Who Needs Deadlines?

I do.

Though apparently I cannot make them when I do set them.

Public service announcement: I am still alive.

I didn't fall off of a cliff. I didn't travel to a remote island without an internet connection. My laptop didn't break or drown in a deluge of water.

No, I simply didn't have time to do everything I wanted to for the past two weeks, and unfortunately my blog was first to suffer for it.

Good news: I went to an amazing conference over the past week. I met wonderful, godly people who built me up and encouraged me in my walk with the Lord.
I was cut to the heart by the teaching and preaching I received.
I was stuffed with the Word of God for five days straight.
I reconnected with dear, sweet friends I had not seen for quite some time.
I met a lot of new people (by the last day I was overwhelmed with just how many people I could meet).

It was beautiful, it was encouraging, and now it is over.

Now I am back home, where the dishes still need to be done, my job is waiting, and I have ten million things I want to and need to do over this next week. Reality has hit me hard.

I know the adrenalin from this past week will wear off, probably by tomorrow morning. I know that going to one conference does not eradicate all of the sin and time-management issues I struggled with before the conference.

Photo Credit: Evelyn Reynolds
(because I am terrible at remembering
to take pictures)

But that conference made it glaringly obvious to me that, regardless of how crazy or out of control my life may seem, Christ still reigns. He uses the crazy, the overwhelmed, the weak, the broken, the little to accomplish His will. And I felt all of those things as I worshiped with 1800 Christians this past week. You cannot stand in an auditorium filled with people and not feel small. You cannot listen to great men preach God's Word and not feel overwhelmed, weak, and broken. And you cannot repeat your many goals and commitments to all of those curious friends you haven't seen in four years without feeling like you might be a little bit crazy.
But those friends reminded me that Christ is still victorious in my life. Those great men drew my eyes back to Christ through their preaching. And I mingled my voice with those 1800 Christians in praise to this same Christ.

And so my prayer is that, as I slide back into my overcommitted, crazy, deadline-filled life, Christ will be there, that His victorious reign in my life will remain at the forefront of my thoughts. That He would be the meditation, the delight, and the motivation of my life, even in the midst of the crazy, the broken, the weak, the overwhelmed, the little.

To Him be all glory.