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the conscientous objector

November 1, 2010 in adventure, books & reviews, thoughts with 0 Comments

a good friend, bob desanto (a former county prosecutor)  passed along an amazing video that he said i had to watch.  its a documentary based on the life of Desmond Doss who was the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor.

Its truly an amazing story told by his own words and members of his company.   Doss simply refused to kill, or carry a weapon into combat.  He was a Seventh-day Adventist.  He served as a medic in the Pacific during World War II.  He saved literally dozens of his fellow soldiers.  The video is filled with tribute upon tribute of the life and commitment of serving that Doss had because of his faith.  Its a great testimony.   Doss died in 2006, two years after the documentary was filmed.  It is a sobering conversation talking frankly about the horrors of war.  Yet in the storytelling there is an amazing admiration that one develops for a man who lived by his convictions.  The story of the rescue of some 75 wounded GI’s on Okinawa is incredible.  More incredible is the story of how the Doss lost his Bible days later and the same solider’s who at one point wanted him out of the army,  risked all to look for and eventually  find the Bible he had lost on the battlefield.  All because of the quiet witness.  Its worth the watch.  Here’s the trailer.

You can find more information about the movie here.

prioritze-organize-simplify in 7 minutes

October 27, 2010 in books & reviews, thoughts with 0 Comments

Its just about that simple.  Take 7 minutes to plan out what you need to get done daily.  one of the most practical take aways is to  make a list of 5 action items that you can accomplish daily by 11a.m…and do them.

The system I was provided for this review included a great book, The 7 Minute Difference: Small steps to big changes filled with excellent foundational principles on developing priorities and a copy of the The 7 Minute Daily Planner.

The audience for this system is  anyone who is engaged in leadership…which just about all of us.  The book offers a process of discovery of the reader’s purpose and passion.  I was pleased that Allyson began her work giving credit to another author and trainer, Brian Tracy.  Brian has equipped and trained tens of thousands of individuals, particularly in the non-profit arena on how to be strategic in impacting our world.  Three key points from Brian that Allyson builds on is:

  1. write down your goals
  2. make plans to achieve your goals
  3. work on those plans every day

Allyson takes these fundamentals and adds to it some practical wisdom and then offers  the utility of the Daily Planner that provides 10 different areas in the daily progress report.  Again the most practical is the “What I will do…5 before 11″.

I’ve begun working through the system myself as a refresher to things I learned from Brian more than 20 years ago.  I really like the planner concept, but would enjoy it even more if there was a digital version…especially an application for my android phone.  The system is moderately priced at $247.  It also includes a series of audio helps on how to develop and implement a total life system.   Here’s a video from Allyson Lewis youtube channel:

The system was just released on Oct 21st. Go here to learn more.  Just for the record I was provided a free copy of the book & planner for my opinion: good or bad.

sun stand still:a review

October 23, 2010 in books & reviews with 0 Comments

pastor steve furtrick challenges the reader…

that if you’re not daring to believe God for the impossible, you’re sleeping through some of the best parts of your Christian life.

As i read through this good book those words kept rolling around my mind.  I wasn’t sure what to expect as i began the book, only because the “audacity” of praying a prayer in a contemporary context that would “stop the sun in sky” seemed pretty far fetched.

The book does challenge and offered some solid encouragement of looking at life with a different understanding especially when pushing through life’s difficulties. The title of the book is taken from Joshua 10…

12 On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel: “O sun, stand still over Gibeon,  O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.” 13 So the sun stood still and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,as it is written in the Book of Jashar.  The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. 14 There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!

Where according to Furtrick, Joshua prays an audacious prayer that can be a model for us to follow even today.  Not so much as a “sun stopping” endeavor, but a reality check on truly seeking a relationship with God, through a prayer life that works off the same kind of faith that Joshua exhibited.

The book is not about a “health & wealth” or “prosperity” kind of thing.  In fact on aspect i greatly appreciated was the effort that Steve goes to in bringing to light and helping the reader to understand that sometimes the sun will go down on our live’s pursuits and like Joshua we have to be prepared for where God will lead us.  Furturick says:

Sometimes God has to let the sun go down so that his glory can shine through our lives.  The darker it gets in your situation, the brighter God in his goodness and grace can shine through you for the world to see…The sun may have gone down for a little while.  But when we see the time line of our trials in the light of eternity, the pain lasts only a moment.  Paul put it this way in 2 Corinthians 4:17: Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far out weighs them all.

I particularly like this line from the end of Chapter 13…

Remember that your crisis is your greatest opportunity to see God’s glory and goodness revealed–and to have the high honor of revealing him to others.

And finally a reminder that…

If you’re going to have the audacity to ask God for something, you’d better be ready to act.  Audacious prayer must be tethered to  practical obedience.

Beyond the book there is an excellent supporting website www.sunstandstill.org with free downloads for use as a sermon series or small group resource.

