Category: personal

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personal

Managing Time and Relationships

I’ve been pondering proactively managing my time lately as my ministry slate continues to get more diverse and challenging. The difficulty for me is scheduling specific time for study and stillness when there are so many pressing issues and meetings. I definitely need to grow in faith and obedience to God that time spent praying and thinking is more powerful than action, as my life very clealry does not demonstrate that I am fully honoring him.

Secondly, I am realizing that I am excellent at task management and efficient at task-driven work, but I am sloppy at managing relationships.  My role is consistently changing to one that revolves more fully around people and less around tasks, and my skill set is vastly underdeveloped and less cross-functional for that end.  It sounds almost mechanical to talk about relationships as a commodity to be managed, but I am realizing that if I am overextended relationally, I am ineffective with just about everyone.

Jesus very clearly had several layers of relationship around Him during His ministry, and invested differently in different layers.  I know in my head that is an effective strategy, but I am having difficulty walking that out, especially in the rapidly changing and growing environment that is our church.

There is absolutely no conclusion to this post, it’s just me thinking out loud.  Feel free to chime in…

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christianity personal

Resurrection Hope through Death

I am reflecting on the cross of Christ this Good Friday, and anticipating celebration of the resurrection on Easter Sunday.  I think I am more painfully aware today of our simultaneous joy and sorrow as I am reflecting on the cross of Christ.

It was at the cross that the fullness of God’s character was most magnificently displayed in human history.  Simultaneously we see His wrath and love, His justice and mercy, displayed completely and fully in the person of Christ.  Only at the cross can we reconcile all aspects of who He is…and yet there is still more.

Paul understood this unbelievably well:

2 Corinthians 1
8 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

The power to endure in the midst of suffering and pain is made possible by the hope of resurrection.  In fact, that suffering not only provides perseverance, but actually magnifies God through bringing dependency and hope.

I pray that I will live with the same reckless abandon, facing the fear of death with a dependency of hope, ready to meet my king yet fighting for His glory until I do so.  May the the cross lead to understand the depth of our brokenness and the resurrection to the height of our hope.

This is the good news.

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personal

iPhone Blogging

Enjoying writing this from my new iPhone!

Categories
personal

Coffee Kills

Ever wondered how much caffeine it would take to kill you?

You can find out here.

Below are my results:

Coffee Kills
Coffee Kills
Categories
adoption personal

A Future and a Hope Conference

I attended and helped greet at an adoption conference this weekend with Olivia.

There were three main sessions and a panel:

  1. Kristin Wong spoke on God’s heart for adoption from Ephesians 1
  2. Julie Kouri presented myths to adoption and highlighted the basic adoption process
  3. Jason Kovacs shared some insight on funding for adoption through organizations like the Abba Fund.
  4. The panel consisted of a number of families who had adopted, including a family and a birth mother who had an open adoption.

Here is a link to Jason Kovacs’ recap of the conference.

I’ve definitely wrestled for awhile about adoption, but God finally brought me to a place of peace and excitement aboutthe potential of pursuing His heart in this way.  Pray for us as we consider pursuing adoption as a family, and that God would make clear His timing for us.

Additionally, it has been a blessing to see the Lord use Olivia to lay a great foundation for foster and adoption ministry at The Austin Stone.  I pray that God will use us as a church to change the face of Austin and the world through adoption.