shawn dubya dot org

Thursday Swap – Dependent on Peace

Shawn — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:05:00 +0000

When I think of Twitter I think of the varied and colorful personalities of those I follow but two people that stand out are @inprogress and her husband @inworship. They’re always ready to engage in conversation and, as I read their tweets, I find that I’m very much akin to who they are and how they do things.

I approached @inprogress (a.k.a. Tammy) about cross posting to each other’s blog and she was very receptive. So, without further ado, here’s Tammy’s thoughts:

what makes you dependent on God? what do you go to Him for? do you think we ask too much of Him?

i mean, do you ever think He sits there, listening to our many, many requests and think, "sheesh, child…you already know what to do. its in you to do it. so get up and do something about it already."

i dont know. i just think sometimes we, i, miss the whole point of God empowering us. i think we throw way too much at Him but then also blame the enemy for way too much, giving him far too much credit when things go wrong. where does that leave us? just kinda sitting there, atrophying, cause its more comfortable than sticking our necks out there.

i once heard a pastor preach about asking God for peace. how some people wont make a decision until they have a peace about it.

"no…i havent made a decision yet. im still praying for peace over it. im just not feeling it yet."

the pastor responded with, "Jesus didnt have a peace in the garden. He sweat drops of blood He was in such distress. but He knew what He had to do, even if it didnt feel good. and He did it."

wow. what kinda work do you think we could get done if we did it afraid. no, if we mustered up the courage to get up and do something. rather than waiting and waiting… meanwhile, nothings getting done.

hmmm. im speaking to myself more than anyone else right now. trust me.

i guess a peace that passes understanding is much different than the peace we’re looking for, or expecting to feel. i believe Jesus had that kind of peace in the garden. and He knew it. He trusted the Father then proceeded to do the most courageous thing in History, even though he was in distress.

the best things arent always the easiest. but, theyre still the best.

i dont know. am i way off here? what are your thoughts?

How does God speak to you?

Shawn — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:15:09 +0000

Simple question today.

How does God speak to you?

Do you hear him audibly?
Do you see signs and wonders?
Do you only hear him through his word?
Do foot cream and Burger King billboards contain hidden messages from Him to you?

Talk to me about how He talks to you.

Because

Shawn — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:53:21 +0000

"Why are you out here cutting this stranger’s grass?"
"What are you doing handing out water, it’s hot today?"
"Why are you serving soup at this halfway house?"
"Why are you helping to move these people you barely know?"
”What are you doing talking to that guy from the mission, he’s crazy?”
”Why do you give so much time just to fix communion for Sunday worship each week?”
”Why do you stay friends with that guy, all he does is whine and complain?”
”Why do you serve, week in and week out, in the kid’s area? Doesn’t that drive you nuts?”
”Why do you put all your extra cash in the outreach giving box each week?”
”What are you doing picking up a total stranger and giving them a lift?”
”Why are you spending so much of your own money just to go to some poor country and help people build a building?”
”Why do you keep putting up with her lies?”

Why do we what we do?

I want to report to you, friends, that my imprisonment here has had the opposite of its intended effect. Instead of being squelched, the Message has actually prospered. All the soldiers here, and everyone else too, found out that I’m in jail because of this Messiah. That piqued their curiosity, and now they’ve learned all about him. –Philippians 1:12-13

Because of Him.

Sit or dance?

Shawn — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:35:53 +0000

Watch what happens when one guy’s not afraid to dance, no matter how goofy he looks.

When you have the option to sit or dance, dance. Every time.

Blatantly ripped from Seth Godin’s blog.

I Exalt Thee

Shawn — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:42:09 +0000

Yeah, you’re not ready for this jelly.

No related posts.

Twitter + Facebook = Seesmic

Shawn — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:30:00 +0000

Short and sweet. If you use both Twitter and Facebook you should be using Seesmic Desktop.

Why?

