Failure vs. Success

If you don't have the right to fail and you are constantly being protected from failure, you can never truly succeed.

Thought on Grace

God does not basically give grace because there is a need, but God gives grace because He is a gracious God. - Johnnie Foglander

For this I am Thankful

My beautiful wife Katie

My gorgeous son Gabriel who I have not yet had the privilege to meet

Wonderful, God fearing parents who weren't afraid to raise a son in the way he should go

Friendship that extends from the past well into the future

Men who stand in my life as mentors and friends who aren't afraid to speak truth

The opportunity to do life together with men and women who seek passionately after the ways of the Kingdom

A life that I do not deserve

A Savior that made it possible to live abundantly now and forever

Joy

Sovereign Hands, that guide, protect, provide, and comfort

The opportunity to speak to my generation

The blessing of knowing that I am His

The freedom to dream

Renewed Vision for my life, my family, my friends, the world

The Church spread throughout the world, living out daily the Glory of Christ

I am thankful, I am undeserving, I am humbled.

Thought

Living for others, is a means of grace. We give because of our faith, and it deepens as we give. If we permit ourselves to give casually, we are really teaching contempt.

Attention Boomers!

Did anyone else watch 60 Minutes tonight? Especially the segment on the "Millenials"? My generation is seemingly pathetic. Work ethic seems to have been replaced with entitlement. As a leader I am appalled by my peers, get off your butts, turn off your IPods and get your hands dirty. Future CEO? Hardly.

Fortune 500, please do not hire my generation until it learns to work and enjoy it. Just because an institution, that once held some sense of credibility, gave them a degree in underwater basket weaving, it doesn't tell you how they've led, how they've earned the right to sit at the table, it doesn't even tell you that they know how to do what you're hiring them to do.

Here's a hint when hiring a hipster, we've never been told no. If you want to weed out the worst of us, make us earn the right to lead, don't give it to someone because of their pedigree or how cool they seem. Give them entry level positions and make them work their way up. Don't be afraid to say no.

If someone isn't willing to sweat and sacrifice, I won't follow them, and hopefully no one else will either. If they want to play video games at work they have two options, get a job making video games or move back in with mom and dad.

Oh yeah, take away retirement plans, your generation should be the last to have that travesty thrust upon them. We're lazy enough, we shouldn't mark our calendars with the day we get to become even lazier.

I realize that this sounds a bit critical, that's because it is. You see there are a few of us in the "millenial" crowd who have chosen to focus on becoming real leaders who have dirt under our fingernails and work in a way that our grandparents would be proud of. Don't judge the us all by the standards of the majority. Let those of us who are called to speak into our generation have time make a difference. Don't give up hope, hard workers with intellect and a sense of purpose do exist. But just like in your generation the nut jobs got all the airtime, so it is with ours.

So World, I apologize for my peers on 60 minutes, they don't represent us all.

Life

What a wonderful life. Today we enjoyed a little down time, went to church, hung out with each other, and in a few minutes I'll be watching the Simpsons.

This life God has blessed us with is beautiful beyond description. Our team is not simply coworkers but our best friends. We live, work, make decisions, worship, and have a lot of fun together. This weekend our friends through an amazing baby shower for Katie, while all of us guys had an awesome night of guy time.

Thank you all for sharing this life with Katie and I. We are blessed beyond measure to simply live this life with you.

Leaving our mark

Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski was invited by the Sioux Chief Standing Bear to carve a memorial to the Indian People. A television documentary covered the progress of the carving of Crazy Horse into a hue granite face of the Yellow Stone Mountains. Clearly this work was going to exceed the life span of the sculptor. He has since died and the sculpture is far from complete. Yet his children continue his work. Current estimates are that it will be completed without federal funding by the year 2050. The sculpture of the warrior astride a stallion will be 563 feet tall. That’s eight feet higher than the Washington Monument and nine times as high as the faces of the four American Presidents carved in Mount Rushmore, just a few miles north of Crazy Horse.

Why go to such effort? In an interview late sculptor said this:

When your life on earth is over, the world will ask just one question.

Did you do what you were supposed to do?

When Michaelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel he was told: Don’t you know you can lose your life?!? His reply? What else is life for?

These two artists from different eras had a similar view of their work. The question to you this morning is this. What is your life work?

Some people do great things, but have no contentment. Others know that they have accomplished what they were created to do. Paul the apostle, and pioneer of the early church said this. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. Yet Michaelangelo had no assurance of his spiritual prospects after death. John Wesley founded a movement that far exceeded his years. His counterpart, Whitfield, did amazing things, and yet even a brief look at his life finds a lack of contentment, he himself said that he had built a rope made of sand. Jesus’ words to His Father was this, I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you have sent me to do.

By contrast Pancho Villa’s last words on earth when the US Military had tried him and sentenced him to death were this. “Don’t let it end this way, Tell them I said something.” How about you, will you be searching for words on your death bed or will you say as Christ said, I have brought you glory, because I have done what you sent me to do?

You say I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. How do I find out?

Well let’s look at a few things, First, there’s your part. ‘

This includes your cooperation in simple steps of obedience that increase your understanding, preparing for and walking into the Creator’s purposes for you. Your availability in God’s hands as he weaves together the tapestry of your life, pulls, knots, and polishes the strands of your being. Submission, Obedience and availability. That’s your part. Do you want to live a life that leaves a mark? Commit your life to making Jesus the central figure of who you are, Submit yourself to the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and Give yourself to only that which is pleasing to the Father.

So there’s our Part, then there’s the Sovereign Part.

This consists of the deliberate drawing together of those threads, the tapestry that is your life, that have been woven together for as long as you have been alive in a way that reveals your calling. What are the God given passions deep down inside. What has He equipped you to do. What are you weaknesses that when submitted His strength is found. The wonderful thing about the sovereignty of God is that it will always be revealed if we commit ourselves to seeing it.

Your part, the Sovereign Part, The end part.

Listening, understanding, realizing that yes indeed, this thing being birthed within me is what my life is for. It is my divine calling, it is my life’s work.

Leaving your mark is not setting about to do great things. Leaving one’s mark comes through setting one’s face toward a walk of obedience that is carried to completion.

I heard recently a dear friend say that one of the reasons the church isn’t realizing it’s full potential is because we aren’t focusing on the right things, we aren’t focusing on anything consistently.

Why are men not content, because they lost their focus. No longer are our families our focus, but our careers, our money, our position are now our focus. Why are families falling apart? Because we have lost our focus, families don’t even eat together at the dinner table anymore, we’re too busy running off to soccer games or dance recitals. Why are we so tired? Because we think that true rest only comes when we’re on vacation. If we can’t rest in our homes, how dare we think we can rest anywhere else.

Setting one’s face towards a walk of obedience requires focus that will last until the end.

Without vision, the people will perish, how often have we heard this preached. How often have we been told that we must conquer the world. So we set forth with our mighty programs, and ideas of grandeur and we attack hell with barrels blazing only to find that we are carrying water pistols. I think what that verse is saying is simply this, we must have a vision, for our families, for ourselves, and for those we do life together with, and that in and of itself will change the world.

Our focus must be sure, our focus must be consistent, and our focus must centered in Christ.

To leave our mark we must know our purpose, our life’s work. To accomplish that we must obey, and listen. Once we know our life’s work we must commit to it, with our focus never wavering, even if the grass is greener on the other side and there are better offers on the table.

God has given us each the privilege of serving Him. With that He has given each of specific Callings, we are all called to something.

I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith, I have finished my course. Those are the words of a man who knew he had left a mark. What will yours be?