Wow, what a Sunday. I have not cried like that in a long time, especially in public. Tom Kimmel just absolutely blew me away. God is a speaking through that man of immense talent.
Of course this is after Rick absolutely knocks the cover off the ball in his Bible Study.
No deep thoughts today, just a lot of hard work on our new house. This gives me time to reflect on where I am and where I am going. Its all good!
Tomorrow is another day with meetings, clients that don't want to step-up, blah, blah, blah. The point will be to see where God is working in all this. He is and it is just hard to see sometimes in my business.
Later
Monday, April 24, 2006
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Laughter - "God's lessons from a 1 year old"
I was playing with my 1 year old last night and we started laughing. We laughed and laughed and laughed for 20 minutes or more. It was absolutely contagious, even to the point that we would just look at one another and just start laughing. It was a glorious moment.
Later I would contemplate that 20 minutes as I was doing some thinking (discerning) about my journey to ordination. I thought about the purity of a 1 year olds laugh and how "in the moment" that child is. They have no expectations, no worries, no inner dialogue (ego) talking to them - just pure bliss. They are simply reacting to a stimulus in the simplest and purest way.
I thought about how at that moment, I had turned off all my adult noise - other thoughts simply melted away. I was focused for 20 minutes on just being in each moment laughing with my son. I was the most free that I think I have been in a long time. It brought to extraordinary levels my understanding of being in the moment with whomever you are with - being present to share God's gift of another.
I often am not present in the moment. God, through my son, had provided the most incredible lesson. One that I have tried to learn and practice many times, but do not do well - to be in the moment, focused, centered, present. To get that lesson from a 1 year old. A child who only knows the moment. What an incredible teacher he is! What a gift! What abundance as I am blessed beyond compare with teachers all around me.
So, who is the next teacher and what is the next lesson? Last night my teacher was my 1 year old, Ryan. Last week it was my friend Blair. Today, it might be a homeless person playing the guitar for change. Who has God blessed you with as a teacher today? Be present in each moment and you might just be suprised!
Later I would contemplate that 20 minutes as I was doing some thinking (discerning) about my journey to ordination. I thought about the purity of a 1 year olds laugh and how "in the moment" that child is. They have no expectations, no worries, no inner dialogue (ego) talking to them - just pure bliss. They are simply reacting to a stimulus in the simplest and purest way.
I thought about how at that moment, I had turned off all my adult noise - other thoughts simply melted away. I was focused for 20 minutes on just being in each moment laughing with my son. I was the most free that I think I have been in a long time. It brought to extraordinary levels my understanding of being in the moment with whomever you are with - being present to share God's gift of another.
I often am not present in the moment. God, through my son, had provided the most incredible lesson. One that I have tried to learn and practice many times, but do not do well - to be in the moment, focused, centered, present. To get that lesson from a 1 year old. A child who only knows the moment. What an incredible teacher he is! What a gift! What abundance as I am blessed beyond compare with teachers all around me.
So, who is the next teacher and what is the next lesson? Last night my teacher was my 1 year old, Ryan. Last week it was my friend Blair. Today, it might be a homeless person playing the guitar for change. Who has God blessed you with as a teacher today? Be present in each moment and you might just be suprised!
Monday, February 13, 2006
Abundance
I was reminded during the last couple of weeks that we are surrounded by abundance. It showed up in so many ways as to leave me in awe. It was the amazing conversation about foregiveness with our friend Blair. It was the off-handed question to a contractor that will save us thousands of dollars. It was the time spent with my 1 year old son who wanted to play peek-a-boo.
All of these things are abundance. It is not all about monetary abundance (read material wealth). It can be as simple as time with a loved one or as complex as the interaction of 5 people leading to just the right person showing up in your life at the moment you need them. If one opens oneself to this and does not set expectations around the outcome, it is incredible who or what will come into your life. I have seen this occur so many times that I know that it will happen in perfection.
Now, before anybody starts thinking that I have all this figured out and should be writing the next bestseller, let me tell you that I "forget" to trust this elemental truth all the time. My human (ego) need to feel like I am in control takes over. In fact the need to control rises in direct proportion to seriousness of the circumstances. I internalize the situation until I am about to burst and then when everything appears "lost", I give it back to God as my last desperate act. Until then I say God has it, but really I have a death grip on all of it.
This brings me back to abundance again. When I let go, the abundance that God already had me cloaked in is obvious. When I remove expectations, I see the abundance that is all around me. When I quiet my internal dialogue and slow down my busy life, abundance is there. When you truly open yourself up to God's abundance, abundance that is around you ALL the time, life becomes this amazing journey. You never know who or what will show up next. You just know that it will!
With blessings to all, good night and good luck!
All of these things are abundance. It is not all about monetary abundance (read material wealth). It can be as simple as time with a loved one or as complex as the interaction of 5 people leading to just the right person showing up in your life at the moment you need them. If one opens oneself to this and does not set expectations around the outcome, it is incredible who or what will come into your life. I have seen this occur so many times that I know that it will happen in perfection.
Now, before anybody starts thinking that I have all this figured out and should be writing the next bestseller, let me tell you that I "forget" to trust this elemental truth all the time. My human (ego) need to feel like I am in control takes over. In fact the need to control rises in direct proportion to seriousness of the circumstances. I internalize the situation until I am about to burst and then when everything appears "lost", I give it back to God as my last desperate act. Until then I say God has it, but really I have a death grip on all of it.
This brings me back to abundance again. When I let go, the abundance that God already had me cloaked in is obvious. When I remove expectations, I see the abundance that is all around me. When I quiet my internal dialogue and slow down my busy life, abundance is there. When you truly open yourself up to God's abundance, abundance that is around you ALL the time, life becomes this amazing journey. You never know who or what will show up next. You just know that it will!
