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It was interesting this morning at church (Ealgemont Christian Church), as Pastor Marlo read Matthew 25:14-30. It goes through the parrable of the master who gives dollars to his servants and what they do with them. This is where 2 of the 3 servants did something with the money that their master gave them and were rewarded. The servant who did nothing with the money he was given was severely punished.

This related directly to the talents that the Lord provides each of us. It’s not so much as to what talents or gifts that God blesses each of us with, it really comes down to what we do with them. Are we just sitting back, playing it safe? Are we going to become adventuresome investors with these gifts?

We need to take advantage of our talents and invest in those around us. This won’t just happen! Each of us need to intentionally do this. This is one of the most rewarding experiences. This week I had the priviledge to meet a lot of new people – both on the business side, but also on the personal side. I had the opportunity to connect and reconnect with some people around me. I hope that those around me were blessed – I know the experience truly inspired me. Again, it always comes back to relationships.

Pastor made the statement “You can only grow your joy, if you give it away.”

What are we doing each day to multiply the deposits that God has put into our lives? We really need to work with God on this. We need to step out each day and put the ball in God’s court – let him lead you.

“Fear will give you a zero return!”

If we act like the third servant and bury the money and do nothing with our talents we are merely letting fear take over. What is the “fear zone” in your life? What is holding your back? Are you letting fear win? Don’t just play it safe – give it over to God! We can’t take the reigns for our own life – that merely hampers any progress that we could have ever made in the past with Christ as our leader.

Our talents may not be used the way that we expect. Check out this video of Tim Tebow.

Wow! The use of Tim’s football talents really helped open up doors and allow him to meet and minister to so many more people.

May the Lord bless your talents and help you live the life of the first 2 servants and invest your talents in those around you the many that are placed in your life.

It’s been a while since I updated my blog. The past month has been crazy. Between work, church and the various other activities, getting a few minutes to write has been difficult.

Anyways….gotta get back into the swing of things.

It’s about this time each year that meetings start for involvment in the YC event here in Edmonton. YC (Youth Conference) is an event that I have had the opportunity to attend since I was in Jr High. Its grown from a small gathering in a Red Deer church to filling Red Deer’s hockey stadium to now selling out Rexall in Edmonton. That’s over 14,000 youth in one place!!!

I can remember the great speakers, concerts and times spent with friends and meeting new people. A truly awesome experience in deepening my relationship with Christ.

Over the past several years, I have begun working with the staff at Extreme Dream Productions and volunteering at the YC event. Not only are there thousands of attendees, there are hundreds of volunteers. We have worked to develop a system to track the volunteers, their assignments, manage equipment sign outs and various other items. It’s been a great experience getting to know the people involved in planning this event and the great people that volunteer.

This time of year, a group of us start meeting to discuss and plan the volunteer training event and the setup for the actualy event in May. Tonight is the kick off so we can get things rolling and refine the process and make it better than last year.

The opportunity to be involved in an event that has such an impact on the youth of our generation is so important. Some of the speakers and musicians have such amazing messages and speak right to the heart. Some of the featured artists and speakers that I am looking forward to this year are Reggie Dabbs, Grits, David Crowder, Toby Mac, and the heavy rockers – Pillar.

If you or someone you know wants to volunteer for this great event, check out www.ycgeneration.com and click on the volunteer button. I am really looking forward to the event this year and working with a great group of people.

I heard it said this weekend that appreciation isn’t really appreciation until it is expressed.  I’ve spent the last couple of days thinking about what this means to me and where I’ve missed the mark on so many occasions.  I couldn’t attempt to count the number of times that I’ve come home to my wife and said, “So and So did such a great job today and it was nice to see him or her go out of their way to do…”  I always feel appreciative when people do things for me or others around me, but how do I express it?  If I just keep it to myself or just mention it to my wife, it really doesn’t express the whole emotion of how I feel, nor does it encourage others.

Its amazing what happens when you run into people you haven’t seen since high school.  I dropped by one of our local Starbucks yesterday afternoon to grab  coffee and get some work done between meetings.  Now I thought I recognized one of the baristas from somewhere, but by the end of our transaction I had put the peices together and knew who she was.  I had remembered an awkward moment in our past and didn’t really want to “rekindle” the friendship, so I said nothing and went on.  Well, just as I get my coffee, she puts the pieces together and confirms who I am and such and says “Do you remember me?”  There were a few events that she described to “help” me remember.  What do I do?  All I did was say, “Oh yeah, I think I remember.  Good to see you again.”  and left.  What a jerk!