Wow! It has been a long time since I have said anything on a blog. I knid of feel crazy, but I have a boatload of things to say and topics to blog ab out. It is just about getting the time to say them all. At any rate, I did want to share a few things today about focus. That is a condition permitting clear perception or understanding. Sometimes in life to other we may seem callous and insensitive we are focused or in a zone. More of us on a daily basis need to be focused. Our vision, mission and drive is often compromised when we lose focus or do not have focus at all. I am thinking about this because of the particular place I am in my own life. I have nnot for the past few months been focused in any way, shape or form. It is my lack of focus that has caused some things that need to happen to progress pretty slowly. There have been too many other things allowed to enter as I sat idly by unfocused. I have been re-assessing things and looking at what to do to be more focused. What have you done or waht are you doing. Focus does not often leave time for other things that do not contribute to the goal in sight. I was watching a TV show recently (you know I love my TV) and there was a shooting that took place. Afterwards one agent asked another agent, “Aren’t you bothered?’ He said, “Yes, I am bothered, but I am focused.” That was amazing to me. This person had all of the feelings associated with something traumatic happening, but they could not hold a candle to the focus that this agent had in completing the assigned task. That is where I need to get to. How about you?
Category : Daily Babble, Uncategorized
Category : Community, Connections, Cultural Relevance, Daily Babble, Spiritual Fitness, Uncategorized
Just a thought. I was sitting here thinking about the church. As much as we are supposed to be reflective of God’s Kingdom we are decidedly divided and marginalized. I have been having lots of conversations and thoughts on church diversity these days. Listen, I am not naive enough to think the on any given day the local church will end up being 100% diverse. However, the startling thing to me is the lack of willingness among “church people” to even be open to it. No one wants to “work across the aisle” borrowing from political terminology. I find that many things are less likely to happen when we are not even open to them. There seems to an entrenched idea of not worshipping together and then we become content worshipping within our own bubbles. I am not downing church or any church in particular. I am merely addressing what seems to be an prevalent ideology that works within church membership.
One thing I have noticed is that idea has not permeated the younger population of the church. This is a good thing. What they seem to want is Jesus and His will for their life. It does not matter to them who they are next to as they do this. I know some of you may not feel where I am coming from, but like I said earlier… It is just a thought. Peace!!!
Category : Community, Connections, Cultural Relevance, Daily Babble, Family Matters, Lessons, Lifestyle, Uncategorized, how ya' livin'
Okay, don’t leave the blog yet! Finish the read. I know you are saying, “Friends, what’s that about?” Yes, I did watch the show Friends, but that is not what this is about, at least not directly. A few days ago I published a Twitter and Facebook update about God’s design for friendship and how it is mentioned in the bible. One of my Facebook friends asked where? So, this is my attempt to answer that question.
I will not jump into anything today, but over the next day or so I will be laying out some of what the bible says in regards to friendships. There are things that we are supposed to be in friendships and ways that friendships can bless us. I read a tweet this morning that asked the question, “Don’t you wish you had friends like Ross, Chandler, Joey, Monica, Rachel and Phoebe?” Hmmm….
See you tomorrow ~ Peace!
Alright guys, here we go… We are about 14 hours or so away from a brand new year. We are literally at the edge of 2010. I am pretty sure that many of use are ready for the new year to come and the old year to be gone. Many people are making bucket lists, goal and vision lists as well as countless resolutions. However, let’s look back for a second. When you look back on 2009 is there any one thing that was a game changing decision for you? Okay, here is the definition of a game changing decision. It is a HUGE decision that you make that sets up the stage for something HUGE and DIFFERENT to happen in your life in the new year. Got it… Let’s go! While you reflect on your own game changing decision let me let you in on mine.
My game changing decision for 2009 was putting the brakes on Purpose Church back on May 31, 2009. Whew that was alot to even say for me. Yes, after years of being the pastor of a church and people I loved dearly we closed up shop. We did not close up shop forever, but nonetheless we closed up shop. There was a serious overhaul that needed to take place in the ministry. The analogy I used on our last Sunday was that “you cannot repair a car while it is still driving, you need to pull it into the garage.” How about that? So, during this downtime there is a lot of under the radar stuff that God is doing to prepare for the launch of something new. I say something new because it will not be named the same, look the same or feel the same as what we had before. It is not that anything before was bad, but I really feel something new happening. We shot for a January 10, 2010 and then rescheduled for Easter 2010 in order to hit some benchmarks, but God said no. It was not a reprimanding no, but it was a pump your brakes kind of thing and I am at peace with that because I know what is coming will be great. In the meantime there is a lot going on that I will let you know about soon in regards to what I am getting into, what is going on with the launch and how you can help.
This game changing decision for me was extremely difficult and emotional. My wife and other friends helped me get through it and navigate my way to where I am now. Wisdom from other ministry leaders and guidance from God have hooked me up. I am good now and saying do it Lord in 2010.
Stay tuned guys… By the way, lookout for the new blog name and new blog design in the early part of the new year.
