Archive for February, 2008

Quicky on Humility

February 28, 2008 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , ,

I did a little research and found out that this is a pretty common definition of humility, but I heard it for the first time last night as I was channel surfing before bed last night. I came across some spiritual programming, and I usually will stop long enough to see who is talking, but generally I skim right past those channels.

There was a show with Israel Houghton, of Israel and the New Breed. He was talking about being a worship leader and all of the frustrations that can come with that position.

He made a statement about humility that really stuck with me, and forced me to write it down so I wouldn’t lose it… Here it is:

“Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.”

It is a great play on words that really gets at the heart of the issue. I have always struggled with the idea of humility. When anyone will point out my strengths or giftedness, I have struggled with a response. I feel like I am not allowed to be happy or receive the praise. But, humility is not about thinking that you are unworthy, it is about position, it is about thinking about your gifts and value last.

So, to Israel, thanks for saying that last night.

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MOA

February 27, 2008 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , ,

I had two different conversations that to center around a similar topic. It is funny how themes seem to establish themselves in my days.

I had a conversation with someone early yesterday where we were talking about how God just wants us to be willing to do whatever he wants us to do. In the same way that he sent Jesus to come and live and die on earth, it was like God said, “I just need you to go and do this thing for me… just go down there show them how it is supposed to be done…” In the same way God says to us… “I just need you to be willing to go and do whatever it is that I am going to need…” The same way he sent out Abraham and Isaac to an unspecified place… and Abraham just went… It is back on this faith and control issue at the core of it…

I was in a separate conversation where someone was telling me a story about a guy who talks about having a ministry of availability. I love that term. I want that more than anything. I want to be able to be available so that when there are needs I am available. Figuring out what type of “tent-making” goes with that has been my current struggle. But, it is an issue of faith and control. I need to believe in faith that God has it all figured out and if I can just keep focused he will make it clear to me.

I have played with a lot of terms to try to explain what I want my ministry to be, but the two front runners at this point are: life change catalyst, and ministry of availability.

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Crying out “HOW”

February 20, 2008 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , ,

I am currently struggling with myself. My experience and my skill set for the majority of my professional life has been shaped around the fact that I am a “get-it-done” guy. One of the major parts of being a “get-it-done” guy is always being able to figure out how to solve apparent problems.

I have been in sales, customer service, tour management, and management. Call me and ask me any question that starts with “How do we… get from Michigan to New Orleans in a day’s time? get shirts in and printed by the time the bus leaves? pull off a show without microphones? find 20 tickets in a sold out show?” These questions of challenges fuel me. I get a satisfaction out of being able to figure out how.

In reading “Visioneering” by Andy Stanley I came across something that was very disheartening, well, kind of…

“Often, you will know what long before you understand how… When how seems out of sight, it is tempting to put what out of mind… How is never a problem for God. It is usually a big problem for us. But how is God’s specialty…. What he originates, he orchestrates… When God gives you a vision, there’s a sense in which you stand back and watch it happen… We must focus on what he has called us to do, hot on how he is going to pull it off.”

The story from the Bible that Andy uses to demonstrate this is found in Luke 1:34-7 where Mary is told she will have a baby, and she questions how this is possible. The angel explains the process and ends with this, “For nothing is impossible with God.”

I feel comforted by this because I know that I have the potential to mess things up in my life. And the vision I have I feel is very much God ordained.

But, it goes against my nature as a planner and a “get-it-done” guy to not be concerned with the how of this vision.

I imagine my conversation with God going something like this, “You created me as a how guy, and I am good at it, what’s the deal?” God’s response sounds something like this… “You think that you are good at how, just watch.”

I find myself wrestling with this and realizing again that it is a matter of control and letting go. I thank God that he is patient with me, and fully trust that his how is better than mine.

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The Pro-Valentine’s stance from a recovering bitter single guy.

February 14, 2008 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , ,

I wake up this morning to the realization that it is Valentine’s day. I have seen all of my friends posting their bitter attacks on this day. I have been there. I am not a huge fan of this day. I don’t remember any valentine’s day that were memorable. I did once go out on a first date on valentine’s, not one of my smarter moves. That obviously did work out.

I was thinking this morning; I can go through this day bitter that I am not in a relationship, or I can go through the day trying to ignore the world around me, or I can try to calm down and not freak out about the fact that I have someone in mind who I would like to be my valentine, or I could celebrate the idea of love and think on it.

