Chapter 6 in Erwin McManus’ book, Wide Awake, is about being an Activist. The title of the chap. is actually “Create.” I think for some of us, it may be easier to think along the lines of “producing.”
We don’t like to think of us, humans, being able to create, but that is what God made us for.
Not to create out of nothing, but to create, nonetheless.
What are you creating? Or producing? What kind of life are you creating?

Jesus told these 3 certain stories:
The Bridesmaids
The Three Servants
The Separating of Sheep and Goats (you don’t want to be a goat)

Go read these for yourself. What do you think they say to us?

Here’s my take…
1. Some of the bridesmaids were ready for the wedding and some weren’t. They all were excited about being in the wedding but only half of them prepared ahead of time so that when the time came they could join in.
The lesson for us is… Stay Awake and Be Prepared!
Some of us aren’t producing anything (or much) in our life because we don’t prepare to do that. Education, debt, training, health, whatever… are all things that can keep us form being able to do some things that we dream of. Don’t settle for whatever is easy. Prepare!
2. In the second parable, the third servant takes the resources he was given and just buries it so that he won’t lose it. His strategy is defensive and driven by fear of failure more than the possible good that he could do with those resources. We have been given time talent and treasure. Are we being creative about how we can use it for good or are we trying to maintain what we have and not take any risks? If we only seek to hold onto what we have, it usually has a way of slipping away from us. Use what you have! Even if it’s only a little!
3. The last story is pretty serious. It’s the one where it’s decided, “who’s in and who’s out.” The big difference between the “sheep and goats” was that one group reached out to people in need and one group did not. What ever you are creating… or whatever you produce… you must ask yourself, “is this about me, or, is this about others?” It has to be about people!

What’s your take?

Chapter 6 in Erwin McManus’ book, Wide Awake, is about being an Activist. The title of the chap. is actually “Create.” I think for some of us, it may be easier to think along the lines of “producing.”
We don’t like to think being us, humans, being able to create, but that is what God made us for.
Not to create out of nothing, but to create, nonetheless.
What are you creating? Or producing? What kind of life are you creating?
3 Parables:
The Bridesmaids
The Three Servants
The Separating of Sheep and Goats (you don’t want to be a goat)

Go read these for yourself. What do you think they say?
Here’s my take…
1. Some of the bridesmaids were ready for the wedding and some weren’t. They all were excited about being in the wedding but only half of them prepared ahead of time so that when the time came they could join in.
The lesson for us is… Stay Awake and Be Prepared!
Some of us aren’t producing anything (or much) in our life because we don’t prepare to do that. Education, debt, training, health, whatever… are all things that can keep us form being able to do some things that we dream of. Don’t settle for whatever is easy. Prepare!
2. In the second parable, the third servant takes the resources he was given and just buries it so that he won’t lose it. His strategy is defensive and driven by fear of failure more than the possible good that he could do with those resources. We have been given time talent and treasure. Are we being creative about how we can use it for good or are we trying to maintain what we have and not take any risks? If we only seek to hold onto what we have, it usually has a way of slipping away from us. Use what you have! Even if it’s only a little!
3. The last story is pretty serious. It’s the one where it’s decided, “who’s in and who’s out.” The big difference between the “sheep and goats” was that one group reached out to people in need and one group did not. What ever you are creating… or whatever you produce… you must ask yourself, “is this about me, or, is this about others?” It has to be about people!

What’s your take?

curious said…
“So from what you said, I gleaned, correct me if I’m wrong, was that God created earth mainly for people but meant for us to take care of each other and everything else he created. I remember you once said something to the effect of it’s a pretty egocentric view on life to believe that our purpose in life is to find our own happiness. Do you not think it is an egocentric view on life to believe that the world is made for humans to enjoy and take care of? ”

my response:
…concerning the egocentric view of seeing creation as being for humanity to enjoy… I see your point. Think of it this way, when life is good or good comes to us, we can view that as deserved or as our “right” OR… we can respond with gratitude and thankfulness. This is one of the ways I see the goodness of God’s heart.
For me, that is one of the basics of my understanding of how the universe works - God is good and he wants good for us. If we started with that assumption, it would help us see and understand so much else.
Sometimes, we question whether God is good if our personal situation is not good but that is back to the egocentric view, right?
Other times we question God’s goodness because of how He has been represented by people that claim to follow him or churches or other stuff.
If we find some event or word in the scriptures that seems to put God’s goodness in doubt, usually all we need to do is just zoom back a bit and see the bigger picture and listen to what God says about himself.
again, one of our big problems as humans is that we tend to zoom in on our own situation in that moment… “what about me?”
Thanks for the dialogue!

