A Journey Through Life with Family, Friends, and Faith
I am going to take a short break from the blogosphere, (I know you probably feel like I already have since my posts have been so sporadic!!), Twitter and Facebook. I have hit a wall on the blog, and need a fresh perspective and some recharging!
See ya on the flip side. (don’t really know what that means, but it kinda sounds cool.)
One thing I wonder about when it comes to listening to people talk about creation and evolution and how old the world is…
If there was no sunrise and sunset until the first day, how would you tell time?
If you were creating a rock, would you create it with no age?
If you were populating a forrest would you populate it with seeds and let them grow, or create full grown trees?
Was the first frog a tadpole? the first butterfly a caterpillar? The first fly a larvae? The first bird an egg?
Was the first Human a baby?
Or maybe God created all of these things with age… Was the first man 30 years old or 20? Was the first goat 10 years old or 2? was the first rock 100 million years old or 2 days? If you can create it, I imagine you can create it in completeness so it doesn’t have to “grow up” it already is…
I wasn’t there so I cannot be sure, but what if age was as much a part of the created’s characteristics as weight, color, texture, content? I believe God could do that… do you? I always wondered…
Last night our church went to our local minor league baseball game. The pitcher threw a perfect game, (I am still unclear on the difference between a perfect game and a no hitter, but whatever), but I think I may have seen three pitches the whole night. There were about 95 people there from our church or friends of people in our church, and I talked to most of them throughout the night. That was the whole reason I went… to talk to people…
At one point I was sitting next to a grandpa that had one grandson on his lap, and the other sitting super close next to him as they were sharing a snow-cone in a cup type thing… I said something like, “this is the best part of the game,” and he said, “I wish I could do this more often,” or something like that, and it was for sure a perfect game for that grandpa!
It was a very satisfying time as I reflect on it today. We did the same thing last year and had 15 people there or so… Most of us want bigger, more, better from life, and as I think about these things, and how far we have come, I am reminded again and again, that God cares more about my relationship with Him than how many people come to our church. There may be a game on the field, but like that grandpa, He is way more interested in hanging out with me than anything else going on… what an amazing God… What a great reminder.
Today I had to mow. It had been about two weeks and we have had plenty of rain, so if I didn’t mow today I would have to use a sickle or a machetti the grass was so tall! I pulled out the weedeater to trim around the tree, fence and metal stuff that keeps the rocks out if the grass. About half way through my electric weedeater started smoking, and not jus a little either. I looked at the eater end and didn’t see anythig (like I would know what to look for anyway!). So I started it again trying to figure out if something was just stuck or if it was a catastrophic failure. At which point it literally burst into flames! I guess I had my answer.
So I pulled ou the mower and began the long and tedious process of cutting foot long wet grass. I hate that because I have to mow a foot at a time, the mowery stalls, and the grass just bends over so it looks like a really bad hair cut with little tufts sticking up all over! I have to go over each row twice and it is painstakingly slow! Not good for someone with my patience level.
But as I reflect on my yard work, I am reminded of how much like life it is. When you life starts to smoke it is a pretty good indication that if you keep going you may experience a catastrophic failure… And sometimes to make progress we have to go over and over thi gs u tip we get them right no matter how much of a hurry we are in. In the end, you may have a tuft or two out of place, but that is what makes us human.
*I typed this on my iPhone using the WordPress app. that apparently doesn’t check spelling, so if there are gross spelling errors, I apologize!
In an interesting podcast I was listening to while running this morning, Seth Godin was talking about the new way marketers need to think about getting their message out. He was talking about how most people don’t want to be spam marketed or targeted by groups in a mass approach. It got me thinking about push verses pull. My iPhone can fetch (pull) my email messages when I tell it to; it goes out to my email server and picks up the messages on demand Some phones push the info to the phone, so whether you want them or not at that time, you are getting your messages. Either way you get the messages, one way you only get them when you want them, the other way they end up on your phone right when they are sent. For me, it is better if I pull the messages because they come when I want them, on my schedule not the senders…
The reason this is important is because for generations marketers have had the push approach. That is why it is called “Mass Media,” because they are sending a message to many people. I believe that the church has had a push approach. You need this now, we have it and we pound you with messages about how to get it. But in the new marketplace of ideas this is no longer valid. People will search out things that they find value in, want more information about, and are ready for…
So what if we created a church that was so interesting, real, and relevant to where people are today they “pulled” information instead of had it “pushed” on them? What if as Christ followers we lived lives that were attractive to others because we loved others, served others and had helpful information that people not only needed, but WANTED!!! They would seek it out willingly, instead of avoiding it because they don’t want it stuffed down their throats… If people really began to see your faith changing you for the better, my money says they would be likely to pull info from you…
I know these pages have been blank the past couple days, and it drives me crazy. I am in one of those phases that my morning routine has gotten me off track. I started a post yesterday, made it about a third of the way through and had to run off to another meeting. And now too, I have to go! someone walked in that I need to catch up with… so I will try again tomorrow!
Yesterday we talked about prayer. It was a powerful discussion and I am very thankful. At the end of the service people wrote down prayers on large tree stakes that we are going to pound into the four corners of the property here to claim this territory for God. I also compared some prayers to twittering to God. It seems that got a lot of people’s attention. We looked at the Lord’s Prayer, and when you think about it, it is only about two twitters long!
I never played baseball, it just wasn’t something I was ever that interested in. Lately though, I have been gaining a new understanding of what it must feel like to be a baseball player. Every Sunday I have to get up in front of a bunch of people and deliver the best message possible. Sometimes I feel like it is a strikeout, sometimes a base hit. I am always hoping that it turns into a home run, but those only come around once in a while, and from what I understand performance enhancing drugs do not work for pastors! The hard part is to go into the next Sunday after you feel you haven’t done your best on the last Sunday! Like a baseball player has to go back to the plate even though he may have struck out the previous at bat, I have to get back up there next time and try to get back on base.
A friend of me recently told me that great baseball players know that the best way to make a difference on the score board is to keep hitting one to two base hits. If they can be consistent, then that is most of the battle. I feel like I am pretty consistent at speaking, but it really de-rails me when I feel like I haven’t delivered my best. At times like these I am always reminded by God that I do it for Him, He loves me regardless of how I think it went, and He can use anything! But the frustration of not getting on base will sure make me practice harder this week – because I know this for sure; I gotta do it again!
How do you deal with the frustration of not doing your best at something and know that you are going to have to do it again soon?
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