TIME to Influence

Time Magazine just released their list of Top 100 most influential people.  Kanye West was at the top of the list followed by other familiar names like Bradley Cooper, Chris Pratt, Lorne Michaels, and Emma Watson.  There were dozens of other names you wouldn't recognize but all of these people are helping to shape our culture- they have this thing called influence.

Influence is rarely given- it is earned.

I don't allow just anyone to have influence in my life.  People have to earn the right to shape who I am and what I am about.

No matter who you are or what you do, we all have the capacity to help change the people around us- for good or for bad.  We all want influence.

Influence in the direction of your company.
Influence in what decisions are made for your family.
Influence in what political decisions are made.
Influence in the future of your children.

I want influence.
I want to help shape those in my family, my workplace and in my community. 

But what about you? Have you earned the right to shape the culture around you.  Have you put in the time? Do you have the right motives? Do you have influence?

How to Make Sure You Live Beyond the Grave

Sometimes we take life for granted.  I'm guilty of it. 

It's similar how you don't realize how often you swallow until you have a sore throat, and it takes every ounce of energy to muster a gulp.  Or how you never think about your pinky toe...until you stub it while walking by the couch.

Usually we don't think about life until we meet death.

Well, yesterday I met death.  I had the privilege of speaking at a funeral of a friend's father, and it made me contemplate my life.  What really stuck out to me about this man is the fact that he is living beyond the grave.  I am not talking about in heaven with Jesus (even though I have no doubt about that), but the legacy he created with his family is going to live on for generations.

I never met the man but he has affected my life in ways he would never imagine.  I am a better husband, father and follower of Jesus because of him.  The lives of my children will be effected because he decided not to settle for good but strived for greatness.  His grandson said this about him,

"You see a good man will live a good life with a good family.  But when they die, that is the final chapter.  But a great man refuses to settle for good, and they strive for a great life with a great family.  And that is just the beginning.  A great man leaves a legacy."


The impact of this man's life cannot be quantified, but it will definitely be felt in the lives of his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.  He left his mark on the world.

As I sit here typing this, I can't help but ask myself, "Am I going to live beyond the grave?" Is my love for people going to extend to my children's children? Is my joy for life going to effect some random guy doing my funeral someday?

People may be forgotten but a legacy never dies.

We all have "IT."

What is "IT" for you? 

The "IT" I am talking about is the "IT" that gets people out of bed in the morning actually following through on goals and promises they make themselves.

What is it that allows a person who has been smoking for 30 years to actually quit the habit?
If a person wants to lose weight, what actually drives the person to exercise and eat healthy?
The athlete that wants to be the best he can possibly be at his sport needs to have "IT" so he is driven to practice and work harder.

I have experienced "IT" several times in my life.
A year ago I stepped on a scale and "IT" hit me.
The other day I was at a worship service at church and "IT" hit me like a stack of bricks.
When my wife asked me what was more important: my family or my phone..."IT" hit me.

Simply put: "IT" is the feeling of discontentment.  

"IT" is the realization that you are not where you want to be.  You might be heading down a path that will lead you not to a life you dreamed about but more like a nightmare.

There are 2 types of people in the world- People who ignore "IT" and people who do something because of "IT."  Personally, I want to do something because of "IT."  I want to exercise and eat healthier.  I want to have a real, vibrant relationship with Jesus.  I want to put my phone up so my family knows they are the most important thing in my life. 

What is "IT" for you? Where in your life are you not where you want to be?

A Pick-Me-Up Monday

I love Jr. High students. Yes, they sometimes don't wear deodorant and they forget to shower regularly. Yes, they can be very awkward. And yes, their small attention span makes it hard to keep their attention longer than 30 seconds.....but....I love them! I don't know why God has wired me this way, but I'm glad He did.

