Together We Think

Talk about a nail biter! The US soccer team pulled it off just in time this morning! I was watching with about 100 people and the room erupted with excitement at the score!

The “Just In Time” nature of the win got me to thinking about the “Just In Time” nature of our Heavenly Father. It has been my experience that when God wants something to happen, it happens “Just In Time”, but when he doesn’t, it is impossible to move regardless of our tension, frustration or desire to get things moving. I have seen this over and over in my life and the lives of countless others.

As I was watching the game this morning, I was getting so frustrated because of all the opportunities the US had to get it right…they kept missing shot after shot and the announcers starting talking about how they were pressing and taking chances until finally, they hit the one that mattered to win the game. What had to happen to make the shot? They had to relax and keep trying!

So, how does this relate to our lives and the decisions, goals and desires we all have?

First, I think we need to pay attention to the tension, frustration and desires. What do those things tell us? Where do we need to grow in those things? Could it be that God has yet to provide a “Just In Time” moment for us because he has something he wants us to learn or grow in before we can score the goal?

Second, I believe we get ourselves into trouble when we press too much. This doesn’t mean that we don’t work or search hard, but it does mean that we don’t try and do too much. Part of the process is to keep working hard but also do our best to stop pressing too hard and trust God with His “Just In Time” nature.

So, how does this hit you today? What do you see in your own life? For me, this morning was a reminder that I need to do my best to learn, not press too hard, keep growing and be faithful so that the “Just In Time” nature of my Heavenly Father can help me hit the goals I have in my own life!

On Friday, I spent a couple of hours cleaning our bathroom. This lowly job never ceases to remind me of the calling that God has placed in my life as a man. Now, my bathroom epiphany might sound a little odd to you, but follow me for just a moment. Here is a list of what it teaches me:

1. Humility - It’s hard to be proud when you are leaning down to scrub a dirty toilet:-)
2. Servanthood - I am reminded that God has called me to “get my hands dirty” in serving my family in both small and large ways
3. Love - It’s only because I love my wife so much, that I am willing to take over 2 hours to scrub down a bathroom and then feel proud because she likes it!
4. Legacy - I am reminded that when I serve my family in little ways like this, I am setting an example for my kids that nothing should be below us when it comes to serving others.

So men, I say, lets start a toilet cleaning revolution! If we can learn the things above by doing a little cleaning around the house, I would say (And have no doubt our wives, fiance’s or girlfriends would say:-) it is definitely worth it!!!

It has been a couple weeks since I posted. In the meantime, I have been on vacation and officially transitioned into my role with North Point Online full time.

In the space between my last post and this, I have learned some really important lessons and I would like to share a couple of them with you:

1. I have to take time for extended get-aways - It has been over 5 years since my family and I took more than a 4 day vacation and I had no idea how much I needed it! Now, we didn’t get much rest, but what we did get was 8 days to unplug and not think about ministry and work. When I came home, I was totally refreshed and full of renewed energy for my ministry. Believe me, we will do this again soon:-)
2. Not writing is a good reminder that the world is bigger than me - When I am blogging every day and talking about the deep things of the soul, it isn’t too far fetched to say that it could turn narcissistic pretty quickly for me. The break of not writing on my blog for two weeks reminds me that life goes on without my story and although my writing can be an encouragement, it is not a necessity.
3. My computer time can interfere with my family time - Over the past several weeks I have realized that the time I take on my blog and on my computer is taking away my time for other things and if I am not careful it is my family time that suffers. So, I am dedicating myself to writing and blogging with a careful eye on not overdoing my time away from the family.

I know these aren’t earth shattering or even particularly clever, but they have been really important reminders for me and ones I will carry forward into practice.

Godspeed!

S.

I am so excited to be taking my son to Disney for the first time this week! I remember going when I was little and remembering that it is a magical place! Crazy how time flies by! Although my trips to Disney as a child in many ways feels so long ago, in some ways it feels just like yesterday.

This week is a time for making memories, a time to have fun and chance to have some good down time with my family! I hope that you have made it a regular habit to take the opportunity to enjoy fun times and down time. Whether it is a small moment at home, or a big moment like a vacation, God has wired us all to take those moments and enjoy and appreciate them!

So, here’s to the chance to take time for fun!

OK, my family is waking up now, so I am signing off:-)

Godspeed!

S.

I first heard the term “Hungry Ghosts” while reading “Time and the Soul” by Jacob Needleman. The origin of this concept is rooted in Eastern Religion (which my faith of Christianity comes from) with the thought that we are all searching for significance and meaning, yet we spend most of our time running around at a frenetic pace that causes us to miss the deep things of the heart and soul from which we can truly draw fulfillment and meaning.

