I was asked to speak at our church for the Mother's Day service. Honest, I've never been so nervous to speak before. There are so many heartbreaks all around Motherhood... so that's exactly what I spoke about.  The value of heartbreak.  This is the audio from the talk... I added a little bit scoring... because I just like music. (Makes me not sound so flat).  Happy Mother's Day! 

Gifted and Lifted

Mother's Day

This woman.   How was she so magnetic that she STOPPED JESUS IN HIS TRACKS?   Background. Just two days ago,  Jesus road in Triumphantly, like a conquering hero, turned over the money-changer tables, and told them that Caeser’s currency wasn’t God’s currency. He stayed there at the temple, surrounded by enemies, teaching and calmly answering venom with truth. Jerusalem was about to erupt.   Somehow, late in the day, HIS VERY LAST PUBLIC DAY, something caught His attention.   If this was a fairy tale, and Jesus was a knight, then this might be end of act two. Where he gets to the castle see’s the unknowing bride-to-be in the tower… and remembers why he traveled this far.   IT WAS HER. The pauper widow.   Jesus couldn’t have seen her, BUT HE SENSED SHE WAS THERE. So Jesus left the arguing men and walked up the steps alone, where He could see into “The Court of the Women”.    He sat down.   The courtyard was exposed. There was a long, obvious walk to the trumpet shaped donation boxes. Some people liked carrying their large donations through the courtyard for all to see. But she didn’t. In fact, her gift was only two mites. The minimum legal donation.   He called His disciples to Himself…   “… this poor widow has given more than all those who have given to the treasury.”   She was carrying THE RIGHT CURRENCY, and so much of it that it bought the attention of God Himself…   My goodness, what was she carrying besides two mites?   A broken heart.   She was carrying a broken heart.   And why is a broken heart the currency of the God’s?   Because it’s the physical, mental, and spiritual sign of us HANDING OVER OUR WILL to him.   The loss of her husband didn’t break This Woman’s heart. It set her up. She could easily have been the bitter widow. Her poverty didn’t break her heart either, it let her double down.   A fallen world gave her painful chances to choose faith, it gave her precious perspective.   Anger distracts us from exploring what God can do.   Is there a prayer more powerful than this,   ‘God, here are the pieces of my heart. I don’t know how to put them back together. But I think you do. I’m resisting anger, pride, and hopelessness. I’m turning to you.’   Amen.           Sidenote   This is a pretty bold take, even for me.   I had to ask myself, Mark, are you saying that nobody can break someone else’s heart?   What about getting dumped…?  yeah, it stung. But did you let your heartbreak to Jesus and change,  or did you choose jealousy and sarcasm to guard your heart.   What about when so and so gossiped?  Did you fire back? If so, your currency was revenge.   Or Did you let the gossip die with a private conversation and frank forgiveness? That’s the currency of a broken heart.   What about this and that failure or injustice as an adult? Did you keep fighting long after righteous anger had expired?   I’m not arguing against grit. Jesus’ was more tenacious than anyone… ever. But look at His tenacity. It came after expressing His broken heart to His Father… again and again.   “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors… THY kingdom come, THY will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.   “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? But for this purpose I came to this hour…   “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will , but Yours be done.”   That was how Jesus prayed. He was just handing over His broken heart over and over again.   That is what a broken heart sounds like.   The world will provide the weaponry that bloodies us to the point of heartbreak.   Let me rephrase that, the world will use weapons like depression, anxiety, injustice, dishonesty, racism, abuse, untimely death, and abandonment…  to force our hand.   Either Will we choose to protect and  delay the heartbreak with anger, jadedness, hardness, cruelty, jiltedness, jealousy, callousness, cynicism, or pride…   Or will we allow those same weapons to help us get to the sacred state of heartbreak.   Will we let our Savior turn evil into good, like He did for Joseph in Egypt, the woman at the well, Mary magdalen, the woman taken in adultery, and Saul of Tarsus.   We don’t alway knows when Jesus has pressed pause to climb the stairs and watch us…   the pauper widow never noticed Jesus watching, and he was close  enough to see how little money she had in her hand.   Think she knows now?   I’m Mark Mabry.                  

