December 14, 2002 is the day I penned my first journal entry. Since then I’ve collected a cadre of leather-bound journals highlighting just over nine years of life. For whatever reason I’ve never thought of looking back over the previous year and pulling out the most significant insight. With 2011 about to be history, here are the best pages from the past year.

• God is not a God of discouragement, confusion or doubt, but a God of encouragement, clarity and assurance.
• My fleshly desires and innate desire for rebellion are like a cancer in my soul. The Holy Spirit is constantly infusing me with healing medicine. And for a few minutes, hours, days…I’m in remission. Then the flesh, my sin nature comes screaming into existence. I hear the prompting of the Holy Spirit, “Align with me.” And I rebel, squirm and flee. But there is nowhere I can go to escape the love of Christ, my salvation, my hope.
• We must have a settled determination to identify ourselves with God’s cause. A faith that outlasts our feelings. Often times I don’t want to pray, I’m stubborn, frustrated, longing for an answer on my own, but I must submit. Jesus should be the first place I run, regardless of how I “feel”.
• “Jesus doesn’t fix everything, He just makes the death purposeful” – Mark Driscoll
• “Passivity is the enemy of discipleship” – Orion Berridge
• God will take the most unqualified men by worldly standards and use them because by the standards of the heart they are very qualified.
• On April 25th at 8:49pm, Malachi Daniel Burns entered the world and I will never be the same.
• Confessions of a New Dad: …Amidst all the tired, sleepless, frustrating days and nights, it is worth it. Malachi is worth it. A gift, a blessing, answered prayers.
• “Grace isn’t opposed to effort, it’s opposed to earning.” Dallas Willard
• June 17th, 2011 – 5 years. Longer than college, longer than the average ability to remember all that has transpired. But today, 5 years ago, I married my best friend, a beautiful woman with a big heart…We have learned how to “do the dance” of two people becoming one life.
• Test run at a life purpose statement – “To teach God’s Word & directly influence life change through the Gospel locally & around the world.”
• Pursue Christ, Find Everything Else
• God will wreck the expectations of a person, a nation or a world to accomplish His plan.
• God doesn’t necessarily want to fix you or your situation. The fixing is oftentimes a by-product of increased holiness.