5 + 2 + 1 = 5,000

We've got a botched math system.
I think I'm beginning to understand God's better math system.
Here is my theory:  with God, addition turns to multiplication.

As I was reading through the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 men with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish (Luke 9), I felt as if God was saying, "As long as I'm in the equation you have to stop using your math and start remembering my math."

We all get so used to using our math system all the time when we go shopping or out to dinner or get paid, but our math gets turned upside down every time Jesus enters the equation.


5 loaves + 2 fish + 1 Jesus = 5,000 men eating to their hearts delight!


We can't ever forget that adding Jesus to the equation multiplies everything everytime.
 
Luke 8:17
"They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers!"

Thoughts On Luke 7:44-47 (Am I Simon or The Immoral Woman?)

The actions that were skipped by Simon the Pharisee were missed opportunities to show Jesus great love. The actions that were showed by the immoral woman were taken opportunities to show Jesus great love. Which one, by their the actions, loved Jesus?
So, by my actions, do I love Jesus?


My capacity to be more like Simon or the Immoral Woman today will be determined by my remembrance of my great forgiveness.

What The Angels & Kyokushin Karate Masters Taught Me This Week

It's funny what can turn into a teachable moment for me. One minute I'm just sitting down watching a show and all of the sudden a huge life lesson is emerging. It's kind of scary actually. I think it upsets people too. I'll lay out the life-lesson I was just reminded of and the look on their face tells me they're saying, "Can't you just have fun & stop thinking for a even a moment?!" [ I think my wife does this sometimes =) ]

Well, here's two major life-lessons that I was reminded of while watching TV this weekend (I hope they encourage you as much as they encouraged me):

1. Even when things look hopeless, never, ever, ever quit playing the game. - When the Angels were down to their last 3 outs of the game, down by 2 runs, at Fenway Park, my faith in an Angels' win was gone. But the Angels didn't loose hope, didn't give in, and they made one of the most spectacular come-backs I've seen in years!
   
2. Real strength is only built through experiencing real pain. - I found myself obsessively watching "Fight Quest" when they were highlighting the fighting style of Kyokushin Karate in Japan. I nearly stopped breathing when the Karate Masters were training their students in the woods and having them punch trees! A Master can apparently use a tree as a punching bag and throw punches at full force. Incredible! That is just one highlight of showing their real strength, but to truly grasp how strong they can be they have had to endure extreme pain. This principle drives all their training; they have a purpose behind the pain. I cannot begin to know how strong a person I really am if I never experience some pain. Pain is what builds and proves real strength.

A Simple Picture (Quick Thought On Life)

Two things you've got to know about me:  I love simple and I do better with pictures.
With that said, maybe you do too. This is why I had to share this thought.

Life is a journey of choices. Today's journey always impacts tomorrow's.

3 Ways To Slowly Kill Any Team

Teams are a funny thing.
Teams come in all different sizes and shapes. There's the husband & wife team, the pastor & his staff team, the sports team, the executive team, the band, and tons of other teams. The funny thing about teams is that they're the greatest thing ever invented and the worst thing all at the same time. King Solomon, the richest & wisest king in Israel's history, says a team can be the greatest invention we ever experience: "Two people can accomplish more than twice as much as one; they get a better return for their labor." (Ecclesiastes 4:9) Do you agree?
If you do, you have a somewhat healthy team. If you currently don't, your team is dying or already dead. As good as Ecclesiastes 4:9 sounds and as true as it is, I find it utterly disturbing that people in any team also experience some of the most difficult days of their lives. After much reading, studying, and personal experience, I've found the 3 diseases that slowly kill any team:

1. Create a lack of focus - as soon as you enter in more than one goal/vision for the team in any given day, things start getting muddy and the unity starts fading. It's as easy as loosing sight of your particular role. And another thing, as soon as you start to confuse the style with the vision, you're going to get frustrated when someone else's style is different than yours.
   
2. Take away the element of trust - if you start to think you can't trust this person or that person, you start to think the teamwork element can't do as good a job as you can on your own. That is deadly because you undervalue the other people/person on your team.
3. Don't have any fun together - this is a sure-fire way to ensure that your team becomes seen as a responsibility rather than an opportunity. You start dreaming of how much fun you could be having with other people or if you were on another team, because let's face it, relationships are meant to be fun so if yours is not you're going to look elsewhere.

Take an inventory of all the teams you're a part of or lead. Are you letting these 3 diseases slowly grow stronger & deeper or are you able to identify them when they hit and kill them on the spot? You're never NOT going to be part of a team (unless you live in a cave) so you'd better get yours right or else your work life, family life, friend life, church life, love life, and personal life are going to be miserable when they don't have to be.

Late Night Thought: Master The Art of Great Decision Making

I've been somewhat amazed (really amazed lately) at how many good things aren't really good things at all when they keep you from actually doing the great things. Let me explain.

I love to play & practice the guitar and drums. These are really good things that I'm able to do. Spending time practicing is a good thing because it helps me get better. And when I'm better I can serve others better by offering up much better sounding music all the while spending less "mind energy" on what I'm currently playing & more "mind energy" on who I'm playing for. Get it? But what if this good thing keeps me from spending more time in my relationships? Surely spending time in my relationships (like with my wife or son or unsaved neighbor) is of a higher priority than practicing guitar, isn't it?

Now think of all the seemingly good things we all do daily.

It seems that good things aren't really good things at all when they keep us from the great things. Now, I'm not saying I give up on practicing guitar & drums, but what I am saying is that I've got to learn to pick the greater thing when faced with two seemingly good things. I'm not saying "balance" and "proper scheduling" are the answers either (although they can help) because if you look at the life of Jesus those two words (balance & scheduling) don't exactly come to mind.

