Come Alive

Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you had one week left to live, would you still be doing what you’re doing now? In what areas of your life are you preparing to live? Take them off your To Do list and add them to a To Stop list. Resolve to only do what makes you come alive.

Bonus: How can your goals improve the present and not keep you in a perpetual “always something better” spiral?

This prompt  is something that I have had several conversations with people about. This idea of contentment. We live in a society that breeds discontentment and we grow tired and weary because we are chasing after the wind. 

The things that make me come most alive is being with people and hearing their stories of life. However, this is an area I need to focus on and get rid of my to do list and focus on being more present with relationships and taking time to build those relationships. 

The Ugly Middle

This morning I read Steven Pressfield's new book Do the Work. I actually got it for free from the Domino Project a few weeks ago, but the download was not available until today. It magically synced on my app on my phone and I got busy reading. Here is one quote I love from the book.

"The hospital room may be spotless and sterile, but birth itself will always take place amid chaos, pain, and blood."

Simple, yet epic.

Last year in May I had the opportunity to witness this firsthand through the birth of my daughter. The room is quite enjoyable and relaxing, until that moment. Until that moment when you hit the pain of child birth. This is the ugly middle. This is the moment in time when one chooses to overcome a great conflict and struggle because on the other side we know that a great story awaits. A great story awaits for all those who are willing to cross the ugly middle. Once we cross the pain of birth a great story is born. We have to choose to enter the room and wrestle with the ugly middle and overcome what Pressfield calls "resistance."

What resistance are you facing?

What are you waiting to give "birth" to?

En-Courage-ment

The early church was faced with persecution and a sense of urgency about the gospel of Christ that they had to give encouragement to one another on a daily basis. This allowed them to have courage to face the trials and persecution of those who were not accepting of The message of Jesus Christ being buried and raised from the dead as the Messiah.

Many times we think of encouragement as praise and recognition. What if we looked at encouragement the same way that the early church did? Would we live with more urgency and desire to share the gospel? What would be different in your life and the lives of those around you if you encouraged each other like the first Christians.

So...who is encouraging you?

Or better yet...who are you encouraging?

Don't wait on someone to encourage you, go and give encouragement for the gospel of Christ.

Here are a few passages to consider.

I Thessalonians 3

Hebrews 3

Hebrews 10 

Read the context and look for the word encouragement and see what God reveals to you.

Do you Shutter?

Do you use Shutterfly for printing of your favorite memories of family and friends? Do you use it for ministry so members of the church or youth group can access and print off pictures? If not here are a few reasons why I think you should use Shutterfly. (I have not used it for the second reason but it has some great programs to host your pictures with a custom url.)

We have used Shutterfly several times over the last few years. We have printed off favorite pictures that we want to treasure. We printed off several from our Europe trip last summer and have framed those in the house as our personal art work. Earlier this year we used their cards for Kennedie's birth announcement. And in 6 months I am sure we will use them to order Kennedie's birthday party invitation cards. We used them a couple of years ago for our Christmas card, last year we did a video card at Vimeo. This year we are returning to the traditional Christmas card though.

For ministry related I have dreamt of making a calendar of all the pictures of prior year events and activities, but one that also highlights the upcoming activities as well. Right now this is still a dream, but maybe it can happen or maybe you can steal the idea and make it happen for your ministry.

Ok, so let me brag on Jessica for a second. She had her first official and unofficial photo shoot and she is hosting those pictures on Shutterflys public share account with a personal url. The pictures are of one of the Seniors in our youth ministry at High Pointe.

You can grab 50 free cards yourself to give Shutterfly a chance.

Interchangeable Words

Happy and Joy.

Can you use these words interchangeably? 

Both are emotional.

 

One is temporal.

One is eternal.

There is a difference, but not sure that we know how to use these two words. 

I see happy as a feeling that can come and go like the wind. 

I see joy as a feeling of a deep seeded belief and conviction that is like the roots of an oak tree.

