It talks about another great story from Suncrest-Hobart.  You can find it here:

http://thejesusmission.wordpress.com/2010/03/05/what-if-we-had-not-planted-the-hobart-campus/

One of my goals this year is to make it the year of the Half-Marathon.  I ran the Chicago Marathon in 2006 and loved the experience, but don’t have the time or motivation to train for a full marathon this year.  But wanting to establish a better pattern of running and ultimately health in my life I’m committing to run 3 half-marathons this year.  It won’t be all at once but hey, that’s 39.3 miles of races.  Here are the dates:

Indianaoplis Mini-Marathon – May 8th

Chicago Rock ‘n’ Roll Half-Marathon – August 1st

Tulsa’s Route 66 Half- Marathon – November 21st

Anyone want to join me in any of these?

It’s a simple question I’m asking myself.  Every year I choose several books I want to read through in the new year.  I’ll post a list later on.  Reading is a huge part of it, but there are other things as well:

• exercise
• diet
• Spiritual habits
• learning experiences such as conferences (could be for your marriage, spiritual growth, leadership or otherwise)
• relationships (maybe you need to spend more time with certain people and less with others?)
• find a mentor
• be a mentor
• Other?

I’m asking the question of myself and would love to hear from you on what you will be doing in 2010 to GROW!

I do know this.  It won’t happen by accident.  It won’t happen without a plan.  It won’t happen without intention.

So let’s have it, what are you going to do in 2010 to grow?

This book by Dan Allender is a revolutionary approach to leadership.  I know that the book has been out a few years but somehow I missed it.  Or perhaps I could say that I read it at exactly the time in my life when I needed to read it.  The premise of the book is simply that God favors leaders who make the most of the power that comes from brokenness.

This is not to say that strenghs don’t play a part.  They do.  In Allender’s words:

“Our calling  is often shaped as much by our weaknesses as by our strengths. We tend to run with our strengths and avoid those people and tasks that expose our weaknesses. But the story of God is not a saga of human potential; it is the revelation of the kindness and passion of the Father who seeks and redeems sinners. Therefore our strengths may help us with certain tasks and opportunities, but it is our frailty and sin that make known the glory of God’s story (150).”

As a leader I know the temptation to “act like you have it together” and not reveal weakness or struggle.  There is danger in doing so:  lose respect of others or some choosing to leverage it against you.  Yet I’m seeing that there is a greater danger if you don’t: miss out on God’s power working through you first and foremost.

Allender suggests there are four realities to embrace to be broken:

1. I am never sufficiently good, wise, or gifted to make things work;

2. My failures will harm others, the process, and myself, no matter how hard I try to avoid failure;

3. The greatest harm I can do is to try to limit the damage I cause by not participating, by quitting, or by pushing for control;

4. Calling out for help from God and others is the deepest confession of humility.

Our “limp” at the end of the day is there to deflect the glory to God and get it off of ourselves.  After all, look at the damage we do when we hog the spotlight: trying to control situations, bullying others into “our” way, not being receptive to God’s still small voice, building a better kingdom for myself instead of building God’s kingdom, etc.

Allender challenges leaders to embrace Paul’s title of himself as the “chief of sinners.”  When this is accepted and lived out God is positioned in our lives in such a way that there is no doubt he has been at work.

If you are interested in the notes I took from this book you can find them here.  It’s the best leadership book I’ve read all year, maybe all decade.

It’s ironic that in the midst of The Waiting Room series we are forced to delay our annual Oklahoma Thanksgiving trip with possibility of canceling. The flu hit 3 of our kids and it has delayed our trip thus far. It’s frustrating waiting without knowing whether or not we will be able to go. Of course, I’m much more concerned about my kids getting better and that is why we are waiting. It has just reminded me of the frustration of waiting. Wait that’s not right.

It has reminded me of the frustration of unexpected waiting.  I think waiting is bearable when you expect it and can prepare yourself for it.  But when it is unexpected it’s the worse.

So we are patiently waiting…and not so patiently waiting and learning to enjoy the unexpected time at home.

We have a brand spanking new Email Newsletter for Suncrest-East.  If you attend or are interested in staying up to date on the happenings of East campus, will you subscribe?  This is designed as the very best way to stay informed and engaged on what is going on with East Campus.  Also, we are going to have some great articles on integrating our faith with everyday life.  Don’t miss out!  If you subscribe below, you will receive the Suncrest-East Extra in your inbox every Wednesday morning. Just to be clear this is different then subscribing to this blog’s posts. The Suncrest-East Extra is something new and different.

Sign up for Suncrest-East Extra

I’ve been doing a little reflection on the concept of the waiting room that we are using for our current message series.  You can find the others here and here.

Today I’d like to reflect a little on the experience the Israelites had in between when they were slaves in Egypt and when they entered their “promised land.”

You can read about their experience in the book of Exodus.  Their experience of waiting tells me that NO experience of waiting I have ever had even comes close to theirs.  As a people they had to wait 40 years to enter their home.  Now some have waited 6 months to a year to build a home.  But I don’t know any family who waited 40 years to move into their new pad!

