October 2008 Archives

traction is a beautiful thing...

consistency wins...

it takes TIME and willingness to STICK... to stay the course and make the hard calls when you need to. its taken 4 years... in some ways its a short 4 years, in other ways its seems like long 4 years, but nonetheless here we are 4 years later grabbing traction.

leadership boils down to two things:
- the ability to set direction (trajectory)
- the ability to make the tough call

if you cant do both... you cant lead... well unless you can surround yourself with the right team but then again, why would people want to follow someone who doesn't know where their going and they can't trust them to make difficult decisions.

traction is a beautiful thing.

F

you haven't gotten to the place you are without someone stepping into your life and investing LIFE into you LIFE. i wonder if there is anything more precious an investment than life itself. sure... time, money, knowledge, experience, etc can lend itself as life and a great investment nonetheless but its proximity, its space that sets the pace for life.

i have several authors that have invested immense amounts of knowledge into my life that has forced me to journey and resolve, but nothing like the tangible, breath giving, space inviting life of a mentor. it happens over a cup of coffee, with the swing of a hammer, grappling with tension and confrontation... laughing, dreaming, sweating, crying, arguing, accepting, loving...

may life with others be our classroom to explore and discover... and don't forget to thank them for the investment.

thank you's acknowledge the proximity.

F

"i believe that the best things about you are beneath the surface."

the catch is the courage it takes to dive beneath the top... we have created life around the surface, the external, the outside because its there that we can choose what people see and who the they see. its there that we can morph the "what" and the "who" to satisfy the desires and the tastes of the on-looker(s).

i wonder when it was in our lives that the on-lookers' preferences became more important than the one they were looking upon?

i also believe that the we need to deal with a lot of scary and potentially painful things to find the best things about us beneath the surface. i guess the only difference between us and a mannequin is what happens when we get past the plastic reality... because everything else is pretty much the same.

so... what really can mannequins offer the world besides plastic perfection?

what will you ever offer the world that exists on the surface?

... let the mannequins do the job they were created for and maybe we can actually begin to LIVE some LIFE from the inside out.

F

"sometimes the things we think we need to do church arent really the things that make church."

a variation of this statement was made by criag groeschel in his latest book that called "it". i cannot remember it exactly... its been a couple of months since i read it (no pun intended... trust me) anyways, i am still reflecting from this past week on the gathering (our wednesday evening movement at the REALM) and several thoughts and feelings continue to surface for me...

without going into them all... here are a few that are close to the surface:

- for some people we only have ONE chance. this is not a thought wrapped in putting god in a box but a thought surrounded by RESPONSIBILITY! its irresponsible to not be ready.

- what makes the experience... the "stuff" or the people... or both? at the end of the day, its just stuff and its just people if god doesn't breathe on it. so the bigger question is how do we prepare hearts?

- its still the stories. without stories there is no substance! the stories prove the gospel... transformation and restoration.

- consistency still wins! be you... in our case... be us. we dont know nor have all the answers... just a lot of experiments and invitations to be sojourners in life.

F

one of the things in life that i have found the easiest to do is criticize others and what they're doing versus what we or i am doing... like i have it all figured out or like i am actually right.

i read in mark batterson's blog (evotional.com) one time that "the best way to criticize is by creating." the only way to create is to be a student to see and understand what it is that needs to be created.

if all we are in life are peoples critics for the things that they have created and we ourselves are not creating... then were just complaining!

stop complaining and actually learn something...
maybe god will even use us to create something...

F

behind all the hype... whats left?

like seriously... behind the outward, external observance of who you are whats left?

so many times in life i have wanted to impress ("you only got one chance to make a first impression") without even the thought of impacting someones life coming to my mind.

what would happen if we stopped trying to impress people all the time and began looking for opportunities to impact peoples lives?

things would change... thats what would happen.

F

there is times in life when reflection causes us to re:think what we are doing. i think that it is time to re:think some stuff both individually and communally...

the issue of time continues to be a glaring issue in my life... more specifically the managing of time as more and more people pull at the fringes of my time the people who need it most often get sacrificed the easiest. i need to re:think time.

the sense of community seems to be becoming less and less as more and more new faces gather with us. how do you maintain or better yet, continue to build community and continue to teach it at the same time? i think that its TIME that we re:THINK community also.

F

in our efforts to try our best to rationalize our way through life or come up with logically reasons and solutions to answers the "whys" we often seem to come up short. i find myself in the process thinking that my reasoning is legitimate and the reality is that it just may be...

for instance... "i don't pray much anymore because god doesn't answer my prayers." this is from a conversation that i had last night... now we all know how silly that sounds, BUT we have all said that or thought that on some level... so how legitimate this actually sounds in many ways its just simply NOT true... and therefore becomes an EXCUSE!

how about... "its difficult to risk because of the uncertainty." very logical and rational right? but nonetheless becomes an excuse that paralyzes us from taking risks in life from past experiences.

our excuses will define us if we let them.

F

have you ever felt at times that there are some things that are more urgent than other things? now the obvious answer is yes... but i am talking about something more here.

the deal is that we only have so much time for certain things and certain people right? so what are we going to spend our time doing? if our time is limited, on what and with who and where are we going to spend it? i got a small dose of reality this evening with my seniors (12th graders) knowing that our time is limited... were down to 8 months left before they leave for college... there's a lot to do, a lot to talk about...

there's urgency when you know that there is an end... i hope that we dont wait to long.

F

while reading the sacred echo by margret feinberg i came across a phrase that she uses in her book... the place "in-between".

the place in-between defines the distance amid the questions and the prayers. it represents the tension of waiting on god while actively pursuing. this isn't about passively sitting back and waiting that god is going to do something... this is about forcing us to ask the questions our hearts long to ask that were afraid to ask and then acknowledging our deep and uttermost dependence on god.

F

"he loves what it does to us - the humility it creates within our hearts. the prayers that emerge from our spirits. the childlike cries from our innermost beings that acknowledge utmost dependence. maybe thats why he allows us to enter in-between..."
excerpt from the sacred echo by margaret feinberg

one of the great tragedies in life happens when we just settle for things... we settle because we lack anticipation and fail to have expectations for fear of disappointment. so we just settle for what is or for what was... even if it was good.

regret is an frightening word. the thought of living in and with regret makes me sick... so on some level we need to chose disappointment or regret... but the reality is that at least with disappointment you tried... you risked... you were in the game... the sting of defeat most times can be a good thing.

we need to shift our thinking to anticipate in life versus the fear of disappointment AGAIN trying to keep us safe and close enough but not too far.

risk is a scandalous word to me... i think because of the exhilaration that can come from it... ultimately the life that can come with it... the person we can reflect with it...

F