We live in a world where grace is of the premium. We are quick to ridicule, judge, and tear down. As much as we love a good comeback story we also love the dirt of a great fall. Especially one’s where all the kings horses and men cannot put Lindsey Lohan back together again. We like grace when we receive it but it is tough for us to give. Or is it. Think for a moment of the past couple years. We have seen a many great fall.
Brittney Spears

Tiger Woods

Michael Vick

John and Kate Plus 8…well…maybe!!!

Either way you get the point. We say that our world is graceless and we thrive off of trashing others, but I have had more conversations with people lately that said they love seeing these people beat the odds, receive grace, and rise to greatness again. As I thought about this, this is true. I have never met any of the above, but I longed to see each of them make it. Is it strange that I was always scared that I would turn on the TV and Brittney would be dead? Why? I have never met her, don’t really care for her music, and have no personal ties to her. Yet for some reason I wanted her to make it. This past week I watched all four rounds of the Players Championship. Why? One, I like golf. But two, I want to see Tiger do well. Everyone has their opinion on him but he is human and he, as much as me, deserves second chance after second chance.

Why? Because we like Grace. In fact for most of us it is easier to want it for others than for ourselves. We love to see others make it, but for us, when it comes to ourselves, we are simply…Ashamed by Grace. It seems to me, especially in church circles we will sing Amazing Grace, and read books like What’s So Amazing About Grace, and study together things like Gracenomics, and even follow one of my favorite organizations People Of The Second Chance, yet we ourselves think the grace that everyone is talking about is for someone other than us.

Those people have overcome.

Those people are special.

Those people have resources to receive grace.

We think that it applies to everyone but us. We are ashamed to receive it. It is as if we don’t want to receive grace because we fear that there is a limited supply and someone more deserving should get it. We think that our transgressions are too big for grace to cover them. We fear receiving grace because that would mean people would have to know what we did. We are ashamed by it because it proves that we are not in control. We are ashamed to receive it because we feel that we simply don’t deserve it. And you know what…?

Your right!!! In fact that is by definition what Grace is.

It is the getting of something we don’t deserve.

None of us deserve it. That’s what makes it so incredible. In fact receiving grace is not something that Christ wants us to be ashamed of, but is the very thing he wants us to receive and then scream it from the rooftops because he died to give it to us.

Today may we be people who are no longer ashamed by grace, but are ashamed when we don’t receive it.

Here I sit…

Week two of my sabbatical is coming to a close. I was really looking forward to this time, but even I did not realize how much I needed it. Let me back up though. Some of you hear the word sabbatical and you think a myriad of things. Some think…

VACATION

NOTHINGNESS

TIME OFF

LAZY

Even though all those things seem to be what we would label “sabbatical” it is so much more than that. This is what I love about my church. At the ten-year mark they give each of our staff members a one month sabbatical. However, this is not a vacation. This is not nothingness. This is not “time off”. It is rest, but is not laziness. This is a time to rest, replenish, and re-energize. In fact there are some requirements on our time of sabbatical. Not a list of rigid rules, but some guidelines in order to make us truly get the most of it.

REQUIREMENTS OF SABBATICAL:

Week 1: You must spend one week at another church simply serving. For me that was a trip to Nashville. Some of my best friends are on staff at one of the best churches in the country there. I love it, because I can go, copy stuff, make coffee, file stuff, love on people, take notes, encourage staff, and simply be a guy helping the church for no other reason than serving the church.

I am not drawing a paycheck from them.

I am not getting any gain other than serving them with the gospel.

I have to tell you that it is one of the best weeks I have had so far on my sabbatical. In fact I was able to get my friend there to take the weekend off, which was the first time in four years that he has had a Sunday off where he was not leading somewhere else. I served him and his family and it was so rich. We unplugged, got in kayaks and spent three hours in the Harpeth River in Tennessee. It was full of resting, replenishing, and re-energizing. It took that week to get me in a state of sabbatical.

Middle of Nowhere: Nashville, TN

Week 2: You must spend a few days in solitude. Solitude looks different for all people. However, one constant remains. You must get still and quiet in order to hear God’s voice in new and fresh ways. I was home from Nashville for a few days to celebrate my wife and daughters birthdays and then I hopped another plane to the North East. I walked off the plane this past Saturday in Boston. It was cool and overcast outside. I got my rental car and started up the coast. An hour later and I was in Manchester, NH. Now being an East Coaster myself it felt as if I was coming home. It was welcoming and full of beauty. There were rolling hills and mountains in the distance. I spent a few days with my good friends Bo and Eric who used to be on staff with us in Texas, but now lead one of the greatest churches in the North East. Everyday since I have been here I have had large chunks of solitude. Simply still and quiet moments. It is amazing when you still yourself how clearly you can hear God.

