Archives For grace

Lighten Up

May 6, 2013 — Leave a comment

Special Guest Post from my wife Starr. She is the mother of my 3 children, and the woman I've been married to for almost 15 years! If you like this post, then you can just imagine how genuinely blessed I am to share a house with this woman everyday.

I was agitated. I had a long day at work. The lasagna I made took 4x as long to make and clean up than it did to eat, and no one was even all that impressed by it.

I was busy getting the last of dinner put away before we needed to jet out the door to get to my 5th grade son Ryan’s baseball game. As I rinsed the final dish I said to my 1st grade daughter, “Lauryn, I need you to brush your hair and get your shoes on your feet. Right now. We’ve gotta go.”  I ran upstairs to toss a load of clothes in the dryer and pull on my shoes.  Jog back down the stairs… to see Lauryn still sitting in the middle of the living room floor.  Hair a mess.  No shoes.  Clearly day dreaming.

The agitation I mentioned in paragraph one had now escalated.

I stopped. Looked at her. And thought, “I cannot think of a consequence for her at this moment.  My brain is fried.  I am annoyed.  I am late.  She is not ready to go.  What consequence is appropriate here….other than letting loose with the “Are you KIDDING me right now?!?!” speech that I wanted to spew all over her messy-headed self.  In my agitation, I was baffled as to what I should even say or do.

Then, in that still small voice, I hear the Lord say “If anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask the Father who gives graciously to all without finding fault.”

Okay then, Lord.  I need some help here.  I need some wisdom.

Then, “Look at her.”

I see her, Lord.  She’s shoeless with messy hair and she is making me late.

“Look again. Look.”

I see her, Lord.  Okay, yes.  Yes…. [deep breath] I see.  She’s seven, and precious, and caught up in her own sweet world that’s full of innocent daydreams. But Lord, she clearly disobeyed.  I told her to brush her hair.  Find her shoes.  She didn’t.  What now?

“Grace.”

Grace?

“Yes. Grace.  Lighten up.  She can put her shoes on in the car, and the baseball fields don’t require combed hair for entrance. It’s okay.  Take a breath, and enjoy her.  Gather her up sweetly, guide her with shoes in hand to the car, and go watch your boy play some baseball.”

Oh. Okay. Yes. I guess I can do that.

 

———-

image-4

At the ball fields, a hat covering up that unbrushed hair!

And so off we went. The Holy Spirit gifted me with a change of heart: From agitation…to enjoyment. From wanting to discipline her (not for her benefit, but because I was annoyed)….to extending grace.  He is so, so good to answer when we call to Him. Sometimes the answer saves the mood of the entire evening. I so enjoyed riding to baseball singing along to the radio together, rather than spending the drive lecturing!

Obviously, I am all for kids learning to be quick to obey, and I expect that my kids respect me by doing what I ask. But I’m grateful for a God who sees the whole picture and knows when a mom needs to be reminded to just take a breath and lighten up. Sometimes, it’s just a pair of shoes.

 

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Friday Bag #25

February 22, 2013 — Leave a comment

The Friday Bag

The Power of DuckTales - “DuckTales, the most successful show of Disney’s short-lived television-animation renaissance—and a show that kicked off a brief interest in syndicated afternoon animation from a host of media companies—has mostly disappeared from the limelight,”

 

OpenDNS - The Cliff Family is giving this a try this week. It’s a small attempt to make the Internet safer for our entire family.

How I Have Stayed in Church for 26 Years -  “I am often asked by so many people, especially ministers, “How have you stayed in one church or ‘survived in the same church’ for 26 years?” Through God’s grace and grace alone have we been able to do this.”  // Love this insightful look at longevity.

 

So proud to be a part of such a special place this past December. Be Rich 2012.

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Redemptive Decisions

June 5, 2012 — Leave a comment

Redemption is defined as the act of buying something back, or paying a price to return something to your possession.  If speaking to my kids, I’d say that redemption is when something has been lost, stolen, or broken; and then we make it all right again by finding it, recovering it, or fixing it.  As a believer the word redemption refers to me, and tells the story that  I’ve been the token in a redemption process.

