A friend of ours came to us for help recently. He was really struggling with circumstances and loneliness. He said, “I feel like I’m flying a plane and flying in circles because I just need a co-pilot.” He felt like there was a hole in his life that only a wife could fill and he was confused why God would allow him to struggle so much when he had worked so hard to live rightly. I couldn’t help but think of the words of so many Psalms that wonder why the wicked prosper while the righteous suffer. There was something else going on though as well. When we “play by the rules,” we can start to think God owes us something. I still remember the words of Cru president, Steve Douglass, during our New Staff Training 12 years ago: “What we deserve is Hell. Anything else is sheer grace.” We explained that God doesn’t promise an easy life, but promises to be with us during the hard times.
Then, we took our friend through the “Satisfied!” booklet which walks through 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 and 3:1-2 along with other passages to explain the Holy Spirit’s role in our lives. He is our true source of satisfaction, and my friend realized that trying to fill that need with anything or anyone else would only end up in more hurt. He asked the Lord to take the throne of his life and fill him with the Holy Spirit. He came back to the airplane analogy and said, “I shouldn’t be in the pilot seat. God’s the pilot and I’m a passenger.” As he is filled to overflowing by God, I believe he will have more to give to a wife someday as well.
While there is more to unpack from the staff conference than I (Jeff) can write here, I’d like to highlight some of the things I am still processing.
Adam explained that people can go through different stages of community. In the first stage, “pseudo community,” we’re all smiles and talking about what we have in common (avoiding any parts of ourselves that might divide). It feels good, but it’s shallow and short-lived. Life happens, those differences come out and we fight
I discovered a very 
f “stealing reputation” got me to thinking about how we do that in real life. When we engage people we disagree with about something, do we have a humble posture that says “lets both learn and grow, because neither of us has arrived” or do we make people feel like they have to defend themselves in order to “win the debate” or be counted as an equal.
As part of an effort to partner with a network of churches in building a new gospel movement at Florida Gulf Coast University, I (Jeff) was blessed with the opportunity to attend a 2-day conference called 
At a recent conference we learned a very helpful analogy. Did you know that an elephant pregnancy lasts two years? So, in best cases, 2 elephants become 3 after two years. In the same amount of time, 2 rabbits become 1,369! This “conservative” estimate is based on the fact that they can have a new litter (of up to 14) every month. Not only that, but baby rabbits are ready to reproduce in only half a year!
al note, we too can get bogged down by overcomplicating things. In fact, in 2 Cor 11:3 Paul is concerned that the devil would trick believers away from the “
“I don’t have time to do God’s work.” We hear it a lot from students and friends. You know, it’s true that this world is REALLY busy, too busy for our own good, but this idea of being too busy to serve God is a misunderstanding. A good friend once recommended a book to us called “
ts us to head in one direction and then that door seems to be closed. Sometimes I (Jeff) struggle to know how hard to try to make something happen and whether that would be operating under my own strength and plans instead of God’s.
Grant Ministry 