7 Tips for Your Days Off

We all long for those special days to relax. The days where we can just get away and take a mental vacation from everything. That R and R time is more than a want; it is a need, yet we rarely find it. Even on days off we still may struggle to rest.  We still may find ourselves too busy to relax and even enjoy life.

Here are 7 tips that you can do on your days off to rediscover rest and reignite you productivity.

1. On days off work, take OFF work – Do the best you can to not bring work home with you physically and mentally. There have been many weekends where I didn’t actually “bring” work home, but I was mentally thinking about it which prevented me from mentally resting. If work isn’t finished, it will have to wait.

2. Family Time– Make your time with family a priority. This means you aren’t thinking about work or about yourself; you are investing in relationships that matter most. Family time should include activities which involve everyone and have lots of laughs. Although I am passionate about music, it isn’t family time when I take my family to the music store to tryout guitars…that is me dragging my family to “me time.” My son is under 2 years old, so our family time looks like  hours of building blocks, playing hide and seek, taking walks together, and going to the park. All of these are activities everyone in my family can do.

3. Apply the Brakes– Know when to slow down. On your days off, find time to do nothing…no chores, no eating, no talking. Take time to clear out your thoughts and concerns. Close your eyes, take slow deep breaths, and meditate on God. He’s the one who invented rest, so taking time to be silent and really focusing on Him will make a huge difference in your ability to rest and find peace.

4. Daydream– Although daydreaming can be counterproductive at work, it is freeing and fun on your days off. If you’re in a relationship, spend time daydreaming together. My wife and I enjoy daydreaming about journeys around the world, exploring other cultures, and building a dream house. It’s just a fun activity that makes you smile together.

5. Read– There are many healthy benefits to reading. Reading helps reduces stress, improves ability to learn and focus, improves mood, enhances memory, and so much more! Not into reading? Try reading just a little at a time.

6. Reflect– Take time to think about your life and about those closest to you. Be slow about it. Focus on the good things in life. Reflection helps us to learn from our past and construct a better platform for our future.

7. Unplug from Technology– Have a smartphone? Ipad? Computer? T.V.? Spend time away from the digital world and embrace the world around you. Give your brain and nerves a digital detox…they will thank you for it and in return be more productive in the work week.

The Cycle of: Time, Change, Adjustment, Uncertainty

Wow, it has been over a month since I’ve posted on here! I cannot believe how fast that time went by. It’s so amazing how all the little things in life just add up and make life busy and make time seem like the Energizer Bunny…you just can’t keep up with it.

When Obama was running for Presidency his campaign slogan was “Change”  and with this campaign he won the election. This is interesting to me because in the secular world (the world of our everyday lives) change is something that is expected or embraced. Although no one really knows what will happen next, we still expect time to move on and things to change with time. In the Church world of Americans, change, for some reason, is not something to be embraced. In fact it would appear to be quite the opposite. This is saddening news.

We all know how fast time is, at least I would assume we do. Along with time comes change and along with change comes adjustment and along with adjustment comes uncertainty. Now if time is fast it also makes change fast as well, does it not? The difficulty people face with change, especially when it is fast, is the adjustment factor. During the adjustment factor our faith gets squeezed like an orange when making orange juice. It’s a time when uncertainty arises and along with uncertainty comes ZERO control and control is what we love. YIKES! How can someone have faith when he is in control of his life and not God? The Bible says that if we have control (meaning we don’t have faith in God) it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God.

Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

 Often times we earnestly seek self and not God if we’re honest. Control is something that lays active in the backs of our mind AND ultimately in the depths of our soul. It is something we don’t carry out in the open but we guard with layers and layers of defense…and control is what God wants. Maybe that’s why God intended life to change so much so fast…so that we do not get caught up in the defeat of our own puny control. So that our faith wouldn’t be in ourselves, but in Him.

Quick Thought on Being Named “Christians”

Last night Rachel and I attended our first small group meeting with our new group. We’re reading/discussing through the book “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan (great book by the way). The discussion we had was about the foreword of that book which was written by Chris Tomlin. What stuck out the most was that the term “Christian” was given to followers of Christ by secular people! Acts 11:26 says that “the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.”

This might not seem to be a shocker to those of you who have read Acts, but can people today look at your life and “name” you Christian? Being a Christian is not something we can claim to be, it is a name given us because of our actions. Are we acting in such a way to others that they can truly say “That is a Christian.”

The love of Christ is OBVIOUS…if people have to guess at what we believe in because our lives aren’t showing it, maybe we need to re-consider who it is we’re following…who it is we’re living for.

