The dangers of living in a bubble...

Before getting into the meat of the blog, I will say that any time you write, teach or lead, it forces you to examine yourself in the light of what you are writing/teaching/leading.  So, that has certainly been done on this topic.  I grew up in a small town and live in a reasonably small city now (that I really like), but I have worked with many different cultures, traveled a few places and have friends that frequently travel or currently live outside of the U.S.  I've had some conversations lately concerning people that I perceive to live in a social bubble and the concerns I have specifically for kids that grow up in this circumstance.  If you are born in an area where everyone is the same socioeconomic status and race as your family, I think it really creates a dangerous situation for your world view.  As parents, we need to be intentional about having our kids understand that the world does not revolve around our current situation.  Specific to Jesus and the Bible, I don't think you can simultaneously follow Christ and be a racist.  I've been thinking on this for a while, but MLK day seems like an appropriate time to share it.

Are you ready for 2012?

     Long time, no blog...  The new year is always an exciting time for me because I love to set goals.  I'm not a resolution guy because they are so easy to break and they seem to fade away.  Goals are a whole different animal if done correctly.  The first step is finding the areas of your life that you want to improve (likely all of them).  Suggestions are spiritual, physical, mental, financial and relational, but perhaps there are others to add/swap.  After identifying the areas, pick specific, attainable and measurable goals; if you want to be a better parent or spouse, pick some specific areas to improve on that you can measure.  I like to use a very old school journal, but there are certainly enough options with smart phones, tablets and laptops to go paper-free.  It would be a good idea to share your goals with a friend for some accountability...unless one of your goals is to find better friends, then you may want to accomplish that goal and then share for accountability.
     One topic I'd like to follow up with is what we put into our minds.  The old adage "you are what you eat" certainly applies to our minds as well.  If you are a Christian and want to become more like Christ, I would suggest reading scripture, fellowshipping with other believers, reading appropriate books and listening to podcasts by solid pastors.  If you want to be a leader in your profession, read books, listen to podcasts and meet successful people that you can learn from (much of this can be done for free or very cheap).  If you want to complete a marathon, watching people run on TV will not get you there, right?  Once your goals are written down, start to document how much time you spend working on those goals; if it's June 2012 and you are not getting closer to your goals, perhaps it's because you are not using your time wisely.  If we spend our time listening to angry political commentators, too much sports talk radio, entertainment shows talking about celebrities, why would we expect to meet our goals?  We have to make our days count because there is not day but today.
     Happy New Year and I hope you meet all of your goals!

RDS

What are you doing with your life?

It’s been a while since I posted anything on my blog, but there is never a shortage of things to talk about, just a shortage of time to type it out.  Do I talk about my friends going to Africa to be missionaries?  How about the death and devastation that tornadoes caused in Alabama?  Maybe I could discuss the encouragement I get from seeing people reach out and help those around them or the local churches around my hometown stepping up and being the church in the aftermath of destruction?  Bin Laden?  Nah…  With all of these things bouncing around my cleanly shaven dome, I want to ask if you are using the one life you’ve been given to the best of your ability.  What do you want your life to stand for?  What do you want to be remembered for?  Are you working toward that as you walk through life?  If not, I would just encourage you to get started. 

Focus Challenge for Christians

Greetings everyone, I want to talk through one of the hot topics for me this week.  I’ve been thinking quite a lot about how Christians and churches in America have missed the mark for a very long time and how we need to refocus.  As a disclaimer...I always hit myself with a few stones before throwing them at others.  As a guy that lives in the “bible belt” and passes ten church buildings every time I drive my kids to the ballpark, I’m consumed with the idea that we try to sell people on treasure hunts, water balloon fights and magic shows.  If you read scripture and believe what it says, the power of God does not rest within our cool ideas; it rests in His word and spirit.  I’ve had a few conversations this week about this topic and it leaves me asking, “where is our focus.”  Is our focus on creating a social club, country club or fun zone for kids, or is our focus on Jesus?  I must say that I have a very strong Small Group and pastor at Brookhills and I came home Sunday very encouraged only to open Facebook on my phone and be discouraged by “church” comments.  One of my personal challenges for my blog is to not go negative, so I don’t want to bash anyone but I do want to say that the enemy of great is good.  It is very easy to focus on the good stuff and completely miss the great stuff.  Every comment that discouraged me was a well meaning and happy post, but I was discouraged by the focus of the comment (not Jesus, but church activity).  So, the question I have to ask myself every day is “where is my focus?” and the question I would present to you is “where is your focus?”

Thanks to those in my life that challenge me and keep my focus going in the right direction.

Blog Intro

I’ve wanted to start a blog for quite some time to write about things that are too long and too intense for a Facebook post.  I will likely post about things that revolve around my faith, little league sports, the occasional funny story and sports commentary.  I will mostly stay away from politics and Alabama/auburn football so I can hopefully avoid foolish arguments.  I heard nine year olds discussing politics at the batting cage on Saturday and quite frankly that got into my fun zone.