Out of Schedule out of Mind

I said it recently in a meeting I was having at the church, and since then it has almost become a mantra with me. What I said was, "If something does not make it into our weekly schedule, then it will not make it into our weekly planning." That may seem simple enough, but when applied it becomes a rather profound truth. The fact is that there are only so many hours during a given week. What I choose to fill those hour with will be what my life becomes filled with in the future. We all know this at some level, but we don't live like it because we still do one of two things that we otherwise would not:

1. We fill our time with things we don't really care about.
2. We don't plan out our time and just let it fill itself.

As a result I started a project (mostly for myself, but I encouraged the rest of the staff to join me) in which we are scheduling out our weeks in 30-minute increments. The idea is similar to the Dave Ramsey "Zero-Budget". Every time slot has to be dedicated to something, even if that something is "Free Time". Then, just like a real budget if things come up that require me to miss a scheduled event, I have to find somewhere else in the Schedule (my time budget) for it to fit.

I really think this is the step that keeps most people from realizing their dreams. If people actually stop long enough to let God speak a dream into their hearts, they rarely continue on to re-schedule their lives to make time for that dream to come to pass. If you feel God calling you to a new career that requires more education, and yet you don't make time for school... how will you ever realize the dream? If you want to be a better parent, but you don't schedule more time with your kids, how will you ever improve? Simple in theory, difficult in practice. The main thing that separates pure dreamers from dream-doers is follow through. And, follow through only happens when I give it time to happen.

Is Everyone Saved?

I suppose this can fit into my "random theological discussions" category... if I did categories. The thought is really a continuation of my last post. As I was looking back on history and how it is that God brings redemption to people I remembered the story of the Exodus. I am not the first person to compare that OT story to our NT salvation. God brought them out of slavery and into the promised land.

The interesting thing is... their salvation had nothing to do with their faith. In fact almost none of them actually believed Moses (or God) could save them, and yet they were all freed. In fact, in order for them to miss out on the Promised land they had to continually reject it. We know that many of them missed out on what God refers to as His "rest" in Hebrews. Their lack of belief led to this. But, they were all saved from slavery.

This mirrors one of the pictures that I have for our salvation today. I see the world in a huge restaurant piling up huge tabs. In fact we are eating and drinking so much that none of us can afford these tabs... they would bankrupt us. Then God walks in and pays for everyone's tab. Some people see Him doing this and are immediately grateful and thank Him for it, gladly accepting. Others see Him do it and criticize Him for the "show off" that He is... thinking He can buy us with His great wealth. Still others don't see him pay the checks (it is a BIG restaurant after all), but when the time comes to pay they are informed that their check has been covered by God. At that time you get the same two responses... some rejoicing and grateful, others mocking and choosing to try to pay their own way.

The truly sad thing is that everyone's bill has been paid. Some just refuse to accept that fact, up until the very end. C.S. Lewis tells a story that explains my point so much better than I could in "The Great Divorce". I heartily recommend reading it if you have not done so already. The link I listed actually lets you read it online! Imagine that, I just found that out heh. Pardon me while I go see what other treasures are there free for the mining!

P.S. - Ok I am back. In the end I don't think this really changes my outlook on how "the end" will be. Some will be with God, others will be apart from God. What it changes is my view of God in the whole matter. I have a hard time with a God who forms people, sticks them in some "godless" remote section of the world where they will never hear the gospel, and then lets them die without any hope of heaven. Honestly I think the Bible speaks very much against such a God, and tells quite a different story indeed. Jesus paid the bill. He finished it upon the cross. I believe every man, woman, and child has the opportunity to humble themselves in acceptance or bow up in defiance. So, is everyone saved? Well, yes. It is just that some people cannot seem to accept that fact, and so they reject the truth for a lie... and God grants them their wish.

P.P.S - You only get the first chapter... but perhaps it will hook you for the rest of the book :).

Can God Lose?

I am gamer by nature, so this is an important question to me. I see almost everything in life as a game of sorts, and so I define what it means to "win" and to "lose". Most people do this to some degree for various things in life; say when you are driving and feel the need to pass other cars instead of letting them pass you. Perhaps you just want to "get there" faster; I want to win. I am not exactly sure what I am winning, but I am winning!

Something that often bothers me is that it seems like God is losing. Let me back up and define the play field and the winning conditions here. I see God's play field as "Creation". Winning means Creation existing as it was meant to, losing means that it exists in some other form. On a more human note, winning means that humanity is restored to its original relationship with God, and losing means that it is not. We are in the middle of a study right now called OnePrayer, and it is very good so far. This last video was full of statistics meant to "Wake Us Up". The relevant ones were that 20 million people die each day, and that 13.9 million of those die not knowing Jesus. I am not sure how these numbers come together. I figure they are pretty much just taking the global statistical averages and applying them to daily numbers, and in general only 33% of the people in the world claim to be Christians.

