Knowing yourself is the first step to true greatness in your life. We are all created for a great calling by our God and I believe we have to look inward and upward to find our true God-calling.

When David was a young boy he went down to the front lines of a war to deliver some food to his brothers who were in the Israelite army. He refused to let the giant, Goliath, disrespect his God and informed King Saul that he would take care of Goliath. As an aside, sometimes our dreams seem ridiculous and crazy to those around us, but when we lean on God and pursue what he has truly gifted and called us to great things will happen. We all know the story of how David used a sling and a stone to defeat the giant and deliver his country from oppression from the Philistines.

What we don’t often remember is that King Saul initially dressed David out in his royal armor. King Saul was earlier described in 1 Samuel as a handsome man and one that stood head and shoulders over any other man in Israel. Clearly his strength and size were gifts that David did not have. When David tried on the king’s armor and helmet and carried his sword he quickly determined that he was not going to be able to move in this get-up and would be slowed down? David told Saul that he could not go in that armor and he took it off and put on his own clothes and took his staff, sling and five smooth stones to the lines of battle. What!?! David knew that he could not be someone else. He had to do things the way he was specifically gifted to do.

Personally, I would want to take as much protection as I could if I was facing Goliath. But David knew he could not be as effective as King Saul is in his own armor. The lesson for us is that we should not strive to be like those around us. We should not be jealous of the gifts that they have been given.  We should strive to determine what God has blessed us to do and seek out ways to use our gifts in life.

So, do you know yourself?  Do you know what you have been gifted to do?  Are you doing good things or God things?  Are you doing something that doesn’t fit you?  Are you being weighed down by the expectations of others or by trying to do something that you aren’t gifted for?  Seek God.  Explore yourself.  Find what you are called to do.  Know yourself and do something great.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

- Romans 12: 2

Conformed: To bring into agreement or correspondence; make similar. (dictionary.com).

Transformed: To change markedly the appearance or form of; to change the nature, function, or condition of (dictionary.com).

Renewing: To make new or as if new again; restore (dictionary.com).

Change: to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone (dictionary.com).

I have been thinking a lot about change recently.  People don’t like change.  In fact, tomorrow in the United States is election day and we will elect a new president.  Many things will change over the next few months and years as the country’s new leadership changes how things have been done in the past.  Both presidential candidates have been running on the platform of “change.”  In the political world it seems change is not only possible and necessary, but it is anticipated and longed for.

So why are people so afraid of the word change in a “religious” setting?  Whether it is something major like a change in worship format or something minor like a change in time for an event.  Change haunts many churches.  We try to make changes less painful.  We call them different things, but by becoming a christian we are required to undergo a change - a transformation.  We become a new creation, and we are supposed to be different from the world we live in.

In a business setting, not changing your product’s offerings to reach the new customer base will lead you straight out of business.  If Ford were still selling the Model T there is no way it could compete with all of the other options and competitors.  People want CD players, V8’s, GPS systems, DVD players, speed, slick looks, tinted windows and more.  Even if it was dirt cheap, people would rather pay more for something they liked better.  The Model T is simply not the product people are shopping for when they are looking for a new car.  It is similar in the church setting. Churches are not providing what people need.  Don’t get me wrong.  Church should not be about making people happy and making people feel good at the cost of watering down the good news of Jesus or by skipping over the parts that hurt our feelings or challenge us.  Church is about worshipping the one, true God.  Church is about community, fellowship and support.  Church is about learning how to go through life by becoming more and more like Christ.  But, churches should strive to be relevant to today’s culture.  The Church should strive to be essential to its community.  Sometimes that means changing the offerings, times, styles, and formats.  Sometimes it just means being authentic and doing what you do best for God!

Churches that refuse to change will still need a building program.  Except the capital campaign will not be to raise money to reach the community.  It won’t be used to construct a new worship facility.  It won’t be used to refurbish and renovate an existing facility to to upgrade the technology being used.  Rather it will be to expand the cemetary.  That scares me!

By refusing to change the church shoots itself in the foot.  Rather than fulfilling the Great Commission of going and making disciples, the church simply dies.  This pushes people away from the Church rather than bringing them into God’s kingdom.

We are called to make disciples as we live our lives.  We are called to grow into a deeper relationship with our Lord.  Our life should be transformed by His love and grace and it should be apparent to those we come in contact with.  Once we accept Jesus’ command to “go make disciples” and we are transformed to the point where we are excited and intentional about reaching people for Christ the changes we face will be easier to make.

As I look at the definition of change above, the scripture from Romans 12: 2 really hits home. I am thankful for God’s grace that I have been “changed” to “something different from what [I] was [before]” or “what [I] would [have been] if left alone.”

The Era of Procrastination is coming to a close; in its place we are entering a period of consequences.

- Winston Churchill

As we enter one of the most challenging financial times in our country’s history along with the normal challenges and bickering that go with a presidential election season people are hurting.  Our country has lived for years by spending more than we make, living on borrowed money, we are fighting a difficult war, crippling ourselves by our reliance on foreign energy sources and not making a plan for how to take care of our own people.