Not sure...what do you think is there a difference?

 

Where does purity start?

Some would say in the heart.

Others would say with your mind.

Still some would suggest purity starts with your actions.

Does purity even have a starting point? Or an end point?

Possibly purity is a process and not a destination.

Put the semantics aside.

Purity starts from a hunger and a desire to live a life that Christ has called you to live. He has not called you to slavery of impurity, but instead to pursue purity.

Are you pursuing purity?

Next Level of Writing

I really have a desire to take this blog and my random collection of thoughts to the next level. However, I have not narrowed in nor have I managed my time to allow me to write.

At the beginning of 2010 I published some goals or what I called a 2010 story. This was only intended for a select few people to read. Several of the goals I have reached and several of the goals...well have been lackluster and non existent.

I want to share with you one of those goals:

I have a desire to write an eBook or pamphlet of sorts that will provide teens and young adults a resource for purity. Primarily this would be a resource or possibly a manifesto of sorts to get individuals and families to think about purity and pornography.

Why do I share this with you? Well...honestly I guess if I get past the fear of doing it by letting you know then maybe I will move closer to accomplishing that goal.

I have heard to often from every age range about justifying his or her behavior when it comes to pornography and purity. It seems that to a large degree we have normalized what we call purity and pornography because our hearts have become hardened to the standard God calls us to.

So there you have it...I pray I can take my writing to the next level for the sake of His glory and the temptation that many face today in their desire for purity.

Miracles and Prayer

If you are anything like me, I often stay within a comfortable realm in my prayer life. Not asking for anything to bold, but still asking for God to move. Does this not not seem counter to who God is? We have the honor to talk to the Creator of the universe, but I will not ask anything bold of Him? Umm...

Yes, people die. Yes, people get sick. I ask for His will to be done, but sometimes I do that out of a lack of faith for not truly believing in a miracle. Life happens for various reason and God can create moments and experiences that point to His glory trough life and death.

When I pray I want to ask God for divine moments that testifies to His glory. One of those moments happened at Farmers Branch over the last few weeks. I have been watching Chris Seidman's tweets about this story and last night I had the opportunity to ask Chris a little more about what happened. This video shares the power of prayers and the miracles that God creates that point to His glory. May we all be moved to ask God to create moments that point to His glory. I do not know Chip, but this video is not about Chip. This is about what God will do through prayer.

1st Year vs. 6th Year of Youth Ministry

The early days at my first job as a youth minister was very unusual, despite the fact being newly married and out of state this was a very joyful and stressful time. I clearly remember one time stating to Jessica, "What am I supposed to do?" You see when one does not have clear direction, and a church does not have a clear direction, a minister can be left wondering what their purpose is on a daily basis during the 9 to 5 work week. I knew I had to prepare a lesson for Wednesday and Sunday, but I was not real sure what to do beyond this small window of time each week. 


Now after 5 years of working as a youth minister and transitioning into a new church here are a few things I would recommend a new minister do and this is what I am trying to do currently as I enter into my sixth year of youth ministry at a new church.

Communicate: At every level of the church you want to provide clear and concise information often, to the elders, ministers, staff, parents, and the students you are working with. You cannot communicate enough. Everyone is experiencing a change and transition, but if you communicate with honesty and transparency people are more likely to trust you.

Accountability: What are the goals for yourself during the initial months (3, 6, 9, 12)? If there are not any goals then set up a structure of accountability for yourself. Leaders are accountable for their actions and the direction they are leading. Place yourself around others who can help you achieve the goals and provide accountability. Ministry can be an ambiguous job for others to understand, but providing the right framework of accountability will help you monitor your job performance and responsibilities.


Strategy: You are communicating, you have accountability around your goals, but do you know your strategy to your your destination. Asking yourself what is the end result of everything you do will help you question why you plan and implement a specific vision for your ministry. Beginning with the end in mind will help you build a strategy on how to get to your destination.


