For those of you business types, I was turned onto Michael Hyatt’s blog recently. Who is he? He recently was promoted to the CEO and President of Thomas Nelson after Sam Moore had the reigns for 47 years…BIG shoes to fill.

So if you’re looking for productivity and efficiency inspiration, look no further. In one night, his suggestions for email efficiency inspired me to go through over 7200 emails to only have 2 left in my inbox. What did I do? Read this.

Oh…and he even responds to emails from strangers….I tried and got a response in less than 4 hours.

I want to be like Mike.

Yeah. I’m gonna be a dad. It’s a girl. It’s really a girl! (pictures and video to come later).

For those of you who have already had kids, especially you dads, you get what I’m going through. It’s surreal. It’s hard to believe and honestly, you just feel like you’re living and watching another life being lived through your own eyes. Everybody keeps telling me my life is going to change…I know that, but I don’t understand it; and I don’t think you can explain this one…it has to be experienced.

She’s gonna be beautiful.

I should be in bed, but I can’t even think about sleep. I’m saddened by the disturbance of discord, division and pride. I blame no one but satan himself and find myself having to war tonight. I know no other way to resolve it. I’m just going to believe that love will win…it always does. It ALWAYS will.

Read the rest of this entry »

Seriously. The BEST short-film ever created.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv8Et1HBLtQ[/youtube]

This past weekend I had a chance to sit down with a Dr. Mike Rakes and pontificate about theology, life and the art of change. I respect this man for a lot of reasons, but this weekend, his thoughts demanded more. In the midst of our talk, he looked at me and said, “I feel strong inside.” Feeling strong inside evokes admiration. It’s peculiar. It’s not normal and quite frankly, it’s so odd it’s hard to imagine how life would be if we all felt “strong” inside. Immediately I began my own internal strength test. How much could my inner spiritual strength really bench press?

–

It’s been two full days since I began to evaluate my inner spiritual strength. I discovered that I do fall short…after all, I can’t be perfect. Yet, I was surprised that I too, feel strong inside. Here’s why:

• “Peanut” Chowning is on the way…a 4+ year answered prayer
• I absolutely LOVE and adore my wife - Let’s face it, this just isn’t normal anymore
• Motiveight is going far better than I expected…a gift of God’s favor
• We’re building a house
• I have two sets of parents (birth and in-laws) who have been married for well over 30 years and still love each other
• There’s something about the names Elizabeth and Britt’Knee that I just can’t let go of
• I thoroughly enjoy my friendship with Jesus

I suppose this looks boastful. It is. Nothing on that list is of my own doing. I boast, loudly, in what Jesus has done for me and my family. I’m honored and I’m humbled. Because of all this, and so much more, I feel strong inside. I don’t always know how I’m going to get it all done or what it’ll look like in the end, but I feel strong inside.

Kristy and I just journeyed back from a 4-day road trip to Johnson City, TN to see Tara and Jacob before heading onward to Winston Salem, NC to visit our best friends, Rob & Vangie Sperti. All I can say is, great times. Thanks to all who made our trip so enjoyable.
I continue to stand back in amazement at what God is doing in and through our world. Sometimes I get lost in my own world; thinking it’s huge, significant and will have a great impact. The reality is, it’s the greatest story ever written, lived and told, for me. That said it is big…to me. But when I stand back and survey the works of the Lord, I marvel at how many “workers” are doing exactly what I strive to do everyday…but in their own world. To each, it’s significant. To each, it means everything. To each, it’s their best effort to do exactly what God requires of them. Recently, my perspective of those other “workers” has begun to change. I’ve become less critical, judgmental and honestly, a lot less competitive with and of them. We’re all on the same team, yet sometimes I forget that. I often become centered on what I don’t have and covet what they have; mainly in the spiritual arena. The problem with that is, it’s simply ungrateful. Looking at my life right now, shame on me for ever thinking such things. I could easily mask it with spiritual words like “fervent desire” but I believe that when I truly pull back the layers, what I want is simply self-centered. You could insert any selfish sin and it would probably apply. However, I refuse to be distracted by my own sin. I repent, acknowledge and quickly move on…so help me God.

Motiveight is moving along and quickly. I’m up to a small handful of clients that are keeping me busy. Fortunately, opportunity abounds and I seem to be finding favor everywhere. Unfortunately, I need a really talented individual who’s interested in working for a small start-up with the possibilities of ownership (for the right person of course). They need not to be afraid of doing any and every task…after all…it is a small company. Interested? Know someone? Please email me > kyle@motiveight.com.

