First Post of the Year...

For the first post of 2010, I looked back at what have been my first posts for the past few years.

2009... Part 4 of a series I called "Imagine"  I dealt with some obstacles to doing ministry out of imagination instead of memory (an important thought from Mark Batterson). This particular post had to do with using "past success as a vehicle that will launch us into tomorrow instead of a bed upon which to rest or a wall to prop us up." I really liked this post... wish I was doing a better job of living it out! But to be honest, I just wrote an article the other day about resting on past successes. Maybe this year, I'll listen to myself more intently. Maybe other people will listen too. Let's stop repeating the past and create the future!

2008... Who Belongs Here? In this post, I reflected on some thoughts I'd had as a visitor to a church and wondered what a guest experience at our church looks like. As I think about it, the system is still the same here as it was then. The positives are still in place and the deficiencies are still there, too. We can do better.

2007... DIA Din On the way to class at Hope (was that really 3 whole years ago?!), waiting in a very busy airport, I issued this call to truly live - to do more than "suck and blow air... do more than create some noise as we scurry about." I'm stilling playing this drum. Life is not a series of mundane breaths and busy activities - it is an adventure in bringing praise to our Creator!

2006... Insight from a 3 year old Dakota We were sitting in a Christmas Eve service and Dakota leaned over in the stillness, with wonder and concern in his eyes. I could tell he was a little worried about what he was going to do. The problem? In his own whispered words, "Dad, I'm running out of quiet." May we be so filled with the presence of God that we cannot possibly keep quiet!

2005... Hope for a new venture My first blog post of 2005 didn't come until April 7th. That's because that was the day I decided to start blogging. The theme was hope (not the Obama kind). What if we lived our lives with such hope that all fear was driven out of our lives? I still ask myself this question. There are times when discouragement threatens to wreck everything I've been learning in my 10 years of ministry. I need hope to keep going.
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It's interesting to look back at these snapshots of where God's been leading me (and maybe where I've redirected off course from time to time). It's a strange thing to think of collecting thoughts and throwing them out there for people to digest. I hope someone's been able to gain as much from reading my blog as I've gained from writing it. We have so far to go in our quest to know God. May we glean from each other as much as possible as we travel together...