I’m giving a series of talks called “rethink.” The idea is that maybe we have some faulty assumptions about how the universe works.
This last week, I talked about rethinking the rules… our present understanding seems to be that if you can follow the rules, everything works out… right?

A couple of things I wish I’d said:

1. Life is not in the rules, nor is your identity.
However, the rules are not to be thrown out. They position us to live life. They put us in proximity to God and help avoid being cut off from life or destroyed… they’re like guardrails.

2. Asking what’s right and wrong is too small of a life.
We should ask ourselves, “what’s the most courageous thing I could do?” “What’s the most generous thing I could do?” “What’s the wisest thing?” (more on the courageous, generous and wisdom guided life, read Uprising by Erwin McManus)
If we simply ask, what’s the right thing or what’s the wrong thing, we reduce life to some arbitrary line of morality. and seemingly, the goal is to live just on the other side of that line. If we seek to do the “most” thing, then we find ourselves living way above that line.

3. You can do whatever you want to do.
We are free to choose how we will live. Jesus seems to point out a few realities for us as a guide. “If you make this choice, it leads here. “However, if you choose this, you end up here.” But… you must choose. You can do whatever you want but you can’t cheat the process. Christian karma = “You will reap what you sow.”

What do you want to do?

I’d love to invite you into a conversation. It’s private, so I ask that you respect that. But at the same time I think it is the same conversation many of us have in our head or with the people in our lives. This is a person that doesn’t have a history of being connected to any structured faith system, yet I believe they are deeply spiritual and searching for what is real. Feel free to add your thoughts.

“So when you say that we are to be “in a relationship with creation” does that then mean that we are sinning according to the bible by polluting, cutting down trees, putting up radio towers which cause the bees to go extinct, etc.? If so, do you think it would be possible in this day and age to avoid it and why would god create humans with the mental capacity to create the technology that would in turn cause these problems with our environment?”

Great question!
First, if we abuse creation, or simply consume with only ourselves in mind, that is a bad thing. God trusted us to take care of it. Sometimes it’s not so easy to define the best course of action. There are those that think it would be a good thing for much of the human population to die off. I don’t think that God wants that at all. It places creation at the apex of everything else.. makes it a god if you will.
You’re right about the mental capacity thing… but think of it this way - God has created us with the capacity to meet the needs of people and care for the environment. We often use that capacity for evil and destruction and simple selfishness. Instead, I think our incredible human potential is meant for good… the good of others. As far as “what’s a sin and what’s not,” I find it better to focus on the relationship of trust that God desires with us instead of defining what’s a sin and what’s not. It’s really hard for us to sit in the seat of judgement, but we can honor the trust relationship and do our best to use our potential for the good of others and self.
We, as humans, tend to draw a line where “sin” is below the line and “not sinning” is above it. Most of us try and camp out just above that line and try to avoid “sinning.”I don’t think the great question will be - did I sin? but rather - am I becoming a better person? am I helping others become better people? am I being a good steward of the life that God has given me? Including the resources, relationships and influence I might have?

If we live that way… asking those questions… I think we end up living way above whatever the “sin line” is. In fact I think it is more of a terrible sin to settle for such a low view of humanity - just above the line.
Where are you living right now?