One of the experiences that the Israelites had was trusting God every single day for their food.  God provided “manna” for them each day.  In Exodus 16 it chronicles for us their experience where God provided it each day and each day they gathered it.  Some gathered too much and some gathered too little.  But everyone had just enough.  Some tried to disobey God’s specific instruction to only gather enough for the day and not try to store some for the next.  When they tried, that which they gathered spoiled.  God was teaching them to trust him every single day.

Like manna for the Israelites in the desert, I think God only gives us enough Grace for each day.  Not enough for tomorrow, just today.  I think that is to help us trust him today.  The waiting room teaches us to live in the present, not the past and not the future, but today.  God has only given us what we need for today.

The beauty and pain of the waiting room is that you don’t know when you will be “called out” of it.  Therefore, learning to just be present and trust God in the moment is the only choice that really leads to transformation.  It’s what my friend Andy calls living “momently.”  We don’t live for tomorrow…for the next thing, for the next job, for the next stage of a relationship…but for now.

And God has given us just enough for today.  Dan Allender in his revolutionary leadership book “Leading with a Limp” says this:

“The grace for the moment is the manna for today.  There are enough problems today and sufficient grace to meet them now.  There is not grace for tomorrow because the gift is now, for the moment, and not for what is to come.  There will be grace for tomorrow, but it will not come today.”

I’m continuing some reflection on the waiting room of life.  You can read the other post here.

Someone gave me a compliment yesterday.  They told me that they saw real growth in me recently.

For me, my greatest growth has come because I gave myself over to a process of transformation where I have allowed someone, a mentor, to speak into my life in ways I have never been open to before.  Here is why it is relevant to this topic:  I expected to get great insight from this mentor whereby I could immediately implement and CHANGE.  What I found was conversation that did not immediately produce fruit but rather provided an environment where I could wrestle through some of my challenges.  And this wrestling match took time.

It’s what a friend calls to “sit with it.”  It’s the task of living with a principle, insight or idea for some time until the truth of it is revealed in your life.  It’s the experience we have when we re-read a passage of Scripture and suddenly the truth of it hits you in ways it never hit you before.  The reason the truth hit you this time in a fresh way is because you lived life and had experiences that now read that passage through the lens of those experiences.

The clincher in this “sitting with it” is that you can’t make it happen.  It does not happen instantly.  It only happens with TIME and you can never predict when it will happen.  It’s why some theologians say we “act our way into belief.”  By living and acting as if we believe something, over time you realize you do actually believe it and the doubts and arguments don’t have as much weight with you anymore.

The waiting room of life is for “sitting with it.”  Allowing God to work through a process where you ruminate on a truth or principle until the clarity of that truth blinds you.

Tomorrow I want to share one more reflection on why waiting may not be the worst thing for us.

On Sunday, Greg at Suncrest challenged us to do nothing for 7 days.  If you find yourself in the waiting room of life, maybe the best thing you can do is just wait.  Here is a phrase that grabbed me:

When it comes to waiting, I think transaction; God thinks transformation.

One of the things I have been learning about transformation is that it takes one ingredient that most of us do not want to give up: TIME.  The truth is, most of us want CHANGE, not TRANSFORMATION.

I want to make a distinction here that I have noticed in my own life.  We want change because we think it is instantaneous.  Every ad on TV and in every magazine appeals to this desire for change and the hope that it will NOT require time.

You can lose weight and feel great in just 10 days.

You can master a skill in 10 easy lessons.

You can make a lot of money by only working 10 hours a month.

The reason this type of advertising is so successful is because it short circuits a process that involves TIME and a lot of hard work.  Transformation is different.  It requires TIME.  Lots of it.

That’s why the waiting room of life may be the exact place we need to be.  It forces us to WAIT on God and WORK through the process of transformation.

It’s true in physical fitness.  An exercise regimen is important to lose weight but it’s also important because over time it develops a habit in your life that will be necessary for transformation of your physique to continue.

It’s true financially.  A program like Financial Peace University is 13 weeks long and costs money.  An investment of TIME and money forces you to really commit to the process which slowly transforms your habits and attitude towards money.

It’s true spiritually.  Transformation of the mind and heart only take place over what Eugene Peterson calls a “long obedience in the same direction.”  It’s a 3 steps forward and 2 steps back kind of life.  It’s winning AND losing.  It’s failing forward.  It’s giving your ALL to Jesus one day and then taking a little piece back the next day.  It’s a process.

It’s waking up one day and realizing you are not the same person you were a year ago.  And it wasn’t ONE thing that caused it.  It was EVERYTHING.

Tomorrow I want to share how God has been teaching me this personally.

Every time we do a direct mail campaign we always get a positive response and a not so positive response.  We typically get a few phone calls from recipients at the office explaining that they are Catholic or whatever and would NOT like to receive mailings from us.  Or we will receive a note saying basically the same thing.  And I think, who has the time to actually make a phone call or send a piece of mail back to us.  Just throw it away!  But apparently some have too much time on their hands and are offended easily.

Last week though we received a response that tops them all.  Fortunately for me but unfortunately for Cindy, she opened a package that include a couple of the postcards, a paper towel containing some fowl spelling substance and a note that said, “I don’t want any of our religious a$$ material.  Here’s some sh$$ to remind you.”  I’m not exactly sure if the substance was what the card said it was, but it smelled bad.

Someone apparently has some issues…

and is exactly who Jesus loves…

and who we are trying to reach.