We had our kickoff for fall programming yesterday, and it was awesome! There was a lot of energy and a lot of students! We had a biggest crowd ever, the students were excited to be back at LIFT. Cody (the youth pastor) and I decided to start the year of with a little bit of vision casting for our students and what we want our student ministry to be about this year. As we thought about what to name our series, the term WEIRD came up. It just seemed perfect for our students and what we want to accomplish. We want to create an environment where students can come and feel like they belong. The way we presented it to our students is that the normal thing to do in life is to surround yourself with people just like you and can offer you something in return. The weird thing is to let everyone in your circle of friends no matter who they are!

Yesterday after I was able to talk to our students about this idea of us being "Weird," we had them break out into groups and come up with ideas to make new students feel welcome in LIFT. We gave each group a poster board and a sharpie and told them to write down their ideas....and here is a list of things we got from them....I guess this is what we get for giving middle schoolers a sharpie and blank poster board. Remember, these ideas were supposed to make students feel welcome at LIFT.

- Say “Ello’ Governor” and run over them with a British taxi.

- Throw them out a window.

- Creepily stare until they talk.

- Beat the living snot out of them

- Taco

- Hold their hand

Now if these were the only ideas we got from our students, I would say we would be in big trouble (and so would anybody who decided to visit LIFT), but these were the minority. I just had to write them down because they made me laugh! I have another list about 5 times bigger with great ideas about making first time visitors feel like they belong.

Its a Monday, and so that means you just try to get through it the best you can because they drag on forever! I hope this helps a little and gives you a quick laugh like it gave me. Love you guys!

Shunned by a Sixth Grader

Last Sunday was our last Jr. High program for the summer. We tried something a little different than last year with our middle school students. Last year, we canceled programming altogether to give our leaders a break, but this year we decided to just do a scaled down version of our regular program. We didn't have worship or small groups. All we did was play a couple of games, taught a lesson, took communion, and did some group discussions. We called this summer program LIFT Remix. From an outside perspective, someone might think that Remix failed, because we only had about 50% of our students attend. But to be honest I thought it went pretty well!

Even though our number of students were down, we had several new students that started attending during the summer. That isn't the weird thing...the weird thing was that they kept coming back! Our usual students were doing a great job of befriending new comers and it was really cool to see.

I tell you all of this because we had one student our last week named Moses or Mo for short. He was a shorter kid and didn't talk very much. He was probably the youngest student we had there that Sunday because he hadn't moved up to 6th grade yet, but he still came. I tried to connect with him by asking his name, what school he went to, and if he knew anyone at Remix. Quietly he said no, and then just walked away. During Remix we had a time where we wanted all of our students to stand up and high-five ten people. As I was going around high-fiving like a mad man, I saw Mo so I went straight for him. I lifted my hand in the air...I had perfect high-five form and said, "Hey Mo! Give me some!" He looked straight at me and turned around and walked away. He shunned me in front of everyone. I was standing on stage when this happened and everyone saw a tiny tween totally ignore me....how did I recover? I stood there with a blank look on my face and then realized what I looked like. I shook it off and said to the other students, "Eh...that happens sometimes." We laughed about it and moved on.

I always tell people the reason I love Jr. High ministry is because even though I'm weird they still think I'm cool. The other day, I felt like the most uncool person in the world when Mo shunned me in front of everyone. Later I tried talking to Mo but he never opened up...but I didn't give up. I kept prying and prying for him to just talk with him. I really hope I didn't come off really creepy and annoying but I just wanted him to feel like he belonged. After about 10 minutes he finally said something to me, but what he said took me by surprise. I always thought that some students were just "loners" (students who go off by themselves and they don't like being in social circles. They like to be alone) and they liked being that way. Mo was a typical "loner." You could see it from a mile away, but what he said threw me. After playing some air hockey with him, he looked up to me and said, "I hate being the new guy." Then he did his usual and just walked away.

It killed me when I heard those words. This semester in our ministry we are making a big push for our students to make people like Mo feel welcomed and like they aren't just "the new guy." In Ephesians, Paul talks about how Christians have been adopted in God's family, and in a family people are (well they are supposed to be) loved and a part of something bigger than themselves.

This is kind of a random post, but it is just something that has been on my mind so I thought I'd share it with you guys. I guess the question for us is, "Are we making people feel like they belong in the family?" Who is your Mo that feels like "the new guy"?

