Welcome back. You belong here.

When we moved to CO almost two years ago, we said as a family “Why are we moving to CO? To change the world for Jesus”. Big statement right? But the exciting thing is that we’re seeing it happen. What do we mean by changing the world for Jesus?

1. Change the world – we came to CO not to live a more comfortable life, in fact it’s had it’s challenges (like any good story has), but to make a difference in our home, neighborhood, city and the world.

2. For Jesus – we want our faith to be the source of change, to rest in God and be seekers of God, and that this change would speak of our love for God. We hope others see that and consider how to do the same.

I’ve been reading Don Miller’s latest book “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” about stories, and how stories are a “character pursuing a dream in spite of challenges and persevering to get there.” The book has struck a cord with me, with our move to CO and things we’ve done as a family to live out a great story.

The other night we had family council, all five of us meet every Sunday afternoon to talk about our lives, our feelings and what’s going on with our family. Canela (almost 11) said “I feel creative! I feel energy!” The day before she had spent 2-3 hours with a mentor who taught her how to croche. She’s been on fire ever since, it’s so her, and it’s been great to see. That’s a way she is seeing her life be changed.

In Don’s book, he talks about a 13 year old girl who started to smoke pot. Her father was concerned, didn’t know what to do. So they talked about how his daughter had been with this bad boyfriend, making wrong decisions because she was bored, she was not living out a significant story and how every person is meant to live a great story. So the dad came up with this crazy idea to build an orphanage. The whole family, his wife, including his daughter went about raising $25,000 to help build this orphanage. The daughter got totally into it, dropped the loser boyfriend who had told her she was “too fat”, stopped smoking pot and got her act together because she was living out a great story.

Being here in CO has had it’s challenges, but every great story has its ups and downs. But the great thing has been that we’re trying to live this amazing story of making a difference in the world around us and learn to trust God.

How have we done this? I could go on and on telling you stories from our school, our neighborhood, the children’s involvement in Peace Jam, UNICEF and more. But let me just say that what makes my heart content, is that we’re seeking a great story.

There’s no guarantee our children will never smoke pot or have a boyfriend we disagree with, but my hope is they’ll always remember the feeling of living for something greater than themselves. This great story is not over, it continues every day and wherever God has us in 3 years or 3 months, the story remains. The question will be, will we remain focused on living a great story or simply live life.

For more on our great story, go to our family blog here.

Have a great day.

Into the future,

davidT