Story #1:

Matthew 14 starts out with John the Baptist being beheaded by Herod. From what I understand from reading, Herod is sleeping with his brothers wife, and JTB has been fairly vocal in condemning it. Herod doesn’t want to hear it, so if it were any regular joe, he’d just execute him and call it good. JTB, however, is viewed as a prophet, and the last thing Herod wants is an insurrection on his hands because he executed a prophet. So, stuck in a lurch, he throws JTB in prison and calls it good.

At some point Herod throws a party, gets good and liquored up, and shoots off his mouth, granting anything to his brother’s wife’s daughter. Mom sees her opportunity, calls for John’s head, Herod realizes he screwed up and saves face in front of his guests by executing JTB.

If Herod hadn’t shot off his mouth, this whole situation would have been averted and history would be a different, probably better place.

Moral of the story: Once it comes out of your mouth, there’s no getting it back. Wise people learn to shut up quicker, and for longer periods of time than unwise people.

When Jesus  (John’s cousin?) heard about this, he immediately left the crowd and went to be alone. It’s comforting to know that the God of the universe has feelings, mourns and needs alone time just like I do.

Story #2

Jesus gets done with his boat ride to go be alone and mourn, and when he gets there, people are waiting for him. If it were me, here’s how it would go: Something horrible happens, I want to be alone, I get to my “alone place” and 2 of my employees are waiting there with questions about a job. I, personally, would find a big stick and….. but Jesus is different, he has pity on the people and heals them and talks to them.

The God of the universe wanted some alone time to mourn the loss of a family member, and when he tried to go do it, he was still caught up with people to help and things to do.

Moral of the story: Alone time is good, solitude is good, mourning is good, but having these alone times doesn’t abdicate us of the responsibility to be obedient to God and fill his mission on earth.

I’m writing this from home, sitting in my pajamas on a work day. It’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that I’m recovering from a pretty serious accident that messed up my back in a bad way. I spent 6 days in the hospital, and now at least 2 more weeks recovering at home. I think this qualifies as alone, solitude, reflection time. But, God has had different plans for me.

On my first (of two) ambulance rides after the accident, I was able to talk to the EMT (Will) and witness to him and encourage him to go back to church and give God another chance. At the end of the ride I prayed with him before he wheeled me into the emergency room. I don’t think that God ‘willed’ me into having an accident ‘just’ so I could witness to Will, BUT, I think God gave me the sense of mind to take advantage of the opportunity and use my 1 hour ambulance ride with Will to invest in him, just as much as he was investing in keeping me alive, and out of pain.

In Hospital #2 (a few hundred miles away from hospital #1) I was able to engage Alyssia, a nurse’s aide, and tell her about God, invite her to Mosaic church and introduce her to a new way of thinking about her relationship with her boyfriend who she admitted she really loved a lot.

While in Hospital #2 I also got to talk to Susan, a nurse from Iran, and thank her for how well she was treating me, and tell her about the love of Jesus, and pray a blessing over her.

What amazing experiences!

I spent 6 days in the hospital in tremendous pain, and receiving LOTS of medication, yet there were still opportunities to show God’s love, be a willing servant, and hopefully impact eternity.

I dislike being stuck at home for 2 weeks. I dislike the pain and discomfort in my back. I dislike having to rely on Becky to almost completely take care of me. She’s my partner, not my servant. She shouldn’t have to do all of this. I dislike having to rely on people for meals, because I can’t reach my own pots and pans and food to cook for myself.

I like being used by God. I like growing closer to Him. I like impacting eternity. I like have time to just sit and think. I like being part of something bigger than myself, and I like knowing that I have friends, and a partner who are willing to help me through this.

Bad things happen, and plans go horribly wrong, but in the end, God is an opportunist, and I’m a better man for it.

