this is ridiculous

"This is ridiculous."

There's something about the growth that can take place in an environment of need or tension. You've experienced this when you look at a situation that seems backward, be it spiritually, financially, relationally or otherwise. You scan things over, and say three words - "This is ridiculous."

The real catch? Those three words actually mean one of two things:

• "This is ridiculous. I need to personally step up and make this better."
• "This is ridiculous. I'm going to quit, and I don't care what that means."

We've all had both of those reactions toward something in life. The former can cause a break-through that we didn't know were possible. The latter pulls us out of situations where we fear break-downs.

We're often blind to our short-sightedness in both options, sometimes stepping out of things too quickly or rushing in without a wise plan.

It's why you and I need to be devoted to leaning into God more than our own ideas. The key word in that idea, by the way, is "devoted." His wisdom must always trump our feelings - even if we'd rather live by our feelings and assume He's "with" us.

I tried challenging someone recently on a blind spot. The response? "I'm fine. God is with me and I'll figure it out." It was a defense mechanism that used spiritual language - it was meant to shut down the awkwardness of being confronted versus really open up and hear something that the person didn't want to hear.

Do you want to more be "with God" and His ideas on life... or do you more want God to be "with you" and your ideas on life?
 
It's crazy that we'd even consider the latter when we have the option of the former.

This is ridiculous.

"Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the LORD your God." (1 Chronicles 22:19a)

the Land of In-Between

One of the most difficult places to be is "in-between."

It's not just the emotions you experience while in it... angst that is as random and intentional as standing in a global rainstorm you feel is exclusively directed at your face.

The real issue is that you're close enough to what you let go of that you're constantly tempted to swing back in that direction... because you're not feeling full released into what's in front of you to the point where not living backward makes sense.

If that makes sense.

And I imagine it does.

"I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:14)

good deeds can distract you from God

It's noble to want to do something for God.

It can also be a distraction.

Perhaps Tim Hansel put it best in "You Gotta Keep Dancing"

“We may desire to bring to the Lord our perfect work. We would like to point, when all our work is done, to the beautiful ripened grain, and the bound-up sheaves.

And yet the Lord frustrates our plans, shatters our purposes and lets us see the wreck of all of our hopes, breaks the beautiful structure we thought we were building and catches us up in His arms and whispers to us,

‘It’s not your work I wanted, but you.’”

Good deeds... can actually distract you from God.

We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags.(Isaiah 64:6)

becoming a true anomaly

"You haven't answered my question."

"Quite right. Interesting. That was quicker than the others."

Something happened this week that reminded me of a pivotal scene in the movie Matrix: Reloaded. The protagonist "Neo" finally meets the hidden antagonist behind all the events he (and others) have experienced. This "Architect" reveals that Neo is an anomaly to a mathematical matrix/world he has constructed for humanity to mentally live in.

Yes, this movie stunk compared to the original... but that's not my point.

Behind Neo are a number of monitors that represent the potential reactions the Architect has calculated Neo might make to everything he says.The antagonist is mapping without emotion the variety of emotions he is convinced Neo might experience and reply back with. Such knowledge is both intimate and cold - it requires proximity to know a person, but denies the ability of that person to grow and surprise you.

What prompted this was the realization of how I am reacting differently to something this week than I would have even a year ago.

I hope that doesn't come across as anything but surprise. While I feel that the "me" a year ago would have made a good choice to this situation, the "me" today is realizing there is another option that I can take that will opens up other doors... not because it's "more correct" or "as correct" as the option one-year-ago-me would have chosen, but because different things matter to me more today.

It's as if I'm watching images of myself "behind me" while I ponder what to do with what's in front of me.

Leadership, I have learned, requires these moments if you hope to become more than a stereotype of yourself. You will (in all the right ways possible) frustrate the "architects" who try to mathematically sum you up somehow, forcing them to either acknowledge they were wrong or that you are a greater anomaly than they predicted.

But this really isn't about them... it's about you... or else you will become nothing more than an architect yourself.

You will have to set down your desire to be correct or rest in your experience/training/validation in order to actually recognize more options than your planned response. Note that I'm not talking about your first reaction - I'm referring to the deeper reply you will offer from a place of actual conviction. You won't want to suspend it because it's how you have been trained to think.

Until you do, you won't see all the images of replies you have to choose from... and will end up becoming a caricature of yourself as you do what you are absolutely convinced is correct.

