Life is hard

And by life, I mean work. Work is hard. Not necessarily the work that I'm doing, but rather the people that I'm working for and with.

Never in my employment life have I had as much tension in my work than I do right now. It has been a fantastic opportunity to practice grace. But it has also been tremendously trying. I don't much care for having people breathing down my neck. I like my personal space. Please do not breathe down my back.

This "trial" will not last forever. But while I forge through it, I am conscious of the opportunity that I have to least a lasting impression upon the people I work with. The impression of grace under pressure, and of love. I am confident that my God will give me the strength to see this through. And I rejoice in the fact that I WILL continue to see the goodness of the Lord.

WooHoo!*

*Is it weird to give a "woohoo" at the end of a confession like this?

87,273

Any thoughts on what that number represents?

According to this article, that number represents the total number of babies that were aborted in 2009 in New York City. One in four pregnancies was aborted in the city.

This year, Sanctity of Human Life Sunday will be remembered on January 23, 2011. Here in the states, there will surely be conversation about abortion, as there always is around this time. It was January 22, 1973 in which the Roe vs. Wade decision was delivered.

I wish we valued life more. I hope and pray that we will be able to continue to reduce the number of abortions in the states as we seek to end the practice. Please pray with me.

Catalyst

I have been blessed to be able to attend the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta, GA. Today I sat under the teaching of leaders like Andy Stanley, Beth Moore, and Francis Chan. It has been truly awesome. And the worship has been great.

Pray for Francis. He and his family are packing up and heading overseas. Where, he's not 100% certain, but it's somewhere in Asia. He's sold his house and doesn't know when/if he'll be back. He's steppin' out in faith, because he feels that that's where God is sending him. So please pray for him.

And while you're at it, pray for your church leaders. I witnessed a large number of pastors tonight who were hurting and it just renewed my interest in praying for church leaders. We need to have their backs!

Finally, I'm on Twitter. Here. I don't recall if I mentioned that in the past. It's been so long since I last blogged...

More from the book

Here's another paragraph from The Importance of Being Foolish:

Often our preoccupation with the three most basic human desires - security, pleasure, and power - is the cloak the covers transparency. The endless struggle for enough money, good feelings, and prestige yields a rich harvest of worry, frustration, suspicion, anger, jealousy, anxiety, fear, and resentment. These powerful, emotion-backed desires cause 99 percent of the self-inflicted and unnecessary suffering in our lives. They continually focus our attention on self and keep us from being transparent, dimming the light, and obsuring the "glory of God in the face of Christ."

I'm reading a book.

I started reading a book. It's called The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus, by Brennan Manning. It's been good so far. Brennan has all sorts of deep thoughts and has some really good ideas. As I read through it, I'm planning on sharing some quotes that have caught my eye. This first one is about truth. He opens the book talking about how disconcerting it was to see an angry saviour in the temple, clearing out the money-changers.

What is even more disconcerting is Jesus' relentless passion for the truth. In our society, where money, power, and pleasure are the name of the game, the body of truth is bleeding from a thousand wounds. Many of us have been lying to ourselves for so long that our comforting illusions and rationalizations have assumed a patina of truth; we clutch them to our hearts the way a child clutches a favorite teddy bear.

If I get a dog, I think I'll name him Barkley

Over the past couple of months, I've been listening to what I consider to be a great sermon series. Frontline has just wrapped up an eight-week series called "Vintage Truths." The series talks about the life of Samson and what we can learn from his life. I can honestly say that beyond the whole Samson and Delilah bit, I was pretty unfamiliar with Samson's life. This series got me interested enough to actually read through the four or five chapters devoted to him in the Old Testament (I think in the book of Judges).

I would definitely recommend giving it a listen. You can find the messages (both audio and video) archived here.

Cool Vid

Hey friends!

I wanted to wish you a great weekend and point you towards this video. Besides being a neat video from an artistic perspective, I hope you find it to be spiritually encouraging.

