Climb for Captives 2009

Climb for Captives 2009 from Climb for Captives on Vimeo.

Classical Music and A Moving Message

This one really resonates with me and what I believe is a call on my life to empower others.
Thanks to Scott Harris for the tip on this video.

[ree-kroo-des-uhns] *

After a few months of little to no posts I have decided to start posting again.  It has been intentionally quite during this time.  A significant amount of internal processing has been taking place that needed to move from mud to concrete before it starting hitting pages like this. 

A redesign is in order and will soon follow as well.

This is a great season of life.  Full of challenges.  Every day as a matter of fact, yet very invigorating and exciting. 

A few certain things:

- Jesus is Lord!

- My wife Tanya is the most amazing wife.  Her patience with me far surpasses the amount of patience she feels capable.  It must be a gift. 

- Our daughter Abby is the most amazing little girl I have ever met.  The other day I said, "Abby, you love singing don’t you?" she replied, "Yes daddy, and I love praying for people too."  WOW!  Not even three.  Love her tender little heart.

- Jesus has brought incredible people into my life.  I am surrounded by people who are great friends, gifted leaders, passionate followers of Jesus and they are generous with me. 

- I LOVE the church and the group of His church he has called me to lead, LATR.  We are growing in health and I am very excited about the next steps as well as the big picture. 

I am a very blessed man.  Very blessed. 

 

*

re⋅cru⋅des⋅cence /ˌrikruˈdɛsəns/

Show Spelled Pronunciation [ree-kroo-des-uhns]
–noun
breaking out afresh or into renewed activity; revival or reappearance in active existence.

Soul Pancake

A buddy of mine turned me onto a new site by Rainn Wilson from The Office. It is called SoulPancake. Very interesting site. Their goal is to talk openly and honestly about faith and philosophy. As they say “Chew on life’s biggest questions.”

It is an interesting read and they use some very creative ways to spark dialogue.

It is not a site about Christianity and no I have not read every post and comment to make sure there is nothing questionable. But it is real people talking about real stuff. Which can be quite refreshing.

From Coffee Shop to Community

I am starting to get more clear pictures of some of the dreams God has been brewing in me for years.  The core remains but the picture might look a little different.  One of my passions has been to have my primary workspace be a public space.  Rather than creating an oasis from culture for a church office, creating an oasis within culture as an office.  I have always enjoyed working in coffee shops and have had some of my most inspired and inspiring conversations, breakthroughs and ideas come from this environment brainstorming with people who are not all employed by the same employer.  I love the creative vibe of a community space as well as the relaxed non-corporate feel.  

I have always thought this meant LATR would open a coffee house rather than invest in office space.  

I think we will.  

But I think phase one may look different.  Like I said, the core philosophy and practice will remain but the application may look different.  

Jeremiah and I are dreaming of some potential here in Redmond to reshape the way people work together.  My heart is to build a community which would not otherwise come together so they may experience change and be empowered to play a role in global change.  

We shall see.  

I will shoot out glimpses every now and then.  Who knows where we will end up, but the journey is getting more and more fun all the time.  

“To him who is able to do immeasurably more than anything we can ask or imagine…”  Right?

Soft Heart and a Strong Back

I heard this phrase recently and for the life of me I can not remember where.  It has been stuck with me for some time. 

In our society we frequently see men at one end of the spectrum.  They either poses a very tender heart and are easily swayed by emotion or very hard workers with no emotional connection to any people.  Not even family. 

Jesus paints a picture of a man strong in conviction who is willing to die for truth and as he said, "lay down his life for his friends." Yet in the same man we find someone who is tender with children, compassionate to widows and a friend to the unloved.  In him we find this beautiful blend of a strong back, willing to carry the responsibility given him by the father and a soft heart, open to the voice of God and full of compassion and love.

I have been processing this line in relation to my family.  With my wife and daughter how do I demonstrate that I am willingly and capably carrying my God given responsibilities and at the same time tender in my heart toward Him and them.  Do they know that I am willing to do whatever it takes to protect and provide for them as well as give them the center of my earthly affection.  As men we often give our work the majority of our affection and bring home scraps to our family.  I see young men and women all around struggling to find a new balance, unlike the model given by their fathers.  My father’s generation is one of demonstrating love through provision rather than words and affection.  There is an unusual encouragement and strength that a father brings through this model of hard work and soft heart.   

