Adventure

I've been thinking a lot about adventure lately. Part of it is coming from reading Donald Miller's book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, part of it is coming from what I've been reading in the Bible, and part of it is coming from just realizing how amazingly blessed I am. I think the danger we slip into when you get into your 30's is just the monotony of daily life. That's why so many people have mid-life crises where they go out and make dumb purchases, or get hair implants, or have an affair. They realize that their life has no element of adventure, and so they try to manufacture some.
I'd rather embed adventure into my life. So I'm planning out what that will look like for me. I'd like to make 2011 a year of pursuing adventure for me. I want to pursue my wife intensely. To demonstrate to her just how much I love her. I want to enjoy my kids intensely. To demonstrate to them just how much I love them. I want to know God intimately. To demonstrate to Him just how much I love Him. And I want to love people fully. To demonstrate to them just how much God loves them.
Because I'm a details person, I'm not sure how I'll quantify it yet, but I know that I want to journal the experience. To discover adventure within the monotony. To cast off the pressures of the consumer culture in which we live and instead follow the sermon on the mount and become less. To fully serve. And, hopefully, to fully live. Adventure awaits. JM

Being Like God

If you want to be like God, then you have to be willing to sacrifice. Luke 6:35 talks about how we should love our enemies, do good to them, lend to them without expecting repayment so that we will be sons of the Most High because that's who He is. He loves me even though He knows that I will not love Him back. He blesses me even though He knows that I will not be able to bless Him back. JM

Teaching

If I want to be a good Biblical teacher, and I so desperately do, then my teaching must have the authority of God (Luke 4:32). Anything else relegates me to the role that the Pharisees had where I present my ideas for discussion. Or my interpretation for debate. With God's truths there is no debate, just contextualization on how best to present them to the demographic of the audience that He has provided.
God, I pray that you would help me to constantly craft messages that are rooted in your authority. May I be a teacher and a leader who constantly strives to honor you with everything that I am and teaches/leads out of that striving.
JM