I cannot take credit for the follow writing:
It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.

Your world is a mirror

Your judgments about other people say more about you than they do about the people you’re judging. The reason you can detect the weaknesses and insecurities of others is because you have experienced those same weaknesses and insecurities.Similarly, the reason you’re able to see beauty in others is because that beauty lives in you as well. The positive possibilities you see for others are, in many ways, your possibilities too.It’s very helpful to think of the world outside of you as a mirror. Whatever you see beyond you in some way reflects what is inside you.The most powerful and effective way to improve the world around you, is to improve yourself. The best way to bring real value into your life, is to create real value for others.What you admire and appreciate and support in others, grows stronger within you as well. When you seek to understand, you will be understood, and when you listen thoughtfully, you will be heard.Your world is a mirror, so choose each day to show it your best, most loving and supportive face. And you’ll be delighted with the face you see looking back at you.
How true is this reflection?  As humans, especially those that have been beat up and bruised, it is easy to find the faults in other people.  To judge their short comings and pick people apart.  How many times have we made the judging statements about other people or even people in leadership that reflect our own insecurities and shortcomings in life.  I stand guilty!!!!
It is hard to get out of our own way sometimes and begin to see the good things in people and see the positive influence they do have in out life.  I’m reminded of a story in the Bible about Noah where he got drunk one night and passed out in his tent naked.  His son Ham walked in and saw him laying there naked and passed out and went out and told his brothers.  Instead of his brothers running in to see their fathers shame they quietly got a garment and walked backwards into the tent to cover their father.  When Noah woke up he cursed Ham but blessed His sons Shem and Japheth (Genesis 9)
We do this everyday point out each others faults and short comings but never celebrate the good parts of others lives.  Noah was a great man, God used him to save humanity from the flood because he was a righteous man.  He work hard for years building the Ark and years of scorn and ridicule from people.  Their is no lack of ridicule and judgement in our society and even in our own lives.  Maybe we should love and encourage someone today instead of exposing their shame.  Maybe today we should start being part of the solution instead of piling on to the problem!!

I cannot take any credit for the following but really made me think this morning:
Take away the cause, and the effect ceases.

Power in every choice

Whatever fills your awareness most intensely is what you will bring to life. Instead of filling your awareness with excuses, fill it with passion.With your moments, your skills, your words and your actions you will change your world today. Choose to let that change be driven by what you love rather than by what you fear.Focus on the good things, on the possibilities, and on those dreams and values that are your most authentic. Make yourself the living embodiment of the best you can imagine.Your life is constantly shaped by the way you live it, the way you think of it and the way you feel it. Even the smallest things have an influence, and all those things combine together to build the life you experience.Every day is an opportunity to more fully express the unique beauty of who you are. Every situation is one in which you can choose to give rich substance and meaning to your world.Feel the power that exists in every choice, and in every moment. Use that power wisely and purposefully, and live life at its best.

In the media today you have to be very careful what you twit or put on facebook before you hit send.  One thought or statement that you just blurt out could have a huge backlash etc…  I would like to add on thing to all this.  Read before you print.

On Sunday morning I was rushing around in the morning trying to get everything ready for church in the morning.  I was up late the night before preparing and practicing to play bass the next morning but the internet froze and I didn’t have chance to print out everything I needed so I figured I would just do it in the morning.

I was flying through the music printing everything off that I needed and remembered that I need to print the teaching for that day.  I couple clicks later and I had a printer full of paper ready for the morning.  I didn’t review because I was sure i did everything correctly.

Upon my arrival for set up we rushed around getting everything ready then off to practice for the morning.  We had a great practice and before I knew it we were getting ready for service to start.

Worship went well, and hopefully very few heard my mistakes and we were ready for the teaching time.  I grabbed my stack of paper with music and sermon together.  As I began to talk about the subject for the day I look down at my notes…..I was speechless…I went blank.

In my haste of the morning I didn’t review what I printed……..I printed my teaching from the week before……….

Read before you Print!!!!!

“Nobody can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own.”

The choice is clear There is no way around it. If you wish to live a rich and full life on your own terms, you must take responsibility for it all. The choice is always clear. You can choose to be responsible for what you can control, or you will end up being dependent on what you cannot control. Responsibility is not easy, yet it is certainly the most positive choice. For when you do the difficult work of responsibility, you earn the rich rewards of a life well lived. Freedom, competence, excellence, effectiveness, independence, quality, wealth and fulfillment are all earned with responsibility. Take unequivocal responsibility, and you open yourself to unlimited opportunity. Seeking pity, blaming others and looking for shortcuts will put you increasingly at the mercy of negative factors beyond your control. That’s not what you want. Instead, step up and take responsibility, in every moment, in every situation, for as much of your world as you can embrace. When it comes to your life, you’re the person who can live it best.