You must chose - do what you think is right, or become humble enough consider and do what is truly righteous.

Maybe someday I'll actually live this verse out:

"When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me." (1 Cor 13:11)

flipping Christmas

Our church is boldly exploring the idea this month that Christmas can be flipped from what it's become to what we all know it "should" be. That concept in itself is not without controversy... some insist that the "real" way to celebrate Christmas is more about abstinence from the stereotypical stuff, while others maintain that you can buy stuff without making it all about the stuff.

The bottom line?

Christmas makes it possible for us to invert life as we know it. The birth of Jesus literally helps us discover how to flip from doubt to belief, obscurity to being blessed, separation to salvation and so much more. You really can uncover the special wonder of God's transforming love this Christmas... and you don't have to wait until December 24-25 to do it.

Sometimes it helps to flip your habits around. Try these on this week:

• Let no phone call during your work day go to voicemail. You know how when you try to reach someone and you can't ever seem to get them on the line? Over time, that subtly communicates (even if incorrect) that the other person is too important to be reached. Now flip that around... might you have something to learn here when it comes to when you answer the phone?
   
• Let every work phone call go to voicemail when you're with your family. Again, every conscious action you make communicates something unconscious to others around you. Make sure your family knows that you value them exclusively with one of the best bursts of your energy and time.
   
• Set up get-togethers with people for no reason. Ask if you can just get together to hang out. If they need more than that, tell them you just want to swap stories about what's going on in each other's lives and build your friendship. That will flip the value from "I want to meet with you to get you to do something" to "I value you as a person and friend."
  
• Wake up fifteen minutes earlier than normal and go to your "altar." There's probably somewhere in your home where you can be quiet and still before God. Worse case scenario, head into the bathroom (no, really). Intentionally give God your day, and invite Him to give you a fresh joy of knowing Him.
  
• Read every headline in your local newspaper as a prayer request. Whether things are great or bad, allow God to break your heart for your city and love it like He does.
  
• Make some new friends. It could be neighbors, co-workers or people who goes to the gym the same time that you do. Even if you just learn their names and something about them, you'll again enlarge the Story you're living in and realize God has you in their lives for a reason.
  
• Become extraordinary at hospitality. This will be easier for some versus others, but find a way to make people feel incredibly comfortable wherever you're at. Let the weird lady in line at the grocery store who wants to talk with you actually feel like you are listening to her. Giving someone your full attention may be the only moment in their day when they realize they are valuable people that God loves.
  
• Do something seasonally awesome. Volunteer to be a bell ringer outside of Wal-Mart. Go caroling in your neighborhood and pass out homemade cookies as you do. Get up on Christmas morning and pass out blankets to the homeless before you open your first gift.

What else? Do you have any ideas on how to flip Christmas around?

TGIF?

TGIF?

Just a thought - you can just aim for the next temporary buzz, or actually thank God it's Friday by finding real joy in how you live today:

• Look people in the eye, giving them all of your attention.
  It offers worth to the person.
  
• Tell the truth, even if it means you have to appear foolish.
  It fosters integrity to your life.
  
• Own a situation you should have handled differently, even if it feels "in the past" or you'd rather not acknowledge where you dropped the ball.It restores value to the relationship.
  
• Make a difference by helping restore people and things back to their original, created God-given purpose.
  It adds vision to everything you do.

Or, you know... just live for the next temporary buzz.

As for me and my household, though... I'm all in.

"Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve... but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)

clear the mechanism

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
(Lamentations 3:22-24)

Clear the mechanism.

Renew your connection with God.

This is not about ignoring the crowd and calling them "haters," because that would be too easy to do in theory yet entirely impossible to do in practice. Far too often we deny the impact we have on the crowd and the impact the crowd has on us.

Rather, we must think appropriately and soberly through the chaos. By restoring the most important Relationship in your life - the one you have with Him - you can face the world as you should, able to take the mound and make your best pitch, no matter the voices around you. Praying for you and I on this today.

a new year of new living: yes, no and maybe so - foundational priorities

On the first day of 2012, I spent some time with some of the greatest people I know and we kicked off 2012 together with a focus on one of the tougher questions - what do we say "Yes or No" to in our lives? The answer from the Bible is simple - don't put God first.

Yes, you read that right. To clarify - don't JUST put Him "first."