It looks good and doesn’t use a lot of memory
User lists – you can make lists of users to be sure you don’t miss their tweets
Facebook status – update your Facebook status from within Seesmic
Facebook comments – someone comments on your status? You can comment right back from within Seesmic (no having to log in to Facebook)

But, what do I know? Try Seesmic Desktop for yourself, follow me on Twitter then let me know what you think.

Worship confessional 02

Shawn — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:07:16 +0000

Hey, I’m only a week behind. Not bad!

On Sunday, May 31st in eXchange we ceased our corporate gathering about 45 minutes early to go out and serve our community so our musical worship set was only four songs.

We went with a scaled back band (a more acoustic set) that included Scot on acoustic, Chris Austin on djembe, myself on keys and Kelsie on backup vox.

Our plan was to open with Let Us Be but we just couldn’t make it work. We had tempo issues in rehearsal and the song just wasn’t gellin’ like Magellan so we ended up scrapping it and doing O Come Let Us Adore Him (chorus). In the end I was glad we went this direction. Scot lead on vox and kept energy high.

After Scot set up the night we did a three song set. God of Justice (with me on lead vox), Now to Live The Life (Scot on lead vox) and we closed with Mission’s Flame (me on lead vox).

Rehearsal was, overall, somewhat rough so I was a little scared about the final product but worship turned out to be solid. Definitely not our best acoustic set but it was just one of those nights.

Our community normally runs between 500 and 600 and we had nearly half of our people go out and serve the community in real, tangible ways. I’ve got some video and images of Wendy and her crew cleaning gas station toilets that I’ll get posted sometime this week.

This post is part of Fred McKinnon’s #sundaysetlist.

Worship at WVIHOP

Shawn — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:26:59 +0000

Just in case you weren’t able to attend last Thursday’s evening of worship at Wabash Valley IHOP, here’s some rough footage (about 10 minutes) of Scot and I laying down some tunes. Enjoy.

Maryland’s new worship pastor is…

Shawn — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 01:27:35 +0000

Justin Hoeppner.

Justin, Summer, Clayton and Mattix. Welcome to the crazy that is Maryland Community Church.

Let’s light this candle.

My personal productivity system

Shawn — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:22:00 +0000

The book Getting Things Done by David Allen changed the way I work. I went from having no productivity system to one I could grow into. GTD was as simple (or complex) as I wanted it to be.

But I never truly implemented GTD. Not on a grand scale, anyway. It helped me realize I needed to write everything down and work through everything on my todo list(s) equally.

Then, Unclutterer made a post about WSD. What’s the WSD system?

Write Stuff Down.

And then it dawned on me.

I’ve never really used GTD. On my own, I reduced GTD down to WSD (with some light GTD elements).

And it’s really that simple. For the WSD system to work you need only remember this simple sentence.

Capture everything immediately.

What does that mean? It’s simple:

Your brain isn’t made for remembering. It’s made for doing.

My 17 year old has proven to me that the brain isn’t made for remembering. It’s made to do. To create, to diagnose, to digest, to inspect, to contemplate.

How often have you said to yourself, “boy, I need to remember to do that.” And I bet you forget nearly every time to do that thing, too. I know I do.

But not if I capture everything immediately. When I know I need to do something, I have to write it down, right now. If I wait to write it down, I’ll forget. The system works when I write my task(s) down immediately.

You see, the only thing that breaks the system is me not using it.

Honestly, the hardest part is training yourself to write things down the moment you think of them. Get past this and you’re on the road to amazing productivity.

So, how can you start using WSD today? It’s simple:

1. Get a pocket sized notebook.*
2. Get a pen or pencil.*
3. Carry them with you everywhere.
4. Capture everything immediately.
5. Work through your list from oldest to newest, skipping nothing. Don’t put off the unfun stuff. Treat every item with equal importance.

PROTIP: Don’t write down anything that can be done in less than two minutes. Do those things right now.

Then, at least once a day, review your notebook. Cross things off as you get them done. If a task seems too daunting, break it down into small, (and, if necessary, smaller) manageable steps.

It’s that simple.

Tell me all about how you stay organized and productive.

*I use Evernote on my BlackBerry for these two steps.