Wanna get away? Want some great in-flight entertainment? Just take a trip with your favorite three-year-old. And try making a list of all the questions you hear. Here, hot off the press, is a partial sampler from a flight we took this past Friday.
What’s amazing is how many of the questions are the same when we’re 33 or 55. We just develop questions behind the questions as we get older. The rest of this is written by Mr. Cohen Thomas (he just doesn’t know it yet)…
Why are we not going?
Are we going down?
[After passing through the clouds] Where is God?
Are we almost to Disney Wouwd? (World)
What’s that button for?
Why are we not going to Grandma and Granddaddy’s house?
Are we almost to Disney Wouwd?
Why are we going to be there tonight?
Why? [click to continue…]
I will sing a new song to You, O God;
Upon a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You,
Who gives salvation to kings,
Who rescues David His servant from the evil sword.
This comes from a victory song.
David celebrates victories he’s won to this point.
What now? [click to continue…]
(A Conversation)
You’d think by now I’d have this down.
Have what?
Making decisions and finding God’s will.
Is that what you mean by “being at a crossroads?”
Yeah, I have some decisions to make, and it’s kind of a mixed bag. Some really good things and some really challenging things, either way I go.
Okay…
But I don’t want to just do what I want to do. I want to do God’s will.
As opposed to your will?
Yes. I know that he speaks through my desires. But even that’s mixed up right now.
And you need Him to sort all that out for you?
Yeah.
Sorta like those neon arrows on the highway at night that say, “Stop here?”
Boy, wouldn’t that be awesome? [click to continue…]
You’ve been told how special you are, how good you have it, even in spiritual circles what an Overcomer you are. But what you hear doesn’t seem to match up with what you see. You look at the rainbows and unicorns of somebody’s social media status and all you seem to see in your life are the clouds and jackasses.
Maybe it’s time for a reality check. Maybe it’s time for a Come to Jesus meeting, where you actually come to Jesus. There with a good dose of truth, faith, and courage you will see that you actually are more than a conqueror. Yet you still must overcome.
Why?
Because every motion forward… in kingdom life, in relationships, and in your own personal growth runs headlong into resistance.
Even special people.
Even blessed people.
Even Overcomers must overcome.
Your identity isn’t a badge you wear to feel good. It’s a weapon you’re given to enforce the truth. Maybe it’s time to sharpen that sword. Without a doubt, it’s time to overcome. [click to continue…]
Ever take a spiritual gifts test? I certainly have, and many of the courses I teach for different universities use them. And while I’m quite sure that surveys designed to apply psychological testing procedures to operations of the Holy Spirit can help us sort some things out, I still get a little uneasy about them.
Why?
Most are written so that even an unbeliever could take them and point to a “spiritual gift.”
Every one starts with a philosophical or theological assumption you may or may not agree with.
Every one tries to systematize something that, in scripture, seems hardly systematic.
Sooner or later somebody says something like, “I took this a few years ago and my gift of faith was a lot stronger then.” What? Seriously?
So I thought maybe it was time for something radically different. Why don’t we go back to the source and see if there is actually a spiritual gifts “test” in the Bible?
Radical, I know, but stay with me. [click to continue…]
Raise your hand if you’ve ever stood in church and sung, “I surrender all.”
Raise your other hand if you were invited to “come to the altar and surrender all to Jesus.”
Both my hands are up. I’m typing with my toes.
Just two problems with that idea. First, surrender isn’t something you do in church. Second, surrender isn’t something you do at the end or the close of anything.
A few years ago I learned a new language – the language of surrender and freedom. Inspired by someone’s idea of absolute commitment to Jesus expressed as, “I don’t have to survive,” I began a mental and spiritual journey of surrender. What else can I let go of? How else can I be free? And I began to make the list…
I don’t have to be successful…
I don’t have to get angry…
I don’t have to feel rejected…
I don’t have to be right…
You get the point.
