Ecclesiastes 2:1-11

One of the reasons that I love Ecclesiastes so much is that it puts everything into perspective. So many times I get my hopes up about something. Sometimes those hopes are fulfilled. Other times, they are dashed. What's great about the perspective that Solomon gives is that the dude tried everything. And he learned from it. And he wrote about it. That's what's incredible to me. He goes out and tries everything there is to try to make himself happy - partying, women, drinking, work, wealth, planning, etc. But it all leads to the same meaningless existence here on earth. We're all headed to the grave no matter what we do here on earth. So the point of our lives must not be what we do here on earth, but how we plan for eternity.
And I love that he wrote all of this down. A lot of times people will get great insight from an experience, but they don't tell anybody about it. I've had close people in my life never tell me about themselves and what they've experienced and what they learned from those experiences.
That's what I get from Solomon. Live. Experience life. Keep things in perspective. And share your experiences. Help others learn. Life is best lived in community.
JM

Ecclesiastes 1:12-18

I think we’re at our most joyful, our happiest when we’re doing simple things. When we take the time to enjoy the simple things in life: family, nature, friends, food, etc. Anytime I go on a long trip by myself, I listen to country music. I’m not really sure why, but it’s always country. Especially at night. I remember one night I was driving through the night from St. Louis down to Atlanta and this song came on while I was in Southern Illinois. I’ve only heard the song once and I don’t know the name (I’ll find it in a minute and post it below), but I could tell you several of the lines. It starts off with “If heaven were a time it would be twilight” and goes on to talk about hanging out on the porch watching the sunset and fireflies and spending time with family. That to me, is what we should be enjoying. The more we try to understand and know and succeed, the more we will ultimately fail. I want to enjoy the simple joy of being a child of God enjoying his creation.
I found the song. It's called "If Heaven" by Andy Griggs and it's definitely country.
JM

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

We painted our dining room last night. It's now like this really cool blue on top. We've got new furniture coming. A really nice square table with eight chairs and a nice buffet to put in there. We'll put down a nice rug, hang some curtains and put some stuff on the walls. When we're done the room will look really nice. But it will go out of style. Eventually this table that we bought will wear away. The kids will mess it up. The rug will have stuff spilled on it. New will become normal will become old. If my hope and my excitement are based solely in these types of things, then I'm going to be sorely disappointed every single time.
I don't think that means I need to sit around and just be sad or not try to accomplish anything. I think instead it just means to enjoy what I do and the time that God gives me. Enjoy the pursuit of God.
We're fascinated as a society with the accomplishment, but bored with the intricacies of the pursuit. We don't want to know about all of the work that went into it, we just want the finished product immediately. We don't want to work out in the gym, we want lipo. We don't want to date, we want to be married. We don't want to be pregnant, we want to hold the baby. We don't want to know God here, we want to know Him in heaven. How different would our lives be if instead we just enjoyed the pursuit. If we took the time not waiting for the accomplishment, but instead enjoying each moment that God gives me, not just the glorious ones.
We are slaves to our mortality. We try to hold off the advances of age. We try to place hope in tomorrow. But in reality, our life will always be meaningless outside of the passionate pursuit of God. Pursue Him. Enjoy it.
We painted our dining room last night. And I enjoyed it.
JM

Conspiracy

Once again I have been cheated. Click here to see who got the award I should have received.
JM

Middle School Concerns

A couple of weeks ago, I met with a few of my 8th grade guys and talked with them about what they feel a middle school student wants/needs to know and learn about in the 3 years that they are a part of my middle school ministry. Here's the list we came up with:
Lifestyle Evangelism
Friendships
Dating/Sex
Church Family/Creating Community
Family
Revelation
Wise Choices
Genesis
John
Synoptic Gospels
Drugs/Alcohol
Self-Image
Knowing God's Will
Call To Service
Worship
Community
Who Is Jesus
What is A Christian
David
How To Study The Bible
Romans
James
Prayer
Acts
Holy Spirit
Jonah
Parables
I'm hoping to meld this into a 3-year plan where we focus on each of these at least once during that time for our large group series. JM

Reinforcing Vs. Revising

The southern baptist convention has a new advertising campaign out called We Are Southern Baptists. The goal is to show people that Southern Baptists are doing good things. The whole thing seems like it's supposed to make southern baptists feel good about who we are (loss prevention) as opposed to breaking down the barriers that people have to the SBC. Here's the video from the site, seems basically like we're reinforcing what people already know - we're missions minded and care about people who have experienced tragedy in the United States and that we care about people who are sick and hungry overseas. JM

Bookmarks

I bookmark (favorite) pages on the internet all the time. I probably have like 100 stored up. I try to move them over to this site so I have them all in one spot that's easily searchable and I don't forget about things. I haven't done it in a long time, so they're just stacked up. I'll start moving the links over in the next few days, but here's the first. It's a movie called The Boy In The Striped Pajamas. It looks fascinating to me because it shows how relationships can change mindsets and how hatred can destroy relationships.

Messianic Politics

Everybody is talking about how great Obama is and how he is going to change America. It's sad to me. What I think is most sad is that people think their job is done now. They voted for their candidate and now they can just sit back and relax, let him do his miracle-working, and rest confidently because their voice has been heard.
When did my vote become my voice? I hope that's not my only voice in politics. When it becomes that way then we've slipped into dangerous territory. There are so many other ways that my voice can be heard: talking to my local government officials, state government reps, and federal government reps, protesting, civil disobedience, petitioning, etc. Making sure that they know what I want them to do as my representative. The government is supposed to work for me. I need them to be doing what I want, and if all I do is cast a vote once every 2 years, then how will they ever know what I want.
I've never cared about politics before, but I'm starting to now. I want my voice to be heard, and I'm glad that I know that doesn't mean just my vote.
JM

Sad

If only...

JM

2 Samuel 19:1-8

When you're in leadership you can't react to things the way that other people do. You have to be more concerned with the good of the whole. You have people serving under you that are looking to you to determine how they should react to things. The temptation is to selfishly show your emotions of regret, anger, disappointment, rather than showing the positive and encouraging hope. People don't want to follow someone who is a downer. They want to be inspired. They want to have hope. They want to feel a passion for something. I want to be that kind of leader. JM