Relationship: This is by far the most important area in any ministry related job. If you do not take the essential time building relationships at the beginning no one will care about your vision or desire you may be trying to initiate.


This is not a comprehensive list, but just a glimpse of a few things that have been on my mind.

Life is Lived in the Gray

Donald Miller had a great post the other day that we all need to consider. Here is a quote from that blog post to consider.

Black-and-white thinking is attractive because it’s reductionistic, it simplifies everything so we don’t really have to comprehend. It allows us to feel intelligent without understanding, and once we are intelligent, we feel superior. People who don’t agree with us are just dumb.

I have heard many times over the last couple of years that life is lived in the gray and when we do reduce life to black and gray we are not only short changing ourselves, but those around us as well.


How does this post from Donald miller echo with you?

Audio: The Art of Telling Stories in Your Family

You can listen to the sermon from this weeks post about The Art of Telling Stories in Your Family.

The link above will open as a MP3 that is hosted on Dropbox.

Or you can read a brief overview of Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 in reference to the audio format.

The Art of Telling Stories in Your Family -- Part 3

This brings us full circle to the end of Deuteronomy 6 and Part 1 in The Art of Telling Stories in Your Family.

At the end of Deuteronomy 6 a son asks his father, "What is the meaning...?"

You see all stories begin with a question. We must begin to ask questions of one another so we can hear each others Egyptian story.

There is a problem most have with sharing our stories due to what I call in Part 2 the commercialization of the family. The art of not only telling stories, but asking questions needs enlightenment. Questions are the catalyst that leads to connection.

We have an enormous amount of communication, but few meaningful connections of one another including our very own family members. Everyone is communicating through social networking, reading the news, watching TV, and listening to the radio to only mention a few mediums of communications.

Sensory overload within all the mass communications has led many of our relationship to lack the power of presence. Sure we all communicate, but are we slowing down enough to connect?

Our stories have value. Our stories deserve to be told to future generations.

May we come to realize the value in asking questions so the stories of how Christ freed us can transform generations to come.

March Madness and God's Glory in Sports

March Madness is officially underway. Not only is this the best time to watch college basketball but it is also a symbol of our love, passion, and devotion to sports in general. People truly do go "mad" filling out brackets and enjoying some friendly competition to see who can have the "best" bracket at the end of the tournament. So in light of the current madness I thought this would spark some conversation.

Do you ever feel as if our sports have become our idols? Or is it ridiculous when some one praises God at the end of the game? Does God really care about sports? Being an avid sports fan this video highlights a small segment of the sermon from C.J.

Watch this brief video from one of my favorite bloggers, theologians, and ministers C.J. Mahaney.




You can listen to the entire sermon from C.J. at Sovereign Grace.



What are you thoughts about sports and the glory of God?

Book Giveaway: The Hole in Our Gospel

Really? There is not a hole in our gospel. I mean look around in any city throughout the US and you will see churches, non-profits, rescue missions, and social services provided by the state helping and serving the poor and downcast. Surely there is not a hole in my gospel. Richard Stearns has written a great book that exposes the hole not only in my gospel, but most US churches.

We live in extreme wealth, comfort, and contentment, which has led us to our own idolatry of money. When there is an idol there is also a firm grip on the idol. In the book Richard tells about his personal resistance in his life to leave the corporate world as CEO and take a job with World Vision. He writes with humility, honesty, and transparency about his struggle to leave the "finer" things of his extravagant life and serve alongside an organization that reaches out to the downtrodden of the world.

My journey of the poor and outcast started when I was in the 3rd grade. My parents took me to Impact Church to be exposed to the orphans, widows, and those that society has cast out as "the least of these." I remember my first encounter walking under a bridge in downtown Houston and experiencing tent cities and shelters that mark all of our urban centers across the world. Years later I spent a summer at Impact working with the children in the inner city and reaching out to their families through various ministries. Not sure that my parents really grasped the full extension of the experiences they gave me as we visited different churches who truly reached out and ministered to the whole person. Today my life is not the same because of my life experiences and now "The Hole in Our Gospel" is a part of that overarching story of my life.

