Archive - November, 2010

Will It Blend?

November 30, 2010 in Meditations 6

Will It Blend?

Will It Blend?

The company Blendtec made a huge name for themselves online by launching the viral site called “Will It Blend“. On the site they take various objects not normally put in a blender (conspicuously labeled “Don’t Try This At Home”) and put it to the test. They ask the question “Will it blend?” and drop in the object to meet its untimely demise in their industrial strength blender. Sure enough, seconds later they pull out a homogenous heap of dust.

Most recently they blended a bottle of Old Spice. Talk about Internet meme overload in this video! Epic win!

Sometimes I feel like Christianity has been put into a Blendtec blender. In an effort to “be all things to all people”, sometimes we justify being just like the world. Rather than relating to people where they are and pulling them up, we meet them where they are and camp out there with them. We blend Christ with the things of the world and it becomes one homogenous blob of “relevance”. When people can no longer tell the difference between the holy and the worldly, something is very wrong.

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Today I’m guest posting for my friend Ryan Tate. He has a great blog called The Doorframes of Taterhouse. I highly recommend you check it out. You can also follow him on Twitter.

Gates of Thanksgiving

November 24, 2010 in Poetry 28

Gates of Thanksgiving

Gates of Thanksgiving

I’m thankful for lies, because truthful lips endure forever.

I’m thankful for offenses, because your justice is as the noonday.

I’m thankful for waiting, because desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

I’m thankful for a night of weeping, because joy comes in the morning.

I’m thankful for suffering, because that’s where His glory is revealed.

I’m thankful for brokenness, because He makes all things new.

I’m thankful for rejection, because His acceptance means life from the dead.

I’m thankful for death, because He has put eternity in my heart.

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and
His courts with praise”
Psalm 100:4

I pray that this Thanksgiving season finds you overflowing with a heart of gratitude in every circumstance. I am thankful for you all. Peace and blessings, friends.

Empty Vessels

November 22, 2010 in Meditations 7

Empty Vessels

Empty Vessels

When I was a kid and I finished my drink, I would hold the cup over my head and wait for the last drops to spill out. As the remaining drops fell, I held it there above my head waiting expectantly. Even when I could see nothing left, I still held it hoping for something to come out. As an adult, I found myself doing something similar.

I was in ministry leadership at a relatively young age. It was exciting to be in my early 20s and to be involved in everything that went on behind the scenes at a church. I was there just about every time the doors were open.

After a long period of going non-stop, I began feeling dry. I told myself to just keep going and things would get better. After all, how could things get bad if I was always in church?

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I’m guest posting over at my friend Michael Perkins’ blog today. It’s an honor to be sharing at his site. You can follow him on Twitter or “like” him on Facebook. I promise you won’t regret it.

Follow Friday 11/19/10

November 19, 2010 in Odds & Ends 8

Follow Friday

Follow Friday

It’s been a few weeks since I did a Follow Friday on my blog. Rather than flood your Twitter stream with tons of usernames and a #followfriday hash tag, I’ve carefully selected a handful of people that I highly recommend. If you like to follow awesome on the Twitter, you’ll check them out.

Here’s who you should follow this week and why:

Kely Braswell – Kely is not just a fantastic writer, he uses his man card to wipe away his tears. If you were already following him, you’d know exactly what I’m talking about. Seriously though, his blog is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Plus, he’s great to talk to on the Twitter. Oh and never question the status of his man card. I’ll come looking for you.
FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER: @kelybreez
RECOMMENDED POST: the top button

Cathy Lynn – Cathy is a fellow book lover and another fabulous writer. While she doesn’t get any of my Seinfeld references, I still vouch for her awesomeness. She’s also a science geek and will write about that from time to time. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER: @cathylynnl
RECOMMENDED POST: So I Married A Non-Reader

Matthew Snider – Matthew is a fellow geek that loves Jesus. He is honestly one of the most helpful guys I know. He’s always willing to answer questions or lend a hand to bloggers looking to tweak their site. He’s also a movie reviewer at Atomic Popcorn. His blog is a great place to find the confluence of theology and technology.
FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER: @geekforhim
RECOMMENDED POST: iPhone no more

So this wraps up another week of serendipitous follows. Now its your turn.

Who do you recommend?

Calling Out Greatness In Others

November 18, 2010 in Identity 41

Honor

Honor

I was a leader at my previous church. Things were great. Everything in my life seemed perfect. Then it happened.

I had one of those life-altering events that shook me to the very core of my faith. I made some big mistakes and I ended up stepping down from leadership. After a short time, I left that church. Then…everything in my world fell apart.

Fast-forward to 3 years ago. I joined my current church. I was content to sit in the seats. I felt disqualified for what had happened in my life. I was finishing the restoration process in my life but I had some serious questions about if I could ever be in leadership again.

