Journey...

First off...I ran 50 miles this week. Good stuff. I had some really good workouts. 50 miles down, 650 to go by August 15...just over 9 weeks.

God has really bless my life in so many ways. One of the ways he has blessed my life is by the Spiritual men he has brought into my life. This is a tribute to 5 of those men who as a jr higher and highschool we kids termed them the "God Squad."

The first shout-out goes to Dwight Peterson. He was the youth pastor at my church from Jr High until my sophomore year in highschool. He was then led to BBC to be the discipleship director. I like to think of him as the "leader" of the original "God Squad" since he was the overall youth pastor. He was an in your face type of individual. If he saw that I was sinning...he let me know about it for sure, and he would help me change. He was the man that showed me how to hate sin.

Next comes Eric Bjorkfelt. I laugh everytime I think about him. He always had a smile on his face. He was my camp counselor when I was in elementary school, and the worked in the youth group through my sophomore year of highschool. He loved God and people, and it really showed. I remember I had him in 7th grade Bible Class, and I was a nightmare of a student to him at times. He loved me despite my antics...I remember when I asked him what circumicision was in class in front of everyone...that still brings a smile to my face. He helped me think deep and engage God at an intellectual level.

Russ Davis. Tonight we had a farewell party for my man Russ. He was always had something to laugh about. I remember being a counselor at Jr High camp one year, and listening to a message Russ preached about Holiness...I was never the same after that year. I also remember how hard we worked on wilderness during our trips. He also led an accountability group with a bunch of us guys in highschool. I will truly miss him.

Jeff Rack...he worked with the youth for a long time, and became the youth pastor when Dwight left. He brought in a radical holiness to our group. He was my small group leader for 4 years of highschool and was instrumental in my Salvation. He was huge on outreach. He wanted to show the love of Christ to people in our community in any way he could. We had many good conversations when he took me out of lunch at school to go eat with him. He left a week ago to go on to seminary.

Ron Bouvier...Wow. He was the man. A tear trickles down my cheek as I write this. He is with Jesus now. He loved Jr Highers. In that ackward time of life, he made it cool to be in Jr. High. He poured his life out to us in ways that I have never seen duplicated. Who would make it there life goal to go and pursue the lives of Jr Highers and to teach them the love of God. He was also great at running camps. He coached me in Jr High basketball, but he taught me so much more than that, he taught me what it meant to walk with God. He always said that his greatest fear was that he would be successful in life, but not successful in the things that truely mattered. Bouv, you were successful in what truely mattered in life, and I thank God that for how you loved me. He would always tell this to me "Swaz, life isn't determined by what you want, but by the choices that you make." I am only now beginning to realize the profoundness of that statement.

I feel like these guys would be disappointed in me if they knew what I have done and what I was becoming. After the events of the past couple of weeks I say the buck stops here. I want to be like these men. I want to walk with Jesus like Bouv. I want to love like these men did. Now its by the choices that I make...Russ will be around for a little bit longer, I still have time to get some things off my chest to a guy older than me that I trust...