15 seconds

Last night I caught myself getting lazy.

I emptied an ice tray (that’s what poor people without automatic ice makers use) and was about to put it back into the freezer when I thought to myself how ridiculous I was. I get lazy a lot! I have a bad habit of dropping my clothes off at the end of the bed or in front of my closet. I was not raised this way, in fact I had a chore book as thick as a phone book that my dad was very thorough with checking.

So I decided to do the right thing and fill up the tray that I had just emptied. A funny thing happened, I needed ice this morning, and I had a full tray waiting on me.
Last night, I wondered how much time I was worried about wasting when I was about to put the tray back in empty, so I figured I would count, just to see how long it would take me to do the ‘right’ thing, I also recorded a couple of other things and their times:

  • Fill up ice tray, put in freezer – 15 seconds
  • Clean up Tristan’s mess with cloth, put in hamper – 12 seconds
  • Re-hang shirt I decided not to wear – 7 seconds
  • Plug up my cell phone instead of letting the battery die – 5 seconds

35 seconds actually saved me time and problems. I had ice when I needed it and did not have to wait a couple of hours, there was no mess on the floor to step in, my shirt was not making the room messy on the floor or on the bed, and I didn’t have to wait half the day to use my cell phone because it was charged. It pays to take the 15 seconds to do the right thing. Now I need to take the 20 minutes and clean up those areas I put off.

20 minutes or 15 seconds? What are you putting off that will cost you more time and problems in the end?

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Making the Switch

I have had horrible allergies for as long as I can remember.
I usually use Tylenol Severe Allergy or Claritin.

Last week, my aunt gave me a sample of Zyrtec.
It worked great…

So I am making the switch, from Claritin to Zyrtec.
Well the off-brand, yesterday was my first day, so I’ll see over the next 14 days if it works as good, I think it will.

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Tired

Here’s some things I’ve been thinking about today:

I’m tired of:

  • Being stuck in an office all day.
  • Feeling like I am an average Christian.
  • Feeling like I am an average Leader.
  • Feeling like I am only doing average things for Christ.
  • “Pastors” like Jeremiah Wright prostituting their position for political reasons.
  • Christianity always taking a hit because of idiots.
  • Apathy in the church.
  • Legalism
  • The fat around my lower abdomen that I can’t get toned.
  • Routine.

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Steven Furtick: Courageous Leadership

I have said it before on my blog that Steven Furtick, Pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte NC, is a huge inspiration to me. Steven is 28 and launched the church when he was 25, he is young but he has stayed steadfast to what God has called him to do, and God is blessing him and his ministry in a huge way. His church just turned 2 years old and they are running around 4,000 people between 2 campuses!

My pastor passed his message “Courageous Leadership” along to me. It is awesome! I uploaded it to Media Fire so I could share it with the blog world. I hope I am not breaking any copyright laws or anything like that. I just thought that other pastors and church leaders would get something out of the message.

CLICK HERE to download the message audio file.

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Thought for the Day

I have been thinking about this verse a lot lately, not because of it being the Easter season and the natural reflection on Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. I have been thinking about it before this past week. It puts Christ’s love for us into perfect perspective:

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-8

I cannot count the times that I thought highly of myself, or I thought that I had accomplished something great. Yet, Christ had equality with God, he had divine privileges, and he counted it as worthless, because he valued loving us more! Verse 5 is the hard part, “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.” That’s the verse that lets me know that I am not all that I think that I am at times!

Would I give up divine privileges for someone who would eventually murder me? Would I give up my position in a comfortable, perfect Heaven, and my equality with the Creator of the Universe? I wouldn’t, but Christ did. How can I even come close to that attitude? It’s possible through Christ, or we would not be told to do it, but that is a huge mountain to climb. I know one thing, it will humble us to realize we cannot accomplish such an attitude on our own, but it is through Christ that we can. How then can we think highly of anything that we do?

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Bodily Injury

Blistered Foot
My feet are a bit sorer today than they were yesterday.
I started playing Basketball at the gym, versus running in circles for 3 miles.
It has taken me a couple of weeks to get into basketball form.
Yesterday, I played some big guys. Good ball players. Much Bigger than me.
I hung with them for about 1 game. I then played with some smaller guys, still good.

I felt my feet burning, as if I had ripped them to pieces.
I expected to find them at least bleeding when I took my shoes off.
(I am not one to stop playing for pain)
The picture shows the state of one of my feet this morning. Blistered badly.
I won’t be playing basketball for about a week now.

