when your i.q. replaces your q's

Have you ever noticed how easy it is for us as people to live our lives amazed at our own brilliance, never letting anyone speak truth and hard love into us?  Rather than asking new questions that might reverse old conclusions, some people live in the comfort that they can't possibly be wrong.

This honestly breaks my heart... for a teachable spirit is more useful in life than an arrogant one. It creates bridges instead of fences; it invites wisdom versus arrogance.

Of course, the second I think I have this right in my own life means I've crossed that very line.

Quite the intriguing tension.

On which side will you tend to live?

Some truths will be learned by foresight and revelation; some truths will be learned by hindsight and tribulation. Most of the time, you choose the path... but it requires humility and a teachable spirit versus arrogance and a sense that you're wiser than everyone else.

Which will you typically run with?

a reality check regarding young men and their impact on young women

Here is piece of an interview from Relevant Magazine.with Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill church in Seattle. Take note of this particular gut-wrenching slice regarding young men in our culture and the way their auto-pilot lives impact young women:

You’ve talked a lot about twentysomethings today living in a sort of extended adolescence. Why do you think that is?

I think, in particular, it’s young men. Perhaps to some degree it is young women as well, but we’re finding more women are getting better grades, more women are graduating high school, more women are graduating college, more women are buying homes, more women are doing things that are more adult and responsible. We’ve created this. It’s a sociological category. It used to be you go from “boy” to “man,” and now you go from “boy” to “guy” to “man.” There is this whole new creation of a “guy.”

It’s just extended adolescence, where 20s, 30s, sometimes even in his 40s, he doesn’t really want to get married, doesn’t really want to have kids, doesn’t really want to pursue a career. He has a lot of hobbies, got a lot of buddies, watches a lot of porn, gambles, has a lot of fun, maybe plays in some band or is in a guild of World of Warcraft, or something ridiculous like that. And they’ve even got little [mottos] like, “It’s all good” and, “Bros before hos.” It’s just this whole adolescent, juvenile culture. Kind of the Adam Sandler-esque view of life, and there is this whole genre of comedy movies built around these kind of inept, irresponsible, immature guys, and I think part of the problem is, as well, that the Church in large part has accommodated that.

Those guys tend not to go to church. If those guys do show up at church, it’s usually just to find a couple of gals to break the commandments with. And the Church doesn’t really know what to do with them, so the least likely person in America to go to church is a guy in his 20s who is single. Without knowing what to do with those guys, they commit crimes, they get women pregnant, they’re a drain on social services, they don’t raise their kids, they don’t contribute to church, they’re not getting ready to lead the next generation. I’d say it’s nothing short of a crisis, it’s a real problem.

What do you think has created this “guy” phenomenon?

Part of it is the unintended consequences of divorce. Forty percent of kids go to bed at night without a father. Not to be disparaging toward single moms, but if you’re a single mom and you’re working 60 hours a week, and you’ve got a boy, and he’s home all by himself with no parents and no dad, he’s just going to be hanging out with his buddies, feeding himself pizza rolls.

The number one consumer of online pornography is 12- to 17-year-old boys. What that means is he’s home eating junk food, drinking Monster energy drinks, downloading porn, masturbating and screwing around with his friends. That really doesn’t prepare you for responsible adulthood. That’s a really sad picture, especially if you’re a single gal hoping to get married someday. You’re like: “Seriously, that’s the candidate pool? You’ve got to be kidding me.” That’s why 41 percent of births right now are to unmarried women. A lot of women have decided: “I’m never going to find a guy who is actually dependable and responsible to have a life with. So I’ll just get a career and have a baby and just intentionally be a single mother because there are no guys worth spending life with.”

september 11: opinion versus compassion

"I am troubled by the fact that this coming Saturday, September 11, our focus will be turned from an event that altered the course of history to a publicity-driven clergyman in Gainesville, Florida, and a location two blocks from "Ground Zero" that may or may not become the site of a Muslim mosque... Sure, in both cases, they most likely have the right to do what they propose, but why...?" - H.B. London

Every one has an opinion about this, and I'm not writing this post to stir up more.

It's been argued that much of the ruin in this world has come about by religious people.  I wouldn't disagree. I'd also add that plenty of agnostics and atheists have left a bad mark in history as well.

Of course, that's limited logic.  After all, great advances in the world have come about through those who authentically walk with God.  Likewise, well meaning agnostics and atheists have contributed to the flow of His will as well without even believing in Him.

Is that really the issue or argument of this moment, though?

Cross rises from the rubble of World Trade Center

I am spending a few moments here to more remind us all of what it means to the 3 out of 10 Americans who personally know someone who died during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

An empty chair around a dinner table.

A once real relationship with someone who is now a memory.

A medicine chest that hasn't been altered in nine years because "that's the way he/she left it."

A young child who is now nine years older and without his/her parent(s).

Perhaps we can keep talking about book burning or mosque building, but I'd argue the best thing we can do right now is to watch archived footage of that day, letting the chaos of that moment wreck us again.  And to not move on to quickly but to consider how ruined we would be if those around us were suddenly gone from such tragedy.  And as we are hypothetically hit by that, to then extend true compassion and prayers to those around us whose real tragedy we're ignoring with publicity-driven stories.

Then... and only then... after your heart has reengaged on this level... then let's enter into September 11th.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF_khJV6a3E

Here's something I pieced together just days after that happened.  I hope it serves you in remembering what the real issue is.

becoming a connector

We all see dots in this world that seem disconnected.  It's because they are... inside of us, around us, and between us.

A "Connector" is someone who steps up to this opportunity.

Someone who takes the seemingly ordinary and helps people see the extraordinary in them... to help those who are asleep in their own indifference to wake up to a deeper reality than what they've perceived... to see the fingerprints of God in a world full of fig leaves that cover Him up.

The secret of being a "Connector" in life, home, family, friends, church: Letting God shift what is happening in you so you can shift the momentum of what’s happening around you through the abilities, skills, and attitude He's placed within you.

Want to to change everything around you in a moment?

Let God change everything in you in this moment.

and now, I must pray...

I've been busy as of late, within my relationship with God, my kids, my church, and finishing writing another book.  Needless to say, I've not written much here, so I want to reclaim this discipline.

And I want to start with a prayer:

Lord,

May I become surprised this week at the true character of who You are beyond my current understanding of You...

May my wife be blessed with strength and wisdom beyond her means to discern life as she concentrates so much energy in a day on the rest of us...


May Joshua be strong and courageous; may Daniel have faith in the lion's den, may Johanna know and overflow that you are gracious...

May my family now and forever love and serve You, Lord...

May Your church that I serve break through the barriers of doubt, sin, holding back from giving, and "me-centered living" that even solid Christians get tempted by... 

May my/our faithfulness become the stuff that people talk about in our area to the level that "church" as a word gets redefined... 

May You use my voice into the community through public channels and private conversations to stir up a renewed way of thinking... 

May every place I go be left not with the memory of me but the memory of what You told someone in that moment.


And may the miracles we occasionally hear about and read about become more frequent in our midst, from renewed marriages and households to the wild supernatural stuff that can't be explained.

In Jesus' Name and for His glory, Amen.

-- Praise: God, thank You that even now as I was writing out this prayer for my wife You spoke to her and moved her to come down and talk with me with the very wisdom I was writing out in that prayer request.  Just that alone affirms my faith in You to do so much more than what I ask or imagine.  You rock.