Disappointment

You know, life can really throw some curve balls at you.  We recently had some thrown at us in our quest for a new house.  It resulted in us starting our search over again and caught us scrambling to take care of some things.  The biggest is that the process became a real stressful point in our house.  Fun was nowhere to be found.

In the midst of this disappointment, I have been involved in a thing called super summer at my church.  This is like going to youth camp, but without the smelly cabins, group showers, and bug juice (kool aid for those wondering what bug juices is).  As I sat listening and engaging in worship (Aaron Loy led worship, very awesome) I realized the only place I was finding peace, the only place I could lay it all down was when my focus was on Him, when the songs and spirit in the room took me beyond my temporal issues, and I entered the presence of the King of Kings.

Last night we sang…

I’m trading my sorrows; I’m trading my pain; I’m laying them down for the joy of the Lord.

No matter what life is throwing your way, the disappointments, unmet expectations, maybe a human being let you down, or you feel worthless, you can lay it down.  You can choose to have Joy in the midst of it, or you can let it get the best of you.

I choose joy!!

Haiti - Part 3, The Final Chapter

I have a closing thought on the Haiti trip.  Why is it so much easier to share our faith when we go on a mission trip to a far away land, than it is right here where we live?  I remember being in Haiti and having no trouble saying to some stranger - Jesus Loves You.  Yet, as I go about life at home, I never say that to anyone.  Is it the busyness of life that blocks my thoughts about Christ, is it fear of the response, what is the problem.  I have no reservations about telling the world how much I love my wife, daughter, and even my dog.  I just have a hard time exclaiming how much I love the Jesus, the one that should truly matter way above all else.

I think that we are so focused on our self in our daily lives, we simply forget that there is more going on around us, that God is at work, that he deserves our undivided attention, and that it breaks His heart when we don’t see him, and don’t talk about him.  When you are on a mission trip, that is your primary focus, when we are at home we are focused on everything but Him. 

What if every day we woke up in the morning and decided to have the mind set like we are on a mission trip.  We would spend time with God getting ready, we would pray and ask for His protection and direction, then we would set out on our day telling people about Him all along the way.  Our focus would be on Him, not on all our problems.  Imagine what a life that would be, what a blessed life!  I challenge you to put your eyes on Him, encourage others today with some simple words - Jesus Loves You - and see what happens.

I am so thankful for my trip to Haiti.  I learned more than I ever thought I could.  God is awesome, He is at work all around the world and right here in my life.

Haiti - Part 2

It has been a crazy week getting back into the swing of life in the grand USA.  I missed alot of things about home while I was gone - ESPN, my bed, and mostly my little girl.  I also miss alot about Haiti right now - no cell phone, email, and a simpler life.

Something crazy happens when you unplug for a week.  It is hard to do that anywhere in our country because you almost always have a mobile phone signal.  When you unplug you are not distracted, you can really focus on more important things, you have fewer worries about work, even stuff you have to get done around the house, balancing your checkbook, or if the Cubs are winning or not.  You just can’t check on that stuff.

One thing that I began to focus on while I was in Haiti was my family.  God really had me look at the relationship I have with my wife.  I realized that we have been under a lot of stress.  This year has been a trying one for our church in many ways that have weighed very heavily on us and have monopolized our conversation.  We have been trying to sell our house for the past 3 months with hopes of moving to a new one, and no bites yet.  This also impacts where our daughter will go to school, and a month out from the start date we have no idea.  I simply had been blinded by all of lifes stuff and have failed to care about our relationship.  So, God has shown me the importance of her and my daughter and how they need to become more important than anything else on this planet to me.

I have begun the journey to become a better husband, a journey that will probably never end.  Thank you Haiti for the opportunity to unplug and evaluate life at home.

Haiti - Part 1

I was in Haiti last week on a mission trip.  I am calling this part 1 because I know I will have more to share about Haiti as I continue to process the things we saw and the lessons learned.  God is awesome and it is so interesting to see him at work in other parts of the world, other cultures, and with people who speak a different language.  No matter what the language, a love for God and our worship of him is the same language, we saw that a lot in Haiti.