I never took physics in high school or college but I am getting more interested in the subject as I get older. Maybe that’s because time travel seems so appealing to an old dude like me. Quantum physics is a branch of physics that focuses on measuring things that we’ve never been able to measure before. The word “quantum” itself comes from the latin word that means “how much” or “how far.”
Here’s one of the basics of physics I’ve learned: there is a big difference between speed and velocity. Oh yeah? Despite the urge to ask, “uh…. could you repeat the question?”, just think about it for a few minutes. Speed = rate of movement. I like movement. The more movement, the more speed. Speed is how much somethings moves over time. So… what’s velocity? Velocity is speed measured over a distance. It’s speed with a destination!
This makes me think about my life. Does it have a destination? Or am I just moving around a lot? It seems we can fill our life with more and more activity (speed) but is there a destination? Is it going somewhere? Where?
As a spiritual leader of sorts, I love to ask people, “where are you going?” or “where is God taking you?”, as opposed to, “what are you doing?” In other words, “who are you becoming?”
To properly answer this question, we have to look into the future. (Ah… I knew we’d get back to time travel) For some of us, this is extremely difficult. We don’t easily see ahead. Some of us are oriented to look in the rear view mirror of our life and focus on where we’ve been. What could I have done different? Why did that have to happen? Why did those people treat me that way? How could I have made such a huge mistake? We can and must learn from our mistakes but we had better turn around and see where we are going or else we keep crashing and hitting the same potholes we always do.
I just finished meeting a few other guys and we asked a really weird question, “what do you want said about you at your funeral?” Sick, huh?
But actually, this question forced us to look into the future and imagine something. We each had to try and get a picture or a sound bite in our mind of that moment. Not the death part, but the impression we’ve left on others. Have you ever stared at a lamp or a light and then when it is turned off, it’s almost like you can still see the light for a few seconds. What you see in your mind is sort of an impression left by the light. When the light of your life shines, does it leave an impression on others?
With the men’s meeting, we tried our best to get this “impression” down to a single line or statement.
Now you have a destination! A point in the future to live towards!
Religion is often spiritual activity that doesn’t necessarily go anywhere. That’s just speed… motion without a destination.
Jesus calls us to “follow” him. This verb, “follow” implies that we are to go somewhere.
Where are you going?
There is absolutely nothing that keeps you from becoming the person that you hope people see you as when your gone…except yourself. Only our unwillingness to change and grow can keep us from being the person described by the epitaph statements we hope people say about us one day.
The choice is right there for each of us… be that person… become that person!

I get this question ALL the time. Who among us, including myself. has not been at a place where we just want to know what to do?
When considering “God’s will”, don’t you think most people think about that in the context for their own life. You know… more specifically, “what does He want ME to do?”
It’s a good question, but I still say the first step should be towards God’s will (in general). It can sound arrogant to say that we KNOW God’s will. However, if we are uncertain about our own next step, there is quite a bit that we can be sure of.

For example, we know that God wants his heart and character to be reflected in all of humanity. That’s God’s will for all of us and it’s not a small thing. We could start by spending some time discovering where we are now, getting into a group maybe to give us some feedback from others, some encouragement. Then we could begin to identify some specific character qualities to develop in us. The list could go on and on, but the point is that just that one aspect of God’s will could keep us really busy.
Bottom line - God’s will is that we transform into what he dreamed for us to be.

The other huge part of “God’s will” is that we join him in his activity… which means pursuing people, loving them, serving them. This is the predominant theme of God’s activity throughout all of scripture. So for us, we simply evaluate our life as to how “missional” we are. This gives a ton of possible changes, activities, goals, etc. to “do.” By the way, don’t miss the part about joining God. Many of us think God is sitting there at home while we go out do good and be good. It’s not like that. God is not passive. He’s is doing something and he is inviting us to join him!
We were made to join God in supernatural activity. How cool!

But here’s the real magic… as we move towards those two things - reflecting God’s heart in our own & joining God’s activity - we increasingly begin to sense that we are participating in something that is specially for us. We begin to experience that we are part of some plan, that we are actually living out God’s specific will for our own lives. And all of the sudden, we get this thought that we’re living the life we were meant to.
“Yeah, this is it…I’m doing it!”

