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This past January  Jenessa and I had the incredible opportunity to attend an event in Nashville, Tennessee called Dream Year Weekend. Dream Year is a year long program that my friend Ben Arment started a couple of years ago to help people turn their dreams into sustainable realities. Dream Year Weekend is a 72 hour, fire hose on full throttle, condensed version of this program, designed to be done in community with others in the room and around the table.

The next Dream Year Weekend is June 3-5 in Washington D.C. The event will be hosted at the ultra cool Ebenezer’s Coffee Shop (recently voted best coffee shop in D.C.). Attendees will be navigating, dissecting, clarifying, and monetizing the dream that is floating around in their hearts and minds.

My experience at Dream Year Weekend was pivotal. It gave me the clarity I needed to pull off an amazing event, and the confidence I needed to know that I can survive in the world as an entrepreneur someday.

No matter the size, scope, or context of your dream, I can’t encourage you enough to find a way to make it to Washington D.C. in early June to learn from Ben and several other incredible leaders. Act fast. The event is limited to 70 attendees, and the cheapest registration rate ends this Friday (April 29th). Visit the Dream Year website to learn more and register today.

*This was not a solicited post. I mean every word of what is written above. So don’t go getting any wild ideas.*

If you follow me on Twitter, you have been inundated with tweets marked with a hashtag that reads: #story10. Some of you may be wondering: 1.) When will he stop doing that. and 2.) What does it mean? Allow me to explain.

I am in Chicago Wednesday – Friday of this week to participate in a really cool event simply known as STORY. I am actually leading a team of 11 volunteers that are handling the outdoor logistics (parking, greeting, etc…) of the 2010 edition of STORY.

Several have asked something like: “What is this STORY thing all about.” To answer that, I’m going to transpose some words written by my friend and STORY founder Ben Arment. These are the first words in the STORY conference book:

As a member of the creative class in ministry, you have the challenge of telling others about an invisible kingdom, an unseen God and a hidden underworld. This is no small feat – communicating the unseen. The greatest story ever told can be the hardest to tell. But when you consider the possibilities, they’re limitless. This is why STORY exists… to provide fuel for the creative class. STORY is not about fomulaic creativity. There are no blanks to fill-in, no how-to instructions, and no stock videos to download. Our goal is to inspire and equip you with the highest level of creative possibilities.

Now my words: STORY is unlike any other “church conference” in the country. It’s simultaneously incredibly creative and highly personal. Each attendee is treated like an honorable guest from arrival to exit. The communicators are not pastors from big churches. They are filmmakers and authors and brilliant minds from the “secular” marketplace. STORY pushes the limit of heart, mind, and soul through stunning technological visuals, powerful moments of worship, and challenge talks.

To find out more about STORY and to see one of the coolest websites you’ll ever run across, go here: www.storychicago.com

To follow the event on Twitter, follow the #story10 hashtag.

To watch exclusive backstage content as it unfolds, visit here: www.storyunfolding.com

If everywhere you go you have a problem with other people. Guess what: You are the problem. It’s called brokenness. God sends (or has sent) you people to love you, speak truth to you, fellowship with you, and help lead you towards wholeness. You’ve pushed them away. You’ve offended them. You’ve convinced yourself that you are right and they are wrong. You’ve believed the lie that you are unloved by them, by God. Anything but admitting that you might be flawed, that you might be broken.

The prideful selfish heart of man may be our greatest downfall. We all fight it. None are exempt (especially me!). It was a primary side effect of the Fall of Man way back in the beginning. The difference is that some revolt against it, want no part of it, and beg God to replace their prideful selfish hearts with loving hearts concerned more with others than themselves. It is only then that we have the capacity to become whole people, no longer leaving others hurt in our prideful wake.