Make Believe

During my childhood days I had the most crazy imagination. Every time I set foot outside I was stepping into a new world filled with projections of my imagination. There were indians, robots, ninjas, giants, armies, volcanos, all kinds of hidden traps, and there was always some sort of treasure to find. There was even a bush in our backyard that was hollow in the center that could teleport me through time. Sometimes I would have super abilities like flying, or running fast, or climbing walls. When my friends would come over to play they had crazy imaginations too. Some of them even had imaginary friends that would assist us in our epic battles. Everyday was incredible!

The weird thing about the Christian faith is that it is not so far different. Having a relationship with God closely resembles the relationship with an imaginary friend. He is your captain who has rescued you and now you two fight in this epic battle that if you could imagine to see it, it would blow your mind!

What is really scary about this is that we can mingle faith with imagination. How effective is prayer if you are praying to God as if He is imaginary? The Bible is pretty clear about praying with belief. Matt. 21:22

How real is your salvation if you are just imagining a relationship with God but not actually having one?

The difference between faith and imagination is that faith is REAL (real, as in a tangible thing or object). Maybe you’ve heard or read Hebrews 11:1 before; maybe it’s your first time. The word “assurance” in that verse is the word hypostasis in Greek. It literally means a substance or real being. THAT’S CRAZY, but true.

Maybe we should evaluate our faith and see how much of it is real and how much we are mixing up with imagination.

Maybe we should stop imagining that people are dying and going to hell and do something about it (when I say “maybe” I mean DO IT)

Maybe our prayers aren’t powerful because we are praying with a make-believe faith.

Edited

The last few weeks I’ve been reading through the book of Exodus in the Bible and I am just reminded of how graphic the Bible is. I tried to picture myself being there and it wasn’t pretty. When I came across the part where Moses told the descendants of Levi to kill all the men who chose not to live for God, wether friend or family, my heart fell to my stomach like a rock! Imagine if you were commanded to do the same. Imagine the look of terror and hurt in the eyes of the friend you’re charging at. Imagine how you would have felt to grab hold of a sword with your hand shaking and  knowing what you had to do. And to think, this really happened! It’s not just a made up story.

The Bible is so intense and so graphic I think we would blow chunks if we went back in time and literally experienced it. In some stories we have to water down the details just to make them pleasant enough to listen to. Kind of like a doctor telling you the outcome of a surgery in a summary. If he told me about all the bloody mess I’d run to the bathroom while covering my mouth. I’d rather hear the edited version.

Think about Noah and the ark. Here is the story how we are told in church (Sunday school version in brief)…The world was full of sin; God was going to flood the earth; God liked Noah and his family so God told him to build an ark; God had two of every kind of animal come to Noah; Noah placed the animals in the ark; it rained 40 days and 40 nights; Noah eventually sent out birds to check for land; a one came back with a stick; the ark rested on top of a mountain; when the water went down, all the animals came out; God made a promise to Noah that He would never flood the earth again; God made a rainbow; the end.

And that is how we edit stories from the Bible. That’s how we emphasize it.

Get this…God FLOODED the earth, all of it. Have you been apart of a flood or a mudslide? I haven’t but when I see them on the news I’ll see people wailing for help. I’ll see homes be shattered into pieces as the current takes them down. I’ll see bridges crumble and cars with helpless people in them get washed away. The ENTIRE earth was like this only 1,000 times worse. There was a cry of pain and death around the world! For some reason we edit stuff like this out or at least down play it.

Here’s another one, what about the story, the life of Jesus…do we edit that too? What about the things He said? What about the sufferings He endured? What about the part how He died? What about Him coming back to life? Or would we rather just hear the edited version?

Are we living life in “Edited” obedience?

 

 

 

No Limit

Back this past October I was in a car wreck. Both vehicles were totaled, but no one was seriously injured. (If you’re wondering, No it wasn’t my fault). After the collision when I got my wits together, I called my wife and brother and let them know as calmly as I could what had happened and that I was ok. It didn’t take long for either one of them to arrive. Rachel arrived first  then Nathan. Rachel said that when Nathan arrived he came speeding down the road in his work van and almost hit an officer trying to direct traffic. The officer was waiving his arms and shouted at him to slow down, but as Nathan passed the officer he said, “That’s my brother!”

