williamlehman.net

Did you send this email?

William Lehman — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:04:57 +0000

I received an email today from someone with the following info:

William,Hey I was wondering what are the costs, and all that is involved in setting up a website. I’m looking for a site that we can post pics, newsletters, and videos. I also am interested in a blog. I’m not sure if we should do a blog somewhere else and feed it also to the website. I would like to have a site that if any body is interested in this ministry, they can find everything out right on there. Thanks bro.

Then that’s all there was. No email I could respond to or anything. I’d love to help you get up and rolling, and even share with you my pricing for this, but I don’t know where to send it. If this is you, call me at (740) 281-1351 and we can chat about it.

Spiritual Warfare?

William Lehman — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:42:59 +0000

My wife and I have started working through reading the Bible together in a year. It comes down to four chapters each night (we each read two) right now. I am not sure if it doubles up chapters later or not. The interesting part so far has been the other things that seem to happen around our house while we sit down to do it the last two nights. In two nights we’ve had our dogs spontaneously start fighting, Aidan wake up crying and quite terrified for no reason, dogs randomly start barking, and neighbors begin being rather loud.

All of which were quite distracting from reading the Bible together.

Spiritual warfare?

The State of Change

William Lehman — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:40:32 +0000

Change is hard. We all know it. We get tied into a persona, a name, an idea and we one day find that it’s not us anymore. A friend of mine is contemplating changing his domain name. His old domain is edgy and raises eyebrows. The new one is really just his name. For awhile it works to be edgy and new and that guy with the edgy domain, but he has grown beyond that “edgy” name. He is broader, deeper and more alive than the name itself allows for. As a Christian, there’s a place in scripture where it says we will be given new names in Heaven. Our true selves will be revealed to us. That for me is exciting. I am not tied into my identity as a person anymore, but I am tied into my identity in Christ. It’s a whole different way of thinking. If we count our own identities as loss, then we are free to be more ourselves than ever.

CS Lewis makes the statement (I think it’s in Mere Christianity and please pardon the bad paraphrase) that we don’t lose ourselves in Christ to become a bland shell of who we once were. The miracle of our faith is that when we are made more ourselves by the Creator.

My advice to my friend about his domain name was to be authentic. Be yourself and quit trying to fit the mold you created for yourself. You may lose readers, you may gain readers, but ultimately it comes down to you being yourself. If the old name doesn’t fit who you are anymore, then surprise your readers with a more authentic version of yourself.

Mr. Deity and the Baptist

William Lehman — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:36:05 +0000

I can’t resist sharing this. I’ve been watching this show for awhile now. If you have never heard of it, enjoy (and now you have).

Anointed Again?

William Lehman — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:27:18 +0000

I think anointing someone with oil is very Biblical and very much a part of worship. Growing up in church though, sometimes there was a person who it seemed was getting anointed every week. I don’t know if that person just wrote a big check each week or what the reasoning was, but it always intrigued me that someone would go up there every week and ask to have oil poured on their head. It’s a humbling experience and not one that I’d want to exploit for personal attention. Anyway, I’ve always imagined a pastor getting fed up with that person and dumping something else on their head instead.

Barbershop Jesus

William Lehman — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:37:38 +0000

I feel like there is a Jesus image that we lift up for each generation. It’s rather strange to think that this timeless Gospel must be re-branded every few years to “relate” to our culture. Our culture is going downhill rather fast. Shouldn’t we be lifting up the timeless truth of the Gospel rather than the latest rendition?

Marketing not required.

William Lehman — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:06:54 +0000

I’ve been giving a lot of though to the idea of how we typically do outreach. I think I have often misunderstood that marketing and outreach were the same thing. A talk the other day with one of the pastors at the church I’ve been involved in lately has really opened up my eyes to how marketing can also become a trap that we fall into. We are supposed to “market” God with our lives, not just some catchy slogan on a billboard somewhere. The catchy slogans are good for building awareness that someone indeed wants to reach out (outreach) to them and may serve as a connecting point, but we will never touch a life through a fancy billboard. It’s what happens when people do respond to our marketing efforts that changes lives. But here’s the catch, marketing isn’t required if lives are indeed changed. Marketing will only be to let outside people know of the exciting things already going on.

The Christian Band-Aid

William Lehman — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:04:44 +0000

I am guilty of this. A friend or someone has opened up in some vulnerable way and just laid bare their soul before you and not knowing what to say or do, I’ve closed up the breakage with a greeting-card-sticky-pathetic-sloganized “I’ll pray for you”. Almost as if a vital artery (are there non vital arteries?) has been cut and we just slapped a band-aid on it and sent them home. I was talking online via xbox the other day with a friend of mine and he opened up about a situation that has been on his heart and mind a lot lately. I almost said “I’ll keep you in prayer, man” but I thought better of it (or more likely, I was too tired to be overly spiritual anyway) and I just told him flat out “um, I don’t really know what to say… If you are asking my opinion, then I don’t have an answer for you on this one.” For a second, everything went really quiet as if I had crossed some invisible line. Then he went on to tell me that he really only needed someone to listen and be available in that way.

