A Peek Into My Prayer Closet

The other day I received a text from my wife. She said our daughter had reached a new level of bullheadedness. Then she asked me to pray for her. From the punctuation and tone of the overall message, I could tell she was halfway joking. But after I chuckled, I realized I needed to deal with the halfway serious side of the matter.

The matter is this: Our daughter can be bullheaded. And if we don’t pray for her and learn how to steer that, we’ll have some very tough years ahead of us. It’s not that bullheadedness is entirely a bad thing. It’s just that it needs to be harnessed and directed toward the right things.

So I prayed something like this, “God, I love Sevaeh and I know Hannah does too. And Lord, I know You love her even more than we do. I’m thankful that You’ve brought it to our attention that Sevaeh has a stubborn streak. I’m also thankful that right now, it’s pretty easy to handle. So Lord, I ask, ‘As she grows up, would You help us to direct that stubbornness in the right direction?’ When boys come around, acting like dogs, may she be stubborn about not conceding to their wishes. When serious relationships develop, may she be stubborn about keeping her virginity until marriage. When she comes into a relationship with You, may she be stubborn about believing in You, may nothing deter her from her relationship with You. And Lord, when it comes to obeying her parents and doing right and having integrity in her schoolwork and in her future jobs, may she be stubborn about doing the good, the right, the noble, the just. Lord help us, we pray. Amen.'”

3 Pre-reqs for Leadership

I’m taking a class for work. In the class notes, I came across a helpful tidbit. I think it applies not only in the workplace, but also in our relationship with Jesus.

In order for leadership to exist, three things must present:

1. Followers must be willing to accept direction from the leader.

2. There must be an unequal balance of power between the leader and the followers.

3. The leader must accomplish results through the power he/she possesses.

If these three things are present, the leader can lead unhindered.

Work. Relax. Repeat.

I think God made us to operate on cycles. One of these cycles is work, relax, repeat.

For example, when using a computer, it’s best to take brief breaks from the screen. Every 10 minutes, look 10 feet away, for 10 seconds.

For every hour of sitting, do five minutes of walking.

For every six days of work, take one day off.

For every six months of work, take one week off.

And if you’re a farmer, every six years, give your fields one year of rest.

It boils down to this: If we neglect the rest, we become work-aholics.

If we neglect the work, we become lazy slobs.

Let’s stay true to our cycles.

A Way We Can Learn (1)

Sometimes we make decisions in life, not knowing why we make them.

For example: Back in July of last year, I started a job in Crawfordsville. Hannah and I were living at my parents’, in the upstairs of the garage, and our daughter, Sevaeh, had just entered the world. A month later, we decided to move to Indianapolis. By most estimates, this decision was not wise. We would be an hour and fifteen minutes away from my job, instead of five minutes away. We would be paying rent and utilities, instead of living for free at my parents. And we would be bringing a newborn and a dog into a house that we were sharing with another couple.

At the time, we did it because it felt right. We felt like that was where the Lord was leading us, and although we weren’t sure why, we were at peace with it. God was stirring up something new, and although we couldn’t put our finger on it, we knew we needed to be in Indy for it to happen.

We lived in Indy for five months, barely breaking even by the time we paid for gas and rent and utilities. But out of that experience came a new thing. That thing is called Water to Wine. That is the reason we moved to Indy.

Water to Wine is a ministry we started with a few other believers. We offer biblically-based courses at no cost to the students. We partner with local churches (in Indy) to offer courses for those who are hungry to learn more. We just finished our first class on the book of Genesis. You can check it out at http://watertowinecourses.blogspot.com.

This is one of many ways we can learn.

Passion (Portlanders)

I met a plethora of people when I lived in Portland. A few of them were very passionate. For example:

Dr. Paul Louis Metzger. When I told people I had signed up for his classes at Multnomah Seminary, they looked at me like I was crazy and simply said, “Good luck.” I thought this a good sign, and it turns out, I was correct. Paul is an incredibly conceptual professor, always discussing big circles of thought, expecting you to connect the dots. In moments of passion, he has a tendency to get loud, not yelling at people, just shouting aloud because he gets so excited. He starts pacing and waving his hands all around, then he belts out something profound. It’s a beautiful thing, and I was able to witness this “outburst” on multiple occassions. I loved it! There’s a tendency in academia to grow stagnant, especially in theological circles. But Paul engaged his material and he engaged his God–daily. Now, Paul and I work on writing projects together because we’re both passionate about writing and about Jesus. 

Bob Goff. I didn’t officially meet Bob, rather I listened to him speak, on the notion of rediscovering whimsy. He inspired many at the Q Conference with his playful and jovial attitude. The guy is a lawyer of all “whimsical” occupations, but I’m guessing he’s made enough money that he can work on whatever projects he pleases, whenever he pleases. He lives in southern California, works in Seattle, serves as Hon. Consul for Uganda to the U.S., and teaches at Pepperdine Law School and Point Nazarene University. He is also the founder and CEO of Restore International, yet he doesn’t bother mentioning any of those titles when he meets people or speaks. He’s just Bob–a whimsical and passionate guy. 

Rick McKinley. Rick was my pastor while I lived in Portland. He also taught at Multnomah and played host for the Q Conference. Rick is a lot like Bob in that he’s done a lot and has many titles, but he never boasts of them. He’s just Rick, the bigger guy with the goatee, who teaches the Bible and loves Jesus. Rick is the most laid-back of all these individuals, but just because he moves slow and talks slow doesn’t mean he isn’t passionate. His passion, I think, is expressed in more subtle ways–like his dedication, his leadership, his calm and patient spirit. It’s hard to describe if you’ve never met him. It’s like you sit and talk together and you just get the feeling that he cares deeply for your soul, for your development, that he wants to see you become great. 

Val Clemen. While at seminary, I took every class I could with Val. She and I hit it off when we learned we both liked Dallas Willard. (For those who haven’t read Willard, he’s an incredibly deep writer; verbose at times, but comprehensive in his thought.) When Val gets stirred up, she walks frantically across the room, heels clapping the floor, bracelets jingling up and down her arms. She might lean over and pound the front desk or she might throw a punch in the air. Whatever the case, you leave her class knowing that Val loves to teach and she loves Jesus.

Passion (Bill McGlaughlin)

Last week, I mentioned that I would like to explore two themes–creativity and passion. When I think of passion, I think of Bill McGlaughlin.

Over the past month or so, my wife and I have had a radio on in our room. I couldn’t tell you what station it is, but I know it has NPR broadcasts, as well as Bill McGlaughlin’s broadcast, “Exploring Music.” Each night, we listen to Mr. McGlaughlin explore the intricacies of classical music. Of course, we don’t stop everything and listen to him during this time, but he is in the background as we hang out with Sevaeh and play our Scrabble games and have our discussions.

Sometimes, however, I have to stop my activities and simply hone in on what McGlaughlin is saying. He might have some startling insight on Mozart or Bach, or he might have a little known fact about a performance of a symphony back in 1883. He also might play a spattering on the piano and explain what’s going on in the midst of a certain segment of music. All the while, you can hear the passion in his voice. He loves this stuff!

If I had to describe the host in a sentence, I would say he is charming, whimsical, and borderline hypnotic. Honestly, I don’t think I would listen to classical music everyday if it were not for Bill McGlaughlin. And I definitely wouldn’t care to know the count on a line of music if it were not for him. So my hat is off to the man who continues to enlighten me for 58 minutes and 30 seconds on weekday evenings. Thank you Mr. McGlaughlin.

To find out more, see http://www.wfmt.com/main.taf?p=31,1.