Fork in the road…

The ol’ blog has been mighty quiet lately. Just haven’t had the time, or in some cases, inspiration, to keep it active and current.

The great Yogi Berra said,

“When you come to a fork in the road, take it!”

That’s kind of where I think I am with this blog. Just not sure what to do with it. Keep it? Change it? Drop it? Not sure.

Stay tuned…

Everything.

Kleenex alert…powerful video.

The song is “Everything” by Lifehouse. (great band, by the way…)

Pray…

As you read this, Stef, our AC180 brother, is undergoing a 9-hour surgery for Stage 4 colon cancer. Please join me in lifting up Stef, his family and medical staff in prayer. All glory and honor to our Lord Jesus Christ.

*** UPDATE #1 ***
*** UPDATE #2 ***
*** UPDATE #3 ***

Christianity is not easy.

Becoming a Christian is easy. Being a Christian is not. Those who visit here often know about one of my daily prayers, “Lord, I pray I’ll be the man my kids see at church on Sunday”. It’s at the top of my blog’s sidebar and it’s displayed on a post-it attached to a family photo on my desk. It’s a great reminder for me to “walk my talk”.

As Christians, we like to think we’re not hypocrites. But, we’re very good at it. Well, I certainly am. We’re model Christians on Sunday morning, but as the day and week goes on, we tend to stop being Christians. Maybe not completely, but work with me here…

Maybe it’s Monday morning when the alarm goes off. Maybe it’s our drive home in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Maybe it’s at home when you walk in and discover your AC has gone out. Maybe it’s when we’re tired or distracted and only pretend to hear what our child or spouse is saying to us.

The reality is the life Christ has called us to is not humanly possible. Let’s take Jesus’ command to “love your neighbors as yourselves”. Pretty easy, right? BUZZZZZ! Wrong answer. Next contestant, please. Even harder is his command to “love our enemies”. I don’t know about you, but that one is not working out so well for me.

Loving the guy who just rear-ended you because he was talking on his cell phone is not easy. Loving an associate who stabbed you in the back for personal gain is not easy. The rapist, the terrorist, the child molester–loving these people is not easy. But these are the people that Jesus commands us to love. These are the very people that Christ hung out with.

At best, we tolerate them, bite our tongues and wait for the moment to pass. We certainly don’t invite them to church. We don’t sit down with them over a cup of tea and listen to their life story. I don’t believe we are necessarily being asked to love them in the emotional or intimate way we typically associate with love. Rather we are to love them for what they are; a creation of God. Someone with a more theological bent may have better way to describe it, but I believe we are allowing God to love through us. This is not a love that is generated within our own beings or by our own desires. This love is generated by allowing God to have all of our heart, so that He can love through us. When this happens we get to experience God’s love for others through our heart.

Christianity is not easy. Thank God for His grace.

Lost generation?

I’ve been taking a little break from posting, but this post got my attention and I wanted to share. This young Christian is crying out for an entire generation.

Here is a quote from her post:

Adults, mothers and fathers in Christ: we need you. My generation needs adults in our life. We need someone. We’re searching for someone to help us…will you?

Our youth are crying out.

Parents?

Adults?

Are we listening?

An eye opener…

My buddy Aaron has an interesting and somewhat worrisome post today. Are we (Americans) too comfortable? Complacent? Can’t happen here?

Read it here…

Input please…

A recent visitor posed a question in response to my post titled The Mystery of Unanswered Prayer. It’s a tough question for me to answer because the response can seem trivial, hollow or trite. I did my best to respond, but I would like to open it up to you all for your thoughts to his question.

You can read his question here and my response here.

There’s a lot of wisdom out there in bloggy-land and I’m looking forward to your responses.

Thanks and God bless.

Memories…

Business travel and just plain ol’ livin’ has kept me away from the blogosphere for a while. I just got back from our user conference that we held in one of my favorite cities, San Antonio. It’s about a 2 1/2 hour drive from here and has been a family favorite for long weekends and anniversaries for many years. I have great memories of times on the Mission Trail, El Mercado, HemisFair Park, The Alamo, strolling along the River Walk, breakfast at Mi Tiara’s and the myriad of shops, restaurants, sights and smells. However, there was something different about this particular trip to San Antonio. It was the first time I’d ever been without my family. It didn’t really strike me until I was on a break and making a call to my wife on my cell phone. I walked over to an open area that overlooked a spot on the River Walk where we would often sit and listen to a particular group of Andean musicians. They happened to be setting up to play and soon the familiar music was taking me back to the wonderful times we shared there. A sudden and powerful “I miss my family…” feeling poured through me and I began to experience several emotions. I smiled remembering the many wonderful times we had there. As my kids are beginning their own lives, I was sad realizing that we would likely never be there as a family of four again. Then, I was excited thinking about the times we may share here with our kids and their families in the years ahead. San Antonio is a wonderful city. But, I realized it wasn’t the sights, sounds and smells that made up my memories. It was sharing them with the people I love more than anything else on this earth; my wife, my son and my daughter.

I thank God for blessing me with such a wonderful family and for the love and memories we share.

The Greatest Prayer

The second part of Bill Hybels sermon describes the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray. The Lord’s Prayer is part of our liturgy and I always try to be mindful of words I am saying and to whom I am saying them. I do not want them to just be words that I’m supposed to say because it’s what comes next in the service. So, here is what Bill has to say about the Lord’s Prayer and how we should use it as a model for all prayers.

The greatest prayer begins with the words “Our Father.”

Never to forget who you are praying to. God is our Father if we’re his children through Jesus Christ. Don’t ever forget how he feels about you, his children. He couldn’t have greater love for you than he already has. Don’t forget who he is. He’s your Father, your Heavenly Father. And don’t forget who you are. You are his very own child—his son, his daughter. Know that God feels fatherly toward you today.

The Mystery of Unanswered Prayer

The following is a summary of a sermon by Bill Hybels. Bill is the founding pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois.

I thought I’d spend the next post or two discussing prayer. This post covers something we’ve all agonized over at various times in our lives — unanswered prayer.

“Didn’t Jesus say, ‘Ask and it shall be given, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be open?’ Didn’t he say that?”