Transformed 1

All Fenced In?

This morning, I was out removing some barbed wire fences on my place in Powder Springs.  My neighbor and good friend, Donald, no longer has his horses or any other livestock, so, the fences are not really necessary, and removing them will make it easier for me to keep things mowed and maintained.

As I was working with the barbed wire, I remembered why I don't like working with barbed wire - That stuff will cut, gouge and scratch you in a hundred different ways!  No matter how careful I was, those barbs seemed to find a way to prick my skin and slash painful furrows into my arms, legs, face, or anything else caught in their path.  But, I suppose the wire was doing what it is designed to do - Keep things from coming near, or crossing over the line it keeps. 

Painful as it was, I can understand how the barbed wire keeps the horses and cows within the boundaries Donald has set for them.  The livestock probably don't realize it, but, within those bounds is all they need for a healthy, whole, and fulfilled life.  They have their food, water, shade, and, other horses and cows to keep them company.  Why would they even care about leaving -- Oh yeah, the grass is greener on the other side...

I wondered, as I flinched and fussed at the prickling and scratching I was taking from the fencing, if, perhaps, I sometimes forget that the boundaries God has placed around me are more for my good than I recognize.  Those, Have no other gods before Me, Don't steal, Don't cheat, Don't commit adultery, Don't covet, and, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, or, Love your neighbor, and on the list might go... 

Maybe God really does know best, and when I violate His boundaries it's probably going to sting, might even bleed a little, and, perhaps, will leave a mark as a reminder of my errs. 

I think I'll just remain on the side of the fence God provides, and be thankful for all that's within...

Starbucks Drive-Thru...

So, yesterday I executed my civil duty and gave some simple hints on driving in Atlanta traffic in attempt to alleviate some of the rush hour congestion - I did my part, now, if those people driving in the left-hand lane will do there's - Voilà!  We have made a step in the right direction.

Today, since I'm on an observation roll, so-to-speak, I'd like to offer a few tips to those patrons of the Starbuck's drive-through window:

 

TIP # 1  People go through the drive-thru, because, well, they're in a hurry and would like to get their coffee and, umm, drive-through - Hence the name...

TIP # 2 If you are ordering drinks for all 12 people in your office - Refer to tip #1...

TIP # 3 If you just can't abide by tip #2, at least don't pay and ask for change for each individual drink - Once again, you may want to refer to tip #1...

TIP # 4 I know the person taking your order seems so far away - But that round thing you are speaking into is a microphone - It actually amplifies your voice and sends it directly into the ear of the person taking your order - Your inside voice will suffice quite well...

TIP # 5 We all appreciate that phone call you are on is important - But, for the sake of tip #1, will you just pause the conversation long enough to pay separately for those 12 drinks you've ordered for everyone in your office -- Please?

TIP # 6 (Taken form yesterday's Hints for Driving in Traffic) -- Your makeup still looks much better when applied before leaving the house...

TIP # 7  If you just can't grasp tip # 6, look up - Yeah, remember those 4 cars that were in front of you?  That's right - They're not there now because they've already gotten their coffee and driven through -- Drive forward please...

TIP # 8  Yeah, we saw your little red convertible yesterday while you were driving 10 mph under the speed limit on the express way in the left-hand lane - It still looks cute - Drive forward, please...

TIP # 9 Please don't be offended by this author's hints & tips - They're not meant to be indictments, really - Just suggestive observations from a guy who likes to move forward...  Next, please...

Atlanta Traffic...

So, two days this week I have had meetings that have taken me through the heart of Atlanta during the famed rush-hour...  I've observed that the traffic might flow a little better if just a few people could get a bit of a hint as to how to drive in traffic -- So - I offer, free of charge, Tommy Willingham's hints for the road:

Hint #1  The left lane is for the fast cars...

Hint #2  Fast cars do not run 10 mph under the speed limit...

Hint #3  If you are in the left-hand lane and there is 1/4 mile of clear road in front of you, and 3 miles of cars backed up behind you - You're in the wrong lane - Move over...

Hint # 4  When you are in the left lane, and there are dozens of cars passing you on the right - They are not gesturing that you are their #1 fan...

Hint # 5  Your makeup would look much better if you applied it before leaving the house...

Hint # 6  I know you are in a mid-life crisis, and that little red convertible is really, really cute - But, we can admire it just fine if you keep it in the right-hand lane...

Hint # 7 Speed dial!

Hint # 8  I understand & respect that's the way people drive where you are from - But you're not there now...

Hint # 9  Gas on the right - Break on the left...

Hint # 10 If you don't get any of this - Stay in the right-hand lane...

People Watcher...

I love watching people!  Anywhere Dee and I go, I'll be found watching the local crowd.  I guess that's why I did a degree in sociology/psychology when in undergrad school.  I've just always been infatuated with people.