I started a series awhile back called “full disclosure” and one of my little business card slogans was “I am praying for you”. But, I think I even perpetrate a misconception about prayer at times. Prayer isn’t something that we do because it’s easy to close our eyes and act like life doesn’t get messy at times. Life gets quite messy, dirty, and rather unpleasant at times. God knows that. Jesus even died on the cross a messy, horrible, even nasty death so He knows it better than we can imagine. He even prayed a messy prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, sweating blood and asking His Father if there were any other way. But we often use prayer as an excuse to get out of real life situations that are quite hard to deal with. The bad part about it all is the fact that most times when we flippantly tell someone that you are praying for them, that we completely forget to do so. Or worse yet, it’s just the “Christian” (say it with sarcasm) way of telling someone to bugger off!

Validation

William Lehman — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:23:49 +0000

I saw this video the other day and I thought it was wonderful. You may also recognize the guy who plays in the tv show “Bones”. But what I liked about the video was the message. We have an opportunity to “validate” and encourage others. So often we miss out on the chance to do so.

found via shallowfrozenwater (awesome find by the way)

Skull on the Wall

William Lehman — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:23:52 +0000

This is an image I took on Saturday when I was at a men’s retreat with my church. It was quite an amazing time. I’d say more but I don’t want to devalue the experience through the retelling. I will say that it was incredible and it was good to hang out with the other guys from the church in a relaxed setting while we were challenged to be the men that God has called us to be.

This skull was on the wall in the bathroom of the lodge we stayed at. The wood panel walls really seemed to set it off. I think the only thing that worried me was if I were to sit on the toilet, it would freak me out if it fell. Imagine sitting on the toilet and trying to do your business when this thing falls on your head or in your lap!

Rediscovering A Lost Love. Painting.

William Lehman — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:09:50 +0000

Sickness has been being passed back and forth around the Lehman household the last few day. I am thinking the homes affected by the water line break a few days ago may have been a little wider than previously thought. I can’t verify it, but it seems to correlate with the onset of this stomach ailment that we all ended up having at the same time.

I’ve been looking at doing more oil paintings in the near future and getting some more representational artwork out into the open. It is absolutely the opposite of the abstract stuff that I’ve produced over the last four years. In particular, I am being drawn back to landscape painting and classical still life paintings.

I think this has been a revelation that has happened in two parts.

Part One

Last week, my wife and I went to the Columbus Museum of Art where I spent some time gazing at a painting done by one of my favorite artists, Albert Bierstadt.

Part Two

I watched the movie, Local Color. If you haven’t seen it, then it’s like “Finding Forrestor” for artists. Younger aspirant meets master who wants to be left alone. The two become friends and the aspirant finds his voice with his paintbrush. It’s a pretty cool story (but I will admit it has it’s share of language issues).

So, this week, I’ve spent time relearning all the things I used to know about oil painting so I can put them into practice here in the next few days. In a sense, rediscovering a lost love of painting.

New Art: “Basic Principles and History”

William Lehman — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:20:33 +0000

I’ve been working on a new piece called “Basic Principles & History”. I am still not sure that it is finished yet. This is a mixed media painting utilizing collage, fumage, acrylic, ink and other paper staining processes. You can’t quite see it here but there is also a crackle glaze over much of the image as well. It is 30″ x 40″ on canvas.

I am still debating if the painting is finished or not.

My heart knows it by my brain doesn’t quite get it.

William Lehman — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:05:15 +0000

The biggest lie perpetrated today is that we are not free. I am prone to anxiety in life. It’s one of my greatest downfalls. But it stems from this idea that I have to live up to other people’s expectations rather than just be who I am. Or rather, who I am in Christ.

Can God take care of the bills and the debts?
Can God watch over my son Aidan each night when he goes to bed?
Can God make sure we have enough to eat?

My answer unequivocally is “yes”, but as I told a friend last week “My heart knows it by my brain doesn’t quite get it.”

A Bad Analogy for the Critical Self.

William Lehman — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 06:18:37 +0000

My wife made an interesting observation today. I write like I am working on some kind of cumulative research project meticulously gathering data and facts ultimately working toward the encyclopedia entry for who I am as a person. She didn’t quite say it in so many words but that’s the way I heard it. I think I initially wanted to argue otherwise and defend it. I have come to the conclusion that she was correct in her assessment. The whole conversation revolved around my frustration that so many other people that I have helped blog and coached somewhere along the way were succeeding where I was failing. I can write day in and out, but actually saying something that is particular to me has become a chore. I felt over the last year or two that I’ve been having some kind of extended out of body experience objectively qualifying everything I write with the filter of bland factual analysis.

