Tweets for Today

• 08:51 waiting to get eye exam. People with perfect vision often take it for granted #
• 10:09 Why do things take so long #
• 15:39 that bruce chant guy is my hero #
• 20:33 Bruce chant is bigger than nike #
• 20:54 wait a minute. what about the movie Bruce Almighty? #
• 22:44 @bruce hey. share your notes. with your fans!!! #

via twitter

He will see you now

Holy cow. I had an 8:30 am appointment to get my eyes examined. I was previously diagnosed wit carataconus or however you spell it. So I wanted to go to a specialist and get it really looked at. My appointment was to be at 8:30 am. They didn’t have me down even though my handy dandy little appointment card showed otherwise. But they took me anyway. So after about 45 minutes, I finally got beyond the waiting population in the lobby to the waiting population in the rooms.

As normal in most places, they send in the prep guy. After going through all the normal “prep guy” stuff, he left me and said it wouldn’t be long. Really? Unfortunately, I needed to go to the restroom. So, I just left and went to the bathroom. Came back about five minutes later. No one missed me. Seems the doctor was running way behind. Amazing.

So after a few text messages, the seeing eye doctor came in and gave me an exam. Apparently my carataconus is extremely mild. But because my vision is junked up with extreme nearsightedness and astigmatism, my contacts may need to go from soft to hard. And the price range automatically goes into high gear. What a blessing.

Add to that, the dilated my eyes today. That means everything looks like I slept in my contacts by accident and then smeared peanut butter on em. In fact, I am having a tough time reading what I am writing hear. What a neat day this has turned out to be. By the way, from start to finish, the eye exam was 2 hours and 45 minutes in duration. Can someone please put in a drive through window?

Erosion

Vision is a precious thing. And if we are not careful, erosion can take place. Erosion can happen through all kinds of forces. Here are some:

     People don’t have or take the time to protect the vision
     People have a different idea of what the vision looks like
     Allowing the vision to stray from view
     Forgetting why the vision is there in the first place
     Lack of commitment
     Saturation of a bundle of other options

It is perhaps one of the most challenging and difficult tasks to clutch tight the vision and not let it go and not let it be eroded. Change for the better is ok. Change for the sake of improving or advance the vision is good. But other than that, a vision isn’t really a vision if you don’t feel like it’s worth defending. And, you can tell you have a vision worth holding onto if you feel bad about saying no to other things because the vision is more important. Thoughts?

Online Prayer Forum

Our children’s pastor helped put together an online interactive prayer tool. It’s called We The Church. You can go here www.wethechurch.org to check it out.

Fasting

As much as I don’t like it, I am starting one this week. I will soon be calling the leadership to a fast. Then the church. But I figure I need to lead and be engaged in it first. There are some things that our church needs some breakthroughs in. Some very key areas. And I sense it’s time for a fast.

If we are not careful, we can use a fast to manipulate God. We can fast to get Him to put His power and authority behind our agenda. But maybe fasting is more about making a way for God to manipulate us to submit more to His  power and authority and ultimately His agenda.

100 and 0

I got the communication cards today and on three different cards, people wrote what a great service it was today.

One person visited today. I tried to talk to them on the way out. I asked if they filled out a guest card. After some small talk, they advised they wouldn’t be coming back. Wow. 100 to 0. Got the spectrum covered.

Nothing was said to the couple that I know of that would have set them off to make them not come back. Nothing amazing was said to the other couples out of the norm to make them come back. What’s the difference? Beats me. Style. Flavor. Worship style. No hymnals. Who knows.

I just know that I really want everyone to love our church. But it’s just not always going to happen. I just know that there are days when our service is less than stellar. And still people come back.

So what’s the deal? It had better always ALWAYS be about Jesus or we are cooked.

Drained

I am pretty drained right now. It was a very unusual day. On the one hand I think the service was pretty good. On the other hand, I feel like we are investing so much into this church. I think the phrase reckless abandon comes to mind. And sometimes it’s difficult to measure the value.

It is so easy to think about what is not working, the things that are off, and the shortcomings. When I am drained, that seems to be what jumps up the front of the thought train.

I need to get alone with God sometime tomorrow and recharge, refuel, and refocus.

I am with you

I like movies or songs or commercials that pull you in and insert you into the experience. You know, like you are living it with them. It’s kind of how the TV show The Office is. Some singers and songwriters can craft songs that make you feel like you are living it. Some paintings and pictures are done in such a way that you can feel yourself being in it.

A church experience can kind of get like that. But is it good. After the Office is over, I turn off the TV and forget the experience pretty quickly. After I hear a song that pulls me in, within three and a half minutes, there is another song right after it. In a church experience, the ultimate goal is not for people to feel it and then move on and forget all about it. The goal is for Jesus to meet with each individual and have a real experience that will last beyond the church meeting. With that in mind, it can be tempting to plan church services that engage like a TV show but have no lasting value. Still thinking this over and praying about it. But that’s what I am thinking about today.

Drinking from a fire hydrant

This week, for whatever reason, I have been consuming massive amounts of information. Podcasts. Live church streams. Articles. Blogs. Books. It’s like I am information starved. I don’t know what it is but I have been like Pacman eating the white dots. What gives? Am I digital glutton? Crazy. My add to favorites section is bloated.

Men’s Prayer

As usual, early morning prayer was so good. It’s such a calming time. I can focus on God. I can clear my head. I can get new information. I can close everything off and spend some uninterrupted time with my Creator! I really love men’s prayer on Friday mornings. Truth is, there are times when getting up is difficult. Yesterday, I left the house at 7:30 am and didn’t get home until 10:00 pm. And I was pretty wiped out. But it was worth getting up and spending extra time with God. My daily devotions and quiet time are good. But this extra hour is fabulous.