I was talking with some friends this week about how technology and advancements have helped in many ways but you can also see how they have hindered us as humanity as well. Nothing new, I know, but it was something that stuck with me for the past couple of days.
That night I was meeting them at this little place called The Meanwhile in Grand Rapids and I am living about a 30 minute walk away from there. I made the decision that i was going to walk there instead of asking for a lift and I set out on my journey and was surprised at the things I was beginning to notice on my way. Houses that I had never seen, people who were interesting to watch, businesses I never knew existed. I have driven down this road many times, ran down it as well but i was so focused on my end goal, I lost sight of what was in front of me.
sit and be.
This morning in the park there was a man watching the water, sitting on a stool, next to the bike he rode there. This man was breathing it in. He was sitting and being. Just being.
Now I know I talk a lot about going and doing, not sitting and relaxing, but this is not me talking from a point of doing it right all the time. This is me saying that I need at times to breathe deep and I think you could too.
Do you ever sit and just wonder about how you got to the place you are right now?
That is what I am doing at this moment, pondering the question, “How did I get here?” And I am just in awe of the way that things have been weaved together in my life.
The technical theological term is the Sovereignty of God: the way God has weaved things together to bring me to the place I am today. The thing I love is that it is not void of my choices, as a matter of fact I think it is made completely of my choices. Little by little and big by big, these choices have shaped the man who I am right now, living in the place that I am living in right now.
Want your mind blown? Think of your job right now (or school choice right now for those not working). How did you choose that job? What choices did you make to get you to know about that job (or school) in the first place? What if you wouldn’t have talked to that person at the party and they wouldn’t have told you about the job opening? Or what if you would not have chosen to talk to that guy in your Comm class freshman year that invited you to that party, where you talked to that guy, who told you about the job opportunity, that you applied for, took the job, moved to Arizona, found a better job, where you then met your wife?
All hypothetical, but still the little choices we make end up effecting the next choices. Each decision has multiple decisions that come along with it. And you close of some paths with that decision.
None of this is anything new to most of you, but I am in awe as to how little things do make a difference. It makes me want to be even more intentional with my life. Nothing is separate from anything else; everything is connected. Some decisions have a small ripple and some make a big splash, but nothing is completely separate from the next thing. While we can not play at exactly what each decision may mean, I hope we at least can realize that we need to not fall too quickly into auto-pilot because things do matter.
Be intentional. It is the best decision you can make today.
You become like the 7 people you hang out with most.
Don’t trust me? Just ask Princeton, they did the study.
But seriously, think about it for a second. You grab things from the people you hang out with, if it is a mannerism, a phrase or even a belief or state of mind. If you have friends that love music and have a passion to look for new music, you in turn are affected by that and may look for new music. If you have friends that use certain terminology (the phrase Cowabunga for instance), you tend to pick that up.
All that is good, but what about the deep stuff? If you hang out with someone who has a drive towards goals, will that rub off? What if you hang out with people who have the ability to find the silver lining, or are self-sacrificing? Do you take those trends? Or even if you have glass-half-empty people surrounding you–the type that consistently complain and seem to find no fulfillment in anything–do you start to adapt to them?
The answer to all of this is yes.
And that adds a level of responsibility that we all have, but few of us take seriously. We are all incredibly contagious and, unlike a disease that may have the same ability to be passed on, we can choose what we pass on. I have said it before, the power of the mind is an amazing thing and we can not take this for granted.
You have the ability everyday to choose how you will affect the 7 people around you. Choose to be the good kind of contagious.
So this is a little different from what I normally write on here, but I had to get it out.
I love my city.
Seriously I am so in love with Grand Rapids and I know there is no place right now I would rather be. I was hanging out this week at the Festival of the Arts downtown and I was blown away by the amazingness of this city. We have so much here, from amazing bands (nothing is better than The Crane Wives and Alexis) to fantastic events (Festival and Art Prize) to businesses (The Sparrows and Founders). Not to mention the people and attitude you have of people OWNING GRap. We have lip dubs and Tuesday swing. Great food and amazing coffee. From East town to Heartside. Beltline to Alpine; I am in love.
So that is that folks, I am stepping down of the soapbox for now. But I love my city and I excited to see what else we can do together this summer.
I feel like I am flying through the air. Falling faster and faster. I am seeing the water coming up to greet my feet with a high-five and the platform I was standing on is beginning to look more and more foreign and distant.
This is the middle space I am calling life for the time being, I am floating, falling. The crack of flesh on water is eminent and I am wondering how cold that water is going to be. No doubt it is going to feel different, it will be a new sensation, one not felt in a long time. However as scary as that sounds, as hard as I may reach up for the safety of my former perch, I know that will not stop the meeting with the water.