The quote above was spoken when Churchill was discussing Europe’s lack of interest in doing something to stop Hitler before he began his campaign in Poland and France.  The rest of the world’s lack of action caused a world war and devastating consequences throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

While we face enormous challenges today, our calling as the Church has not changed.  Even though church people are hurting too, we are still called to serve our community and to reach our community for Christ.  We cannot call a holy huddle and just take care of our own.  Now more than ever, we can show everyone around us the love of Christ.  Our efforts in the community around us are needed more now than ever before.  The Church simply can’t procrastinate any longer through this period of “consequences.”  The church should be leading the way to the solution.  No government, legislation, tax bill, or economic stimulus package is going to save this world the way the Church of Jesus Christ can.  Let’s turn our eyes out so we can be a blessing where God has placed us.

Featuring: John Waller

Music from the motion picture “Fireproof”

Everthird and Bill Steely

The Something Big Tour is coming to Cross Roads Baptist Church on Saturday, November 1, 2008 at 7 pm.  You can find more information about Cross Roads and get directions by heading over to their website: http://www.crbcsc.org.

Tickets are available online at BrownPaperTickets.com for $10 per person.

Are you just killing time every day?  I have been there.  A lot of “jobs” get where you can just manage them with minimal effort after a while.  You don’t have to put any thought into them and you can basically coast through your work life.  Your results are good, but not great, and you can make sure enough gets done so you can keep your job.  You aren’t compensated for better results so why would you work harder or work for better results.

Now, imagine that you are doing what you love.  What are your hobbies.  What activities do you do where you don’t watch the clock.  Or when you watch the clock, you cannot believe how the time is flying by?  We will be going through some exercises to help you figure out what God uniquely gifted you to do.  You may find that after completing those exercises that you are not doing what God gifted you to do?  You may find that you are just killing time.  Some people may know without doing anything that they are just killing time and not doing what they were created for, but you don’t know where to begin in finding your life passion.

I firmly believe that God created each of us to do something in particular.  Something very specific.  If you don’t unleash your God-given skills and abilities then you most certainly will injure your eternity.

“Dissatisfaction and discouragement are not caused by the absence of things but the absence of vision.”

- Anonymou

When we have a clear vision for each aspect of our lives (professional, financial, relationship with God, personal relationships with others, and physical) the different things that pull at our lives and demand our time will be easier to deal with.

Most people have their professional life planned out pretty well.  I guess because we spend so much time there and people rate and judge one another by the success of their careers or their businesses.  For example, Southwest Airlines had the vision to be “the low fare airline.”  That was the filter they passed all ideas through.  So if someone had an idea in a staff meeting to add dinner to the New York to L.A. evening flights, the next question asked would be, “how does that help us to be the low fare airline?”  If it did not help them achieve their goal to be the low fare airline the idea was scapped.  So if an idea raised costs that caused the company to raise fares it would not help them achieve their overall corporate vision.  That doesn’t mean the ideas are bad, they just don’t help you achieve your vision.

Now, apply this principal to the five aspects of your life.  But wait…if you don’t have a vision for all aspects of your life then there is nothing to apply.

You need a clear vision for your professional life, physical life, your relationship with God, your relationship with others, and your financial life.  I would encourage you to get with your spouse and work on things like your vision for your marriage, for your children, how you spend money, how you save money, etc.  But what if I’m not married?  In your case, you don’t want to just be married.  Start putting in writing what you want your marriage to look like.  That way when you meet a guy or girl and start getting serious you can apply your vision to see if things “fit.”

The bottom line is that life happens.  You are bombarded with things every day.  Decisions, choices, alternatives, consequences.  What do you pick.  How do you make the decision?  Look at your question through the lens of your vision.  You can take that job that will pay you twice as much money, but you will have to move across the country and work 80 hours per week.  How does this effect your vision of your marriage, your relationship with your kids, your involvement in your local church, does it leave you any time to exercise and take care of your body?

For me, the physical part is hard.  I ask, “Should I eat that extra piece (or three) of pizza?”  For the last few years I haven’t had any vision for my physical health.  I always had an excuse.  I was in law school and that took up a lot of time for study and homework, I was studying for the bar, we just had a baby and I need my sleep, etc.  Over the past four-five years I have put on some serious weight.  I have to get focused on this area and answer the tough questions like the one above or, “would you like a Krispy Kreme donut?”  Maybe the answer should be, “no, I’m trying to lose 40 pounds so eating that extra piece of pizza will not help me achieve that vision for my life.”

Once you have a specific, clear vision for the major aspects of your life the decisions will start to get easier.  You won’t have to stress over making those decisions.  You just have to see if it helps you get closer to being “the low fare airline” or if it moves your further from that goal.  For most decisions that you make, there are no super-bad choices, but they may be bad for you.

Start working on and praying that God would reveal your life-vision so when the next big decision comes your way you can decide with confidence.  Like the lead-in quote to this post says, a lack of things does not cause your dissatisfaction, it is a lack of vision.

Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to
Alice: I don’t much care where.
The Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.
Alice: …so long as I get somewhere.
The Cat: Oh, you’re sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.

- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Too many of us just ramble around in life.  We are so busy with everything we have to do each day.  Get up, get the kids ready, get ourselves ready, drop the kids off at school, work, work, work, pick up the kids, dinner, work, read, watch some TV, work, go to sleep, do it all over again.  Most of our lives are not lived on purpose, but are actually lived in reaction to what comes up during the day.  We are sidetracked and sent down rabbit holes because there is no plan - just reaction.  I’ll admit it, I am pretty anal.  In my office, I generally have a To Do list each day.  If I do something that isn’t on the list - I add it to the list so I can check it off.  The day might start out good with me checking things off the list.  But an “emergency” always seems to arise.  Usually when I don’t have time for it, and though it isn’t on my list I shift gears and try to take care of the “emergency.”

Life gets to be about putting out the fires that just pop up around us.  I feel like Alice in the story above, except that it does matter to me where I end up.  The Cheshire Cat was quite correct when he said, you will certainly get “somewhere” if you just walk long enough.  Who knows where that somewhere is unless you are living your life on purpose and according to your strengths, gifts and passions with a clear goal or vision in mind.

Can you look into the future by seeing what those 5, 10, or 20 years ahead of you in your career path look like now?  Can you live with that?  That was one of the main reasons I left the engineering field and took the leap over to the legal field.  There are depressing people in all fields - and scary futures depending on who you look at.  There are also exciting, charismatic people in all fields.  I was able to have lunch recently with a local judge, a state Court of Appeals Judge and many bright attorneys.  A few weeks before that I attending a trial lawyers convention and was able to hang out with hundreds of excellent attorneys.  Needless to say, I felt very recharged about my career after that meeting.  By seeing these successul people who are excited about what they are doing every day of their life, it makes it easier for me to craft a very clear vision of my future.

Are you living minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, day-to-day?  Or do you have a clear plan of action for your life?  When you think about your future do you think about tomorrow, next week, or five years down the road?  Are you doing mind-numbing work or are you engaging your passions and gifts?

When you are in touch with your God-given passion you are on fire for life. People can easily tell whether you are passionate about your life or if you are just getting by. You wear that on your sleeve and you can’t cover it up.

If you are living your passion, you don’t watch the clock - if you do, you’re wishing there were more hours in the day to keep one doing what you love. There is no need for an alarm clock because you can’t wait for the sun to come up so you can start your day. One of the most important things about living a life of passion is that you have the objective clearly in mind. Therefore, if a little roadblock gets in your way you won’t be totally sidetracked. You can see far enough down the road toward your end goal that the little things don’t deter you. Once you have identified your passion and you go after it each and every day you will begin to build momentum. As John Wesley said, “people love to come and see you burn.” People want to be apart of something fresh, something exciting, something bigger than themselves.

The opposite is also true. If you loathe your life because you are just busy. You go and do the same thing you hate every day because you don’t know what else you would do. You aren’t living for anything except the hear and now. There is no goal. There is no end in sight. Things are not clear. They are foggy. Your tired, frustrated and stressed out. You know it and so does everyone else. And John Wesley’s quote is more painfully true if you are in this boat. When you are just blown around by the circumstances and worries of the day you are also very lonely because you’re not “burning” so no one has come by to see you.

Have you identified your passions?  We’ll talk on this blog about some ways I think you can find your passion and calling.  What are some ways you have used to determine what God placed you on this planet for?

It was a cool night of bonding.  Obviously, Cole isn’t talking…in English, but he does communicate.  Mainly, he was telling me not to quit feeding those rolls and french fries to him, and he liked the baked potato soup a little.

Then we took off to pick up a birthday present for my dad, Cole’s Papa, at Dicks Sporting Goods.  Cole loves that place.  I guess it’s all the equipment and the bright colors.

But my favorite part of the night was putting him to bed.  Not only does it free me up to read and write, but it is also a time when his mind isn’t running a million miles an hour.  He slows down and just enjoys being in your arms.  He sipped some milk, but mainly just laid in my arms until he went to sleep.  I cherish the times I get to stop and be with him.  It freaks me out to think that he is already 13 months old and not slowing down.  He is growing so fast and learning so much.  I’m learning a lot too.

I also have my own struggles and pain.  While, thankfully, it does not involve the IRS or the family court, it is important to me and painful.  I discuss it with people and feel like they just don’t understand me.

I came across a scripture this morning in Hebrews 4: 15-16 that sure helps me.  We hear how Jesus was perfect.  He lived a sinless life.  He worked miracles and his father is God Almighty - the creator of the universe.  Not to mention the fact that he lived and walked on the earth over 2000 years ago - before we have all of the stresses of life that we have today.  How in the world could he understand what we are dealing with.  How could he feel our pain?  The scripture says this:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

I’m so glad that we have a place to go and someone to talk to who will understand our needs and our pain just as though he lived through it himself.  We can take comfort that we can share our deepest desires and our most painful thoughts and fears with Him when we come to the foot of His throne.