Lately I’ve been revisiting that idea, for an important reason. [click to continue…]
It was painful and ugly, Lisa told us. She had left town to attend a school, presumably to train people to be worship leaders. What she discovered instead was an unhealthy, “I’m always right” form of egotistical authority-wielding. If anybody in the so-called “school” suggested an idea that didn’t line up perfectly with the ego-polishing done “on the stage,” there was hell to pay. And the favorite punch(ing) line: “You need to buy into the vision.”
“We’ve been spending some time rethinking our organization’s vision,” John said.
“Why is that?”
“Because we need a better way of communicating to the public and to our people the essence of why we’re here.”
May I offer a polite suggestion? (If not, I’ll be happy to offer a rude one.)
Before you start planning or pontificating on what you, somebody else, or the organization “needs,” don’t you think it would be a good idea to have a clear definition of “need?”
And before you merge onto the leadership freeway, teeming with thousands of commuters headed, they say, in the direction of their “vision,” don’t you think you need to have a grasp on what a vision actually is? [click to continue…]
The Dream
Somewhere in the deepest places of your heart, however old and tired or fresh and alive it may seem, there lurks The Dream. Rooted in who or what you believe to be true, grounded in what you are most passionate about, The Dream is your ideal sense of beauty, happiness, and ultimate contentment.
For many people, The Dream is so patently obvious or so magically impossible, they hardly think about it, much less discuss it. For others, The Dream is tantamount to heaven, so they assume that the only joy here is preparing for life there, after death.
Let me be clear. “God has prepared things for those who love him that no eye has seen, or ear has heard, or that haven’t crossed the mind of any human being” (1 Corinthians 2:9, CEB). But in setting your heart toward home, He has given you a sense of life as it ought to be… as it can be. It may seem impossible this side of heaven…
Nevertheless, The Dream is there.
And you are here.
And in between are the Distance and the Spaces.
The Spaces are those markers and milestones that speak of the progress you have made in the direction of The Dream.
The Distance is the ruthless, unyielding set of facts, measurements and rules that, apart from God’s grace, show us just how far we have to go. [click to continue…]
I have a pretty high tolerance for clutter.
Until I don’t.
Can you relate?
If you can, you’re probably what the Myers-Briggs people call Perceiving. If you can’t, and the very idea of leaving stuff out in case you need it a month from now is deeply disturbing, you’re Judging (not judgmental – that’s a different animal).
The problem with being a clutterbug “P” like me is that the items on my schedule or the stuff on my desk start to accumulate until productivity-wise, it feels as though I’m in quicksand. And then I just want it all gone.
Not organized. Not streamlined. Not prioritized. O.U.T.
What’s true in life is true also in leadership. If you could imagine the whole sphere of your leadership activity – relationships, meetings, communication, conflict resolution, vision, more meetings, planning, etc. – as items on a desktop, what would your “desk” look like? And if you could compare your “desk” with the “desks” of others in your team or organization, how full is theirs? And not to stretch the metaphor too much, let me add that wishing for a bigger “desk” is probably not going to solve the problem.
In leadership as in life, things have a way of accumulating. But you don’t have to surrender to clutter creep. Here are seven ways to redirect your leadership T.R.A.F.F.I.C. and in the process free up more time to focus on those areas where you are indispensable: [click to continue…]
Next time you make an appointment with me, I’ll just expect you to show up early! Boy, was that a quick surprise! But I’ll take that kind of surprise any day.
We welcomed you into the world on Wednesday, September 18, just two days after your Great Grandpaw turned 76 years old. “We” is a relative term, however, and this relative didn’t get to make it until Friday. But that surprise one-of-a-kind voice you heard while you were still in the hospital? Yep. That was Grammy.
That’s about all I know to say about that.
You were born into a family that absolutely adores children. You were wanted. Anticipated. Prayed for. And delighted in… long before you were ever born.
You big brother Jackson is already crazy about you. He loves to watch you sleep, hold you (with a little help), and pat you while you’re sleeping. He’s both tenderhearted and brilliant – I can’t think of a better big brother for you.
Your parents are pretty amazing people themselves. [click to continue…]
Wanna get away? Want some great in-flight entertainment? Just take a trip with your favorite three-year-old. And try making a list of all the questions you hear. Here, hot off the press, is a partial sampler from a flight we took this past Friday.
