It's hard to believe that Christmas is here, and it's almost the new year! 2012 has been an incredible year of blessings and growth here at Subsplash, and we couldn't be more thankful!
We hope you had an amazing Christmas with your loved ones, celebrating the birth of our King.
Here at Subsplash, we are all about sharing what we've been learning from God and how we can expand his Kingdom. For me, I've been learning more and more about God's love having been a dad for a little over a year now. When I first became a father, people kept asking me the big question; “How has this changed your life?”. Often times the question would come with a joke about sleep or maybe asking me if I better understood the love of God as a father. At first, I didn’t quite know how to answer the question. There is so much amazing emotion wrapped up in meeting your child for the first time. It’s just different than anything else on earth and I had nothing to compare it to.
As I began to reflect over the first few days and weeks of parenthood, this new reality began to reveal new truths about love, family, and God. How could this little person change everything and open new depths of my heart and soul? I’ve now been a father for about one year and it just keeps getting better. I would do anything for this little guy and I’m wired to protect him, serve him, comfort him, and give him my best each day. After being a dad for a while I thought to myself, what if I laid out all the things I do as a parent, but removed the fact that it was for my son? I mean, what if you just made a list of all the things we do as parents and gave the details of who we do it for, but remove the fact that it is for our child? What would that look like? Every day I have to take care of a miniature person who doesn’t speak my language, eats my food, relies on me to change his diapers several times a day, takes up my wife’s precious time and my monetary resources, can’t move and thus relies on me to carry him and then when he can move he goes where I do not want him to go, and who spits up on me at random times. If someone told me that some guy who fit that description was going to live with me, I would not have been too pumped. However, since it is my son, I don’t mind one bit and love him fully, despite the seemingly troubling additions to my life. How cool is that? A child brings so much incredible joy to your life and love just pours out toward them.
All this got me thinking, is this just a fraction of the love that God feels toward us? I believe that God loves each one of us more than I love my son, which is a whole lot. Now, if God loves us to such an incredible level and in turn wants us to not only love him but to love others, what would it look like if we started treating one another with a portion of the love we show to our children? Can you imagine the impact that would have? If I saw my son on the side of the street I would stop to help no matter what, but how often am I willing to stop and help others in need? Maybe it’s a reflection of my own selfishness, but I want and need to strive to love more. After all, there’s clearly a better way and it involves loving others as I would love myself, or in this case, love my son. And through it all I must remember that first God loved me and he gave his only son as a sacrifice that I may live! Now that is incredible. So yes, being a father has changed my life and I’m now even more thankful for the love shown to me by the God of the Universe.
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As Thanksgiving fast approaches I have been trying to pause from the busyness of life to look for evidences of God’s grace and to see more clearly all of the reasons that I have to be thankful. One of the things that I am most thankful for is to be part of the amazing team at Subsplash. I have the opportunity on a daily basis to help equip churches with ministry tools that are being used to forward the Gospel of Jesus Christ as Lord around the world. I love serving His Church! To be completely transparent, one of the questions that has been a companion to my thankfulness is the question, “Why?”. Why Subsplash? Why The Church App? Why not full time vocational ministry? Why not church planting or missionary work? How do I know that what I’m doing, and even more importantly, what we’re doing here at Subsplash, is making an impact? The answer to that question is found in the pages of scripture:
“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:16-20 ESV)
When Jesus Christ calls us to follow him, He calls us to be part of his family, part of His Church, and part of His Mission. The only question that remains is how do we play out our part in that mission? Should we all be full-time preaching pastors? Should we all be full time (paid) missionaries? Anyone who has attended Sunday school knows the answers to those questions. The Church is a body, with many parts, and many members and we all can’t and shouldn’t be doing the same thing. Finding out what it is that we should be doing, at an extremely practical level, becomes all about the gifts and opportunities that God has given us. Here at Subsplash, we have the unique opportunity to live in an area where technology isn’t just an industry, it’s a way of life. All around us we see people eating, breathing, living tech. Technology has become so ubiquitous, such an integral part of how we communicate and share information, that it is becoming a language unto itself (even my dog is named after an iPhone app!). As this landscape is becoming more clear, we are also seeing that God is using technology to forward the Gospel around the world. Much like the printing press opened God’s Word to thousands upon thousands of people, technology is opening God’s Word to millions that have never heard the name of Jesus Christ, many of whom live in our neighborhoods. We want to play our part.
At Subsplash, playing our part looks like bringing together men and women that love Jesus and His Church, and have a passion for using their unique gifts and talents to develop, deliver, and support mobile technology tools. These tools are then able to benefit our clients and delight our end users. Everything that we do is steeped in the Great Commission. From encouraging each other in the office, to praying for and with the churches that we have an opportunity to work with, to laboring over our technology to make it better and better, to making sure that we tip well when we go out to lunch, we want to Glorify God in everything that we do.
I’ll close by turning the spotlight back on myself. Why am I here? Why am I part of the team at Subsplash instead of doing something else? Quite simply, because the gifts and talents that God has given me have afforded me an amazing opportunity to be part of a team that is carrying out the Great Commission on a daily basis. My hope in writing this is that YOU would be encouraged. Regardless of what you do, it doesn’t always feel like you are doing the Lord’s work, but you are. Whether you work with your hands or work in a cubical, whether you’re a mega church pastor or small church IT tech, God has placed you in a unique position to use your gifts and talents to serve His Church and be part of His Mission. God is giving all of us an opportunity, no matter the circumstance, to do our work with excellence and make an impact for the Kingdom. Delight today in the gifts and opportunities that God is giving you and be thankful for all of His Grace.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
Sola Dei Gloria
We currently have open positions for designers & developers (web & native) who love making great mobile apps. Submit your resume at subsplash.com/jobs. We would love to meet you!
