Coming Alive

Alright, Mladen is the man!  He really brought a great message to everyone today about the importance of commitment to your vision.  Vision is common.  Commitment isn’t.  In college just about every guy (mainly this happens in males) wants to go out and knock the Earth off its axis.  We entertained visions (or daydreams) of 3rd world mission trips where entire countries respond to the Gospel.  It was thrilling to just sit around and talk about all the huge things God was calling us to do!

It really impressed Christian girls too. 

Its sad how few of these dreams getted traded in for “life”.  5 years out of college most dreamers have migrated into their left brains and set up shop logically figuring out how to pay off college loans.  There are a few reasons why this happens.

1.  God calls a lot of people to be passionate, sold-out, members of the congregation.  However, you never hear anyone ever talk about a dream just be a “part” of the church.  Our big dreams always seem to include us in the limelight.  However, for every dreamer needs help.  Using the church as a body metaphor, I would love to hear one young Christian talk about his calling to be chest hair of the church. 

2.  We exchange our dreams for jobs.  I have a lot of great friends who are living their dreams in a “secular” job.  I hesitate to call it secular, b/c the people I am talking redeem their jobs and make them as much a ministry as pastoring.  Often times, however, people trade in the big dreams for paying bills.

3.  Unwillingness to commit.  Exchanging the great for the good.  These people want to take the plunge, but they are too busy looking before they leap.  Dreams hurt.  You don’t stumble butt-backwards into changing the world, unless you do something colossally stupid like the guy responsible for bringing killer bees to the Americas.  You don’t want to be that guy.  Butt-backwards almost always changes the world negatively. 

God’s dreams take commitment.  They take passionate Christians willing to put down the TV remote, get off the couch and go impact some lives!

4 days ago I wrote a blog where I spent more time on the last line than the other two paragraphs.  Sitting at my computer trying to decide how many laps I would set as a goal I first typed 20…then 15….then 20 again.  That was moments after I had just put together 10 laps for the first time this summer so I was on a high.  Honestly, I have never been good at accomplishing exercise goals so I was a little hesitant.

Hal quickly jumped on board with me towards this goal and started pushing me harder than I really wanted to go.  Today, with a 100% nod to Hal and his accountability, I was able to put together 25 laps!  Seriously, 4 days ago the lifeguard was practically swimming alongside of me on lap 8…just in case.  Kristan swam the first 10 with me, then left to feed Nolan.  My final 15 laps were quicker than my first 10.  I probably could have pushed myself to 30, but I am saving that milestone for a day Hal and I are swimming together. 

Hal, thanks dude!  You are the man!  This is seriously a great example of why I totally believe that any goal we set as a church can be accomplished.  If you can get this lazy bum to swim that far there is something special going on.

10 laps!  It wasn’t pretty, but I am halfway to my goal of being able to do 20 laps in the pool.  Today was a beautiful picture of encouragement in the body of Christ.  Hal wanted to stop at 5, but I pushed him on.  Then I wanted to stop at 8 and he pushed me on.  Then I wanted to stop at 9, but Hal wouldn’t let me quit there either. 

It was great, as long as we don’t talk about how long the whole ten laps took us.