Heartbreak, what's it good for?

We're late. But it's about time. Time to start putting our brothers and sisters above our political ideology. But how? How can we righteously fight for our beliefs about how a society should operate AND maintain civility and love... especially among believers. A few weeks ago I read "A Gentle Answer" by Pastor Scott Sauls. His Christ first approach to how we interact caused me not only to question how I was communicating, but what I was actually fighting for. Time to heal, and no politician is going to lead the charge because it's not in their best interest. Healing is in our best interest as a family in Christ. So let's lead out. You can also download this as a podcast on any platform. It's the Gifted and Lifted Podcast. Here are a few of my favorite notes from the show. Please tell me yours. “Jesus sees us in whatever condition we are and is ready to meet us where we are...” “before Paul… starts telling us what to do and how to live, we are told who we are and reminded whose we are.” “that’s just who He (Jesus) is. He establishes relationship before anything else.” “posture not politics” “righteous anger attacks problems, unrighteous anger attacks people” A beautiful approach to political discourse “I’ve never met a person who got scolded on social media for their politics and then a lightbulb went on for them and they said ‘oh, you’ve completely persuaded me, I’ve changed my mind. Thank you for showing me the light.’ I’ve never witnessed that.” “part of what kindness means…” we make ourselves liars when we adopt a narrative that lumps an entire group together “…it’s not about us and the other people anymore, it’s about us and Jesus” Speaks about how and why to be angry… “that’s an important grid to run things through… Righteous anger is getting angry at things that are precious to God… Unrighteous anger is when we get angry about things that are precious to us, but not to God.” Our pet peeves can refine us “I don’t think politicians have much hope for making the world a lot better… unless your coming from the resources that Christ provides…” "America and the church are not the same thing and they never have been”  mark’s take on masks     “to put Jesus in front of our politics inside the church, so we can go out in the world and hopefully do the same”

Putting Jesus in front of Politics, Mark Mabry with Pastor Scott Sauls

Imagine it’s Christmas 2020. We all wake up in matching jammies and do stockings, breakfast, anticipation…  and then mom and dad  (you now) walk into family room to verify that Santa came. But the room is empty.   The kids are around the corner bouncing, waiting for you to give the signal.   You stand there stunned, staring at each other.   Unable to wait any longer, the kids fly around the corner squealing.   They see the room and the squealing stops. Thinking it must be a game. They start searching around. They run to the back window, no trampoline. To the garage, there’s no new bike. Hmmm.   Eventually the kids walk back in and notice the real concern on mom and dads’ faces.   You’re speechless. For 10 years as a parent, you’ve been able to muscle this miracle into existence in a household of “believers”, some years it took help.   Overcome by confusion you sit on the floor and cry, “But, I, I swear… didn’t we…?” For lots of reasons, you can’t finish the sentence.   Every year on the fist night of Passover, Jews gather in families to retell the story of Moses parting the Red Sea to save Israel. It’s a beautiful meal. They leave the door open and a place at the table for Elijah, just in case he comes to announce the Savior.   For me, the tragedy of Christmas is that while billions of Christians celebrate the birth of that very Savior, our Jewish sisters and brothers suffer ridicule, persecution, and even holocausts while waiting for Him.   Christ was born quietly in Bethlehem, but they were so hung up on how things were “supposed” to go, that they not only missed it, they raged.   Back to you, in a puddle on the floor. Your sweet kids huddle on top of you, crying too, but not for Santa. You’re taking this turn of events way harder than they are…   Suddenly your 6 year-old squeals with excitement and runs to the glass door in the back… where a homely little stray mutt noses the window, begging to come it. They all run to the window!   He’s not what you expected from Santa, but he’s perfect.   Forget the Christmas list… open your eyes. This is Christmas. The thrill of hope.   A reminder keep our eyes innocent and unjaded by the times.   Because we don’t know what salvation is going to look like.     Sidenote…   I considered making this story a little longer. I thought about letting mom and dad rage a little bit, letting them be on the phone with cops or maybe even arguing with each other about who forgot to do what… finally late in the day to watch their babies in the yard building a house for the dog, naming him, and feeding him leftovers…   But it would have been overkill to make my bigger point.   We all will eventually open our eyes and see the gift.   When the prophet Zechariah knew the attitudes of the Jews and knew that they would likely miss the gift. Indeed they would for a time… but God comforted him in a vision. Yes, he saw thousands of years of blindness and pain, healed in this moment… Someday, the Jews will finally know their Savior…   “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.   “And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”   Somehow, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess… that the babe of Bethlehem was the Savior all along.   I’m thankful that God has opened my eyes enough, during my short life, to believe that Jesus is His Son…   My prayers lately have been different. I’m trying to cut through the wants and the “Christmas lists” that have burdened my faith since I was a little boy.   “Please do this… save me from that… fix her… punish him…”   I just want to know that when the God I pray to “doesn’t do this, doesn’t save me from that… refuses to change someone else… and blesses my enemy…” I want to know that He loves me. I want to lay my worries on Him with real faith.   In other words, I just want my eyes to be open. I just want to see His Hand in this whole thing as much as He’ll let me, right now.   He can do that y’know.   I’m Mark Mabry   Merry Christmas                      