I am so thankful that I have a wife and a family who is always there for me even when I scare the mess out of them! I must have nearly given Rachel and Nathan a heart attack; heck I almost had one. After the whole incident was over and we left the scene, I couldn’t help to think how blessed I was. For a moment, milliseconds before the collision, I knew I was going to die. Thankfully I was wrong. But what I will never be able to get out of my head is what ran through my head right after I had determined that life was over.

My first thought was how much I’d miss Rachel and who would take care of her. My second thought was a self-judgment, “I didn’t love enough.” Immediately after these thoughts, I was OVERWHELMED by the love of God. I became aware of how great His love was for the world and my heart broke, then I crashed. All this ran through my mind in less than a second. It was intense!

Since then I feel like I live with this continual conviction that just when I feel like I love enough, it’s just the beginning. It continually runs through my mind, “It’s never enough,” “you can give more!” It sounds terrible to feel like you love enough, but it’s true. We are all like this. We entertain the thought about loving more, but usually that’s all it is. We typically won’t change anything, but we must.

NEVER SETTLE for the amount of love you can give! If God had a limit on His love, we’d all be doomed! If love comes from God and is unlimited why do we limit our love for others? or for God?

YOU CAN ALWAYS LOVE MORE.

Shame: What We Are Not

I love stories. The best stories come from old people. Usually the older the person is the more intriguing their stories are, or ridiculous depending who you’re talking to. Every once in awhile, when I get the chance, I’ll visit my grandparents to see how they are doing. Their stories are all so different; even the way we talk is different. When I visit my great grandma we’ll chat sitting in rocking chairs and eat her homemade pickles. When I visit my mom’s parents, we’ll chat while doing yard work or playing pool or another game. When I visit my dad’s dad (papaw), we usually sit out on the porch while he smokes a pipe (he used to anyway).

The one thing they all have in common is that they are all settled with who they are, or at least who they think they are. It doesn’t matter if they are bitter about their life or if they are happy with their life; they have become content with the way they are. Most older people are like this. Younger generations, however, are typically the ones who are trying to figure out their identity or what the heck their purpose is. For the most part, they are never satisfied with who they are. Younger people have a different way of sharing stories than older people. What I mean is that their perspective is different. On one side, the stories are told from a “settled” point of view (happy or bitter, it’s still settled). On the other side, the stories are told from an “unsettled” point of view (happy or bitter, it’s still unsettled).

Old people = settled identity

Young people = unsettled identity

Common sense right? Older folks have lived their life; they’ve seen the good, bad, and ugly. For us who are younger, we still have a ways to go and things to experience, like arthritis  🙂 But I think their is an experience that bridges the divide between all age groups…shame. Everyone has dealt with this in their life. Some people continue to do so and are content to live with it. A friend of mine once said “People would rather stay in familiar pain, than discover unfamiliar love (of God).”

It’s so sad to me when I hear the bitterness in stories that old people share with me, or anyone for that matter. But the saddest stories are the ones told from people who are settled and who have spent their lives defining themselves by their shame. The best “happy ending” stories are the ones where settled people have encountered shame, but do not define themselves by it. They have overcome it.

I could go on, but here’s my point: Don’t let your past become your present identity. Don’t allow shame to control your actions, your perspective. If you are a Jesus follower and you want to know God and know His purpose for you, you’ve got to give up your shame to Him. Understand that we are not designed by God  to be filled with shame or even experience shame. Obviously, because of sin, shame exists and the lie is that we are defined by it; YOU ARE NOT. So whether your settled or unsettled, give up your shame and by His grace, stand before God SHAMELESS.

Romans 5:1-6

Romans 10:10-12

Quick Thought…and be REAL

What an awesome winter day it is in North Carolina! When I got in my car at 8 am it was 54 degrees outside! One third of the country is covered in one of the largest snow storms in history and we are just chillin’ in the warm weather. Not trying to rub it in to all you snow bound folks, but it is so nice right now. I don’t know about you but nice weather really makes me happy so I had to write about it 🙂

This morning I decided to come to my new favorite coffee shop “Robust-ah” for a good drink and to read for a little bit. The book I started reading is called “Christian-atheist.” It’s pretty self explanatory; it’s about believing in God but living as if He doesn’t exist. When I first read that statement I thought to myself, “I believe in God and I live as if He exists.” Do I really? Do you really? If you claim to be a Christian, take a moment and assess yourself. It’s beyond asking yourself “did I sin or not.” I’d just like to make one quick thought for us, a question actually:

Are you living for God part-time?
You can do full-time ministry and be focused on helping others, which is great, but working full-time in ministry while having a part-time relationship with God will result in a disaster. Don’t fool yourself, BE HONEST!