On Saturday morning I stopped in for a breakfast sandwich and the price on the menu was $2.19. When I got to the window, the price was higher. I asked why and the kid said: “We’ll get someone out there to fix the price.” I shrugged my shoulders and moved onto the next window. The lady at the next window handed me my sandwich and I asked her if there was a manager around. She admitted to being one, and I asked about the difference. She said “We’ll that’s because you got cheese on your sandwich” I told her “But I didn’t want cheese.” She laughed out loud and said “Oh well!”

My first thought was to tell her to try again, but I refrained, and pulled away. I opened up my sandwich, scraped off most of the cheese and ate my breakfast.

The whole experience made me wonder if most churches ever consider the customer service experience they provide to the people who pass through their doors.

Most of the companies we consume from have great customer service. 24-7 Tech support, operators standing by, 10 minute oil change, 29 minute guarantees… the list goes on… great companies offer great service. Few people willfully chooses to buy a product from a company that they know has poor customer service.

If the world has set a high bar for what people consider to be good customer service, why aren’t churches striving to exceed the standards set by the world, and wow people with how well they’re treated?

If you ask people to sign up to volunteer, find a place for them to volunteer… immediately.

If someone wants to join a small group, connect them to someone that week.

If you’re going to have a coffee shop in your church, make sure the coffee tastes good.

Lots of churches offer mediocre service, and think it honors God. If you don’t have the resources to contact potential volunteers quickly, don’t ask them to volunteer. If you can’t connect people to small group leaders within 7 days, don’t ask people to join groups until you can connect them quickly. If good tasting coffee isn’t in the budget, don’t have coffee.

God is a God of excellence. Shouldn’t everything we do be done with excellence? Sure we talk about the band being good, and the pastor being dynamic, but what about the person who responds to emails, or answers the phone? Why does it take 2 months to hear back from someone? If you don’t have the resources to answer the emails, don’t give out the address. Mediocre service is more disastrous than not offering something at all. Macy’s doesn’t sell tires, and no one gets upset about it.

People have a very high level of expectations for their customer service experience in life, and if we’re not willing to meet people where they’re at, we’re not going to get them where they need to be… a life focused on loving and serving others, not consuming.

After every interaction with your church, are people saying: “I’m lovin it?” If not, it’s time to rethink how you do things.

I was reading in Acts 18 this morning and something popped out that I don’t think I had seen before: God met a need through a completely different method than people had anticipated.

In Acts 18 19-21 Paul took a pitstop in Ephesus and went to the local synagogue to have a good debate with the jewish people there. At the end of their debate the people asked him to stay longer and he declined. As he was leaving he told them, If it’s the will of God I’ll come back.

Fast forward to verse 24 and a guy named Apollos from Alexandria (Egypt) lands in Ephesus and heads for the synagogue. The back story is that Alexandria was home to a thriving Jewish community and was a major Jewish intellectual center at that time. All of that means that the guy who showed up next (after Paul) was a very well educated Jew and was able to teach the scripture accurately and confirm that Jesus was the Messiah.

Cool huh? The people in Ephesus asked for Paul, didn’t get him, but instead God gave them another great intellectual who debated with them, convinced them, and ultimately helped add to the Kingdom. Apollos was a gift from God that the people of Ephesus weren’t expecting, but came at just the right time. I wonder if Apollos knew what was happening? I wonder if he knew that God used him to answer the needs of the people in Ephesus? Someday I’ll ask.

I don’t know about you, but in my mind, I have solutions to most of the problems I face. Some of them are outside of my pay grade, but for the most part, I feel like I can figure things out pretty well on my own. As great as that sounds, it just doesn’t work that way. My view is so limited, and my desires are usually so small that God must look down and be a little disappointed at the size of my dreams.

Lately I’ve been asking God to do something so big in my life and in our company that I could never possibly explain it or take credit for it, and I believe that’s what He iss doing. Sales have skyrocketed this week in such a way that I could NEVER take responsibility for it. I couldn’t have made this happen if I had wanted to.

I’m glad I got an Apollos answer to my requests, and not my own solution. My own solution would have been small, self focused, and left me feeling confident that I can resolve issues. Apollos answers  come in ways I never could have imagined.