What happens sometimes is that we agree with those first two points, but it’s more like, “yeah, yeah, I know that” but what about this choice or that choice? We often think about life a series of small forks in the road and each one seems like it’s a choice between “God’s will” and “Not God’s will,” date this guy or that girl, red car or blue car? And we don’t know which is which so we just don’t make the choice. We kind of wait and hang out to see if we get a clear word. This is where I think we start “not living our life.” We apply conventional wisdom or we just follow the path of al the other lemmings and become a nice person.

Someone shred this idea in an email the other day - “So I’m trying make the “right” choices. I think I get so fearful of making a mistake. Not that I think if I don’t do it things will fall apart, but that if I don’t do it I’ll be disappointing God and I don’t want to do that.”

Don’t miss the part about “making a mistake.” That’s where many of us are. We don’t want to screw it all up so we spiritualize the concept of “waiting on the Lord.” There is a time for that and there is a time to step out and act! If we act with a sincere heart, don’t we trust God to help us?

If you make those first two compass points your guide (reflecting his character and joining his activity) then I don’t think you can make a mistake. I think you have freedom about jobs, where to live, certain relationships, whatever. There are exceptions but even if you make a wrong choice at that point I believe you’ll feel it immediately from God’s spirit within you and from the Godly counsel of others in your life.

Have you found it?

Hello, my name is Barry and I’m an addict.
Seems like it goes to either extreme… we either confess to everything, openly and with much drama or we never admit to anything, even if the whole world knows we’re naked(see kid’s story - The Emperor’s New Clothes).
Examples…
Confession is so popular that James Frey made up most of his story about drug addiction and got Oprah to pimp his book, A Million Little Pieces.
If you don’t realize how obliviously shallow some people can be check out Jon Stewart’s interview with Hardball’s Chris Matthews.
So… with no disrespect to people that suffer from destructive addictions… I thought I’d come clean about a few of mine:
Coffee!
Chocolate
The following TV shows:
Heroes
Journeyman
The Unit
Lost
Of course, 24
Combining coffee and chocolate - a 2 pump, quad shot, non-fat mocha
Sunrises and sunsets in the Northwest
Seeing the future
Creating the future
That second cup of coffee (also 3rd & 4th)
Down time with my family
Sweating - I know, it sounds gross, but I really mean a hard workout.
Did I mention coffee?
A good story… usually books or movies.
My favorite addiction is watching a good movie with my family, while drinking coffee and eating chocolate after working out in the Northwest… at sunset.
What are your addictions?

Most of us have been trying to figure out who we are… trying to find ourselves… getting in touch with our inner being… as if it is a secret out there somewhere. How’s that working out for you?
Sometimes we find ourselves but we usually accept the discovery. What if you don’t like who you are?
why not be somebody else?
It seems that we are resigned to being who we are and we spend much of our time, love and resources trying to change our circumstances. What if we have it backwards? What if, for the most part, we cannot choose or control how life will come at us, but what if we could pick whop we want to be?
You may or may not be religious, but if you know much about the sayings of Jesus… he told us to be good soil, be a faithful servant, the true friend as if we could choose to be those things!
He implied that each of us can choose the kind of person we will be.
At the end of the day, how many of us can truly control our circumstances on a sustainable level?
But each of of can choose… everyday… what kind of person we will be.
If that is true… then who are you becoming?

It just doesn’t matter…

You might spend hours researching nutrition and exercise… but that will not make you healthy.
You might wear a yellow bracelet… but that doesn’t stop cancer.
You may know more than anyone else about food production and hunger in Africa… but that doesn’t feed a child.
You may believe in God… but it doesn’t really change your life, or anything else.
None of that matters…unless… you care about it.
You may believe something to be true but it does not impact your life or anyone else’s unless you care about it.
What really matters to you?
Could someone observe your actions, how you spend your time and resources and make a pretty good guess at the things you care about most?
Just look at our day planners and our check books and you get the picture of what our core values are. You may not be aware of them or you may not have consciously decided them but each of our lives reflect our core values.
The spiritual community that I am part of has 5 core values. These are different than theological beliefs, mission statements and convictions. These statements are meant to protect what we care about.
Lives don’t necessarily change when our beliefs change but rather when what we care about changes.
What are your core values? Ask someone who knows you…