Yet, I am excited. Nervous and excited.
Sometimes in life we are given options, when we reach a crossroads. Those decisions are both great some times and you literally have no wrong way to choose. You may think that one has to be the “right” way, but all you are looking for is an easy way out. So what do you do? You sit. Wait. And before you know it the fact of not choosing has stopped you and you are not sure how to go again.
I made a choice, I made a decision. While I am not sure what feeling I will get as I am being submerged, I know the person working the lifeguard stand, and he told me at the top he will make sure it all works out for good.
Cannonball.
I cleaned my room yesterday.
I know that is something you ruffle the hair of a 4-year-old for saying to you, but hey I did it. And honestly it was the most amazing feeling waking up this morning and when I opened my eyes, I say the floor. I saw the couch, I saw no piles of clothes. Now let me tell you about the messiness I was living in, it was disgusting. I had a dirty pile that crept towards the 3 clean piles, papers and books everywhere. Computer parts and wires from a long time ago strewn across the floor, desk, couch, bed. It was messy.
So to wake up this morning and it be clean was amazing, nay, spectacular.
It got me thinking about the cluttered areas of life. The areas that little by little get filled up and messed up until we do not know where to sleep and we NEVER can find that matching sock. I realized my personal finances were the same way; cluttered, trashed. Now the bad part is that this doesn’t take 25 minutes one night, we mess up enough to take years to clean it all up, throw out all the trash and steam clean the carpets.
The good thing is that we don’t have to clean it alone either. Life, like my room, could use nudging and help in the organizing. My temporary roommate Tyler helped me. He nudged me to clean the room and then worked with me, folding clothes, problem solving space issues. We do not have to go this alone, this cleaning of our lives. We are blessed with brothers and sisters around us who have the eyes to see things like the truly are; a mess. Then they will not only call those out, but help us in the cleaning.
Too often we call out “That is MESSY! How do you live like that?” and then do nothing to help them. Tyler helped me with the cleaning and now I can wake up stress free, at least when it comes to the cleanliness of my room.
Who do you know that could help you clean up your mess? Who can you clean beside?
I have a extremely vivid memory.
Seriously, it is like a video camera in my brain. I am walking through the park today with Tyler and Chelsea and I see the river leading up to the GR skyline and I go back to the first time I saw that skyline from a similar angle this past fall. I was walking alone, exploring this new city, it was amazing. i was wearing a corduroy coat I bought from a Goodwill for half off yellow tag day about 4 years ago. It was a Sunday afternoon and I stopped on my way home from church in Kalamazoo.
I have about 15 more details but it is too much to write right now.
I love and hate this about myself. I have the ability to remember certain things in such great detail. For instance the first kiss I had with Heather or my baptism. But it is more than firsts, or the greats. I remember the random campfires after the musicals in high school and talking about college, and wondering if the marshmallow would fall off the stick. I also remember the bad. I remember where I was and what i was doing when I found out my Grandma had passed away. I remember where I was when my Dad has his heart attack. I can tell you the shoes and shirt I was wearing when I was fired from a job, or when I got my second speeding ticket.
This is a wonderful thing, remembering. Then again, it can be a curse because with this great of a memory, you can not forget.
Now I may not always remember a deadline, or a phone number if you say it once, but I can remember in great detail most everything that has happened in my life. And this isn’t something I just call on when I need it and turn it off. Anything will bring me to a place, a place of deep, vivid memories, where emotions come rushing in as fast as the scenery in my head is recreated. A song, a smell, a feeling. Anything will trigger it and nothing can stop it. Once I start I can’t stop.
I do wonder, what the future may hold, or more appropriately, how much my brain can.
Only time will tell and until then, it’s time to make more memories.
What does family mean to you? What does the idea of a brother or a sister mean to you? How about a Father. Any thoughts? Say out loud the first thing that comes to your head when I say the word family. How about when I say the word heritage. To be honest for the longest time I didn’t have a lot of positive feelings when it came to those words. I didn’t have very many feelings at all. Let me fill you in as to why.
My family (Mom, Dad and Brother) moved from the close family in Chicago to Lansing, MI when I was in 2nd grade. I was 4 hours from my mom’s family and 2 and a half hour from my Dad’s family as well. We saw family on holidays, and random times sporadically throughout the year, but for the most part we lived in separate places and our lives were not mixed much together.
Even my life with my immediate family wasn’t fantastic and I take responsibility for that as well. I became a Christian in 9th grade and even though my parents were the supportive type, coming to games and concerts for my many years of schooling, they were not Christians. I got no source of faith from them, no knowledge in the bible, no scriptural truth. Politics, religion and money were never spoken of. I also pulled back from the family, and started hanging out with my friends more and more. We played games together when I was younger in 5th grade or so, but the more my dad worked, the more my mother and I fought, the more my brother started to not like me. It was easier to pull back rather than work on it.
