Live Intentionally. Monday, July 13. 2015.

I’m an athlete.

This statement has become real to me since I haven't been able to run.

I’ve been injured since mid-May.

This means that my running 50 miles a week dwindled to nothing.

Now, it’s back on the rise…8 miles last week! Woohoo!

But as I’m writing this,

I have yet another new pain in my foot.

During this time of no running

and the school year coming to an end,

I’ve had a lot of free time.

A lot.

Free time that I planned on using as running time.

But I can’t run.

And I still have this free time.

Athletes are adrenaline junkies.

It’s our addiction.

Our drug of choice.

I don’t do well with so much free time.

No new goal or new height or new distance or new pace.

I feel so blah.

Like I am just going through the motions.

No purpose.

Day in and day out.

Focusing on the things ahead

and not paying attention to all that is in between.

Only to find that the thing I was looking towards isn’t nearly as great as I had hoped.

Along with that disappointment,

is the loss of all the sacred time from here

to the not-so-great thing looked forward to.

Intent.

It’s a word that has been on my heart lately.

Intend.

Intention.

Intentionally.

I get the feeling that I am supposed to apply these words to my life right now.

But I am still learning how exactly to do that.

My current goal is to

live with intention.

Live intentionally.

Be intentional.

I don’t know exactly what those phrases mean yet,

but I am learning.

I think our lives are too precious to be wasted.

We are meant for more than

drowning in an ice-cream-pint-pity-party

or getting our Netflix-fix.

Our lives have meaning.

They have a purpose.

It is up to us to seek out that purpose.

To find the reason.  

I haven’t been doing this ‘living with intent’ thing for long.

I’ve spent most of my time being injured dwelling on the negative.

It’s only been recently that I have tried to change my mindset

but even still, I screw it up multiple times a day.

Today for example.

I’ve failed so much more than I will even begin to admit.

I’m not a pro,

but I’m trying.

I certainly know that there is a difference between sitting on the couch all day

or going out and making the most of the day I’ve been blessed with.

I’m learning that there is a difference between doing something

and doing that something with grace.

I’m figuring out that attitude accounts for much of how we go about our days.   

I’m curious to know how the world would change if we all lived with intent.

I intend to live.

I intend to live well.

I choose to live intentionally.

I trust that though life is hard,

we have a God who intends to see us through,

even in the darkest of times. 

Leadership 101. Wednesday, June 10. 2015.

“Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does He give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does He give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does He give them opportunities to love each other?”

Morgan Freeman as God in Evan Almighty

Often, things don’t come in the pretty little packages that we imagine they would.

Patience doesn’t come in the form of patience

but rather,

the opportunities to be patient.

Courage doesn’t come in the form of courage,

but rather,

the opportunities to be courageous.

Love doesn’t come in the form of love,

but rather,

the opportunities to show love.

Leadership doesn’t come in the form of leading,

but rather,

the opportunities to be a servant.

We often think that leadership says,

“I am above you.

You are below me.

Do as I say.

And by the way,

you’re doing everything wrong”.

We lead with our egos.

This hurts people.

It puts people in crappy positions.

And they have to make decisions that they don’t want to make.

And then we aren’t raising effective leaders.

We put people down when our egos are inflamed.

Ego engulfs us

and leaves no room for others.

Ego extinguishes others’ spirits.

I’m not the best leader

but I do know the most important part of leadership.

Service.

That there is Leadership 101.

You just need one word.

Service.

Don’t worry about the leading.

Just serve.

The leading will fall into place.

True leadership asks,

“How can I help you?

How can I ensure that you are being the best you?

Where can I serve alongside you?

What are your goals, dreams, and aspirations?

How can we get there?

What can I do to be a better leader?”

Leading through service elevates the lives of others.

There is no ego.

Just a servant’s heart.

A heart humble enough to let others’ spirits grow.

A heart wise enough to know that,

just because someone else's spirit is illuminated,

does not take away the light from your spirit.  

My friend Steve Schultz put it this way:

Lead. Love. Elevate.

Brilliant.

Succinct.

Spot-on.

“The world needs good leaders.”

Many people have said this.

Most recently,

I heard this from someone who is far from a good leader.

I wanted to scoff.

Actually,

I think I did.

And then I gossiped about it later on,

when I should have taken it as an opportunity.

An opportunity to be a good leader.

I missed it.

But there’s tomorrow.

And the next day.

And the day after that.

His mercies are new each morning.

His graces abound each sunrise.

So too should ours.

Let us lead as Jesus did.

Through love.

Lead. Love. Elevate.  

Prison Praise and Worship. Tuesday, May 5. 2015.

After they were badly beaten,

chained,

and thrown into the deepest depths of prison,

Paul and Silas prayed.

