Empathy | Charlottesville & Harvey
Imagine that you let me borrow your new car. You love your car. It’s beautiful. I tell you I will return it to you the next day. As I pull into your driveway the next day to drop your car off, you notice that the driver side is torn to
Starlight.
I had a surreal moment tonight. I was playing basketball at the gym by myself, something I do often nowadays. It’s my recharge time. It’s my time to step away from the weight of my responsibilities. Tonight was different though. I felt like I wasn’t alone. I actually felt like
Circumstances Pt. 2
This is a continuation of my post on Circumstances from a few days ago. In my last post I talked about the opportunity we have to choose joy in all circumstances. Today I want to talk about another opportunity we have. The opportunity to change our circumstances. While I do believe
Circumstances
Yesterday I saw something that really struck a chord with me. I was stuck in traffic on the highway because of a wreck up ahead. I became aware of the people around me for some reason. The first person that caught my attention was a lady on her phone. She
Work | Life Balance
I have this problem. I have 2 notebooks. The first is one that I use during work hours to jot notes down throughout the day. I am a Product Manager by day, so there are tons of things I just can’t trust my brain to retain, so I write a
When I’m my best self
I’ve been doing some soul searching lately. Honestly, I have felt a bit off for quite some time now. I can’t really put my finger on when this change happened, but I can clearly look back to a time in my life where I feel like I was a much
Living to your full potential
The 2015 NBA Finals just finished up last week, and I caught myself seeing more than just some guys playing a game with a ball on the tv. This year, I noticed a select few individuals that really stood head and shoulders above the rest. There is a popular video
Imposter Syndrome
As a web developer, my greatest struggle is believing in my knowledge and worth. No matter how much my skill level may increase, it seems as though it’s never good enough. There is always someone out there that knows more than I do, or can do the things I do
Hang the Picture
Today I did something amazing; I hung a poster I got for Christmas up in my office. It was pretty awesome. I know it may not seem like as great an accomplishment as I’m making it out to be, but all jokes aside, it was a pretty big deal to
Overwhelmed
I have a confession. Sometimes I get really overwhelmed with life. There are just so many freakin things to do. Not only are there a ton of chores that need to be completed, but then theres all the other categories in life like reading, learning new things, eating healthy, working
Power in Choice
Lately my wife and I have been spending a lot of time talking about our will. I’m not talking about the kind of will where you list who all your stuff is gonna go to, I’m talking about the mind/will/emotions kinda will. Specifically we have been talking about the power
Kingdom of God
Today I went to class 3 of 5 in the Foundations of Freedom series. This class is designed to help us focus on the Kingdom instead of our problems. So often we can walk into a freedom class or a church for that matter with our problem as the focus.
Levels of Change
This week I went to the second Foundations of Freedom class, Levels of Change. This is probably my favorite class. After learning who you are in class 1, Levels of Change breaks down the way you walk out the process of changing who you are. Environment Behavior Capabilities Beliefs Identity
A Kingdom Parable
Yesterday I went to the first Foundations of Freedom class at Gateway. It’s a familiar class for me, I’ve been a hand-full of times and read the story in Bob Hamp’s book a hand-full more.
The thing I love about that story is that I get something new from it every time.
Bob Hamp has done an amazing job painting the picture of the Gospel in the simple story of a lost acrobat. The story is about a child that was born into a family of the greatest acrobats to ever live. Tragically the boy is lost when he is only a baby. In his teens he finally finds out the truth about who he is, and what he was put on the earth to do.
The story is about his parents finding him, but even more so about him finding himself. My words wouldn’t begin to do this story justice, so you can listen to it here, or read about it here.
Here and Now
This weekend I went out with a couple of my close friends. That 24 hour period was one of the best I’ve had in quite some time. Typically I’d have more than a few photos on my iPhone to prove my point, or at least try to. I made a decision this weekend though. I decided that I wanted to be present the whole weekend. Part of that was deciding not to pull the ol’ camera out quite as many times, or at all if possible.
You’re No Better Than Them, & I’m No Better Than You
I have a confession.
I have a really hard time with people who think they know it all. Like a really hard time. You know, the people that are so sure of things that liquid judgement spews from their sureness. The type of people that know for sure What Jesus Would Do in a situation, or how he would treat someone. I have a hard time with those people because they tend to remind me of the Pharisees.