So, try to balance all the good things you want and try to schedule your life away, but in the end all the good things you're trying to balance and schedule that keep you from the great things aren't doing you any good in the first place.

We've all got to master the art of great decision making. Who was the expert great decision maker? Obviously, it was Jesus. Study his life and you'll quickly see that most everything he did was based on the decision to do the greater thing rather than the good thing. Just think about how many "good things" He could have done while on earth. And yet He stuck to a few great things.

There are things in life that are more important than others and we've got to learn what those things are and stick to them like Jesus did.

Yet another reason to study the life of Jesus and study Scripture, especially if you label yourself a follower of Christ.

Don't Forget The Sauce & Cheese

Sometimes life's fast. And sometimes we get caught up in it's wirlwind and we become fast. A little too fast. You might need to slow down just a little. Or you're going to miss the most essential parts of life.

What are the most essential parts of a pizza from your local delivery place? Well, after the dough, it's got to be the sauce and cheese. What's a pizza without some sauce?! (pause for reflection) But as you can see from above some pizzas accidentally get cooked, boxed, tagged, and delivered without 2 of the most essential parts. That's right, this is a pizza that some of my friends and I were delivered (they paid though)!

My guess is the thing that actually caused the under trained cook to forget the sauce & cheese was most likely that they were going too fast to even realize the pie in front of them was missing something.

Parents, friends, pastors, politicians, students, teachers......SLOW DOWN.
Or you might forget the sauce & cheese of life.

So, what are the most essential parts to your life?
Does your schedule match up with your essentials?

Complaining Reveals Something Much Deeper

Complaining about circumstances really has no place in the life of a Christian. But if you're like me, complaining is sometimes a daily habit. We've got no right to complain because complaining reveals something much deeper.

I'm reading in Numbers still and am at the point where the Israelites are complaining about their food & travel arrangements. Just a couple of years ago they were working their fingers to the bone as slaves in Egypt; they were nothing. Egypt owned them and could do anything it wanted with them. They hated being slaves!

But now, a couple of years later, the Israelites are complaining about the current food and travel as free men! How utterly evil and thankless they were! No wonder God killed some of them with fire! I find that the complaining isn't the cause of God's anger (Moses was complaining to God about the people complaining, yet God was not angered at Moses). The complaints are a symptom of a deeper problem and this deep problem can find it's way into everybody's life if we're not careful:

Complaining about current discomforts reveals the fact that you have forgotten what God has already done for you. And when you forget God's faithfulness & goodness, you cannot possibly live a life of thankfulness, obedience and trust.

The next time complaints start to creep in, remember that complaining reveals something much deeper.

Is It Time For You To Move? Probably.

How many of us like to move? (Let me chime in: I don't!)

I'm currently reading through the book of Numbers (the one in the Bible...you know, the one we never use in church) and I've got to say that this time around I'm seeing some good stuff.

In about the middle of chapter 9 the famous "cloud by day, pillar of fire by night" story is touched on. I've got to admit, I wish it was as clear as it was back then, but it's not. But honestly, just because it was clear didn't make it any easier. When God moved, the people had to move. Maybe they stayed in their spot for a week; maybe a month; sometimes a couple of days.

What I'm getting at is this: moving, adjusting, making some changes, etc is a core characteristic of following Jesus. If you don't like "moving" then you've picked the wrong person to follow for the rest of your life. Whether it's the big moves in life or the minor steps, we've got to keep moving.

So, when's the last time you moved? We've got to keep moving.

Check This Book out!

I've made up my mind: if you only read 3 books this year (by the way, 3 is NOT a lot), 1 should be The Relationship Principles of Jesus by Tom Holladay (the Bible should be another one & I'm still out-to-lunch on the third). And when I say "you" I mean you. Here's just a sample of it's profound simplicity and potent power from my first day notes:

Day #1 - Nothing Is More Important

• “Relationships are painful. Relationships are wonderful. We all live in the drama that plays out between these two truths.”
• “Relationships are filled with both wonder and pain.”
• “When Jesus came to this earth, he demonstrated that he understands both [wonder and pain]...Jesus came to show you how to enjoy a new way of relating to God and to others.”
• “...How easy it is to value things over people.”
• “Priorities become most important when we must make choices. If we had enough time to do everything, everything could be a priority. But we don’t…”
• “If we had the power to do every good thing we wanted to do, our choices wouldn’t be so important. But we can’t…”
• “When Jesus spoke about the priority of relationships, he could not have been clearer. He taught that relationships must be given the highest of values…”
• “He values our relationship with God, and he values our relationships with each other.
  “Your relationships with God and others will last all the way into eternity.”
• “A life without relationships may well be a simpler life, but it is also an empty life.”
• “The path to the greatest life possible and the greatest joy possible is found in the priority that Jesus taught us to keep at the top of the list: place the highest value on relationships.”

That is only the beginning! Personally, I believe that people all around me (including myself) that are in my age-group need to get the whole relationship-thing down because if we don't our lives will end up wasting so many opportunities and so much time in areas that are not as important.

Act, Learn, Refine...repeat

A big focus that I have this year is to learn more about who I really am; what God-given talents I have & what talents I don't have so I don't waste life and so I can surround myself with people who fill my gaps. I'm taking the wise approach and looking into many different areas for counsel (obviously Scripture as my top priority) and a huge help on the area of talent feedback is currently Now, Discover Your Strengths. Buy it. Read the 1st half, take the assessment, then read the rest.

Here's a great quote from the book:
"Building a strong life means that you allow performance to be the final judge of your strengths. Performance, properly measured, is implacable and unforgiving, and without doubt there will be times when your claims of strength are judged favorably." (p.127)

What are things I'm actually good at time after time? That's a great question to ask others to answer about yourself.