Mud

We live in a time and a culture where we as a society have a decreased dependency on God. We don’t necessarily need God to meet our everyday needs. Most of us have never had to wonder about where our next meal was going to come from or whether or not we would have a place to sleep that night. As a result, it’s much easier for us to focus on ourselves and to have a limited awareness of God and the fact that he is present in our lives. We are the center of our own universe. Since we are unaware of God, it becomes much more difficult to see Him and to see what it means to live for Him and through Him. Our picture of what it means to even know God can become very muddy.

Our focus is often on the wrong things or even worse yet, much of the time we don’t even have any focus. We have no direction. We are just floating around with no reason, no purpose.

Most people that have no reason or purpose are usually the ones that end up just following the crowd because they don’t have any direction of their own.

(Romans 12:2) Jesus says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world.”

In other words, DON’T FOLLOW THE CROWD! Just because it seems like everybody else is doing it, doesn’t meant that we should do it.

Sometimes our natural inclination is to follow the crowd. I guess we just think that if this big group of people is going in this direction then they must be moving towards something. There must be something great over here since ALL of these people are going in this direction.

God knows us. He knows that we are insecure and that, when given the choice, we are probably going to follow the crowd. But what we take for granted is that the crowd isn’t always moving towards something. In fact, many times the crowd is just a bunch of insecure, scared and selfish people, who have no clue where they are going or why.

“Be transformed by the renewing of your minds.”

We avoid following the crowd when we change the structure of ourselves. As we go through life, who we become is shaped by our environments- by those around us. A lot of times we are taught unhealthy and inaccurate behaviors or ideas. Sometimes we need to un-learn and then re-learn things.

In order for us to renew our minds (un-learn and then re-learn), we have to deconstruct our perceptions. Our perceptions are what shape the lens through which we view the world and if our perceptions are incorrect, there is a pretty good chance that our view of the world is incorrect.

So if we choose not to follow the crowd and un-learn and then re-learn, the mud will be cleared from our eyes and “we will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)

Creativity Is Essential To Life

Genesis 1:1- “In the beginning, God created…..” 

This thought really captures me. The very first thing that God did, before he did anything else, was create.

What He created was the heavens and the earth. This also captures my attention. Life as we know it would not exist without the heavens and the earth. If God hadn’t first created, we wouldn’t be alive.

Creativity is essential to life.

Create something.

Thoughts on creativity

“Every poet and musician and artist, but for Grace, is drawn away from the love of the thing he tells, to love of the telling till, down in Deep Hell, they cannot be interested in God at all but only in what they say about him. For it doesn’t stop at being interested in paint, you know. They sink lower- become interested in their own personalities and then in nothing but their own reputations.”

C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

Big Bob

 

This is my dad. He’s spent the last 25 years showing me what it is to be a man and more specifically how to be an amazing dad. For the last year and a half he has been absolutely busting it, working full time (getting up at 3:30 AM every day) and then going to school all night working on his associates degree. He finished this past Thursday night and we are here in Ohio this weekend to celebrate with him. I respect him more than any other man I have ever met in my life. He is almost 50 years old and has worked at the same job for around 25 years. Most people would be thinking about retirement right around the corner. Not Bob…….

My perfect girl…..

Larkin just turned 3 months old and it is crazy how fast she is changing. Being a dad is one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

Currently Reading…

I know it’s not the most manly thing in the world but if you are getting ready to have a kid, this book is very helpful on a practical level.

FYI

The count down has begun!!! Courtney is due in 4 weeks from tomorrow (April 11) which means that within this month there is very good chance that I will be a dad! I have been excited all along but have been pretty suprised by how freaked out I am feeling all of the sudden. It’s like you know all of your life that at some point you are going to be a parent, but when the time finally comes it just seems impossible to even imagine yourself as that person.

It’s kind of surreal for me knowing how much security that I have always found in my dad and how even as a twenty five year old man I still have to force myself to be an adult and not call him when something goes wrong. When Larkin is born I will be that security to her. I will be the person that makes her feel safe. When she hears a noise at night and thinks that there is a monkey in her closet (that’s what I thought when I was little), I will be the one to check the closet and show her that, in fact, there is no monkey in the closet.

With all that being said, I am feeling overwhelmed, nervous, anxious but mostly just excited.

On a side note, I was able to fit into one of my skinny sweaters today- I got a couple of sweaters last Christmas that I have never been able to wear because  they were too small for me and since I have been running my butt off and have lost 19 lbs. I was finally able to get into one of those dang sweaters.

Marathon Training

 

 

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Distance: 11 miles

Time: 02:10:00

Weight: 202 lbs.

Can’t get enough of her

Addition or Multiplication?

Heard this great quote from John Maxwell the other day:

“Leading followers adds. Leading leaders multiplies.”

Growth can happen when you are leading followers but exponential growth can only happen when you are leading leaders. What sounds better to you, addition or multiplication?