Alright so it’s Friday again! That means it’s time for “The Friday Four”, the four things that are weighing heavy on my heart.

1.) GROWTH – (–noun 1. the act or process, or a manner of growing; development; gradual increase.)
I heard a man way smarter than me one time say “Healthy things grow by default”. I agree, but at the same time find it funny that although growth is natural, with people it seems like we are an exception. In other words the growth process seems to elude us. The key though is “HEALTHY” things grow by default. If I’m not experiencing growth in any specific area of my life, then maybe that area just isn’t healthy. If it’s not healthy then there needs to be some attention and time spent evaluating that area of my life.

You see maybe I’m crazy, but I believe God wants us to grow. I believe God wants increase in every area of our lives. Why is this heavy on my heart, honestly, I want more. I don’t want to be one who just settles for what’s currently there. Some people will work harder for a nicer car, some for a nicer home. I just want more for my life. I know that sounds vague but when I close my eyes and picture my life, I see more. I want the picture I see with my eyes closed to be my reality. I want what I dream about at night to become what I live during the day.

So if I’m not there, then there is room to grow. If I’m not growing then I want to know why? Those answers aren’t just going to fall in our laps. We have to pursue the giver of those dreams. We have to be willing to ask the hard questions, and do something about the answers. Remember that smart guy from earlier? Well he finished that statement with “Growing things change!” So in other words:

“Healthy things Grow by default, but Growing things change”

2.) GROWTH

Yes #1 was growth as well but just follow with me for a minute.

This week I was excited to be able to go & celebrate with my friends Brian & Kari Jennings at Breakthrough Christian as they launched there Saturday Night Service to a packed house. Not only did they launch there Saturday Night service they also broke through with 250 in attendance for the weekend.

Then I got a text from a friend Micahn Carter who hit 400 on sunday.

I’ve been excited for these guys all week as they see God doing some big things in their ministries here in Yakima.

3.) Sun Stand Still -

It’s no secret I’ve been a fan of what’s been happening out of Elevation Church in Charlotte for awhile now. This week Pastor Steven’s first book “Sun Stand Still” launched. We’re using this book as our Small Group material at our house on Sunday nights. To say that it’s good stuff would be an understatement. Pastor Steven broke the mold by not only writing a great book, but also by producing dozens of top notch resources then had the audacity to offer them to everyone for free. (Thank you by the way!) We’ve got a good group of people that meet us at our home on Sunday nights as we worship, pray and dive into this idea of believing God for the impossible.

Why is this so exciting? I don’t know, maybe it’s watching the tears roll down cheeks as God really speaks to people in your living room. Maybe it’s fact that in this group is the potential to change the world, I don’t know. What I do know is you need to go and order this book.

4.) Tre’s gonna be 10!

Yeah I know I’ve got a couple weeks before it actually happens, but dear Jesus my son is gonna be 10.

Tre(bow

I Love you buddy! (Wow I need to change that light switch)

The other day I was reading the book of Acts and ran across a familiar passage. Now before I go any further I have to say one of the dangers of “Familiar” anything is that we assume that we already know what it entails and then miss something important altogether. So I pushed through and read it all anyways.

22 A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods.23 They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape.24 So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks. 25 Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. – Acts 16:22-25 (NLT)

If you’ve been in church any length of time someone has stood up and tried to encourage you to worship through whatever situation that you are facing.  So we end up closing our eyes tighter, singing a little louder and pushing harder hoping that the walls of our situational prison will come tumbling down. Please don’t get me wrong in this, I agree wholeheartedly that God honors our worship and that sometimes we do need to just push through. In fact if you go to our church I was probably the bald guy up there trying to get you to push through. I get all of that, but, as I read through these verses something struck me.

Paul & Silas weren’t worshiping God to convince Him to get them out of prison. They worshiping because the God that they knew was good and worthy to be praised. They worshiped because of the things that God was doing in their lives. Not as a means to an escape, that came because the God they believed to be Good was in fact GOOD!

I guess what I’m getting at is, I wonder what would happen in our lives if more of our worship was just because of how good God is. Personally, I believe that our perspectives would change. I believe the reality is, that we would see those situations we face as the speed bumps they are rather than prison walls we make them out to be!

As a culture, I think we focus way more energy, money & time on the things that we think are wrong rather than on just how good God is.

I got an idea, why don’t you join me right now and just begin to tell God just how good he’s been to you. Maybe the earth won’t shake, but I bet a smile will come to your face. And you might just see things differently!

For a better part of the last 14 years I’ve been a closet country music fan. Yup! that’s right I’ve come out of the closet per se! There is a song called “gimme that girl” by Joe Nichols that every single time it’s on it brings a smile to my face & I have no choice but to crank it up.

Call me sappy if you want to but like I titled this post this is my home on the net so I’m posting this “because I can!” In fact, just typing this has me laughing hard enough that the people here at the coffee shop are looking at me strange. And that’s OK by me, because what they don’t know is that there is nothing more beautiful than my wife when we’re just around the house! In fact she’s probably at home right now with a pair of sweats and an old t-shirt on dancing as she sweeps.

Maybe that’s why while I’m supposed to be here working I can’t get her or this song out of my head:

Gimmie the girl thats beautiful,
without a trace of makeup of on,
barefoot in the kitchen,
singing her favorite song.
Dancing around like a fool,
starring in her own little show,
gimmie the girl the rest of the world,
ain’t lucky enough to know.

Most people only get to see the quite Heidi, most people just aren’t lucky enough to know that she does have a tendency to “dance around like a fool and star in her own little show”. And the best part is that me and our boys LOVE IT!