Have a great weekend!

Things I've been thinking pt. I

During Bible study this week, I had a thought: The disciples were dense. Or maybe just ignorant. I was reading through Matthew and Mark and I found it remarkable the number of times that "the disciples didn't understand." I was sharing this with my group, and the comment was made that that sounds kind of like us.

And that got me thinking about how ignorant we can be sometimes in the things of God. We try to live lives that honor God, but we don't have time to read the Bible. And if we aren't reading the Bible, we're not seeing the instructions that Jesus has actually given us. And the trickle-down is that the "Christian" lives we're living turn out to be rather inaccurate.

Have you read your Bible today?

Today I feel a weight

The weight I feel is the weight of those without hope.

Last night, a man walked into a gym in suburban Pittsburgh and opened fire on a room full of women. This man was hope-less. He had a website and kept some sort of a journal. In an entry dated 01/05/09 he wrote:

Life is just playing games. One or two dates with her, then the end. No matter how many changes I try to make, things stay the same. Every evening I am alone, and then go to bed alone. Young women were brutal when I was younger, now they aren't as much, probably because they just see me just as another old man.
I see twenty something couples everywhere. I see a twenty something guy with a nice twentyish young women. I think those years slipped right by for me. Why should I continue another 20+ years alone? I will just work, come home, eat, maybe do something, then go to bed (alone) for the next day of the same thing. This is the Auschwitz Syndrome, to be in serious pain so long one thinks it is normal. I cannot wait for tomorrow!

It saddens to me to see the despair that people have in their lives. This fellow is many years older then I am, but I can somewhat relate to his frustration of being single. The difference, I know, is the hope that I have in Christ. I know that God has a plan for my life and I am trusting Him. There have been a few rough patches here and there, but my hope remains strong. Because I know on what my hope is built.

Make a difference in someone's life today. Offer a kind word or a smile. Or both!

Be love.

What'd you say?

A verse and a question for you to consider today.

First the verse:

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4.29

Now the question:

Did you build people up with your words today?

Phil talked about taming the tongue this past Sunday and while he was speaking out of James, this is the verse that came to mind for me. I think it will be a verse that will always be relevant for me.

Idol much?

So a rather famous pop singer died last week and the world has been mourning his loss. As I was looking through some of the pictures, I wondered what it was about this particular person that caused people who didn't have any sort of personal relationship with him to react the way they did. And the first thing that popped into my head was "idol."

I'm pretty sure you won't have to look hard to find folks who considered this person an idol. And I began to wonder what sort of process it would take to get someone to the point where they would cry about someone who's not family or friend. It seems to me that someone would have to have a lot of time/emotion invested in someone to cause this sort of reaction. And I wonder how high the pedestal was that people put this person on.

Idolatry is a huge problem in the world. Not just the obvious practices either. What about our jobs? Look how far people are willing to go for their jobs. And relationships. People are always willing to put a boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife in a position above everything else. It's a big problem.

The best way to prevent idolatry is obviously to keep your eyes on Jesus. You do not need to idolize Him, but you do need to make Him the focus of your life. Everything that you do should be a reflection of Him. Everything. I have to be mindful of how I spend my time and what I think about. It's something that requires constant attention on my part. But I think it's worth the effort.

C'mon Church!

So there's this thing going around called the Swine Flu. There have been 141 cases of this flu here in the states. Where our population is over 300,000,000. That's like a .0000047% infection rate. And people are freaking out. I can understand folks freaking out if they don't have their faith in the right place. But when the Church starts freaking out, I get a little bummed.

I was stunned to hear that the Catholic Church in Mexico had temporarily closed up shop. No mass. No mas. Check out this link about some of the steps that various churches are taking here in the states.

Thoughts?

If you have a few minutes...

Take a listen to Pastor Phil's sermon from this past Sunday. I'm endorsing it.

Bono talks about your soul

In the New York Times, no less. Link here.