An update, A soapbox, and A couple bottles of Gatorade.

Well, I'm back from New York City. Nie Go (New York Go) was an incredible trip. (Insert sentence here...)

I'm sitting here with a little Fierce Grape and Berry as i am recouping from another run/bike excursion. Hopefully I didn't try to overdo it this time. It was just me and my friend Jennifer this time around. And now I'm listening to Andrew. That should tell you I'm in a somewhat quieter mood.

I learned a few things as a result of my trip. I still don't like talking to complete strangers. I felt like I was a complete failure at times as a leader. Sometimes for good reason. I allowed myself to not stay connected to God like I should have. I don't like the fact that I think about being lonely. I feel like I am perpetually never going to figure out this Christ follower thing.

On the other hand I learned that there is nothing I can ever do on my own power to "arrive." I learned that when I am connected to God pretty cool things happen through me.

Now, all two of you that read this are probably thinking, "That's some pretty elementary stuff to be learning there, Jeff." Well... it probably is. I learn something, and then for some reason, I end up forgetting it. It seems to me that the people had that problem in the Old Testament as well. Could it be that i am normal? Hmm... The verdict is still out on that.

Anyways, my main take away from my trip is that in order to be an authentic Christ-follower and an authentic witness, I need to continually spend time connecting with God through time with Him. The best way for me to do this would be to do so in the morning. To accomplish this, I need to work on (gulp) Discipline. Along with TawG time and a habit of continually prayer, I need to work on listening better, encouraging, to name a few.

Now I feel like I want to complain or something but I can't do it. I guess I could simply use perpetual prayer. I don't know how to deal with loneliness. I could go into more detail, but I'll let you ask me. I'm going to go pray about it, since i just reminded myself to do so.