Seek and You Will Find

So I was playing a great game of golf…for 3 holes anyway. LOL. Then the inevitable happened. I took out my not so trusty 5 iron for a long approach shot from the middle of the fairway (center of the course) and … “come back, come back, come back!”, is what I said, but the ball didn’t listen. Nope. It decided to go  waaaaaay right. So naturally I had to go look for it. It was a new pinnacle gold golf ball, and the money spent on it insisted that I go look for it. Here is where the short lesson came in.

As pictured, my ball fell in tall grass, known as rough. I was standing a foot from it, but couldn’t see it because it was so deeply buried. This caused me to comb through this rough area of grass searching for the lost ball. While searching for it, I found 3 other balls that were also lying in rough areas. My next shot by the way was almost perfect…even though I had to hit it from the rough 🙂

Lesson 1. Listen to Correction.
When someone yells come back and you decided to go your own way, there’s a chance you could get lost. See, most people only want to hear about blessings, and how great they are doing. But everyone needs someone to correct them when they are wrong. Everyone, like David, needs a Nathan to come and say, “Hey you are going the wrong way! Come Back!” When that person arises in your life, do not assume they are trying to hold you down, they may be God sent to help you reach the proper destination for your life.

Lesson 2. Seeking Reveals More than you bargained for
So as I was searching for 1 lost ball, I found 3 more. This was a short moment of encouragement for the evangelist in me. It was a confirmation that we must seek for those that are lost. In doing so, not only do we fulfill our purpose, but we save the one who is lost and potentially reach others that somehow and some other moment found themselves in same situation. Every 1 person you reach out for is connected to someone else. So lets go into the hedges and highways, homes and streets and find the lost.

Lesson 3. It cost but it is worth it
So usually I use old recycled balls. When I loose them, I don’t even look for them. They don’t cost much, so I don’t waist time exploring for them. However, this ball cost me a little more, and so it begged to be found. When we understand the investments that God has made in us, and others it behooves us spend a little to recoup it. Spend a little time, little money, little energy holding on to it. It may be person, or your spiritual gift. Whichever you have seemingly lost, it is worth spending a little to get a lot.  Read the Jim Elliott Quote above for more on this spending.

Lesson 4. You can get out.
So I as I stated, I had to play that ball from the rough. I had to hit it, even though it was seemingly buried…and I did. I took out a wedge, and swung, and…and…and…perfect! It landed 1 foot from the hole. It was a “good out”. This means that even though it was lying in a bad place, I hit a good shot. Isn’t that just like God. Able to make all things (even bad ones) workout for your good. Do not give up because you have hit a rough place. Just know that God gives “GOOD OUTS”

Do it Dow!

You can get up again. The dow finally hit a winning spree. After being down, and consistently on the decline, today it had 3 consecutive days of positive gain. Don’t quote me, but it was up around 213 points while Nasdaq was around 47 positive. This may nor may not mean a lot depending on your investment history, but the life principle is worth mentioning. All we have heard about is how bad the economy is, how high our deficit and low the income of our country has been. However, here we have a little light in the middle of the tunnel. This news update for me simply said, “You can get up.” It was a loud shot of recovery.

I figure if the Dow can bounce back in 3 days turn an entire week’s losses into gain, then God can do the same with us. He too, can take long past periods of emotional, spiritual, and tangible deficit then flip it in a short period and make it workout for your good. Don’t give up DOW…I mean Now. God can raise you up again. See Poem Still I Rise.

Church caddies?

Recently Steve Williams, has been the topic of conversation in the golf community. He is currently the caddy for Adam Scott who just won the Bridgestone invitational Tournament. He used to be the caddy for Golf superstar Tiger Woods who has won 14 majors and 71 PGA championship tournaments, the most of any professional golfer of all times. Again, I say that Williams has been the caddy. What is a caddy you’re wondering? Well the caddy is the one who walks behind the featured player. In this case the featured younger player. Caddies carry the weight, I mean carry the clubs of the golfer who is playing in the tourney. They give insightful advice throughout each round, assist in choosing the best equipment (club) for each individual shot. They will sometimes walk slightly ahead to get a better perspective of the target and then return with information on how to best approach the situation. They are the voice in the head of the player that reminds them of each previous practice session, the best technique to use, and a reminder to focused on the current goal. They are a mix between a golf coach, and active mentor. They often have extensive experience themselves. So, you are probably trying to figure out what this has to do with church, ministry, or God huh?

Well as I watched the winning put being played over and over again, I noticed the camera kept showing this older gentlemen, Caddy Williams lugging the clubs of Adams all the while talking to him about his next move. This is when the question came to mind…who are the caddies of our day? What spiritually older, seasoned saints are there to carry the weight and speak words of advice to our featured Godly superstars? Who moves step by step with our young talented, anointed, and motivated men and women? Do we have CHURCH CADDIES?

