Living not striving…

Another “rock your boat” challenge from Mark Batterson.

“I want this to come across as more of a challenge than a criticism, but I’m afraid we’ve turned church into a spectator sport. Too many of us are content with letting a spiritual leader seek God for us. Like the Israelites, we want Moses to climb the mountain for us. After all it is much easier to let someone else pray for us or study for us. So the church unintentinally fosters a subtle form of spiritual codependency…..
But do you really think God’s ultimate dream for your life is to see you sit in a pew for ninety minutes every week listening to a message and singing a few songs? Is that the barometer of spiritual maturity? No way!
I wonder if we’ve forgotten that when we leave church we don’t leave the presence of God. We take the presence of God with us wherever He leads.
It is so easy to turn church into an end instead of a means to an end. We go to church and think we’ve done our religious duty. We learn more and do less, all the while thinking we’re fulfilling God’s plan for our lives.”

Hmmmm….

Some excerpts:

“Jesus likened the working of the Holy Spirit to the wind. Sometimes the Spirit is a light wind from the south. Other times He is a gale-force wind that batters our ship. Sometimes the Spirit is a headwind that seems to frustrate our plans. and other times He is the wind at our back.
Chasing the Wild Goose is recognizing which way the wind of the Spirit is blowing and responding to it. It requires a moment-by-moment sensitivity to the Wild Goose. And you have to trust His promptings more than you trust our own plans. Instead of getting frustrated by fighting the wind, you appreciate the fact that something uncomfortable and unpredictable will get you where God wants you to go.”

“What is most lacking in the church of Jesus Christ is not education or resources. Of course, we should keep learning, but most of us are educated way beyond the level of our obedience. And of course, we should keep giving, but we do not lack the resources to alleviate poverty or fight injustice or spread the gospel. We are the most resourced church in the most resourced country the world has ever known. You know what is most lacking? Good old-fashioned guts!“

Once again Mark Batterson takes a topic that is blandly taught and generally misunderstood and clarifies the mystery. Batterson issues challenge after challenge while making sense of so much confusing theology revolving around the Wild Goose.

Batterson has a gift for motivating, challenging, firing up and then kicking you in the butt.  Wild Goose Chase is a must read for understanding the Holy Spirit, but even more so for daring you to jump on board for a wild ride!

If you would like to buy a copy or find out more info on this awesome read go to www.chasethegoose.com .

And lastly Vanessa, congratulations you won the drawing for the free Wild Goose Chase book!  (Mom, I promise you can borrow my copy:)

Thought I would share some fun pictures from our trip Friday with Grandma Chapman to Edventure.  Of course the Pat and I ended up much more tired than the boys somehow, but we had a great time!

I meant to post this earlier in the summer.  One day after a trip to the beach I opened my dryer and this fell out all over the floor.

Not the best picture, but do you see how many tiny little seashells were in our bathing suits and towels even after being shaken out before washing?

Now that is a good time at the beach!  Ah I will miss summer days…

What a glorious day!  We spent most of the day at Ebenezer Park, playing outside in this beautiful weather.  Can you believe in AUGUST we could spend the day at the park?  It was so great letting the kids play with so many of their friends and get absolutely covered in sand.

Yesterday I apparently temporarily lost my mind and talked two good friends into driving to Lumberton to the Exploration Station Children’s Museum there.  We played for almost 5 hours and had a great time, but somehow I failed to look at the weather.  Well that isn’t true.  I noticed it was raining and thus I could not send the wrestling tornado that was destroying my house outside to the trampoline so I decided since FunDayGo wasn’t open then we would go to the museum.

What I didn’t check was the intensity of the rain or how long it was supposed to last.  Apparently I would have found “monsoonlike” and “unending”.  We stayed so long in Lumberton because the 10 children were playing so well but also because we kept hoping it would stop raining for the drive home.  Not so much.  It stopped as we pulled into Florence:)  It really was a fun day.

The true highlight of my day though was a little webcast surprise.  My parents and a couple of my brothers (I have 7) live in Atlanta and attend Buckhead Church, a Northpoint campus.  Tonight they were having a Night of Worship and one of the blogger gurus I follow here was going to be leading some of the worship.  All week I have been secretly jealous and bummed b/c I so wanted to be there.  Well I was checking my bloglines (great way to streamline the blogs you follow by the way) and saw that the whole worship experience was going to be live by webcast.  Oh Happy Day!!!

I tuned in half an hour late but was able to experience an amazing half hour of worship.  Eli and I danced and praised together:)  I was supposed to go to Bunko and would have loved it but had to miss for this great treat.  Isn’t God good?  I even texted my mom midway thru to let her know we were worshiping together.  How cool is that?

That is a little bit of what the internet can do to connect people with Christ and one another.  What a great day!

My great friend, who is also a literature lover, passed The Shack on to me this past weekend.  I couldn’t put it down.  I read it in two days.

Amazing story about forgiveness and mercy.  It challenges how I view the Trinity,what a personal relationship with the Lord looks like and tough questions most people wrestle with deep inside.  Certainly it is fiction and none of my personal theology has been altered by it… but it has helped me make sense and sort through some things.