A little Christmas message about Seeing

There was no room in the Inn, so Joseph made a spot for Mary to labor in a cave where the animals were sheltered. It was all the Inn Keeper could offer. Soon, Jesus was born. Maybe that night, Mary found the strength to take her baby outside to look at the sky. “Look buddy… see the stars?” Woah, she might have thought-looking up- I’ve never noticed THAT one before.  That’s called light, Jesus. See the Light? “Jesus”  she may have whispered again, finally putting that special name to a tiny face lifting Him to nurse for the first time. “Take… eat… little guy. This will give you life,” Because Who better than Jesus’ Mom to teach her Son to sucker those that stand in need of sucker. Watching him eat she might have reached her hand under the blanket, counting 10 little toes, and 5 fingers on the little hand that rested on her chest. Then looking back at her baby… “You’re perfect.”  Then looking back at the little cave… maybe she saw a strong, but worried, husband trying to keep a cow and three sheep away from the little feed box… the one where they would lay The Baby as soon as he was fed. Did she see him gather fresh straw and use his outer robe for a baby bed. Joseph, she might have said to herself, feeling a surge of love for the humble man would raise the Son of God. After eating, did the Baby roll his eyes around… and look back up at Mary, before falling asleep in her arms? “Joseph”, she might have whispered with the hint of a smile. “He’s asleep.” Joseph would quickly walk over to help Mary over to put her baby in the manger.   But when he approached, she may have said, “hold him, Joseph.” Like a first time dad, Joseph’s unsure eyes would meet Mary’s. “He loves you,” she might have said as he apprehensively picked up the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes.   Together they might have laid him in that manger, maybe even a little grateful at this point to be outside, not in the crowded Inn.   After all that’s been said, perhaps the old inn keeper had an inkling that this couple needed to see the heavens tonight.   And just maybe, the heavens needed to see them too.     Sidenote,   Although he passed away ten years ago, I can still hear my Grandpa’s voice every Christmas Eve reading from the King James… “And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Ceaser Augustus, that all the world should be taxed…”   This year more than ever before different parts of the story are sticking out to me.   Like that the Son of God wasn’t born at home in Nazareth, with family, safety, and a midwife…  because of taxes and a census.  That’s weird. Cause I’ve requested extensions for much less than childbirth. But the Roman’s were oppressing the Jews, yeah, there was no getting out of paying that money on time.   God’s people spend a lot of their time oppressed… and where the Bible stops our history books fill in the gaps.   Right now though, to me though, there’s mysterious hero.   The Inn Keeper. More specifically, the last Inn Keeper, because surely Joseph didn’t just knock one door and settle for the little cave where the animals were fed.   Looking backwards it might be easy to criticize that Inn Keeper who sent the expectant Mother Of Our Savior and her husband Joseph down the road to sleep with the animals.  But for all we know, He was doing exactly what God knew He would do in that spot.   Often what we see as an obstacle to the plan, IS THE PLAN.   (For more on that thought, read some of Marcus Aurelius, who IRONICALLY was a Roman)   I’ll repeat the idea though, because it’s the thought today.   The obstacle to the way, is the way.   Our Father in Heaven, wasn’t opposed to announcing His Son. He told the Shepherds, Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, Wisemen in the East, and prophets for 4000 years in the Old Testament. The prophecies were memorized by those very Jews in Bethlehem!    However, God does seem opposed to telling us exactly how everything is going to go down.   That job loss, the injury, the girl or boy that steals your heart right after you swear off love to focus on your career…  or the one breaks it just as you were licking envelopes for the wedding invites. What about the early baby? The bankruptcy. The disease. The divorce. The Unexpected death.   God’s plan doesn’t look like ours in other words, “My ways are not Thy Ways”.   So let’s replay this…  you be the Inn Keeper.   You’re sitting in your room and an angel comes. “Greetings Friend’ says the angel, ‘I just wanted to drop by and let you know that The Son of God is currently in His Mother’s tummy riding on top of a donkey with her husband. She’s going to have the baby any day now. They’ll be knocking at your door in about 30 minutes. Also, please, don’t put anyone out sir. The stable will be a  fine birthplace for the Redeemer of Israel.”   So why didn’t He tell the Inn Keeper? Because, like us, he would’ve cleared the place out and scrubbed it top to bottom… and rolled out the red carpet. Like us, he might’ve thought to correct God with our good intentions.   God’s plan wasn’t to make the birth safe, sterile, or comfy, His plan was to let His Son descend below everything from the get go. And for two of His most loved children Joseph and Mary to become more like Jesus in the process.     God is in the details of our lives. Orchestrating.   Thanks for listening.   I’m Mark Mabry                        

