In the little sub-culture (AIM) I get to hang around in, we have a bunch of our own buzzwords and TLA’s- AIM = Adventures In Missions. I know, it was easy, but it was there… Also, it’s not ‘AIMs’, please, I beg you.
- OTF = On The Field; as in “He’s not in the office, he’s on the field.” I’m not sure why it isn’t “In” the field…
- ATL = Ask The Lord, an exercise we do OTF in which we ask God what he wants us to do, test what we think we heard, and then, if appropriate, DO IT!! Tres cool.
- Wrecked; as in “God wrecked me.” Please see a more detailed explanation below.
- Speak Truth Into; As in “I spoke truth into their lives.” I’m not really sure about this one. I’ve been hearing it a lot lately. I think it might be a fancy way of saying “I said something that was true.” Such as “God loves you,” “You’re forgiven,” etc.
- Came to faith; As in “He came to faith in Christ.” Most people would say “He was saved.”
- TLA = Three Letter Acronym. Thanks to Jeff Dunn-Rankin, a YP*, for this one
There are more, of course. Meet me for lunch and I’ll tell you some.
Do you remember the first time you went into the deep end of the pool**? For some bizarre reason, you decided to face the twelve foot deep monster under the high dive. Once you jumped, you looked around and thought “Wow, I did it. That wasn’t so bad!” You even tried to get your friends to join you, knowing that they, too, would enjoy the adventure. After this, you only wanted to swim in the deep end. You were ‘wrecked’ for the shallow end of the pool.
Wouldn’t it be cool if that’s what life was like? Can you imagine what it would be like if your normal, average life wasn’t good enough, that all you wanted to do was throw your life into the wild abandon of living for Jesus?
Right now, my life feels pretty normal. I know it’s silly, but this is really bothering me. I think that maybe I’m addicted to the rush of being OTF. I keep waiting for something spectacular to happen so I can blog about it. As a result, I’ve been spending a lot of time begging God for guidance. “God, show me the way to go.” “Help me!” “What do you want me to do?” “Can I have a wave runner?” You know, the typical stuff.
His answer to me has been “Fix your eyes on Jesus.” “Seek Me and be glad in Me.” “Cast all your anxiety on Me.” “Trust the Lord with all your heart.”
I keep trying to turn my focus inward, while He tries to get me to put my focus on Him. I know, it’s crazy…
*Youth Pastor and all around cool guy from Venice, Florida. I was talking about doing an ATL or some such and he said “AIM has a lot of TLA’s” and then he waited, staring at me until I asked him what the heck a TLA was.
**I’ve done a statistical analysis and it appears that I’m
32.6% over my limit of “deep end of the pool/life” analogies. I promise
to stop for a while…
32.6% over my limit of “deep end of the pool/life” analogies. I promise
to stop for a while…
***The picture above is of Tori, Kaylie, and Lane Walker OTF. They were helping people load donated supplies into their cars after Katrina and then praying with them – all on their own initiative. That’s my babes…