I highly, highly recommend it.  It is a great read for people that consider themselves Christ followers or for skeptics.  Beautifully written and painfully candid.  And yes, I think a fairly quick read as well.  I foresee giving it to quite a few loved ones as a gift.  It is just that good.  Check it out!

I am soooo excited!!

Last night I received Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson in the mail.  Like I mentioned in this post, not only one copy arrived but TWO!

If you would like to possibly receive that second copy then send me a comment with your email and on August 19th when the book is released.  I will be posting my review of the book and the name of the “blessed” reader that will receive that book.

I already have two faithful readers (maybe my only two readers) that are vying for the book.  Yes, Mom I do have to consider other people:)  So let’s see who wants a great brand new book… for free!

I deal with migraines more frequently than I prefer.  People often ask me if I can trace the triggers and try to avoid them.  Mine tend to be hormones, lack of sleep, rainy weather, heat, stress… and tonight I tried to explain a new one to Mark that I have been realizing.

The onslaught of constant questions from three curious little boys.  As we drive or hang out at home I am constantly fielding questions and trying to come up with intelligent, patient, theologically correct answers.  Here are a couple I remember from today:

“What are food stamps?”

“If God’s finger came down from the sky and you could ride it where would you go?”

“Does the world need gas station workers?”

“Why do our cars hate us?”

“C-c-c-c-can I play the drums, Mommy?”"C-c-c-c-can I play the drums, Mommy?”"C-c-c-c-can I play the drums, Mommy?”

“Can the tooth fairy be a boy?”

“Can I use your hot glue gun?”

“Why don’t you run for President?”

“Why doesn’t that man love Jesus?”

“Can we give our Bibles to Newspring Church?”

“Pop Tarts are fruit right, because they have fruit inside?”

“We will have cars in heaven, right? Because the Bible says there are streets.  Why else would we have streets?”

 ”C-c-c-c-can I play g-tar, Mommy?”"C-c-c-c-can I play g-tar, Mommy?”"C-c-c-c-can I play g-tar, Mommy?”

“Will you introduce me to neat people when I get to heaven and will we all live together?”

“Can we go to Disneyworld in heaven?”

“Can I use Daddy’s knife?  I want to use these bottle nipples to make a robot that can feed babies.”

“C-c-c-c-can I play the drums, Mommy?”"C-c-c-c-can I play the drums, Mommy?”"C-c-c-c-can I play the drums, Mommy?”

“Can we watch the meteor shower tonight?  Pleeeeaaasssee!”

So, …… I have had a migraine for two days:)  Any suggestions?  Maybe school will help a bit.

The Olympics have lots of cool and unusual sports.  Always seem to surprise me.  Badminton, white-water rafting, beach volleyball…

I asked Mark if he thought they might acknowledge diaper changing, toddler-wrestling, car seat installing, putting two year olds in a car seat while throwing a tantrum or force-feeding 4 year olds as olympic events.

If they are I am excited because I am pretty sure I could medal.  I did wrestle a 4 year old into an infant car seat recently.  Long story…. but mighty good exercise:) lol

Today was my birthday

It has been an amazing day!  I was served donuts and coffee in bed and a wonderful lunch with my boys.  Then I had three hours on the beach by myself!!!  So many wonderful friends and family called, texted and emailed me to say happy birthday.  That along with the way my precious husband just was so sweet and thoughtful today, I feel extravagantly loved:)

It is amazing the things you can process when you have space and quiet to think:)  I had an interesting adventure though during my blissful time in the sun.  A sweet little 5 year old boy named Isaiah came up to me and said, “Do you know where my mommy is?”

Oh my goodness!!!! I took his little hand and we went and found a lifeguard.  Poor little guy was very lost and scared and confused.  He had a hard time answering our questions.  Especially as a crowd gathered when people figured out he was lost.

I normally would have had buckets and snacks but since my boys weren’t with me I was no good at providing distractions.  I tried to chat with him and assure him he would be back with his mommy soon, while the lifeguard talked on her walkie-talkie trying to figure out if his mom was looking for him.  I did talk him into sitting down with me in the sand.  Well the sweet little thing fell asleep sitting up.  Someone brought a towel to lay him down on and someone else brought him a water.  After about half an hour another lifeguard identified his momma at another hotel 1 mile down the beach in the opposite direction from where he came.

I have no idea how long little Isaiah wandered down the beach.  After 45 minutes I handed him over to the beach police to take him down to his mommy.  He was so sweet and so scared.  People stopped me as I walked back to my chair asking if they found his mom.  They said they had seen him wandering up and down the beach.  How cool and honored I feel that for whatever reason he felt comfortable enough to come up to me and stop and ask me for help.

As I drove home thinking over the experience I reasoned how this is truly what I hope my life will be.  Helping people find their parent, their Heavenly Father.  I want to help people that have lost their way find their way home.  I so hope that I live life in a way that anyone will feel comfortable asking me the way home.  And shame on me if someone ever feels like they can’t ask me.

I am nothing special but I hope in my life and also in my involvement with Newspring Florence….. we help many, many, many people find their way home:)