What If...

Just kinda thinking out loud today about...

• I often ask team members and co-workers to think about what our organization and teams would be like if everyone on them had their (or my) attitude and gave their (or my) effort. Would they be better? Worse? The same? What if everyone in my church had my attitude towards...the homeless...orphans...other believers...lost non-believers...seeking non-believers...malcontent believers...and on and on. Would anything ever get done? Would anything change? I'm nearly afraid to know.

• I've rubbed shoulders recently with folks who don't think like I think. They seem to have arrived, through sincere seeking and struggle, at a "stance on stuff" (that's a theological term I learned in grad school way back when) that I honestly feel I've escaped from. They're passionate though. That's for sure. They're sincere too. They've studied it out as well. This is not a lightly regarded landing place for them. It reminds me again that the greatest question in the realm of issues and stances for me is not where you/I land or what you/I think but what will you/I do with the other Christ lovers and Christ seekers who have worked out with fear and trembling their own answers just to find that you/we don't end up seeing things the same way? May grace abound.

• My wife is posing some of the most thought provoking questions I'm dealing with right now. Why is that? I'll credit it to two main things (among many). First, she is constantly in the Word and prayer. It just where she lives. She truly has no time for anything that is trivial or mindless (though I give her plenty of chances). Secondly, she is daily knee and heart deep into home schooling 3 boys. The oldest, he's 8, is a real thinker. What, when, where, how, and why are just the tip of the iceberg for him. I think he stirs her thoughts which helps her stir mine. Thank you God for Traci.

• We're just days away from the birth of our fourth child. I remember just after Benjamin was born. We were flying from Dallas to Atlanta after going to some dear friend's wedding. A guy sitting beside us on the plane saw how happy we were with our little guy. He said he had 4 and loved them dearly. I sat there and thought, "Four kids? How in the world? What does he do for a living? How can he be on a plane when his wife it at home with 4 kids?" 8 years later here I stand on the brink of my own #4. "How in the world can he" has turned into "anywhere in the world will we." "What does he do for a living" has been recast as "Wow is God ever a great provider!" and I've spent more time on planes the last 6 months than I ever thought I would in any 5 year period back when we were flying together back from that wedding. Be careful what you gawk at because it in you just might find yourself one day.

Reflecting...a dangerous past time for a guy like me...