Redemption always involves going from something to something else. In this case it is Christ freeing us from the bondage of the law to freedom of a new life in him. (source)

Redeemed from a law I could never fully obey, and moved up into a new life and new relationship with the God that offered me grace and forgiveness.  This is basic theology, but how does it affect our lives as leaders?  How would the foundation of redemption apply to how I lead leaders.

1. Take the time to listen to those you lead. The redemptive leader of leaders always takes time to let what needs to be said, be said. When we listen first, we give ourselves the space to have a redemptive reaction. There are times that as a leader you are in the place of helping others go from something to something else, and it often times comes after listening.

2. Pray for those you lead. How often do you spend quality time praying for the professional and spiritual lives of those you lead? When we submit our authority position to time in prayer, then the Holy Spirit can lead us into the conversations that helps us take others from something to something else.

3. Put grace at the center of your authority. As the leader, you have the right to lead.  You have the ability to control and dictate the expectations of the people you lead, it’s a fact. Yet, as the redemptive leader you have to let grace and humility be at the center of your conversations. When grace is in the middle, it lets our teams know that our goal is much more than what our own abilities will allow us to do.

Luke 1:27-28
At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

 

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The Gospel in Everyday Life

June 4, 2012 — 2 Comments

I love the reality of the Gospel, and can spend hours and hours speaking of the powerful thoughts that consume me as I reflect on what the Gospel is.  If that sounds like a churchy word, then I’m sorry.  I know there is some confusion of what the “Gospel” is versus what “Religion” is.  I love how Tim Keller describes it:

The gospel is, therefore, radically different from religion. Religion operates on the principle: “I obey, therefore I am accepted”. The gospel operates on the principle: “I am accepted through Christ, therefore I obey.”

To me the “Gospel” is the reality that I am unable (on my own) to live up to a standard set by God, yet while I was short of this standard He made a way for me to be forgiven.  It’s in this grace and forgiveness that I find my relationship with God based.  Grace and forgiveness are the pillars of the Gospel.  I can assure you that I’ve done a bunch of good in my life.  I’ve taken in orphans, fed the homeless, shared the message of Christ with the lost, loved my family, and stayed faithful to those I serve.  However, none of that makes me any more eligble for God’s grace than anyone else.  It’s the gospel that gives me my right to be a son of the Most High, and consider myself part of this family. It’s the Gospel that motivates me to live a life that reflects the gift given me in Jesus Christ.

When I serve and when I lead, the Gospel should be reflected in all things.  The idea that grace “rules the day” should be reflected in the ways I treat others, and in the legacy I’m leaving.

Colossians 3:3 “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

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Orange: The Messy Gospel

April 26, 2012 — Leave a comment

Last night the Orange Conference was kicked off with a great message from Reggie Joiner about the messiness of living the Gospel in today’s world.  I know that many blog posts related to what a speaker says at a conference are just a synopsis, and that’s allright; but the message last night was something my family and I have been living through for over a year.

When we chose to live out the gospel through fostering kids in our community, we couldn’t have known then just how messy and painful it would be.  Here are thoughts and things heard last night as it relates to the Gospel and it’s messiness.

The gospel is messy and painful. What we are compelled to do, is something that is messy. Collide with humanity.

  1. I can’t do what I do, without getting messy.
  2. It’s gonna be messy, because Jesus couldn’t have done what He did without getting messy.
  3. Jesus always challenged. It made things messy.

The gospel connects us all to those who believe. (This is what makes environments like Orange such a fun place to be.)
Jesus didn’t live a sinless life to set a good example. He lived sinless, so he could die for us. // Boom!  This is really great.

  • There is no way to live the gospel without getting messy.
  • Disciples were willing to do the difficult, because they had watched Jesus get messy.
  • There is no way to make disciples without them getting messy.
  • If my kids don’t get messy, I’m not equipping them to live the gospel.
  • I’ve got to help kids see the church as much bigger and expansive than the single one we attend.

We have a Gospel that is paradoxical and mysterious. Grace and Truth. Faith and Works.
Its time to acknowledge the tension of the Gospel and Theology.

Humans are the Living Sacrifice… Because we keep crawling off the altar.

  • Trust a God bigger than our Theology. Tension is necessary. Tension creates balance.
  • Engage In a Gospel that invites us into a bigger story.
  • Gospel is messy, because the cross was messier.

If you’ve never been to the Orange Conference, than take some time and see if it’s a place you could be next year in 2013!

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