They praised.

They worshiped.

A God so good,

so strong,

who was for them in every which way,

who allowed them to be beat, chained, and imprisoned.

A time for prayer?

What about time for questioning,

time for doubt,

time for despair,

time for tears,

time for giving up,

time for feeling like dying?

But Paul and Silas found not time for those things.

They saw it fit to pray.

And praise.

And worship.

A good, good God.

And ironically,

their prayer was not,

"Lord, GET US OUT OF HERE!"

Their prayer was a prayer concerned with telling God how good He is.

While they were bloody and bruised.

Chained.

And in prison.

Their ability to praise during suffering brought souls to Christ.

The other inmates watched in bewilderment.

There was a massive earthquake that shook the foundations

and flung open the prison gates.

The guard, seeing the open gates,

was about to kill himself for the prisoners had surely left.

But to his shock,

the prisoners were right where they were supposed to be.

Praising their good God.

And the guard and his whole family came to believe.

So often we find ourselves bound in chains

and thrown into the deepest depths of prison.

Our prisons are different.

They might come in the form of addictions,

work,

family,

friends,

depression,

anger,

sorrow.

Whatever the prison,

we usually forget to praise.

If we do pray,

the prayer is usually,

"Lord, please free me from this prison".

In the depths of the prison walls,

our focus should be not on ourselves

but on Christ.

Where can we find Christ?

Yes, even here, in our prison.

When in prison,

the objective should not be,

"How can I get out?"

but rather,

"How can I praise Jesus?

How can I enthrone Him?

How can I bring glory and fame to His name?"

How radically different than our normal method.

Praise and worship in prison.

You know not who your cell mates are.

You know not the groundskeeper or the guard.

You know not who is watching.

You know not who you are witnessing to.

Even in your prison.

Even in your darkest place.

Even in your pain.

There is joy,

there is hope,

to be found.

Even there.

Fish Tales. Wednesday, March 25. 2015. Lent.

I like to try and have quality conversations with my students.

And sometimes that high quality conversations include

play-by-plays of scenes from Finding Nemo.

Good stuff.

Yesterday we were talking about the part where

Marlin and Dory end up on the tongue of a whale.

Apparently, if you're a fish, whale taste buds are nice and bouncy.

Dory claimed to speak whale

and had a nice conversation with the whale that sounded a lot like a mooing cow.

While Marlin was intent on getting out of that whale's mouth

so that he could continue on his journey to find his son.

These two unlikely friends had completely different attitudes about their situation.

As Dory continues to converse,

the whale lifts his tongue

and the two fish hang on to those taste buds for dear life so as to not get swallowed.

Finally,

Dory relays what the whale said,

only, she can't quite understand him.

She proudly announces,

"He either wants a root beer floor or us to go down his throat!"

Marlin, being the sharper of the two, yells in a panic,

"Of course he wants us to go down his throat!"

And Dory lets go.

And falls down the whale’s throat.

In sheer abandonment.

Not a care in the world.  

Marlin is forced to let go and follow Dory.

Though he is reluctant, afraid, and angry.

It just so happens that Dory was right.

And not about the soda pop.

The whale did want the fish to go down his throat.

But not to eat them,

to help them.

He timed it just perfectly so that as the pair fell,

the whale shot gallons of water and two fish out of his blow hole.

The pair was once again on their way to find Marlin's son.

We are fish.

God is the whale.

Often we find ourselves in situations,

predicaments,

a rock and a hard place.

We pray and seek.

Maybe we hear an answer.

But maybe that answer is crazy.

Maybe we know in our gut.

But maybe our gut is asking for a root beer float.

Maybe we hear but we are unsure what we hear.

But maybe we hear only what we want to.

Sometimes the crazy thing is the God thing.

Sometimes the normal thing is the worldly thing.

We don't want to be the first one to let go

and drop down into the whale's throat.

Marlin thought Dory was insane.

We don't want to be labeled insane.

But look at the outcome.

Exactly what they were hoping for

and what they needed to continue their journey.

When we find ourselves in tough places,

we automatically see it as a hindrance and an interference.

But in reality,

it might be just the right stepping block,

just the right move,

just what we need.

Where are you today?

Where do you need to be?

What is the Lord saying to you?

What are you hearing?

What are you choosing to hear?

What do you need to hear?

The process may be scary.

It might be hard.

We might kick and scream.

Or we could go with complete abandonment and trust like that little blue fish.

Lessons from Acts of the Apostles. Wednesday, March 18. 2015. Lent.

I love the Acts of the Apostles.

It is so relatable,

understandable

and tangible.

It makes sense

and can so easily be related to our lives.