Whew! Let me say that again. Whew! 2009 is well on its way out. In just over a day we will be smack dab at the beginning of 2010. How about that? Many of us have bad things to look back on in this year and good things to look back on in this year. We all share varied experiences throughout this past year. Many people have already started to make resolutions (in my case revolutions) and make plans for the upcoming year. However, some people are so disenfranchised and beaten down by 2009 that they have no desire to enter into the New Year or they enter in limping. Even with all of this, I have a question… “What are you looking forward to in 2010″? I know that 2009 might have disappointed some, but there is nothing like a New Year and a fresh pad of paper to write things on. As far as I am concerned, I am looking forward to some things. What about you? Can you lift up your bowed down head and set your eyes forward and get a vision for 2010?
Tomorrow we will jump into what I would call Game Changers for 2009. For me 2009 brought some changes and decisions that I think God will use as a springboard to some pretty cool things. See you tomorrow!
I like to read. Do you? I have a few books in my library that I go back and read from time to time. Some of the books are educational, inspirational etc. They run the whole gamut. I came across a book just recently called Primalwritten by Mark Batterson. I read a book he wrote a while ago called Wild Goose Chase, which by the way was awesome!I have to say, I am almost done with this particular book and I have to say that the book “had me at hello.”Do you remember that line from Jerry McGuire? This book from the first chapter had me captivated and my eyes ready to overflow with tears. Seriously! I loved this book. It is weird how some things arrive with perfect timing. Primal spoke to me at an exact place where I am in my life right now. It spoke to the place so loudly that I had to cover my ears. The imagery of going down the 2,000 stairs to the essence of what these early believers dealt with screamed at me. Through this book I was beckoned to go back. This book has been extremelypersonal to me because it was an answer to prayer. Let me say one thing before finishing the post, thank you pastor Mark. I am not in a place where I am moving forward by going back to the place where I first met Him as Mark did in the balcony of the seminary.
In an age of Christianity where there is so much fluff and surface when it comes to a real life in Christ this is a welcome read. It is not often where we are called to go back to a primal, basic, foundational and raw relationship. We have moved away from that. The place that Primal pulls us back to is a place of authenticity, power and great dedication. That is where I want to be and my hope is that this is where others want to be as well. The heart of Christianity has in a sense been lost and it seems that the goal of this book is to give us a hart transplant and do what the bible says. The bible speaks of taking away a heart of stone and giving us a heart of flesh. God, through this book Primal, give us your heart.
Okay, gotta go I have a few more pages to read so I can finish this great book.
Check the book out here at Random House.
My kids always get little things that they hold onto even more so than their major toys. One of these things are some glow sticks. They found some in their room the other day. I am not sure when they first got them, but it had to be a little while ago. They found them and immediately they wanted to use them, but did not know how. My wife says to them, “you need to break them.” So, both of the glow sticks have been broken. At this point the kids are slap happy. My son rushes to the light switch to turn off the lights. Why? He wanted to be able to play with his glow stick in the right condition. Where is that you might ask? In the dark. There are two major facets to glow stick operation.
- Glow sticks must be broken before they can work.
- Glow sticks work best in the dark.
My son wanted to get the whole house as dark as possible so he and his sister could fully enjoy their glow sticks. As people God created us to be glow sticks. We are supposed to go into the places where our light is most effective in order for it to be seen. We do not so much have a problem with glowing as much as we have with being broken. That is a whole different and scary issue. Circumstances that we have experience often break us and take us to a place of pain. However, more than these being stains they are things that cause our light to shine. If you have experience poverty that is a brokenness that can be used as a light once you get to a place of financial peace. If you have experienced domestic abuse and the brokenness from that we are able to show a light once healing has taken place there.
When my kids were playing with these glow sticks this whole thing hit me that we break first and then are effective. What is in us that has been broken that God can use as His own personal glow stick?
Is this you? Are you a caged lion? Are you an over tamed version of your former self? Has the fire gone from your eyes and have you lost the eye of the tiger? One of my favorite movie series of all time is Rockywith the exception of Rocky V. In Rocky III we find Rocky Balboa at the height of his success. While he is flying high Clubber Lang rises up the ranks. He is a rough, tough and ferocious fighter that demolishes everything in his way. Rocky is challenged by Clubber Lang and Rocky accepts only after Clubber Lang flirts with Adrian (Rocky’s wife). During Rocky’s training both Mickey and Apollo Creed comment on the fact that Rocky has lost the eye of the tiger (you know you are singing the song in your head right now). check this out
Side note: I hope I can fit this all into this blog post. 
We mentioned the fact that a lion is a hunter and it is aggressive. The point of the matter is that the lion goes after what it wants. Is this you? Depending on where you are in life. This is not an indictment at all, but rather a prompt for us to take a closer look at ourselves to move back into being a lion and getting that eye of the tiger. The whole thing about Rocky Balboa’s lack of tiger eyes in the movie was that life had been too lush for him and he no longer had a reason to fight anymore. In a sense he had arrived. When we reach certain levels of comfort and prominence real of perceived we lose lion in us. If you check out the first post yesterday you will see the image is of lions eating their kill. This is because lions have a habit of getting their own meat and fending for themselves. When they are in the throws of everyday life, they go hard! If you notice this picture you see a lion in a cage. As lions become caged or put in the zoo it is fine for us to see and observe, but they are no longer as ferocious. Do not get me wrong, I am still not getting into a cage with one at all. However, their meat is thrown to them as opposed to their having to hunt for it and get it themselves.
Here is a question… Why are you so tame? Where has the fight gone? Where has the eye of the tiger gone? Get it back! check this out
