I Wonder If I Bore Jesus

Last night, I was working on the last paper for a class I'm taking online when I received a phone call. The person who called me always seems to call at the most inopportune times and seemingly never has anything interesting to say. It's always something about work or their spouse. My end of the conversation usually consists of a bunch of "Really?", "No Way.", and "I heard that."

I don't think there is anything wrong with being bored in conversation, by phone or face-to-face. After all, can we help what interests us and what bores us? I think the only thing we control is how interested we can act. I try my best, when I'm seriously bored in conversation, to at least act like my attention is undivided. I'm not always bored and a lot of things interest me but with a touch of ADD, you should say what you want before you lose me.

So last night, I got off the phone and returned to my paper when began thinking about some of the things I could do to stop losing interest in people so easily. At that point, I stopped dead in my train of thought and said to myself,

"I wonder if I bore Jesus."

Now, a lot of people would say, "There's no way that Jesus would lose interest in His people." So you're telling me that Jesus gets angry, heartbroken, interested, satisfied, happy, and jealous but He would never get bored? I don't think Jesus gets bored with me personally but I am not completely convinced that He never gets bored with the things I do and the way I do things.

I guess above all, whether Jesus gets disinterested in the way I do things or not, I want to make sure that the things I attempt for God are fresh and out of necessity rather than just doing things because that's the way they've always been done.

I may bore all of my friends but I want to make sure that what I do for Christ receives His genuine interest.

Happy Place

My number 17 favorite movie of all-time is Happy Gilmore. This movie stars Adam Sandler who plays Happy Gilmore, a former hockey player who is incapable of controlling his anger so he resorts to playing golf in order to save his grandmother's house from bank foreclosure. Get it? I hate when that happens....anyway. There is a point in the movie where Happy is struggling with his putting game so his coach, Chubbs Peterson (Carl Weathers), forces him to play mini-golf but, or course, Happy can't control his anger so Chubbs convinces him to find his "happy place". This is the point where Happy imagines a place where his on-screen love interest, Virginia Venit (Julie Bowen), is carrying two pitchers of beer while clad in skimpy lingerie, his helpless grandmother is hitting the jackpot on a slot machine, and a midget is riding a tricycle. I'm not sure how happy this place would make me or anyone else but the point here is that this was Happy Gilmore's Happy Place. Now it's time for me to Jesus this thing up a little.

God isn't a mere man. He can't lie.
He isn't a human being. He doesn't change his mind.
He speaks, and then he acts.
He makes a promise, and then he keeps it.
- Numbers 23:19 (NIV)

My Happy Place, spiritually speaking, is anytime that I can step aside from my God-less routine and life-driven complacency to revisit the points in my walk with God where I was most happy, most on fire, most eager to win the world to the Kingdom of God.

II Kings 4:8-37 tells the story of a woman from the town of Shunem. You can read it here. Here's the gist of it. This woman decides to build a room for the Prophet Elisha because he passed by her house so often. This room becomes a seed.

This labor intensive activity of building a room for the man OF God becomes her worship of and offering TO God.

In return, Elisha promised this childless woman that she would have a son, a promise that excited her but one that she also didn't initially believe. Her husband was old and she had never had the children she must have wanted so this was a big word for her. Fast forward a year, she has a son. Move ahead 10-15 more years, this son; her dream and her promise, DIES unexpectedly in her arms. This distraught woman takes her dead son into Elisha's room; the room that she built as a seed and lays him on the bed. She then heads out to find Elisha, who returns and is used by God to bring life back into the dead child. It's a really beautiful story if you have a minute to read it.

What do you do with your promise when it seems like time has ran out? What do you do when it's clear that your dream is broken, busted and will never come to pass?

To me, the most relevant part of this story isn't how God uses Elisha to speak life back into this boy's lifeless body...

but rather how she knew exactly what to do with her dead, lifeless, broken dream....

She knew to return to her Happy Place.

2011: I Will Not Make A Baby This Year

So I did it again. I stuck my foot in mouth on twitter last night. I was asked for my New Year's Resolutions so, without thinking, I rattled off a few things that I'd like to do in 2011. Some of them are drastic life-changes and some of them aren't major changes for me or for anyone else but maybe some of these things will help me overcome some inconsistencies in my life. So, I've made a list of 10 in no particular order. Chew on this:

1. I will write 50 blog posts this year, one per week, with a couple weeks off somewhere in there. I love blogging and reading blogs but have consistently been guilty of being sporadically inconsistent.
2. I will read at least 20 books this year. Some people read 20 books a month. I am not sure if I have even read 20 books in my life, honestly. I've never been a fan of reading but I know the importance of reading and I am sure that this would help in some way. I also want my kids to see me reading more.
3. I can and WILL weigh no more than 200 lbs by New Years 2012. This WILL happen. For me, for my family, for my friends, for ministry, for everything. #thatisall
4. I vow to give away more things than I am given this year. I will keep track. I will remember.
5. I will be a better husband and father than I am capable of being. How? I have no idea. I just know that I wanna be the best husband and father in the world, and then step it up.
6. I will not dip into our "New York City Thanksgiving 2011" money jug. Just so you know, I love "things" and I impulse buy. Typically, a money jug in the corner of our dining room is like the stands at a Marlins game...it's just not gonna fill up.
7. I will participate in a 3-day, 20 mile hike in May at a weight of no more than 230 lbs and I will run a marathon this year.
8. I will work on my scriptural study time and prayer life like I never have before. I've notice an unhealthy and self-created communication gap between God and myself. This isn't me and makes me uncomfortable. Hopefully I become uncomfortable enough to bring an end to it.
9. I'm a sports addict and have occasionally put sporting events (televised or in-person) ahead of family and God. This will come to an end. I will continue to be a huge sports fan but my priorities will take a dramatic shift in the right direction.
10. And lastly, this year I will: turn 31, not shave until May, purchase an iPad, pay off my truck and my cabin, not own a credit card, and not get my wife pregnant. We met in 2000, were married in 2002. My wife has been pregnant 6 times and at some point in every year, 2002-2010 with the exception of 2005....and 2011 :-)

I hope you enjoyed reading blog post 1 of at least 50. Please comment and RT! Thank you all so much for being my friends. Happy 2011!