He has spoken through scripture.

He has spoken through nature.

He has spoken through the quiet.

He has spoken through others.

He has simply spoken…

Today is a full day of solitude. Today is full of writing, reading, and listening.

New Found Lake: Bristol, NH

Week 3 & 4: You can do what you would like. For me…that means going home and hanging with my family. Investing all I can in my wife and daughters. Giving them the full attention that they need from their husband and father. It means resting at home. It is like when you go on vacation and you come home needing a vacation from your vacation. Well, this time I get that. I get to come home and rest after traveling to rest. Sure I look forward to new places. I love the quiet of airplanes, hotel rooms, and the loneliness that sometimes comes with travel. In fact I revel in those moments. However, there is really no place like your own bed, couch, kitchen, patio, family, and surroundings. I actually look more forward to that than I do anything else I have done.

I encourage you…if you are not taking a regular sabbath, you need to. You don’t need a month. In fact Jesus retreated regularly to rest, replenish, and re-energize. It is time that we take back the time that God wants from us and give it to him. It is there and there alone that we hear the still small voice of the Lord.

I noticed right at the beginning of one of Paul’s letters in the New Testament it started with the phrase “Grace and Peace to you in…” I am not sure why this struck such a chord with me but my interest was peeked. I turned to another book of Paul’s and read the intro phrase “Grace and Peace to you in…”

Sure enough, the more I turned the pages the more I learned that Paul started most his letters this way to the churches he was writing to. Then I had this thought…

Could it be that simple?

Could Paul have just unlocked an unspeakable truth to me that has always been right there in its simplest form?

Honestly…Yes!!! It really was that simple. Now you may be asking the question of “What is that simple?” Well, I am glad you asked.

Notice that Paul does not say “Peace and Grace.” In fact the order is quite important. He puts Grace before Peace. Funny how that works. I think of all the times that I have tried to feel peace before offering grace to others. As I went through the myriad of times in my life where I have tried to do that I realized that it never happened. I have never had a moment where peace preceded grace for me when I had been hurt or offended and was trying to move forward. The only time that I ever found true peace was when I offered grace first.

Grace offers us love.

Grace offers us joy.

Grace offers us transformation.

Grace offers us redemption.

Grace offers us a new start.

Grace offers us friendship.

Grace offers us newness.

Grace offers us second chances.

Grace offers us intimacy.

Grace offers peace…peace that surpasses all understanding.

So today I say to you “GRACE AND PEACE!!!” May you now find peace because you have been extended grace, and may you now give grace in order to help others find peace.

Today for a brief moment we mourn the loss of a friend. This is a friend that we all know well. He seems to always have been there for us. He was always there to pick us up when we felt down. He seemed to be the consummate encourager and friend. It seemed as if when everyone else was looking to tear us down he was there, to well…

pick us up!!!

Even if it was for a moment he always worked to make us each feel better about who we were. However, the reality of the matter was that he was a liar. He never wanted to satisfy you or me. It was all a terrible rouse. He did nothing more than feed the deep and dark areas of our soul. Today I will not be reading any eulogies of Psalm 23. There will be no sheep in green pastures. There will be no quiet waters. But today I gladly and willingly bury you. Today…

SELF GRATIFICATION IS LAID TO REST!!!

How so you may ask?

Now I am not naive enough to think that you, me, or any other person can seriously claim on a website that self gratification will be completely laid to rest. But I know that for me it has to start somewhere and for me it starts here. If I am to be honest, my whole life has been spent, for the most part, looking for acceptance and affirmation from others. It is funny what self seeking will lead one to do. Insert multiple forms of media and social networks and the appetite began to grow even more.
We all want to be known. We all want to “know” somebody. We all want that somebody to tell somebody that we are somebody. We all want someone to tell us we have value. We all want someone to tell us that we have worth. But the realization I have come to is not a new one. In fact many before me have written and warned of it. I have come to the decision that it is time that I start slaying the things in my life that are self seeking. If I do not do so, it will ultimately kill me first. And honestly if you are not careful…it will destroy you too.

So where do I start? As I said, right here. I love to write and create. This space will be for that. This space will be raw. It will be a place where I work through life, love, and creativity. I hope you will journey with me. However, in order for this space to be what I long for and need for it to be I have disabled the comments section. Now for many that may not seem like a big deal. However, for me it is huge. That means that I can stop worrying about who is going to read and who is not. I can create and not care if one person or a thousand read it. I can create and not worry about whether people affirm it or not. I can be what God has always wanted from me…

ME!!!

