Community
Men need community. A man alone is not a pretty picture. When we go it alone, we are wide open for hard times. I was struck by this just today. I had breakfast with my "band of brothers" and it was good to fellowship with them but I came away empty. in the noise and distraction of iHop, there was no connection. We each had our busy lives on our minds - three of the five got calls or vibrating emails on their Treo's. We had a hard time getting much done. It was a very "surface" time. We didn't go "deep" - we couldn't - the environment was not conducive to going deeep. "How is your new job going?"...15-20 seconds into the response, the question went somewhere else, "Tell me about Maine this summer". I came away empty and part of me feels selfish for feeling this way - but - we crave community. We crave it. We need other men to "go deep" into our lives. We don't need accountability, we need "deep".
Bill Shorey put this up on his blog a long time ago and it was a foundational message for me. I came home tonight and pulled out Eldredge's "Waking the Dead" and I found Bill's blog stuffed into the book. Consider this....
The purposes of a man's heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out. Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who can find? Proverbs 20:5-6
"There are many men who live shallow live, but deep beneath their surfaces lie grand purposes -- buried. I believe every man struggles with this -- a sort of self-dummying down. Day-to-day life becomes the pursuit of the insignificant, but these men are haunted by a desire to search out and find grand purposes. Those purposes are not absent -- just buried.
The Proverb reminds us of two actions that must take place. First, every redeemed man must come to understand that he possesses a glory that has been buried. He needs to recognize that silt has settled into the deep channels of his soul, turning depths into shallows. He needs a settled belief that he is not meant to remain shallow.
Secondly, shallow men need other men -- understanding men -- who persevere with unfailing love to draw out the hidden glory from the depths of a murky soul. Men of understanding are rare; few are willing to engage in the tedious and dirty job of dredging.
Deep treasures of the soul lie buried in deep waters."
That is what I am saying - I need dredging and it will take other men to help dredge out my channels that have been silted over. I've had a real taste of this and it is so powerful. Real growth, real depth, brutal honesty, challenging questions, strong encouragement come from men who know your story and know when you are off track. That is why today left me so flat - it has been too long since our band of brothers were together and in our first gathering it was too shallow. We've all got silt in our channels and we have real treasure buried beneath the silt -- but we also need our brothers to help dredge it out. We are all haunted by grand purposes - they are in us all, we know it, we want to pull them out but there is so much silt.
This is why we need our band of brothers and our community. It is how Christ designed us.
Soar!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Our Daily Bread
Why is it that God doesn't back up the bread truck for us? Why is it that life seems to come so easy for some and for those that try to walk with the Lord, there seems to be times of want? For my new business, these are appropriate questions. I am three weeks into the transition. I am blessed beyond words. God has been the driver on this business from day one.
My new business partner is a man of strong faith and deep integrity. Our paths first crossed 14 years ago. My children are adopted. When we married, I knew then that there was a strong possibility that I would never be able to biologically father children. Shannon knew this going into our marriage. A few years into marriage, we realized that the doctors were right and so we tried invitro one time to see if God could use man to manipulate our bodies into producing a child. After one try, we knew and we started the adoption process. A short while later, our precious first born daughter came into our lives and three years later, our second daughter came home. God knew before the beginning of creation their stories and knew He would place them in our care as their parents. God knows best!
14 years ago, our daughter was about 6 months old and we were eating out on Valentines night. We got there early and had to sit in the bar area. The line was out the door while we were waiting on our food and I spotted my future business partner and his wife waiting in the hour-long line. We coaxed them into joining us. During our meal, we shared our story about our daughter and the miracle and blessing of adoption. They teared up and said they had just that day learned they would not be able to have biological children of their own. That was no accident. We walked with them through the adoption process and today they have two wonderful sons.
I tell you all that to say that I see God's hand in my new business back from 14 years ago. Sometimes in life (and especially in America) we want God's answers right now. As Americans, we think we are entitiled to it. We're not entitiled to anything. There will be more on the business in later posts but the set up is around our "daily bread".
I have just started a new study on Thursday mornings on Elijah. Ahab was a pagan, corrupt, immoral king. He married Jezebel for political purposes and she was worse than he was. God spoke to Elijah and told him to go to Ahab and tell him that because he was so corrupt, God would send drought for 3+ years on the land. God then gave Elijah very specific instrucitons on where he was to go to get bread, meat and water.
God settled Elijah by a brook and every day, ravens brought him bread and meat. God kept him there for a long while but slowly, the brook began to dry up to a trickle and then it went dry. Now, why would God do that? Next, God sent Elijah into Jezebel's own pagan homeland and instructed him to find a widow who would feed him. Elijah packed up and went and just as God promised, the widow cared for him. She had just a little flour and a little oil but she made him bread. Each day she would empty her flour jar and oil jug and each day, God would put just enough flour and oil back to provide for the next meal.
Why would God do this? Elijah was a good man and did exactly what God told him to do. He followed God each step along the way. Why then would God do this? Why not back up the bread truck for 'ol Elijah? Why not position him in such a way that he never had to worry about his daily bread?
He did position him. God had Elijah in His hand and all Elijah had to do was wait on God. God was going to provide for Elijah but He wasn't going to hand deliver him a bread truck.
What is the application for us? in my new business, I have to depend on God daily. He isn't going to hand deliver to me every single thing I need right away. By putting it in such a way that I -- HAVE -- to depend on Him, I -- CAN -- depend on Him. If He backs the bread truck up for us, how soon will we forget who is driving the truck?
