What you have is more valuable than what you don’t have.

The thing you own is more useful than the thing you want.

Money in hand buys more than money still owed.

The grass is greener on the other side of the fence but it doesn’t fill your belly.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Faith pulls the future into the present or does it really pull the present into a better future.

God says He is the I Am not the I will be.

God asks Moses, ‘what is in your hand?’

Jesus says to the disciples, ‘the kingdom of God is near you’

Paul writes, ‘the word of faith is in your mouth and in your heart’

So why do we keep looking out there for what we already have?

Now go back and read this post again… it will make more sense!

Most of us are always looking for the one thing. That one key to breakthrough. That one shift that will change our lives and the lives all around us.

I actually think it is the built-in weakness of  revivalist evangelical thinking. If we just get that revival then our world and the city we live in will be changed.

Unfortunately for us life is much more complicated. It is full of nuance and shades. You can’t break it down into the one thing. (sorry Marcus)

The one thing is for linear thinkers. Those who depend on order and steps to life. The kind of thinking that gets entirely thrown for a loop when something comes at them from a direction they didn’t expect. Thinkers like me!

We look for that one filter, that one key, that one concept that will change our lives. In reality it’s that one idea that bounces you around to another concept that helps you remember to take care of that other thing and pay attention to the way you speak to someone else.

Forget the three keys to happiness or the ten steps to success. Trying to find the ONE thing often results in stagnation. We become consumed with looking around us instead of looking forward. We analyze instead of capitalize. Looking for the key to our next level is a good excuse for staying on this level.

So forget the ONE thing, except maybe this:

“But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,” Philippians 3:13b

Yeah, I know, the bible does every once in a while talk about one thing. But it’s not one key to life it’s simply the one thing you need to do next. BIG difference.

So what am I saying? Stop looking for the ONE thing that will revolutionize your _____ (business, marriage, life… fill in the blank). Instead look for the NEXT thing you need to do to move forward into your destiny. It may be a subtle difference but it could be the difference between stagnation and moving forward.

Keep charging forward.

God isn’t asking you for the greatest sacrifice, he’s asking for the greatest impact. Now it may be that the two are often synonymous but not necessarily.
I wonder how often we have missed the opportunity to make an impact because we thought we had to make a sacrifice.

I know that God’s call to faithfulness sometimes means sacrifice but let’s not forget the call to fruitfulness. It’s entirely possible to become a martyr when God called a conqueror.

I’ve seen people settle for things in their life, claiming sacrifice, acting the martyr but never acheiving God’s purpose for them. Even Paul pointed out that if there was no resurrection then we’ve sacrificed for nothing.

Sacrifice may be a virtue but it’s not always Godly.

The thing is, what are you sacrificing for?

Took the train from Bordeaux to a medieval town about 30minutes away. It was an absolute gem of an experience.

A short walk up the hill from the train station took us (Kim and I connected with a group of sixteen students and two professors from Mount Royal in Calgary) into the middle of a UNESCO world heritage site beautifully situated amid rollings hills and vineyards reaching as far as I could see. (long pause to catch my breath after run on sentence).

The village itself holds the largest and only remaining monolithic church in all of Europe. Initially begun in the eighth century by a monk named, oddly enough, Emilion, it was enlarged and expanded during subsequent years by those following in his monastic footsteps. The resulting church building is carved entirely out of the limestone hillside.

In addition to the church, nearly 25 kilometres of underground caverns lie beneath St Emilion’s myriad of wine stores, restaurants, macaroon factories and homes. Although these caverns may have fulfilled entirely different purposes in the past, they are perfectly suited to store and age the wines produced by St Emilion’s 5400 hectares of world class vineyards.

Thanks to Antoine (professor at Mount Royal) we were able to explore caverns of four local chateaus and enjoy a tasting of some of their offerings.

Seek and you will find.

We’ve all heard that before. It’s been a rally cry for perseverance. If you search long enough and don’t give up you’ll find what you are looking for.

WRONG!

