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700 billion reasons

On the brink of what could be the largest corporate bailout in the history of the world, I’m reminded of the 700 billion ways or so that Jesus has bailed us out. If we listed out our debt, it might sound a little like this.

1. I’m too often angry for no good reason; 2. I judge others unfairly; 3. I buy something I don’t need; 4. I’m selfish with my time; 5. Bitterness, and not forgiveness, has taken root in my heart; 6. …

potty training

bella

 

Our littlest, baby Bella, has decided it is time to potty train. The cool thing is that she has decided this all on her own…we didn’t have to force it.  The bad thing is that sometimes she forgets that she’s decided to start potty training and the floor becomes her potty chair! (side note: wood floors come in handy at this stage in your child’s life). 

Bella’s successes and failures remind me

pigs and lipstick

So, if you’ve tuned it at all to the presidential race over the past week, you’ve no doubt heard about “lipstick gate.” In short, Sarah Palin spoke a classic line in her VP acceptance speech when she quipped, “Do you know what the difference is between a pit bull and a hockey mom? LIPSTICK.”  Well, two days ago Barak Obama, when speaking of John McCain and Sarah Palin’s economic plan, said this, “you can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig.” Great line? Bad taste? Poor judgement?  Well…

ethics

One of my passions in life is teaching and right now I’m in the middle of teaching Ethics in Management (at the University of Phoenix).  This course has been one of my favorites because the topic is bubbling over with engaging dialogue.  I love involving my students in conversations surrounding the diversity of ethics in American business.  When you get a group of people together from different cultures, races, religions, etc. you get lots of different ideas about what is “right” and “wrong.” For some, a mention of absolute truth is intolerant and for others near abominable…

doubt

I visited a couple of good friends in the hospital this week who were there with their babies.  One couple has yet to bring their month old home and the other is back in the hospital AGAIN, with their 3 month old.  Both of these little ones have been through more, medically speaking, in their 3 months then most will go through in their entire lives. My buddy, and the father of little 3 mo old, questioned “why?” I have the same question, but we can rest knowing that the greatest human (not the God-Man, aka, Jesus) who ever lived had doubts too.

leadership pressure cooker (part deux)

I wrote a post on Thursday about the “leadership pressure cooker.” Um, well, that was easy to write when I wasn’t actually IN the pressure cooker.  God has quite the sense of humor because on Friday at 2:30 we learned that we could not meet in our facility due to us exceeding the occupancy for the building. So, we were limited to 49 people inside this weekend, which was just enough to take care of the kids and the kid’s volunteers. The rest of us…

leadership pressure cooker

When I was young, my mom would use a pressure cooker to cook meals for my dad, brothers and me.  The pressure cooker is somewhat of a cross between a crock pot and microwave … cooks fast yet keeps all the good stuff in the veggies and meat that you are cooking. I thought of that cooker today as I sat in the Leadership Summit, listening to some of the world’s best leaders.  Tons of valuable information coming at me so quickly, yet God slowed it down enough to allow many nuggets to take root in my heart.

voices

The people in Israel had a choice to make.  They could listen to the voice of God and two men who reinforced what God had told them about the Promised Land, or they could listen the voices to the contrary.  Unfortunately for that generation, they chose to listen to those who doubted that God would come through on His promises and instead of entering the Land on the 11th day, they wandered for more than 14,000 days while the unbelieving generation faded away. (Deut. 1:26)

God vs. man

Last week a friend of mine, Scott Rodgers, wrote a great post on Swerve, the blog for LifeChurch.tv.  In this post, Scott reminds us that we should be about building the kingdom of God and not our own “kingdom.” That post jumped into my mind as I read Deuteronomy 9 a few days ago. 

God was reminding the Israelites that it wasn’t really their giftedness or righteousness that earned the promised land, but rather His grace. (Deut. 9:6) From the beginning of time there seems to be this tension between what is accomplished by God and what is built by human effort.  I think we can go too far either way. There are people who put themselves down to the point that they dishonor the fact that they are made in the image of God and that through Christ they are a “new creation.”  And, there are others who confuse God’s blessing for their talent.  Both miss the mark.  At the end of the day, God wants to “give us the desires of our hearts” but only when we “delight in Him.” (Psalm 37:4) That’s always the key: dying to ourselves, taking up our cross and following Him.  When we TRULY do that our passions become His and the dreams we have for our lives are His dreams for our lives.  Ultimately, we will never have the life we dream of having if it is about us.  It must always be about His fame.  As we like to say here…”what’s life all about?…..not.U!