The Inn Keeper

Hi, welcome to the podcast. I’m mark mabry.   Today i’d like to read and elaborate a little bit on a recent instagram post where I introduced a new piece of art  that depicts the raising of a 12 year old girl from the dead.   We’ll pick up with Jesus preaching in Capernaum.   Jesus was getting huge in Capernaum.   One day a packed crowd was waiting for Jesus to speak, when an ‘important’ man interrupted the moment. The man was ‘a ruler of the synagogue’.   The interruption was Nothing new. (Jumping ahead of the crowd is the timeless privilege of people with status)   Pharisees and scribes always did this…   and it was fun to watch how Jesus dispatched them by exploiting their pride.   Anyway, The well dressed man came forward. His name was Jarius.   Jarius walked closer to Jesus, and in An Unexpected twist…   FELL AT Jesus FEET AND WEPT.   He cried, ’My daughter is dying. Please Master, come and save her.’   Jesus was never moved by status, but always moved by humility, so He went with Jarius.   The curious crowd followed.   Jarius made way for Jesus through the streets. With each step, The pace of his Jarius’s walk seemed to say  ’Hold on sweetie, dad’s coming,’   But Jesus took His time along the way to heal a woman who touched His robe. Then he paused even longer to hear her voice look into her eyes. “Your faith has made you whole.”   Jarius’ daughter’s clock was ticking. Then the bomb dropped.   A servant found Jarius, he said “Thy daughter is dead, trouble not the Master.”   What? It can’t end like this… Jarius had brought Jesus his lowest…. most broken self…   He had nothing left to give.   Jesus, touched him,  “fear not, believe only, and she shall be made whole.”   Believe. Only.  As if to say,  ‘Son, this next part is too heavy for you. I got it from here. You’ve shown me enough… just believe.”   At home, Jarius’ friends and neighbors laughed at Jesus when he said ‘the maiden is sleeping’. So Jesus excused them all.   Believers only beyond this point.   Jarius was wrung out. I see him kneeling by a little bed with his wife… maybe some brothers and sisters.   Jesus raised her.   But was that the only miracle?   Jesus THE GREATEST AMONG US descended BELOW EVERYONE… to lift us up from The Cross. To draw all of us to Him.   Excluding Jesus, is there anyone more powerful among us than the popular person who willingly breaks before the Lord? Who loves Jesus and all that goes with it. The charity. The kindness. The selflessness.   She who falls on her face in front of a crowd and brings Jesus home to skeptical friends… like Jarius.   That kind of condescension is Christlike.   That is the person who see’s miracle after miracle.         I felt like Jarius’ status in the community was important in this story…  because status is a set up.   We have seem to have less sympathy for rich people, good looking people, gifted people, or successful people.   I mean, it’s definitely a little funnier when sunglasses-guy backs his new Beemer into the light pole at Costco, than when a struggling mom with 3 little kids in a used mini van does it.   The Jarius story challenges those among us who are prone to judge popular or rich people… more harshly.   Think it was easy for Jarius to fall at Jesus’ feet and basically beg in front of that huge multitude of people that knew him as the powerful guy in the Synagogue?   The scribes and pharisees and hypocrites… those are Jarius’s people. What will they say when they find out Jarius was bowing to Jesus of Nazareth? Could it cost him his ruler of the synagogue gig? What about that house that was big enough to have a bunch of people at it in a few verses?    Think it was easy for Jarius to patiently wait as Jesus took his time walking through town healing someone else’s, non emergency blood issue, while his own daughter was critical…   Jarius was used to people jumping when he said jump. How about keeping it together when he finds out that she had died while he was stuck in the crowd…?   