David Allen, Making It All Work
GTD fans, like me I’m sure you’re looking forward to David Allen’s new book, Making It All Work. If you haven’t done so already, pre-order the book.
Thanks to the kindness of Ismael Ghalimi, I’ll be attending next week’s Office 2.0 Conference in San Francisco where David Allen will be the opening keynote speaker.
You Are Living God’s “Plan A” For Your Life
…we tend to think that while God has a “best” plan for our life, he also has some other, “cheaper” plans for people who miss the best. We remember certain foolish or sinful decisions we’ve made and, because of the consequences, see ourselves on a permanent “Plan B” regarding God’s will for our lives. Each time we make another bad decision, we drop down a notch to Plan C, Plan D, and–being the sinners that we are–we soon run out of letters in the alphabet. We think of “what could have been” if we hadn’t married so-and-so, had not gotten pregnant before marriage, had not taken this horrible job and turned down the one that would have made our career, or had not blown up at our teenage son.
In this chapter we will see that for those who are in Christ, there is only one plan, Plan A. This plan holds despite all our stupid mistakes and sins. We shall see the wonder of God’s shepherding care, the detail of his love through his decreed plan for our lives. It is at once a truth that is awe-inspiring, deeply comforting, and yet sometimes intimidating for us, God’s proud creatures.
-From chapter 4 of James C. Petty, Step By Step: Divine Guidance For Ordinary Christians
True Theology
“True theology leads to love, mission, and doxology.”
“The theology that matters is not the theology we profess but the theology we practice.”
-Tim Chester & Steve Timmis, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community
Curtis “Voice” Allen, The Process of The Pardon
Two weeks ago my friend Curtis “Voice” Allen sent me a copy of his latest rap album, The Process of The Pardon. I’ve been enjoying this album thoroughly. I’ve been listening to it often…while driving, running, and dancing with my son.
There are two reasons I dig The Process of the Pardon:
1) Theology. Allen’s lyrics are saturated in theological truth. Listening to this album will educate you. This album is good theology delivered in the art form of rap. Halfway through the album and Allen’s poetics, you realize that you’re not just listening, you’re learning…even worshiping.
2) Beat. Allen has included some gripping beats on this album, beats that make you want to nod your head and move your feet.
My favorite tracks are Here I Stand (a celebration of Martin Luther and a call to follow in his reforming footsteps) and The Long Road Home, which you can listen to here.
You can purchase The Process of The Pardon here.
2 Lines for Falling Asleep & Waking Up
The past two days I’ve been helped by meditating on Psalm 46. I’ve been repeating to myself the two lines that repeat in the psalm (verse 7 & 11):
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Last week my son’s anesthesiologist told me that the way someone falls asleep under anesthesia is generally the way someone wakes up from anesthesia. So, several months ago when my son went under anesthesia for a CT scan, that day’s anesthesiologist wanted to move things along quickly. He gave my son an intense dosage of anesthetic that knocked him out quickly…45 seconds tops, but he went down kicking and screaming. An hour later, Cru woke from the anesthesia in the same spirit–troubled and screaming.
This last Thursday for my son’s MRI, we dealt with a different anesthesiologist who moved things along more slowly. He gave my son a less intense dosage of anesthesia. It took about 3 or 4 minutes for my son to konk out. This time there was no kicking or screaming, just a gentle drifting off to sleep. And, sure enough, my son came out of the anesthesia in the same fashion–a slow, gentle waking up.
This got me to thinking: is this how normal sleep works? When I fall asleep troubled do I tend to wake up troubled? When I fall asleep at peace do I tend to wake up at peace? Is the attitude and disposition I take to bed at night the attitude and disposition I wake up with in the morning?
So far my experimentation shows that everyday going to sleep & waking up is much like the nature of anesthesia: how we fall asleep is how we wake up.
I want to work on going to sleep and waking under the comforting words of Psalm 46. These are the lines I’ll be repeating/praying as I go to bed tonight:
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
If the theory holds, I ought to find these words somewhere near my lips in the morning…
5 Years
Five years ago last Saturday (8/16/03) I married my beautiful bride Taylor…
We celebrated our 5th anniversary this Saturday in the far away mountain town of Graeagle where I officiated the wedding of my friend, Parker (the groomsman standing in the very back at my wedding: see the above pic)…
and took some goofy pictures…
Next to romancing my wife on Saturday and seeing the look on her face when she read my two love letters, the best part of the weekend came on the way home when my brother (who was a groomsman in the wedding) and I rode the famous 17 mile downhill mountain bike trail in Downieville…
If you’re a downhill mountain biker and you haven’t ridden Downieville, you must change that.
Thanks for Praying for My Son
A number of you were praying for us last week as we took our son in for an MRI on Thursday. Thanks for your prayers. The MRI went well. Cru reacted to the anesthesia much better than several months ago when he had his CT scan done. We receive the results this week which will help us better discern how to proceed regarding surgery and removing the dermoid on Cru’s forehead.
What a Weekend of Work With My Father Taught Me About My Heavenly Father
This past weekend my dad drove down from Sacramento and together we spent the weekend tackling several construction projects on my condo in order to prepare our home for the arrival of Buzzard baby #2. Over the course of two days we: installed a new pine-paneled ceiling in the boys’ room (above pic), installed a series of cabinets in the boys’ room that my dad had built, repaired our broken deck, and installed a garbage disposal under the kitchen sink.
Unlike me, my dad is extremely “handy”–he’s very good at building and fixing stuff. And, unlike me, my dad is a quiet man. His teaching style is different from mine. He doesn’t first explain to you how exactly he’s going to go about ripping the existing ceiling out of your son’s room and how he intends to erect a new ceiling in its place. Without a word, my dad just starts ripping, sawing, and nailing.
My dad doesn’t share his plan.
And this tempts me to think that my dad doesn’t have a plan, that he doesn’t know what he’s doing and that he’s going to make a mess of my home. There were at least 10 moments this past weekend where I anxiously questioned my dad’s wisdom (Are you sure that’s the right kind of lumber to use for the deck? Are you sure we’re putting up this ceiling up correctly? Don’t those cabinets need a few more screws to hold them up? Why’d you throw that away, don’t we still need that? etc…).
With each question, my dad simply asked me to trust him. And, every single time, whether it was 30 minutes or 3 hours later, I’d look at our finished work and realize that my dad knew exactly what he was doing.
And I’m beginning to think that my dad knows exactly what he’s doing by not sharing his construction plans with me ahead of time. I’m beginning to think my dad knows all about my unhealthy need to have everything explained to me ahead of time, to have all the plans laid out. I’m beginning to think that my dad has known this for a very long time. I’m beginning to think that, even though I turn 30 in a month, my dad still likes being my dad and teaching his son how to trust him. I’m beginning to think my dad is a lot smarter than me. I’m beginning to think that I’m finally beginning to learn how to trust…how to trust my earthly father and how to trust my Heavenly Father.
Preaching Notes
I’m enjoying Josh Harris’ Preaching Notes blog posts–a series of posts examining the actual notes taken into the pulpit by several well known preachers.
