Making a living

We've been spending some time talking about my mission statement:

Stimulating redemptive living and kingdom investment

What does "living" mean to you? We use the word in several ways:

How do you make a living?
Where are you living now?
This is a nice living room.
I'm glad to be among the living.

What makes something alive? Breath? No, gotta be more than that, because plants and single-cell organisms are alive, and they don't breath. Wikipedia (which  is never wrong) says that scientists define life as "objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes" as opposed to objects who used to have those processes and no longer do (dead) or objects that don't have such processes.

That sounds to me more like a definition of surviving, not necessarily living.

Living is so much more than surviving. Living is embracing what really matters, and sucking the life out of it. Not like that boring acquaintance sucks the life out of a party, but more like the way I suck the melted ice cream out of the bottom of a DQ Blizzard. I do not want to waste a drop of that precious elixir.

That's the kind of life I want to live. And what I hope I stimulate in others. That full to the max, get all you can out of it kind of living.

So here's the deal, the way I see it. Jesus wants people to live. Not just make a living, not just to survive, but to have life. Real life, maximum life. Suck it dry and go back for seconds life. But there is a major hindrance to finding and living this life:

We want to do it on our own terms.

At first I was thinking that there are two ways, but really there's not. Just one, but it shows up differently in two broad ways: some people follow their own terms by looking for life in their own religious piety, and other people follow their own terms by looking for life in the stuff of the temporal. Jesus makes it clear in interactions with both types that neither will ultimately satisfy. We all want to be the doorway to our own happy life. But its only found in a real relationship with Jesus. He's the bringer of life.

Non-con doesn't work

The gun control "non-conversation" is turning into another pro-life/abortion rights "non-con." In both cases, each side reduces the issues to bumper-sticker rhetoric, shouts at the other side about "life" or "choice"--or "control" or "freedom"...

All the while we neither reduce the number of abortions nor the amount of people killed by guns. Until both sides are ready to really, actually CONVERSE, then conversation is apparently out of the question. And without conversation, very little meaningful change will happen. Meanwhile people continue to die, both before and after birth.

Is there a way for people who believe the 2nd amendment gives us the right to bear arms to stop talking about "cold dead hands?" Can we stop mongering fear? Can those who believe that government should strongly regulate guns stop talking about rednecks and Freudian psychological issues?

Facebook could be a place for a broad conversation.

Facebook has become a place for dropping rhetorical bombs that get "amens" from those who agree with us and unfriended by those who don't.

The gap between Americans MUST be bridged by someone. Actually I suppose it can only be bridged by a bunch of us. What can we do to have a real American Conversation about life or death issues like this?

The trouble with life...

I read Roy Williams' Monday Morning Memo and have often shared his writing here. Today is especially worth reading. Here's a snippet:

Tom Hennen has a line in his poem, The Life of a Day, that says,

“We examine each day before us with barely a glance and say, ‘no, this isn’t one I’ve been looking for,’ and wait in a bored sort of way for the next, when we are convinced, our lives will start for real.”

That line is a little bit frightening because you read it and realize you’re guilty. You’ve been waiting for that day when your life will start “for real.”

The trouble with life is that it’s just so daily.

I love that last line--the trouble with life is that it's just so daily. How often are you waiting for some sense of higher purpose, some feeling that God is doing something great in you? To quote an old Steven Curtis Chapman song, "Are you waiting for lightning? A sign that it's time for a change...Are you listening for thunder, as He quietly whispers your name?"

May the monotony of today's tasks become the whisper of God, and may your today be "for real."

You can read the whole Memo here.

Voting biblical values

I had a recent conversation with a friend about politics. And of course I can't help myself with the whole idea of "stimulating" different thoughts than the ones currently rolling around in someone's head. My close friends never know if I'm advocating a position I really believe or just in the stimulation mode...

But the conversation made me think about the phrase "voting biblical values."

I know what they mean when they say it--two values in particular--life and marriage.