As I write this, I am well aware that it will be impossible for me to do this topic justice in a short blog post, but I do think that I can capture the essence of this in a way that we can practically apply in our lives. The best way to do this, I think, is to ask a question: “How deep is your inner life?” For many of us our outer lives are very deep and rich. We have spent countless hours, days and years building toward outward success, fortune and fulfillment and I would say most of us have been rewarded for that work.

As we have worked hard and been rewarded our speed has increased and the desire to grow outwardly with position, wealth, health, etc… has grown and for many caused us to run even faster. But at what expense? Most likely it is at the expense of the inner life. Yet, the inner life is, in all spiritual traditions, including mine, the most important aspect of who we are. It is the most important part of what we give to others and it is the part that will live on long after we are gone from this world. So, why don’t we spend more time on it? I would say it is because we are too easily distracted….maybe we have traded a big part of the truth for a lie? The lie that what I have on the outside is what is most important.

Yet, the things that speak to who we really are and what ultimately make us most successful in life are those things that are rooted in the inner world. Things like love, integrity, mercy, forgiveness, etc… These are the things that ultimately satisfy the hunger for meaning we have been given by God. A hunger that we falsely believe can be filled by outward success.

The truth is, the outward can never fulfill this God given hunger. It is only the inward journey with our Heavenly Father that allows us to fully embrace who we were meant to be. It is only the inward journey that allows us to ultimately live as fully human and fulfill the hunger of meaning, purpose and passion in life. It is this journey that makes us more than Hungry Ghosts…it turns us into satisfied beings who can live deeply, fully and present in life that God has given us.

If our focus continues to be on the outer life, the inner will never fully develop, but as we begin to put more focus on the inner life the amazing thing is that the outer life begins to deepen as well and we become more fully alive in the life that God has given us!

So, what about you? How deep is your inner life? How much time do you spend working on the inside as opposed to the outside? What a tragedy if we live our whole lives and what we end up with at the end is a deep and successful outer life, with a shallow and meaningless inner life! I hope that today you will spend some time developing the inner life and that we live our lives as satisfied beings rather than hungry ghosts.

Thanks for reading and godspeed to you today…

S.

One of the great things about living in a free and wealthy country is that we have a lot of liberty to do as we wish. We get to live with a sense of control over our world.

Take a moment to think about just a few things in my/your day: We control what time we wake up by an alarm clock. We control what we want to wear by choosing from hundreds of options. We control what we want to eat from a stocked fridge and pantry. We control the temperature in our home by pushing a button. We get in the car and control where we want to go. We control who we want to talk to by calling or not. And the list goes on and on…

Never in human history have there been so many options for so many people and we get the privilege of having access to these options!

There is a wonderful side to this to be sure, but there is also a darker side when it comes to our spiritual development. This darker side is a lie we tell ourselves…that we are in control. The truth of the matter is that none of us is really in control. It only takes a doctors prognosis, a broken relationship, a car accident or anything else beyond our control to bring this myth tumbling down.

Over the past 3 months I have been working hard to lose some weight and get back into shape. I have been excited to drop 15 pounds by eating right and exercising and have felt very empowered and in control. However, over the past few weeks I have been experiencing some physical issues and am currently awaiting some tests back to tell me whether or not I have any problems to tackle physically. Although it is probably nothing it has become very evident to me, once again, that I am not in control. I have to trust my Heavenly Father for everything.

The funny thing about this reminder is that I am supposed to be living in light of this truth already! I am supposed to live every moment with the awareness that every perfect gift comes from above, (James 1:17) that man plans his ways,  but the Lord determines his steps,  (Prov. 16:9) that I must trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my understanding. (Prov. 3:5,6)

It’s crazy, I know, but even with all of these beautiful reminder’s in scripture, I still all too many times live life as if I am in control. Until something happens that reminds me once again that my hope, future and everything else depends on Him.

When it comes right down to it, deep inside none of us really want to be in control because we know we’re not that good. We know that if left to ourselves we will ultimately make a mess of things. We know that we need Him. So, what do you need to give back to Him? What or who are you trying to control? It’s time to give it back to Him today and trust that He is at work and has your best interest in mind!

I pray that this post will encourage and challenge you. Until next time, godspeed!

Scott

I have decided to drop the day count from my posts, because I am not sure how many days I will need for this journey and in many respects it will be every day for the rest of my life.

It would be great to say that I am finally healed and in some ways I know I will get there, but in many other way’s true healing won’t come until my life is through because I live in a broken world. A couple weeks ago I called my counselor to talk since I was having a particularly challenging day. My frustrated question to her was, “Am I ever going to get past this? Am I ever going to heal?’!! Her wise response was, “Do you want the good news, or the bad news?”