Pastor Steve offers this closing challenge to the book…

The world is waiting for change.  God’s people are the change the world is waiting for.  So seize the vision.  Activiate audacious faith.  Make your move.  This is how it feels to share the stage with Joshua.  This is how it feels to believe God for the impossible.  This is how it feels to see the sun stand still.  Welcome to the middle of a move of God.

yep…a good read.

gracenomics – a review

September 27, 2010 in books & reviews, culture, thoughts with 0 Comments

i was excited to hear that mike foster was rolling out another good book.  this one, GRACENOMICS: Unleash the Power of Second Chance Living seemed aptly titled as many of us need to be both a larger giver of grace and also probably at the same time  a bit larger at receiving grace.

in a funny sort of way its a paradoxical title as the suffix tends to imply a “law”.  So when reading it i was stretched in a lot of different ways on a number of fronts.  With the idea simply being we must live  our lives in such a way to allow for each persons larger part of the Story to shine through…and to more deeply realize that there is a larger purpose we are called to but in our pursuit we must walk corporately…realizing that each person has their place and dignity.

here’s a clip on giving each other more of break in the context of our relationships, particularly in the area of divorce…

It makes no sense….And if you think we’re bad to the people we love, think about the people we used to love.
Take our ex-spouses for example. Isn’t it amazing how we can come to thrash on a person who we…
• once thought was the funniest, hottest human being on the planet?
• loved enough to make us rent tuxedos, dress up our friends in silly bridesmaid dresses, and drop thousands of dollars on wedding cake and finger sandwiches?
• got naked with and made babies with (or at least enjoy the attempts)?
But now, all of the sudden, these once fabulous, glamorous, intelligent people are the epitome of evil.
I’m not buying it. Our exes can’t ALL be mentally deranged monsters.
The more likely scenario is that we let the grace get sucked out of our families and marriages. And it all went downhill from there. Instead of unleashing second chance living we sent it packing.

that clip just rocked me as i’ve seen more disconnects between husbands and wives in our outpost then i care to process. mike sets up this observation with a discussion of how we are quick to use  what he calls a “pricing gun” to assign value to others and when we feel as though the value has gone out of something…we are quick to label it or them and push them to the “clearance rack”.

This book is an excellent read.  I appreciated the space in the book that invited the reader to think out and develop some action steps on how to be more of a grace-giver.  it was also helpful to have many practical stories of how folks are trying to make second chances a reality.  the book closes with an invitation to anyone who is willing to accept to join into what he calls a “scandal” of second chance living…to a place where we live our lives in the “economy of grace”.

I for one am wrestling through what that means and how i can live that out daily, personally and professionally.  the book gets released next week at catalyst.  til then you can hop over  here to sign up and join in as people of the second chance.

1 by Youth – Detroit

September 13, 2010 in adventure, books & reviews, culture, student ministry, thoughts with 1 Comment

Last week i took 9 students and 4 adults to southwest detroit to take part in  a 1 day of serving.  this is a new program from the folks at Group Cares.  The mission of…
1 By Youth™ unites youth groups to SERVE people in need and TRANSFORM entire neighborhoods… …IN ONE DAY!

we joined up with the other 500 + volunteers and got our assignments.  We were partnered with Pastor Justin and his students from Mt Hope Congregational Church in nearby Lavonia, MI.  Our serving site was Boyer Playfield at the insection of Vernor and Dragoon about 10 blocks from our rallying point, Clark Park.  Our task for the day was to clean & paint Boyer Play area, a local neighborhood park.  The task’s included painting over graffiti on local garages and fences that faced the park, trimming overgrown bushes and some landscaping.  The whole day was a stretch for all of us…that started from the moment we left at 5am and continued even after we arrived at our work site.

the first thing we encountered was a sickly pit bull who had a fighting collar on.  our site supervisor contacted the animal cruelty department, who upon arrival determined that the dog had been shot.  the dog looked haggard and it was a sad sight.  there was a pit bull next to the park that was actually padlocked to its chain.  it was good to see the students immediately step into the task and made quick work of the listed tasks.  During the cleanup the students found 5 used drug syringes, which was just one more indication of the brokenness of the neighborhood.

We were reminded of the key verse for the day from Matt 5:14-16 about letting our good deeds be a shining light.  To that end early in the our efforts a young man named Atoro approached and asked how he could join in our serving.  he was a local construction worker and readily offered his strength and his tools to help clear the heavily overgrown brush around the park perimeter.

During our lunch we spent some time doing some debriefing and reflecting again on Matt 5:14-16.  One thing that was very noticeable about our work site, that although it was a park…there wasn’t any children present.  as our final act we gather is a prayer circle and prayed over the ground upon which we were standing and for those that would be served by the park.

this was  a great one day event for our students and adult leaders.  the  1 by youth team was excellent and the whole experience was a great investment.  if you get in early the cost is $29.  I’m not sure about their other venues offered, but the detroit experience offered the added weight of being on the 9th anniversary of 9/11. So there was an extended partnership with local community development folks. We were told by many of the locals how blessed they were that our group would drive 3 hours to serve them. it was also good to see the city come together and join efforts to impact this neighborhood. the only disappointment to the day was the rain which forced the cancellation of a block party. it should be mentioned that the rain stopped the party…but not the the students…they all refused to come in from their tasks and just kept working.

here’s the wrap-up video of our effort.

EVO: Mission Detroit- 1 by Youth – 9.11.10 from nhloud video messages and media on Vimeo.

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