Happy Saturday!

I thought this video was pretty cool. Notice how the performer deals with the cell phone “interruption” toward the end.

Can’t see the video? Click here.

I’ve always bristled at the notion of welcoming adversity, but this offers a new perspective. The violinist turns what might have been a rude, negative incident into an opportunity to display his art and elicit a smile.

Maybe it really is a matter of perspective.

Have a great weekend.

Do you have trouble saying NO?

One of the popular bits of advice floating around these days is to say NO more frequently.

You’re heard it. We’re all over-committed. Too much on the schedule, too many demands, too much media, email, and activity. We scramble from one shallow thing to the next like a stone skipping across a pond, reaching the other side but hardly getting wet.

It’s obvious that scurrying through life is no way to live, that we need slower, deeper interactions. I suggest that NO may not be the best place to begin.

Maybe we begin with YES. Maybe we say YES to:

• A God-sized dream we’ve tried to ignore for too long.
• Writing a better story with the gifts God’s given us.
• Investing in deeper, more passionate relationships with God, others, and ourselves.
• Stepping out in faith, taking a risk, trusting God with something that scares us to death.

And you’re thinking that you’re already buried and the very last thing you need is one more big commitment. I’d suggest that may be precisely what you need. Once you choose (and it is a choice) what you absolutely must do, the things to which you need to say NO become clearer.

I don’t know what that might be for you. I’ve experienced a few of these YES moments in the past decade or so: Writing a book, changing careers, doing RICH’S RIDE. In each case, one YES precipitated a bunch of obvious NO’s. If you’re serious about something important, you’d better count the cost first because you’ll likely have to let go of some important stuff.

And perhaps that’s the best way to discover the necessary NO’s. Even a request that feels important requires a NO when it diverts you from an essential YES. It’s one function of my three key words for 2011: ride, book, and workshop. Before I tackle anything big I measure it against those three words. If it doesn’t fit, perhaps it needs to be a NO.

I’m finding that positive commitments and positive habits are much easier to keep. They fill space with good stuff, leave a bit less space for bad stuff, and make it easier to know when to say NO.

What’s your take? Any similar experiences? What might you need to say YES to?

Please leave a comment.

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One of the things I like about blogging is the stuff I miss. I miss a lot.

It’s an immediate medium. I do actually put a bit of thought into the words, but we all know it’s also something of an in-progress work. So I frequently receive comments that cause me to think deeper or further.

One of my most frequent commenters is my lovely wife, Becky. Her comments usually occur in the kitchen, prefaced gently by a phase like, “Did you think about …?” Mostly the answer is, “No, I didn’t think about that at all.”

So I wasn’t surprised when she asked yesterday whether readers might feel like I was leaving God out of the mix when I used Don Miller’s metaphor and encouraged you to Share A Great Story.

Two good questions: first, did I leave God out of the equation? I hope not. If I did, it wasn’t intentional. I don’t believe it’s possible to live a truly great story that’s not centered on His will.

And there’s the second question: Is God’s will more like a compass or a map? In story language, who’s the author?

In map language, God’s the author. God has a detailed plan for our lives written in advance. Our task is to discover and follow that plan. God provides the map, I do my best to follow it.

In compass language, I’m the author—following God’s outline or direction. He defines the parameters of a great story and gives me unique gifts and opportunities to use them. He wants me to be creative, as He’s creative. He wants me to write a great story, using Him as compass or co-author or guide.

I don’t think either model is 100% correct. God isn’t that simplistic. As I’ve said before, there’s mystery in the interplay between human free will and God’s omnipotence that’s slightly (or maybe more) beyond my comprehension.

But it’s obvious which way I lean. God’s will for my life is pretty clear. He wants me to spend time with Him, love my wife, share my gifts with others, care for the needy. That seems to be compass language that points me toward True North. It’s up to me to fill in the details, and always be willing to let Him interrupt.

What He doesn’t seem to want is for me to sit around waiting for a cosmic traffic light to tell me to get moving. The light’s already bright green.

“Follow me.”

“Go and make disciples.”

Time to go. You and I and God have a story to write.

Please leave a comment.

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I posted an excerpt from the in-progress manuscript today over at Rich’s Ride. It’s called The Middle Of Nowhere. I invite you to drop over and take a look.

Everybody’s got a story.

Have you ever thought about that?

Wherever Becky and I tell the story of RICH’S RIDE, we inevitably hear compelling stories in return. It’s as though hearing about our adventure releases others to share their own experiences.

I love listening to these stories. We often hang around for a long time afterward, just listening. It’s a wonderful experience, but there are a couple of disturbing aspects to many of the stories we hear.

One is a sense that our stories happen to us. Folks with this perspective speak in fatalistic, victim terminology, as though they had nothing to do with the direction of their lives.

We need to acknowledge that life isn’t simplistic, that events occur clearly beyond our control. I don’t begin to understand how God’s will meshes with human freedom of choice.

But to a large degree, each of us decides the nature of our story. We choose to dream—or not. We choose the habits that shape our character. One of my goals whenever I speak is to encourage folks to own their personal story, to believe they’re the author. I want people to believe in hope that allows them to dream and re-write a story with which they may not be satisfied.

