Sermon prep

I thought I would at least put up a little glimpse into my sermon prep world for most weeks of the year. To some this is a picture of happiness and still for others it is torture. I, of course, fall into the former. (good thing, huh?)

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LISTENING TO: Joshua Radin

A Million Miles

Last night I finished reading A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Don Miller. It is certainly my favorite Don Miller book thus far. It was one of the most inspiring and infectious books I've read since I read "The Artist's Way" several months ago.

A Million Miles inspires to live a better story. In a world and time when we commonly hear and say how meaningless life is, it may be possible LIFE is not meaningless; maybe YOUR life is meaningless. That comes with a challenge to live differently; to create a better story with more meaning.

There is an art to writing and telling a story, and many of those elements serve to LIVE a better story. With an infectious honesty Miller inspires you to live a better story.

I agree with Max Lucado's review:

"I already want to re-read this book."

Book went on shelves yesterday. Go get it!

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LISTENING TO: "Armistice" by MUTEMATH

A Pastor's Prayer

As a pastor, my prayer today (and should be each day) is from Psalm 69:6

May those who hope in you
not be disgraced because of me,
O Lord, the LORD Almighty;
May those who seek you
not be put to shame because of me,
O God of Israel.

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READING: "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Don Miller
LISTENING TO: "Oh My God, Charlie Darwin" by Low Anthem

First book on its way

My first book to review is in the mail. I am not entirely sure the title could be any more perfect. Are you serious!?

More information @

http://bit.ly/X0XDl

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LISTENING TO: "How The Day Sounds" by Greg Laswell

I became a critic today

Today, I applied to be a book review blogger. The benefits for myself are free copies of yet to be published books I can read and then review right here on Ragamuffin Ramblings

I am perhaps too excited about this possibility. I have been less nervous for an impending job offer than I am right now awaiting the reply from Thomas Nelson to let me know if they will accept my application as a book reviewer.

Keep your eye out right here as I will possibly begin reviewing soon to be released books for you.

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LISTENING TO: "Oh My God, Charlie Darwin" by Low Anthem
READING: "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Simple Collision 2

I was about two weeks away from doing my way out of doing what I love.

Two weeks away from not loving what I do...

and I love what I do.

This frightening point is one where creativity and inspiration run pale and dry, and once they are gone, passion and drive begin to wilt away as well.

It is a point when every email, complaint, passive comment meets no opposition on its destructive path to your heart.

Call it what you want: burnout, stressed-out, overwhelmed...

When you look out the window to realize all engines are on fire, and your entire life is rapidly losing altitude, it does not matter any longer what term you want to give.

Most of the time you have the capacity to withstand, what in a moment, can become too much.

It is the moment when it all begins to weigh heavily enough to break.

We do everything right, don't we? As good Christians or especially as good pastoral professionals, you know what has to be done. So you do everything right when you begin to see the warning signs.

When you are doing what you love and it begins to press into the overwhelming realm, you know that you need "more time in the Word." You need "more quiet times". So we do all the right things; we get back in the word looking for refreshment, a revival of the heart...we are looking for LIFE.

Day after day you "come to the word" looking for something...for ANYTHING that will inspire, something to "jump off the page" that will in some miraculous act of God's hand will rip you out of impending burnout.

But when you are at a point where inspiration, creativity, life, and passion are gone, you are looking blankly with hope that something...just...happens.

You die...
just a little bit inside.

When I left for vacation last week on a cruise, I was in a drastic search for...something...for anything. I was looking for inspiration. I was looking for my passion. It felt a bit like a drowning man flailing and grasping for anything solid to hold on to. Reaching for something that
just
wasn't
there.

In that search, I sought the right things from the right places. I had determined to read scripture every day of vacation. If I could do that, at least I had a chance to get where I needed to be. At least I would find the life I needed.

On my first day, looking out at the endless horizon and realizing how two opposing worlds (ocean and sky) collide effortlessly in a straight faint line, I realized in John 1:18 how two opposing distances (my tangible life and the Spirit of God) could collide in an effortless and simple moment of the heart.

Suddenly I was a Pharisee being reminded:

"You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal LIFE. These are the Scriptures that testify about [Jesus], yet you refuse to come to [JESUS] to have life." (5:39-40)

And in a simple collision of my heart, there was nothing to interrupt or block me. Two worlds met in that moment, and my heart found life.

I took a breathe of life into my heart, lungs, and stomach.

I didn't have to do anything or think of anything.

I only sat and let two worlds come together in a simple collision of creativity, inspiration, intimacy, and life.

For a week...that is all I needed.

I imagine I do not need the open ocean to find that place of heart again.

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LISTENING TO: "The Outsiders" by Needtobreathe

Simple Collision

[journal entry from 9.14.00]

My God, My Inspiration, My Artist and Creator:

On the deck of this cruise ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean I am present only to think of you and KNOW you in this moment. Though I cannot see you, I can KNOW you. Like John writes in the first chapter (1:18), no one has ever SEEN you, but because of Jesus you can be KNOWN. Because of your Spirit and mine, you can be KNOWN.

I am here at this moment, looking out at an endless horizon where two expansive worlds (water and sky) collide in a simple straight line and I am amazed at how two expansive opposing worlds of my natural, tangible life and your Spirit can collide in such a simple connection of the heart.

I am here at this moment, and it is intended for nothing else but to know you. There is nothing in the way. There is nothing to interrupt the connection of my heart to yours. This moment is only for this. I want to know though I cannot see you.

I am here at this moment just to know you.