Confessions

I was rummaging through an old journal, and came across these statements that I wrote around October of 2007. I'd just accepted the position of Campus Director of ENCM at Augusta State University and was still not sure why God had me here. These statements represent the few things that I knew for certain amidst a lot of uncertainty.

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"I believe that I must obey God by doing my best to build at ASU

I believe that God will give me wisdom to manage well.

I believe that the lives of students will be altered and steered Godward by my service here.

I desire to give my life away.
If God approves that my life is worth giving,
He'll permit it,
and I'll marry my purpose

Jesus is worth everything
I don't deserve anything
I'll always have enough to give something




GO FOR IT!
Love Courageously Hope Fearlessly"

Strong People

Strong people take care of weak people.

People who think themselves too strong to be bothered with or "held back" by weaker people are really just too weak to handle the responsibility.

People who think themselves so strong that they can prey on weak people are really just too weak to handle taking care of themselves.

Strong People are upholding families, churches, governments, and other institutions.

Strong People guard the weak and defenseless from the spineless and the gutless who would harm them.

Strong People lend strength to others making them strong as well.

No Regrets

Almost exactly one year ago, i posted about "5 things I've Never regretted." In this post, I list them and I expand how I understand what they mean below.

Loving God

Loving People

Dreaming BIG

Being Diligent

Being Patient

Loving God is essential. It means intentionally directing my affections by making lifestyle choices that diret my thoughts and actions towards things that give God pleasure. It means persistently realigning my passions so that I can pursue the thngs that are on my Father's heart.

Loving People is one of the ways that a genuine love for God is expressed. It means remembering to love others to the same extent that I love myself and treating people as well as I'd like to be treated. It also means holding others in higher regard than I hold myself.

Dreaming BIG is about being hopeful. It's about me continuing to believe that no matter how great I imagine something can be, God's going to top my wildest imagination. It's about meeting disappointment with an even bigger dream.

Being Diligent means translating passion and imagination into consistent effort. Love without action is just emothion. Dreams without implementation are merely fantasies. Diligence turns possibilities into performance and aspirations into achievement.

Being Patient is about knowing that anything I want to happen will probably take awhile. It's about learning to want only things that are worth waiting for.

When I think about decisions that I've made and the way I made them, I'm not always proud. Today, some of them make me wince with pain as I have come to understand how others were affected by my choices. However, I don't regret any decisions that I made loving God, loving people, dreaming big, being diligent, and being patient.

Cautionary note on Strengths Finder themes of talent

It has come to my attention that there is a tendency to use the results of the strengths finder evaluation in ways that are unnecessarily limiting. I don't believe that your themes should be seen as disqualifying you for things, nor should it be used as a way to cop out of certain responsibilities.

I'll give you an example using my own themes which are Input, Intellection, Responsibility, Context, and Connectedness. you will notice that none of these themes are obviously relational. I don't have Woo, Relator, Includer, Empathy, or some other theme that might mark me as someone who is good at relationships. However, I am pretty good at building and maintaining relationships. How I build and maintain relationships is affected by my themes in the following way.

{Input} I listen to people. I love talking to someone one-on-one and asking them quesitons about their life. I try to figure out someone's personality by observing their reactions in different situations or listening to certain phrases that they repeat like "It's the right thing to do." or "I had a hunch she felt that way."

It's even better if I can get them to take a personal evaluation test like Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, Love Language Test, Gifts Test, or Strengths Finder. If so, then I'll research everything i can find out about them based on their evaluation results.

{Input, Context} I like to find out about where people are from. I love to learn historical information about someone such as how someone came to Christ, how they met their spouse, or how they landed a certain job.

{Intellection} I turn over in my mind all of the things that I've learned about someone by listening, observing, and researching their themes or personality type. I look at things from different angles. I reinterpret situations that I've observed this person in and notice how personality influenced response.

{Intellection,Connectedness}I make connections between different thengs that they have revealed about themselves. How does being raised up in a country church relate to their Belief Theme? Does their spiritual gift of mercy have a parallel in their preferred love language? Is their personality fit their profession? On and on I go.

{Intellection} I try to understand how the person fits in the larger group. I also imagine how this person would fit in other groups and environments.

{Responsibility} Then, I think of ways to use this understanding of a person to tailor my style of communication. I try to encourage them based on who I understand them to be. If I can, I recommend experiences that I thing that they would enjoy and connect them with other people who may be able to help them pursue their goals or fulfill their desires. I'm often asked for advice because people feel like I 'get them' and can help them get a better perspective on situations. I relate Scripture, using my own teaching gift, to them in ways that make God's Word relevant to someone based on what I understand about them and about their situation.

The point is that I am not people-focused because of my themes, but because God commands me to love people. I use my themes to serve people in my own way. Don't let your themes define your mission. Let your themes serve your mission.

a subtle deceit

It was an easy thing to regard that initial commitment that I made to Jesus as a significant moment to be memorialized. Once I became His, I had only to enjoy the benefits of this amazing association. I had learned the new rules.

With this accomplished, I looked to occupy myself with other pursuits. New adventures, achievements, and relationships absorbed my attention and passions. I carefully applied the new rules to the same pursuits that I had before I began to follow Jesus. This, I supposed, was what it meant to believe.

This attitude is subtle and subversive. The truth is that the commitment that I made to Jesus was not about the moment of decision. It was to a lifestyle of seeking and yielding. I am unfaithful to that commitment when I am too concerned with my own desires and ambitions to seek God's pleasure and too tied to my own goals and pursuits to yield to His purpose.

In that moment, obedience becomes an inconvenient obligation to avoid if possible and endure when necessary.

His Name

I want to walk humbly before God content to bear His Name.

I'm not strong enough to create a lasting name for myself.

There exists no institution, organizaiton, family, nation, or race whose name is worth devoting myself to.

His Name is honorable and everything sacrificed for the sake of His Name is worthwhile. His Name is worthy of unreasonable extravagant expense.

Derived Significance

His death gives me life
His life gives me hope
His love gives me meaning
His will gives me purpose