Thank you God for providing me with an Apollos sized solution, not a Justin sized solution.

The last time around at the Dentist’s office, my Dentist, David, talked to me about flossing and how important it is. He admitted that he has a hard time remembering too, but it’s still important. As part of our appointment, he talked about good flossing habits with me, and he told me something very strange, that I never thought I’d hear from a dentist:

If you go a while without flossing, and you start doing it again, your gums are going to bleed. It’s going to hurt, and it will be uncomfortable for a while, but keep flossing, get through it, and eventually the pain will go away.

I was a little surprised to hear my dentist admit that “we know people don’t floss, but you need to start back up, and it’s going to hurt, but work through it.”

It’s nice having a dentist who lives in the real word, and is aware of my failures, and the path to get back onto success.

I was thinking about it today, and my relationship with God isn’t a whole lot different than flossing. I know I need to do it every day, and I’ve had a season where it hasn’t gone so well, and now that I’m getting back to it, I’m experiencing some bleeding and pain.

I’m still in the midst of this two-week trial of spending the first hour of my day with God and there have been some bumps and bruises along the way. At first, I wasn’t adjusting my bed time, so by the third day, I felt sleep deprived, then, I was sleeping in and didn’t get to spend as much time with God as I wanted. Now, I’m starting to feel more connected to God, which means I’m feeling even more spiritual attacks than normal.

Like flossing, there is some pain as this starts back up again. There are also some triumphs, some answered prayers, and a renewed sense of hearing from God again. I can’t believe I went so long without having this good of a connection with God. Where did the last few years go?

Do you need to start “flossing” again too?

This morning I was thinking more about this and God dropped a thought into my head that’s still expanding:

If God can accomplish more with 90% of my income than I can with 100%, then why couldn’t God accomplish more with 23 hours in my day than I could accomplish with the full 24?

To put this in context, Becky and I faithfully give 10% of our gross income to God. We don’t do it because we feel like we ‘have’ to, we do it because we ‘want’ to. Seeking first God’s kingdom with our finances has led to us having all of our needs met.

Why not apply the same principle to our time? Why not give God the very first, and very best hour of our day, and then rely on Him to do more with the remaining 23 than we could do on our own? For those who aren’t morning people (like me) it’s a bit intimidating to think of getting up earlier than necessary. It’s also intimidating to try and shut down my mind for the first hour of the day and not think about work,  meals for the day, Becky or anything else, and just quiet myself before God and listen to Him. In spite of how intimidating those thoughts are, I think there may be something to this that is worth exploring.

I want to try this for the next 2 weeks and see how the remaining 23 hours of my day goes. Right now, my days are full of 3 minute tasks that I can’t seem to accomplish, distractions, phone calls, long car rides and a litany of other things that overwhelm me on a daily basis.

I know these things won’t magically go away, but I’m really hoping that I’ll have the mental discipline to deal with them better and that I’ll have the clarity of mind to find solutions to the problems I face on a daily basis.

We’ll find out soon.

I’d like to write more often and share all the details about how God has provided for us, and the ways he has moved in and through us over the last 6 months. For now, I need to get back to designing, and sending out jobs. I have a lot of work to do.

Yesterday he came by and said “I have two desks to swap out” and my dad looked for two pieces of furniture and said “here take these” without ever really stopping to think about it. About 3 minutes after they left I realized I REALLY wanted one of the desks they took, and a desk they gave us is super nice, but functionally worthless to us. I told my dad that I wanted the desk back and he was like “too late, it’s gone. It’s water under the bridge now.” I was FURIOUS about it and it consumed me the rest of my work day and all evening and this morning too.

While driving to work, Becky called and I was venting my frustration and she prayed and I was so mad I couldn’t even pray with her. I just told God how furious I was and told him to figure it out. No more than 30 seconds later I rounded the final corner where I could see my office and my cousins truck and trailer AND desks were waiting for us in front of our office.

