Quote to Note

This week's "Quote to Note" is once again from Mark Batterson's Wild Goose Chase. In fact, Mark dropped a couple of hammers on me this week (I'm sharing another one on Easter Sunday as we kick off "Switch"). Here's one to chew on for now:

"...spiritual maturity has less to do with long-range visions than it does with moment-by-moment sensitivity to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. And it is our moment-by-moment sensitivity to the Holy Spirit that turns life into an everyday adventure."

Sure we have to know where we're headed in life, what we're trying to accomplish. But can we be honest? Many of us stick a goal on the horizon and then make it our idol. We become so focused on that goal that we stop paying attention to God. If it's a God-given vision, we'll get there. But God may very well have a meandering course planned for you along the way that sends you to places, experiences, and people that you did not anticipate. That's adventure! And that's far better than the tunnel-visioned course we tend to set for ourselves. If we are so focused on our long-range goal that we are ignoring God's voice in this moment, we may very well miss a turn--and miss an adventure God has planned for us and others! God is just as concerned about our journey with him as He is the destination.

"The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps"

Proverbs 16:9 ESV

"A man’s steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way?"

Proverbs 20:24 ESV

We have a tendency to find comfort in some point of certainty in the future. We want the 1,000,000 candle power Q-beam view of what's coming. But God wants us to walk with him now in the soft glowing lamplight that illuminates only one step beyond where our feet are now, that illuminates His heels so we can follow close.

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

Psalm 119:105 ESV

Don't focus so much on the horizon that you lose sight and sound of the one you are following. Listen close and follow closer.

After-words

I had to run out immediately after our Sunday AM celebration this morning to attend the SC Science Fair awards ceremony for my daughter in Columbia (And yes, that was a shameless proud parent plug for Hannah who received 3rd Place in the Engineering Division as well as the US Navy and Marine Corp Distinguished Achievement Award for Science). As a result of bugging out so quickly I missed one of my favorite parts of Sundays. I missed hanging out afterward talking to people, listening to their stories, finding out how God is at work in their lives, hearing how the day's message impacted them. I missed the "After-words" that come afterwards. Here are mine for this week...

• I'm really jacked up about seeing more people and new faces step up and contribute each week--greeting people, helping with children, running sound and video, playing an instrument, setting up and tearing down our "church in a box" operation. Thanks to all the people getting involved and especially to those who are helping others find a place of significance.

• Our children's ministry gets better every week thanks to great servant leaders--Thanks Denee and Lisa! Both of my children, independently and without being prompted, thanked God today for having so much fun at church. And they did that while being taught Biblical Principles. Cynthia Rabon, you rock! Thanks for loving my children, preparing so well to teach them and helping them to have fun in the process of discovering God.

• Another person discovered during the course of this past week that even though we live in the "Bible Belt", there are people around us every day who literally have no idea who Jesus is or what he means to them today. Thanks Martin for stepping into the void for someone in your workplace. God is using you, and you are watching a broken life become a trophy of grace right before your eyes. Keep reaching for "people in trees".

I can't wait until next week to hear how loud our voices are heard this week as we couple Obedience with our profession!

Quote to Note

Thanks to the helpful goading of some of you reading this, I'm back in the blog saddle again. This will be my first of weekly blogs on quotes that grabbed me by the throat, the funny bone, the heart, or maybe the knoggin. Some may be from books I'm reading, like the one that follows, or from the news, or from a friend, or from who knows where else. I hope they grab you too.

I ran across this week's quote to note in Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson. It's actually a quote from Peter Marshall, former chaplain of the US Senate and was originally printed in his book Mr. Jones, Meet the Master :

"I wonder what would happen if we all agreed to read one of the Gospels until we came to a place that told us to do something, then went out to do it, and only after we had done it, began reading again? There are aspects of the Gospel that are puzzling and difficult to understand. But our problems are not centered around the things we don't understand, but rather in the things we do understand, the things we could not possibly misunderstand. Our problem is not so much that we don't know what we should do. We know perfectly well, but we don't want to do it."

Can you envision how different our lives, our families, our communities would be if we started practicing--putting into action--what we know to be true? If we stopped using what we don't know as an excuse for passivity? I'd love to hear your stories over the coming weeks of what happens as you and I take Mr. Marshall's challenge.