The Answer

I know when you first saw the title of my blog you thought I was going to write an in-depth article on Allen Iverson, the former basketball player. But if I were to write about Iverson, I would title it, "Practice?" Or maybe you thought I was going to write about our nation's debt problem and my 7-step solution to recover 60% of our losses. Perhaps for you "The Answer" was going to be a blog post about a dieting program for those of us who still like to eat our sweets. Unfortunately none of the above will be discussed here, but I'm going to be talking about Batman and Robin...you know...scholarly stuff.

My whole life I have always felt like the second person. I've felt like a back-up. Being the oldest child in my family, I'm supposed to be pretty outgoing and have a lot of leadership qualities, but I'm not that way. In fact, my brother, who is one year younger than me, possesses all of those qualities. In high school, I was literally the back-up. I was second string quarterback my entire varsity career.

When I was in college, I lived in a dorm on a floor with about 30 other guys. It was great part of my life that I'll never forget. I loved those guys! One time some of us guys were hanging out in someone's dorm room, and the question came up, "If we lived in the wild west, what would each guy on the floor be?" For instance, we decided that Eric would have been the sheriff. Robert would have been the cool barber that everyone knew but didn't want to get on his bad side because he always held a razor so close to your neck. When I asked who I would be, they all laughed and agreed that I would be the boy in town that always wanted to join the fight but was always told no because I was too young.

Another time my buddies and I were talking about what each guy on our dorm floor would be if they were a superhero. Some guys were superman others were spiderman or the Green Lantern. I piped up and said i would be Batman, but they also didn't agree and said I would be Robin instead...I would be the sidekick. I've always felt like I should be the sidekick or the back-up, but to be honest with you I hated it. I wanted to be the star. I wanted to be the sheriff. I wanted to be the answer.

I think I have taken the same mentality into ministry. Because of how people have always viewed me as the sidekick, I have wanted to do better and be better. I've wanted to be the student minister that was fun and outgoing. I wanted to preach great sermons and be so good relationally with students that they would come flocking to me. I wanted to be their answer.

A couple of weeks ago we took our high school students to Panama City, Florida for a week-long conference. It was great. We stayed at a hotel right on the beach, got a tan (well I got pretty sunburnt), and learned about some godly men and women in the Bible. Christine and I were in charge of a small group of students the whole week. Basically, we were with them for about an hour each morning. That time was a time to get to know our students and to be able to teach them some different stuff. As the week progressed, I started to get really frustrated because we hadn't seen any fruit from our students. They would all just nod their heads in group and talk every once in a while. Don't get me wrong, our students were amazing, but for some reason I didn't feel like it was clicking with them. Right away I concluded that I was doing a horrible job at teaching them or not pouring into them enough...I wasn't being the answer.

On the second to last night, we had worship on the beach. It was dark outside and you could see hundreds of stars in the night sky. There was a couple playing guitar and singing worship songs, and it was just an awesome time to worship God. When Christine and I went down to the beach we just walked. After a while I started letting everything come out. I told her all about how I felt like I failed the students and that I wasn't enough. Christine did what she always does...she listened to me and then encouraged me. She reminded me that I am not the answer to the student's problems. I am not the answer. I let that sink in for a while...and to be honest...I felt like I was set free. For a long time I always tried to be the the funniest guy or the most welcoming guy thinking that if a student didn't connect it was my fault...all of the burden was on my shoulders.

I sat there in the sand next to Christine just talking about how we aren't the answer. Yes, God chooses to use us, but we can't expect to be the answer to all the students problems because we will come up short every time. Because I've always dealt with the problem of being second or being the sidekick, I started to tell myself that I needed to be THE one, but what I didn't know is that I was trying to take the place of the One.

