You are your own leader.

I have never been the type of person to specifically talk about leadership. I actually think there are plenty of persons who discus it enough. If you want to hear about leadership, you can simply go to iTunes, type in  leadership, and find hundreds of results.

My wife is taking a human resources course, and one of the course assignments is a 20 page paper. The reading associated with this paper is full of self-assessments. Some of these assessments have to do with leadership, listening, communicating, and other things associated with human relations, and professional relationships. After reading her paper (not the book... keep this in mind) I found some generalized information that scared me.

I think there is a notion, that is becoming a trend, fad, and movement, that says, "leaders look like_________. If you want to be a leader, you need to be ________." The word "Leader" has a definition that is "a person who leads," which comes from Merriam Webster's online dictionary. While this is not the most comprehensive definition of leadership, I honestly think we need to leave it at that. I know there are traits that can assist in leadership, but DO NOT CHANGE YOURSELF TO FIT A MOLD.

God crafted you in a specific way to do a specific thing, be a specific person, and lead a specific way. To change yourself to fit another person's opinionated mold, I fear, would almost be telling God that HE got it wrong and you, the person leader, can do it better.

So, whether you are a loud leader, a screaming leader, a silent leader, a Type A leader, or a Type B leader, JUST LEAD. Lets keep it simple and lets fit the mold that God has set for us individually. He has made us complex as it is.

MIX TAPE PLAYA!!!

Do you remember when cassette tapes were huge?
Do you remember when you could record radio music onto your cassette tape?
What did you do?

I'll tell you what you did.

You would put the tape into the cassette player right before you went to sleep, you would hit record, then you would go to sleep. In the morning you would listen to the entire tape, a couple of hours worth of music. As you listened, you would hope that your song, or your jam, would be on that tape. Sometimes it would work. Sometimes you would have to start all over. (but it was okay because you could record over all of that crappy music from before) If you were lucky your song would be found in the middle of all of that other music.


Isn't that how God works sometimes. We constantly reach for him. We plug ourselves into him, and at the right moment we arrive and hear exactly what we need and want to hear. In the middle of all of that, we don't ignore the music that is around us. We hear some great jams along the way, but God will always lead us to our jam!!!

5 stages of grief

Have you ever heard of the five stages of grief, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance?

Those who are soon to meet their last breath usually have these symptoms, or expressions of emotion, before they get there. At the same time, it is not uncommon for loved ones of the soon departed to go through these emotions as well.

I have a thought.

I have had a particular dream for several years, since I started college in 2003. In recent history, I came to the realization that this dream was about to take it's last breath, and I wen through these same symptoms. Truly, I went through all of these. You can ask my wife.

So, my thought is this: I think the grief of a dying idea can manifest itself in these same symptoms. Once again, you can ask my wife. I know, in my life, I can trace each one of these symptoms as my idea has approached its last breath.

I accept now that this particular dream may never happen. Upon reaching acceptance, on the other hand, I can now move on to the thing that is next for me.

...My "Sun Stand Still" prayer.

Jesus, in Matthew 7:29 I see that you are one who spoke with authority. I see in Acts 2:41 that, because of your message, thousands grew to have a relationship with you. Christ, help me to speak with authority and reach thousands IN YOUR NAME. I pray that I decrease so YOU may increase!!! There are people who need to know the love of Christ. 

Empower me, like you did with Moses, to lead people closer to you.

Thanksgiving Festivities

I was talking with my wife today and I asked, "I wonder where the tradition of the early, Thanksgiving dinner started." She didn't really know and I didn't know. We gave our guesses, but they were only guesses.

We were shopping that day, and as we were walking in the store, I asked the same question to the occasional grocery store shopper. Wouldn't you know it?!? Every person I asked had no answer. So, I guess we reduce this timeless tradition to, "That's how we've always done it."

My wife and I have decided to break the curse. You can do it too... if you want. We, on the other hand, have decided that DINNERS ARE MEANT FOR DINNER, and it's the same with everything else. Just because it worked in the past does not mean that it will work in the future. This simple fact penetrates ever aspect of life, which includes church, business, traditions, and the like. Venture to be different. The best business and church I know of have done things differently. When everyone else decided to do things the way they have always been done, some pioneer companies decided to do things differently... and it payed off. 

Think about it: Apple, Krispy Kreme, Coach, Self Checkout lines, quibids, Craigslist, Lifechurch.tv, and many more have decided to do it a little different, and everyone thanks them for setting a pioneering example.

Do it different!

My hope... Krispy Kreme = Church

Let me start by saying the following:

The Spirit of Christ can do more than any human can fathom.
The Spirit of Christ does do much more than I can fathom.

My fear is this, on the other hand; there are many who are turned off to the possibility of a relationship with Christ because their childhood, church experience was terrible. I remember growing up in Church, crawling under seats. The truth is that many have a poor church experience, and they say no to that. Because they have said "no" to the church, they end up saying "no" to Christ.

So, this is my hope: I want my church to be like Krispy Kreme. Think about it. Krispy Kreme took the time to make and excellent product, one that some have driven hours for. They then sell that product to the public.

Once again, let me say that church is not something to be sold. It is not a big business. It is something that deserves excellence. Let's make a remarkable church and give that to people. Let's let people find Christ in the excellence of what we do. There are so many churches that settle for a mediocre product. Let's bury that notion, and let's do the AMAZING thing that Christ has called us to do.

We need not to stop dreaming big. God is capable. Believe that!!! 

being safe is RISKY!!!

2 Kings 7:3-5
Now there were four men with leprosy sitting at the entrance of the city gates.

“Why should we sit here waiting to die?” they asked each other. “We will starve if we stay here, but with the famine in the city, we will starve if we go back there. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway.”

So at twilight they set out for the camp of the Arameans. But when they came to the edge of the camp, no one was there!

Here is the truth. Most of us are too scared to reach out and take a chance on our dream because we know what we have right now. THE GREAT TRUTH is that we can abandon the good that we have right now and live in the "great" that Christ has for us with our dream in the future!!!

think about it

i wear sexy underwear!!!

First, let me say that I'm not going to get too graphic. I know some of you may be disappointed. The fact remains, that I like to put on the occasional sexy undergarment, and I have a reason.

I don't want you to read too much into this, but I had an old friend that said, "If you look good, you feel good, and you play good." That last part, he was talking about football. Trust me the sexy panties and football are unrelated. Still, there are times that I need an ego boost; so, I slip on something that I know noone else will see. For some reason, that lifts my spirits, and I feel better. I project better, and I know others notice it, but they do now know why I am at the top of my game. HA HA HA.... there's a reason.

I think there are times that we need to do something serious or something stupid to pick ourselves up. We have two choices; we can be sad, or we can get happy.

Why not get happy?