If you haven’t read or heard by now, Kristy and I are pregnant and celebrating 14 weeks this week. After almost five years of trying, every week that we progress is a celebration. We are humbled by this gift.

For those of you who are tracking our move to Nashville, we’re getting settled and enjoying our new life here. It’s funny to look back and realize how ready I was to move here. I don’t really miss Orlando (the city) at all. I guess you could say that I was done with that season of life. Our friends are missed regularly. After five years, it’s hard to say goodbye…especially to friendships that started but never really realized their full potential. There are lessons to be yet learned there somewhere.

Our house is coming along. We’ve been told that the roof decking is on now. I hope to post pictures sometime this weekend. Plumbing starts on Wednesday! Electrical is right behind that (I think).

A couple weeks ago, Kristy’s dad (who’s building our house) came and presented an opportunity to move into a spec house his company has had on the market for over a year now. It ends up that it will be cheaper for them to have someone living in it rather than leave it empty. So, Friday, we move out of the PODS and into a brand new house. The time with Keith and Sharry (Kristy’s parents) has been enjoyable but cut short. I will miss our 8pm coffee ritual. I guess we’ll have to move it to the spec house.

I miss blogging. So much life goes by that I regret my failure to be disciplined to journal it. Plus I’m a talker and let’s just face it…people are busy and it seems, generally disinterested in the details. Blogging is sometimes the best, most convenient and easiest way to get out your thoughts without having to burden friends with the details. Here, if you don’t like it, move on.

Until next time friends…and I mean friends.

From time to time, situations come up that make me wonder if the whole idea of church and state should permanently be renamed, state versus the church. It seems that nine times out of ten, this imaginary line gets crossed and Christians are left with their hands raised, wondering what they did wrong. Somehow, it seems that the “state” is the line monitor and Christian’s are left only defending. So why is it that way? Why can shows like Studio 60 make light of Christianity, but doing so to Muslims would be considered inappropriate? Who drew that line and who’s monitoring it?

From my perspective, I’ve always said that the church culture lives about three years behind the trends. My point being, they simply react. What’s frustrating about that is that most of the social movements of this day were birthed in the church, years ago. For example, fair trade, the act of connecting the producer with the corporate buyer directly, got it’s start in the church. On TransFairUSA.com history page, it reads,

“The roots of Fair Trade can be traced back to projects initiated by churches in North America and Europe in the late 1940s. Their goal was to provide relief to refugees and other poverty stricken communities by selling their handicrafts to Northern markets.”

Since the church lives in this vacuum of sorts, we’re late to respond to virtually everything. OR, worse yet, we over react. Have you seen DaVinci Code? Precisely my point. Scores of ministries spent millions of dollars to come against this film and by enlarge, it seems that most of the world didn’t even care. Aren’t we glad we invested all of that money.

So why am I fussing? My point is, in every one of these situations, the church only reacts. Where is the proactivity? If God is the creator of money and He finds pleasure in his people, then why aren’t we, Christian’s, on the forefront of technology rather than giving the honors to the porn industry?

Over the years, I’ve come to recognize that churches are cheap. They want most, if not everything, for free. How is it that the God who owns everything and distributes it freely has his churches purse strings so tight that they’re more concerned about donations rather than paying fairly? They can’t afford it? What is that all about? Our God can’t find the funds to pay for the food to feed the homeless? To build the kick-a website that the youth needs? To invest in technology that leaves people in awe of God’s influence in our creativity? Where is the faith for this?

Why aren’t we leading the way to cultural and social revolution? Why don’t we care about the things that the “world” cares about. Paul said that he would become all things to all people that he might save some. Maybe the church is more about just saving people…not actually being relevant to the people and the culture. Maybe we could rewrite it to say, we will become irrelevant so that we can pray that God will somehow help us save them all? That would be the easy way out. It wouldn’t require creativity, innovation, parables that are culturally relevant, or money. We would just build big buildings and hope that God does the rest.
It’s time that we move from being reactive as a church body and be proactive. If God is on our side, who can be against us?

As many of you have been tracking with Kristy and I and our pursuit of a family, here’s a quick update for you.