So like I said earlier I’m posting this:

1. Because I can…
2. I can’t get her out of my head and nor do I want to…
3. I can’t imagine life any other way or with anyone else!

So here’s the video, I’m going home…

For those that know me, I love coffee. I don’t try to hide it, & i’m definitely not ashamed of it! Whether it be a fresh pot of french press brewed at home or an Americano from my favorite local spot. I guess what I’m getting at is if you see me I’ll usually be enjoying a good cup of joe.

One of my favorite things to do is to get the water boiling, grind some beans & grab that french press so I can sit down and read.  With that said we’re starting something new on here I’m calling the Daily Bean, just a place where I write down some thoughts in regards to what I’m reading and leave with a question to ponder. Now, is it gonna really be daily? Not sure but here goes nothing…

Over the past year I’ve spent a lot of time in the book of Colossians. It’s easily became on of my favorite epistles. With verses like:

“For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you the assurance of sharing his Glory.” Colossians 1:27 (NLT)

“⁶ And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. ⁷ Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.” Colossians 2:6-7 (NLT)

“⁹ For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. ¹⁰ So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.” Colossians 2:9-10 (NLT)

“¹³ You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. ¹⁴ He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.” Colossians 2:13-15 (NLT)

And many more…

But I recently began reading a book called Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola and something jumped out at me and caused me to pose a question to myself. Colossians 1:19 says:

¹⁹ For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,

Now if God was pleased to in all his fullness live in Christ, and Christ now lives in me, wouldn’t it be safe to assume that the very fullness of God lives in me. I think it’s time that we as Christians live worthy of not just the calling, but the caller. I mean come on, think about this for a minute (READ IT LOUD & SLOW):

¹⁹ For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,

I think that the idea of God being pleased with anything to do with us is hard for most of us to comprehend. But if we look at this verse with literal eyes then: “God in all his fullness is pleased to live in you!” So to coin an old phrase why don’t we all just “put that in our pipes and smoke it today!“ No matter how you currently feel about yourself smile and rejoice that the God of Heaven and Earth is pleased to dwell within you! Can I Get An AMEN!

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I learn the most profound lessons when I’m not really looking for, or to honest even wanting to learn them.  For those of you with kids this will ring true no matter how young or old they are.

Kids are a daily learning experience for the parent.

For those that know me, it’s no secret I love baseball. As a father of two boys I want my kids to like sports, but I want my kids to love baseball. I want my kids to have a favorite team, as long as it’s the Redsox! So far it’s working, well one of them loves the hotdogs more than baseball, but what’s a trip to the park without a dog?

"E"man (4 years ago) @ Safeco

I love my boys, I’ve talked about this a little here before but I coach my oldest son’s Little League team. We’re currently wrapping the season up and playing this Friday in the Semi-Finals of the City Tournament attempting to re-peat as champs. Before last night’s game I was pretty excited about the season coming to an end and getting back to some sense of a normal home life. Then watching my son play last night really stirred some mixed emotions. He’s grown so much, last season his first 6 at bats all ended with him striking out. He ended the year doing pretty well hitting .330 with a couple doubles. This year it’s been completely different  leading the team in extra base hits with 2 triples, 6 doubles and finishing 2nd in batting avg by hitting  .480. To top it off he’s been nominated to try-out for the City All-star team. I had no idea what those mixed emotions were until I read this post from Pete Wilson this morning.

Margin Is Essential

Monday morning I was heading in for a 7:00 a.m. breakfast meeting and for whatever reason I actually left the house early. The breakfast place I was headed to is exactly 15 minutes from my house so I knew I had to leave at 6:45 to make it on time, however, I remember sitting down in my truck, looking up at the clock and seeing that it was only 6:39 a.m.

Just a few minutes from my destination I noticed a middle aged man in a maroon Honda Accord who was trying to pull out of the gas station into my lane of heavy morning traffic. I had plenty of time left to get to my appointment, so without hesitation I put my brakes on and let him out.

As he pulled out and waved the thought crossed my mind…

Margin is essential for the unexpected!

I tend to plan my schedule and my budgets based on perfect scenarios. The problem with that is obvious. Rarely are there perfect scenarios. In other words I have no margins.

A margin is something allowed, or reserved, for that which can not be foreseen or known with certainty.

If I had left right “on time”  I probably would have been so focused on where I was going that I would have totally missed the opportunity to let him out. Even if I did see him I’m not sure I would have taken the time to stop. Now it doesn’t sound like a really big deal, right? I mean, it’s just let a car pull out in front of me. However, this principle plays itself out in almost every area of my life and has huge implications.

I’m afraid margin is something that is missing way too often in my life these days.

My lack of margin impacts…

How generous I am with my money.

How generous I am with my time.

How I lead.

How I love.

How is your margin or lack of margin impacting you these days? What one area of your life do you need more margin the most? - Pete Wilson

I guess I didn’t fully realize what I was doing last year when I was asked to help coach my son’s team. Now as the season is wrapping up I’m starting to recognize & ask myself the same question that is in Pete’s post:

What opportunities are we missing by not having intentional margins in our lives?

Those mixed emotions are pretty obvious today. If I would have chosen to just drop him off at practice and pick him up when it was over I would have missed the fist pump last night as he tagged the runner out trying to steal third. I would have missed getting yelled at by the umpire for hugging him at third base after his first triple. I would have missed the good conversations we’ve had about disappointment and sportsmanship. In essence the list could continue, but today the greatest lesson I’ve learned is that;

“Margin gave me something unexpected. Margin took me from just being there, to being involved…”