Written in Heaven

I love Party in the Park! Seeing people get baptized is about the greatest thing that a pastor could ever witness. More than that, I love hearing the stories that come out of these decisions to be baptized. Many of these stories were the results of dominos and meaningless conversations.

On the dominos front for instance, I had breakfast with a guy today who has been radically transformed by Jesus. All he wants to do is see his friends come to be transformed the way he has been. So he was telling me about a guy who he had been on for months to come with him to church. He finally came, and within 2 weeks had decided to follow Jesus, experiencing incredible transformation. They both began to invite this guy’s son. Finally, he agreed to come only 2 weeks ago (from the time I’m writing this) and gave his life to Jesus and is experiencing real life transformation as well. As we sat at breakfast this morning, this guy kept saying over and over again, “I’m so jacked up! God is so awesome!” Dominos, spiritual dominos.

On the meaningless conversations front, there is a man in our church who is a leader in many ways. He got connected to our church because another leader from BridgeWay saw him in line in the post office and struck up a conversation with him about his t-shirt. Several years later, as a result of a ‘meaningless conversation’ this random dude from the post office has found his church home here, found the love of his life here who he married, and found his purpose in life through his ministry involvement at BridgeWay. Like I said, meaningless conversation.

This concept has really got me thinking. What meaningless conversation does God want me to have that could lead to a domino effect of lives being changed around me? On a much more introspective front, am I even aware of those moments where I’m supposed to have a ‘meaningless conversation’?

Maybe, there is no meaningless conversation. Maybe God designs all conversation to be some kind of domino effect. It may take seconds for the dominos to fall, maybe weeks, months or years, but you gotta think that He’s up to something much bigger than we can wrap our minds around.

So, prepare yourself for meaningless conversation! You never know when God is going to turn a meaningless conversation about a t-shirt into a long row of spiritual dominos toppling over.

I’ve really been thinking about the idea of discipline lately, namely self-discipline. I looked up the definition of discipline in the dictionary, and there are about a dozen definitions. In my life, I would have to say that discipline would be defined as “doing the things that I need to do, even though I don’t feel like doing them.”

I’ve also recognized an error in my thinking about discipline that God is slowly correcting. I used to think that discipline = workaholism. I thought a life of discipline meant that you spent relentless hours at work, studying, working, etc. God’s been showing me that that’s not what discipline is at all, and in fact, workaholism flies in the face of discipline at times.

For instance, I recognize that per my definition (doing the things that I need to do, even though I don’t feel like doing them) I violate discipline more often than I think. I know that I need to rest regularly and take time off, but sometimes I don’t. I know that there are times when I need to be with my family or taking care of things at home, but instead I do something else. In fact, there are times when I’m with my family and my head is at the office.

This is something that God has been really challenging me on for the past few months. God is saying to me that discipline requires presence. In other words, wherever I am, I need to be present there. I need to be present at the office when I’m counseling with someone. I need to be present with God when I’m reading scripture. I need to be present with my wife and son when I’m spending time with them.

It’s amazing how often I’ve caught myself violating this idea of discipline since God began to point it out to me. So, be present; wherever you are. The other stuff will get done; it always does. Live disciplined in this way, and watch how much more God allows you to appreciate each moment of your life.