So, when I look at these numbers my first thought is, "God is... losing." And, that bothers me. It does not bother me in the sense that I feel that I need to "get out there" and tell more people about God, it bothers me in the sense that I have a hard time picturing God as a loser. I don't struggle picturing God as one who sacrifices, as a giver, or as a servant. He was all those things and people called him a loser; but that is only because they were short-sighted and failed to see how all of those things led to His victory.

I have not really searched out my Biblical evidence and position on this topic, but in my gut I just believe God wins. Perhaps my definitions of "win" and "lose" are off, and I just don't know the real goal of this whole game. Or, perhaps God is doing better than we think and our definition of "knowing Jesus" is off to the degree that we see God is losing when in reality He is not. Perhaps God is restoring this world, His Creation, to its original form and we are too blinded by our own rules and definitions to see it. I honestly hope the latter is true. Call me old-fashioned or old-school, but I still like the stories where the good guy wins in the end.

Coming Soon!

It was a good weekend... full of gaming and eating and spending time with friends. I took a few days off (as you have noticed), but I will be starting back with the 5-day updates; beginning tomorrow. I just wanted to give a little preview of what is coming up. Who knows if this will be a regular thing; it really depends on how much time I spend developing ideas before I post them. But, I have a few that I am working on now, and in no particular order they are:

1. Can God lose?
2. Out of Schedule out of Mind
3. Is everyone saved?
4. Mirrors and Windows (This one might be a two-parter!)

Hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend as well, and I will see you tomorrow!

Go With the Flow

The title pretty much describes the way I move through life. I love adventures, I hate to know the ending before I get there. In this way I am almost the complete opposite of my wife. It boggles my mind to see her get a new book and just start reading randomly through it... even the last page!

I have learned in the last few years that there are several different ways to go with the flow. I imagine "the flow" as white water rapids. I had the opportunity to go on a white water rapid ride in Colorado many years ago. It was enough of an adventure that it has stuck with me all this time. It was only a Class 3 rapid at the time (Class goes from 1 to 5), but that is still a significant amount of water moving down the river. Everyone who got into the boat was "going with the flow" no matter what. Our choices were to be passive participants just letting the river guide the boat wherever it might go, or to be active participants using the tools we had been given to guide the boat along the best course in the river.

I believe that my life is similar to that raft. I have been placed on the river in a certain time in a certain place, and life is going to move forward regardless of what I do. I can try to fight against it all (as some do in futility), or I can go with the flow. I can just sit back and let the water carry me where it will, which is a good way to get smashed up against the rocks. Or, I can use all of the tools God has given me and try to navigate a course in my boat on His river.

This is kind of how I see God working out "His plan for my life." There was a time when I thought God was directly concerned with my boat; as if my boat was the key to His plan. I don't really see it that way anymore. I believe God is in control of the river. It is going where He has planned, and nothing is going to stop it. I have a chance to join in and have a great ride... if I will listen to Him and let Him guide my boat. So, that is my life's journey; to be an active participant with God as I enjoy the great adventure of Life that He has created.

In Our Prayers

For those who don't know, one of our youth suffered a horrible loss this last week. Kayla you are in our prayers, and in our hearts. I am an only child, and so it is hard to imagine what losing a brother or sister would be like, but I know it is a grief that does not pass quickly. And, your church family will stand alongside your blood family during this time.

Sensitive Hearts

I don't have one. Truthfully my heart is more like a well-guarded castle than a flowering garden. This isn't even something I have worked on intentionally. I don't have any huge hurt in my past that I am trying to protect. I just tend to think about projects more than people. And, projects don't generally have feelings.

That is probably why God gave me a son who has a sensitive heart. I mean he is even left-handed. Can you get more flowery and artsy than that?! It has taken me a while to understand this, mostly because this sensitive kid is also very loud. He aggressively seeks his own way in the world, and when the world (namely his parents) does not conform, well bad things tend to happen. So, my kid has become one of those nice paradoxes that I love... a loud, intensely-tempered, yet very sensitive kid. I know that he is helping me look into my own heart, revealing things that God wants to work in me.

He is also helping me to remember that everything is not how it seems on the outside. Too often I give quick, shallow judgements of people based on very limited information. When people first meet my son they generally say, "Wow! That is the happiest kid I have ever seen" or "Whoa! What is up with the huge tantrum, don't you know how to parent?!" Ok, so nobody has actually said the last one, but I see them thinking it! And then I judge them based on that information ;). The fact is my kid is both of those things and way more, and unless you take the time to get to know him you will have an incomplete picture.

So, the next time I meet that incredibly rude person at Wal-Mart, perhaps I will take a moment to consider that this may not be the complete picture, and if I could see them completely as God can then I would see that they are a part of His creation and He has a plan for their life.