Yeah, status is a set up, a set up for Jarius… Because status Is a trojan horse full of pride.       Status ads degrees of difficulty to a humble Christian approach to life.   (That’s my best line and a big part of my point, so let me repeat it)   Status ads degrees of difficulty to a humble Christian approach to life.   Let’s look at Jesus Himself.   How did Jesus win the hearts of women and men starting with Adam and Eve all the way down to you and me.    Hint. It wasn’t because God gave Him Authority or a title, which He most certainly did… it’s all we read about in the Old Testament and the first few chapters of each of the Gospels. It’s  God saying, “This is my Son” “your savior” -  to Mary, then Joseph, to Simeon and Anna, to the Shepherds, to the Wisemen, To John the Baptist and the people who watched him baptize Jesus and heard the voice and saw the dove. But so what?   Imagine if God had said all that and Jesus didn’t end up being, well… perfect.   A title by itself only gathers brown-nosers, not sincere followers.  Authority and power are not the same thing at all.   Jesus has power because he won our hearts. JESUS won OUR HEARTS BECAUSE HE DESCENDED waaaaayyyyy BELOW his birthright as a god… GIVING EVERYTHING HE HAD TO CLAIM OUR OUTCLASSED, less popular, LESS BEAUTIFUL, GUILTY SOULS FROM HELL.   HE WENT LOW- TO UNBREAK OUR GREEDY, LUSTFUL, JEALOUS HEARTS… EVEN THOUGH HIS HEART IS PERFECT.   HE HUNG ON THE CROSS BRUISED AND NAKED AND BLOODY TO save ME AND YOU-   WHO IN TURN DO ALL WE CAN TO PRETEND LIKE WE’RE NOT BRUISED AND NAKED AND BLOODY TOO.   THAT’S WHY JESUS IS THE MOST POWERFUL BEING EVER…   We love him, BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US.   I LOVE HIM.   BECAUSE HE gets low TO LOVE ME FIRST… AND ASKS QUESTIONS LATER.     Back to status for a moment.   When someone throws off the glory of the world at risk of losing it all, like Jarius… Jesus seems to notice.   Sometimes there are actual real life consequences… watch how the world tolerates acceptance speeches that vaguely say, “I’d like to thank God”   but notice how awkward it gets when someone famous says, “I follow Jesus Christ”. Just ask the actor Chris Pratt, or  boxing champs Manny Pacheo or Tyson Fury, or Heisman trophy winner Tim Tebow or drew breeze.   I have a front row seat to see what happens to Lifestyle, Fashion, and Fitness influencers on Instagram when they ‘come out’ as practicing Christians… Often they do it on the same day they are sharing a piece of my art that hangs in their home.   Almost Immediately their follower count drops, then the comments start. “Stay in your lane” “I used to respect you…” “How can you be so intolerant?” “Ignorant” “Naive”. Other Christians will even dig back into their feeds and criticize them for previous posts that, in their minds, don’t live up to a “Christian” standard.   Are you serious?   I’m not famous, but You don’t have to dig to deep to realize that I mark mabry, am a christian hypocrite many times over… especially when you consider that I write about Jesus every day. Just ask my wife and kids. That’s my set up!   So I’m inspired by the humility and faith of popular people who, like Jarius, fall at Jesus feet in front of the crowd. Because, on the flip side, supporters that stick by them end up loving them more than before. The connection is deeper… and frankly, it gives God another opportunity to bless their enterprise.   People with status don’t have an obligation to be public about their faith any more than our mailman does.   And that’s what makes it so powerful when they do it.   AIt’s proactive humility. They’re not compelled to be humble.   And so it is with you and me in our own successes…   the more we can redirect the glory of the world toward our God and be the servant of all, the more we can identify with Jesus….    Because that’s what Jesus did.     I’m Mark Mabry   Thank you          