Lesson #1 - Those of us who live in the US are spoiled brats.  We have so much at our disposal, our government has provided systems, we have electricity, phones, Internet, cable and satellite TV in HD, movie theaters, restaruants, and we take vacations to beatiful places.  We eat whatever we want whenever we want, we have nice roads, big houses, cars, boats, and healthy families.  We don’t really have much to worry about, we are a blessed nation.  Because of the over abundance, our faith is so weak.  We may say we have strong faith, even believe it, but in reality, we don’t - at least not compared to the people of Haiti.

Lesson #2 - In many parts of the world, we can do so much with so little.  A bag of rice in Haiti costs $42 and can feed 6 families for a month.  I spent $38 just on dinner with my family last night.  Puts things in perspective doesn’t it.  We sponsor a young boy named Wednell for $35 per month through New Missions (www.newmissions.org) and that provides this boy an education, one meal per day at school, uniforms, and medical care for his whole family.  I pay $60 per week to send my daughter to 2 days of summer day camp.  This trip has changed how I spend money and what is important to me.  I hope that only continues to change as time goes by.

Challenge:  What can you do?  It has been said many times that you don’t need to go to the mission field to make an impact, in fact many people give money and gifts to help families all over the world through organizations like New Missions.  What are you doing?  Can you give up $1 per day to make a differnece in one kids life?  Chad Irwin is a friend of mine who went on the trip made a comment something like this - “You want to help everyone you see, but you can’t…. You can change the life of one person, and that will begin to change the lives of everyone..”  Very loose quote, but that is the spirit of it.  What are you doing with all the blessings you have been given.

Real Faith

I have been on a journey learning what it means to really have Faith. Have you ever really looked in the Bible at people who had great faith? One that really jumps out to me is Elijah. Can you imagine having the kind of faith that calls fire from heaven? Are you in tune with God that much that your faith is so strong to call fire from heaven and burn up wet rocks? This challenges me big time.

Most of us have a measure of faith, we pray and trust that God hears and will answer in some way. I have not met many people, if any, that have the kind of Faith that Elijah has. I wonder why? Probably in our society, we have so few needs. I don’t think I have ever missed a meal because there was no food, or went a night with out a bed, unless it was my choice. I have had some form of income since I was 14 years old, so there has always been money around. We are not desperate for anything, so our faith is honestly very weak.

I wonder what a life would look like today that had the faith like Elijah? How many of us choose a job because of the amount of salary? We may say it is God’s will for us to be in the place we work, and it very well may be. God does bless us by meeting our physical needs, so I am not against a good salary. I just wonder how often we put that as the first priority when making life decisions. What if we were able to have the faith that truly said whatever God, whatever you want me to do, whenever you want me to do it, wherever you need me to be to do your work. Trusting that God would take care of the mortgage, electric bill, and that he would feed us.

The discples followed Christ and I don’t recall reading anywhere about the salary they got for it. They all had skills that Jesus wanted to use in his ministry from fishermen to doctors, he used them, yet he did not give them a weekly paycheck. He did meet ALL of thier needs, and I am sure even took care of their families, who many of them left in order to follow Christ.

I still cannot imagine a life with this kind of Faith, but I want too. I want to get up in the morning and say - God, what do you want me to do today - and hear Him and obey. I want to live a life of crazy faith… do you?

God.. We want to sell our house

We have been trying to sell our house for the past 2 months. We thought, I guess like everyone does, that our house would sell fast. We added all the bells and whistles - hard wood floors, granite counters, etc thinking that the first person to walk through the door would buy it up.

Well, we have had about 25 showings, but not one offer. It is easy to get impatient, but we are learning some valuable lessons.

1. God is in control - does he want us to move? I don’t honestly know, but I am now asking that God puts us where he wants us, even if that means we are already there. I have realized that God does have a plan, and we might already be living in the center of it at our current residance.

2. Do not let it get you down - When you trust in God, he takes the pressure. You can honestly let go of whatever you holding on to when you trust the outcome is going to be the best thing for you in the long run. I now trust him with this area of my life, no matter the outcome.

3. Get on the same page with your family - we both want to sell our house for a number of reasons. We are getting on the same page when it comes to trusting God with the outcome, that is a very good thing. It will strengthen our relationship.

I am not sure what God’s plan is, but I believe it will be clear in the next 30 days what He plans to do with our residance. I trust Him and can honestly say I am happy with the outcome. We do not have to sell our house, we are not moving anywhere, just across town. We will wait patiently, praying for His Perfect will to be accomplished in us.

Network Marketing - Whats all the fuss??

