How Bad Do You Want It?

It’s January 6^th. By now a lot of people who have made New Year’s resolutions are giving up. Less than a week into the year they have apparently run out of gas. Did you have one?

Bigger question: Is there something you always say you want, something you tell everybody you are all about, a dream in your heart that you say you’re working towards? If the answer to that is ‘yes’, then I have another question: Are you really pursuing it?

I watch people all the time, young and old, go from being crazy excited about something to not doing a thing in the world about it. They get discouraged when they meet any resistance; they give up when things don’t fall perfectly into place the first time they try. Basically, they want this amazing dream to just fall into their lap without putting forth any real effort…and when that doesn’t happen, they jump ship.

It irks me enough when people won’t follow through on the big plans they have and talk about to everyone, but it absolutely sets my righteous anger ablaze when people won’t act on what they’ve been given straight from God. There’s a distinction here. Yes, God puts dreams and passions in you, and you should definitely follow them (and you know I write about that a lot), but sometimes it’s bigger.

For example, I like to travel. I might make a New Year’s resolution that I will save enough money this year to go to Europe. That’s something I would just like to do. Also, I love music. So I made up my mind a long time ago that I’d like to be in a band. After talking about it for years, I finally formed one. God put that passion for music in me and I’m living out one of my dreams right now.

But here’s where it gets bigger. While I do like traveling, and I do have a passion and talent for music, there are some things that go to that next level. I KNOW I’m supposed to lead worship. I know it because what started as something that was just another way to do music became a passion I burned for. I found myself being a better expression of who I am created to be when engaging in worship. The desires of my heart started to change when I entered into the presence of God and just loved on Him and let Him love on me. And then I started hearing from God about leading worship—how to do it, how not to do it, etc. He told me to leave one place so I could be open to going somewhere else. He gives me words to speak while leading worship. I’ve had people prophesy over me about my role in leading worship. These things are next level things! These are things God has told me!

When people ignore this kind of thing in their life, it kills me. Do you think following the voice of God is always going to be easy? Do you think that it won’t require lots of effort and sacrifice? Of course it is going to be hard at times, and you will probably have to give up a lot in your obedience. But you’ve got to make up your mind that you are just going to do it—no matter what other people say, or what obstacles are put in your path.

It really boils down to how bad you want it. Is it worth giving up comfort, money, recognition, approval?? Is it worth pushing through walls and beating on doors until they finally open?? Is being obedient to your Creator and Lover of Your Soul important enough to you to lay down everything else so you can become what you’re intended to be?? I know it is.

I can promise you it’ll never be more than you can handle with Him on your side. Pray for strength and perseverance and He will faithfully give it to you. Father, I pray for strength and perseverance to follow You and live out what You’ve told me. Give me clearer direction on what to do and the boldness to do it. In Jesus Christ of Nazareth’s holy name, Amen.

Jesus Culture conference

I spent 3 days last week in Georgia. ATL!! I was down for the Jesus Culture conference. That I even got to go is a testament to the mercy and favor of God.

The event was announced 2 or 3 months ago, and you could register online anytime you wanted to. Well, I keep putting it off and putting it off, even while telling a guy who is on the worship team with me to register because it was gonna be so awesome. So I finally get online to register the week before the event and I see that it’s sold out. SUCK!

At this point, I’ve got no way into an event I’ve been looking forward to for months… and not only that, but I’ve gotten an 18-year old dude all excited about it, who has already signed up and paid his registration fee, and now has no way there.

I contact the event coordinator via email asking if she could handle one more registrant; she says no. I call Jesus Culture event people and get no response. I tried getting a friend of mine who has connections with the church in Redding to “do me a favor”—no dice. Finally, I made my Facebook status a desperate cry for help to get me to the conference, just hoping something would happen.

A friend of mine hits me up on Facebook and suggests I call the church that the event is being held at to ask if they need volunteers. Pretty good idea, right?! So I call immediately, but get their answering machine b/c I call after office hours on a weekend.

