If you are interested you can check out my highlights from the book here.

Good stuff but there is one missing ingredient that every Christ-follower must never forget.  It’s the ultimate confidence boosting habit every single one of us needs.  Here it is from Acts 4:13.

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

The ultimate confidence booster is not “thinking” your way to success but “being” your way to success.  Being with Jesus is the single most important thing each of us can do to really be confident.  The reason this was so vital to Peter and John’s confidence and the reason it is key to ours is ultimately our confidence isn’t based on what we “think” we can do but what we “know in faith” that God can do.

If you haven’t yet spent some time with Jesus today, why don’t you do it now?

Side note:  Our church has produced a guide to help us actively listen to God more.  You can check it out here.

“Recently, I believe I was given a life lesson by god and then was shown your church because I prayed for a place to go (quite a few stories that I am wrapping into a few sentences). I really want a place for my kids to learn and grow, as well as myself. I am working on my husband, but he is still “missing”, but not lost right.”

This one note made my day, but not just because she said Suncrest was an answer to her prayer although that is certainly a part of it.  It also made my day because she referred to her husband as “missing.”  That is from a message I gave back in August.  God used something I said to shape how she viewed those who are apart from Christ and it encouraged her.

I don’t know about you but it helps to know occasionally that your words matter…what you do matters…that something you spend hours developing isn’t meaningless chatter to someone.

Thanks for that one God.

Here’s how I see this working out in equation form:

My strength + God = my glory and limited impact

This is how the best of us want life to work. We want to work from a place of strength and giftedness AND certainly include God in that picture. We want Him to bless our efforts and plans and then thank Him for helping us. And no doubt He does. But the result is that we really get the honor and the impact of our effort is very limited.  We do some good, but it doesn’t last.

I think it should really work like this:

My weakness + God’s strength = God’s glory and exponential impact

In brokenness we seek God and God goes to work in and through us to accomplish something we could have never done on our own AND He gets the glory AND the impact is unlimited.

“A leader will trust in the goodness of God only to the degree that he has a history of brokenness and surrender.”

I’ve certainly seen the truth of that in my life. It’s the times that I have been broken that I’ve been able to experience God’s healing. It’s the times I admit my weakness that I see God’s strength. Here are four realities Dan says we have to embrace if we want to experience God working through our weakness:

1. I am never sufficiently good, wise, or gifted enough to make things work. I guess Stuart Smalley was wrong.

2. My failures will harm others, the process, and myself, no matter how hard I try to avoid failure.

3. The greatest harm I can do is to try to limit the damage I cause by not participating, by quitting, or by pushing for control.

4. Calling out for help from God and others is the deepest confession of humility.

It’s the starting point of true transformation and impact in our lives.

I’ve been thinking a lot about risk lately.  We live in a risk-adverse culture.  We live in a society where you can buy insurance to protect your insurance!  We don’t like risk and yet risk can be so good for us.

Think about it.  When we risk something good for something better, we grow.  Regardless of the outcome…regardless of whether we fail or succeed we learn something and we change.

Now I’m not talking about needless change or gambling your life’s savings or even extreme sports.  I’m talking about getting out of our comfort zone guided by faith and risking something for the sake of our faith.

It seems as we grow older we lose this since of hunger for risk.  Maybe it was just me, but did you ever climb up on your roof to jump off?  I did.  And I got in trouble every time!  Yet, the reward of being able to say in my little 10 year old mind “I did it” was worth every consequence.

I’ve noticed in my own life that if I am not practicing what I want to call the spiritual discipline of risk every once and awhile I grow stale and complacent.  Risk by it’s very nature is a catalyst for growth.

Jesus said, “whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it (Luke 9:24.)”  Faith itself is a risky adventure.  Faith is about risk.  You risk your life for the sake of “greater reward.”  I love how Hebrews describes some heroes of faith who risked it all because of their faith.

“These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.  God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect (Hebrews 38-40).”

The greater reward didn’t come on earth.  It came later.  The risk paid off, but not immediately.

When I think about risks I’ve made they look like…

• every move we’ve made to a new church;
• planting a campus;
• moving our campus to a building we remodeled;
• even having 5 kids!
• almost walking away but turning back to a barista I know nominally and inviting them to our comedy show;
• having a tough conversation I really don’t want to have.

At one of our quarterly leaders gathering, Greg had to communicate some tough information. It was not fun. It was not pretty. But he did it with vision, hope and positivity. Afterwards we gathered as campuses. I expected that I would need to continue in that same vein to effectively cast a vision for the next year and inspire our leaders to rise to the challenge.

I was wrong.

Why?

Because they were so positive about the future they didn’t need my motivation or inspiration. They were already there. They were hyped about what God was doing already and what they were anticipating he was going to do in the next season.

It reminded me that leaders don’t give into the temptation to grow negative. Sure, we all have our moments. But a leader is able to step out of the negativity and see the “what can be.” So here’s a few things that have helped me stay “positive” even when the going gets tough:

1. Ask, “How does God look at this situation?” His perspective is always the best and always the one filled with hope.

2. Focus on what you CAN do. Don’t focus on what you can’t do.

3. Get all your concerns and negative thoughts/feelings down on paper (or on screen) so you can really process them. Sometimes just the act of writing down what is causing negativity can help you see that it is not as bad as you think.