As I seek to be strong in the right areas and soft in others, I find that time spent with Jesus fuels both.  As I read scripture he not only solidifies my convictions he brings a tenderness in my heart that is much more focused and intentional.  I find myself stronger in passions and more tender with compassion. 

This has immense impact on how we lead a church.  More on that later. 

Maximize Twitter

One of my favorite entrepreneurs and tech evangelists, Guy Kawasaki, has a good post about getting your twitter re-tweeted.  If you are looking to get the most of out twitter it is worth the read.  Also, consider checking out his blog often; blog.guykawasaki.com

Better, Stronger, Faster

I recently watched the independent documentary “Better, Stronger, Faster” about the prevalent use of performance enhancing drugs in sports. It was a very interesting film to say the least. The FDA warnings for vitamin C are more scary than those involved in most performance drugs. As a society we get upset with athletes who cut corners or have an unfair advantage through enhancers. We get frustrated that their success is not a result of the combination of natural gifting and hard work, but a third element introduced into their system.

Why is it then that we have such an aversion to the natural character development we read about in scripture. In our spiritual lives we so often want something to help us bypass the discipline of time and energy invested in pursuit of Jesus and reach some unrealistic instantaneous level of spiritual development.

People run to “revival” experiences in search of immediate life transformation. With hopes of getting some “re” into their once “vived” life they search for the latest movement and make the trek to bask in the presence at yet another altar. I personally have had some very deep and transformational experiences like this. Shoulder to shoulder with close friends, broken before a holy God. These experiences leave his fingerprints on our very soul. Yet, too often we see people disappointed with the lack of immediate transformation and rather than a life forever changed we find a life forever stuck in the cyclical natural of revival seeking. I speak from personal experience. Because I have had these experiences, I see great value in them and at times have even longed for something similar in order to refresh my soul.

What I have experienced though is that often these experiences alone, with no true submission to Jesus as Lord and no death to self, simply become like gasoline on wet wood. Burns bright and big for a moment until the gas burns off and then what is left is still just wet wood. Not much unlike it was prior to the fire. The heat is pleasing for a moment, but in order to get more fire you need more gasoline. If the wood itself is never consumed the heat will continue to be short lived and of little lasting value.

Scripture talks often of the value of being faithful, even through trials and persecution.

On the day of Pentecost we see Peter step up and deliver a powerful evangelistic message that leads to literally thousands of people following Jesus. I forget that he had years of walking daily with Jesus. Some BIG failures, even denial of Jesus. Post resurrection Jesus finds Peter and charges him to feed the sheep. By the time Peter gets to Acts 2 he has walked with Jesus for years (on water as well), seen the risen Christ, been empowered to lead the church and charged to feed Jesus sheep. Empowerment was one step in a life devoted following Jesus.

I desire to be bigger, stronger and faster spiritually. I would be thrilled should Jesus choose to take me to a new place spiritually in a miraculous and instantaneous way.

I personally will no longer seek short cuts or temporary fixes. I am in this for the long haul. I know that there is a more Jesus like me down the road. He is a result of choosing to follow Jesus as Lord every day of my life.

I want fire that burns deep and hot and long.

Our Little Girl

We are blessed with an amazing little girl. Tanya will often send me pictures during the day while I am at work. Here are a couple from this morning.

This is her with her little doll house.  The dad is working on is laptop.  Hmm… Wonder where she got that idea.  

Tanya and Abby are outside playing in the snow right now.  I love getting the quick update pics while they are out and about throughout the day.  Helps me feel more connected.  

Win 7 Update

Still loving the new features I have discovered so far.  Win 7 has some cool new ways of dealing with the system itself as well as good productivity items like very pretty shortcuts and quick jump features.   Stopped working on iSight and Bluetooth.  A little sad, I was given a slick little Bluetooth mouse yesterday and have yet to get it to pair up with Win 7.  I think it is a Windows / Mac issue but I will have to mess with those later tonight.