Bubble Mower

When I was about 4 years old my parents got me a bubble mower. I LOVED that thing! There are many things that I don’t remember as a kid but I distinctly remember my own personal bubble mower. Although the bubbles were fun, that’s not what intrigued me. I loved it because I had a mower like my dad’s with the exception that his actually cut grass.

I remember hot summer days when I would wake up and hear dad’s mower running outside. Immediately I’d get up, get dressed, and rush to the basement to get my bubble mower so I could mow with him. Sometimes I would mow behind him in his path and sometimes right beside of him so he could see my mowing progress. Either way, I was as close to him as possible. If he stopped to put gas in the mower, I’d stop and put bubble juice in mine. If he turned left, I’d turn left. If he raised the mower to turn around, I’d do the same. I was so close to him that I would get covered in chopped grass from head to toe.

The Jews used to have a phrase when translated says “May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi (teacher).” What this implies is that a disciple that followed the teacher would be so close to him that he would get covered in the teachers dust. This phrase was considered to be a blessing. I’m sure being covered in dirt is not the point of the blessing, but being close to the teacher and learning from his ways was a blessing.

I’m sure my mom didn’t like me tracking grass all over the house, but I was proud of my grass-covered self because I was close to my dad. I learned from him by imitating him. Years later, dad would let me mow with the real mower. When a rabbi would say to his follower “Take my yoke upon you,” he was saying that the follower had become just like the teacher in every way, so much so that that the disciple was now a rabbi himself and able to teach others. When Jesus said this to His disciples He added that His yoke was easy and His burden light.

So here are some questions that I am asking myself:

Am I so close to Jesus that I am dusted by Him?

Do I base my current obedience to Christ on former experiences with Him? Or am I continually dusted?
Being obedient is not something that you’ve done, it’s what you are doing now.

Can I really call myself an imitator of Christ or did I just imitate once and think I’m ok?

Does Jesus trust me enough to push a real mower or am I still blowing bubbles?

Does Your Church Wear Bell Bottoms?

The art of fashion is one of many things that drive a culture. This is true especially in America. In the 18th century men would wear pouffy white wigs with lots of curls and ribbons. To top it off they’d also where tights to show off their legs. Manly. Moving through time, in the 1980’s men decided for some reason to have big hair again and appropriately call it a mullet. To top it off they went back to the skin tight pants. Really?

Something I really enjoy doing is looking at old pictures of myself and my parents and in-laws because it is so funny to see how ridiculous we used to look. My dad has a picture with his crazy thick hair down to his butt. My father-in-law has a picture of him wearing a white leisure suit that’s unbuttoned down to his belly button and wearing bell bottoms. I have a picture wearing a white turtle neck under a red sweater with a cowboy hat on and wearing huge glasses while waiving at people in a parade. When people see this picture I have to convince them it’s me. Those fashions used to be in style (maybe not mine) but now they’re just dumb.

Have you ever been out somewhere and saw someone wearing something so out of date (like a leisure suit or mullet….no offense) that it makes them look so ridiculous it makes you laugh? Later the next day you might even talk and laugh about it with someone or take a picture to post on failblog.org. The truth is that many churches are like that person who is dressed way out of date. Some people might even laugh and share about their ridiculous experience with their friends or even failblog. Bellbottoms might have looked good back in the day but not in 2011. Old fashion methods may have worked in the past just like wearing white wigs were cool, but those wigs are a joke today.

Church, it’s 2011

PRAY-Stop praying small prayers.

DREAM-Don’t let Wal-Mart out dream us (Ephesians 3:20). Make your dreams God-size and maximize your prayers!

Be CREATIVE-Don’t let your creativity be dull, boring and lame because God is the Author of all created things and we are made in His image. We were made to be creative by the Creator.

CELEBRATE-Don’t let something like gaining more money be more exciting than winning lost souls for Jesus. We should celebrate more when someone repents of their sin and comes to Jesus than if we won the lottery!

REACH OUT-Shame on us for letting McDonald’s out advertise us. Ask anyone what the golden arches stand for and they’ll know, even kids know. Ask anyone who Jesus is, you’ll be shocked!

CONNECT- Shame on us for allowing ABC, Nickelodeon, Disney, MTV, and VH-1 to reach a generation that we leave out. TV has a way of grabbing culture by the horns and taking where ever it pleases. Why do we forsake culture in America while missionaries in other cultures use the culture they’re in as a means of introducing the Gospel?

It’s time we wake up and change out of those groovy bellbottoms. We are the Church! Be the Church!