Now I don't by any means intend to downplay those two things. They are biblical values, and very important ones.

But just not the only ones.

So I usually say something like "which biblical values are you suggesting I vote for? Forgiveness of enemies, turning the other cheek, justice for the oppressed, rescuing the impoverished, caring for orphans and widows, or what?"

There are more than 2 biblical values.

In the moment.

I just thought this was a great article. John Ortberg is awesome. From CT Online:

Redeemed Time, Lightened BurdensOur work is transformed by the way we approach it.by John Ortberg

"Redeem the time," Paul says, "for the days are evil."

Or maybe it's me.

I have been thinking a lot about two of Jesus' agricultural metaphors regarding ministry over the past few years.

First, "Put your hand to the plow and don't look back." And I have been doing that in my ministry. I have had an extremely strong conviction that I am to follow my calling in the place where I am and not waste energy thinking about other possibilities. I'm convinced I will grow in ways I would not otherwise if I put my hand to the plow and don't look back.

Second, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." This one has been harder. I have faced difficult staff transitions and change navigation and new multi-site planting and fund-raising and often felt in over my head. I have often felt myself preoccupied and weighted down, and yet I feel as deeply called to what I'm doing as I ever have.

How do I put my hand to the plow but live with the easy yoke?

Several weeks ago my wife pulled me into the bedroom, closed the door, and said there were a few things she wanted to talk about. She said she was kind of afraid to bring them up. She had a list.

I was not happy that she had a list.

She began: "When our marriage is at its best, we are sharing it together. We share division of labor stuff. We partner together around the house;”our kids see this. We each know and care about details in each other's life and work. To be honest: it feels like that's been slipping. It feels like you have been becoming so preoccupied by all the things you have to do, by all the demands you think are on your shoulders, I'm kind of missing the you I most want."

Then she reminded me of a moment when we were dating. It was our second date. We went to "Dancing Waters," a little fountain outside Disneyland where the water jumps up and they shine colored lights on it. She chose because it was free, and I had no money.

At one point we were in the lobby in the Disneyland hotel. I was waiting for her to come out of the rest room. When she returned I said real loud: "I can't believe you kept me waiting here for two hours."

Her immediate comeback: "I wouldn't have to keep you waiting if you didn't insist on having your mother living with us all these years so I have to wait on her hand and foot..."

The whole lobby is listening now. It was better than Dancing Waters.

My immediate thought was: I like this girl...

Nanc reminded me of that moment.

She said: "When you are fully present like that, light, breezy, spontaneous, fun, ready to listen, alive to joy;I love that man. I need that man. I haven't seen that man around much lately."

It took me a couple days to process this talk, because pouting is more or less my spiritual gift, and I had to get that out of my system first.

But I thought about the kind of life she was describing. I know that life.

It's like I've been waiting for circumstances to change so I can live that kind of life.

I'm not waiting any more.

I started praying. God, I need some help. Ideas started to come. I need some wisdom, some accountability; and I watched God start to bring some of that into my life. I knew I needed either a therapist, a spiritual director, or an executive coach. And I finally landed on the best choice and started moving forward.

Mostly, though, it's a kind of inner adventure. The process looked like this:

I know the kind of life she's describing.

I want that life. It's painful to not live it.

I have been waiting for external circumstances to change, under the illusion that will usher me in to that kind of life.

I'm not helping anyone when I get weighted down. I will actually lead better when I do it with "lightness of being." It's how I was wired up.

And then, this thought: I can do this. I can set aside the weight of unfinished tasks and unsolved problems when I come home. I can be fully present and alive even though everything around me is not settled down. Each moment I can choose this; I can ask God's help with it.

And it's been like a mini-revival. I find myself thinking, when problems arise, bring it on. Each problem is, among other things, an opportunity to exercise this muscle, to make it stronger. And if I forget in one moment, I can begin again with God the next.

I've been struck by how this can be done by anyone, anywhere.