This is not a foreign idea. This is why we have most of the New Testament. Paul was consistently writing letters to help motivate and train others so that they could become spiritual leaders. It’s why the book of Timothy begins with, “to Timothy my true son in the faith…” Paul was not just great because of his own feats, he was great because he coached or played CADDY for others.

I challenge you to find someone to mentor. Someone that you can pour into. I once read a book (I forgot the author) who said we should all die empty. In other words you should not leave this earth with information and knowledge. Instead you should pour into someone else everything that you know as to create champions. Champions like Adam Scott they don’t just when Bridgestone Tourneys, but help bridge the gap from sinners to the chief cornerstone that had a stone rolled away. Find someone and become the CADDY.

Affirmation from the Apes Movie

So I just saw “Rise of the planet of the Apes”. It was a decent movie. (beware this blog post has some description of the movie and a potential spoiler at the end) Like the movie Avatar it did have some great camera tricks with the cgi for the ape movement that were neat, but this is not a movie review. This blog is the first of many that I call, Message in the Media. It is similiar to a summer teaching method we began at our church that we call “Faith & Film”, and a learning method I practiced with CMI called, Do You See What I See. It is simply recognizing the obvious and/or hidden messages in various media forms. Here is what I clearly remember a day later from this Apes movie.

1. Some things are not to be changed.
Actually this is a direct quote from the movie, and as simple as it is, it is also profound. A scientist was attempting to create a chemical that would cure his father and others, and just happen to be using a chimp as his test agent. He shot them both with his serum. It worked…but only temporarily. Why? Because some things are not meant to be changed. Proverbs 3:2-3, also note the serenity prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr (it is posted above this blogpost)

2. Everyone has the ability to learn if you are willing to teach.
So here we have an over achieving monkey, that trains other monkeys, that leads them on an uprise. While I clearly understand this to be a fictitious movie I can’t help but notice that they tried to teach the monkey. This has been going on seriously for sometime in actual labs across the world (http://tech.mit.edu/V129/N61/monkeys.html hence the phrase “monkey see, monkey do”) but the movie embellished it alot. I still say, “They tried to teach the monkey”. There is even a scene where an arrangatang tells the ape, that monkeys are stupid…he still tries to teach the monkeys. I affirm at while I am not implying that people are monkeys, or that I have dealt with those whom I believe are stupid…we must, I must…BE WILLING TO TEACH THE MONKEY. Then God and his spirit will do the rest. 1 Tim 4:11; Matt 5:2; Psalm 94:12; Luke 12:12

3. Principle of power transfer.
So Ceasar somehow becomes the head ape. Previously there had been another ape, let’s name him George. (ask me later why I named him George if you are really curious 🙂 When Ceasar got ready to bond together all the apes together he first gives 1 chimp a cookie, George. Then tells George to give them to everyone else. The thing is, when the Chimps celebrate they do not celebrate George even though he physically gave them the cookie. They celebrate Ceasar because he was the source from which the cookie came. I was affirmed in the need to be sure that whenever I do ministry that even though I’m passing out the cookies, that Jesus gets the glory. I also was affirmed in that it is not just okay, but necessary to delegate responsibilities to empower others, with no threat of missing out on personal credit. Let someone else do it. Trust someone else to do it. Exodus 18:17-23

4. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you must.
Again this is learned from the previous delegation point above, but also in the strength of the ape. While the apes did harm a few people, they pick and choose who to injure. There were multiple scenes where an overly aggressive ape was getting ready to literally pound to death a feeble human, but upon Ceasar’s command did not. It affirmed for me the need for discipline. It affirmed the value of picking and choosing your battles. It affirmed for me that everyone needs a friend/mentor/coach/pastor-leader figure to slow you down before you incur unnecessary damage. It affirmed that restraint is a human necessity and our Christian responsibility. 1 Corinthians 10:23,24

And finally…

5. Voids must be filled with authentic character.
The young man lost both his father and his chimp, but then came along this beautiful female co-star with no clear role in the movie accept to be by his side. She did help him come into the knowledge of some important life lessons, but it was clear that she was filling a void for him as a person, and for the director of the movie. Every good movie has at least 1 female lead, and she was it. In addition to her being a void filler, the lead ape, Ceasar loved being with his human rearing family, but yearned to be among his own kind. So much so (spoiler alert…don’t read pass this if you plan to see the movie yourself!) that the movie ends (really. Stop reading cause this is going to spoil it for you if you have not seen it yet) with him speaking in English, “Ceasar is home.” after he arrives in a forest that he leads all of the apes in the city to. He had luxury in a human home, but an inner void for the wild life. He was only happy when the void was filled properly. I affirm that you can take the monkey out the jungle, but you can’t take the jungle out of the monkey…AKA let people be themselves and work with who they are. Romans 12:4,5

I understand that the Measage in Media could be a little crazy sounding, but I am one of those peculiar people Paul talks about. Please comment below.

