The thick fog that we drove through on the way to the cabin slowed us down enough to discuss what our expectations were for the weekend. Being on similar yet completely different walks in this journey of life, our expectations were all unique. One thing is certain though – we were all expecting big things.
I have not hidden the fact that I have been searching for answers from God regarding my calling. When I was in middle school, I went on a retreat where one of the other students received a call to go into ministry. I wanted so badly to experience what he did. My sister was a missionary with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) at the time, and so naturally this great desire in me to “hear a call” turned into an idea that I was being called to be a missionary. I’m not saying that I faked the calling of God on my life at that point, but I didn’t really understand what I was saying when I told my leader that I felt called to become a missionary.
Over the course of my high school years, I went on every mission trip and retreat that I could. I volunteered with the middle school ministry and learned to play guitar so that I could become a worship leader. I got baptized in a pool and began to own my faith. I had huge wins in my life and major failures, but God still had a plan for me. The memory of what I said on that retreat began to fade, but I would be reminded by that old leader whenever he saw me. He had moved on in his career and I only saw him once every few years, but every time he saw me, he would say “I haven’t forgotten that call to ministry.” Continue Reading…
The posts in response to the retreat I went on a couple of weekends ago have been straightforward up to this point. This one might turn out to be a little more abstract.
As humans on this earth, we all go through struggles and trials. You might think that those who are born into a life of privilege are not susceptible to difficulties that you have had to go through, but that does not mean that they have struggles of their own. One thing I learned from spending a couple of days away with a couple of friends is that we all have crap in our lives that we are dealing with on a daily basis. Continue Reading…
I had the privilege of taking a couple of days off this past weekend to go on a bit of a spiritual retreat with a couple of my friends. Leaving friday night and returning sunday evening, we traveled through the heavy fog to one of the most beautiful state parks in Pennsylvania. With a family cabin nearby and amazing weather this weekend, it was the perfect place and time to go.
When telling other friends and coworkers, we got responses indicating that they thought we were just going there to drink, fish, shoot stuff, play poker, and go white water rafting. While we did play cards for a little while saturday night, our purpose for going on this “retreat” was more about going on the offense in our spiritual battle. We went to pray for the people who lead us. We went seek God’s direction for our lives and families in the coming year. We went to hear from God. Continue Reading…
When people ask me if I have any resolutions for the new year, I first wonder why they are asking me about pixel dimensions in the new year. Seriously though, I don’t really like making New Years Resolutions. It’s not that I don’t have things I’d like to accomplish in the new year, just that I tend to fail at resolutions. The most ambitious resolution I ever made was to read through the entire Bible, cover to cover.
I’m not going to make a New Year’s Resolution this year, but I do have some goals as well as some themes that I plan to pray through in the coming months. These goals and themes might last the whole year or maybe just a few weeks. Continue Reading…
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
I was struggling with some things that I know about a friend of mine the other day, and I shared my struggles with another friend as he was driving me home. I was comparing myself to this friend and feeling like I deserved more than him. I was almost envious of the things and status that my friend has. Although I knew my thoughts were not thoughts I should have, I could not block them out of my mind.
The following day, Ted sent me a verse that he had read later that night. Philippians 4:8-9. The only way to remove thoughts that you do not want in your mind is to think on other things.
It’s like when you get that really annoying song stuck in your head and you can’t help but play the most annoying line from the song on repeat in you mind. The only way to get that song out of your head is to listen to another song or start singing another song. When you have evil, impure, worrisome, despicable, or painful thoughts, the only way to break that cycle of bad thoughts is to think about the true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, and excellent things. Continue Reading…
My wife and I are acting on where we feel God is leading us. It was a decision that we did not take lightly. The nudging would not go away. We prayed long and hard about it. We sought wise counsel and second and third opinions. It’s a giant leap of faith for us, specifically financially, but we felt at peace.
Even with that sense of peace, there is still a fear of the unknown for me. That fear has kept the door cracked open for doubt to creep in. That doubt has given the enemy a place to dig and pry at to make me second guess our decision. It’s crazy how a little bit of doubt can be magnified by stresses at work, vehicle issues, higher bills in the winter, and communication breakdowns.
This doubt is something that I have been struggling with over the past two weeks. It started just one week after we made the commitment to move forward to where we feel God is leading us. I spoke with a trusted friend and unofficial mentor of mine last night about my doubts and fears. I explained the process we went through of making this decision. Continue Reading…
Have you ever been driving and find yourself going the wrong direction. It’s easy to get used to driving certain routes that when you have to go somewhere else with a similar route, you can forget where you are going for a brief moment and miss a turn.
That happened to me this morning. Almost anywhere I go from home involves heading north on the highway. Instead of getting off at the next exit to take my international students to the high school, I continued on the highway towards work. I realized what I had done as I drove past the exit and chalked it up to an autopilot moment.
After I got them to school, I got to thinking about other autopilot moments in my life. In Praise Habit by David Crowder, I read that it takes a minimum of twenty-one days to create a habit. For example, if you were to clap your hands once every time you go though a doorway for three weeks, that action will more than likely become a habit. Some habits are good, some are bad. Some habits are harder to break than others. They don’t start overnight though. Continue Reading…
I’m the kind of guy that you just want to hate… Those seem like strong words when taken out of context, but that was said of me when a friend of mine was introducing my wife to someone. I believe his description of me was something along the lines of, “He’s the kind of guy that you just want to hate because he knows how to do everything.”
I’m not one to flaunt my talents and skills, but there are a lot of things that just come easy or natural to me. I have been blessed with a number of gifts ranging from the deeply artistic to the highly analytical. While this may seem like something that anyone would hope for, I find it to be more of a burden in my current life season. While it’s great to have the ability to solve problems, design systems, create art, and develop abstract ideas, I find it hard to understand where I should put my focus.
I am good at a lot of things, but I don’t know that I would categorize any of those things as great. When looking at individuals and companies that go from Good to Great, it becomes obvious that a major factor is that they are intentional about being highly focused. One of the speakers that I had the privilege of hearing at the Global Leadership Summit has written books on this subject, and the first thing you see on his website sums it up quite well:
Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.
Jim Collins – Great By Choice
I think one of the hardest things to do in the workplace is a self appraisal. Most employers have yearly reviews where the direct supervisor meets with their employees to review the strengths and weaknesses that have been observed over the past year. These appraisals tend to be the basis of raises, promotions, and even firings, and they can be as stressful for the supervisors as it is for the employees.
One of the things that we started doing at work is a self appraisal that happens before the review with our supervisor. It’s a way to back up and look at how we think we’ve done over the past year. It also give us a chance to prepare for what our supervisors might have to say. Continue Reading…