Of course I wanted the good news first! She said, “The good news is that you are healing now and will continue to. The bad news is, you will never fully heal in this life because deep down inside what you are longing for is to be home, and this world isn’t home.”

As I left our conversation that day, I was struck by that stark reality. As much as we want to be healed and as much as we can be if we are willing to do the hard work of forgiveness, patience, love, etc… the reality in all of our lives is that we will always deal with the brokenness of this world…there will always be a nagging void…we will always wrestle with some broken part of who we are until one day we walk into the arms of our Heavenly Father’s “Well done!” Until then, we continue growing, learning, challenging ourselves and loving others so that we can mature and heal as much as possible.

Depending on how you look at this thought, it could be encouraging or discouraging. I hope you take it as encouraging! Just to know that one day everything will be healed…everything will be as it should be. In the meantime, we get to lean on the Lord and each other to grow, love, heal and live life to it’s fullest in this beautiful mess that is our life in the world!

Today I want to talk about something that is a huge challenge for me. It might just be one of my biggest challenges and potential frustrations in life. It is the value that I try and get from position and career opportunity.

I realize that this is really a mixed bag and two sides of the same coin, because part of this is really healthy. It is the way God has designed us to work hard, use our gifts and find satisfaction in our chosen field. Having said that, what I want to focus on today is the dark side of needing something from our work, title, position that it just cannot provide.

For those of you who know the Myers Briggs personality profile, I am wired as an INFP, or as some might call it, “The Dreamer”. The problem with being wired this way is that it is not what I necessarily would choose as my primary wiring if you were to ask me. What I would really love to be is a Natural Born Leader. Why? Because the culture I have grown up around tends to worship at the altar of natural born, bigger than life leaders. Sounds a little overstated, I know, but for many of us, that statement isn’t too strong because we have convinced ourselves that with greater positions of leadership, we are more valuable.

As I write, I am well aware that I do not represent all of you, some of you are natural born leaders and some are perfectly content with who you are, but for me, a lot of my value has been attached to whatever position I  might have or think I might want to have. The problem is that when I have it, it actually doesn’t deliver the value I am hoping it will and when I don’t get it, I can become easily frustrated and discouraged.

Let me try to explain… Because I am not a natural born leader, it takes a lot more work and effort for me to obtain and execute new levels of team leadership. For some of you reading this, leading others comes very easily, but for me, it does not. It is a lot of work to figure out how to lead a team toward a common goal and purpose. With my wiring, I am great at self-leadership, thought leadership and leading in the moment, but people leadership toward a long-term goal can be a real struggle for me.

Although this is a good realization to have, it can be pretty tough in organizational leadership life, because what gets noticed many times are those who lead teams and big initiatives to successful outcomes over time. When this type of leadership isn’t your strong suite and you feel like this is what you will gain your ultimate value from, then it can leave you feeling less than and discouraged. It can also lead to frustration because new doors of leadership opportunity may not open as fast or at all and when you attach your value to these doors, it is a rough place to live for sure!

So, what do I do about this? I must learn to find my value in who my Heavenly Father has made me to be. I must learn to say “Thank you Lord!” in every circumstance. Now, I find in my life, that it is easy to say “Thank You Lord!” for the good things. Thanks for my family, my ministry, my stuff, etc… But, it is much harder to say “Thank you Lord!” for our weaknesses or deficiency’s. Thanks that I’m not a natural born leader, thanks for this job transition, thanks for this constant struggle that forces me to depend on You, etc… And yet, scripture says we should do just that. Paul said that he had learned to be content in any circumstance. (Phil. 4:12) Man Paul, you are a better man than me:-)

So, what is my point? What can we learn from this?

We must learn that God has made us exactly who he wants us to be. Not what others say we should be or what leaders and leadership experts say is the thing we need to be great! Or what a culture says is or is not valuable. We are already priceless in God’s eyes! We are so much more valuable to Him than we can ever know! We don’t have to find our true value from any position or title. We find it in Him!

So, today, regardless of what position or title your aspire to, take the time to remind yourself that you are exactly who your Heavenly Father has created you to be and no title/position or lack there of can ever change your value in His eyes! When you view life in this way, then it much easier to look at whatever door or position God has opened for us and just say thank you to the one who is Able to bring true value from our lives!

I hope this helps and Godspeed…

S.