Nothing breaks my heart more so than when I observe the effect of this type of hurt. Especially within the Church. No one wins. One person sinks deeper into depravity. Another person gets their heart and spirit wrecked by brokenness. The Church becomes less healthy, and thus less appealing to those who need her most. There has to be a better way…

Tonight marked the third straight Christmas season that we have taken the student ministry from Journey Church to what has become a very special place for myself, our adult volunteers, and our students. The place is Brookside Extended Care in Mason, Ohio. Brookside is an AMAZING long term care and learning center for the severely mentally and/or physically handicapped. Many of the residents at Brookside are teenagers or young children… all of them are wheelchair bound, and only a couple can audibly communicate.

For the third year in a row the group of teenagers that we brought to Brookside absolutely blew me away. Here are a bunch of cookie cutter suburban teenagers walking into a room full of kids, teens, and adults in wheelchairs, and unable to physically function at a high level… I can’t imagine the mindset of our teens walking into that moment. Each time we’ve gone, our students have stepped out of their comfort zone, and into the lives that they can hardly imagine. They color with (for) the residents, they make crafts to hang in their rooms and on their wheelchairs, they talk to them, they joke about cute boys and pretty girls, they talk about sports and TV shows, most of the time with the only response being a moan, or a stare from a drooped head. It’s sobering to witness and participate in.

Tonight when we left, on the drive back to the high school, I asked my car full of junior high boys what they thought of the experience, and if it reminded them of anything from Scripture. Here are some responses:

• It was really cool for us to visit them since they don’t get many visitors.
• It’s hard to believe that’s how/where they live their lives everyday.
• It’s tough to think about the fact that they are just teenagers like us.
• On Scripture: It reminded each of them about the stories they had heard about the lepers. Specifically how in our society, we often outcast the handicapped, and avoid them when we encounter them in public.

The most amazing thing about our trips to Brookside is how each time we intend on “blessing” those residents, and each time we leave feeling so much more “blessed” by them. (I put those words in quotes because I’m not even sure what that means… it’s a churchy way of saying that we feel fuzzy inside I think.) Our teams from Journey Church that go to Guatemala each year end up telling a similar story. We go to show love to those people, and end up feeling as much or even more love in return.

What’s up with that? I think the answer lies somewhere in Jesus’ words at the end of Matthew 25. When we serve the “least of these”… we are serving Jesus Himself. Jesus is pleased when we serve the downtrodden, the forgotten, the handicapped, the unloved, the ostracized, etc… When we do this, we make Jesus happy, and we make our own hearts happy… it “blesses” us. It makes me wonder whey we don’t do it more often…

I had a really engaging small group discussion with some of the high school students in Journey Church’s student ministry last night. We talked about a variety of subjects, and the conversation got pretty deep. Questions were asked by me that were over their heads, and questions were asked by them that were over my head! Good stuff! Probably one of the highlights of my year.

Ultimately the conversation centered around the question why. More specifically, how would we answer questions like these:

• Why do you love God?
• Why do you go to church?
• Why do you even do this “Christianity” thing?
• Essentially this: What’s the point of God/Church/Christianity?

I have a great fear that there are thousands of people sitting in Christian churches each Sunday, who have been in the pew for a long time, but have no clue how to answer these questions. I’m not suggesting that there is ONE right answer, but I think there are some key principles and ideas that people simply fail to understand, or lack the ability to communicate about.

So… how about you? Why?

Yep… I bought some new shoes. Ten pairs of shoes actually. I have no idea what they look like. I doubt they’d actually fit my feet. But that’s all okay… they aren’t for me. They are for a child somewhere that I will never meet. I bought 10 pairs of shoes for $25… quite a bargain if you ask me.

You too can buy some shoes. Here’s what you do. Just go over to the website for Souls4Soles and buy some shoes. It’s super easy to do, and instantly makes you a part of something bigger. If 720 more pairs of shoes are donated before December 14th, a donor will kick in an additional 500 shoes. Not to mention you can win all kinds of cool stuff like: an Amy Grant signed guitar (yea, not that cool, but come on…), a trip to Mexico (very cool), a keychain (spend $10), or some soothing foot cream (spend $25).

Go buy shoes! Oh, and if you need some motivation… watch this video… it’s the most motivational video ever created!