I love to watch how people act, interact, react, and pro-act in their daily dealings with life.  I enjoy learning more about human nature and how and why people do what they do, and act the way(s) they act. 

People are just such complex creations!  Many I observe perhaps rarely stop to give a lot of thought to how they are acting, and, why...  They just go through those daily motions reacting and acting to the circumstances and situations they encounter in any given moment.

So, if you see me staring, I'm just observing, learning, admiring God's unique ways of creating human beings.  Because, well, I just love watching people... 

Made the Wheaties Box!

Well, little doubt that Olympic all-time gold medal winner, Michael Phelps, will once again make the coveted Wheaties box - And, rightly so - The guy's done things no other human being has ever been able to accomplish - He's definitely in an athletic league of his own...

But, I wonder if we've created a cultural mentality that only the winners are esteemed - where bigger really is better - that the winner stands on the top of the heap with more worth than, perhaps, the one who started but finished dead last - Or, maybe even more worth than the one who, for whatever reason, never even started the race...

We'll never see the pimple-faced fourteen-year-old struggling with identity and fitting in, nor the single mom working from the time she gets out of bed till the moment she wearily falls back into it at day's end trying to do the best she can in circumstances she would have never envisioned the day she stood at an alter and said, "I do".  The guy working on his third career, desperately trying to figure it all out in the midst of a flailing economy, or the elderly couple struggling with high costs in needed prescription medications and rising costs & uncertainties in health care will surely never be seen on the coveted box.

Heck, I'm pretty sure I'll never stand on the cover, Bible in one hand, finger pointed upward in the other as the greatest preacher of all time!  Or, in reality will most of us.  But, does that make us inferior?  Have we bought into the notion that we have to be the very best in what we do in order to be somebody, that we've lost focus on who we really are? - Children, children of God made in His own image with his DNA placed within our very soul.  Children destined and designed to inherit all that He has claimed for our lives and our living.  Children so beloved that the Father would allow Jesus to enter our world, suffer and die, to be resurrected so we could truly know both who, and whose we really are...

Maybe we'll never make the box, but in God's eyes we are forever precious and deserving of His unmerited love and acceptance -- And, I suppose, that's better than being on some old box that will one day degrade away to never be remembered again...

Olympic Trampoline - Yeah Baby!

So, this afternoon I flipped on the TV to check out the Olympics.  Lo-and-behold I saw the coolest sport I've yet to see in these 2008 Olympics -- TRAMPOLINE! 

Now, I know the other sports get more attention.  In fact, I didn't even know that the trampoline has been an Olympic sport since 2000.  But, the trampoline is just the coolest!  I mean, the gymnasts do lots of flips and turns - The divers do the same flips and turns as they decent from the board -- But the trampolinists (I guess that's what you would call a person who does the trampoline) - The trampolinists do all the flips, turns, jukes and jives going up and down -- And, they can't be off but a foot or two or they will be going splat right on the floor!

So, my hat's off to all of you unrecognized athletes of the trampoline!  Go for the gold!!

I Just Love Church Planters!

Church planters have to be some of the most inspiring people on the planet!  I love being around them, talking to them, picking their brains and seeing inside their hearts.  They're out there - On the edge, bridging that gap between the secular and the sacred - Focused on those who aren't yet, but, by God's goodness have the hope to be!

I am privileged to teach a lot of church planters, mentor and coach a few, and have the opportunity to watch them do what God has created them to do.  But, I learn so much from them!   I learn from their excitement and willingness to take risks for the kingdom - I learn from their honest, raw enthusiasm for reaching a non-churched world for Christ's sake - I learn from their commitment and tenacious nature to march the gates of hell without abandon!

I just love church planters - You guys and gals rock even more than ice baths :)  

Here's a list of some of our North Georgia plants you may want to check out if you're in the market for a shot of good-stuff today!

 

City On A Hill UMC
www.cityonahillumc.org
Sundays 10:30 a.m.
Johnston Elementary School
2031 East Cherokee Drive
Woodstock, GA
Pastor: Chris Bryant
(404) 862-7850
  
Covenant UMC
www.theumc.org
Grace Groups: 9:15-9:45 a.m.
Worship & Communion: 10-11:15 a.m.
Greenbriar Elementary
Evans, GA 30809
Pastor: Randy Monk
(706) 339-7090

Crossroads UMC
www.crossroadsum.org
Worship Beginning Fall 2008
Shelton Elementary School
1530 Cedarcrest Raod
North Paulding County
Pastor: Ken Hagler
(770) 861-3549
  
Fellowship Church
www.GodandPeople.com
Sundays at 10:45am
Nebo Elementary School
2834 Nebo Road
Dallas, GA
Pastor: Ken Ott
(678) 447-6147 

