The Official Blog of Alec Philippi: Summer Project Update 3 (Defeating Complacency and Passiveness)

The past week on project has been somewhat frustrating for me, and it's really been one big thing that has made it that way. I've really been feeling a lack of community.I just haven't really made any solid connections with any of the men here with me on project so far. It's so easy to just get used to having a solid group of Christian guy friends around you constantly, and to experience anything less is very difficult. It makes me realize just how important it is to have close brothers around to just be able to pour your heart out to whenever. In a lot of ways it makes me realize how blessed I am with the brothers I have back at school and at home. I haven't by any means given up or lost hope in this for my summer, but I've just been merely flustered by the fact that something I'm used to having an abundance of is seemingly nonexistent for me at this point and time. My initial reaction to all this was to just feel sorry for myself and actively choose to just have an attitude that nothing will change. But through much reflection and thinking time on the topic, I've realized that if I want to see things change in this area for myself, I need to be proactive and pursue close relationships with other men on project. It helps to know that many of the other men on project are probably having similar feelings right now, but we'll all stay in this state if no person takes action. It just comes down to who's going to be the guy who steps up to the plate and goes after it. I'm declaring myself as that guy tonight because I know through Christ my introverted self can break out of his shell and help to shape meaningful Christ-centered relationships during this short summer trip. My hope is that other men on project will catch on and break out of their own shells as well. It certainly won't be easy, but I'm relying on the God that gave me this sweet idea to come through. He always does. You can help to. If there's one prayer request I have for this week it's that God would use me to begin break through on our project that breaks down the barriers of awkwardness and self consciousnesses that keep relationships from building, and that He would give me the strength to persevere towards the vision He has given me.

Putting everything aside from the previous paragraph, there have been some cool things that have happened in the past week. Last week our project was very focused on outreach and we went out sharing nearly every day of the week. None of my conversations got very far, but I was proud to have initiated a total of 13 conversations by the weeks end! It was a great experience just to become more and more comfortable sharing my faith with others. Another cool thing that God has been showing me lately is how He just wants me to talk to Him. It doesn't matter what part of the day it is, what I'm in the middle of doing, or what my location is, He just wants to chat with me. You can call it prayer sure, but I just look at it as chatting it up with my heavenly father whenever I want, because that's how amazing He is. He can be accessed at anytime of the day, it doesn't matter. Anytime I want to talk to Him, He listens and responds. He is the greatest listener to ever exist in all of time and even outside of time. He won't ignore you or forsake you. In fact He delights in you, and there is nothing that makes Him more happy than to commune with His children whom He created to have close and intimate relationships with Him (Zephaniah 3:17). This morning I got up and started my work shift at the grocery store at 6am. As you can imagine, there is hardly anyone that gets up at 6 in the morning to go to the grocery store, so anytime that I work this shift I have an abundance of time to just stand in front of my register in silence as I wait for any customers to come through my line. So this morning I realized what a great opportunity this was to just chat it up with the Lord. I literally didn't have a single customer from the time I started until about 6:45. For about 45 minutes I just stood there in conversation with God. It was so refreshing to just talk to Him and hear back from Him to start off my day. I can't think of a better way to start my days now! I think I unintentionally set a standard for myself! Either that or God set a standard for me today! It's just been amazing to see the Lord work in life in this way recently and needless to say I'm very excited to see how I become closer and more committed to the Lord through all this. He always provides us with exactly what we need at the perfect moment. Sometimes it just takes us a little while to realize it!

That wraps up this weeks update. Be sure to check back next Wednesday for another update! I greatly appreciate all of your prayer support while I am here in on project! Please continue to pray that God would continue to breakthrough in my life. Also, if there is anything I can be praying about for you, don't hesitate to get in touch with me and tell me your personal requests. God bless and have a great rest of the week!