In late November we decided to begin the adoption process. The first step is to do a home study. That process is pretty lengthy and in-depth. What’s included? Well, for fun, I’ll give you the entire list:

• Life summary
• 5 personal references (notarized of course)
• Physician’s report for both Kristy and I
• Financial information disclosed
• Employment Verification letter
• Child abuse background check
• FDLE background check (criminal history verification)
• Local background check
• Supplemental home study questionnaire
• Affidavit of Good Moral Character
• Guardianship statement

Although this seems excessive, it certainly helps all be sure that our home is a good home. If you think this comes at little or no cost, think again. The home study is $1200. To hire a lawyer to do the adoption would be another $8000. To go through an agency…I don’t even remember any more. I should note that this is for private adoption. If we were interested in going through the state, then they would pay for all of this.

So, step one is almost complete. Step two? Be matched with a child through personal connections or register an agency to find a child for us. At this point, we’re just putting one foot in front of another.

Last night was our last cell group. Another step closer to us moving our life to Nashville. At this point, we just need to sell our house and we’ll be on our way. — It was nice to spend an evening with friends; good food and good conversation. Thanks to all of you who’ve been a part of our cell these past couple of years. I hope in some small way, Kristy and I had some kind of influence on your life. peace out!

It’s 1:41am. Talbot (Salem), OR.

Last Friday I had the privelege to spend some time with the folks out at City Bible Church in Portland, OR - thanks to Marc Estes, Ranjy Thomas and Doug Lasit for your time, hospitality and wisdom. If you are ever in the Portland area and are looking for a church to attend or visit, this is one you’ve got to check out. My experience and interaction with them has been nothing but stellar. But the reason I write…

From time to time, I come across music that makes me smile…and I push it to everybody I know. On Friday, Doug gave me a CD that they recorded at their Generation Unleased: Divine conference back in February of this year. First of all, the inperson experience was incredible. Thousands of people SERIOUSLY going after God…unashamed … nothing to stop them from meeting their maker. And now I sit on a couch absorbing the same anointing that captured, embraced and changed the hearts of so many that night. You can’t deny that God created these melodies. They are as fresh today as they were when written by those who sought to capture their own expressions of worship through the boundaries of words. This is exactly what He wanted His people to create. He is very pleased. But…that’s not really why I write.
Today, I had a strange and significant moment. No doubt this will not come across as heavy as it’s impact on my life but that’s because it was something that happened for me, at that moment.

I was practically born a Christian. I’ve lived in church, almost literally, my whole life. If there’s been a ministry, I’ve probably done it at least once. I’ve seen people around me come and go. Some come, excited and free, only to leave disenchanted and discouraged because “it” didn’t go the way they intended. I’ve seen people bitter, confused, hurt, angry, judgemental, afraid and quite frankly separated not from the world, but from holiness. In the moment all seems justified and worthy of the justifications, but I doubt it’s spiritual validity, really. But some come excited and willing to do anything they can to meet their maker for the rest of their life. It’s natural that we’d all go through the ups and down of relationship but as I’ve said time and time again, it’s not what happens to you that counts, it’s what you do with the opportunity that matters. You will fall either the to left or the right at some point. You can’t sit on the fence with God. that’s lukewarm and you’re nothing but puke in his mouth. So what does this have to do with my moment today? A lot…

Today, I experienced a moment when everything around me didn’t matter, but one thing. That I, would always be found in Him. I was suddenly aware of what life could look like alone. Completely alone. Does that translate? If not, then stop for a second, turn off the music, mute the TV and just stop for a second. What would life look like for you if your faith didn’t exist? If the promises that you believed, either consciously or subconsciously were non-existant. If you were left completely isolated to just work it out? Can you imagine? What would your marriage look like? What would relationships look like? What if you weren’t told when you were being an idiot, selfish or simply wrong. People just don’t care that much about you. Only God cares that much. He’s there for and through everything. People can’t even begin to fulfil that kind of relationship. People who think this thing about God is rules and religious activity are seriously missing out on the peace and joy of a God who wants to be closer than a brother, a friend, a Father who knows no boundaries. He wants the best for me. Even when I don’t deserve it, he gives freely…without recourse…without strings. Seriously, who is like that, but Jesus! I’ll never leave that. I can’t. Can you?

You might be wondering why I lead with the City Bible guys and their new CD? It’s easy. Read these words and you’ll understand the timing and depth of my moment today. Seriously, man couldn’t orchestrate this if we tried. Who is like Him!

There is none like you
No one else compares, to all your majesty
The world will know your name, as you are lifted high
and all will bow down

who is like you
No one else compares
to everything you are
To all the things you do
Who is like you
I live because you are, my everlasting arms.
You are so beautiful.

Amen.