I am trying a different tack. Yes, the sharp pointy things that you used to put on your teacher’s chair but now you would probably get expelled from school for doing because in our culture you were trying to kill the teacher with tetanus instead of a mere tack. Tact. Yeah that word too.

A simple journal. This is a deliberate effort to be more real. Be more myself. Something like that. I think the other voice was me too, but it was a critical, self-absorbed version of myself trying to shoot myself with the same gun I was trying to aim. Maybe it’s all a bad analogy… maybe I should just shut up my critical self and write more?

image credit to one of the most unflattering images I’ve ever taken of myself

Unlikely Blessings

William Lehman — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:05:19 +0000

If you were to have all the resources that you needed and complete financial freedom, what would you do? It’s a question that I have been asking a lot lately. I am far from “financial freedom” and I don’t have abundant resources but it’s been getting to me lately. What would I do if I had that kind of situation handed to me?

For me, I’d probably become some kind of wilderness recluse. Buy a cabin in the middle of the woods and have most things delivered. Books and stuff I’d order from Amazon.com. I’d learn about trees and roots and what to eat and what won’t kill you in the woods. Maybe even live completely off-grid and invest in some kind of alternative energy while I grew my own food. In short, I probably wouldn’t be much help to anyone outside my own family.

Maybe it’s not just a burden that I carry of debt and having to try to supplement income every month. Maybe it’s the blessing that through my situation (however much I dislike it) that I can be used to be a blessing to others. If I weren’t in need, it might be rather difficult for me to understand those who are in need.

Full Disclosure: War for Our Souls

William Lehman — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:57:37 +0000

I know often I am blinded to the spiritual element of life. I go day to day thinking that things could be coincidence or just random events conspiring against me. I forget that we are at war. It”s not that I don’t believe that I am at war for my soul, it’s that the way this war is waged is not by physical weapons. It’s thoughts and feelings and nudges of both demonic influences and my own sinful nature that are working against God in my life.

All we get out of sin is death and destruction.

Sure, sins seem nice when they are happening. We even try to justify them a thousand different ways. But what it ultimately comes down to is that God is God. He is the one who decides if something is sin or not. In fact God even holds Himself up as the standard of Truth and righteousness.

If there is question about it, stay away.

It gets me that some argue that certain things are not sin because it’s part of their genetic makeup. I find it amazing that they have come to that conclusion because scripture tells us we have a problem called “sinful nature”. I won’t deny it.

I am likely to speed every time I drive, so I use the cruise control to keep myself in check.
My mother was an alcoholic, therefore I stay away from beer.

It’s really that simple. I realize that I am prone to a certain sin so I take more measures against it. Sin is still part of our nature though. Often, those sins we are most likely to commit are also the ones that we are most aware of actually being sin and are the ones we usually fight most vehemently that they are not.

The opposite of rebellion is repentance.

Once we are aware of our sin, we can accept God’s grace. Repentance means humbling yourself and turning around and going the other way when you realize you were wrong. Rebellion is going the way you know is wrong knowing it is wrong.

Sin and the Church.

Unfortunately, many people who attend church have gotten it backwards. Church is a gathering of sinners who recognize their own depravity and want to be in community with other people seeking out the way of repentance. So the church can be divided in several categories of people.

Those who recognize their own depravity and are somewhere in the process of turning away from it and seeking God.
Those who think they have it all figured out and so waste their time by telling those who are seeking God where they think He is.
Those who are delusional that their particular brand of sin is somehow acceptable to God and are seeking the acceptance of the church to somehow justify themselves.
Those who really don’t care one way or the other so they go with whatever the majority thinks.

I’m a mess, you’re a mess, we’re all a mess.

Not to sound like an AA meeting, but we are all sinners and we have to come to recognize that fact first. You don’t have to justify it to me because God’s the one who has set the standard.

The Butterfly Circus

William Lehman — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:56:31 +0000

I thought this was an amazing short film about hope and struggle. Thanks David for sharing it with me. I would also encourage you to check out the story of Nick Vujicic on his website, Life Without Limbs

Full Disclosure: The Bible as Authoritative

William Lehman — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:40:08 +0000

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3

Godlessness in the Last Days

¹But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. ²People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,⁴treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— ⁵having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

⁶They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, ⁷always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. ⁸Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. ⁹But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

Paul’s Charge to Timothy

¹⁰You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, ¹¹persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. ¹²In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, ¹³while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,¹⁵and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

In the Interest of Full Disclosure

William Lehman — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:21:18 +0000

I am thinking about making some business cards with the above image on them. I think the term “Christian” has become so diluted with wannabes that it’s hard to find the authentic ones in the metaphorical barrel. So I am starting this little series of business cards for Christians called “Full Disclosure” Each one has a different theme that will be explored in post on it’s own and made into a message as well.

