I'm being serious. I think that getting married, changing places of employment, and moving to new cities all FELT like risks at the time, but in reality that we're all pretty safe bets. It's not that much of a risk to move to a new area when there is a "guaranteed" salary in an established setting. It's also not that much of a risk to get married when you love someone and enjoy being around them.

When we started Great Lakes Church (January 2009) the first series we ever did was simply called, "DNA". The talks covered 5 specific topics that we wanted to define our church. "Taking Risks" was one of them.

Since that time, we've taken almost no risks at all. At times I've convinced myself that we were taking a risk, but really we weren't. We've tried new things. We've experimented with stuff. We've even spent money and used resources... but we haven't really done anything that had a good possibility of failure.

2012 is going to be different. We're going add service time options and move towards starting a campus (fall 2012). For the first time since our launch, it's becoming impossible for me to keep up with what's going on in every area of the church.

Yes, I am peeing myself over this. However, if we allow fear to paralyze us and our love for comfort to keep us from moving forward, we're going to simply EXIST as a church. For me personally, I think that's a pretty lame place to be and not worth giving my life to.

According to numerous Bible passages (1 Corinthians 12:7-11, Romans 12:6-8, 1 Peter 4:10-11, Ephesians 4:11-13, etc.), when someone opens their hearts to God's grace and becomes a follower of Jesus Christ they are given four things: forgiveness, eternal life, God's Spirit and a SPIRITUAL GIFT!

This is very mysterious to me. I don't understand it.

Some of the spiritual gifts sound somewhat normal! The gift of hospitality is one example. Another example is the gift of mercy. 

Some people are given the gift of faith and are able to believe God for the impossible! Others are given the gift of generosity and never seem to flinch in sharing their resources with others. Those gifts are pretty cool.   

But there are some gifts that make me really uneasy (tongues and prophecy are two examples).That doesn't mean those gifts don't exist. It just means they have a very mystical element to them and can easily be used and abused.

That being said, 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 puts everything into perspective by saying that without love even the most supernatural and mystical spiritual gifts are useless!

So without further ado, if you're interested in taking a spiritual gifts assessment to help you figure out what your gift(s) may be, here is a test that covers some of them (click here). Obviously this isn't error-proof, but it's a great start!

I blogged about this one year ago.

When our life starts to derail in any area, by far, most of the time, it is the result of  a series of decisions that we've made and are responsible for. Period!

When our marriage starts to derail, more often than not it's because we haven't acknowledged our faults, given much thought to any of their needs or been faithful in keeping our marriage vows.

When our finances start to derail, usually it's 'cause we've spent more than we've made, lacked a saving's plan, lived without margin or thought we could beat some mortgage company at their own game.

When our families start to derail, it's very likely that we haven't given the time, put in the energy or made the emotional investment necessary for a healthy family.

But if it makes you feel better, you can blame somebody else for your problems. It seems like everyone else does.

Lack of Self-Awareness is a big one!!!

Of course, none of us ever feel like we're lacking self-awareness. That's kind of the point. So here are some questions to ask yourself:

1) When is the last time that somebody told you a difficult truth about yourself (ie - you're arrogant!)?

If the only person you can think of is your mom, and it was over a year ago, you're in trouble!

2) When is the last time somebody challenged you on something without you becoming defensive or justifying yourself?

3) What are your top 5 strengths?

4) What are your top 5 weaknesses?

5) How quickly are you willing to admit when you are wrong on something?

6) When are you the most insensitive to others?

Our entire country has become derailed financially because of lots of arrogance and people in high places turning a blind eye to problems that we're clearly right in front of them.  If we're not careful, we'll do the same thing with our life. All of us have watched people become victims of their own actions and our only thought was, "It's not a surprise. I saw that coming a long time ago!" Don't be that person.

When someone's life becomes derailed, often the people closest to them aren't shocked. They saw it coming, but never felt like they were in a position to say anything.

Other than sex or money, what are the things that have the potential to derail our lives?