With blessings to all, good night and good luck!
Friday, January 27, 2006
Warehouse
Journey now has a home! Our search for a permanent location was completed today when we signed a lease for a building that is a mix of office and warehouse space.
My feelings are mixed. On one hand, we have a place where we can worship and do many kinds of mission and service work in this world. On the other hand, we have taken another step towards attachment to material things as a driver of our faith. We will inevitably create all kinds of emotional ties to the warehouse. We will call it our own and feel that it somehow makes us more faithful. In the end, it is up to us to remember that warehouse is not imbued with any special mechanism to dispense faith. It is only a tool that God has loaned us for a time to do his work.
Next, we have to make changes to the building to make it 'suitable'. We will try very hard to make this process and its results the minimum possible to serve God's plan for us. We are not here to make this into a monument to ourselves and our pocketbooks, but to make sure the building is capable of fulfilling God's plan. I love Habitat's approach to building: to provide an affordable and well-built home to a deserving family. We would do well to remember this goal in building our own home.
I am asking all of you to join me in a prayer that our community will remember its faithful roots as it moves into the warehouse. That we stay focused on God's plans for the warehouse and not our own. That we use it as his tool.
Only time will tell how faithful we will be to God's purpose.
I will continue to blog this process as it moves forward. It will be an important, valuable, and very public lesson in church and human dynamics. I look forward to others thoughts on the warehouse, its finishout, and its use during the next year or two. It should be interesting!!!!
With blessings to all, good night and good luck!
My feelings are mixed. On one hand, we have a place where we can worship and do many kinds of mission and service work in this world. On the other hand, we have taken another step towards attachment to material things as a driver of our faith. We will inevitably create all kinds of emotional ties to the warehouse. We will call it our own and feel that it somehow makes us more faithful. In the end, it is up to us to remember that warehouse is not imbued with any special mechanism to dispense faith. It is only a tool that God has loaned us for a time to do his work.
Next, we have to make changes to the building to make it 'suitable'. We will try very hard to make this process and its results the minimum possible to serve God's plan for us. We are not here to make this into a monument to ourselves and our pocketbooks, but to make sure the building is capable of fulfilling God's plan. I love Habitat's approach to building: to provide an affordable and well-built home to a deserving family. We would do well to remember this goal in building our own home.
I am asking all of you to join me in a prayer that our community will remember its faithful roots as it moves into the warehouse. That we stay focused on God's plans for the warehouse and not our own. That we use it as his tool.
Only time will tell how faithful we will be to God's purpose.
I will continue to blog this process as it moves forward. It will be an important, valuable, and very public lesson in church and human dynamics. I look forward to others thoughts on the warehouse, its finishout, and its use during the next year or two. It should be interesting!!!!
With blessings to all, good night and good luck!
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Church Structure and ordination thoughts
I should have known that everything would go smoothly. After all the worrying, emails, and last minute discussions, we handed the election of our Minitry leaders and Shepherd's over to God (where it really had always been) and it went so smoothly. It was a reminder to me of my days on the board of the local Habitat for Humanity when we would do the same thing. Discuss, plan, worry, give to it God, and everything works out in perfection.
Now we will see how our leaders learn to trust God. The next year will be a time when our community will probably grow more in its faith then anyone can possibly imagine. It will be an amazing process to see unfold. My own Journey, I suspect, will be very similar as I work toward being ordained in our Church.
The beginning of the discernment process has already shown this to be true. I really started in prayer and contemplation about taking on this process in early December. Through the loss of a young relative, my 10 month old son having surgery, my business slowing down, and all the drama of the by-laws being completed, the warehouse being approved, and the leadership being selected, I have found that the decision to seek ordination has been strong and only grew stronger.
The new year brings new opportunities in business and selection to be a Shepherd of our church community. Along with the normal family pressures, both of these will test my intent. I will have to stay strong in my commitment to prayer, discernment, study, and listening for "God's voice" in my daily life. It is wonderful challenge to have!
To close my first entry, I want to say that I truly look forward to this challenge and the opportunity to step ever deeper into God's vision for this world. I relish the opportunity to speak with and listen to all of you throughout this process. Your input, observations, questions, comments, prayers, etc. are welcome to encourage learning and growth together. I hope that this blog will provide a lens to view more closely the growth of a new church, a new christian, and a new way to view God's work in his/her world.
With blessings to all, good night and good luck!
Now we will see how our leaders learn to trust God. The next year will be a time when our community will probably grow more in its faith then anyone can possibly imagine. It will be an amazing process to see unfold. My own Journey, I suspect, will be very similar as I work toward being ordained in our Church.
The beginning of the discernment process has already shown this to be true. I really started in prayer and contemplation about taking on this process in early December. Through the loss of a young relative, my 10 month old son having surgery, my business slowing down, and all the drama of the by-laws being completed, the warehouse being approved, and the leadership being selected, I have found that the decision to seek ordination has been strong and only grew stronger.
The new year brings new opportunities in business and selection to be a Shepherd of our church community. Along with the normal family pressures, both of these will test my intent. I will have to stay strong in my commitment to prayer, discernment, study, and listening for "God's voice" in my daily life. It is wonderful challenge to have!
To close my first entry, I want to say that I truly look forward to this challenge and the opportunity to step ever deeper into God's vision for this world. I relish the opportunity to speak with and listen to all of you throughout this process. Your input, observations, questions, comments, prayers, etc. are welcome to encourage learning and growth together. I hope that this blog will provide a lens to view more closely the growth of a new church, a new christian, and a new way to view God's work in his/her world.
With blessings to all, good night and good luck!
Friday, January 13, 2006
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