Praying for You

Often, I pray for friends, family and people I meet. I think that some people perceive this as some kind of hidden motive if I tell someone I am praying for them. There is no hidden objective and no agenda behind it. It’s just a part of who I am in Christ. Other people influence me and I would be naive to think that I don’t influence them, so when I talk with God, yes I pray for those people. I also pray for things I write; that people’s hearts would be moved by God rather than by my own attempts. There really is no need to tell someone you are praying for them, but often when they know that you are, they mention specific ways that you can pray for them. Often for me, this also leads into a deeper and more open and meaningful relationship too.

More “Night Snow” Images

William Lehman — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 04:50:30 +0000

Snow Night

William Lehman — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:54:08 +0000

I snapped this tonight. I used a timer and a four second exposure. The skies were amazing just after the sun went down. You can see a few stars in this image too.

Authenticity with God

William Lehman — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:04:28 +0000

I have a problem. Sometimes I pray to God like God plays the “kiss and tell” game. You tell him your innermost thoughts and He runs off to shout it from the rooftops. I often get angry with God and other people. Anger is a sin I know, so I play the “not me” game. I guess it started in the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That evening, God was walking around the garden.

“Adam. Eve. I know you are here. I mean I am God. Wait a second… are you trying to hide from me?!” God laughs.

There is an absurdity here. I like to think that God laughed here and yelled out “Marco?!” But I bet what brought Adam and Eve out of hiding wasn’t laughter. I bet it was tears.

A Good Day to Start This Again

William Lehman — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:37:21 +0000

In the past, I’ve done photo projects but I’ve never really been too diligent about keeping them updated. This morning when I opened the front door this is the scene that greeted me. I love the snow. I even like driving in it. Maybe that makes me weird but the only thing I don’t like about snow is how it melts into your shoes and makes your feet wet. Other than that I’d have snow every day if I could.

I may put Aidan in a snow suit a little later and go out and take some video of him trying to play/walk in it. Should be fun.

What I’ve been up to in January 2010

William Lehman — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 08:41:12 +0000

Okay, I neglected to write on here for the last week. So I am going to just list what’s been going on lately… and cause I don’t update my twitter enough to just post recent tweets (besides that’s really annoying sometimes).

Rogin turns out to really be great with Aidan. He loves him (as you can see in the pic above). Apparently, it’s pretty much mutual.
I did a bit of artwork for the church (Narrow Road Community Church) and I’m putting together their new website together now.
I am in talks with a few people about forming a group of “wordpress engineers and designers” to start building premium wordpress themes together.
I have started using the iphone app “Water your Body” to make sure I drink adequate water throughout the day as I have realized that I was suffering from chronic dehydration levels.
Aidan is One as of a few weeks ago, but I think I posted about that already.
I am still looking for a position with a church, but I am also enjoying just being a contributing member as of late.
I’ve been playing around with the epub book format after the ipad debut earlier this week. Hoping to find a way to integrate it on the site. But right now, I think I am going to start writing something larger than just small posts….
Been playing and writing some book ideas down (both nonfiction and fiction) and looking at doing some historical research on a few different ancient time periods.
I’ve doing more artwork as of late (both digitally and with real paper)… maybe integrate artwork into the book process above.
I am now reading around 6 books every day. Usually one or two chapters each. I added Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” to my list earlier this week in epub format viewable on my ipod touch.
Praying for my friend Mark and his family. They found out that they need to move this coming week. He still doesn’t have a new job and they have two kids. He’s a great guy and I’d really like to see something good happen for them soon. They are in a bit of more desperate situation than we are right now in terms of the scramble to move quickly.
I’ve been wanting to go running this month, but dang! Just as it gets semi-warm to think about doing some running, it gets frigid again. I may go ahead and get a Y membership this coming week. At least then I can leave Aidan at their little childcare facility and go for a run without having to do it so early in the day and not in the extreme cold. I may be more enticed to get out of the house then too.
My wife and I will be celebrating our five year anniversary this coming month and we are excited.

I think that’s about it. Each one of those could probably be a post by itself, but

Latest Project – Mandate

William Lehman — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:14:41 +0000

Sorry for the lack of good updates to the blog as of late. It isn’t because I haven’t been busy. I’ve been working on a new website for my church and doing some more artistic type graphic work. We have a men’s retreat that will be taking place next month that is entitled “MANdate: 2010″ The little subtitle/tease for the retreat is “Are you ready for battle?” The graphic above is what I helped put together for the event. It is a collaborative effort between Pastor Erick and myself.