I recently started a side business. The cost was low, compared to other businesses. My investment was less than $1,000. The business model is what you call Network Marketing, something almost everyone in the world knows about because so many of them have burned us, we have tried them, they promised quick riches, and then dashed our dreams on the rocks - because there was nothing quick about it, and we didn’t get rich. To top it off, we may have even lost friends because they made promises that were never delivered, or maybe we just didn’t work hard enough to make it work.

Lets get a quick reality check here. I have never made money at anything easy, everything takes effort, but there is some great business sense to network marketing. If you have ever been a sales manager - you were very much like a network marketer. You sold stuff, and had some people who worked under your leadership who sold stuff. You helped them (if you were a good sales manager) and part of your pay was based on how well they did. Sounds alot like network marketing. How they all work is you find people you enjoy hanging out with, invite them to join you in the business, you help them, they help others, and if you stick with it for awhile, you all enjoy success with a second and sometimes primary income. Your friends will thank you for sharing the business opportunity with them. Nothing about it is easy, nothing about it is dishonest, it is what it is. If you were going to start a business in a traditional manner, you would spend thousands more building it, of course needs are based on what the business is, and rewards would be there based on the effort put into it.

So, I recommend to the world, please do not let past experiences deter you from what could be a great, honest business opportunity that could impact your family in many positive ways. Financial is always great no matter what your goals, and depending on the product (mine is a thing called Healthy Chocolate), it could even give you something greater than financial reward - good health.

Take a chance, trust again, ask lots of questions, and go for it!!!

Students on fire

I was truly inspired today. I just came from a chapel service at LifeWay that featured a youth group choir called Chi Alpha from Pinelake Church in Pinelake, MS. 126 students in worship, all of them completely engaged in the songs they were singing. It was awesome to see students 13-18 year olds worshiping God with out any boundries, hands raised, moving with their spirit in total worship, leading us to the presence of Christ.

What a challenge, what a testament to our Great God. These are students who are making their faith known, students who get it, who understand their faith.

Their youth pastor spoke about being radical with our faith, being dangerous. As I sat and listened, sometimes cried at how awesome the morning was, I just thought today of the thousands of people who will hear about Jesus, some have already heard, some will be hearing for the first time. God is moving across our world. I thought of my friend Mike who is on a trip to Hong Kong telling people his story of God’s grace and redemption. We pray for revival and want to see some awesome work in our midst, and He is doing it all over the place. Sometimes in moments like I experienced today, some in jungles of the amazon or in places the word of God has not reached yet. God is on the move, and I am so excited to see Him work.

Let us all feel desperate for Him. I need Him and I want to see him move in my life, in my church, in the city and world I live in. To God be all the Glory.

Focus

I was at an event last week and had alot on my mind. I had a bill I needed to get online and pay, my wife and I had a fight a few days earlier that I was still working out in my mind, I was thinking about my church that is in turmoil, just so many things were going through my thoughts. All of this during worship time.

God spoke to me, almost audibly - why can’t you just put your worries aside for a few minutes and worship me?

I was convicted and thought about how many times I was singing to him in a corporate worship time, yet my thoughts were focused on myself, my problems, my worries, my issues rather than focusing on God, just to focus on Him, not because I wanted something from Him, but because I love Him.

Think about Him for a change, and get the focus of myself. That is my goal!!

Addicted To Jesus

The other day I was riding in the car with my almost 6 year old daughter and she blurts out some words that I was so happy to hear, but also challenged me. She said - Daddy, I am addicted to Jesus. I am not even sure she knows what addicted means, but what an awesome testimony. The first thing I did was thank God that my daughter feels such love for Him, secondly, I had to ask myself the question - am I addicted to Jesus?

I am reading a book by John Piper - Don’t Waste Your Life. I recommend it if you want your life to change, if you don’t then stay far away from it. I am in a guys group each week and together we are on a journey through this and each week we sit there and shake our heads thinking about how much time and effort we waste not being addicted to Jesus.

What does some addicted to Jesus look like? Well, what do drug addicts, and alcholoics look like, they appear to not be able to function without their addiction. There is a constant longing for more, and when you try to get over it, it makes you sick. To be addicted to Jesus means you can’t live without him, you have such a longing to spend time with Him, and if you were to try to get over it, you would miss it so much, it pulls you back in.

I want to be addicted, but honestly I am not. My little girl may have said those words to simply get me to think - it worked.