After sitting and serving in small ways, I decided to have a meeting with two of the pastors. I shared my story. I was transparent about what I had been through. I ended the meeting by telling them that I trusted them, I came under their leadership and I gave them permission to speak into my life.

Awhile later, I received a call. It was the call I wasn’t sure I’d ever receive. It was the invitation. I was asked to be an assistant leader in a home fellowship group.

“He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor.” ~1 Samuel 2:8

I was reflecting on all this as I begin leading my discipleship group through reading a book called “Culture of Honor” by Danny Silk. Danny states that: “Leaders…understand that their primary role is to empower the saints to know God and walk in the fullness of who He says they are.”

I went through some things in my life that made me forget who I am. I let shame and condemnation disqualify me. The leaders in my life empowered me to walk in the fullness of who God says that I am. Essentially, they were calling out the greatness in me. Not because of what I’ve done, but because of who God says that I am.

The trust that they gave me reminded me that I am not disqualified. They honored me because they knew who God says that I am. That simple act shifted the entire way I view honor.

I want to live a life that calls out the greatness in others around me, especially when they cannot see it. I want to remind those around me of what God says about them, not what they have been through. I want to walk out a culture of honor in my life.

How do you view honor? Are you able to see the greatness in others, even when they have failed?

Poetry Arrived…

November 16, 2010 in Meditations 29

Inspiration

I would consider myself more of an aficionado rather than a writer of poetry. I hold in the greatest esteem those with the gift to craft words in couplets and stanzas. Metaphors and similes are heart-piercing darts in the quiver of a poet.

While I don’t write poetry often, I do get sporadic sparks of inspiration. The last poem I wrote, Joy Comes In The Mourning, came to me in the middle of the night as I rolled off a tear soaked pillow to feverishly write down the words that flooded through my mind. While it may never be fit to be published, it is a treasured possession of mine.  It was birthed from my heart and creativity.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” ~Ephesians 2:10

The Greek word for workmanship is poiēma, which is where we get the word poetry. We are literally God’s poem. We are His inspiration, His creation and we are made in His image.

Your frame, your shape, your mind, your heart, all were crafted by the preeminent artist. If you’ve ever felt satisfaction in creating something, you are getting a small taste of the immense satisfaction God had in creating you.

The process of creating is a spiritual act. The spirit of creativity is a gift of being made in the image of God. Whether you write, sing, compose or build with your hands, you operate in a spirit of creativity given by the Creator of all things.

Today I would encourage you to create. I encourage you to appreciate yourself as being the very poetry of God. Even if you don’t feel like what you create is significant, it is. The act of creating is part of how you were made. Allow yourself to be inspired by the source of all creativity.

How do you create? Do you write/enjoy poetry? What is one of your favorite poems?

*The title of this post is inspired by a piece from my favorite poet, Pablo Neruda. You can read the translated version here.

5 Things I Learned Last Week

November 15, 2010 in Odds & Ends 33

What I Learned

What I Learned

Last week I traveled to New Jersey for 3 days of training for my job. While there, I was able to make it over to New York to visit some family. I left on Tuesday and returned Friday night. It was a good time to disconnect from the blogging world and learn some new things.

So without further ado, here are the 5 things that I learned last week:

My grandmother is amazing!

My grandmother is 93 years old. She still lives by herself and cooks her own meals. I got the opportunity to head up to Spanish Harlem two evenings on my trip and she cooked me dinner. It was some of the best cooking I’ve had in a long time. She was delighted to see me and I was so happy to be able to spend some one on one time with her.

NY cabbies will rip you off!

I’ve been overseas so I know what it’s like to be ignorant and get ripped off. I’m not sure why, but I would expect to be treated a little more fairly in the states.

By travelling between NY and NJ, suddenly they don’t turn the meter on. “Oh, that’s a different rate my friend”. That rate always ended up being a flat $50, plus the toll across the Holland Tunnel, plus tip. And why exactly am I tipping a cab driver for driving me to my destination? At least sing to me or tell me jokes.

I had to take a cab twice between the two states and I ended up negotiating a more fair rate. I mean seriously, $50 to drive me 4.1 miles? I don’t care if my job is picking up the tab, I’m just not okay with that.

Experts don’t always make great teachers.

I took a 3-day class on access control software. Most people are familiar with the technology in one way or another. If you use a badge to swipe in to open a door at work, then you have an access control system.

The software is extremely complex and I was the only one in the class without previous access control experience. The instructor was extremely knowledgeable about the technology and the software we were using. However, he was a terrible teacher. We basically spent 3 days watching him click through the software. We had the software on our laptops, but he continually told us “Please look up here, you’ll have time to do it on your own.”

As we finished a section, we had about 5 minutes to run through exercises. That didn’t work very well for me. I’m a hands on learner. I learn fast, but I have to be doing it myself. I need real life examples to relate to what I’m learning.