It’s absolutely true that every person is a single choice away from a new story.

The other is that it’s all about “the power of positive thinking.” Perhaps it’s simply semantics, but positive thinking sounds like a platitude, pasting a pretend positive spin on decidedly negative events.

I’d rather talk about scripture’s promise that God causes ALL things to work together for good. God always honors His promises, and in that I find enduring, long-term hope.

I expect God’s faithfulness, no matter the circumstances, even when I can’t see it. I believe I can lean on His promises and continue to write a story of hope.

You’re the author of your story. Write a great one, one worth sharing.

Please leave a comment.

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Happy Monday!

This weekend reminded me of an uncomfortable word-of-the-week…

DIVIDE

One of the cool things about speaking to different groups is worshipping in a variety of churches. I find it refreshing to remember that Jesus is worshipped in many different ways. Ministers wear robes, pastors wear blue jeans. Electric guitars, pipe organs, pianos, old hymns, modern praise anthems—they all give glory to the same God.

It’s cool, these differences, but it’s also sad. It’s sad because the differences are so frequently the focus. They’re trumpeted, highlighted like some badge of honor. It happens in my church as well.

And that’s sad, because it’s all about what divides. And that shouldn’t be what it’s about at all.

I suspect that if we made a list of what nearly all followers of Jesus have in common, that list would be very long. So why do we search for an item or two on which we disagree, draw a line in concrete, and use that line to divide and identify us?

I think Jesus cares about right and wrong theology.

I think He’s sad when His followers divide themselves.

Have a great week.

Please leave a comment.

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Happy Saturday!

I really like the distinction this kid makes between the street definition of religion and what Jesus said.

Can’t see the video? Click here.

Have a great weekend.

Yesterday (Great Grape Or Second Banana) I wrote about using our unique gifts. I’d like to expand a bit.

The more I think about it the more I’m convinced that the notion of “special needs” isn’t biblically sound.

My friend Tim pastors a church in Denver, and he talks a lot about the “Y’all Come In” mentality. In that view, if the church opens the door and puts down a welcome mat, that’s enough.

Except that it’s not enough.

At Tim’s church they send people to homeless shelters and by-the-week motels. They sit with people one-on-one, talk with them, assure them they’re valued and needed.

Those aren’t the comfortable church people. Often they’re dirty and smelly. Sometimes they’re manipulative or mistrustful. They’re certainly the most materially needy, and they’re also the least likely to respond to “Y’all Come In.”

In Tim’s eyes this isn’t a special ministry to special people who need the church. It’s a biblical ministry seeking folks with essential gifts the church needs.

I think it’s a lot like that with people who face physical, emotional, or mental challenges. I suppose it would be ideal if everyone felt equally welcome and accepted. They don’t. We don’t.

Suppose it’s not about meeting “special needs.” What if it’s about really believing that every person brings unique gifts to the table and that every excluded person means an incomplete body?

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, 12-14

I don’t know how to make this happen. Well, actually, I do—we all do. What I really don’t know is how to make it comfortable.

It’s uncomfortable to be around those who are different. It’s just easier to worship in familiar surroundings with familiar people and familiar ideas. Folks with disabilities, folks who don’t “fit in” in some way—they make us uncomfortable. There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging that.

What’s wrong is letting that discomfort control us. Folks who look or act differently, who evoke feeling of discomfort—we can’t just open the door and say “Y’all Come In.” And we can’t shuffle them off to the side into “special” sections or “special” programs that that serve our needs much more than theirs.

We need to go get them. We need to include them. We need to equip them to use their unique gifts in ministry.

Just like everyone else.

Please leave a comment.

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I’ve been invited to speak at a church in Boulder, Colorado this weekend. The topic is Rich’s Ride and how it relates to people with special needs in the church.

I’ll write a bit more about my actual message tomorrow. Today I simply want to express my gratitude.

This picture shows perhaps the most difficult hill we encountered on the entire ride. It’s at the very southeastern tip of Iowa in the town of Keokuk, and it was one of the few times I was unsure whether I’d reach the top without assistance.

I cranked up that hill by myself. But I never would have reached the bottom without a great deal of help, support, and encouragement.

It would have been so easy for folks to push me into a corner and ignore me. People at school didn’t have to provide the technology that allowed me to teach and mentor young teachers for twenty-four years. People at church didn’t have to make the building accessible or provide ministry opportunities. There were easier, cheaper, more convenient alternatives.

I’m grateful for people who took seriously the biblical principle to focus on ability rather than disability.

Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body…The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable … 1 Corinthians 12:15-16, 21-22

According to the RPV (Rich Paraphrased Version), a grape can spend its life struggling to be a banana, but it’ll always be a second-rate banana. The grape would do better to devote its energy to being the best possible grape. I’m grateful for those who’ve supported me in my effort to use my unique gifts.

I’m not sure I’m a great grape, but I’m glad I get to try. But I’m grateful that people don’t insist on making me into a second-rate banana.

Please leave a comment.

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Here’s a humble answer to a difficult question.

I invite you to check out the latest edition of Rich’s Semi-Regular Newsletter.

2012 is off and flying!