Life
Pastors love to be “relevant.” Undoubtedly over the last couple weeks these sermons have been preached or church signs have been updated to say some of the following:
- Forget Tigers Blood. We’ve got the blood of Jesus!
- Jesus is the way to real WINNING!
- No one’s more gnarly than God!
- With God, you can close your eyes and make it be!
- Snorting coke off of a hooker won’t make you happy but Jesus will!
I sure hope your church avoided these, but I am sure someone somewhere thinks these are WINNING sermon titles. What would you add to the list?
Can’t keep the secret any longer. Its probably clear to those who know me anyway. Increasingly he has been all but screaming it out from the rooftops.
Charlie Sheen is my father.
Elephant Bar
14346 Culver Drive, Irvine, CA 92604-0303
Irvine, CA
Feb 19th at 8pm til everyone’s husbands can’t take it anymore (though my guess is it will be before sunrise)
Invite your friends!
Isaiah 58:6-14 (MSG)
6 “This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.7 What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.8 Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.9 Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’
A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places
“If you get rid of unfair practices,
quit blaming victims,
quit gossiping about other people’s sins,10 If you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.11 I will always show you where to go.
I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
firm muscles, strong bones.
You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
a gurgling spring that never runs dry.12 You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
make the community livable again.
Man oh man. I’ve got a ways to go…
–warning: This post talks quite a bit about my personal faith. If such writing makes you uncomfortable, please feel free to skip this one. I by no means intend to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Also I am whining quite a bit and acting all emo. If this makes you uncomfortable (as it does me), again, feel free to skip.
Several years ago, my wife and I decided to dramatically alter our lives. We created a family mission statement and set out to be incredibly intentional about living by it. We are far from perfect and I highly doubt we will ever be much closer, but the journey to where we are today has been an incredible experience, while difficult at times, we have learned so much and grown so much closer as a family.
Before our family mission statement and the change that developed out of that I wanted to love and serve those around me. The problem was I knew I needed to make a lot more money and have a much nicer house and a lot more things before I could do that. At some level I believed this was for others though in actuality it was probably not. After our family mission statement and the subsequent changes we made we have taken every opportunity we can to help others regardless of our personal circumstances. During that time I have been fortunate to be a part of several amazing organizations that are truly making a difference both in a volunteer role and in a professional capacity. It has truly been awesome to see how being intentional about caring for those around you can play out if you make it a priority.
Enough with the back story. Where are we today? Shannon and I have attuned our eyes to see both the injustices that surround us as well as the beauty. We constantly strive to fight those injustices while bringing into view the beauty that is often missed out on in others perspectives of the space. But we have hit a bit of plateau. There are things that we could have done, if I only had the heart and brain 3 to 4 years ago but instead I squandered those resources trying to make sure we could “one day” be “philanthropists.” So here we are are today with big, God inspired dreams and a record of both strong implementation and a heartfelt and correct perspective on who we are and how we fit into the bigger picture but insufficient resources to actualize the vision.
As the kids get older expenses have also grown. We already went through several rounds of trimming the fat and continue to do so. I have had several things happen with my business that seem to point to a big break being just around the bend but none have materialized as of late (though, admittedly, I am EXTREMELY impatient, though I chalk it up to having Activation as a strength). Money has been tight since we began this journey but we knew that would be the case. But it seems like it has been a bit more tight that usual lately. I guess I felt that if this journey was all God inspired then at the end we would have some answers about the direction. It seems like our big dream is that answer and yet execution seems impossible at this point.
I find this extremely disconcerting. I am not one to see God behind every bush assume fires were probably started by punk kids so having this sense that God was leading us is a big deal for me. So to feel like the culmination of of this journey is in failure or indefinite limbo is a very uncomfortable feeling.
But maybe that is a good thing. I do not like being uncomfortable. What makes me uncomfortable over time has changed as I have taken steps to put myself into those situations which use to make me uncomfortable (personal connectedness, transparency, one on one contact with those experiencing homelessness, weird food, etc) to the point where I was feeling very comfortable minus the occasional financial hiccup. Maybe I am going through this season to further stretch the bounds of what is “ok” or “acceptable” in my book. I really do not know the answers here, these are simply my ramblings as I try to flesh out my thoughts.
Regardless, I am learning about myself right now. I am not immune to stress (contrary to the opinions of myself and many who have known me over the last couple years). As, what many define as, an extreme extrovert, I am increasingly desiring time away from crowds. Since I process through interaction this appears to be a defense mechanism designed to avoid dealing with this newfound stress. While I struggle quite a bit with this one, I also recently came to see that, for the first time probably in my life, that I can take joy in the small wins that do not scale and would not be viewed by my peers as a win.
I do not have any answers and I am not sure if you do, but I appreciate your insights and prayers.
Every year on the actual day of our boys birthday we take them over to Irvine Park to ride the train, go on a pony ride and run around.
Slide show after the break.
