Reputations

I was always taught that my most valuable asset was my reputation. In Bible College and beyond, they always emphasized how important that everything I do be done in light my reputation. One problem I discovered in this quest for a "good" reputation - it is people and what they choose to see. We have this unique filters that permit us to self deceive and believe exactly what fits our particular view of a situation or of someone. What quickly happened in my life is that one person would praise me for a specific activity in my life and another would demonize me. What this taught me is that I need to be careful about my assumptions and how I approach people and situations. Keeping what we often call an open mind is difficult, especially if there has been negative history with a particular group or person. What I have concluded at this stage of life is that yes reputations are important, but they are fragile. If our life quest is to look good to all people around us, then we will quickly go insane. There is only one place to find a true assessment on who we are and our potential - that is in the presence of Jesus.

Things I've Never Said

Communication is an interesting exercise in fultilty. We hear the mantra - communication is everything from success at business to marriage and family. What intrigues me the most is how must communication depends on the various filters that we all project onto life. We assume everyone operates with our particular mindset and perspectives - which then makes the other person guilt of not communicating well because they did not take my understanding into consideration. Think about the logic of that particular mindset. If you are talking to 10 people who all have their filters, then you are responsible to speak in such a way that will communicate the information according to their particular filters. Multiply that be a 100 and you begin to see the difficulty of this kind of thinking. Something I ran across a few months ago shed some light for me on this issue of communication. The basic thought was this - communication is not the key, understanding is. What does it take for understanding to flourish? It takes people who are willing to understand their own biases and enter into a conversation that respects diversity. Questions are critical in this conversation as well as a sense of humor and humility. So the next time you seek to communicate something to someone - think about what it means to help them understand you and for you to understand them.

Thinking Out Loud

I'm continually amazed at our conversations. The gulf oil crisis have taken up so much of our conversations. So many perspectives around the same set of circumstances. Who is right? Who is wrong? It appears that in our linear thinking we reduce everything down to a black and white reality that of course agrees with us. The fragile nature of clarity in life has caused a humility to emerge in me that seeks to see with eyes that are not my own. Seeing our world through our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe profoundly changes what we see from our vantage point. Listening with the ears of our brothers and sisters in India profoundly changes what we hear from our particular audience. This is why community is so important and that we keep an honest and open conversation going. It is here that the conversation shifts from "what is wrong with our world" to "where is God working and how do we engage His mission in our lives."

GOD IS IN THE HOUSE!

Life is a journey that sometimes takes us to places that words cannot express. To be a part of God's moving in people's lives is such a privilege, it is hard to even use words to express the privilege we have. It is humbling to see God use us. This morning, only the second time we have worshipped in our new house, God got a hold of a young woman who so desperately needed to find him . . . and find him she did. That very evening she gave a public profession by being baptised with many other incredible stories. There are days I wonder why I do what I do in America - days where I hear nothing but complaining about things that make no eternal difference. THIS WAS NOT ONE OF THOSE DAYS! God is in the house . . . and he is inviting us into his story. May we have enough sense to humble ourselves, bow our knees, and commit to listen and follow what he is doing, mainly because it is so much more exciting and powerful than what we are doing. We really do have a choice . . . we can bless or we can complain and whine about the people and things that do not suit our preferences. God is definitely in the house and may he be our focus and life.

Blessing or Complaining

I have always been amazed at our ability to find the worst in everything and everyone. It seems to be inbred in the way we live. We even complain about the way people complain. I'm curious what it would take to shift over to living out the blessings of God and to bless people that are part of our lives? Can blessing be inbred in us? In our weekly readings (for those not at MBIC, we are reading a chronological Bible together this year) we see the people of Israel being blessed by God and then living life of complaint. They complain about the food, the quality of leadership Moses is providing, they even complain that the Promised land is everything God claimed it would be. Their solution is to 1) Kill anyone that doesn't agree with them; 2) Overthrown the current leadership and find them a leader who will do exactly what they tell him/her to do; and 3) Go back to Egypt because life was so good when Pharaoh enslaved them, raping their daughters and oppressing their sons. Complaining impacts us more than we realize. It affects our vision, our minds - things that we choose to believe or not believe and our emotions. Complaining makes us not very nice to be around (except for other people who want to complain about the same people and situations) Paul claims that we are "blessed with every spiritual blessing . . . " What do you think our culture needs more of - a people of complaint or a people of blessing?

It's been a while

Times is continuous regardless of all the time management course we take. But isn't that the problem, we think we can manage things that we have no control over. Time for instance, we use time saving devices and are busier that ever keeping up with the latest toys. How many times have you said - I don't have the time - when you actually do have the time you just do not want to spend it on whoever or whatever was just suggested. Of course it is everyone else who wastes their time and we get upset at people wasting it like it doesn't matter. We really do act like little messiahs. Time is an equal opportunity employer. Everyone has equal amounts of time and everyone invests it according to what is important. I know we do not like to hear that because we would like to blame our inability to invest our time on someone else - but here is the rub - we are all responsible for how we invest this gift of time. Think of it this way, if a complete stranger would look at your life through the use of your time, and nothing else - what would they conclude are the top 5 important things in your life?

Starting Points

Starting points are crucial! They define us, determine what we see and who we choose to believe. In our culture, far to often the starting point is "I". (the I in iTunes, iPod, iPhone is not a coincidence but rather a deliberate marketing ploy to the narcissistic nature of our culture) This determines how creative, diverse and expansive we will live. The starting point of "I" will create a small world according to "me, myself and I" (often referred to as an unholy trinity) and we will be very limited in what we see and experience. Genesis states: "In the beginning God created". Having the universe evolve around God instead of us opens the door to possibilities beyond our wildest imaginations. I find it interesting that every time we build a bigger telescope that peers into the vast universe, we always end up saying; "wow, we never knew that". Funny how the conversation always comes back to us.