One of my biggest frustrations is that the English language has one word for “Love.” In the greek there are many words. It is why we get caught up in the trap of abusing the word: “I love pizza, I love my mom, I love Jesus, I love hockey.” Obviously, this can’t be the same word… my love for my mom far exceeds my love of pizza, and if I was being completely honest, even my love for hockey. ;-)

Let me challenge you with the same challenge I have chose to accept: Let’s celebrate love today. If you don’t have a relationship where you are celebrating “romantic love,” that’s okay. If we spend any time at all reading the Word, we will see that Love is a pretty consistent theme.

Today, I celebrate love, and if you don’t hear it from anyone else… I love you!

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Air Force One

February 11, 2008 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , ,

So, last week Tennessee was devastated with some really destructive weather. I was watching something on TV that got preempted by the arrival of the President coming to survey the damage. First, let me just say that the commitment of the President to come and show up and see things first hand is very commendable. He has a lot on his plate and for him to make this a priority is pretty respectable.

As I was watching the coverage, I thought to myself… “self, what would it be like to be followed around and cameras catching everything that I do.” YIKES! I watched the President get off the plane, shake hands, salute, take pictures with people, talk with people, put his hands in his pockets, take them out, the way that he interacted with everyone. There was no audio, so it was just simply watching his physical mannerisms.

Little side note: have you ever noticed how the presidency ages men? Why would anyone want to be the President?

Anyways, I got thinking about the idea of what it would be like to live my life if there were constantly cameras around watching my every move. Would I still sing in the car? Would I scratch my nose for fear it looks like I am picking it? (shout out to Seinfeld fans) How would I interact with others? Would I ever leave my house?

I am not here to defend it, and debate including this comment, but no wonder Britney has gone insane… I couldn’t deal with it.

But, as I am doing a lot of studying on what character is all about, I think there is a lesson here: I should be living my life like someone is always watching. First, God is always watching, even when I spend the whole day at home with the door closed. Second, whenever anyone can see me, whether they know me or not, they are watching. What am I doing to preserve and present my character in a way that displays who I really am.

I guess it just got me thinking… we are very important to realize that we are completely in control of our character… it is a responsibility.

I have started a Bible Study on Thursday Nights and I am posting the notes from the study online at this site: Thursday Nights Bible Study Review

Hope you have a great week, and remember you are being watched, what are you going to do about it?

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Crap Required

February 7, 2008 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , , ,

In Mark chapter 4 Jesus teaches a few parables that talk about sowing seeds into good soil. I don’t know much about plants or farming, but I do know that it seems like manure is good for growing stuff. If we get past the initial grossness of thinking about manure or crap, we can see that there is value in it. Wait, did he just go there… oh girlfriend, yes I did. (sorry, couldn’t resist)

I dare you to read those parables again and every time you see the word “soil,” replace it with “crap.”

Let’s look at this parable, this little story to help us understand growth in our lives. The biggest thing that I take from this story is: GOD provides the growth. But for the sake of this blog title, some crap is required.

This could be filed under the same heading of, “why do bad things happen to good people?” The bad things = or crap, for our discussion, are required for our growth.

It is what brings us to the instructions in 1 Thessalonians:

16 Be joyful always;
17 pray continually;
18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ
Jesus.

I directly for the sake of argument would say that “all circumstances” would include “crap.”

I am not saying the stuff doesn’t stink, and I don’t want to be around it, but I do want the growth and for that… some crap is required.

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So Simple, Yet…

February 6, 2008 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , ,

In my studying and in my life I am realizing that the commands of Jesus are really pretty simple to hear and understand, but why are they so hard to execute?

We hear the story of Peter getting out of the boat and walking towards Jesus and all he really needs to do to stay up is to keep his eyes on Jesus, and not the conditions around him. Simple, right?

Matthew 6:33 “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” NIV
Simple, right?

When questioned by the “wiseguys,” and they ask Jesus, okay… wrap it up… what’s it all about… he replies with “love god, love others”
Simple, right?

What is it that makes these seemingly simple statements so hard to execute?

I am a horrible golfer. I love to play, but, don’t do it very well. I can look at someone else’s swing and give them accurate and helpful advice, but, when I get up there and swing there is no telling where the ball will go. The technique of golf is fairly simple when explained. Swing your club, aim towards the hole, and put it in the hole. Simple, right?

