Whole Nutha Level

I love getting on an airplane. Watching the little roofs, pools, neighborhoods and roads, I imagine I'm someone else, living somewhere else, traveling to another exciting life and destination. I actually envision the activity below, happy normal life events. Why is it, from this higher level things look better to me; I see only the big picture, my hopes are high, expectations great! God has an even better perspective than that. He can see 'yesterday, today & tomorrow' and knows our steps before we take them. He desires that we not get bogged down in the worries of life. Naturally, you probably desire to live that way too - to see above the details while still handling the details. The best practices I've found (but forget sometimes) are:

1. Reading the Bible - Viewing events from God-inspired scripture is about the best it gets to providing perspective. When I'm overwhelmed, too much on my plate, difficult tasks, or I've made a mess of something and can't fix it, scripture reminds me that He is much bigger than that, His plan is much bigger than mine, and my messes are small (but important) to Him. He's just waiting for me to hand it over. He does miracles right here at my computer!



2. Reading Something - Seeing life through someone else's eyes can still be a great way to get a different perspective. If you're going to imagine your life through someone else, make a point to read something healthy & purposeful versus a trashy novel.



3. Serving - Serving others always changes you and maybe even the people you're serving. Personally, it takes my mind off of ME! There are many ways to serve others. Christ's example for us to follow is summed up in Luke 4:18-19. (more on that later)



4. Social Strategy - Intentionally sticking your neck out & meeting someone new requires effort. Commit to asking someone you don't know well to have coffee or go to lunch, ask them their story, try to find common ground, on purpose. You'll gain new perspective.

Looking at life through God's eyes helps us think accurately and make better decisions, while still living expectantly knowing He has plans, 'plans to give you hope and a future!' Jer.29:11

I Love the Church

As a child, I remember our Walnut St C of C in Dickson, TN as a source of so many things including fun! It was large, relational and creative even in the 60's and I remember momentum kicking in when the younger, cooler pastor took the helm. We met every Sun morn (2-3 hrs), Sun night, Wed night, had dinners on the ground, played tag and hide'n seek until our parents dragged us away. Those seemed like simpler times even though our parents both worked until 6, had bridge club, the country club, etc.

Since then, I've met thousands of pastors and visited hundreds of churches. And no matter the brand of donut, people who come to church are still looking for a spiritual experience, for answers and for solid truth they can consider, & then take hold of. Our first priority is to teach the good news, the truth about Christ, who He is, all the great things that result from repenting and trusting in Him. In marketing terms, there are easily enough features & benefits from trusting in Christ for a pastor to plan out an entire teaching year! People are looking for peace, for protection, for joy, for hope, for strength and more, and most people I meet aren't looking to the church for that. Christ's ministry is made clear in 2 verses Luke 4:18-19 and he left us to do the same. Like most things, it's easy to make the church all about us. But it's still about Him. He's still the answer.

Creativity

Just when we thought we were creative! In 2 Samuel 10, just before David and his army 'took out' the Ammonites, his guys had a little innocent run-in with them. Basically, David's guys went to see the Ammonite king, Hanun, to express sympathy to him following his father's death. King Hanun's guys doubted that and said, "Do you really think these men are coming here to honor your father? No! They're coming to spy and then conquer the city." Hanun fell for their skepticism and:


4 So Hanun seized David’s ambassadors and shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their robes at the buttocks, and sent them back to David in shame.
5 When David heard what had happened, he sent messengers to tell the men, “Stay at Jericho until your beards grow out, and then come back.” For they felt deep shame because of their appearance.



So he shaved 1/2 their beard and sent them away with their be-hinds hanging out. Nice! I love David's protective response, for both them & him. Can you imagine? A little shame used to go a long way!

Back Seat Jesus

Beachside's new series is Back Seat Jesus. It's very common to think, "If things go how I want, I'll be happy." But it really should go like this - "When things go how You want, I'll be happy." My will turned over to Him! This could be me in this weekend's video:

Everything is Amazing, Nobody is Happy

I'm sure there are nicer ways to say this, but this is still my favorite 2009 video . . . so far!

Wisdom

Of course, we always hear about Solomon's wisdom in determining the real mom - just 'cut the baby in half.' Equally as impressive is the Judges 12 account of Jephthah and the men from Gillead, currently Jordan, and their dispute with the men of Ephraim.

vs 5-6 Jephthah captured the shallow crossings of the Jordan River, and whenever a fugitive from Ephraim tried to go across, the men of Gilead would challenge him. “Are you a member of the tribe of Ephraim?” they would ask. If the man said, “No, I’m not,” they would tell him to say “Shibboleth.” If he was from Ephraim, he would say “Sibboleth,” because people from Ephraim could not pronounce the word correctly. Then they would take him and kill him at the shallow crossings of the Jordan. In all, 42,000 Ephraimites were killed at that time.

Yup, apparently the people from Ephraim had a bad lisp!! Surely all 42,000 didn't fail that test, but it sure didn't end well for them. Jephthah, on the other hand, ruled Israel for 6 years. Brilliant!

Proverbs 4 - Above all else, get wisdom!