You cannot read this book and not be moved closer to Christ and those stricken by AIDS, hunger, malnutrition, disease and lack of educational opportunities.

Read Isaiah 58 and Matthew 25; if that does not move you and shake you then please give this book a chance. There actually my be a chance that your heart is hard like Eph 4 talks about. If that is the case then cry out to God to break your heart from your ego, pride, and idol of self.

Now for the book giveaway:

You have a really good chance to win this book; my analytic count is not high and I do not have many people subscribed via my RSS. Therefore, there may only be 3 comments and that would leave you with a 1 in 3 chance of winning.

Four ways to enter:

1. Tweet about the book giveaway and be sure to use @lantzhoward in the tweet so I can keep up with you.
2. Leave a comment below.
3. Post on Facebook about the book giveaway.
4. Write on your blog your first experience with the poor and downtrodden and link to this giveaway in your blog post.

You can do one or all four. Be sure to leave a comment for each one that you participate in. Next Wednesday I will use a number generator and try to figure out who won. Please keep in mind this is my first giveaway and there my be a few glitches, but I will contact the winner and send the book to you via the mail after you win.

Giveaway ends Wednesday March 17th at 12pm pacific time.

----

Book provided by Book Sneeze and Thomas Nelson.

Missionaries from Honduras Doing Missions in Haiti

Honduras or Haiti which country do you serve? Both are extremely poor. Both require and need help. Does it have to be one or the other? Is there not an option for both. Many times in any spectrum of our life we swing from one side of the pendulum to the other side as if there is always a black and white to every issue in life. In fact, much of life I am coming to realize is lived in the gray.

Last year we were scheduled to go to Honduras on a mission trip in August to serve with Mission Lazarus. However, due to unforeseen circumstances and being responsible for a group of teens we canceled the trip. I am disappointed that I did not have the chance to serve with an outstanding missional organization. I look forward to the future when one day I may have an opportunity to work and serve alongside Jarrod Brown and the other missionaries and staff at Mission Lazarus. (Photo courtesy of email attachment from Jarrod Brown.)

Since our first communication with Mission Lazarus in 2008 I have kept close tabs on their work with the orphans, coffee farm, preaching, medical clinic, and ranch all in an effort to reach the people of Honduras for their mind, body and soul.

I wanted to pass along the recent blog updates and video below about the work they have done in Haiti since the earthquake. This is taking the entire Story of redemption and the incarnation of Christ not only in their outreach, but to the ends of the earth. Below is a video from Haitian women singing in the midst of their pain.

Praises Amidst the Suffering from Meredith Jones on Vimeo.

Why should I invest in my marriage?

Last Friday night, right before I got smacked down with body aches, chills and a fever Jessica and I spent some time reading His Needs Her Needs and doing some worksheets together to invest in our marriage. This is not only for our marriage, but yours as well as we learn how to become facilitators of a Dynamic Marriage.

Take some time this year to invest in your marriage. Read a book and discuss it together. Find a workshop or seminar in your area to attend together. Even consider seeing a counselor for a few sessions. This small investment this year in your marriage will pay off huge dividends in the weeks and years to come.

You can not expect your marriage to change by doing the same thing. You are not crazy or weird if you go to a counselor. Marriage is a joy, but marriage can be emotionally exhausting if you are not growing individually and together.

You take your car in for an oil change and mainteance or maybe you even DIY. Well, why would you not do the same for your marriage?

Invest...change the oil...do something this year to have a Dynamic Marriage.

(Photo: shho)

Do you think it will ever change?

Last night Jessica asked me "Do you ever think there will be a change in Christians getting a divorce?" Yes and no. We live in a world of sin and often as Christians we don't even confront our own sin, which leads to repentance and realizing God's sovereign grace. There has got to be a radical change in our churches and communities about divorce, marriage and relationships in general. I went on to talk about the need for understanding, teaching, and modeling of healthy relationships.