With my walk and my golf, I think I overlook all that goes into the execution. With Peter, it was the conditions around him that get his focus off of Jesus, with the “wiseguys” it was their head knowledge and attention to the details of the law, with my golf game, it is my lack of practice and attention and focus.

I guess I am trying to stay focused on the fact that it is really simple to do what I am called to do and be. Keep my eyes on him. I have to get in the practice of the simple… keeping my eyes on him, seeking him first, and loving God and others.

Simple, right?

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The great theologian…. John Mayer.

February 5, 2008 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , , , ,

I heard this song on the radio the other day, and it was in line with a lot of what I have been studying…

This is John Mayer’s current single… “Say”

Take out of your wasted honor
Every little past frustration
Take all of your so called problems
Better put them in quotations
Say what you need to say

Walkin like a one man army
Fightin with the shadows in your head
Living out the same old moment
Knowing you’d be better off instead
If you could only
Say what you need to say

Have no fear for giving in
Have no fear for getting older
You better know that in the end its better to say too much
Than to never to say what you need to say again

Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
Even as the eyes are closing
Do it with a heart wide open
Why?
Say what you need to say

I did a little novice research using one of my absolute favorite tools… if you have never been there, please add this to your frequented sites… www.biblegateway.com

I did a word search on the word “mouth”… and it responded searching the NIV as having 308 references… to go one step further, I did a “mouth + heart” search and it had 23 references…

If we are paying attention when we read the scriptures, God talks a lot about the mouth…

At the end of Matthew 12:34 it says “out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” This concept of overflow seems like a great word picture… if you think about an empty cup… and you fill it up to overflowing… you have an overflow… what if we looked at our hearts and minds as empty cups… what are we filling up with…

This works in reverse… think about what you are talking about… is there a consistent theme in your conversations… whatever you are talking about is what your heart is filled with…

I have been doing a lot of reading and studying, and I have caught myself talking about God a lot more often… crazy, huh?

You will also see a lot of warnings about how powerful the mouth can be, and I am sure we all have horror stories about how we have said the wrong thing at the wrong times, or those times when we were teens and made horrible declarations against our parents… I vaguely remember storming around my house yelling… “i hate you… ” at my mom… nothing could be further from the truth… but, I let my emotions get the best of me, and it kills me inside to think what it made my mom feel…

Which brings us to the next gem from our guest theologian… John Mayer’s “My Stupid Mouth”

My stupid mouth
Has got me in trouble
I said too much again
To a date over dinner yesterday
And I could see
She was offended
She said “well anyway…”
Just dying for a subject change

Oh, another social casualty
Score one more for me
How could I forget?
Mama said “think before speaking”
No filter in my head
Oh, what’s a boy to do
I guess he better find one soon

We bit our lips
She looked out the window
Rolling tiny balls of napkin paper
I played a quick game of chess with the salt and pepper shaker
And I could see clearly, An indelible line was drawn
Between what was good, what JUST slipped out and what went wrong

Oh, the way she feels about me has changed
Thanks for playing, try again.
How could I forget?
Mama said “think before speaking”
No filter in my head
Oh, what’s a boy to do
I guess he better find one

I’m never speaking up again
It only hurts me
I’d rather be a mystery
Than she desert me

Oh I’m never speaking up again
Starting now… Starting now

One more thing
Why is it my fault?
So maybe I try too hard
But it’s all because of this desire
I just wanna be liked
I just wanna be funny
Looks like the jokes on me
So call me captain backfire

Oh, another social casualty
Score one more for me
How could I forget?
Mama said “think before speaking”
No filter in my head
Oh, what’s a boy to do
I guess he better find one

I’m never speaking up again
it only hurts me
I’d rather be a mystery
than she desert me

oh i’m never speaking up again
Starting now, starting now…

I have had those moments, where I think, if I could just keep my mouth shut, I would be better off…

Here are a few gems from the Proverbs:

Proverbs 10:11
The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked.

Proverbs 10:14
Wise men store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin.

Proverbs 10:31
The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but a perverse tongue will be cut out.

Proverbs 16:23
A wise man’s heart guides his mouth, and his lips promote instruction.

Think about what you say, say what you need to say… and know that people are listening and seeing into your heart with what it is you choose to say.

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