4. Pray for a positive attitude.

5. Exercise. Physical exertion alone is often a release for negative feelings and thoughts.

There’s more. What do you do to stay positive?

God calls Abram to GO. For Abram that meant leaving everything he knew, his family and his home.

God says that Abram would be a blessing to other people and in the process he himself would be blessed.

And then I love what verse 4 says, “So Abram went…” Those are three beautiful words. Three simple words to describe Abrams response to God’s call in his life. He is an example of responsive obedience to God’s call.

I suppose at its core obedience implies responsiveness and thus having the word “responsive” is unnecessary. Yet, what Abraham displays is not obedience…eventually. He displays obedience that is (as far as we know) immediately responsive. We see it again with the disciples when they are called by Jesus to follow him.

This is something I’m cultivating in my own life and in my kids’ lives. I want to be responsive to God’s call whenever it comes. This means I have be able to hear clearly and trust deeply. Both are challenging.

Cultivating a heart that is able to hear the Father when he speaks means time in Scripture and prayer. Time spent wrestling through issues in your life. Time spent reflecting on you walk in Christ.

Creating a heart willing to trust so that you do respond obediently really just takes practice. The more you do it the more you are able to trust even more. For instance, in trail running your body learns to adapt to the unexpected nature of the trail. I don’t do a lot of it but I have noticed that when I have not been running on trails as much my body is less responsive. Yet, with a little time on trails my body and mind are able to more quickly adapt to the ever changing obstacles that are presented, even if it is just the uneven nature of the ground. It’s the same for our walk in Christ. The more you respond with trust and obedience, the quicker you are able to respond the next time.

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him.  A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.

Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Mark 4:35-41

In our advanced aged I think it is hard to be struck with awe.  We feel like we pretty much have things figured out.  There’s no room for awe in our lives.  There’s no room for a “child-like” faith that Jesus speaks of.

I was playing with my kids on the trampoline yesterday and a helicopter was flying over.  I pointed it out to my 4 year old who was instantly taken back with the sight.  I love it when he is captured by something I take for granted.

I wonder how much I miss in my encounters with Jesus because I’ve lived life too much.

That’s why I love the act of communion.  It’s a time to stop and reflect in awe of what Jesus had done for us…

…out of love…

…without us earning it…

…offering it freely.

Amazing!

But I shouldn’t wait until Sundays to experience awe over his sacrifice.  I shouldn’t wait until Easter to experience awe over the risen Savior.  I need to cultivate awe every single day.

One way I try to do this is with the simple art of noticing.  I’m trying to cultivate a habit of noticing where God is at work all around me everyday.  As I notice I’m taking the opportunity to thank Him.  I’m trying to notice things I take for granted that should bring me awe, like my children.  Each of them are gifts from God…even though I’m not always happy with them, I love them without reservation.

What about you?  Are you in awe of Jesus?  Have you experienced something that has made you ask, “Who is this?”

We kicked off the series with a fun question for the audience about meeting a famous person.  Several responded with meeting…

• Brittany Spears
• Tim Hawkins
• Michael Jordan
• Michael Jackson

Meeting someone famous is an interesting study in human behavior.  Most are fascinated with famous people.  Some, including myself, wouldn’t extend much effort to meet a famous person.  I’m not into collecting autographs or stories of meeting famous people.  Fine if you like that sort of thing.  It’s just not my cup of tea.
There is one story though I do relish.  It is the time I met Johnny Cash.  I barely remember it because I was only 4 or 5 years old.  I actually don’t remember much about it and really think that what I think I remember are actually transferred memories from my mom.  I do know though that at one time I had a photo of me sitting on Cash’s knee.  It hung for most of my childhood in my Grandpa’s shop.  Growing up I never thought much about it.  Later as an adult I grew in love with the music of Johnny Cash and remembered that photo.  When I asked my mom about it I was devastated to learn that it had been lost.

What?  Lost?  How could that be?  There are underwear from my childhood still lying around, but the photo of me and Johnny Cash is lost.

At least I’m not bitter.  :)

There are no photos of my encounter with Jesus either, yet they have shaped me in radical ways.  That’s the amazing thing about encountering Jesus.  He doesn’t leave you the same.

You may never be able to fill a wall with memorablia of encounters with Jesus but you don’t need to.  Those encounters fill our life and are more real than any distant memory.

How have you encountered Jesus?  How has it shaped you?

I totally relate to this video.

Hilarious!

One of the primary reasons I don’t wear earphones when I run outdoors is because it allows me space to think, pray and process what is going on.  The long runs are especially good for this.  I’ve heard of some runners having a mental process whereby they get into the “zone.”  I’ve never figured that out, but I have found that if I start running without “trying” to think about anything in particular and just click through the things I need to pray about I eventually work into a mental state that helps me process what is going on.

What about you?  How do you decompress?