How one man used status to show Jesus his love...

I did an instagram post with a big long caption recently... I thought it was great (; But my wife didn't like it as written, only when I read it to her. I think she was right. So I punched it up a little bit and added some to it.  Thanks for listening...  Mark 

Luke 4 Imagination Excercise

Last night I learned a lesson about value... here you go. Love, Mark

Bo's Comedy Breakthrough...

One of the more plain truths of life is that things and people are more beautiful when they are touched by Jesus. When it comes to people, a soul lit by Christ is easier on the eyes and the ears and more approachable. Things touched by Jesus become magnetic and alive. 

Beautiful, because He was there...

Yesterday my dear friend, Mike, texted me. “Clare really wants to be a hair stylist, so naturally…” Clare is 5 years old ... continued  Music by Clyde Bawden. Album: Life Song: No Regrets

to be acted upon... a father's day thought

Everyone on earth, including medical professionals, were diagnosing my son Bo with ADHD. #nobrainer it was like diagnosing a sumo wrestler as "a little chubby". But Tara and I were hesitant to medicate him at such an early age (11 years). So instead with bought some microphones and begged for a couple of favors from generous friends. The Dumb it Down Podcast was an overnight success with thousands and thousands of downloads. Turns out that the mic and Bo were like a fish and water. He's rebranding now that he's on the other side of a voice change. So I'm celebrating him today on my own podcast. 

Our ADHD experimental Home Remedy- 5 years later.

I took a little time off to do some digging... here is what I found. -mark

What next?

A few months ago we moved to Nashville, in part, so my daughter could pursue her dreams of being a star in music. In the midst of the move we wrote a song that summarized the feelings and pressures of swinging big. Ava, 13, was sweet enough to sit down with me and dive deep into those feelings. Stream "this ain't the same old prayer" wherever you get your music starting Jan 5, 2020. 

This Ain't The Same Old Prayer

Get ready to live like you mean it. Meet Mandie Sherman @shermanmandie, currently surviving and living all-in with Cystic Fibrosis. Pay attention to her takes on marriage, child bearing, and kindness. I can't wait for your comments! @itsmabry 