I realized that just because you know a lot about something, it doesn’t mean you can do a good job conveying that information to others. It gave me a lot of ideas for my own teaching style.

The course ended with a 25 question test. We needed to get 20 questions correct to pass. I was the last one to finish. I pray that I passed!

I can be pretty sanctimonious about spelling, grammar and pronunciation.

I can’t help it. If you can’t spell or use proper grammar, I’m going to judge you. I’m just being honest and I am working on it.

While a good public speaker, our trainer had some serious subject-verb agreement issues. I had to restrain myself from yelling out and correcting him.

He also had some trouble with his words. I don’t know if it is a regional thing but in my dictionary, both is not spelled with an “l”. Nor is social security pronounced, “sosal security”.

I was taught a lesson by @Learell though. In my frustration in class, I tweeted this: “For the record, there is no ‘l’ in both. Thank you. Your welcome.” He quickly replied: “but there is an apostrophe and an e in ‘you’re’ ;-) ”

Humble pie. Yummy.

Most people don’t really like coffee.

I witnessed something pretty crazy, not just once but multiple times. As I was placing my order at Starbucks, I saw people pouring out 25% or so of coffee and filling it with milk!

As a self-proclaimed coffee fanatic, this was blasphemous! Now by default, Starbucks puts two shots of espresso in their drinks. If you order a Grande and pour out 25% of your drink, you barely leave any coffee left. That’s not coffee my friend, that’s coffee-flavored milk.

I was able to do a lot of self-reflection last week. I spent a lot of time alone (which I love) and I realized that when I am out of my routine, my life is exponentially more interesting.

I also realized that I am definitely a city boy at heart. I love the buildings, public transportation and culture. I probably couldn’t live on a farm if my life depended on it. (I guess that was a bonus 6th thing).

Overall it was a great trip. I was able to think about a lot of things going on in my life and formulate some new ideas for writing.

Now…time to catch up on life.

So, what did YOU learn last week?

iPhone It In

November 5, 2010 in Odds & Ends 20

Phone It In

Phone It In

I don’t know why but phrase “phone it in” drives me absolutely crazy. Seriously, did I miss the memo that went out that every blogger has to start using the phrase phone it in?

Scheduling all your tweets instead of truly interacting? You phoned it in.

Writing a book about a popular subject just because you don’t have any fresh ideas? You’re phoning it in.

Decided to microwave leftovers for dinner instead of cooking a fresh meal? You phoned it in.

See how dumb that sounds? Good. I’m glad we’re in agreement.

I didn’t have any ideas to write about last night. So in honor of this terrific cliché, I am writing a post about what I have on iPhone homescreen. You know, I’m iPhoning it in.

I think what someone has on their homescreen says a lot about them. First I hope you noticed my custom carrier. Yes, I’m am a hacker. ToeKnee. Get it? Get it? Nevermind.

From this screenie you might notice the Dictionary app.  Yes, I am a word nerd. I look up words all day. Even words that I am familiar with. I love etymology and I truly am one of those people that likes to mean what I say.

I also have the Holy Bible on my homescreen. Mostly to impress you right now. Secondarily, because YouVersion has really an awesome app. I love being able to easily flip to different translations on the fly.

I’m a social media addict so Twitter and Facebook are most certainly present. I use the free Twitter for iPhone app. But I do have like 7 other Twitter apps on my second page.

Yes, I love iPhone games. Right now the one I play the most is Words With Friends.  After that I split pretty equally among Angry Birds, Bejeweled and Fruit Ninja.  I have two folders of games but I mostly only play those 4.

So there. I have officially phoned it in.

What do you think about that phrase?  Also iPhone or not, let me know what apps you have on your homescreen.

You’re Not Worth My Time

November 4, 2010 in Meditations 27

Time Is Money

Time Is Money

I would rather waste money than waste time. As I realize how valuable my time really is, I can no longer just spend it frivolously. However, I still struggle in determining how to spend my time wisely in various areas of my life.

I had my yearly review with my boss just recently and one of the things that came up was that I don’t make the most of my time. One of the goals given to me for next year is to do a better job of delegating menial tasks and making better use of my time. “Your time is valuable,” my boss told me, “and you can’t spend your time doing things that other people on your team should be doing.”

I manage a technical helpdesk which consists of 12 technicians. I am responsible for training and rolling out new technologies for my team to support through remote diagnostics. Because of this, I spend a lot of time hands on with software and hardware before I bring my team up to speed. I don’t mind at all because I like to know things inside and out before handing it off.

The problem is that I get end up getting busy doing many smaller tasks that could be done by people that are paid less than I am. I should be focusing on bigger things like increasing efficiency and metric reporting. However, I find myself wasting time doing things that are beneath my pay grade.

