Joe and I had a quick talk on Friday that's stuck with me. A couple of years ago we noticed that the kids in Fusion didn't have a good grasp of Worshiping God. We then set about to teach, model and practice worship on a regular basis. Two years later, it's one of our core values and part of our culture in Fusion. Every year, Crossroads participates in a service program called Reach. Kids head down to Tennessee and particiate in helping to rebuild the homes of people in need. Over the past few years, participation has declined to the point that we've cancelled it the the past two years. If I look at my own life, I'm not sure what kind of value I place on service, and it's role in spiritual formation. I enjoy it when I do it, but I need to spend some time making it a high value in my life, so I can infuse that into Fusion's leaders and kids. Does "service" only have to be towards the poor or hungry? I was working in Madeline's pre-school class this morning with 20 four year olds - are they considered "the least of these"? How about Junior Highers?

I started the section in ROTH on the Will (no, not Will Brown - he perfers to be called Ronin) and how it's tied to our character. This stuff was very interesting to me, because so where I'm at in life has been through will, and a lot of my frustration in terms of changing myself has come when I didn't have a strong enough area to succeed or change myself. The section I finished in ROTH on thoughts and images has really been shaping my perception of what I've got locked in my brain - I hope this piece does the same.

I spent some time this morning studying Romans 5:1-8, which I'm trying to memorize. It just doesn't flow well in my brain, and I'm trying to get my hands around it, so it can start to penetrate more.