We've all seen this. Someone works really really hard at something and then they finally begin to experience the rewards of all their efforts. Good for them!

But success can be really tricky. It often becomes the breeding ground for an entitlement mentality. It produces such thinking as, "I made this company what is it, I deserve to be given special treatment".

It's ENTITLEMENT that causes people to treat the company's finances like their own personal ATM.

It's ENTITLEMENT that motivates people to walk all over others.

It's ENTITLEMENT that hardens someone's heart from gratitude 'cause after all... they deserve it!

Sorry, but none of are entitled to anything. Period.

Years ago, I somehow thought it was important for me to weigh in on every question and/or decision that people were wrestling with...

-Is Harry Potter evil?

-Are people born gay?

-Are we living in "end times"?

-How do you explain evolution?

-Does God predetermine who is and is not going to be "saved"?

-Is it wrong to let my kids celebrate Halloween?

Regardless of how passionate you and I are about some of the cultural and/or religious issues we encounter... let's be realistic about something: We might be wrong. 

Now, that doesn't mean I won't ever have an opinion. MOST LIKELY I WILL. It just means I'm not always going to share my thoughts (based on who's asking, why they are asking and the context they are asking in). Even when I do share, it doesn't matter how passionate, well thought out or definitive my answer is. The fact is, more often than not it is just an opinion and not a fact!

Orange County, CA (Discovery Science Center, a movie and a hotel w/ a pool)

Monroe, WA (Reptile zoo, a movie, a park and a hotel w/ a pool)

Seattle, WA (downtown, the Space Needle and a hotel w/ a pool)

Seattle, WA (overnight cruise to Vancouver, Canada... then taking the train back)

Everett, WA (circus and hotel w/ a pool)

Wisconsin Dells, WI (Great Wolf Lodge and tubing at Cascade Mountain)

Kansas City, KS (Kansas City Zoo, a state park, a pumpkin farm, and a hotel w/ a pool)

Milwaukee, WI (glow in the dark mini-golf, a movie theater where you can eat a meal while watching, and a hotel with a pool)

Kenosha, WI (overnight camping trip)

Minneapolis, MN (Mall of America and hotel w/ a pool)

You get the picture. It doesn't take much to build memories with our kids. 

I'm addicted to the FEELING of busyness (and you are too!). That's not a bad thing. It keeps us from wasting our life.

But sometimes my busyness keeps me from parenting. I can go weeks without spending more than a couple hours focused on my kids. So, I've had to do some pretty intentional planning to make sure I'm not losing the relationships that ultimately mean the most to me.

By far, the best plan I've ever come up with is taking individual vacations with each of my kids every year. They are short and relatively inexpensive trips, but it means the world to them!

This past weekend, I spoke for my buddy Matt Cox at a church that he and his friends started 18 months ago. They meet in a Jr High building. On Sunday, they had over 500 people. Wow. Simply wow!

Instead of doing this trip alone, I brought my 11 year old daughter Alyssa with me. A State Park, the zoo and Oklahoma Joe's BBQ was all that was needed to make her feel like she was the center of my world. Totally worth it.

I'm not exaggerating.

Hundreds of us students would gather together every Wednesday night to focus all of the energy and passion in our bodies onto one thing: GOD! It was a rush. Every time we got together it was the same agenda: pray, sing, and talk about Jesus. To add fuel to a fire that was already going, we would have retreats, youth conventions and spontaneous worship gatherings.

It was like we were dating Jesus. Everything was new and emotional. We couldn't wait 'til the next time we were in His presence.

Fast forward 20 years. I'm reminded that the hype and passion and emotions and feeling doesn't last forever. At some point it's going to fade. Then it will come back. Then it will fade again.

In many ways it's like a marriage. At some point, commitment needs to take over in order to prepare us for the highs and lows of our spiritual journey.

So when I don't feel like it, I still pray... I still worship... I still serve... I still study the Bible... I still keep moving forward. Because following Jesus is a long-term commitment that cannot be based on short-term emotions.