For the Journey

I’m sitting in my cozy living room with my dog at my feet, listening to my wife serenade me with her acoustic guitar and I realized just how blessed I am.

Sometimes when I’m entering into a busy season, I just want to hide. The next six weeks are going to be intense for us. When we scheduled our anniversary trip, we had no idea that everything would be this hectic. I feel like the pace things are about to run at is this anvil sitting over my head, and no matter what I do, I can’t prepare myself for it.

The struggle with all of that is that I know that I’m blessed. I don’t want to complain about work whenever so many in our nation are looking for jobs. At todays ASTD meeting, I met a few trainers who are out of work because things are so slow. I’m looking at 5 days home between now and Dec 28th. The schedule looks like this: Ontario, Branson, Little Rock, Ontario, Nashville, New Orleans, Denver, Arkansas. Despite all of that, I know I’m blessed.

I’m tired of this pace. I really want a good career with good money, but I can’t sacrifice my calling to my wife, my city, and my church for that. Something’s got to give - I just don’t know what that will be just yet. But I know this for sure: I’m blessed.

mjd

While I’ve read a series of posts about honoring the President Elect (and I whole-heartedly agree), I need to take this moment to say that I won’t drink the kool-aid.

I spoke with a co-worker today and after a series of very civil, very good conversations about politics and the differences in our candidates, today he chose to attack and seal the point that he was right, that America knows what it wants. I agree, 52% of America agreed on a man. No reason to rehash the election, but I do want to make a point.

In our discussion today, he said America had a reason to hope again, and man to rally around in these terrible times, to restore us to our former glory. I’ve listened to the calls for change for months now, and I would like to state for the record that my life has been good - better than good, great. Our nation invests more in world poverty, AIDS research, world debt reduction, and keeping the peace than ever before. While some feel America is in a terrible condition, I ask them to recall the horrors of the Great Depression, of Civil War, when men couldn’t vote because of their race and women couldn’t vote at all. I ask them to recall the great strides we’ve made in civil rights, in human rights, and in increased environmental regulations.

If we believe our standing in the world has only recently declined, I ask them to remember the Cold War, World War II, the Vietnam War, and countless other invasions and acts of war. The nations of the world rejoice in our presence only when we have something to offer directly. Europe loved us because through the Marshall Plan we rebuilt them after WWII. We forgave their debts, just as we today forgive the debts of Africa. It was US President Woodrow Wilson who laid the groundwork for the UN by establishing the League of Nations, which even then Congress wouldn’t approve for fear of a loss of self-rule. We have continually been a presence who brought democracy and tried to bring justice to countless regions - though we have botched the process up countless times. We fought off communism, we rejected socialism, and brought the world with us.

Finally, I want to make note of this: a man has not brought hope into my world - and for those believers who are removing flags from their vehicles and crying in the back rooms, I remind you that a man cannot remove hope from you. I had hope on November 1st, 2008, and I have hope today. I believe our best days are yet ahead. I KNOW that MY best days are yet ahead. Though democracy doesn’t make much sense (since when do people really know what’s best for themselves - at least that’s what our founding fathers believed - check it out for yourself, democracy scared them), it’s the system we live under. I will take every recommendation of OUR new president and OUR new congress and weigh them heavily against our constitution, against my personal beliefs, and I will be involved in the political process, making sure that they hear my voice - but I will honor them. God didn’t “put them in place,” the American people did - but the authority they operate in comes from one place, and for that reason I will honor them.

I’m glad to see so many Americans finding hope, I just hope they find it in the right place, because man will ALWAYS fail us.

Hopeful…

mjd

I’m not sure if it’s because I’m a control freak or because I’m a man, but I want to fix everything and anything. My wife tells me about a struggle and I immediately come up with a solution. A customer tells me about a struggle within their company and I immediately want to give them a suggestion that I think they’ve never thought of. These days I’m struggling hard not to fix what I think is broken or hurting.

We went to FC two weekends ago and I’ve heard so much about the struggles and all I’ve wanted to do for months was to fix it. The Lord told me how haughty that was. His command to me for our trip was to speak life. Speak life and hope into everything. I don’t have the answers for the church’s struggles. Now, I’m sure you already knew that, but sometimes I forget that I can’t fix everything. The answers that each of us need are always found in our relationship with the Holy Spirit and sometimes in the wisdom of the more-experienced. It was my role to come in and tell them “the best is yet to come, rise up and raise His standard” (as in the banner).

I think so much of that comes from Pastor Danny’s influence in my life. That man is constantly telling me how great he thinks I am, how much help I am, how blessed the church is to have me, and encouraging me to develop what is inside me. I think that’s driven me to more softness then at any point in my life. He has so much advice he can offer me, but he doesn’t, he encourages me. I even “got in trouble” a few months ago, and the guy encouraged me to righteousness and good leadership in a way I can’t explain. It makes me want to be a better husband, pastor, and friend. I want to be like that - constantly encouraging others to greatness.