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Weekend Re-Cap

Here’s a recap from this weekend:

  • Friday was awesome for two reasons:
    #1 I was off.
    #2 TCAG put on our bi-annual Movie on The Lawn for the community, we had over 2,000 people from the community show up!
  • Movie on the Lawn is a night where we show a free movie on a huge screen at our community outdoor amphitheater. We give free popcorn, free drinks, free sno-cones, and sometimes free hotdogs to all who attend. Its a huge bridge event for our church.
  • Saturday, I went to breakfast at Sunrise Grill with Nicki, that’s our Saturday morning breakfast date, we don’t miss it unless we are out of town. I don’t let anything interfere with this “date” as Nicki loves it there.
    [Read more...]

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Unleash Conference Website Goes Live

Tony Morgan just announced on his blog that the Unleash Conference website went live today.

Here’s what you will find on the site:

  • Video of the 2008 main sessions.
  • Video of last year’s main sessions.
  • Notes from all the breakout sessions.
  • Photography goodness.
  • The ability to Twitter and Flickr to your heart’s content.
  • Info about next year’s conference.

I’ve been to the site and it looks awesome! I spoke with Pastor Steve Anderson earlier and he said it was a little too liberal for him, he was quoted as saying, Perry Noble is not wearing a tie on the sites header image, Lee is playing a rock, electric guitar, and they used the NIV during the sessions.” He also said, “I am sure they used a video game or a Bon Jovi song somewhere in there as well!” :) Oh, well I guess you’ll have to visit the site to form your own opinion…I think it is awesome!!! Props to Joshua.

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Gift Cards for Soldiers

Starbuck's Card

I had an idea today!

Every 2 weeks when I get paid, I am going to buy 4 – $5 Starbuck’s Gift Cards or some other popular gift card, and as I see military soldiers out in public I am going to give them one as a Thank you for all they sacrifice for our freedom and to protect millions of people they have never met. $20 every two weeks is a small investment to say Thank you to someone who has sacrificed so much for me.

Someone was talking about visiting soldiers in Walter Reed Hospital and how there was a lot of amputees in the wards. It made me think how those soldiers have had to pay a higher price than me, for the same freedoms and liberties I get to enjoy. They get no extra freedoms or liberties for their sacrifice, yet it has cost them so much.

Join Me! Go spend $20 on 4 gift cards to anywhere, and as you see a soldier give it to them and tell them ‘Thank You!’ for their sacrifice!

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Image Matters

Inside Out Logo

My Grandma always told me that if I wanted a job, I better wear a suit to the interview, or at least a shirt and tie. Why? Because image is important. That is why 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 is one of my favorite verses. We are encouraged to become all things to all people…now my story:

I eat lunch at Panera Bread approximately 3-4 days a week, sometimes more. They have the best soup in town and that is all I eat for lunch. Yesterday, as I was waiting for my name to be called to pick up my lunch at the pick-up counter I was setting my laptop up, when I was approached by a guy I didn’t know. He was a big guy, with those big ear rings that stretch your ears and make big holes. He was wearing a black t-shirt, and jean shorts. He looked like the kind of guy that would be interested in heavy metal rock music or something. He was friendly and said, “I know you don’t know me at all and this may be weird, but do you use the internet in here a lot?” I told him that I did, so he proceeded to ask me if I would go help his friend access the internet. He was concerned that my food would get cold, so he told me to bring it to their table with me, but I told him it would be ok.

I did the best that I could to get this guy’s friend’s computer to connect to the internet. His friend was a smaller version of the big guy, except he had longer hair in a ponytail with a hat on. He had camouflage shorts on with a black t-shirt. As I attempted to work on the computer, both guys were very friendly, talkative, and they shared how they were in town for some reason, but they were originally from York, Pennsylvania. I don’t remember too much of what was said as I was focusing on helping them out with their computer issue. I thought I had fixed it, and as the browser was taking them to Panera’s log-in screen, a parental control screen came up requesting a password. The guy who owned the computer was straight up with me and said that his wife has most of the internet blocked because he struggles with things on there, most guys would not admit that. I told him there was probably nothing I could do to help him log on to the internet because of the parental lock, so I told them good luck and went to eat my lunch, but I couldn’t help myself, knowing that these guys needed the internet for something important for their trip, so I went and offered for the guy to use my computer, he did, and both guys were overjoyed that I was willing to help them. These guys were super nice people.

[Read more...]

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