Success vs leadership

Success is a moving target, but leadership is a fixed goal. That goal is Jesus Christ.
– Dr Paul Chapel

Good managers do things right, but good leaders do the right things.
– Warren Bennis

Our church just completed a 24hr prayer vigil, in which we had groups in our building praying for different topics for a 24 hour period. After the completion of our prayer time I paused to evaluate it’s spiritual success. There were plenty of people praying, I saw lives changed, and many came to prayer that had not been active in other areas of our church ministry. These factors initially caused me to ascertain that the day of prayer was successful. Then I took a more critical approach. I wondered what “so called” spiritual leaders of our church did not attend, could we have either given something to each attendee or should we have offered the option for financial offerings to be given, and did we meet a need tangible need as well as spiritual need during this prayer? Idk ( I don’t know) if we could have done it better. I knew we could have done it different, but I don’t know if different would have been better. Then I listened to this podcast while preparing for Sundays message (Habakkuk 1:2-4; 2:1-4 The Power of Perception) and the above quote jumped out of my iPad, grabbed me by the collar, shook me up and down, then screamed at me. What did it say you are wondering?… It said don’t try to figure out how successful it was by tangible barometers, ask yourself did you do what God told you to do? Did you lead Gods disciples into a place that they have been before or in an act that they would not have ordinarily engaged in? Did you make it to the fixed place of leadership? It was then that I understood the meaning of this quote for me. I encourage you to stayed focused on your fixed goal. Don’t be distracted by the quickly moving ideas of success, or mirage of mental concepts that the majority of your peers have deemed necessary for success.

The lesson here, is don’t concentrate on success but instead be a leader. Someone once said that good mangers do things right, but good leaders do the right things.

So you think you’re fancy huh?

“Nail done, hair done, every thing done…” These are lyrics of 2010 song performed by Music Artist Drake. It is the topic of today’s blog because while it seems to be only a song I believe it is one that may be metaphorically placed on repeat in our lives while God may be trying to skip to another track. “Oh you fancy huh?” How fancy should we be?

When asked what is appropriate to wear in any position we must remember PURPOSE over practice. In other words it is beneficial to ask yourself why am I wearing this? Am I dressed appropriately for where I am going and the reasons for why you will be there.

I remember going to Old Dominion’s University’s first football game. My cousin was playing at the time and our entire family agreed to wear t-shirts with his name and number displayed. Now there were others there dressed differently. I saw in full body paint, others in suites, and then a number of people in jersey’s and pads. Now we were all in the same place. However, we were dressed according to our roles on that day.

We should remember while our attire may be something that may not be important in the grand scheme of things, our image does. You represent something. In spite of your own desire to be, you may be stereotyped. For these reasons you should at least choose not ignore your attire as a means of effective communication.

A Christian author named Tertullian shares what I believe is a valuable lesson about Christian apparel. his focus seems to be on how our outward appearance can sometimes displease God. he speaks to how our attire, colognes, necessity for outer appearance acceptance, and not so modest wardrobes can be a distraction from our main goals.

I will admit there was a time that I was overly concerned about name brands, the most unique custom suits, and always having colored shoes that match. I also noticed the large expense it brought in both time, money, and possibly unnecessary attention to me, when the goal was to deflect who I was to highlight my purpose. Should you be a bum? Definitely not. However think of your own financial flow. Where your treasure is so may be your heart? Calculate the time you spend just choosing what you are going to wear. Are we redeeming the times?The goal of this blog is not to tell you what or not what to where, but instead bring a consciousness about attire and effectiveness.

Character that will do the right thing

High quality character is a must have for any leader worth following. Warren Bennis, Ph.D. Says, “Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing.” I have found in life that leaders must have courage to make the right decisions no matter the social sacrifices necessary. There are many chances in life to increase your financial status, public popularity vote, or heighten your position in an organization. Leaders do not prioritize their personal pleasure and desire over the moral and ethical boundaries that make who they are. Whether seen or unseen high quality character always does the right thing.

If in the dealings of every day life we are bound to accidentally err or intentionally compromise. It is during these times that leaders must be willing to take serious and honest self evaluation. The evaluation should lend to alteration in actions so that high quality character is quickly achieved. Choose today whether to be a manager or a leader.