Today

Today has been one of the best and most productive days I can remember. I just took a two a half hour nap. Do you understand what I am saying people...two and half hours (Courtney took care of the girs...she is the greatest). Courtney and I sat on the couch and watched a movie that wasn't even that good. Emily, Jessica, & Kimmie are coming over tonight to watch the girls and Courtney and I are going on a date....we are going to watch some football and then to Outback. Wilson is chasing Carson around the couch and we are having an afternoon snack. There is plenty that needs to be done... but it is just urgent...nothing on my list is more important than the above...find the margin!

I Can't See It

Bradley has second-degree burns on his right hand and on his right foot. He also has a small portion of his right foot that is third degree. The story is long and I won’t go into it, but just know that cooking fried chicken can be dangerous. We have spent about eight hours together over the past two days talking to specialist and sitting in the emergency room. We made the most of it, but I am sure he would have rather been doing other things. Bradley and I strongly believe that God is in control of everything. As Bradley was laying in the E.R., we commented to each other how God is up to something, we just can’t see it.
Have you ever been there? Have you ever had something happen and your just not sure why? Or maybe you are going through a tough time and you can’t see how God could be up to anything at all! If you have…welcome to the club…you are not alone!
So many times in our lives, we can’t see what God is up to and definitely know that we would be doing things differently if we were in control. You are not in control…quit trying to be. God operates in a dimension and from a view that you and I have no understanding of. Not only knowing the future and the past, but being in the future and the past at the same time, gives him a little bit of an advantage!
Why are you so concerned with the here and now? What is about to happen in your day that God has not already seen? What is your feeling that he doesn’t know? What are you thinking that he isn’t listening too? Nothing…he sees it all. Today, I want to challenge you to live for the eternal and not the temporary. Put on a different set of eyes. A set that looks from your heart and sees that sometimes you don’t have to see at all to know where are going.

Waiting?

We are all in a process. I want to ask you a simple question... WHAT ARE YOU WAITING ON? Why are you holding back with your walk? Why can't you be a leader? Why do you think no one will listen to you? Why will no one follow you? The list goes on and on! I bet you can list millions of reasons. We all have insecurities and failures! Instead of focusing on your failures...why don't you focus on what does qualify you to lead? So what are you waiting on?
I believe our cry as next generation leaders is, "no I don't have it all together, but I am growing, and I know the King who does have it all together...so imitate me!" This generation will never see if we all wait. Your friends are so thirsty for something authentic... what are you waiting on?
So the question for today and for our generation is...are you and john just going to wait for the world to change?
The time for waiting is over! The time for talk has come and gone! Go...Live....Be!

Wide Right

Wide Right! Four times....I couldn't believe it! As I watched the Alabama vs. Arkansas game, I was very excited but I was also very upset for the kicker. He didn't go out there intending to miss. He didn't try to lose the game. He did not want to let everyone down. Sometimes it's just a little wide right.
Have you ever been there? Have you ever given everything you have only to come up short? Sure we all have. That's life, it is full of ups and downs. The difference between a winning and losing in life is how you respond to the failure. You are going to fail. You are going to mess up. You are going to get it wrong. That is not up for debate. What remains to be seen is how you respond. Whatever is going on....however down you feel you are...get up!

Vision

Carson went to the doctor this morning. I have to admit that it is consuming my thoughts. Apparently, one of her tear ducts is not functioning correctly. The doctor is going to have to operate on her and probe it. I am very upset at the thought of her having to suffer through this. Especially since she has to be put under and stay at the hospital for a day. I know it is minor but when it is your baby girl...nothing is minor.
This afternoon, I realized it was my vision that needed to be fixed...not Carson's. How could I ever doubt him? How could I ever think that something is too big or too small for him? How could I not rest in him? How could I not feel secure and know that he will take care of everything. Oh...my little faith.
God is in control of everything...and he is good. Sure, we may not get things the way we want them all the time, but what Dad would do that to his children. Of course, there are going to be tough times, but we were never told that there would not be. I have no doubt that God sees things in ways that we don't.
I wonder...what is stressing you out today? What is consuming your thoughts? Most of the time we stress and worry about things that we can't even control. We have lied to ourselves and actually believe that we can manage our own lives. The tighter we grip and try to can control...it seems like we lose it even more. I want to challenge you to let go. Allow God to have complete control of your worry, fear, anxiety, and pain. In that moment, you will find peace...peace so thick you can breathe it!
Psalm 34:18

