Stuff I Enjoyed This Week
Here are a few things I read this week and enjoyed – thought I’d share them with you…
This post from Carlos Whittaker on his website Ragamuffin Soul on “scare tactics.” Here’s the… Read More
Category "Life With God"
Maybe Disappointment Is OK After All
I wish things in my life had been different.
By different, I guess I mean easier and less disappointing.
I wish my one set of grandparents hadn’t rejected my family when I was in elementary school. I wish my other grandmother, the good one, wouldn’t have died so early from lung cancer. And I wish I wasn’t the one to find my good grandfather, hours after his heart attack, dead on the floor in his house.
I wish my younger brother wouldn’t have left home when he did. I wish we had a better relationship.
I wish my sister’s husband wouldn’t have cheated on her. I wish he would have been a good husband and father. And I wish they could have made it work.
I wish Shari and I could have had more children.
I wish the friends who I thought “really got me” would still be part of my life instead of leaving me.
I wish the ministry leaders I’ve admired for so long would have been proud of me, or at least noticed me.
I wish my mom didn’t have cancer.
There’s more too, but I won’t bore you with the details.
We all have “I wish things in my life had been different” lists. They contain painful memories, disappointments, personal hurt, broken relationships, reversals of fortune, unmet expectations, and loss.
Although I have plenty of things that I wish had been different in my life, I cannot go back and change them…
And they have made me who I am today—scars and all… Read More
When God Disappoints
Life is disappointing.
Things don’t work out the way we dreamed they would. Hopes are crushed; expectations go unmet.
And we press on. Disappointed? Yes. Out of the game? Not today.
I am well-versed in disappointment.
In my own experience, the most difficult kind is when God disappoints.
Can we talk about this?
Unanswered prayers
Apparent absence
Unprotected from terrible pain
Simple Bible verse formulas that don’t work – for me anyway
Blessings going to the undeserving while I get nothing for all my efforts
My guess: I’m not alone. You’ve felt this too… Read More
Life Is Disappointing
Life is disappointing. There, I said it.
I don’t mean, in the final analysis when everything is added up, that the score card of life is saturated with disappointment to the point where nothing else is detectable.
But I think it’d be a cover-up to say that disappointment isn’t there. It is there. And I know it well.
Life isn’t all disappointment. It is deeply disappointing, and it is also richly rewarding. It is full of success and sorrow, victories and defeats, progress and set-backs…
Perhaps my experience is unique. Maybe everyone else is living disappointment-free.
That last line was sarcasm.
Life is disappointing… Read More
Sunday Shout Outs
This is a little something new from me – Sunday Shout Outs. The following are some blog posts that I particularly enjoyed or benefited from recently, so I’m sharing them with you. Enjoy!
This post from Jonathan Martin: Feeling At Home In My Smallness. By the way, if you haven’t picked up his book Prototype, do yourself a favor and get it… Read More
The Honesty And BS Graph
Shari and I have these friends, let’s just call them Jackie and Dave, who we keep talking about wanting to drop in on or invite ourselves over to stay with them for a night or two.
We’ve been friends for years. Dave even sang in our wedding.
Jackie and Dave hold this unique position in our lives – they are the safest people we know.
By safe, I mean they love us unconditionally. We can tell them anything and it won’t change how they treat us. They’re not threatened by questions or doubts or tangents or whatever latest-greatest idea I’ve bought in to. They are safe. Safe to talk to, safe to open up with and share what’s really going on. Safe to be real with.
We don’t have to pretend around them. Our conversations are honest and there’s no BS. Because we can speak honestly and vulnerably, there’s no need for clichés.
This is why we keep talking about wanting to visit them. They live a couple hours away now, but the drive is worth the reward: a safe place with safe people. I think it’s time to plan a trip… Read More
I Want To Be Honest, But Not Really
A lesson I learned early on as a young leader was this: “Be honest, but not really.”
The truth is, I was naive. I hadn’t learned the ropes yet. And I certainly didn’t know all the written and unwritten rules.
So when my pastor, who was visibly thrilled about a ministry event that had just taken place asked me, “Wasn’t that THE BEST EVER Brian?” I didn’t know only one answer would be acceptable… Read More
Honest People Scare Me (And I Think I’m Starting To Like It)
Honest people scare me.
Maybe it’s because I believe that famous Jack Nicholson line from A Few Good Men, “You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!”
Or maybe it’s because I’m a control freak and allowing someone to say what they really think is handing over the controls to them. And who knows what they might say? Scary!
Speaking of honest people… Read More
Shine Bright Like A Diamond
Not every song gets stuck in my head. Certain ones do…
Like Rihanna’s “Diamonds.”
If I hear it, I’m probably going to be humming, whistling, or singing it all day.
Shine bright like a diamond. Shine bright like a diamond. Shine bright like a diamond. We’re beautiful, like diamonds in the sky.
Rihanna didn’t write the song—Australian recording artist Sia Furler did. I doubt Sia was thinking of Philippians 2.15 when she wrote Diamonds.
But honestly, Philippians 2.15 is what I think of every time I hear the song.
Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.
I can almost hear the Apostle Paul… Read More
Three Grace Goals
Get close to Jesus and you will discover what grace is all about.
Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. —Jesus (Matthew 11.29 MSG)
Here are 3 grace goals:
1. Be grace-conscious. Think grace. Talk grace. Be aware of it and thankful for it.
2. Be grace-motivated. Let grace fuel and empower you to love God, love people, and love life.
3. Be grace-givers. Let others in on it. The worst kind of hoarding is grace-hoarding. Leak grace everywhere. Grace frees us to take our eyes off ourselves and allows us to invest ourselves in others. Everyone needs grace. Be on the distribution team!
