No Longer Need His Help

Shaun Smithson:

We learn to live for God so adequately that we no longer need to ask for his help. The problem is that this always leads to frustration and eventually boredom. First, we are frustrated that the ministry/service/life we are involved in doesn’t seem to have the same results as it use to and then we get so used to ministry done in our own power that we get bored because God is no longer truly showing up.

Having served in youth ministry for the last five years, I’ve experienced how badly it goes when I think I’ve got it under control. This is a great reminder to never let it get to that point.

"Essentially, you’re taking different events in your life and putting it towards something creative, which is a pretty joyous thing, even if there is sadness in it. Creating something is life affirming in and of itself."

Georgia Hubley of Yo La Tengo

The Joys of Working With Corporate Clients

—The Legal Team—

Client: These blog posts are good, but can you make them more conversational? Loosen them up?

Me: Yeah, I can do that.

Proceeds to add fun bits make blog posts more conversational.

Client’s Legal Team: We’re going to have to ask you to take all these fluffy bits out and make the blog posts more professional.

—Word for Mac 2008—

Me: Ugh, why do they have to send these blog corrections in Word docs, Word takes forever open… I guess I’ll launch it now and do something else for 10 minutes.

Ten minutes later.

Me: Ok, let’s do this!

Word: I’ve encountered a problem and need to close.

"Long ago, someone started a con that made readers believe writing comes from a place of knowledge, as if a writer were a scribe to some preexisting clarity. No. Hell no. Most writers are frauds. We are ignorant and learning out-loud. The written piece is the useful by-product of figuring things out, like how churning butter makes buttermilk. More writing comes from doubt than expertise."

Frank Chimero

The Axe Drop

My life is really great right now. And… that’s it. It’s actually weird, after such a tumultuous year, that things can be so steady. I’m waiting for the axe to drop. The Catch, if you will. But I’m reminding myself there isn’t always a catch.

I dig it.

Kyle’s Guide to More Impactful Verses

Ways to make a verse more impactful:

1. Take the verse out of context, lay it out with a fancy typeface and pin it on Pinterest.
2. Screen shot the verse from your bible app, use selective focus to blur out the surrounding verses and post it on Instagram.
3. Photoshop the verse, out of context, onto a photo of a lake or a silhouetted girl and then post it on Tumblr. Or Pinterest. Or Instagram. Or Facebook.

You’re welcome, God.

Actual ways to make a verse more impactful:

1. Don’t immediately poop it on to the internet where a bunch of people will go, “Hmm, that was nice,” and forget about it 10 minutes later.
2. Spend time dwelling on that verse and what it really means to you and only you. Pray on it. Write it down where you’ll see it. When you see it, ask yourself again why you felt compelled to write it down.
3. If you feel compelled to share it, think about who in your life would be most impacted by it. Share it with only them.
4. When you do share it, tell them why. What struck you about that verse? Why do you think said person should read it? Pray that it will touch their heart.

I’m not arguing that we should never share verses to the internet, just that it often turns them into cute pieces of candy that we can enjoy quickly with little thought. God’s word is way bigger than that. Sharing it should have the intentionality to match.

His Beautiful Inferno

Lord my prayer tonight is that you remind me I have no idea what I’m doing.

I tend to approach life’s unknowns by stepping up and trying to wrestle control. This would be great if I had any idea what I was doing. Unfortunately, I don’t, so taking control of my life often ends in fire and smoldering ash.

Lord my prayer tonight is that you remind me of those fires.

Fires aren’t always a bad thing. Fires clear out the undergrowth, the old tangles of our life, to make room for fresh saplings. The problem is, when I’m trusting God, he often prevents that tangle from growing in the first place. He uses small, controlled burns to keep my life fresh and clean. However after I’ve taken control for a while, He often has to use an all-out forest fire to cleanse the tangles. He reduces my life to ash.

Lord my prayer tonight is that you remind me of the ashes.

My 2011 is a wasteland of ashes. I thought I had control of my life and was clinging to the plan I’d laid out for myself. God looked at me and said, “Son, I love you too much to let you escape what I have in store for you.” And he burned it to the ground. A beautiful holocaust of everything I thought I wanted. It was devastating. I didn’t know what it meant to weep until last year. But his fire cleaned me of my selfishness and my pride. Of my silly plans. Of my rebellion.

Lord my prayer tonight is that you remind me I have no idea what I’m doing.

I’m healing. Saplings are sprouting, birds are chirping and I think I saw a capybara or two. I’m also utterly lost. Things are happening that I don’t understand, that I can’t control and it’s awesome! When I’m the least in control, God does his best work. And let me tell you, He’s doing some amazing work. Now I just have to stay out of his way.

Lord my prayer tonight is to thank you for loving me enough not to spare me your correction. To thank you for the best summer of my life. And to ask, as D-Team starts and my Ecuador trip looms, that you use me for your kingdom this fall in ways I could never imagine. Amen.

Chosen To Lead

I was complaining last night to a friend, the always wise Jocelyn Rimbey, about the down sides of getting called to serve in the church. Amidst my whining and selfishness, she said, almost off-handedly:

There are far worse things than being chosen by God (BY GOD!!!!!!!!) to help serve or take care of His people. I think we are both very lucky to have these responsibilities.

The subject quickly switched to food, as it often does with my friends, and we moved on. But the more I thought about it, the more what she said became one of the most convicting things of been told in my five years of Church ministry. Go back and re-read what she said.

It was like getting hit by a locomotive being pushed by a oil tanker, both of which are strapped to a giant asteroid.¹ The creator of the universe has entrusted me with the amazing responsibility of shepherding his people and I’m complaining. While I’m at it, I’ve got a real beef about this salvation thing He gave me too…

This stretches beyond Church-side ministry. All believers are called to be shepherds of men. It might be people in your office, friends in your apartment building, the children you’re raising; either way the Lord has trusted you to lead someone and it’s an honor. You’re right where you are because God knew you were the right person to be there.

I needed that perspective.

Clocks - Encounter

Kevin Cooke:

I want to be holy. I want to be pure. I want to find the rhythm of gods heart and connect my heart to that but I always seem to come just “this” close before I fall back down into the chasm that is distance.

Spiritual maturity has become an excuse for the death of passion.

Nailed it.

Like Kevin, I struggle with finding balance. As a someone who thinks and reads too much, it’s easy for me to drift toward an academic spirituality that misses the passion and worship that are intregal to faith.

God is awesome! He’s huge! He’s mysterious! Maturity is important, but we’re also told to be like little children, humble and wide eyed. I need more awe.

Letting You Down

The problem with making people besides Christ our savior is that when they let us down, and they will, our tendency is to demonize them. “How could you do this to me,” we cry, “I needed you and you let me down!”

On the flip side, Christ will never fail us. He’ll never not be there when we need him. If he is our rock, our savior, when the people we love let us down our reaction can be forgiveness, not bitterness.