Decisions

Daily decisions can sometimes become so incredibly difficult. Should I go to church? Should I study? Should I workout? Do I have time to study? Should I buy this or that? Should I go on this date? Should I confront this friend? There are so many decisions we make, that sometimes we forget to stop and think about the big picture.
I want you to imagine you putting together a puzzle. What if you had no idea what the final puzzle was supposed to look like? What if you had no idea of what the “big picture” was supposed to look like? That would make it almost impossible to know where the small pieces go.
You life is just like that. If you don’t have an idea of where you are going or what you want the end result to be once you get there…the small decisions become so difficult. What do you want your marriage to look like? What do you want your finances to be like? What kind of parent do you want to be? What do you see yourself doing with a job? Defining those decisions makes the smaller ones so much easier.
Today, why don’t you spend some time dreaming? Throw some vision out there.... I think you will find the smaller decisions will become much easier when you have an idea of what the final picture is supposed to look like.

Leading In Margin

The junior/senior guys come over to my house each week for bible study. It is my favorite thing we do in the student ministry. There is nothing a like a group of guys who are passionate about pursuing God. We began the year studying the gospels. It has been fun to watch their presuppositions change. Last night, we were studying Jesus’ childhood. While not a lot is written about his childhood, what is written gives us great insight.
Earlier in the week, I asked Bradley Davis to teach the session. Bradley is an amazing teacher…far better than I will ever be. His grasp on the bible has made him wise beyond his years. What is incredible to me is the passion with which he teaches. The smallest passage becomes alive and entangled with underlying themes through the context.
Margin for me as a leader allows me to understand it is ok that I am not the best at everything. Leadership is not about being the best. Leadership is about putting people in right places to allow them to use their gifts. What a peace when a leader realizes that he or she doesn’t have to and shouldn’t do everything.
As you lead this week (all of you will in some capacity), remember that it is ok to hand the flashlight off to someone else for a while. You don’t always have to be the one on top of the mountain, shining your light down at everyone while yelling, “one day you’ll get here.”
Encourage someone to step out and lead today. Find out what the people around you are good and then empower them to do it. What you will find is your ability to give up control will make you a far better leader and allow you to lead with much more margin.

Today

And your off...it is the start of a new day and you have the whole week in front of you. I wonder what your focus is today. I heard someone say Sunday Night..."I just can't wait for the weekend." I thought to myself, but there is so much life between now and next weekend! How could you focus on next weekend when this week is just waiting to be lived out?
I think sometimes we make the crucial mistake of living life looking forward to the "next thing" and not enjoying life now.
Margin allows you to live today and enjoy it. If you are stressed out and have lost your focus...I urge you to spend some time with God. I know it seems as though you don't have time to make margin...YOU DO! What you will find as you sit down with God is the more you dive into him...the more in focus you life becomes.
If you have caught yourself living for the next stage...stop! God wants to have a relationship with you now...today! God wants to use you now...today! If you’re waiting until high school...stop and enjoy junior high. If you’re waiting for college...stop and enjoy high school. If you are in college...marriage will come soon enough...enjoy college! If you are married.... enjoy life without children...they will come.
The illusion is that life will be better at the next stage.... it is a lie. The truth is that every stage of life brings it troubles. You will never enter into a stage of life where you have "arrived" and have no pressure or worries. Enjoy now.... live in the margin!
Matthew 6:34

Daddy

I got a phone call from Courtney this morning while I was at church. She was crying and said that Carson woke up with a very high fever. I went home immediately and rushed in the door. There she was lying on Courtney, both with tears in their eyes. Carson looked so helpless and hurt. She usually greets me at the door with a smile when I come home...but today there was nothing. I reached over and picked her up and laid her head on my shoulder.
I wonder how I would've felt like if she had turned away as though she didn't need me. I know that I am the only one who can make her better. She has no clue what medicine she needs or if she needs a fan or a blanket. But what if she turned away and tried to make it through herself.... it would have broken my heart. I loved being there for her and scooping her up in my arms.
God want to take care of you! He wants to lead you! He wants to meet your needs! He wants to restore you! He wants to love you! I wonder sometimes how it must hurt him to know that everything we could ever need is found in him and yet we turn away and try to make it on our own.
I want to encourage you to crawl up into Daddy's arms and spend some time! You may find that you needed him to scoop you up and sing over you!
Zeph. 3:17