It reminds us that we still have this call to be witnesses to Christ.

That we have a duty to spread the Gospel.

It shows us that we are not alone in our sufferings.

Persecution began as soon as the Church did.

The Church’s first martyr, St. Stephen,

was killed in Chapter 8 of Acts.

Chapter 8!

From the get-go the Christians suffered persecution,

some even to the point of death.

I was re-reading the part that talks about St. Stephen’s martyrdom

and I am fairly certain my jaw literally dropped.

“They [the Sanhedrin] threw him [St. Stephen] out of the city and began to stone him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul….Now Saul was consenting to Stephen’s execution.” 

Acts 7:58 & 8:1

The first time read this,

my thoughts were something of the like,

‘Hm, Saul, that’s a nice name. Sounds familiar.’

Unfortunately,

I am not joking.

I must have been tired.

The second time I read it,

paying much more attention to detail,

I came to realize that Paul,

my absolute favorite author in the Bible,

was present,

and consented to,

the murder of the Church’s first martyr.

I do not know if I learned this pivotal tidbit of information before or not,

but if I did, it was nowhere to be found in my noggin.

I know that Paul persecuted Christians

but there is something that stands out about him consenting to St. Stephen’s murder.

What Paul witnessed was gross and gruesome.

No human eye should have to see what Paul saw.

No human heart should have to carry that burden.

Paul had this experience.

He was then given a choice as a result of that experience.

He could continue to support the persecution of Christians.

Or

He could support the Christians.

Ironically,

he did both,

the second option just took him quite a bit of time to get to.

Paul was a murderer.

He had blood on his hands.

He disappointed God.

He sinned.

Big time.

And?

After Paul’s conversion,

he supported the Christians.

He became a Christian.

He is one of the greatest examples of a Christian.

Ever.

God used Paul.

God used a murderer.

God used a sinner.

God wants to use you.

Pride,

lust,

lies,

fear,

weakness,

pain,

suffering,

sorrows,

ugliness.

He wants to use you despite all of that.

He was to take you, oh sinner,

and help make you one of the greatest Christians of all time.

Just like Paul.

He wants you to witness.

He wants you to help souls get to Heaven.

He wants you.

Because He loves you.

He loves you far too much to just let you sit and dwell

on the fact that you screwed up.  

He created you for a purpose

and until we break the chains,

the bondage of sin,

we won’t be able to fulfill that purpose.

He wants you.

He loves you.

And we need Him. 

The Rich Man and Lazarus. Wednesday, March 11. 2015.

Jesus said to the Pharisees: “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen

and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table.

Dogs even used to come and lick his sores. When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’ Abraham replied, ‘My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’ He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’ He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.’”

Luke 16:19-31

This was the Gospel reading from last Thursday.

This one has always stuck out to me.

If a heart can grimace,

that is exactly what mine does when I read this parable.

You can probably see it in my face too.

The rich man who had everything he could ever want,

had the opportunity to feed Lazarus.

And feed him scraps at that.

But he refused.

He would not feed the man in dire need

with even the scraps from his own table.

Lazarus had nothing.

Nothing material, no food, no riches.

But upon death,

Lazarus had everything he could ever imagine.

He gained Heaven.

He no longer had need or want of anything.

Upon the death of the rich man,

he no longer had anything but

pain, suffering, and torment.

The rich man thought that he might make a request:

he wanted Lazarus only to dip his finger in water

to cool the rich man’s burning tongue.

When I sit and think about that request,

I can only begin to imagine the pain of hell.

I’ve burnt myself a fair number of times over the years.

Immediately, I head for the sink so as to have a flow of cool water

to mask the pain.

Sure, it makes it feel better,

but it still burns terribly.

And continues to burn for a good while.

These burn experiences don’t even begin to compare to the pain in hell.

The rich man begging for just a drop of water

makes my stomach churn.

Oh the pain.

And I feel such pity for the rich man who then asks

for his brothers to be warned by Lazarus.

He believes that if a dead person comes,

then his brothers will believe.

Abraham assures the rich man that Moses and the prophets

will witness to his brothers.

The rich man says it will take someone rising from the dead

in order for his brother to repent.

Abraham responds that if the message of the prophets does not change them,

then the dead coming back to life will not change them either.

I feel so much pity for this rich man.

But how often am I this rich man?

How many times can I give and I don’t?

How many times has Jesus tried to get my attention and He can’t?

How many times have I asked for a bigger and better revelation?

Too many times.

I’d rather be Lazarus here on Earth so that I can be granted the grace of Heaven.

Here’s the poor,

the lowly,

the looked-down-upon,

the simple,

the grateful,

the God-fearing.

May we one day be granted the joy of Heaven.