Let's face it, we have all been an emotional train wreck at some point in our life. Where did you go? Who did you turn to? Was there a relationship in your life you could find support and empathy? I am not convinced that people know how to handle his or her emotions and become self aware of the deeper pain and issue of our need for a Savior. We turn to many various forms of sin to mask our emotional pain and the veneer of healing. Unfortunately because our hurts happen through relationships, we put walls to the healing that comes from relationships.

There must be a change in our churches across the nation to become a place of wounded healers. A place were we do not simply wipe the tears away and add on "I'll pray for you." Seems like to me there are people who desire relationships within our church walls, but few who reciprocate.

I desire community. I desire a place for wounded healers. I desire for a change in Christian marriages. I desire to be in relationship with God and others.

What are your thoughts about the Christian divorce rate?


(Photo: SXC)

Traveled with Donald Miller

Ok...so I really didn't travel with him, but I read Through Painted Deserts this weekend while being laid up sick in bed. This is not a review of the book, I just wanted to capture what he learned while traveling from Houston to the Northwest. Ok...so I did not capture this, Don wrote it down and I wanted to share it with you.

"Relationships between men and women indicate something of the nature of God--that is He is relational, that He feels love and loss. It's a metaphor, and the story is about us; it's about all of us who God made, and God himself, just enjoying each other. It strikes me how far the commercials are from this reality, how deadly they are, perhaps. Months ago I would have told you life was about doing, about jumping through the religious hoops, about impressing other people, and my actions would have told you this is done by buying more possessions or keeping a good image or going to church. I don't believe that anymore. I think we are supposed to love our friends and introduce people to the story, to the peaceful, calming way of life."

We cannot try to reduce God down to logarithm (some math thing) or make Him fit in a perfect little box. God is a relational God. That's what I desire; to be relational with God and others. Through this I pray my life will overflow in worship, love, sacrifice, and living by faith.

(Photo depicts my mother sharing her overflowing love with a gentle woman in Abilene, TX)

What kind of life is not worth living?

We go to the Dr. and he examines us with all his medical tools and we expect a diagnosis and a treatment. We go to church and listen to sermons and Bible studies and we get a nice packaged plan to take home. We go to restaurants and order specifically what we desire. We get our oil changed from the guy at Walmart and then they tell you everything else that is wrong with your car.

(Image: a.drain)

We live in a world that we expect someone else to do it for me, to do it to me, but please don't make me do it.

This has lead us to what Socrates might call a life not worth living. (He lived in BC, so really it is nothing new, but our culture struggles with this more now than ever.)

Socrates said, "The unexamined life is a life not worth living."

A life worth living would reflect one who has examined his or her life.

We have become comfortable and content with our traditions and routines of daily life. We have become conditioned not to think for ourselves, which has hindered our ability to examine ourselves. Possibly we do examine ourselves but we may fall into this catergory that Gary Varnerchuk said in his book Crush It, "We all have a great ability to create self-awareness, but the problem is that we lie to ourselves."


How do we go about examining our life?

1. The first response would be to examine ourselves under the light of scripture and God's eyes. (I Cor. 11:28, 2 Cor. 13:5, Pro. 5:21)
   
2. After probing the scriptures we need to ask ourselves questions that lead us into the quiet places of our soul.
3. Once we start to examine ourselves there might be a desire to flee to our comfort of not thinking and asking ourselves questions, at this point I would encourage you to allow the truth to speak into your life and not lie to yourself as Gary would say.

There is much to much to say on what starts to happen once we begin to examine our life on a daily basis. We realize our idols, shortcomings, and the non deserving love that Jesus Christ has for us just to mention a few

What did Jonah pray for inside the fish?

This is one aspect of his pray that has been on my heart and especially on my mind after reading David Powlinson article "Idols of the Heart and Vanity Fair."

"Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs."

Jonah 2:8



(Image: PJ Taylor Photo)