There is MORE!

Take a minute to listen to someone who has acheived it all. How many of us would want to have what he has $50 million salary and a super model for a girlfiriend. Could a man want anything more at the age of 30?

This is an excerpt from Tom Brady's Interview on CBS 60 Minutes New Magazine show at the end of December. Tom is the star quarterback of the New England Patriots football team. This audio is a little over 4 minutes long.

Yes, yes! Tom there is much more to life than attaining fame and fortune. We were all created by God with special unique gifts. I know by the way Tom talks in this interview that God has blessed him with a bigger and better gift than quarterbacking a football team. When he does find that within himself with the help of God's word, he will then find the joy he has yet to experience. This is evident in his comment that the next superbowl ring will be the best one. False, the next thing he will finding that means anything at all is his real purpose. The reason God created him for and once he gives that gift to the world so many more people will have their lives changed from versus the last game he won. So Tom if you read this and only by the Grace of God would you find this blog post, go ahead and read.

--Romans 12:3-8

3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Find your gift and give it!

Communication Break Thru

Once upon a time I awoke or better put opened my eyes, my mind, and my heart then did I hear God say to me “Mike my son I will Father you . I will show you your purpose. I will shine your gifts upon the world. You are mine and I need you build My Kingdom. Your prior attempts to fill your life with material things, and the pursuit of getting ahead, of financial freedom for yourself, career success, money and the useless pursuit of your ego. Those things of the self will no longer any part of you. I am the only thing that can fill you up and if you attain any of those things then it only happen through building My Kingdom.”

This simple summary is the story of how my life has changed dramatically. It’s not about some intellectual battle or revelation of my mind or something in particular I read or heard spoke but an overall communication from God. His deliver methods ranged from everyday experiences; conversations with friends and family, a movie or two, a bunch of great books including the Bible, and some awesome sermons in person and through podcasts. I must admit I laid everything heard and seen against the cold hard truth of my past life experiences. God’s communication to my human mind is somewhat like a puzzle. But once I understand how to arrange the puzzle pieces like organizing the straight edges first and so on does then God’s messages become much easier for me to understand. My only regret looking back is often he did communicate with me, I just did not listen or was unable for some reason receive his posts, probably because no one every taught me. It’s an amazing conversation now. Hey if want I will let you listen in!

What are we teaching?

"The Desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but deep people." Richard Foster - Celebration of Discipline

What is with this idea that the smarter we get the happier we will be? I agree to the point that we need a level of intelligence to make the wild world in which we live tamer thus making it easier to fulfill our basic needs of food, water, and shelter. But beyond that trying to make our kids happy intellectual geniuses is ridiculous. There is an underlying current in our schools to drive our kids like race horses in training. If you don't think it's evident look at all the standardized testing our kids go through to see if they are keeping up with everyone else in the basis studies Math and English. What about teaching and testing the ways of the heart; relationships, love, communications skills of compassion, understanding, and helping one another. I think this system is doing a great injustice to our kids future by leaving out the learning of our heart. We leave making them deeper people up to chance. That’s pretty risky because as we leave the educational system and our thrown into the world we lack the understanding of the internal compass of our heart. We then rely on our schooling derived intellect that tells us to pursue what our mind wants which leads us to the whole culture thing of materialism and a life filled with whole lot of superficial stuff.

Our only hope is real life experiences of failure, loss and God to bring us back to the realization that it is depth of our hearts which really matter. Maybe it’s no coincidence the most popular book every written the Bible whole premise is teach us the way of our heart. It has taken loss, failure and most of all God to take my life's experiences to bring me this deeper level. The deeper I get, the more in touch I get with my heart, the more joy I experience. I just wish someone would of taught me this matter of the heart just like I was taught science and math. I agree with Foster, the world needs deeper people. Deeper people know the truth of the heart. Think about a happy joy filled person that you know. Are they the smartest? Are they the wealthiest? Wait don't make the mistake of just looking on the surface to judge their level of joy. You probably will need to get deep with them to really KNOW.

Longing

In our relationships and especially in our marriages there is a longing to be special to someone and most of us are severely disappointed when this longing for someone to know our heart is never pursued. Rare indeed is a women who has been sought after for who she is not because of what she can do, or what others can gain from her(money, sex, company), but simply for herself, for what God sees her as. Can you recall a time when a significant someone in your life sat you down with the sole purpose of wanting to know your heart more deeply? We wonder if there is anything in our heart worth KNOWING. If I am not pursued is it because there is something wrong with me, something when found out about me they will retreat even further away or not love me anymore or will it tarnish my outer beauty which is fading anyway. Fear rises to the surface and we suffice to tell ourselves it’s safer not to let others discover our true heart and we go on with the mundane busy life keeping things on the surface level. Then something huge interrupts our busy life like a death of someone close or a broken relationship/marriage do then realize that we wanted our heart to be known to them. Maybe them knowing it would of made a difference. Maybe it would of changed our relationship for the better. Maybe it would of ended a relationship that was doomed for failure before we both wasted years of over lives together. Maybe it would of saved their life or mine!

Coincidences

I am convinced all coincidences are messages from God. If you will a form of communication from the Divine. A communication that God needs/wants you/me to hear or understand. If coincidences come through both people, actions and objects it must mean God is in us and everything else from the wind to the car we drive. He is at the root of our intenstions, the place wher creation manifests itself. There are no coincidences in this life. God uses this form of communication to help us. I find that most coincidences make life easier or solves a present or potential future problem. Here is a example. Lost Something: I have been looking for my keys and having not said anything to anyone that I was looking for them, my son comes up to me and says Dad here are your keys you dropped them in the garage.” Thanks God I have looked all over for them.