That last phrase was liberating for me to write. I am not perfect. I have issues. I am messy. I deal with things inside that no one will ever know because of my need for affirmation. However, the beauty is, is that God is working something greater in me and in you than our self gratification. Gratification of self leads to nothing but emptiness, bitterness, and rage. However, living in the freedom of the Creator of the Universe causes us to live out what he has placed in each one of us. So today I say, to you Self Glorification…,

R.I.P.

My hope is that you will journey along with me. I would love to hear your stories, but I would rather hear them in person or in the very least through email. For more places to read about what helped me make this decisions here are two great posts by two great places I like to read:

HERE & HERE

So with that said…

Here is to a new day, a new beginning, and a new us!!!

It’s Monday.

It’s a new day.

It’s a new week.

It’s fresh.

Today started with what I thought was Laura leaving for work. As she walked out I nestled back in to bed for a few more minutes sleep before the last snooze alarm went into its morning routine. A few moments later, due to the fact that the bedroom is next to the driveway, I saw the red glow of brake lights fly by the window and heard the garage door come up. I thought that she must have forgotten something and would probably come in frantic and disheveled. How dare I think the worst. In fact she came home to do quite the contrary.

As I heard the door open to the kitchen from the garage I looked at my phone for the time and then flipped on the lamp by the bed. I then laid there and waited. I knew for sure she would come in. In fact I fully expected her to whisk through the bedroom, grab whatever was forgotten, and head out frantically. However, she walked in calmly, walked over to the bed, and handed me a tiny donut hole. She said, “this is for you.” She had a little twinkle in her eye as she turned and walked slowly back out of the bed room.

I walked in a daze towards the glow of the kitchen. I could see her silhouetted in the light by the counter and her mini-me was standing their with her. She had bought these baked delicacies for work and thought enough of us to come back home, disrupt her day, and love on us. It was beautiful. It spoke volumes to us without her uttering a word. It was what good days are made of.

It was nice…

It felt normal…

It felt new…

It felt fresh…

Yet…it felt familiar…

Now I sit in my office. My stomach is one donut hole fuller now than it was prior to 7:00am. My heart is one random act of kindness fuller than it was prior to today. Things are not perfect, in fact they probably never will be what we deem perfection. However, today I got a little glimpse of the something new, fresh, nice, and familiar. Here is to hoping I live in that and not the other stuff we tend to dwell in.

i’m a dreamer.

i love to think about what things can be like.

i can get a vivid picture in my head and see what it looks like in reality.

in church world that can be a great commodity and dangerous at the same time.

it is great because vision must be cast out of looking from the clouds and seeing the big picture.

however, this can be very dangerous because sometimes we can get our head stuck in the clouds and never come to the dirt and put the shovel to those dreams.

the people i see doing the most good in the church are those who balance having their heads in the clouds and then parachuting down to the dirt to make them a reality.

we make all sorts of excuses for staying in the clouds.

we make lots of BUT statements…(might I add those are big but’s- #sirmixalotreferernce)

i would get in the dirt, BUT…i might get dirty.

i would get in the dirt, BUT…the clouds are nice and i don’t have to do anything but dream.

i would get in the dirt, BUT…what if others don’t understand what i saw in the clouds.

i would get in the dirt, BUT…i might fail.

i would get in the dirt, BUT…what if God let’s me down.

i would get in the dirt, BUT… i’m creative not administrative.

i would get in the dirt, BUT…my family might think i am crazy.

i would get in the dirt, BUT…

that little word is the difference between living out your dreams to do what God has called you to and staying in the clouds and never experiencing what he longs to do with you.

as much as God is in the clouds,

He is also…very much…

IN THE DIRT!!!

what dream do you need to get out of the clouds and into the dirt?

]]> http://freshairpoetry.com/2012/01/06/head-in-the-clouds-2/feed/ 0 http://freshairpoetry.com/2011/12/29/when-18-year-olds-die-and-change-lives/ http://freshairpoetry.com/2011/12/29/when-18-year-olds-die-and-change-lives/#comments Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:05:34 +0000 Trevor http://freshairpoetry.com/?p=2701

there were a few in the internet world that were stoked to have filled their instant gratification desire. the world that we live in is funny. there is no longer a save and buy mentality. we live in a buy and pay off world now. however, what i have noticed is that it seems that we are a lot more unhappy and less satisfied with whatever that thing is that we used to instantly gratify ourselves. what would happen if we waited, saved and then purchased?

first, i wonder if we would even buy at all if we waited?

two, i wonder if time would allow us to appreciate and purchase things that would matter a little more?

three, i wonder if we would still feel the emptiness that stuff seems to bring?

your turn…what do you think?

ready…set…GO!!!