So when it comes to family I had a broken view, a skewed view of what that term family meant. Then today I read John 1. Verses 9-13 say this.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
Did you get that? We are children of the one living God. God’s child. I am an heir with Christ, I am blessed through the problem given to Abraham because of the work that Christ did. I am promised so much by God and it is my right to that now through Christ. I have the ability to cry out “Abba Father” and know he is there, he is here, now. And if I ever forget I know I have my brothers and sisters around me. I belong to a family, a community of believers, living in the same promises. Heirs right along side of me. How amazing! We are all heirs, we all have a part of a story. As I am reading the Word I am no longer reading the pages in a static way, these are my family. My brother Stephen was stoned for talking about our ancestors in front of the Sanhedrin. My brother Paul was in chains and preached the gospel whole heartedly, we died in prison for the things he spoke about our savior and our King. These letters are not written by just another disciple, they were my brothers. They were writing, preaching, living and dying for the same message I write, preach, live and would die for today.
So if you wonder about family, wonder about your place. Think about the story, the story of Isaac, the story of Jacob. The stories of Paul and Peter. They are in the same promise you are, they are heirs and so are you and so am I. So I will leave you with this, it is my prayer for you.
My Friends, may you grow in grace,
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior.
My friends, may you grow in grace,
and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
To God be the glory, now and forever,
now and forever, amen.
To God be the glory, now and forever,
now and forever amen.
Your brother,
Dom
So normally this isnt too personal. Well, it is personal but I dont get into too many little details, more broad stokes. This post will be a bit different.
My wonderful girlfriend (whose blog you can read at http://pdxpedalpusher.wordpress.com/), has moved to Portland, OR for the summer and it was honestly kind of hard to see her go. Now this year has been interesting for our relationship. I live and go to school in Grand Rapids and she was living and working in Kalamazoo. We saw each other a good 3 times a month and talked on the phone every night. The distance was there but it wasn’t bad.
Now she is nearly 2,300 miles away and I am really starting to feel the distance. It is interesting though. Tonight, being a Thursday night/ Friday morning like any other we normally would not see each other, no biggie. But since she is gone the distance that she is I am extra aware of the space between.
Now I will say this, we have spoken a good 2.5 hrs a day since Saturday and I am in love with it. I know that on the other side of this time apart we will be stronger than ever, I already feel it. The love is flowing through Skype and some of it even flows to Twitter and Facebook and I am sorry for those caught in the gushy crossfire. Even with all the growth and good things, I am still counting down the days until we get to be together again.
This isn’t a deep thought, nothing for anyone to really take away or anything. Just something that was on my mind, something that was on my heart. So if anyone knows what this is like or the best way to help us please do comment below, on Facebook or WordPress, it would be greatly appreciated.
I will leave this post with the verse Heather left me in my goodbye card:
“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” -Philippians 1:3-6
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:17
What does this mean to you? What does it mean to do EVERYTHING in the name of the Lord Jesus? This verse took on a whole new meaning to me tonight and only because it clicked for me in a few different ways.
First is the idea of “whatever”. This is not a sometimes, or most times. You see this same word in the Greek used in Matthew 18 when Jesus is talking about binding and loosing, it is a definite all the time word. So this is far-reaching, touching every aspect in your life. Everything you do, in word or deed. The actions you take and the things you say, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Or as the NLT puts it “as a representative of the Lord Jesus.”
We need to do everything in the name of Jesus, being his representative on this earth. The definition of represent is “take the place of or be parallel or equivalent to” So when we are called to be representatives of Jesus we are called to be him here. Now this leads to the point of the title. We need to be pursuing excellence. We are called to be Christ on the earth, we are called to be the type of example that when people look at us, they are to see Him.
We will fail? Yes.
But that is no reason to not try.
I am tired of not pursuing excellence. And I am ready to do it in every area. Will it happen over night? Of course not, but it needs to be intentional and it needs to be intentional now. When I think of God’s mission, the call we have to help in the REDEEMING of all of God’s creation, I think we are not running after this with everything. We compartmentalize our lives. Excellence in our physical lives. Our mental lives. Our spiritual lives. They are all one life, and the need to be intentionally used.
Nothing, not the tiniest thing we do is in consequential. Therefore we must pursue excellence in all, realizing we will fail. But knowing that when we don’t and we get closer to excellence, to Jesus, we need to take the third part of the verse and give thanks to God the Father. Nothing is without him, and we must not boast if He helps us get to excellence.
So I start now. Intentionally pursuing excellence. All glory be to God.
Being the Catalyst 