoying a great island but I also see couples that are tired and worn out. They don't talk to each other and this vacation is a time to run away from work. Because their job has become toil and not the work that it was intended to be. I venture towards the thoughts of heaven when our toil becomes work that actually is our purpose. To rule and subdue the things that we have been put in charge of for the Father. He says that some will be ruling a town some a city and others many cities. I want to go to work and see the fruit of my labor not wear me down as toil but rather bring me life as work.

The effects of work tend to be satisfaction and motivation towards a greater goal. I have been looking inward in the last few days and what I see is a lack of motivation towards anything. Towards friends, towards God, towards much of anything besides acting like a large cloud has camped out above me and continues to pour cold rain on my head. I know that the Lord renews our motivation towards the things of the Kingdom but at this time I feel not motivation towards much of anything. Therefore the effects of work in these last few days is revealing my lack of motivation towards anything less than selfishness and laziness.

Therefore the effects of this work in the Bahamas draws me into a brokenness that forces me into the quite place to be filled by God!

The Father Holds Me,
Paul Shackelford

Alleluia - Jesus Culture with Martin Smith

Once again worship last night was Glorious! Had a great day just chilling with my SDP folks from last summer, went up the river and just talked about the past season of life and where the Lord is leading us into. Exciting and scary stuff but it was great to be back with some awesome people who speak some potent truth. Last night during worship was one of many firsts... For the first time in a long time I actually stood while I sang, for the first time in a long time I was singing from a place of Joy, for the first time in a long time I did not care how I worshiped my Lord I just worshiped. Well its not like these things have not happened ever in my life, but I just felt so much peace during worship. So I decided to throw the song that we just repeated for a long while up here, mainly cause I did not know the name so I was looking it up and now I am pumped, gotta buy this album! All the angels cry out, Holy is the Lord God ...

Rise Again - Needtobreathe

I have been reading a book about the arts and Christians role in creating culture. Steve Turner, the author, asserts a major critique that modern Christian art does not speak about real life. The art created does not sound genuine or have any ties to real life that people outside the faith can connect with. While reading the book I listened through this album and I think that this song does a great job of breaking the mold. The members of Needtobreathe are all outspoken followers of Jesus but very little of the art that they produce mentions Jesus or Christianity at all. Instead they craft creative music, written from places of pain and joy. "Rise Again" steps through pain that occurs in life as we see relationships stretched and torn. The bitterness of broken hearts and friendships is then contrasted with the truth that we will get up from this pain and rise again. "I can see us moving on, I can feel that coming on strong", the j...

Stones Under Rushing Water - Needtobreathe

Last weekend was the Big-Little retreat, where all of the associates and their Big Brothers bond over a weekend together. I went this semester because I love camping and I am on the committee that planned the event. On Friday night us brothers when for a hike down in Cloudland Canyon. It was intensely dark but still an amazing sight of nature while its masked by night. We found a waterfall that turned out to be great for an early morning worship time on Saturday. We had some great conversation as we walked talking about life. I loved being away from Tech for just two days and being at a place where the stresses of school could not effect me in the slightest. Once people started to head back to the cabin Borsch and I just stayed behind for some time in thought and prayer. It was utterly amazing, just looking out into the canyon when I could not see a thing. Yesterday I was thinking about this and I am not sure if t...

Letters from Lilongwe

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