Welcome All!

I just checked my Google analytics for my blog and saw that I have some new visitors from very far away. Just wanted to say welcome to my new visitors from Cochin India and Lucknow India. Also for those of you in the states that are new as well, I would like to say Welcome and thank you for visiting. Feel free to post comments I would love to hear about you. I hope that in anyway that I can, I can serve you with my life lessons, encouragement and hope that I find daily through Jesus.

God Bless and Welcome!

The Bumper Sticker

We were stuck in traffic last Friday, the work week had officially closed, kids were hungry, I was feeling a bit cranky and although we were not at each others throats the atmosphere had the potential for it. Since we were in the carpool lane I was passing cars by but it was slow enough that I was able to catch a bumper sticker that sparked something. I asked my wife "did you see that?" She replied "the bumper sticker?" I replied YES! Then it came to me, at that moment we installed a tradition, something that we would train up our children with, something that we would always remember. The bumper sticker simply asked a question, it wasn't magical, wasn't outrageous, even the text looked normal but in the stage of our life that we are in, what we know is ahead of us and the attitude that we had at the time it made a profound impact.

What are you thankful for?

Yup that's it, told you it wasn't magical. We made a decision after reading that bumper sticker that when life get's tough and when we may not be seeing each other eye to eye and the air is thick with attitude we are going to stop and tell each other what we are thankful for. I declared it, we agreed as a family and we did it.

So, in our little green Honda Accord, we went around saying, what we were thankful for. Even my 2 yr old gave her thanks. "Uhm I'm thankful for Zai Zai" (her brother) What a powerful moment, what an attitude adjuster, what a powerful life lesson. If your going through it today, if your attitude is slightly sour, if your confused or frustrated, stop and think: What are you thankful for?

With Excellence

I am a student of one of the greatest teachers of excellence that I know. I've learned a whole lot from my Pastor, mentor and friend, Pastor Dan Vera, What I've learned most is that excellence must be a standard that we always keep ahead of us in anything we do for God. Excellence is as plain as black and white. Sometimes excellence means you must play hurt, other times it means suck it up and get the job done all the way, but one thing that excellence always is, "Doing the best that you can, with what you have"

Just moments ago I text some of my team and I brought up a question that we ask now and then to grade our level of excellence. "Can you see the heart?" Here the answers I got back:

1) Getting back...
2) No, I feel disconnected
3) I feel like everything is moving too fast
4) Vaguely

Why am I showing this too you? Why am I exposing our current struggle? Why am I being so vulnerable? Because, You can't do anything excellent if one ingredient is missing, HEART, and all of our hearts have a way of straying. Life, schedules, jobs, problems, family, stress, etc. all of it has a way of affecting your heart and if your in ministry like I am how do you continue to do things with excellence when your heart is under all of that? Truthfully you can't, and if you try, there will be this unsatisfying feeling in your gut because heart was missing. I'll be honest I hate that feeling. I can't stand to think I'm wasting time, life and energy because I can't find the heart.
So what are we going to do?
Maybe under difference circumstances, but we've been here before, so we know what to do. We may be tired, stretched thin, and even burdened with some stuff, but we know where we want to go, and where God wants us. We know how to find heart again.

I know with that simple text just moments ago, people are beginning to think, regroup and prepare to encourage one another. I can hear the question now, "How's the heart?" Can you see it? Can you feel it? Can we pray about it? If excellence is your standard, find the heart, don't wait, find it now. Say a simple prayer and ask God to help you get back on track. David's prayer in the bible was this "I will not offer to God that which cost me nothing"

Anything with heart involved will cost you something, but in the end, it cost you more if you live without heart. Find the heart again and live excellent.

I don't have what it takes, but I'm still standing

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them Romans 8:28

No, I haven't arrived, so don't let this post fool you. I don't have what it takes, but I'm still standing. When I look back at how much I've been stretched, pulled and pressed in life, those words in Romans 8:28 mean so much more to me. "Everything... every difficulty, every pressure, every time I wanted to give up, every time I thought things were not going to work out, every time my wife and I prayed and wondered who are we kidding? Every time I confessed, apologized to my team for not being the leader I felt they deserved, Every time I ran inside, screamed inside, was spinning out of control in my mind.
E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G worked together for my good.

I can't explain it fully, all I know is I've had to hunt for what I did not have. I've had to depend on what I could not produce on my own. I've had pursue, depend, and lean on a strength that is not my own. I've had to quiet my life and listen for that single sound whisper that is louder and more powerful then any word produced on this earth. I stand today because of God, and to continue to stand will be because of God, there's absolutely no other way I can put it. I realize now that the times that life felt like it was spinning out of control the most is actually when God was doing His greatest work in me. God loves me, and He loves you, and truthfully you don't have what it takes...but you can still stand when you sit at the feet of Jesus and depend on Him more then you depend on yourself. Your going to make it, you can pull through, because Jesus will get you there...