I was on a shuttle bus at the airport. And I noticed the driver for the car rental company. That can be a stressful, thankless task.

But this guy was a delight. He would be scanning curbside, looking for whoever needed a ride. He told those of us in the shuttle: "I'm always looking; looking for eyes; sometimes people are running late; I want to get them. Hup, there's another one!"

We were cheering him on when he'd pick up another customer. He would hop out and grab people's luggage before they could lift it. He was like the Michael Phelps of shuttle drivers. Then he'd say: "Well, we're off. I'm going to get you to your cars as soon as I can."

He created such a little community of joy on that bus, people didn't want to get off. We wanted to ride to the terminal a second time just to be treated that way.

I realized I have my own little bus to drive. And I want to drive it like him.

I want to live with my hand on the plow.

I want to live under the easy yoke.

I want to redeem the time.

John Ortberg is editor at large of Leadership and pastor of Menlo Park (California) Presbyterian Church.
To respond to this article, write to Newsletter@LeadershipJournal.net.
Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today International/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.September 22, 2008

What's worth doing?

The past couple of days NPR's "Morning Edition" has featured a cruise line that leaves Tierra del Fuego and sails to Antarctica. Interesting that people pay big bucks to freeze their butts off. But this morning on the way to work they quoted Richard Byrd, not longer after he arrived at the South Pole, huddling in his tent near death, as saying "this was not worth it."

What's worth doing? What's worth giving your life for? I've been personally pondering this question lately, given all the work-related changes in my life over the past couple of years. What kind of work is worth the sacrifice?

I know I need something great to believe in. Going to Antarctica is not on my list.

Wisdom from the Wizard of Ads

From the Monday Morning Memo of Roy Williams...

7-Step Secret of Success
How to Get Where You Want to Go

1. See your destination in your mind.“When you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”– White Rabbit

2. Start walking.“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu (604 BC - 531 BC)

3. Think ahead as you walk."It’s like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." – E.L. Doctorow

4. Don’t quit walking."Don't wait. Where do you expect to get by waiting? Doing is what teaches you. Doing is what leads to inspiration. Doing is what generates ideas. Nothing else, and nothing less." - Daniel Quinn

5. Make no deadlines.“Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.”- Titus Maccius Plautus (254 BC - 184 BC)
“I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.”- Margaret Thatcher, April 4, 1989

6. Look back at the progress you made each day.“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day.” Genesis 1:31

7. If evening finds you at the same place you were this morning, take a step before you lay down.The magic isn’t in the size of your actions, but in the relentlessness of them. "It is better to burn the candle at both ends, and in the middle, too, than to put it away in the closet and let the mice eat it." - Henry Van Dyke

Never let a day pass without making, at the very least, a tiny bit of progress. Do NOT tell yourself you’ll make up for it tomorrow. (That seductive lie is the kiss of death.) Make a phone call. Lick a stamp. Correct a misspelled word. Something. Anything.

You realize I'm talking about business, not hiking, right?

A second common mistake is to get these steps out of order. If you skip Step 1, “See your destination,” and go straight to step 2, “Start walking,” you’ll be a wanderer, a drifter on the ocean of life, sadly on your way to lying beneath a tombstone that says, “He Had Potential.”Even more dangerous is to go from Step 1, “See your destination,” directly to Step 3, “Think ahead,” without ever doing Step 2, “Start walking.” These are the people who never get started. Analysis paralysis. Lots of anxiety and plans and meetings and revisions and studies and evaluation and research can make you think you're getting somewhere when you're not.Gen. George S. Patton said it best, “A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.” In other words, there is no perfect plan. Shut up and get started. Visitors to Tuscan Hall will recall a beautiful stairway that leads into a wall, then does a 180 halfway up to finish in exactly the opposite direction. At the top of those stairs a magnificent catwalk runs the entire length of the building to a gallery of fine art overlooking the floor below. This is the Journey of Life. If you find yourself headed in the wrong direction, you can always correct your way. But only if you know your destination.