Just Thinking

Never Stop Learning

I’m in Eagle, Idaho this weekend to speak at a retreat on Contemplative Prayer, and I’ve been enjoying the chance to hangout with my good friend, Robin and his family.   One of the things I enjoy the most about Robin is that even after years of ministry and life experience and a doctorate in ministry he still approaches life with a learner’s heart.  Every time I visit Robin and spend time looking around his library, I always go home with a big list of books I’d like to get from Amazon, and an even longer list of questions I need to ponder.

So what do you do to keep learning?   Read more…

I love this poster!

Lately, I’ve been struggling more than usual with the problem of procrastination.  I have big plans, and ideas, task lists, and dreams, but I just can’t seem to get them done.  It’s as if there’s always something else that needs doing, or that gets my attention.  It feels a bit like high school again, when the only time I would ever clean my room was when I had a paper due the next day, and cleaning my room was the last thing I could do to put off writing the paper just a little bit longer.  I’m intrigued by my struggle with procrastination and I’ve been wondering why it is that it’s been my constant companion for so many years.  A few days ago I did what I always do when I am intrigued by something, I bought a book on the subject.  It’s a nerdy practice, I know, but it has also led to the development of a pretty decent personal library.  I even have a book on the art of mind control practiced by the ancient ninjas.   Read more…

When I was in grade three I got sent to the office by my teacher, Mrs. Campbell.   She had finally lost her patience with me because as she was trying to teach her lesson, and I was talking incessantly at the back of the class room.   I can still remember having to sit outside the principal’s office writing “I will not talk in class.” over and over again.   If I remember correctly I had to write it all of twenty-five times, which, for me, seemed like an impossible task at the time.  Mrs. Campbell told me that if I didn’t learn to stop talking all the time I was never going to get very far.  The irony of it is that these days I talk for a living.   “In your face, Mrs. Campbell.”  :)  I’m just kidding.   Actually, she was a very sweet lady.   She was one of those teachers that was always gruff and grumpy, but when you met her outside of class, she was a sweet, caring woman.   In fact, I remember she came up to me when I was in high school with a small toy car.   She had found it in the back of her desk, and was fairly certain she had confiscated it from me when I was in her class.   I couldn’t believe she could remember me that well.  I guess I made an impression. Read more…

What cost are you willing to pay to develop virtue?

N.T. Wright at Fuller Theological Seminary, “Our culture prefers effortless spontaneity with occasional divine intervention in emergency, rather than working with God on developing the muscles which will meet those emergencies with a God given second nature which appears spontaneous, but is in fact the result of thinking, and choosing and practicing.”

What are you dreaming about?

So, I’m reading through the book “In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day” by Mark Batterson again.   It’s a fabulous book and has so many odd things to contribute to our lives.   If I was to give Mark Batterson one compliment I would say that he is odd.   By that I mean that he tends to think about things that we’ve all seen and read before, but he does it in such an odd way that it makes it all fresh again. Read more…

Okay, so my buddy Robin Dugall got mad at me (okay, so he might just have made a comment on my facebook, but I’m overly sensitive) for not posting to my blog, so I thought I had better update my blog a bit before he unleashes a can of …  well, you know what comes in the can.

At the moment I’m down in Florida at a church planting conference.   I would tell you all the name, but I’m afraid I can’t remember it … I think it’s the exponential something or other.   So far it has been a pretty good experience.   I started the whole thing off with a seminar on creative communication led by Mark Batterson (he wrote “In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day”) and it wasn’t too bad.  Today I got to listen to Erwin McManus chatting about the ways in which the church in North America has created, not only an irrelevant culture, but a way in which to make relevant people irrelevant.  I then enjoyed a presentation by Alan Hirsch that was primarily a repetition of the information I’ve already read in his books, and then a little trite information from a vineyard pastor in Boise, Idaho.

What are you reading?

Okay, so I just noticed something on my facebook page from a friend of mine named Christen.  She added a note to her facebook page listing 10 books that would always stick with her and challenging others to do the same, so I thought I would accept the challenge.  So here goes.