That night on the beach was great for me, and the next day God showed me how he has a funny sense of humor. The very next morning after the night on the beach, a student in my small group came up to me and said he wanted to get baptized! I sat there and talked to him about it for a while, and then I asked if he wanted to pray. First you need to understand that this student is a great guy! He is a lot of fun and easy to talk to, but he isn't big on praying in front of people (which is a lot of students). When he bowed his head and started talking to God, I sat there in awe. He was praying one of the most heart felt prayers I had ever heard in my life. His prayer was so authentic and so real. And the truth is......it wasn't because of me. It was all because of what God was doing in his life. Later that day I was able to baptize Hayden with his friend Chandler, who first invited Hayden to come to our church.

So am I willing to be a sidekick for the creator of the Universe? Oh yea. God can do everything, and I can do nothing without Him. I am not the answer but He is The Answer.

Freedom isn't Free

Freedom is a great thing. Freedom is being able to do what you want when you want. Of course there are some exceptions. I can't go kill some right now because I have an itching for murder. There are certain laws of the land to keep order and safety for the people. But Freedom...freedom is something people die for. Martin Luther King wanted African Americans to have the same freedom and rights as white people. He ended up being killed for the freedom he so eagerly sought. King Leonidas of Sparta and his 300 men died at Thermopylae to protect the freedom of his people from King Xerxes and the Persian Empire. There is story after story of men and women giving up their life because they want to attain and maintain freedom.

In the United States, the word Freedom is thrown around like a frisbee in a park. Everyone talks about it, but we really don't understand the meaning. We don't feel the significance. I say "WE" because I struggle with this just like anyone else. Now I know there are some people out there who know and feel freedom because they have had a loved one die overseas trying to maintain our freedom, and I want to say a huge thanks! There are also some people who have had a family member or friend die here on our soil because they were upholding our freedom as a policeman or fireman. I think you guys understand freedom a lot more than we do. I tell you all of this because I think Freedom is worth dying for.

Today I'm celebrating Freedom on two levels. First I'm celebrating the United States' Independence day, and our victory over Great Britain to become a Free country! But secondly, and most importantly, I'm celebrating my freedom from death! On July 4th, 1999 I decided to get baptized. I have officially become a Christian for half of my life...12 years, and I can say that I am free because Jesus thought that I was important enough to die for. He thought my Freedom was worth dying for.

Galatians 5:1 says, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." Jesus thought it was important enough for us to be free from death and sin that he died for us. I think the next verse is really cool too which says, "Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Paul is telling us that Jesus has set us free, so don't go back to death and sin (living your old way of life). This sounds crazy to us. Why would anyone go back to being a slave after being free? But we do it everyday. In the Old Testament, the Israelites lived in the land of Egypt for 430 years, and for most of that time they were the Egyptians' slaves. They worked tirelessly for the Pharaoh. It was so bad that the Israelites cried out to God and asked for Freedom. God heard their prayers and sent Moses to set them free. After some time and plagues, the Pharaoh agreed to let the Israelites free. The people of Israel were no longer slaves, but they were free! But after time passes and the Israelites are traveling through the desert we hear them crying out to Moses, "Let us go back to Egypt!!" Tough times had landed on the Israelites, and they were hungry and thirsty, so they wanted to go back into the life of slavery. Crazy! So Paul tell us..."stand firm and do not become slaves again!"

Another passage jumps out to me when I start thinking about freedom and dying. It is Philippians 1:21 which says, "To live is Christ and to die is gain." One of the hardest things to do in a Christian's life is to die everyday to self and to live for Christ. This means saying "no" to your own personal wants and pleasures and saying "yes" to freedom in Christ. And let me tell you something really cool...when you die to to yourself, you gain freedom! You gain a freedom from carrying your burdens all by yourself. You gain a freedom from living this life without a purpose. You gain a freedom from death!!!!! If we die to ourselves on this earth, we get to live free forever with Jesus! Freedom will be worth dying for.

So today as I sit here writing this I am so happy for my freedom as an American Citizen, but I'm reminded of a greater freedom that I have found in Christ. This freedom isn't free...it cost Jesus His life, and it costs us our own personal desires and wants. But I promise that it is worth dying for, because when you die to yourself you can really start to live a life of a freedom. I hope this makes sense for you guys. Love you all and Happy 4th of July!!!!