What possessions do you find valuable? For me, it is many things. Here is a brief, non-exhaustive list:

• My house
• My cars
• My clothes
• My watches
• My health

There are a lot of things I find valuable in life. Some are more important than others, but all can become a distraction if I’m not careful. In the picture above you see my 1965 Dodge Coronet. Yes, I am kind of a car guy and no, I do not own this car anymore. I sold it before our move to Georgia, but man did I have fun with it when it was mine, (Thanks to my bride for putting up with it!!) and yes, it was very valuable to me!

There is nothing wrong with finding things valuable and enjoying nice things. The problem comes when I try to gain my value from them. Let me tell you this is all to easy for me to do. I all too often have a tendency to try and define myself by the clothes I wear, the cars I drive, the watch on me wrist, the home I live in…ad infinitum!

I have walked around many days in my life not only defining myself by these things, but hoping others might find my value in them and valuing others by these things as well. It is a part of the human condition, and it is hard to stop.

We live in a society that in many ways pushes us to define ouselves by how much we have, how nice it is, how good we look , and the list could go on and on. The reason this is so insidious for us as followers of Christ is that it flies completely in the face of where our true value comes from. All through scripture it tells us that we find our value in our Heavenly Father. It is because He has made us and loves us that we have true value. And yet, we strive hard to find value in so many other things.

The ultimate problem with this striving is that it never works. The recognition from others fades quickly; the home or car gets old quickly and someone has a nicer one; the clothes and accessories are only new once; someone always makes more than me; and the list goes on and on.

Why do we do this? What’s going on inside of us? The Bible says that God has “planted eternity in the hearts of men” (Ecc. 3:11) God wired us for something greater. He made us to love us and help us discover our incredible value in Him. He made us to experience His love and appreciation, so this desire to be valued is a good and noble desire! It is just all to often misplaced in our lives. We all too often mistake the temporal values for the eternal and we look to the possessions of this world to define who we are instead of the One who made us and loves us. The problem with these possessions and positions is that they are not Val- “You”-able! They cannot fulfill the hunger inside us that needs to be valued and loved. Only our Heavenly Father can do that as we grow more and more in love with Him. Only He is Val- “You”- able in our lives!

The questions as we close today is, what possessions are you trying to gain your value from? How can you set those aside and turn today toward the One who is able to help you understand and find your true value?

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” Matthew 6: 25,26

Before I spend some time reflecting on the story in the Bible about Nehemiah and how it relates to my (and possibly your) personal journey, I want to start by saying how important I believe it is to find stories and people with which you can relate personally. It has been my experience that comparing and engaging with the stories of others, whether alive or in history helps us discover more about our own journey’s and gives us great traveling partners through the ups and downs of our journey!

OK, enough of the ethereal stuff! Let’s take a look at the life of Nehemiah and how I believe it relates to many of our journey’s. As a quick background, Nehemiah was alive during a time when Jerusalem was destroyed and the nation of Israel was carried into captivity. Nehemiah was blessed enough to find himself serving in the court of the king as the cup bearer and it was through this position that God gave him the opportunity to fulfill a passion and dream…to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

It is with this context as our background that we join Nehemiah on his trip back to survey the city and the walls that surrounded it. In the book of Nehemiah we find the story of his journey.

There are a few things that strike me about his journey:

1. Nehemiah begins his story by mourning and grieving the loss of what was supposed to be: Walls around the city of Jerusalem.
2. Nehemiah goes back to Jerusalem to survey the damaged walls and come up with a plan for how to fix them.
3. After surveying the walls and planning, Nehemiah begins the hard work of rebuilding the walls.
4. There are a lot of challenges in rebuilding the walls, including the mocking and attacks of others.
5. The dream of the rebuilt walls is fulfilled through hard work and teamwork.

Now, I realize at this point that the applications for our lives are so obvious that I probably don’t have to write another word, but let’s go there for a second.

Here are the point by point personal applications for me:

1. There is a “supposed to be” in all of our lives. As we enter into the “broken walls” of our personal story, we realize that much of our brokenness is not what God had intended. Something was done to us or we did something that tore down the walls of our lives and it is painful and hard to see the results.
2. We must begin the process of rebuilding in our lives by first surveying and discovering what has happened and what needs to be done to rebuild.
3. At some point, we must begin to rebuild the broken parts of our lives.
4. We will face challenges and attacks from the enemy who doesn’t want us to become healthy and whole.
5. If we are willing to do the hard work and walk with others who can lead us and encourage us on the journey, we will ultimately, find the healing that God wants to bring to the brokenness in our lives.

In closing, where I find myself right now, is still a bit in the surveying stage. I am doing a little bit of the work of rebuilding, but at times feel stuck in the surveying stage, so my  next step is to move fully into the rebuilding stage. How about you? Where are you in this journey?

Thanks for reading and possibly sharing! Godspeed!

S.