Why Am I Not Happy – Things Happy People Do
We all know people that aren’t happy. We all have someone in our life that just seems to never be satisfied or in a good mood. That person may be you. Have you ever asked yourself, ‘why am I not happy?’ Below are some things that I’ve learned happy people do. Try tackling this list by adding a few to the way you live every week.
Eating My Way Away From God
I read an interesting post on Facebook today by Don Miller. He was talking about the 3 sins that tempt him most. I admire his vulnerability to open up like that to Facebook, but more so to open up like that to himself. It was a short simple post, but it really got me thinking. I need to give you a little background to bring you up to speed on this post.
Is God Always the Same?
Has your view of God ever changed? Do you see him the same way you have always seen him?
‘God never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.’ You’ve heard that right? That’s by no means a new saying. Though I wholeheartedly agree with that saying, it frightens me quite a bit.
Once an Orphan, Now a King
Lately God has been reminding me that I’m no longer an orphan. Sometimes I forget and need to be reminded.
God has been coating his reminders with globs of grace. It typically sounds something like, ‘Son, you aren’t an orphan anymore. Remember that I adopted you and made you my own. You don’t need to fend for yourself anymore. You don’t have to fight for things like you use to.’
Healing in the Bible (part 2)
The first time we see Jesus perform any type of healing comes in Matthew 4:23, NLT.
Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness.
Healing in the Bible (part 1)
The first place I see mention of healing in the Bible is in Genesis chapter 20. This actually caught me off guard. I figured the first healing would be early in Jesus’ ministry.
So in Genesis 20 Abraham prays to God and God heals King Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Before this, Abraham shows up and tells Abimelech that his wife Sarah is actually his sister. He does this because Sarah is very beautiful and Abraham is afraid that Abimelech will kill him to take Sarah for himself. Looking at the details of this story is a bit confusing.
Healing References
Here is a list of resources I will be using during this series. I’m sure I will add to it, but at least this gives you an idea of where I will be looking.
Healing
I’m about to embark on something that I have never done before…a blog series. The topic…Healing.
I know, you’re probably thinking I should pick something a little easier to tackle with my first swing a doing a series, but honestly, I’m doing this for me more than I am for you.
All that being said, my goal is to tackle the topic of Healing. I will do this in 3 ways.
When the Lion Shows Up
I’m currently reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by the amazing C.S. Lewis. It has been a really fun way for me to escape from the realities of my world and into the fantasies of the land of Narnia. I’m beginning to realize though that I have that quite backwards.
As I read more and more I am overtaken by the way that Lewis paints the story of the gospel in such an incredible and inviting way. In the story, the youngest brother, Edmund unfortunately ends up in the captivity of the evil Queen. You see, the land of Narnia has been cursed for a very long time, since King Aslan left the scene. All of Narnia is in a constant season of Winter, without ever reaching the time of Christmas.
Focus
As I age I learn more and more how important focus is. More specifically what we focus on. Today God whispered to me. He said, ‘what you have been saved into is more important than what you have been saved out of.’
This rocked me to the core. Christians spend so much time talking about what God has saved us from and what he could save you from if you would just confess him as Lord. That’s all great, but why not focus on what we are entering into.
Just Do It In Love
“If I could speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” Romans 13:1
We hear this verse all the freakin time. I wish we would apply it half as often as we quote it.
Take a second and think about what Paul is actually saying. Even if he speaks the same as the angels, if he doesn’t have love he simply annoy you. No matter how truthful our words may be, without love covering them, they will not be received.
Speak Life not Death
‘Let there be light.’ God spoke something into existence with that statement. Why didn’t He say ‘Let there be no more darkness’? Instead of addressing the thing that was already there, He spoke to the thing He wanted to have life.
Maturity
So I was thinking today about where I am at in my life versus where I was, say, 2 years ago. I am in a growing stage currently. As I realized I was in a growing stage I began to get frustrated. ‘I have already been in a growing stage’, I said to myself. Then someone else joined the conversation.
God gave me a great revelation about the frustration I was facing. He began to talk to me about the maturation process of a baby, specifically; crawling, walking and running.