Impact Church
www.impactdcd.org
Sundays at 10 a.m. & noon
West End Community
Brown Middle School (Auditorium)
765 Peeples Street, SW
Atlanta, GA 30310 
Pastor: Olu Brown
info(at)impactdcd.org
(404) 758-7310

Life Springs UMC
www.thelifesprings.com
Sundays: Worship at 11am
Life Groups at 4:00pm
Former Fincher UMC Building
11033 Hwy 109
Zebulon, GA
Pastor: Kyle Smith
(770) 567-3921

Sacred Tapestry
www.SacredTapestry.com
Sundays at 10:45-12:15
Jazz Vespers Brunch
3000 Johnson Ferry Road
Marietta, GA  30062
Pastor: Teresa Angle-Young
(404) 451-1680

The Lighthouse UMC
www.lighthouseumc.net
Sundays 10:30 a.m.
McIntosh High School
201 East Walt Banks Road
Peachtree City, GA
Pastor: Mark Jordan 
(770) 487-3400

The UMC at the Well
www.discoverthewell.org 
3rd Sunday of month at 10am
Main Street Library
Cartersville, GA
Pastor: Andy Postell
(678) 314-7994
 
The Vine (Chateau Elan)
www.connecttothevine.org
Sundays 9:30am & 11am
Heather Wayne's Dance Academy
5370 Thompson Mill Rd.
Hoschton, GA 30548
Pastor: David Walters 
(678) 521-8691

Connection Church (Suwanee)
Stephen Walters
http://www.connectionchurchonline.com/

Navo UMC (Oakhurst)
Bryan Fowler

Ice Baths are Cool...

Well, actually COLD!  After a long run a nice bathtub full of cold water and a bag full of ice is just the thing to keep the aches and pains that come from pushing the body so much further than a normal day @ the office.  It makes the next day much more tolerable, and less painful from the long run day.

So, I guess I should have some deep, profound spiritual connection, but, nothing more than ice baths rock!

Garbage Day...

My Wednesday morning runs stink.  No!  Really!  They literally do stink!  See, Wednesday is garbage pickup day in my neighborhood.  All those green dumpsters that stay hidden away throughout the rest of the week come out in force on Wednesdays.   My Wednesday morning runs take me through streets lined with dumpsters full of dozens of family's week worth of garbage - Even though it's still sort of dark when I pass, I cannot escape the reek of all that mess - I've concluded my neighbors stink - INCLUDING ME!

This morning the thought hit me - What would happen if we didn't have garbage day?  What would be done with those tons and tons of useless, used, rotting masses of garbage we discard on any given week?   I suppose we'd just be stuck in the putrefying stench!  I guess we would just have to adapt to living in substandard conditions full of all sorts of decay and disease...

But the bigger thought that crossed my mind as I ran through the minefield of garbage was that of my soul.  What if I had no way of dumping the garbage, filth, mess, and waste that can so easily build up in my spirit from un-repented and un-forgiven sin?  What if I had to accept just living in the filth and decay of my spirit due to those things I've done against God's will and way for my life?  What if I was left to rot away as a helpless victim from garbage heaped upon me by another, or, others? 

Then, as I was about to exit the subdivision, I met the faithful garbage truck.  The big vessel that comes by each week to pick up my trash, to relieve me of the garbage that's incurred and cluttered my home throughout the short week since last time. 

And I was suddenly thankful - Not so much for my neighborhood garbage service, but, for the God who offers me not just weekly, but daily cleansing of the soul.  The God who loves me so much He desires nothing more than for me to be freed of those things that would hinder and hamper my spirit from becoming all He's created me to be.  The God who willingly entered the stench of a dirty old stable in order to offer me a daily fresh start and clean slate...

So, if you smell something rotten, try taking out the trash - It's good medicine for the soul...

New Friends Are Good to Have...

A while back I wrote about how good it is to have those old friends who are always there for you, and those people you know are available when you need them.  Yesterday, our lead staff @ Sugarloaf was able to meet with the staff of Long's Chapel UMC from North Carolina. 

We got an email a couple of months ago that they were going to be in town for a staff retreat, and they asked if they might come by Sugarloaf for a few hours to meet our staff and see how we do things.

It was a wonderful learning experience for us all, and a great time of fellowship, idea exchange, and getting to know some new friends in ministry.  Long's Chapel is a great church with a super staff, and it was wonderful getting to meet them yesterday. 

Old friends are good to have, and new friends are a great addition to the friendship network.  I'm sure we'll continue the friendships made yesterday as we stay in contact with one another, and, one day perhaps, our new friends from Long's Chapel will be a part of those people we call - Old Friend...