Teamwork Makes the Dreamwork - Tyler Chacon

Coming off a great summer in Horn Creek, CO, it seemed to me that coming to Van, TX would be a step down in many regards. First, it would quite literally be a step down as Horn Creek is somewhere between 8,900 and 9,100 ft in elevation whereas Van, TX is roughly 500 ft. Second, it would be a step down geographically in many ways as well. For example, Texas is farther south than Colorado in the United States. Another example is Colorado is filled with amazing outdoor adventures 13,000 feet in elevation and land that is uninhabited by humans with ample room to roam free and explore God’s beauty. Van, Texas is in the woods with a lot of wild animals and farmland every which way you look. Lastly, Van, TX seemed like a step down from Colorado theologically. In Colorado I was a Sigma counselor and I got to be a witness of Jesus Christ to high school students for 2 weeks at a time. I got the incredible privilege of leading a Bible Study with 4-7 high school guys and dive head (and heart) first into 2 Timothy. I thought of Colorado as my “Theological Mountaintop” and anywhere else would be a step down. What have I learned? I have learned that location is just a place, God’s untapped beuaty is everywhere, and ministry doesnt stop in the valley.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION! Every realtor’s selling pitch, yet many Christian’s excuse. Yes, EXCUSE! I can admit that I am guilty in this as well, but a lot of us use our location as an excuse to not step out and do ministry. Logically, and statistically proven, there are people EVERYWHERE! Good job, Tyler! So what? SO, that means there are people who are in need of Jesus’s love EVERYWHERE! And let’s be honest, who doesn’t need Jesus’s love? This isn’t a relationship with God where we get to choose when to turn it on and off. Romans 12 talks about us being a LIVING sacrifice, one that plays a huge, important role in the body of Christ. If your liver one day said, “No, i won’t be a liver today. I want to be a toe”, the whole body would shut down. In the same way, if a Christian in Van, TX says “I want to be a missionary overseas, just not in Texas”, he is shutting the body of Christ down. Yes, there are people in other countries that need the Gospel desperately, but I bet dollars to donuts that if you just open your eyes and look, you would find the same, desperately searching people. Location is just a place.

B-E-A-UUUU-TIFUL. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One thing our western culture has taught us, without us consciously knowing even, is we find find beauty in extravagance. We find beauty when a celebrity has an insane amount of makeup on wearing a flashy, revealing dress or when a celebrity has washboard abs with a soft, gentle smile. We find beauty in a sunset that paints the entire sky different shades of purple, pink, yellow, orange and blue. We have been taught that in order for something to be beautiful, it has to be extravagant or flashy. Yes, all these examples are beautiful, but God’s beauty is literally everyday. There is beauty in the wind. There is beauty in dying trees. There is beauty in discolored leaves, pimpled faces, and in round, square, flat body types. There is beauty in all things because God took time to make all things. Every day I watch the sun rise over Sky Ranch’s Legacy Center and every day I am blown away by God’s beauty. Some are painting the sky with an array of colors, and others are a simple yellow ball of light rising, or like today’s, some are not seen behind a wall of gloomy clouds. Regardless, each is beautiful because God continues to show his beauty by creating another day. We see sunrises as monotonous and rudimentary but God sees each sunrise as a chance to show His beauty and to start another day full of grace and mercy to ALL His creation! We see a pretty picture, but God sees a masterpiece because every day we get to live in the freedom of knowing the Creator of the universe. We get to live in the freedom of living a life unchained from sin,. We get to live in the freedom that comes with the knowledge that we are unworthy of even waking up in the morning, let alone having Jesus die the most brutal, humiliating death imaginable for our sins, yet still being able to wake up. As monotonous as it may seem, God’s beauty shines EVERY DAY and His untapped beauty is EVERYWHERE.

The Bible often describes life as a battle. Let’s use that example, shall we? In our earthly minds, we associate the hero role and the most important role as the “front lines”. We think of brave missionaries who have lost their lives for the cross on the front lines of ministry. We see those who are verbally sharing the Gospel as the front lines and those leading Bible studies and those doing all these “Christian-ese” things as the front-line Christians. I think that way of thinking is wrong for 2 reasons. First, in battle, every position is equally as important as the other and if you have ever been on a sports team you can attest. In the Fellowship, cleaning up someone’s throw up is equally as important as telling someone Jesus loves them. You can not appeal to someone’s spiritual needs unless their physical needs are met. Second, if we put so much respect on living on those “front lines”, then live your life on the front lines. I don’t mean pack up and move across the world, but like I mentioned earlier, the mission field is all around you.

Teamwork makes the dream work. Not everyone gets to have that Jesus breakthrough moment with a kid, but everyone has a chance to tell that kid about Jesus by their words, actions, and life. That is true teamwork. Doing your job and living as an example of someone who has been saved by GRACE, so that another not-yet-believer will ask what is so different about you is what we should strive for. When this happens, ALL glory goes to God, because regardless of how crappy (sometimes literally) your role is, we get to spend eternity with that kid from camp, or that kid from Outdoor Education, or that parent from a retreat. What an amazing life we live where that is our JOB! I love my Job! What have I learned from the Fellowship so far? Our lives are living sacrifices, so let’s live them as such.

-Tyler Chacon