Living like it's Terminal

Several months ago I wrote an instagram post entitled “falling on your face”. And now, this morning I find myself in a unique position of getting to take my own advice. Let me read the original post real quick and then I’ll elaborate. The value of falling on your face. I love the story of the leper who jumped through the crowd and “fell on his face” to get Jesus’ attention. Specifically, I love the “fell on his face” part. The New Testament mentions at least two incidents of falling on one’s face. The second story feels little more complex. It was when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane discussing the “bitter cup” with His Father. Sensing the terror of the night and the following day, Jesus prayed with all of His might and then went a little further and “fell on His face” to give His will over to God. Today we meme the performer, the entrepreneur, the athlete, the salesman, the job applicant, or the nervous teenager DM’ing her crush for - "falling on their face" as if they somehow shouldn’t have even tried. Wait, What? No! We have it all wrong. Falling on your face gets the leprosy cured. Falling on His Face was part of Jesus saving mankind from hell. The privilege of falling on your face comes to the few who are not satisfied with their known universe. They are finally ready to step into the void- where God answers the good questions. The persecution and the shade thrown by the crowd is the devil’s way of making sure that too many of us don’t ever feel the transcendent power generated by falling due to exhaustion and then getting back up.   Look at the poise and focus of the performer who has ever bombed and then got back on stage. God respects #fullsend effort.   (and here goes the part that hit me this morning). If you’re thinking “I don’t have any dreams big enough to generate a face fall”… then there you go. Discovering your ministry is a wonderful opportunity to fall on your face while it’s only still between you and God. Think of how sincere your prayers will get. Think of how inspired your family will be by your guts and faith. Yes! #Sendit   Okay, now back to my story. This morning I woke up with a question mark In my mind.  The interesting thing about this question mark.  Is that it didn’t even have a question attached.  So I initiated my normal morning routine, Big glass of water, scripture study, permitting myself to chase random thoughts for a little while before I take in any media… kiss Tara and the kids, go on a run in the park. Basically, I was treading water until the question appeared in front of the?.  I was completely void of something to punch, or a concrete goal to lean into…. in other words I couldn’t put my finger on a specific problem to solve today. Let me get specific and personal, because it might help you in your own situation. Several months ago I was prompted to think about the effect of music more. The more I dug into that prompting, the more I felt like we needed to move in Nashville. However, the roadmap ended right there it’s as if God was saying, just get there and I’ll give you the rest of the map. Well the last few weeks were a little bit crazy and “getting here“ was emotionally a much heavier lift then anticipated. Still is. But this morning is the first morning that I’ve had the energy and the courage to face that blank roadmap. The hard part about a blank page is that even though you are completely willing to fall in your face and make an idiot of yourself in pursuit of something concrete, you still don’t know what that concrete thing is. And personally, If I’m going to fail publicly, I would at least like to fail at doing the right thing than fail (or even succeed) at doing the wrong thing. You see, For a believer, somebody that believes that God has a purpose for him or her, the blank page is both empowering and intimidating. We feel like we should be sprinting in a direction, In fact, we are willing to wear our lives sprinting in a God appointed direction, but what if the mission doesn’t require sprinting yet? What if it requires sitting still and studying and thinking, which is sometimes tough because it makes it even more awkward it looks like you’re doing nothing.  And looking lazy in front of those you love is even more daunting than falling on your face in front of a crowd. If I’ve learned anything over the last few years It’s that when My daily activities don’t align with my ministry, even if I’m 18 hours-a-day looking busy, even if I’m depositing checks… I leave a lot on the table. I am not fullfilled and in that condition I’m anything but inspiring to my family or myself. If I let myself get pulled into some pursuit of that doesn’t lift me out of bed in the morning with my hair on fire, perhaps I ought to check with God to find out if I’m even in the right Forrest. Because once we are sure that we’re in the right forest, it’s just a matter of drive  and energy to start chopping down trees. I hope this little thought might give someone out there pause to think about whether they are in the field or place that God intended… and that you might be empowered to stop “looking busy” for a moment in order to find your path.  

Falling on Your (and my) Face

Last time somebody won a Grammy and said "I'd like to thank God", the press ignored it. The same happens when an athlete credits God for a game winning touchdown or a business mogul breaks out. Gifted and Lifted gives world class talent the chance to elaborate. "Do you really credit God?" "Are there things you do to derive power from God?" "How do you recognize when it's God's power lifting you versus your own grit?" "What do you do when success and faith seem to clash?" We'll listen to world class performers offer Tips, Tactics, and Stories about how to tap into the Godly ether that lifts them and eludes others.

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Gifted and Lifted

hubhopper