You!

Tonight was interesting. I had a person who prays for jackie and I regularly and she told me: “Just be you.” The words resonated in my heart. I told Jackie, she laughed and said, oh Lord. Then tonight I got a message from a GREAT friend who lives in Nashville, and in his message he said: “Thanks for being you.” 

Gods creativity created you to be the unique you that He destined for….YOU. What makes you? what defines you? what is unique about you? who can you reach that no one else is capable of reaching? There is only one me (THANK GOD) and only one YOU. Now, JUST BE YOU.

Okay…mercy

Today I feel far away but I am pressing to get VERY close. Drama since my eyes opened with some things, but fighting to keep my perspective right. Proximity to God is difficult. Life gets in the way. The rush of people. The rush of thoughts and emotions. The need to do things, accomplishing tasks, breathing. The focus of the day should be on accomplishing more depth with Him, not more items completed on the task list or great ideas dreamed up to achieve. I understand more today why monks are monks. I am listening to this song by the Parachute band and it has made me slam the breaks on my day and to DIG WAY IN…”Your mercy saved me, mercy made me whole. Your mercy found me, your mercy found me, called me as your own.”

Who do you belong to, yourself or him?

Creativity

I often get asked about creativity. Creativity is organic. You can not turn it off and on like a switch. It comes in waves. At times you feel SUPER creative. Other times, you feel like you can not ingest oxygen. Creativity rarely comes when you expect it and is seldom something you are able to quantify.

I was talking with my friend Jay last night and we where talking about how God has created everyone so amazingly different. If the world was full of “creative people” no one would EVER be on time, ever have order, systems, or function. it would be a fun, colorful abstract world, but everyone would die. On the flip if the world was full of “analytical people” there would be no color, no spur of the moment stuff, no music…life would be like the movie, “Stranger Than Fiction” before Harold Crick starts to experience life. you get the drift. So in talking about how awesome it is that God relates to all kinds of people and he can be analytical and creative all at the same time…amazing.  

then I saw this commercial and I started trippin. THIS IS EXACTLY how I feel. This is an amazing representation of how creativity works. Yes Gwen is dope. Yes Gwen is a hottie. Yes Gwen is way creative. NO i do not like HP, i am an apple guy, but props to HP for going out of the box and actually being….CRE8TIVE. With no further ado, here is a 30 second glimpse into Gwens mind, and mine.

Col 4:5-6

conduct yourselves with wisdom toward others. making the most of the opportunity. let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt. so that you will know how you should respond to each person.

You Are…

you’re in the notes

you’re in the sound

you’re in the air

you’re in the clouds

you’re in the words

you’re in the voice

your atmosphere is more than choice

you’re in a laugh

you’re in a tear

you’re in a thought

you’re in the fear

you’re in the eyes

you’re in the smile

you’re in the life

you’re in a child

you’re in the pain

you’re in the cure

your all around and always pure

you’re in the words

you’re in the wounds

you’re in the love

you’re in this room

you cant be seen, seldom felt

you’re over whelming all my doubt

you’re the drive

you’re the passion

you’re the purpose

you’re the action

you’re the grace

you’re the fire

you’re the source of this desire

you’re the justice that seems so lost

you’re the balance

you’re the cost

you’re the love that drives the life

you’re community

you are right

you’re the widow

you’re the orphan

you’re the lost

you’re the solution

you’re the hero

you’re the mercy

you’re the peace

you’re dwelling in eternity

you’re the question

you’re the answer

you’re the wonder

you’re the master

you’re the color

you’re the breeze

you’re the rustling in the trees

you’re the moment

you’re the wonder

you’re the feeling

you’re the splendor

you’re the architect

you’re the dream

you’re the model

you’re so much more than what you seem.

Abundant Sunshine

This morning I was looking in the news paper. I was checking out the weather at different places across America. One city had this listed as the weather for today: Abundant Sunshine. How encouraging. Abundant sunshine. How often do we not have abundant sunshine in our life? Sunshine is cool. It makes plants grow, it pushes the storms away. More so, it is always there. You might not see it because the clouds are covering it, but it is there, beaming, waiting for the storm to pass so it can go back to beaming on our lives. It warms us up. Sometimes it is so radiant that it burns us. I was reading last night about the Glory of God. God’s glory is like the sun, it is always with us. Sometimes we might not be sensitive enough to catch it, see it, feel it, but it is there…even when the storms are eclipsing it from our view. Keep walking on sunshine today. I will blog again later cuz i owe you one. 

Whats your magic number

What is the number that drives you? We count all the crap in our life. What number is the threshold for quitting? What is that number for you? Okay, now that this thing has happened, that puts me at 173 bad things and I can now quit. On the flip, what is the number that makes you feel successful? Now i have 3 cars. Now I make “X” dollars. i have been “blessed” to this level, so now i am successful. the things are the bi-product of the blessing by the way. the things are not the blessing. the blessing is the grace and favor over your life. the blessing is being saved.

i think that maybe the thing we should be counting is really just the cost. God’s idea of success looks a heck of a lot different than ours does. Understand, God wants you to succeed. God does not get excited by your trials. But the bottom line is really simple, its not about you, your things, or your placement. It is about His placement. Here are some numbers that should matter to us: 7×70-the number of times we should forgive. 1-God, so if we have more than 1 in our life than we probably need to adjust. 1-(part 2) life and chance to impact the world.

there are a million more, but for now that is enough. I am trying to stop counting my own stuff and figure out what and how I get into HIS purpose for my life. What are you counting?

um….

i really want to blog tonight, but i am out of gas. LONG day. lots of meetings. Sorry. I will blog in the morning and you can catch me tomorrow. much love to all my people. i appreciate you taking the time to read this blog.  

on a very light note…beginning of the 4th….31 zip UM.

Breathe In and Breathe Out

NEW SONG by Mat Kearney. Some of you know my history with Mat. Some don’t. Mat is a good dude. Tonight Mat had his new video for a new song, Breathe In, Breathe Out, premiered on Greys Anatomy. AMAZING STUFF.  HERE IS THE VIDEO! 

Emotion as a tenderizer

During this fast my emotions have been like a roller coaster. one minute happy, the next frustrated, the next angry, the next sad…what the heck? I am a dude, i should not be having menopause! last night, i used my blog time to start praying….i prayed for a long time. it was good. i felt some things lift. So this morning i was asking a very wise man some questions about these feelings. he said that a lot of times God uses  a fast to tenderize our hearts. what a concept. our hearts get hard. we allow things, issues, people to drive us into a heard place. God uses his time with us to make us tender. during the fast i have been praying that God would break my heart for the things that break his heart. i guess that literally he is breaking my heart. i love it. it sucks. all of this at the same time….how much more tender do we need to become? i want so much to not be the focus of my own prayer, to not have it all be about me. I want it to be all about Him. He takes care of me. I need not be concerned with what HE can do for me, but rather what he wants to do WITH me. See I was not called to be blessed. I was not called to receive. Those things all will happen. I was called to be alive and make God come alive in others. I was called to be the hands and feet. this journey is  starting to take some very interesting turns. what are your prayers focused on, you or HIM?