This is a real problem in America. Our wealth is a curse because we have focused on the blessings of wealth vs. the provider of the wealth. It is a problem in the church. We build "campuses" and 5,000 seat worship centers so our CEO pastors can strut across the stage and lead "their" teaching ministries --- we forget who provides the blessings. The recent meltdown at Wynnbrook is symptomatic of this problem.
God gives us our daily bread for a reason. He craves a daily communion with us. Rather than fill our shelves with more than we need, He'd really rather prefer to show up at our door with the day's meal so we can sit down together and commune. What a good God He is!
Soar!
Why is it that God doesn't back up the bread truck for us? Why is it that life seems to come so easy for some and for those that try to walk with the Lord, there seems to be times of want? For my new business, these are appropriate questions. I am three weeks into the transition. I am blessed beyond words. God has been the driver on this business from day one.
My new business partner is a man of strong faith and deep integrity. Our paths first crossed 14 years ago. My children are adopted. When we married, I knew then that there was a strong possibility that I would never be able to biologically father children. Shannon knew this going into our marriage. A few years into marriage, we realized that the doctors were right and so we tried invitro one time to see if God could use man to manipulate our bodies into producing a child. After one try, we knew and we started the adoption process. A short while later, our precious first born daughter came into our lives and three years later, our second daughter came home. God knew before the beginning of creation their stories and knew He would place them in our care as their parents. God knows best!
14 years ago, our daughter was about 6 months old and we were eating out on Valentines night. We got there early and had to sit in the bar area. The line was out the door while we were waiting on our food and I spotted my future business partner and his wife waiting in the hour-long line. We coaxed them into joining us. During our meal, we shared our story about our daughter and the miracle and blessing of adoption. They teared up and said they had just that day learned they would not be able to have biological children of their own. That was no accident. We walked with them through the adoption process and today they have two wonderful sons.
I tell you all that to say that I see God's hand in my new business back from 14 years ago. Sometimes in life (and especially in America) we want God's answers right now. As Americans, we think we are entitiled to it. We're not entitiled to anything. There will be more on the business in later posts but the set up is around our "daily bread".
I have just started a new study on Thursday mornings on Elijah. Ahab was a pagan, corrupt, immoral king. He married Jezebel for political purposes and she was worse than he was. God spoke to Elijah and told him to go to Ahab and tell him that because he was so corrupt, God would send drought for 3+ years on the land. God then gave Elijah very specific instrucitons on where he was to go to get bread, meat and water.
God settled Elijah by a brook and every day, ravens brought him bread and meat. God kept him there for a long while but slowly, the brook began to dry up to a trickle and then it went dry. Now, why would God do that? Next, God sent Elijah into Jezebel's own pagan homeland and instructed him to find a widow who would feed him. Elijah packed up and went and just as God promised, the widow cared for him. She had just a little flour and a little oil but she made him bread. Each day she would empty her flour jar and oil jug and each day, God would put just enough flour and oil back to provide for the next meal.
Why would God do this? Elijah was a good man and did exactly what God told him to do. He followed God each step along the way. Why then would God do this? Why not back up the bread truck for 'ol Elijah? Why not position him in such a way that he never had to worry about his daily bread?
He did position him. God had Elijah in His hand and all Elijah had to do was wait on God. God was going to provide for Elijah but He wasn't going to hand deliver him a bread truck.
What is the application for us? in my new business, I have to depend on God daily. He isn't going to hand deliver to me every single thing I need right away. By putting it in such a way that I -- HAVE -- to depend on Him, I -- CAN -- depend on Him. If He backs the bread truck up for us, how soon will we forget who is driving the truck?
This is a real problem in America. Our wealth is a curse because we have focused on the blessings of wealth vs. the provider of the wealth. It is a problem in the church. We build "campuses" and 5,000 seat worship centers so our CEO pastors can strut across the stage and lead "their" teaching ministries --- we forget who provides the blessings. The recent meltdown at Wynnbrook is symptomatic of this problem.
God gives us our daily bread for a reason. He craves a daily communion with us. Rather than fill our shelves with more than we need, He'd really rather prefer to show up at our door with the day's meal so we can sit down together and commune. What a good God He is!
Soar!
Sunday, September 16, 2007
A New Course
I haven't posted in about 3 weeks. If you read back over my posts, you will understand why. Much of what I have written about over the past months have been a set up for a new course in my life. God has been moving in my life for quite some time and part of that move has been a set up for a new career. On Labor Day weekend, I left Smith Barney after 13+ years and bought 50% of a local investment management firm. This has been in the works for a while and I am thrilled that we are now up and running. My partner is a man with a deep faith and great integrity. It is our desire to build a firm around our beliefs and to passionately pursue the opportunities God opens for us.
I will post more but I wanted to get this up so you could be praying for this new adventure.
Soar!
I haven't posted in about 3 weeks. If you read back over my posts, you will understand why. Much of what I have written about over the past months have been a set up for a new course in my life. God has been moving in my life for quite some time and part of that move has been a set up for a new career. On Labor Day weekend, I left Smith Barney after 13+ years and bought 50% of a local investment management firm. This has been in the works for a while and I am thrilled that we are now up and running. My partner is a man with a deep faith and great integrity. It is our desire to build a firm around our beliefs and to passionately pursue the opportunities God opens for us.
I will post more but I wanted to get this up so you could be praying for this new adventure.
Soar!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)