Who Is Beneath Me?

As I reflected on the results of my yearly review, I got to thinking about my spiritual yearly review. I wondered if the same logic applies.

There have been times that I didn’t invest in people because I felt that they weren’t worth the effort. It has been much easier to spend time with people that are like me or have it all together. Broken people are messy and can require a lot of time and work.

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound” ~Isaiah 61:1

Reflecting on this passage I saw that Jesus was always investing people below His pay grade. He never put on airs and determined who would or wouldn’t have the privilege of His presence. His heart was always for the poor and brokenhearted.

In an effort to be a good steward of my time, have I ignored investing time in those that will require more effort?

It was a sobering question to ask myself because I knew there were specific people that I knew I could have invested in this past year. People for which my investment may not have shown immediate results. People who may have disappointed me because of their brokenness. I thought to myself, I’ll spend my time with the people that can either sow into my life or those that are already growing in the Lord.

I failed my spiritual self-evaluation. I know there were key people that God put on my heart. I had opportunities to sow into their life. But I also knew that it would be hard. I knew that it would take time for them to begin to see themselves as God sees them. I also knew that it would take a consistent demonstration of His love for that to come about. I wasn’t willing to invest the time.

Essentially, there are those to whom I said, “You’re not worth my time.”

I realize that I can’t be friends with everyone. I also realize that I can’t save the world by myself. But I also realize the tendency in my heart to take the easy route in relationships. I tend to avoid people that have a lot of drama in their life or are extremely broken. I figured someone will come along and be there for them.

But what about when I was broken?

There are those specific people for whom God will use me to display His love. Many times they will be people who are going through the same kind of thing that I’ve been through. God is nudging my heart saying, “Remember what I did for you? Remember that person I brought into your life to show you My love? I want you to be that for this person.”

I want to respond. I want to bring the good news to the brokenhearted. I want to be Jesus to those that are hard to love. I know that I can’t do it for everyone, but I can do it for someone.

I know that in the same measure that He has restored me will be the same measure that He uses me to restore others. I want to set some spiritual goals for myself this year that are “below my pay grade”. Because in actuality, the lower I go, the higher He is exalted.

How do you steward your time in relationships? Have you found it difficult to invest in broken people?

Agree To Disagree. Then What?

November 2, 2010 in Meditations 29

Agree To Disagree?

Agree To Disagree?

I had a disagreement with someone I just recently met. I had two choices. Either appreciate their point of view and allow that to teach me a different perspective, or I could draw a line in the sand. That line would determine how far I take the relationship.

Reflecting on this, I realized that at times in the past I’ve allowed agreement to determine the depth of my relationships. After all, don’t you connect with people by the things you have in common?

The thing is, if you only surround yourself with people that agree with you, you won’t ever learn more than you already know.

Some of my most rewarding relationships have come from friends that have completely different viewpoints than me. In everything from music, politics to theology, I have learned more from people that argued their opposing perspective fiercely.

By listening to an opposing viewpoint, I discovered perspective that I wasn’t able to get on my own. That point of view either changed the one I had previously held, or helped me strengthen what I already believed.

You can’t sustain a relationship on agreement. You’re going to disagree at some point. How you respond determines the strength of the bond.

Disagreement will reveal how much you really care about a relationship. If you cut someone off because they have opposing views on something like politics or theology, did you really have a relationship in the first place?

Yet, how many times have I been quick to judge someone because of their perspective? How many times did I make a determination of that person’s character because of what they said or wrote? And how many times have I held a position which I later changed?

I had all of this swimming around in my head because I read a LOT of blogs. I read a lot of viewpoints that I disagree with. I sometimes comment with my opposing view. I also know that there are people that I desire to develop a relationship with.

How easy would it be to read a post I don’t agree with and pull the trigger by unsubscribing to their blog? How easy would it be to post a fierce comment judging their motives and intentions without ever having a chance to get to know them personally?

I would present a challenge and say that it goes even beyond saying “Let’s agree to disagree.” It goes beyond drawing that line in the sand and saying, I’ll determine that this person is okay up to this point but since I don’t agree with them on this issue, this is the extent to which I value them.

Relationships have to go beyond passive agreement. They have to go to a place where we can honor each other in a place of disagreement. It has to go to a place where we value right relationship rather than who is “right”. It has to go to a place where we have grace for each other in that place of disagreement and realize that maybe we won’t always hold the position we hold today.

I know many of the views I have today are very different from the views I had just a few years ago. Both then and now, I am very passionate about what I believe. But I also know that the people that I want to disagree with are the people that I have a relationship with. I want to know that if I walk away with an opposing view point, I am still walking away with a relationship intact.

How do you react when you face an opposing viewpoint from a friend? Have you ever posted a scathing comment or unsubscribed from a blog because of your opposing viewpoint?