vanity oh vanity

i have been thinking a lot lately about how much vanity must be involved to be part of the blogosphere. how else could one find it appropriate to say to the world, "here are my thoughts, you need these...enjoy!" what is it that drives us, as humans, to think that somehow we are, or ought to be, this important. i have read countless people's blogs of many professions (ministerial and otherwise) and wondered how they had so much time to sit at a computer. i have read others' and found myself marveling at the amount of narcisism that must exist in these persons' self awareness.

then i began to think about what it is that we do as ministers. we stand in front of a crowd, (hopefully) and trust that we have been in communion with the Almighty so that we may minister to those who need ministering to. i know that there is much more to ministry than speaking. (trust me, i work with middle schoolers) but i have been thinking about this very much.

do i simply want to be heard?

what makes me so different?

what makes me so special?

filled with the spirit

i have been thinking about what it means to be filled with the spirit lately. i want to badly for all the decisions that i make in my life..

anyone have any thoughts??

back to normal (right...)

i am so excited about getting back to speak at our MS program tonight. it has been a hectic 10 days. i have spoken at our kids worship services, high school, and college, and had to miss a couple of our programs, but hopefully tonight we can get back in a good routine again. i'm excited to get to hang with my kids tonight. talking about being excited, i can't wait to see the look on their faces when we reveal what we are going to be doing this fall. just gonna have to wait and see.

Back to the Future

tonight i led the college men's gathering at my church and had such a weird deja vu experience. it is so different for me to think about the things that i went through and things that i dealt with only three years ago. i looked at these guys who weren't much different than i am now and thought about all that had taken place in my life since i was even a senior in college.

i thought about the things that i used to struggle with and i had some interesting evaluations.

1.) Wow, God has really brought me through and from some things that seemed really difficult at the time.

2.) Wow, I am still dealing with some things that i should have laid down a long time ago.

*We talked through psalms 73 and what it meant to deal with temptations, and troubles. We also all decided that it was time for us to walk back into the house of God again and let our fear be swept up in the robe of God.

*That's all...just some later night ramblings.

Also- If anyone is looking for a townhouse...i have one that you would love!

Monday Morning Memo

So i subscribe to this e-newsletter called, Monday Morning Memos and today's was awesome- so i did what every good blogger should...i copied and pasted it right here for you. Enjoy!

What Courage Can Do With Six Dollars



Brad Lawrence has been a client of my firm for 12 years. During that time, he’s grown his business beyond all expectations.

Mostly because he’s got guts.

Recently, Brad was looking at a sort of charm bracelet for his jewelry store. He could buy the base bracelets for 6 dollars apiece if he ordered at least 500. That would be $3,000. But his real investment would be another $30,000 for the countless beads and charms with which women could personalize their bracelets.

His friends gave him lots of advice:

“Charm bracelets are dead. That trend has come and gone.”

“They’ll bring in the wrong customer. You’ll lose your reputation for upscale sophistication.”

“It would cost more to advertise the charm bracelets than you could make on them.”

What did Brad decide?

He decided to order 500 bracelets and give them all away.
My staff and I said “Hooray!”

Here’s what his friends said:

“People won’t value the bracelet if they get it for free.”

“People will take the bracelets, then sell them on eBay.”

“Giving away jewelry will make you look desperate.”

But Brad knew the story of K.C. Gillette, the man who gave away 90,884 razor handles in 1904 in the hope of selling disposable blades. By 1910 he was one of the richest men in America. Last year his company did more than $9 billion.

How did it work out for Brad?

The 500 free bracelets were gone in less than a week.
And within 6 weeks Brad had sold more than $100,000 worth of beads and charms. Only 28 people who took a bracelet failed to buy any ornaments for it.

This week Brad told me, “Groups of women are coming into the store during their lunch hour to shop for ornaments, beads and charms. Every day is like a party. The traffic is amazing. We're making lots of new friends and winning lots of new customers. It was one of the smartest things we’ve ever done.”

Brad Lawrence had the courage of his convictions. Do you?

Life is more fun on the edge.

And the view is better, too.

Roy H. Williams

my blog rating

just had my blog rated. i think a "G" rating is kinda cool. this is about as edgy as i get.

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shout out

just wanted to say that today i am thinking about Joe McDaniel. He was my old boss at a previous church and a great one.

Sometimes I think that it's too easy to generalize an entire experience with one single emotion. Like painting with a broad brush. Life up to this point has been pretty interesting for me professionally. I have had some great experiences, and some ones that I think were for learning, and others that were used to prune me and taught me to let go of my pride. I don't ever want to be the kind of person who can't learn, or the kind who can't let things go, or the type that whines about it even after the fact.

God has been in charge for a lot longer than I understand and He will take me the rest of the way.