Today makes 2 years ago that we moved to beautiful Nashvegas. I am SO thankful for this experience - every single minute of it.

I hate going to the dentist - probably b/c I wait too long between cleanings. As my dentist worked on my teeth this morning with that terrible ice-pick like metal device, I said, “you dentists are brutal.”

And he said, if you didn’t wait so long between cleanings this wouldn’t be near as bad. We’re not brutal, we just refuse to take personal responsibility for the way you take care of yourselves. Ouch! It sounded like a standardized answer to me, so I asked him if they all took a vote on saying that at the yearly convention.

I liked it better when we were kids and they were really nice. Looks like fillings, wisdom teeth removal, and braces are in my near future…

mjd

I’m currently writing an overview course on heat treating metals for welding. I’ll save you all of the details, but I will tell you this one thing: the key to the strength of a bond is the temperature it cools at.

If a metal is cooled suddenly, it likely to break altogether when pressure or force is exerted on it. It’s extremely hard, and seems like it would never break, but once it reaches its max pressure, it will suddenly give way and the bond will be broken.

If a metal is cooled slowly over time, it won’t be seen as a “hard” bond, but it’s more likely to flex when pressure is applied to it.

Sudden bonds don’t allow impurities to escape from the metal - they get caught in the bond and eventually lead to breakage. Slow bonds allow the impurities to escape and result in less breakage and rust.

Maybe Paul knew what he meant when he said “work out your salvation with fear and trembling…”

mjd

I’ve always been a dreamer - my Dad taught me that. I remember the night I was in 6th grade and he told me to spend the rest of my life dreaming dreams that only God could fulfill. I’ve always been idealistic and passionate about people changing, it’s what led me to ministry and the training industry. I’ve always been passionate about processes change, that’s what led me to performance improvement.

My trouble is that I continually here about college students voting for Obama because they’re voting for their future. I’m a bit skeptical about that. How do you vote for your future when you have no perspective on what that life is like. I listened on a plane last week as a young man went on for an hour and a half about health insurance, 401(k)s, taxes, etc. It turns out that his health insurance is still with his parents, he has no 401k and he gets his taxes back each year. Obama has become a messiah-like figure to millions of students who want change from the current system but don’t know what it’s like to live under the current system.

I’ve got to be honest, I’m not all that interested in change. Life is good. I’d love lower taxes, but knowing that I won’t be taxed more would be okay with me. I want fiscal responsibility, but no candidate is promising that. I believe that many who want the “change” under Obama are looking for this cultural-messiah to deliver them from the struggles of life. I don’t want anyone hungry or homeless, so don’t read that into my next statement - the struggles of life are what develop character inside of us - they develop our response to the environment around us.

I’ve always wanted things at work and churches to change and change quickly, but I’m learning that it’s good that change must happen slowly. Gridlock in congress is GOOD. It means more debate on issues, it means more time for America to hear about legislation before it’s passed. I’ve had the chance to watch a “fluid” (alway-changing) organization and I’ve watched how this constant RE-active environment has taken a toll on its employees. Change is good, it’s just best if it happens slowly…

mjd

We got to lead worship again! Last weekend we led worship at our home church, Family Church. We were so very nervous walking into it. There were so many worries about expectations and what people would think. We were both battling fear of man like crazy last week. We were both sick at our stomachs when we got to rehearsal on Saturday afternoon. Here’s this week’s set list (HT: Thanks, Fred!)

We did some FC classics and added a few newer ones to the mix:
D - Say So - I had to bring it down at least a step and the bridge was still too high - FC has some great vocalists who jumped in and nailed it. We took a few pieces from Ricardo Sanchez’s album at from Israel Houghton’s original release of the song. Started the song with reading from Psalm 107:1-2 and that really set the pace for the song.
Db - Super Victorious - This is one of my favorites that FC does, and the groove definitely appeals to a more diverse church. That’s one thing I’ve learned a lot more about at Oasis that I wanted to do differently at FC when we visited.
Dmin - Sing Hallelujah - This is an awesome song that you need to listen to if you haven’t done it yet. It was released on a Vineyard album a couple of years ago (Free to Fly). FC responds like crazy to this song, and it’s got some great musical stuff, breaks & punches, etc.
C - Bless the Lord - This was our favoirtes from UpRising Church and FC ATE IT UP! Especially the 3rd verse. The band nailed the break and it was crazy powerful!!!
D - Revelation Song - Jenny Hudson led this one and she did a fantastic job. One of my favorites, and once again the church responded so well. I had a few people come up afterwards b/c they were just weeping during the worship.

The Lord moved and revealed himself to all of us! I forgot how much I love leading worship…

mjd