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I don’t want to be perfect. I just need to be better at following the One Person who is. I don’t want to be smarter than everyone else, I just need to speak of the wisdom that comes from His Word. I don’t want to be loved by everyone, or maybe I do, but I don’t need to be loved by everyone, I just need to become better at loving others the way He does. I don’t want to be stronger than everyone else, I just need to rely on Him for my strength. I don’t want to be more popular than everyone else, I just need to find my identity in Him. I don’t have to act like I know everything, I just need to listen to the One who does.
I don’t need control, yet I constantly take it from Him. I don’t want to be rich, I just need Him to provide. I don’t want to be served, I just need to serve others the way He did. I have found the things I need and want are not the same. My wants are of this world, My needs are found in Him. May He grant me the discernment to distinguish between the things I want and that which I truly need. May He be our only need!

It’s back to work today after a 2 week break. It seems that every ounce of my being despises routine and the monotonous cycle of a 8-5 job. It seems that all of us were created for so much more than just existing. I crave adventure and stepping into the unknown. I love not knowing what to expect, and at the same time expecting the unexpected from God. It seems as if I possess an itch that only God can scratch.
I guess the solution isn’t finding a new job, but rather living the full life where I’m at. God may be stirring something in my soul, but it is my impatience that wants this to become a reality yesterday, not tomorrow. My mentor once said to me, “God is always up to something!” I don’t know what it is, but it excites me a ton, because whatever it is I know it involves me living a life of adventure, a full life, and living life above the level of mediocrity!

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Only the serenity found outside the noise of my world have I been able to re-gain focus. I’ve been without my laptop and cell phone for a week and the world is still spinning. As a matter of fact it seems to be spinning more clearly now than it was a week ago. It is the escape from noise that makes His voice louder. There are so many distractions and to do lists awaiting my return I fear I’ll fall right back into listening to the noise of this world.
Not that laptops and cell phones are necessarily bad, but when they drown out His voice in my life and steal my time from Him it can’t possibly be good. I need to be on my computer less, not because it’s bad, but because I need more of Him. I need to spend less time on my cell phone, not because others don’t matter, but because no one is more important than Him.

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Well I’m hopping from airport to airport today as I’m headed out of the country for the next week. It is today that I realize how encapsulated I unconsciously allow myself to become in my bubble at home. There are so many different cultures, people, and things going on all the time I almost forget a world exists outside the one I live in.
Some have even called it the out of sight out of mind theory. If I don’t see it I don’t think about it. If I don’t see kids starving to death in Haiti I don’t think about it. If I don’t see Orphans in Rwanda I won’t consider them throughout my everyday busy life.  Usually we think about the out of sight out of mind mindset when we’re trying to get over an ex-boyfriend or girlfriend, but unfortunately this seems to work against us when it comes to issues we shouldn’t exit from our minds.
I regret it takes international trips to remind of a world that is hurting, or a world that is dying, or a world that desperately needs those who have the power to act and enact justice on its behalf to do so.

    Oh how all of us desperately want to be recognized and noticed. To be known or significant. Perhaps this search for significance is in vain. I wrestle today with what is significant. We want people to see us and to atleast acknowledge that we exist. The problem I find within this way of thinking is that when I become more visible God becomes more invisible. If only I could learn to make myself less visible perhaps God would become more visible in my life.

    What's the point of doing anything unless we'll  receive an award for it right? We don't write books just to write books, we write them with the thought of them becoming a New York Times bestseller. We don't make movies just to make movies, me produce them with the thought of recieving an Oscar. We don't write songs just to write songs, we write them with the thought of cracking the top 100 on iTunes or Billboards. I know some of us say that none of those things are our motives, but are we sure this isn't false humility? When we divert the attention to Christ with our mouths, but in our hearts we really want the attention on us.

    Wouldn't true humility be found within the leaders, presidents, and directors of organizations that are washing feet, serving others, and actually caring about those who are around them? It's easy to give all the glory to God with our mouths, even rappers do that when they give their acceptance speeches at the Grammy's. But isn't God more concerned with our hearts than the false humility we speak from our lips?

    My pride is far more than I can bear. I am guilty of speaking false humility from my lips. May I begin to have a better understanding of 1 Peter 5:5-6. May I become less visible so that God's work in my life may become much more visible!

    -the Monday Mindset

    I've been wrestling with the reality of my so called independence. Only to realize how foolish I've become to believe I can achieve anything in this world by my own efforts. What an independent generation we live in. A culture that requires no dependence upon God what so ever. The grocery store eliminates my opportunity to depend on him for food. Brita robs my chance to depend on him for water. My salary removes the dependence upon Him to provide. The encouragement and love I receive from my wife and countless others drowns out the voice of His approval.
    I'm an idiot! My independence from God has robbed me from being truly used by Him. The very depths of Scriptures are littered with great leaders and world changers that were of no significance, yet they had a desperate dependence upon God. And it is within this dependence that God has used them to change the course of history, or in others words His-story.   
    God forgive me of my independence, the independence that fails to be completely dependent upon you. You must become greater and I must become less. May Your invisibility become more visible in my life, as my visibility becomes more invisible. Teach me what it looks like to depend on you, just like those who followed you before me. I realize that leadership is not found in some book, or that it is found within only One book. It is within this Book that leadership is found through insignificant individuals that desperately depended on You. May I learn what it means to desperately depend on You.