A little bit of blog love straight out of my Moleskin journal today. At the end of my life, I want to be remembered for a few things:

Great husband/dad
More than other goal in my life I want to be a great husband and father. I love this calling and privilege and fight for it to remain in this top spot. I love being a husband and a father, but I also love being a pastor and a youth worker. These goals are all competing yet complementary. I want my wife to have the best husband in the world, my kids to have the best dad in the world. I fail at this one most often, which is frustrating to me, I still have so far to go and know I’ll never arrive. But I will try.

Good pastor
Second on my journal list is to be a good pastor. To faithfully serve the students, families and adults in the church where I serve. That I want to be laser-focused on them first in my ministry, and to build God’s kingdom through the local church. So far that has been in 2 churches over 15 years, excited about where God has me now and how I can serve His church in the future. I’m a big believer in the church (warts and all, as my mom would say), and that is something I want to be remembered for. Pastor first, speaker guy second.

Helped other youth workers
Part of my heart’s longings is to help other youth workers. Sometimes when I reflect on my ministry experiences and journey I see how God was and is preparing me to serve other youth workers. I feel privileged to have worked in healthy and unhealthy contexts, seen incredible leaders and serve incredibly bad leaders. I want to take that experience and help others that will carry the youth ministry torch long after I’m gone. Creating resources, blogging, teaching, conversations over lunch, whenever there is an opportunity to help people alongside me in the trenches.

What do you want to be remembered for?

JG