Not as Strong as I Think I Am

Once again, I'm reminded of the words of Rich Mullins' song "We're Not As Strong As We Think We Are."

I let a two minute conversation yesterday between two other people send me into an incredible tailspin. I instantly believed the worst and jumped to conclusions. What an incredibly negative emotional rollercoaster.

And all it took to clear most of it up was a ten minute conversation with one of the two this morning. All three of us misunderstood what the others of us were talking about. Hopefully this will help us to follow Covey's 5th habit of highly successful people Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood.

Isn't it amazing that the Almighty Creator of the Universe would choose to use frail, petty people to advance His Kingdom? That's one of the mysteries that confused people in Jesus' day. Rather than living an abundant and "victorious" life, Jesus' followers more often seem to lurch and stagger forward. And the Kingdom of God advances. Wow.

In the meantime, I'll be singing the chorus to Rich's song and revelling in my smallness.

CHORUS We are frail We are fearfully and wonderfully made
Forged in the fires of human passion
Choking on the fumes of selfish rage
And with these our hells and our heavens
So few inches apart
We must be awfully small
And not as strong as we think we are

The Stories We Tell

I believe we serve the Supreme story teller.

In that context, check out this blog by Seth Godin, The doily lie.

What little touches can we add in our services (and lives?) to enhance the telling of the story?

Perhaps putting doilies on every seat? *grin*

Tax Day

Nationally recognized, man-made events like "tax day" can be great times to review your goals.

I'm sure you're reviewing your MagnetGoals but have you reviewed list of 100? I just did and was shocked by how many I'd made progress on.

If you don't know what in the world I'm talking about, sign up for my free MagnetGoals goal setting e-course at by going to FundraisingCoach.com.

Happy Tax Day!

Whole Wheat

I just came out of a class on fiber here at Inland Hospital.

Part of the class focused on the benefit of eating whole grain foods, foods that include the entire bran, germ, and endosperm in the flour. (There's a cool picture at the Whole Grains Council's site.) Evidently back in the '40s, Americans found more status in eating white bread than whole wheat. So we got used to wheat that is only the endosperm--basically nutritionless. That's why so much of our processed food gets "fortified." It's an attempt to add nutrients back in.

The bummer is we never see the whole picture. Not only are our vitamins not quite as good as those found in nature, but we didn't add things like phytonutrients.

Isn't this amazing? It seems every time we try to recreate God's creation, we diminish it. Just look at baby formula vs. breast milk.

I'm so glad God created the world and invited us to co-create with Him! I wouldn't want to try to recreate it for him!!

I'm not entirely sure if this fits the subject of the blog but I thought I'd share it!

Web Pages That Suck

I've finally checked out WebPagesThatSuck.com. You should too. Whoever this Nielsen guy is, he seems to "get" web design.

My favorite article is Don't Confuse Web Design with Sex.

Small Band of Brothers

I love this Kingdom journey. We just completed the second of two listening in times. We know from Romans and Hebrews that Jesus and the Spirit are interceding for us. So a group of us from VCW got together to ask Him, "What are you praying over us?"

Last week we didn't share anything. We committed to praying about it. This week we did share. And guess what, God's surrounded my wife and me with people willing to dream the same dreams we've been dreaming for years.

Waterville offers a host of kingdom ministry opportunities. And our "band of brothers" and sisters is willing...no desiring to do it in a way that isn't like anything we've seen before.

Thank God there are no lone rangers on this journey!

Marc

PS This isn't a "closed" group. Feel free to join us!

Pony in the Pile

Today was just "one of those days." If it could go wrong it seemed like it did. After my glasses broke while I was cleaning them, I noticed a long horizontal crack in the windshield!

Thank God He's given us the ability to choose our attitude! I felt just like the kid in the room with the pile of manure, "With this much crap, there's got to be a pony in here somewhere!"

Still searching for the pony, but I'm confident it's in here!

I'm glad this isn't my church!

The folks at ChurchMarketingSucks.com posted a blog on why pastors burn out. Read the entire post here.

I'm glad this isn't true of those folks that call VCW "home"! Thank you all for supporting a fellow follower of Jesus that happens to be the pastor!

But reading the post sure helps focus my thoughts on who I share criticism with, particularly those with a very public life. I hope the next time I'm thinking of offering "helpful" feedback, I'll check in and ask God to search my heart (Ps 139:23) and ask if He'd like me to share it.

Relationships and the Kingdom of God

Just a quick note following up on the Maine Vineyard Churches' annual conference.

God's plan, from the beginning, has been community. Relationships.

Man and woman were created in God's image...relational.

Satan attacked that bringing isolation, alienation, and death.

Man and woman broke the relationship. (Remember man and woman hiding and God asking "where are you?")

God set out to create a community and restore relationship.

Satan continues to isolate, alienate, and bring death.

In God's Kingdom there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. The barriers are down. True relationship is restored.

That's the way the Kingdom of God looks. And we get to be people of the Kingdom!

I'll flesh this out in future posts. Right now, I'm going to bed. *grin*