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I was sitting down for quiet time today… when my son, Kyran, came in and showed me the paper airplane he just made. It looked really strange, and the middle part opened up to be kind of a sideways cup. I asked him to explain what was going on there. He said “it didn’t really work as an airplane, so I turned it into a popcorn holder too!”

I thought it was funny, but a real life lesson for me. How often, when something isn’t going right, do I add things to it to try to fix it, even understanding that’s not the solution?!? How often do I get distracted from the real task of making a working airplane and end up doing something on the side that feels productive but takes even more focus away from where it should be? For me, it is clear that making the airplane a popcorn holder will always make the airplane worse than it would be if it had a single purpose, but that wasn’t clear at all to Kyran. 

This has really caused me to think, I do the same thing except with people and projects. Is it needing to appear productive for other people? Is it the ease of doing a small side-project I know I can win instead of tackling the greater projects I’m not sure about?

When I think of this I am reminded of Warren Buffet’s advice: write down your top 25 things you want to accomplish in life. Now, circle the top 5. The top 5 are your goals. Your other 20 are your avoid at all costs list. Most people never accomplish anything in life because there are too many competing goals and goals absolutely have diminishing returns.

What are my top 5? Focusing on being the leader of Equip Mozambique. Yes, I can be filling out grants or applications or financial records or coding. But I need to be leading. I need to take a stand and, instead of saying “no one else is doing this so I guess I have to”, say “no one else is doing this so it won’t be done until I find someone who can do it”. I always try to be helpful but that means in a given day I am fixing printers, working with email and doing a bunch of things that other people really should be working on.

I also need to get my God time sorted out. I used to do it in the morning when I woke up, but now I have a giant list of issues to deal with as soon as I wake up, and I only have 2 hours where Mozambique and the US business times overlap. NO checking my email or WhatsApp before I spend time with God.

An intensive/rest time with God can give God the opportunity to work with you to root out what’s causing this to be such a stronghold in your life. The challenge here is to press through and actually start doing it.

If it doesn’t fit into my top 5, forget it. It’s like adding a popcorn holder to an airplane.

 

 

Easter Thoughts

Then the disciples who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed - for until then they still hadn’t understood the scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead.
John 20:8-9

The resurrection of Jesus was an event that transformed the world. But it was really the culmination of a plan of several thousand years to redeem God’s people. However his disciples only understood on THAT DAY. Imagine - God dropping hints throughout the entire Old Testament, and then being super plain with Jesus when he was talking to the disciples, but they didn’t understand until it actually happened.

I feel like this has many parallels to leadership. God gives you a vision and you work on it for years. Some people are blindly following you or they follow you because they are being paid, but they don’t understand the vision. Even at your Gethsemanies and your most difficult moments, they don’t understand and are there sleeping. It’s only after the fact that they understand the vision.

But there is hope. The disciples didn’t stay like that. The next moves of God, they were right there along with Him. Acts describes the disciples as being in step with the Spirit, doing God’s will in God’s timing, and understanding the vision. Revelations goes even further and describes a people who see beyond their own time and to God’s plans for the future.

If we are always being surprised by God, it’s a good indication we are not spending enough time with Him, or that we are missing something He is trying to tell us.

The Good Shepherd in Context

 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. John 10:1-13

I didn’t notice this before, but there’s no break between this and John chapter 9, where the man is born blind, healed on the Sabbath, and then forced in front of the pharisees. In fact, this is Jesus’s response to that event and a continuation of his discussion with the pharisees that starts in 9:40. Why is this important? Jesus is attacking the pharisees when he talks about the thieves and robbers, and then again when he talks about the hired hands. And each is directly related to the event that had just happened.

they will never follow a stranger (John 10:5). The pharisees tried everything to get the blind man and his parents to follow them. The threatened them, cursed at them, and tried to persuade him for days. Jesus met him, spoke just a few words and the man instantly started worshiping him. Wow - what a difference! He calls his sheep by his voice and they follow him.

It was Jesus (the gate) that led this man to freedom, but the pharisees bypassed the gate when they were trying to get the sheep. In order to understand this, there are a couple important cultural and contextual clues here… For example, sheep don’t normally stay in a pen with a gatekeeper (John 10:3). They are normally grazing - this must have been at a town or village where many people kept their flocks while they did shopping or attended to other business in the village. That means there are a number of sheep from different owners. But sheep know their master’s voice and when he appears at the gate they jump up and follow.

the hired hand cares nothing for the sheep (John 10:13). Wow, wasn’t that the truth in this case! The pharisees did nothing to help this man, either before or after he was blind. This must have been a serious insult to the pharisees because they were seen as the shepherds of the flock of Israel. In many languages, pastor is literally the same word for shepherd (including in Portuguese). Jesus isn’t just addressing Satan or bad people here - he is addressing the pharisees, which most people thought of as the religious and upstanding people of the time.

 

Idai Aftermath--Getting my Family to Safety

 

More Insanity, as if it couldn't get any worse... We have had to run all around getting documents for Kyran's passport, so the kids can fly without me. They were able to. Now, on our flight back to Beira, we ran into a thunderstorm and the pilot is apologizing for how bumpy the plane flight will be. God is in control. 

Today I have been really discouraged and depressed. Yesterday was also like that. If I had been like this last week, I may have chosen to go home with my family. But I have family in Mozambique as well - that's something few people I think really understand. I need to go back because that's my call. My blood family is safe and taken care of; the rest of my family not so much. Lord protect me. Psalm 90 says that we are given 70 years on this planet - some up to 80. I want to spend it in the best ways possible - not running from fear but learning how big God is in the midst of it. God, take my broken sacrifice - my life and the things I do for you - take however messed up they are and use them for your glory. Free me from the need of having to be perfect. Free me from needing the approval of man - let me in my freedom chase you as when we first met.