I had this thought this morning, obviously provoked by a recent occurrence.  This whole thing about fighting with your spouse.  I have been taught by conventional wisdom that spouses aren’t suppose to fight but rather have disagreement, especially if you are “in ministry or leadership”-insert gag here-.  I’ve even been in marriage counseling sessions were the counselor is very patient with his wife when he asks…”How does that make you feel?”  Then they enter their “communication house” with the white picket fence complete with totally polite kids and a dog that never sheds, poops or barks.

Is this a real expectation for our marriage relationships?  Is this really how God created us?  I will probably have some counselor disagree with me but C’mon…. REALLY?

I love my wife deeply but we are passionate people.  It would be better if she would just agree with everything I said.  BTW that “NEVER” happens in real life.  Which lead me to consider what God would say about all this “Communication House” stuff and the way we really….let’s be real for a second….”FIGHT” with our spouses.

I remember a story that I read about the great John Wooden one time.  He and his wife got in such a heated argument about something that he left the house for a drive.  Upon his return his wife left him a note saying “Don’t try to understand me, Just love me.”  Even the greats have lessons to learn, but there was some passion in that relationship.

If we take a look into the Bible we see that people were very passionate about their belief systems, it is amazing how many riots that they had just over disagreements over theology.  We see ripping of clothes, dragging people in the streets to be stoned, even the “Religious Leaders” of the time were always yelling and fighting about something.  Jesus at onetime got so made that he flipped over tables and whipped people out of God’s house.

So is it about a “Communication house” or “Fighting Fair”-inserting gag here again-, or is it something greater here that we have to understand.  My thinking isn’t so much the “how” we fight or disagree, but more about the content.  Am I making personal attacks on my spouse?  Will I regret later what I’m about to say?  I’m a firm believer that if we can remember that our spouse in NOT our enemy that eliminates almost half the hurtful things we say to our spouses.  Our spouse’s don’t make us say the things we do, we are choosing them out of our emotions not out of truth.

Jesus’ anger was righteous, most of the time our anger is selfish.  Big Difference!!!  Again it isn’t about the how it is about the what!  

What are you communicating to your spouse when your fighting?

Tonight we were loading the truck up to get ready for church in the morning.  Kaden was my big helper and like a good helper he was doing his best to lift everything a 4 year old can to help daddy load up.

Just a few minutes into working he stops and looks up at me and says, “Daddy I want you to do all the work and I’m going to go sit in the truck.”  Needless to say it was pretty cute, he did at least try.  But like any good human I began to think about that little line selfishly.  ”You know he is at least honest about how he feels.  Most people just don’t do anything and leave it to a few to do all the work.”

But the more I think about it maybe he is onto something.  My great strength is also my greatest weakness.  I know how to work hard but I don’t know how to ask for help.  When the going gets tough I honestly believe that I will figure out how to fix it, and more times than not I can.  The problem with that is that it is ME and I that is doing it and it is ME and I that I’m trusting in.

If there is one thing that I have learned over this first year of planting a church it is learning to die to myself.  Dying to my dreams, my visions, my passion and what I feel is right.  The truth to the matter is if I’m truly a follower of Christ than He is really wanting us to die so that He can live in us.  It is no longer I that is in control it is Him.

Christ wants to build HIS church not mine and that can’t happen until I’m willing to lay everything on the alter and allow him to do it.  Being a living sacrifice is a hard thing because I’m always wanting to crawl of the alter.  When I die to my self then through me He can build His church.

So at the end of the day Kaden really did have it right.  ”Daddy YOU do ALL the work!”  may we be able to look at God like our sons look at us and trust that He will take care of everything.  In our dying He will build and restore lives better and more effectively than we could ever hope or imagine.

Daddy, please do all the work!

On Sunday I talked about moving beyond perseverance and keeping your chin up.  In that message I reference the following scripture:

I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.   2 Corinthians 12:10 the Message

It really was a message to myself, how many times have you ever done that, and one that I have been trying to walk out this week.  Letting Christ truly take over is an extremely easy concept but an entirely different reality. I’m not sure how to judge how I did this week but I know I made a conscious decision this week in one area.  That I would trust Him and that he would provide for me.  This doesn’t mean that I didn’t go to the mountain to fight with God, cause I did, and doesn’t mean that I didn’t stress, cause I did.  The just taking a step not to do something you want to do and trusting him sometimes is where it begins.  I don’t know how the story will unfold but I continue to strive to “Let Christ take over”  because I know that in my weakness He is made strong.  And I will take is strength over mine any day…