September 2008 Archives

our moments are defined by our choices and our lives are a compilation of our moments...

if our compass is our guide... our mission, our core, our values... then essentially our choices steer the ship. its near impossible to see where you're going in the dense fog of life so our compass becomes necessary to maintain direction. without knowing where you want to go and who you want to be with, we'll never know what choices and decisions are essential to get us where we need and want to go.

our choices will echo the desire...

what do you desire?
may our choices echo...

F

it seems that we spend our entire lives caring what other people think about us... trying to fit in, get in and stay in... whatever or wherever "in" is... the uphill climb, riddled with obstacles and limitations and circumstances leave us wondering, ultimately WHO we are.

we will never find ourselves in other people and the endless efforts of caring what people think about us is a pursuit we will never win. here is what i am NOT saying... that it doesn't matter what people think about us... here is what i am saying... we can lose ourselves in pursuit of caring what other people think about us. we can never be everything to everyone.

F

"a human baby is the strangest and most wonderful creature this world can offer. no other mammal emerges so helpless from the womb, utterly unable to to cope with the opportunity and adversity of nature. yet no other creature holds such limitless possibility."

"we are hard-wired for nothing but learning. all we begin with are possibilities."
(excerpt from "culture makers" by andy crouch)

what possibilities did you harness today?

what did you learn today?

"knowledge without application is vanity." what good does knowledge do if it doesn't get applied to life... its just knowledge with no life. which is fine if your life goal is to be on jeopardy someday...

you were built with possibilities in mind... with the future in mind.

CREATE.

F

if our questions produce our learning... what questions are you asking?

what are you curious about?

when i write the word curious, it seems sort of provocative to me... i am not sure why... maybe its because its our curiosity that sometimes gets us into trouble so i have this stigma with the word... maybe? but at the same time i have this intrigue about the word curiosity... it brings a sense of wonder and awe, a feeling of mystery and suspense.

the reality is that the things that make us wonder... the things that pique our curiosity are the things we tend to explore, but often also become the things that we ignore.

have you ever dreamed of something that seems so big that you get paralyzed at the very thought of it? it seems like we'll miss 100% of our tomorrows, if we miss 100% of our todays. so, start small... maybe today just notice the sun warm your skin. our dreams are built on the consistency of learning a little more everyday... our learning is built on a bed of questions.

what are you curious about?

F

as i sat at the robbie seay concert last night i was reminded of the dream and the mission given that is known as the church. the church truly is the hope of the world... because the gospel, jesus redeeming and restoring humanity, is the only answer we have to the aching questions of life.

i cannot think of another entity or institution (although i hate those words to articulate the church) that has more potential for widespread change and influence worldwide. to think and know that "we" through the power and grace of the gospel can be used to SHIFT, NUDGE, CHANGE, CREATE the world... to LOVE, CARE, SHAPE the future.

the dream still stands...
the gospel still lives and has breath...

tomorrow is possible.

F

with the increased and still increasing awareness on the lack of access to clean water around the world, which by the way, last year there were 1.4 billion people without clean water, this year that number is down to under a billion... we need to celebrate the advances that have been made and the role the church continues to play in the efforts.

2008 is the UN's international year of sanitation. as awareness and focus shifted to finding new ways to make clean water available, the sanitation systems of the worlds poor has lagged behind. check out tearfund and their report called "sanitation scandal" to learn more on the issue.

F

i say this all the time... but ideas change things... ideas can change everything! i have been following the advent conspiracy for the last 2 years now and its picking up momentum world-wide. you need to check this out... go to adventconspiracy.com to learn more and see the vision behind re-imaging what christmas was.

i hope that we can do something with this.

F

remember the times, or the time when you were so close, it was so tangible, so real, it was as if you could just reach out and grab it, his presence felt so thick that it rested on your shoulders and held your heart... it seemed time slowed, reality shifted, your perspective altered and morphed, your eyes were new because your heart felt fresh and clean, your motives were pure, you were broken but alive, your heart beat differently and cared more deeply, you were aware of your surroundings and the needs that were present...

it just made sense...
it felt so right...
it felt like nothing else mattered.

what happened?
seriously, what else matters right now?

F

i have terrible posture... i remember my mom always telling me to sit up straight, "you're gonna look like an old man one day," she would tell me. i remember sitting up straight and for a few minutes and then gradually sinking back down into my all to familiar slouch.

even now as i write this post i am hyper aware of my natural slouching posture, so i sit up tall and straighten out my back, which btw feels great when i do it, but i seem to lose focus and i slowly begin to let gravity take over and pull me down.

btw... posture can also be a disposition or an attitude toward something.

i wonder how many of our sitting postures reflect our posture toward god? i mean, its so easy one moment to be hyper aware of god all around me and the people that he has put in my life and then the next to gradually sink back to my selfish, me centered natural posture that has defined me... and probably most of us.

at the end of the day... our posture sets the tone for the rest of our bodies. the posture theory relates several other symptoms such as; fatigue, distortion of nasal and sinus cavity, jaw pressure, strain on neck, pressure of chest, sternum and ribs, strain on lower back, etc. to our posture.

i wonder how many other symptoms in our spiritual life we can relate to our poor posture toward our relationship with christ?

i wonder what people see when they see me?

