June 2, 2010
I have not been blogging lately. I have a love/hate relationship with it. As much as I speak from stage and teach at conferences when I get home blogging is the last thing I want to do.
Here’s the rub: it’s my calling.
Not blogging per se but encouraging, counseling, discerning, equipping, sharing, starting hard conversations, empathizing, and on and on and on……that’s my calling. It’s every Christians calling at some level but for me it’s also vocational. My directive in the Kingdom of God is to encourage the saints and equipping them to do the work of the ministry.
While I can do that audience-by-audience encompassing the globe one event at a time, one of the best ways to accomplish my task in todays technologically savvy culture is to reach out digitally. Blogging, twittering, facebooking, etc, that’s the community gathering place of today. To avoid it would be to neglect a significant outlet where my gifts can be most tangibly utilized. So yes, in some strange way I’m called to blog.
What that will mean exactly as far as frequency has yet to be seen. Nevertheless, it needs to be at some level of consistency, which it is currently not achieving. I’ve enlisted the help of a team, SkörInc. (Hey Guys) to help keep me on the straight and narrow and to help provide insight as I pursue this thing. So please be patient with me, encourage me and by all means pray for me as I try to keep this torch lit.
So how about you, what callings or responsibilities have you been avoiding because they aren’t fun or convenient? What new opportunities might there be for you to exercise your giftings?
May 18, 2010
Thomas Henry Bledsoe: Born May 7, 7lbs 8oz, 19.5 Inches Long
photo courtesy of Dane Carder
February 26, 2010
“God is not just our Provider, He is our Provision.”
-A reminder today from my friend Grant Jenkins.
February 1, 2010
Unless you missed the news entirely this weekend you know about the enormous storm that blew across the southern half of the United States and finally up the Eastern seaboard. For areas like my home in Tennessee it was a “once a decade” happening. We ended up with 6-10 inches of snow capped with a solid sheet of ice. The Governor called a state of emergency by 12:00 on Friday afternoon and everyone was basically stuck indoors until Sunday afternoon when the ice started to recede. For some folks this induces a state of panic but Betsy and I chose to look at it as an opportunity. We took several looooong walks with the pups, caught up with neighbors we hadn’t seen in quite a while and implemented a “state of emergency movie marathon.” It was awesome!
For quite some time Betsy has been telling me that I just have to watch “Gone With The Wind” especially now that I’m an official southerner (Michigan transplant). Since it’s four hours long and not exactly a movie you can watch on a whim, this weekend was the perfect opportunity. If you’ve never seen it before I highly recommend you put it on your entertainment to-do list. It’s not only a literary classic but it’s also considered historically accurate by scholars for my fellow history buffs.
The twitter version of the plot is that the story follows the life of Scarlett O’Hara, a southern bell from Georgia, throughout the Civil War and the changes that ensue as a result of the choices she makes. Scarlett’s whole life is wrapped up in chasing what she can’t have. I think it incredibly ironic that the title is “Gone With the Wind” when the plot so closely resembles the words of King Solomon when he says the vanities of life are like “chasing after the wind”. This is the sum of the movie; Scarlett’s life is marked by chasing after the wind.
So my question is this, if someone were to make a movie about our lives what would be the overarching theme or plot? When the credits role what would people walk away with, what would they say we spent most of our time chasing? Relationships, money, the approval of others, power, security? What steps can I take to make sure the message I want to communicate with my life is actually the message others are hearing by my actions?
January 29, 2010
I grew up in Michigan where you had to have blizzard like conditions, 10 feet of snow and wear ice skates to check the mail before they’d close school. Here in Tennessee they are so scared of snow that they close school if snow is even in the forecast! Everyone then immediately panics and cleans out the grocery store of bread and milk. It’s hysterical! Hey, I’m not complaining. I hope you have as much fun this weekend as I will!
Let it snow, let it snow, let is snow!!!