Often we put the Lord in the "top spot" of our lives, but we don't let Him into the "other spots" of our lives. Jesus said the most important commandment is to love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.

That means God isn't supposed to just sit at the top of our lives like a cherry, but is the spoon by which we eat the whole sundae of life.

If you aren't sure of the difference, here are a few thoughts:

• Making money: "Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops." (Proverbs 3:9)
• God is your cherry: "Look at this money I made! What do I feel comfortable doing with it?"
• God is your spoon: "Look at the money God blessed me with! Lord, how do you want me to use it, even if it's uncomfortable?"
  
  
• Chores: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." (Philippians 2:3)
• God is your cherry: "I’m SO sick of doing all this work for everyone else. When will someone serve me? My life is so exhausting. God, give me a break!"
• God is your spoon:  "God, these chores are difficult. I don't want it to get to me, so thanks for giving me these responsibilities and the people who are blessed by what I do. Help me have a better perspective. Use my work to help You let others know they're loved."
  
• Study/school: "The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge;the ears of the wise seek it out." (Proverbs 18:15)
• God is your cherry: "I’ll never use this information in life. It’s worthless to spend any real time on it, so I'll do the bare minimum and that's all. God, get me through this."
  
• God is your spoon: "I have no clue why any of this matters, but... I'll give it my best. Who knows - maybe what seems purposeless to me can be used down the road for something purposeful. Lord, I’ll honor You in this."
  
• Family time: "These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)
• God is your cherry:  "My family time is our time. We’ll watch what we want to watch, go where we want to go, and do what we want to do. Besides, it's a losing battle to try anything different. Everyone needs time to do whatever they want to do without feeling judged or guilty."
  
• God is your spoon: "I'm going to make sure our family doesn’t turn inward, even if I'm the only one in the home who feels this way. I will lead my household to enjoy and seek God in our time leisure time."
  
  
• Health/Beauty: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
• God is your cherry: "My body is my body. It doesn't matter what I put in it or on it. I'm going to show it off - whether it's by how much I can put into it or by how fit I can get."
  
• God is your spoon: "Modesty matters. I don't need to boast or get showy about my health, nor do I need to neglect it. This is the only body I have on this side of heaven. God, how can I honor You with it?"
  
  
• Friendships: "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." (Proverbs 27:17, Matthew 59)
• God is your cherry: "My friends are who they are. I'm not going to make things awkward by challenging them because they'll just get angry and bite my head off... especially if it involves two of my friends who aren't at peace with each other.”
  
• God is your spoon: "What's happening in and to my friends is my concern. I'll be a peacemaker who makes sure people I care about grow and work out anything awkward between them and others."
  
  
• Fun/hobbies: "Then Jesus said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.'" (Mark 2:27)
• God is your cherry: "I'll work hard, and then maybe I’ll rest. Or maybe I'll make life all about rest and not about work. Either way, it's my decision - and nobody better criticize for me for how I spend time and money on my favorite hobbies, sport/team or how I decorate."
  
• God is your spoon:  "God, thanks for loving me and commanding me to take a day every week for Sabbath. I don't want to just rest - I want to be restored to You. So I'm kneeling my life to you on that day and every day, including how I use the hobbies that bring me life. Help me to find fun things that don't distract me from You or others, but build those relationships."
  
  
• Faith: "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:33)
• God is your cherry: "God, bless me."
  
• God is your spoon: "God, how can I bless You?"

Of course, we're not perfect in how these tensions play out. The question is if we’ll use that as an excuse or as grace to make things right.

Keeping God more than “first” but “first in everything” opens up a new kind of freedom, for we better know what to say yes and no to beyond our moods. You will begin to do more than what you feel like doing, including the things that need to happen.

Take a look again at the list above - which ones are you most able to take a step of growth in today by surrendering to him in the areas you've been holding back?

"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength... Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31)

death or life

Both the hummingbird and the vulture fly over our nation's deserts.

Vultures seek rotting meat, because that is what they instinctively look for. They are satisfied with that diet.

Hummingbirds ignore the smelly flesh of dead animals. Instead, they look for the colorful blossoms of desert plants. They thrive on this nutrition.

Vultures live on what was. They live on the past. They fill themselves with what is dead and gone.

Hummingbirds live on what is. They seek new life. They fill themselves with freshness and life.

The real point in all of this is that each bird finds what it is looking for... death or life.

Sound familiar?

See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (Deuteronomy 30:15-20)