F

i sat with 8 guys this morning as we discussed the concept of confidence... i can't seem to shake this word from mind and my heart. i know that confidence comes as we learn to surrender, but i find that its so easy to surrender certain parts and things and try to hold on and control other parts and things. it has become so easy to compartmentalize the whole.

as one of the students said, surrender is so counter-intuitive to our human nature because we think that we can do certain things or that we have certain gifts, talents and abilities... but to the man this morning we all agreed that we have failed more times than we have succeeded...

so why do we believe more in us than we do in him?

makes me see why its not hard for people to not believe in god... i wonder how many of us are striving to give up more than to get more?

i wonder what people see when they look at me?
surrender or control
existing or expecting

F

from time to time a sense of dementia can plague leaders or probably more accurately a sense of dyslexia (or aixelsyd for those of you who are dyslexic) maybe even schizophrenia. any perspective that you would take leads to the same illusion built by numbers.

when people begin to equate numbers to success (the amount of butts in the chairs) we can quickly become diffused at the vision and the journey. my confession is that i think numbers show something, i really do... i just don't know what they show. sure i can build a pretty comprehensive list of the things that we think that they can show... but what do they really show? i'm not sure. the other part of the confession is that numbers feel good and the lack of numbers make you, well me, depressed.

i don't want to get lost in numbers... i want to get lost in STORIES.

stories prove life... life proves change, transformation, metamorphosis.

may we continue to grasp onto life by stories and remain aware of the struggle and temptation to get lost in numbers.

F

before i left to go to nashville my car sat in the parking lot dead... i needed a jump. when i left in the morning there seemed to be something wrong when i tried to start my car, it took longer than usual to start. it showed signs of something being wrong... probably most likely that i needed a new battery, but did i heed to the warnings? of course not!

i walked out to my car later that evening to go home and yes... it was DEAD. i needed a jump, but really i probably needed a new battery. got a jump, drove it home and it seemed to be fine... got up the next morning and yep, dead again. another jump just wasn't going to do the trick... i definitely needed a new battery.

have you ever looked to something or someone else for a jump and it just didn't last?

its so easy to turn to other people and things to try to get the jump that we think we need to keep going...

artificial jumps can and will only last for so long... unless we get to the source the cycle that leads to emptiness is never ending.

"you are the source of life, no one else will do, i will take hold of you... i need you jesus."

F

I was reminded tonight of this question... it's such a good reminder for me sometimes to ask myself this question. I asked this question so many times last year... if I force myself to answer it I find lots of answers that I wish weren't part of the conversation.

the illilusion is that a lot of the things that I try to satisfy myself with are good things. most times in life I learned that it's the good things that get in the way of the best things... or the best thing.

I beg for you to move... is the lyrics to a song shane and shane sang tonight... what a great prayer...

"I beg for you to move"

(sent from iPhone)

F

do you lack confidence?

if we were to trace the process and the steps that have led us to our insecurities and our lack of confidence in our lives and relationships, i feel confident that the core, underlying issue we would find would be a lack of surrender.

confidence and surrender are directly connected at the core. our insecurities are deep rooted realities that exist from the disconnect between our surrender and our confidence. there is something about the humility that is related with someone who has confidence. unfortunately, most of what we know to be confidence is a false confidence. HUMILITY is an attribute that follows a heart that is surrendered and is confident that god is who he says he is and that he can do what he saye he can do.

may we find confidence and humility as we lose control and surrender.

F

as followers of christ we are have been called to be OBVIOUS... we have been called to be different thru our devotion and our dependence. how can these three words describe something so beautiful, yet something so distant. its frustrating to know that the words i want to define and describe my relationship with jesus are elusive words that seem to rather want to play hide-n-seek.

i wonder how obvious i am?

i wonder what is obvious about me?

i wonder how obvious we are?

different, devotion and dependence... it seems more like i know all to well words like dry, drained and distracted! lets move from here... from this all too comfortable place and known place that has become usual.

F

tonight we start our new series for the month of september at the gathering called POSTURE. it will be a conversation wrapped around the cultural mandate that we bear responsibility for redeeming entire cultures...

the greatest callings we have given us in genesis 1:26-28 are to create people, YES... but to bear the responsibility as artists to create the culture at large. the momentous transference of giving us the mandate to love, serve, and create as image bearers of god himself... in essence, passing the torch to us to pick up where he had left off, to partner with him in creativity, ingenuity...

i cannot think of anything more significant and important in our lifetime, than to be part of the movement of the church recapturing its role in shaping culture, and grasping onto the centrality of the gospel as our identity.

tonight we move!

F

...check out fermiproject.com for cultural shaping issues.

today i sent out a twitter (aka as a tweat, or i have seen some call them twits... anyways, for those of you who follow me on twitter, you got it and know what i am talking about, well blogging about... those who don't follow me, you're either not cool or really smart, i'll leave that conclusion to you)

anyways, i was at starbucks when i sent out this tweat today about being aware of the world around you. i asked you to stop and just pray for the random people that were around you... what better way to be aware of people than praying for them. i had my ear buds in, yes noise canceling ear buds for people with A.D.D. like me... when an inconvenient conversation walked in to starbucks follow by his father. i began thinking of ways to ensure that this person would not engage me in what i know would be a conversation of some length and time...

hmmm, head down in my bible? no to convicting. eyes glued to my computer? no, too much A.D.D. pretending to talk on the phone and give a polite head nod of hello and stay away? no, too rude and risky, my phone could ring while i was pretending to be on it.

so... i said hello and engaged in the conversation that i knew would happen. there's no convenience in love and obedience... but i would have missed out on a blessing by being self absorbed!

we are not allowed to IGNORE the world around us!

how are we supposed to be culture makers if we cant even be people engagers?

engage, embrace and invite the world around you into your world... that is you... that is who we were meant to be.

F