His worker got out and said “we went to three places and no one will take the desks, so we’re going to throw them away unless you want them.” I almost jumped for joy! I said to him “this is such an answer to prayer, you have no idea!” Right at that moment all of my anger and frustration melted away.

I was SO upset about losing that desk and I couldn’t fathom any situation where God would replace it as quickly and cheaply as we first got the desk. It was ruining my day in the WORST way.

God provided for me in a way I couldn’t have imagined. He proved just how faithful he is to us, and he proved how blessed we are and how much he is looking out for us.

I’m also so lucky that Becky was there to listen to me be upset and be angry, and SHE said we needed to pray, and she prayed for me on the phone that God would melt it away and keep it from ruining my day. She’s an amazing woman.

Today started out as a horribly bad day, and has turned into a wonderfully good day.

God is SO faithful. He gave me my desk back and more importantly, he gave me a woman who could handle my frustrations and pray for me in the midst of them.

I feel blessed.

Not only did Abraham not get his child till he was 100, when God called to him, he said “Here I am” listened to God’s instruction, and left the NEXT MORNING for Moriah. They traveled the first and second day, and on the third day he started up the mountain with Isaac and together they carried the wood, the fire and the knife. Part way up Isaac says “dad I see wood and fire, but no lamb….” Abraham replies “God will supply the lamb” and they carried on.

They get to the spot, Abraham ties up Isaac, pulls out his knife and is about to sacrifice him when the angel says “Abraham Abraham!” and of course he replies “Here I am” and the angel tells him not to harm the boy, and that he (the angel) now knows that Abraham fears God because he wouldn’t even withhold his only son from him.

A few things stick out to me in this story:
1) Abraham knew the voice of God and responded immediately

2) Abraham did what he was told to do, and he did it immediately. (Not gonna say he didn’t question it, but if he did, his questioning didn’t prevent him from obedience. I’ll ask him someday)

3) Abraham led his son well by modeling the example of obedience, and the belief that God is truly good and gives us everything we need.

4) God allowed Abraham to keep that which he was willing to give back to Him.

Here’s how it relates to me:
1) I know when God speaks to me, I have a clear sense of God’s guidance in my life. God gives me good questions to ask, and speaks through the answers to those questions.

2) The last 5 weeks have been so difficult. Becky and I have spoken a LOT, and we worked through the issues we needed to resolve, and we both grew a lot in those 5 weeks. Now after seeing her again, and having an AMAZING time with her and sensing “something’s not right” we’re back to not talking for a month or so (hopefully less!) Its been 3 days and I want to talk to her so bad it’s crazy. God called us not to communicate right now, and I need to obey it. This is really hard for me.

3) I hope and pray Becky and I get to keep our relationship. In the meantime, I need to model good leadership so that if (hopefully when) the time comes, I won’t be disqualified from leading us in a marriage because I didn’t model leadership throughout our entire relationship. Can she really trust me to provide for her if I’m not willing to let God provide for me?

4) I have had the hardest time letting go of this. I have held on very tightly because I love her SO much. I don’t think I’ll ever stop loving her, and I couldn’t imagine having any other woman. If God says “give it to me” and I say “no” that means I’m putting Rebecca over God, and that’s not good. God will never give me a gift that takes me away from Him. If I want God’s greatest blessing (which I believe is Rebecca), then I have to give him that which is closest to my heart.

If I disobey God in this moment I’ll never get her back. Obedience is the only chance I have to regain my amazing relationship with her.

Such a simple passage of scripture, but it’s so pregnant with meaning and application. I should have read this long ago. It probably would have saved a lot of heartache.

Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he’s the one who will keep you on track.

Don’t assume that you know it all.

As I look back I’m very content with what God has done in the last 3 years. I’m really looking forward to the next 3 years. I foresee marriage, continued growth in the business, and continued growth with God too. God and I are going to change eternity over the next 3 years. I know it.

I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. ~ God