By this point, I’m ready to just throw in the towel. I call my friend, Chris, to let him know that I’ve sucked the whole thing up… we won’t be going unless a last-ditch thing comes through. I feel real bad. This guy already rearranged his schedule so he could go, already paid for the event, gotten all excited about it. And now it’s looking like we’re gonna be staying in Kentucky all because I procrastinated.

Over the weekend, I begin planning for the week ahead thinking that I wouldn’t be going to the conference. I start to see that I might actually get some time to relax instead of traveling. I start to like idea of staying at home b/c I won’t have to get up really early for 4 straight days. I start to like that fact that I can sleep in my own bed at night. I am starting to be convinced that staying at home will be better than going.

Monday morning rolls around. I’ve got a whole agenda of things to do in Owensboro. I’m still kind of tired from a full weekend of World Cup soccer, hanging out with people, and a good worship service. Then I remember that the offices of Victory World Church (where the conference is taking place) should be open now. When that thought crosses my mind, a battle begins inside my head: “Adam, you should call b/c you know this conference is gonna be awesome.” “Dude, you’ve already called Chris and said you weren’t going, so don’t bother… you need the rest anyways.” “You better call b/c you never know, they might actually need volunteers.” “Don’t waste your time. The conference might not even be that great… the rumor is that Kim Walker's not even gonna be there.” Ever had this kind of thing happen before?

After battling it out in my head, I know that if I don’t call I’m not gonna be able to honestly tell Chris that I tried everything possible to get us there. So early Monday morning I make a call to their church offices. I talk to the lady at the front desk and explain my situation to her. She seems genuinely interested in helping me and transfers me to Melody, the lady in charge of all of the volunteers. I get Melody’s voicemail so I leave a message with details of the situation and hope for a returned call.

At this point, I’ve done all I can. I had already tried 3 avenues of getting into the event, and now, it comes down to a very busy woman finding time to return my call a mere 2 days before the conference starts.

About 1:30 in the afternoon I see a weird number pop up on my phone. I answer the phone and it’s Melody. She says she has never seen a situation like this before but she talked to some of her superiors and they are cool with me volunteering at the event as long as I pass a background check. What?!! That’s all it took?! It was that easy?!

After talking a bit more, she says she will send the information to me and Chris to fill out. All we have to do is show up before registration begins for some quick training. It was that quick. It was that easy.

I think we ended up being the only people on the entire event staff that were not from Victory World Church. We were the last people added to the volunteer list. One of Melody’s co-workers at the event said that Melody just “got a feeling that these guys were ok” when she talked to me over the phone.

* * * * *

None of this could have happened if I wouldn’t have made the decision to call. I had already tried 3 different ways of getting in late with no success. The event was sold out, and it seemed there was no way in. However, I sought out advice from godly voices in my life (posting the status to Facebook), and came up with an alternative. Even then, I was tempted to not call back on Monday after I initially got the answering machine at the church.

What happened to me over the weekend is what happens when we decide to settle on the easy way out, the usual, the ordinary. As I let the thoughts of not going to the conference set in, my mind starts to generate this crap telling me that sleeping in late is better, that comfort is better, that being able to relax is better. I’ve got news for you: following after the Lord and encountering Him will cost you something! Living a life for Christ is living a life of sacrifice and surrender. It’s not always going to be comfortable. It’s not always going to be feeling well-rested.

Satan will try to convince you that neither sacrifice nor surrender is necessary. That battle I had with myself on Monday morning is exactly how the devil will try to make you believe that you shouldn’t take that next step; that you shouldn’t put forth any more effort. He will whisper doubts into your ear that will make you second-guess yourself. But you’ve gotta make up your mind that it is worth it to follow the Lord, and that you will listen to His voice.

Everything fell into place for me to go to the Jesus Culture conference, and it was all God’s doing. It was most definitely a display of His mercy and favor on me. All I had to do was make the decision to try to get there. My responsibility was to exhaust all of my efforts in attempting to make it happen; He responded to my call.