Another Day in Paradise

I'm sitting outside my room in Malibu right now while my daughter is sleeping and my wife is at a session experiencing God in worship lead by the Zoe Group. It's been a good day. I don't usually do "journaling" type stuff in this space. The way I figure it, no one is interested in the minutiae of my daily life, so I typically do more issue/interest driven topics. But I want to tell you all a little about my day.

I had breakfast again with my wife and daughter overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Does life get any better than that? I'm amazed at how big a jerk I can be to them when I'm busy and stressed and overworked and overtired. I'm thankful they put up with me.

There's something about a beautiful place that helps me see the beauty in people. My wife and daughter are beautiful people.

I went to two sessions this morning. The first was with Mark Love, who I always find insightful. Speaking of difficult circumstances in congregational life, Mark says, "The congregation is a God-inspired imagination." That's a lot to take in. A bit more; speaking of the way churches handle situations, "Deciding is related to expertise; Discernment is related to wisdom." There's a lot to unpack there, too.

From Jeff Childers, whom I affectionately call 91.4% (which is the grade he gave me once, that .1% from an "A" you know), speaking of conflicting spirituality styles: "Congregations don't need balance, they need wholeness." WOW!

This afternoon, my daughter and I spent time on Malibu beach. Was it fun, you asks. Well, here is her prayer from tonight before she went to bed: "God, thanks for Daddy, thanks for me, thanks for sand, thanks for wa-wa (that's "water" in two year old speak), thanks for the beach, thanks for me, thanks for Mommy, thanks for California, Amen."

The most beautiful prayer ever. Period.

And yes, she did thank God for herself twice.

What can you say, I thank God for her at least that many times per hour. She knows a good thing when she sees it.

Tomorrow I'm speaking at an event called "Pepperdine View". We'll be watching some movie clips from the film Bruce Almighty. I love this lesson. A lot of people I know have used this movie to begin discussions about God, but I love what it says about prayer and how Bruce learns to see people as God does. The movie lays out three possibilities for who God is.

1. God as puppeteer.
2. God as genie.
3. God as relater.

Often I wish he were one of the first two, but deep down, when I need Him the most, I'm glad he is the third.

God bless...

Growing Weary

There are certainly worse places in the world to spend a few days than Malibu, CA. Each morning my family looks out over the Pacific Ocean as we eat breakfast, and if that gets too stale, then we simply turn around and look at the mountains. While it is sweltering in my hometown of Houston, TX, the temperature has not topped 64-degrees here this week.

There's only one problem, though.

I'm tired.

When we arrived yesterday not all our bags arrived with us. In particular my bag with me speaking clothes was missing. Not only that, but the same bag contained the toiletries for the entire family. After talking with Continental about a dozen times yesterday our bag arrived at 11:10 Pacific time. Mind you that we awoke at 4:45am Central time that morning. That's a long day for me, not to mention that I was teaching first thing this morning, then again at lunch. And for me, speaking is always draining. Plus, I just finished an assignment for a class and have some other professional writing projects that are overdue.

I need some rest.

Luckily, I won't speak again until Friday afternoon. That means tomorrow is for fun and learning. I'll take in some classes in the morning, have lunch with friends, Rob and Judy McRay, than my daughter and I will head off to the beach--which she has been patiently begging for since we got here--then I will hear Randy Harris in the late afternoon, have dinner with good friends Russ and Rebecca Debenport and then return for the evening lecture.

Something tells me that my weariness is going to wear off anytime soon.

Isn't life great.