Thursday, November 29, 2012

My homepage opens to...

It’s crazy how we can control where our minds first go… do we consider that?

I hadn't thought about my homepage much until I recently commented on my friend having the bible opened on her computer.  She said, "It reminds me to start with God whenever I start my day or get on the internet."

Wow. 

It’s crazy how we can control the first thing we allow our minds to run to… I can forget that.
           
My homepage opens up to a New Zealand newspaper… which keeps me up to date on world news.

I've chosen that for right now, and I am personally glad my page doesn't first open up to my email or Facebook where other people's actions or messages shouting out for me to respond could dictate my first thoughts.  I don't want others to choose where my mind goes when I first start work or my day off.

Do you let the internet world choose where your mind first goes when you get online or do you choose it?
Am I allowing space and choosing to make chances for God to be one of my first thoughts in the day like a default homepage? 

Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love 
PS143:8

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

I Love The Local Spots

What is it about finding a hidden treasure of a place or restaurant that you love and can own as "your own spot" that is so special?  One of my spots in Lansing is Theios and it is nothing special outside of I feel very local there.

I get to people watch and sit in a crowd I wouldn’t normally sit in
…it’s not my normal crowd and I love it. 

There is something special about an escape from the norm.   A place that can be spectacular but not because of any grandiose thing but because you find the grandiose there in everyday living.  This is where more of your dreams incidentally come to fruition by simply doing life there.  I love these spots.

I love it even more when I've met with God in those spots.  Then its cemented as a significant spot. 
It could be a great thought or conversation or moment with friends or a project finally completed, but it’s hard if not nearly impossible to erase the place and moment where you know you have seen or met with God in a real way.  It's hard to erase the places that feel like home.

Everywhere I live I search for local spots.


There he built an altar... because it was there that God revealed himself to him
G35:7

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

“How did I have so much more capacity in college than I do now?”

Invisible Responsibilities...
We can be so blind to how much invisible responsibilities weigh.

It’s different when the buck stops at you.
When you are the point person instead of living under someone else’s umbrella.

We might ask, “How did I have so much more capacity in college than I do now?”
We didn’t.
Actually, other point leaders above us held the invisible pressures of responsibility while we developed and took on partial responsibilities underneath.

This is the professor thinking through how the class flows in addition to his content preparation.  This is you leading a hundred teens or leaders but under another director or pastor who oversaw all of the conference or church bills and coordination that you would've drowned in.  This is being able to earn and spend money as a teen while not having to carry the full pressure of the whole family and mortgage. 

There can be this false sense of how great we are growing up without knowing or acknowledging how much invisible responsibilities are being held by someone else until we become the point person.  Until we become independent.  Until we become the point leader where the buck stops.

This is one reason why a youth pastor with a group of 300, might start as a lead pastor of a group of 75 people.  It’s a big jump carrying the weight of the whole church family rather than a certain group and ministry budget underneath a pastor’s lead of the entire budget and vision.
           
I think this invisible factor makes life extra hard after college
one of the unexpected parts of growing up that people don’t see is the invisible weight of being the point person.

If a senior pastor who did absolutely nothing but carry the weight of his title and expectations, I believe this alone holds an invisible responsibility and greater weight than most could ever imagine or experience anywhere else.

We take for granted growing up being under the umbrella of our leadership… parents, teachers, pastors, bosses, etc.  From underneath, we pridefully tell our pastors/parents/bosses/teachers what they need to do differently, but 90% of the time we would personally fail to jump the gap if we tried because we underestimate or don’t know the invisible responsibilities they carry.

We must be strong and realize as we “back track” after college into building our independent lives and careers, that we didn’t backtrack. 

It’s just now we carry the invisible responsibilities as we continue to grow and mature past where we once were before.

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.  Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree (with such big branches), so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.
(Mk 4:32/ Matt 13:31-32)

God, help me to accept the growth curve from living under someone else's shade to creating shade for others.