When we encounter Jesus we are...

I'm not a big New Year's Resolution guy. Why? Because I usually fail at any NYR that I set for myself. Fortunately for me, that's true of quite a few people. Stats show that 88% of people will quit their NYR by the end of January. This problem has become such a big deal that the second Friday of January has become known as "Quitter's day." A day for failed resolutions. Here's the revealing thing about resolutions though; resolutions show that deep down all of us desire change. And not just temporary change that lasts a couple days, weeks, months, or even years.  All of us want an authentic lasting, paradigm-shifting change that has reoriented and redefined the rest of our lives. New Year's Resolutions show that changes that come from within us don't work.  Our commitment, our dedication, our power to change always falls short. So what moves the needle? What is the catalyst that ensures you and I are never the same?

The answer is simple: It's Jesus. Only Jesus can create genuine, authentic, lasting change in your life.  But what does that process to change look like? This summer we will dive into the Gospels to explore encounters with Jesus. Four major elements are constantly a part of the change process in these moments with Jesus. We see His power, which goes beyond anything we can orchestrate or even understand ourselves. As Jesus reveals His power, we encounter our problems, the areas of our lives that we can't fix ourselves.  Jesus doesn't leave us in our problems though. He calls us out of the brokenness in our lives to reveal His purpose for us. Jesus lays out the plans for us, but we are left with a choice. Every encounter ends with our path, a decision to follow or walk away; to embrace the change or to distance ourselves from what Jesus has invited us to be. Our prayer this summer is that as students encounter Jesus they would leave, never the same!