PS – if you want to stop by and see Jenni and I we would love to have some visitors, here’s the directions to our house:

Go North on Andover Rd. just past 21st Street (Look for signs). There is a new housing addition called Cornerstone. You turn Left into this entrance (if you go past it you’ll be on your way into the country). Turn right when you see the model homes (They have white fence in front of them), stay on this road, it will wind and curve, it will eventually turn into Slate St. Our house is towards the end on the right (802 W. Slate, Andover, KS. 67002).

I think the thing I like the most is that there is room, there is margin. Everything in the house is not right on top of you all the time. You can walk around without having to dodge boxes or tables! I love it!

I think margin is something we all need in our lives. We need it at work, at home, in our families, and in our relationship with God. Jesus practiced adding margin into his life, Mark 1:35-39 talks about Jesus going off early in the morning to pray. When his disciples finally catch up with Him, they want to push Him back into the busyness – they tell Him that “Everyone is looking for you.” I think Jesus has a classy response, “Let’s go somewhere else”! After spending time with God creating margin in His life, Jesus was able to see clearly His mission in the midst of the craziness of life.

There are lots of reasons why we struggle with following God and having a relationship with him – wrong attitudes, getting caught up in things that don’t matter, being rebellious, and the list goes on. I believe that most of this could be fixed if we would take our cue from Jesus and create margin. If we would get away from the constant influx of information and busyness and start to get off with God and ask Him the big questions, “Who are you?”, “What do you think of me?”, “Where do you want me spending my time, energy and money?”.

This practice alone could literally change every aspect of your life!

I sometimes think this is the reason Jesus came to the earth and put on the skin of a man. We were hurting and broken – separated from God and in need of some sort of ultimate treatment. So, in order to communicate the extent of Gods love for us, Jesus became a man, spoke our language, showed us how to live a life that was without wrongdoing and then applied the ultimate salve for our souls. His blood for ours. This is the essence of the gospel. That God, loved us so much that He sent His one and only son to die in our place – the righteous for the unrighteous.

That’s the power of the cross, that’s the good news that we proclaim. And that is why we are planting Epic Church – because our God went first and stepped out to build a relationship with us!

Anyway, I was sitting there thinking about how sometimes there are things wrong with you and you don’t even know because they are outside of your scope of consciousness. I have sleep apnea, but had no idea because, well, I was always asleep. I felt the effects of the apnea, tiredness and exceptional good looks, but never knew whether I had it. I needed someone outside of myself to observe it and figure out a plan of attack.

I think the same is true spiritually for many of us. I personally didn’t know exactly what I needed before I met Jesus, I just knew that on my own, I wasn’t really sufficient. Something was missing. I needed outside evaluation. When I met Jesus, He radically altered my life, all the baggage that I came to the table with, was all of the sudden meaningless.

That’s what I love the most about being a follower of Christ, I am made new every day!