Tag Archives: story

staying connected

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I think that sometimes it is difficult to have an understanding of God at work on a daily basis. I know for me that can be one of the toughest things. I get paid to reveal knowledge of the Holy to others. It’s more than knowledge; it’s leading others to lead themselves inconnecting with their creator. This is difficult sometimes because although this is my vocation and passion I still have days where I don’t feel connected to God. There are times when I read the Bible and am bored. There are times when I don’t feel connected to God at all. But one of the things that I was reading today reminded me of the way that God moves and works. In the book of John, Jesus is getting criticized for healing on the Sabbath. Jesus’ response was simply to say, “my father is always at his work, to this very day.” What Jesus did was to reframe the conversation, the authorities were upset that Jesus was working but they couldn’t stop God from working.  He reminded his accusers that God is always working, whether we acknowledge it or not.

This little exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees brings a realization that God is present and at work, even in the times where life is rough or it’s tough to hear God.

When you look at your spiritual journey, how do you stay connected? Knowledge increases my faith, so just knowing this account and internalizing it helps me. What about you? How do you keep understand that the Almighty God is present and always at work?

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an inciting incident

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Inciting incidents make stories move forward.  Often times they can be they can be the beginning of some cool stories.   I just stepped into a new story in life.

About a month ago my wife ran into the bedroom and said, “WAKE UP!”  Obviously that kind of wake up call only leads to panic.  So immediately I spring up and say, “What?”  I’m thinking that the house is on fire or Emma is taking her first steps…something like that.

I would have never guessed that my wife would say, “I think I’m pregnant!”

Emma’s just 9 months old.  There is just no way.

“Why do you think you’re pregnant?”  I ask, thinking that maybe this is just a false alarm.

“I took a pregnancy test and it’s positive.”

“Oh, I guess that’s why.”

On Monday my wife and I went to the doctor and we saw a healthy little peanut with a strong heartbeat that is due to come into this world on January 23rd.

the big sister

While we were surprised by this news, we also have a sense of joy because Emma is so amazing, now we’re going to have two babies.

This is an inciting incident.  An event that is so powerful that it causes the characters to move forward. It causes life to shift.

So while this is a shift.  It is also a blessing.

What makes you move?

What makes you look at life and decide that things will be different tomorrow?

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revolution

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I like to write things down, it motivates me.  I’ve been using moleskine journals for about 4 years now and I just started my ninth journal.  For me when I write stuff down it becomes a little more real.

So I write a lot of things down, all the time.  I look back I wonder why I wrote some of these things down in the first place.  Some things that are in these journals are meaningless.  But there are some things that I write down that are absolutely priceless.  They are a memorial to a life changing event.  That’s why I love to write stuff down.

We told the story of the church tonight at Ethos.  One of the cool things is that those who are a part of the church get to write the next chapter.  We get to reinvent what church will look like for the next 100 years.  So we had people write their prayers down for the future of the church.   For me it was powerful to watch people write down their prayers, what they hope to see for the future church.

I wrote down a lot of things, but the thing that really stuck out to me was, the word revolution.  It’s what the church originally was, but it isn’t really what it is now.  So that’s what I’d like to see.

What do you want to see?

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the best shower i’ve ever taken

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I love showers.  My wife makes fun of me sometimes because I shower for too long.  In 2005 I was working as a volunteer relief worker for the Red Cross in Plaquemine LA, Iberville Parish.  It was right after Hurricane Katrina.

I flew in from LA a few days earlier in to Jackson Mississippi.  When we landed we were shuttled to a small hotel.  The hotel was filled with other relief workers as a staging area.  I spent the night there barley getting any sleep.

I wanted to shower but there were notes on all of the faucets saying do not use.  Apparently the water was contaminated due to Katrina.  So the next day I drove into Baton Rouge LA, I stayed the night at another staging area and left early the next morning.  The water was contaminated there too.

When we finely got to the community center in Iberville Parish, we worked all day and slept backstage on the floor.  We were told that we could shower in makeshift public restrooms, but since they were still pulling people out of the flood waters the only shower they could offer us was at midnight and it would be a mixture of half chlorine and half water.  I opted to add an extra layer of deodorant to my already deodorant caked armpits.

On about day ten I was in a Win-Dixie buying some fresh fruit, something I craved due to eating McDonalds for ten days straight, and I was telling a friend that I needed a shower.  I told him that I didn’t care I will find a hose and spray myself off but I couldn’t handle my own smell any more.

We were wearing our Red Cross Vests and a woman in line told us that we should go over to her house and take a shower.  It was like an angel flew down from heaven at that moment because there was nothing more important to me than getting clean.  That night we went to this woman’s house.  Her name was Hope.  She had a great family.  They offered us food and drinks, warm cookies and veggie platters.

Coming from shelter life this was pretty amazing.

Then there it was.  A shower and a shave.

As soon as I stepped in the shower I started to cry.  It wasn’t a sad cry.  It was joy.   I was overcome with Joy that I was able to shower.  I soaked up every minute.  I shaved slower than I normally would.  I let shampoo sit in my hair for a few minutes just so the hot water could hit me for a little longer.  It was the greatest shower I’ve ever taken.

I’ve been alive 9,884 days.  Some days I take two showers if I’ve had a really crazy day, if I’m camping I may not shower.  But I’ve at least showered 9,000-10,000 times, but this one shower is really the only one that I remember.

Sometimes there are things in life that are so ordinary that you pass them by.  You go through life never thinking of their significance.  But when your journey has been tough, when there’s been ups and downs in it, the destination is that much sweeter.

Things like showers become memorable events that symbolize hope.  You’ve probably seen some amazing sun rises but the ones you remember were special because you hiked to the top of a mountain to see them.

How has a long or tough journey made they final destination that much better?

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the greatest story ever told

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I’ve heard a ton of great stories in life.  But what is the greatest story you’ve ever heard?  I heard a story one time of a holocaust survivor who survived by hiding under other dead bodies until she could make an escape at the middle of the night.  That was a really good story.

Last night I watched “Air Bud”until midnight with my nephew.  It’s a movie that an eight-year-old boy would enjoy.

But having never seen the movie, within 10 minutes I was able to predict the future and tell my nephew everything that was going to happen in the movie.  I swear he thought I was some kind of super hero.  The point is I don’t want to watch predictable movies.  I’m not trying to pick on kids movies because most movies are super predictable.  Most stories are boring because they don’t speak to me and my life isn’t affected as a result.  But good stories are not predictable.  Good stories have twists. They end randomly.  Something happens that shocks you.  Good stories leave you thinking.

But what is a great story?  Great stories have a lot of elements as a good story but they do something deeper.  They change you as a result.  My wife and I watched “Blood Diamond” a few weeks ago.  If I ever have the money to buy my wife a bigger and better diamond, I think that movie will change the way I do it.  But that movie, even though it was a great story, didn’t change me fundamentally.  I’m not a different person because of it.The greatest story ever told brings you to a place where you can’t help but live differently as a result of hearing.  The greatest story ever-told highlights redemption.  The greatest story moves you to a place in life where you can’t help but keep telling it.

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