Too Busy

I just got busy! Have you ever heard anyone say that? Have you ever been there yourself? Too busy to go to church...too busy to invest in someone’s life...too busy to listen to someone...too busy spend time with your family...just too busy. It seems to me that the times in our life when we are busy, we loose touch with what is important...we lose margin.
I just got back from a day at the lake. It was an incredible day of fun, relaxation, and fellowship. How could anyone get too busy for that? I have had a week that has lowered my stress and put everything into focus for me. It is no surprise when we get too busy...God and Relationships are the first to go. Kind of interesting since the most important commandments are to love God with all you have and love your neighbor as yourself. It seems as though we are getting sidetracked.
Maybe you are sidetracked! Maybe you have lost sight of the purpose of life. I want to encourage you to spend some time Sunday with God and then spend some time investing in someone else's life. You are a relational being...you were meant to have relationships.
Tomorrow...Create Margin...Enjoy Life.... Invest in someone...that is how you finish empty.
Psalm 34:8

Making Margin

Making Margin with your time means looking at three undeniable facts.
The first is your time is limited. It never occurs to us to we do have a limited amount of time. I know with my schedule I sometimes act as though I have no limits. We all have limits with our time.
Secondly, we are going to spend all of our time doing something. You can’t save up your time and you can’t push pause. The fact is you are going to spend the next 24 hours doing something…what is to be determined.
The third reality about our time is someone is going to determine how you spend your time. For most of us, we are the ones who determine how we spend our time. However, sometimes our boss, kids, parents, or teachers can determine it for us.

So how do you create margin in your life with those three facts staring you in the face?
The first is you must understand that your days are numbered. If I live out the rest of my life and die an old man, the best I can tell is I have about 3,000 Saturday’s left. Man that sure does change the way I want to spend my Saturday’s.
Secondly, Prioritize according to the most important. Remember your capacity is not determined by how much you cram in your schedule…priority does.
Finally, make time alone with God a priority. When you seek God first, everything else seems to be taken care of.
The challenge is to let go. God knows how much time you have left and knows what is a priority in your life. If someone is going to determine how you spend your time…. why not let it me God? Ephesians 5:15-17

Margin

Margin...the amount available beyond what is actually needed; the extra, reserves. Financial, emotional, moral, and time are all areas of our life in which we must fight for margin. I am learning quite a bit about living with margin. For me it is time. When I push myself to the max, three things tend to happen.
The first is my stress level goes up. I tend to have a shorter fuse and the smallest thing can set me off when I lose margin. It is amazing to me that when my time margin narrows, I am on edge! However, when I have margin in my life...my stress level goes down and I am not as stressed.
The second is my focus narrows. I am so concerned about the tyranny of the urgent that I give no credence to the important. Yes...the urgent is not always the important. When my focus narrows their is no margin to do what I was put on the planet to do...there just isn't time...I have to get my list done.
The third thing that happens when I lose margin is my relationships suffer. Sometimes the most important thing I can do is sit on the couch with Courtney. The Type A driven part of me tells me that I don't have time for that...there is too much to do. That is when my relationships suffer...no margin!
I want to encourage you to find the margin.... financially, emotionally, morally, and with your time. The truth is this...we all have limits...either the ones our culture pushes us to or the ones our heavenly father leads us to. God intended for you to live life with margin. The application...take a nap, go on a walk, watch it rain, save your money, watch a movie, call your parents, spend the day with your husband or wife...come back from the edge...enjoy life with margin.

Reflection

It has been the most stressful, tiring, testing, fulfilling, blessed, and rewarding year of my life. The past 12 months have brought more change to my life than most of my previous 25 years combined. As I sit here next to my high school sweetheart and stare at a beautiful Arkansas fall day, one thought consumes me…GOD IS GOOD! My relationship to my Heavenly Father has gone to depths that I never dreamed this year. In all the moments of dependency…He was there longing for intimacy. I have learned a very important lesson this year…it is all about God. Every breath, circumstance, difficulty, dream, passion, hurt, disappointment, fear, and triumph…they are all about him. God has taken me places I never imagined and brought me from moments that I didn’t think I would survive. There is no attempt for application to this journal entry. I am once again broken by the blessings that are too many to count. To the God that gives and takes away….blessed be your name!

All In

Then Jesus said to his disciples, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Matthew 16:24

It sure doesn't sound like there is much life there! I mean, what does that even mean? Deny myself...take my my cross...that is heavy stuff. What is Jesus saying here? Maybe, Jesus wants to know if you are "All In." You know, the moment when you put everything out there and hold nothing back. The moment where you have everything to lose. What he is asking is are you all in?
What does being all in, mean for you? What would it look like if you really went all in? What would change this week if you lived you life all in? I want to challenge you today with a very simple concept....Die to Yourself and GO ALL IN!