No matter how long you search you won’t find anything unless you are looking in the right place. Thebreward for seeking comes to the persistant but to the one who persists in the right place.

The other day we were in Madrid and decided to go on one of those double decker tour buses. We paid the person at our hotel reception and got directions. I understood that the pickup point was near the bullring we had visited the night before. So off we went map in hand looking for the double decker MadridVision bus.

The problem was I misread the map and turned left toward the bullring instead of right. We waited for the bus for thirty minutes. I asked a couple of people where the bus stop was but my limited Spanish gave very little help.

In the end I reviewed a street map for quite awhile until I realized we were in a completely different part of the city than where the bus stops were. So after walking another twenty minutes we finally found the right bus stop.

My point is this: it didn’t matter how long we searched for the bus we couldn’t find it because we were in the wrong place. We could have persisted all day and never found the bus.

So many people do the same thing in life. They look for answers in all the wrong places. They ask for advice from people who are no farther ahead than they are. They want someone to confirm what they already think not challenge them. If you want to find the solutions in life you need to ask someone who has already found some solutions.

Before you start searching, consider where you will look.

What do you think?

It’s really amazing how you can spend only a few hours with someone but find common ground in minutes. Even though different by nationality, culture and previous experience, there is something unmistakably human about people.
Those commonalities are much more important than the differences. It’s the similar that brings on laughter and smiles, embraces and well wishing.
Wouldn’t life make more sense and be infinitely more enjoyable if we emphasized our commonality rather than highlighting our uniqueness? But then again it’s the common uniqueness that makes us the same and ties us together.
At least that’s what I think. What about you?

If you rehearse the mistakes of the past you will repeat the mistakes of the past.

Often we tell ourselves we could have done something differently. Or we could have done more but in reality, we probably did everything we knew to do.

Memories can be torturous. If only we had acted differently. But we didn’t because we didn’t know how to. Can’t change that. Just because we would act differently now doesn’t matter.

Now here’s the kicker. If you keep going over your past mistakes in your mind you are destined to repeat them. Learn from them yes, but don’t keep rehearsing them.

The past is the past. It’s best leave it there since it rarely has any place in your future.

What do you think?

Yes they are all over here but from a distance I thought for a moment that it was ours. Even though they have to be the smallest cars in Canada, over here they are nearly midsize.

Can you imagine driving the Coquihalla with something two thirds this size?

Today we took the train to Venice. Well not quite Venice yet but a campground on the mainland overlooking Venice. We’ll catch a 12euro boat across the water in the morning and explore to our hearts content.
So far the trip has been better than I could ever have imagined.
We’ve done our best to see the so called must see sites in Rome and Florence but honestly we’ve had as much fun just wondering random streets and happening on things. That’s how we found this awesome outdoor market in Piazza Santa Croce. We bought a few special cookies from Palermo, tried some yummy cheese from Sardinia and took a picture for some Spanish friends who were enjoying a glass of wine at the white resin table next to us.
Later that night we wondered toward the music that ended up being a twelve piece jazz ensemble doing somewhat cheesy covers of American hits. We had Chinese takeaway and a bottle of wine on the park bench in the midst of the surprisingly energetic listeners.

Been thinking…. about influence!

If we measure our influence within the span of our lifetime, is it really influence? I mean like how many facebook friends we have or how many twitter followers. Or how many people come to our church or how many subscribers we have to our blog, magazine or newsletter. All ways of measuring influence but is it really influence or just a fad.

by Yoni Lerner

I think real influence should be measured in generations not circulation. The most influential people in history may or may not have been hugely successful or had many followers in their lifetime. In fact the the most influential person in history had only 120 people show up to follow his last instructions. If Christ’s influence would have been measured by the popularity standards we hold to now, Ashton Kutcher or Oprah would have to be considered more influential.

But… and it’s a pretty big but, if we measure influence in generations, then Christ’s influence has outlasted anyone in history. In fact when we look back on history, the only real influencers are still remembered generations after they had their earthly sojourn.

So… my point is this: shouldn’t we spend more time living for the generations that will follow us and less time building for today? What do you think?