Archive for My Thoughts

The Warrior

// March 5th, 2010 // No Comments » // My Thoughts

I originally wrote this letter about 2 years ago… I figured as this email was the original inspiration for my blog and 2 years later resonates just as strongly I would share it with you…

So many of my friends have been under intense pressure lately. Financial stress, loneliness, anger, frustration, spiritual dryness, and fear, are crippling their efforts as they fight just to keep their heads above water. All of these friends have stood by me in my hard times and have cried out for me and assisted where they could.

As I think of the spiritual battle raging around me for the souls of men, I see my friends wounded and battle scarred, some despairing as we continue the fight surrounded and separated from our battle group. This is truly war! Something inside me thrills though.. a clarity that I have never had before. I had fought my own battles until now, but this battle… this is THE battle. The warriors by my side are my friends, the wounded are my friends, the fallen… are my friends.

Almost a year ago the Lord gave me the image of a warrior planting his foot in the city of Gardner, the dust rushed away from his foot like a shock-wave, and the ground shook.

Today I planted my foot and roared to the enemy! “You will advance no further! I will no longer defend my position but will advance on you with a swiftness and fury that causes you to freeze in terror! I… WILL… NO… LONGER…FEAR! I will mow you down like a sickle that clears a field and there will be none standing my path that will not fall! your fallen will outnumber ours by ten-thousand to one!”

I plead with you today, Plant your foot, roar to the enemy! Let us bring to him the battle that he has for so long brought to us! let his forces feel the weakness of defeat as the Army of the KING OF GLORY rises to defeat him!
~blessings

JASONTHEBALDGUY

Tags: Christianity, Fighting, spiritual warfare

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Tested

// February 22nd, 2010 // 3 Comments » // My Thoughts

A man with his head in his hands

God doesn't need to test us to prove our loyalty...

Why God Why!?   How many times have we asked that question?
even Job asked God what he had done wrong to deserve such treatment.

We often get the wrong idea about personal trials… For some reason we truly believe God wants us to prove how serious we are about serving him… that we are truly committed and not just flakes holding on to an easy out.   But when the trials get seriously difficult we begin to wonder if we are being punished somehow and we begin to question God’s purpose.   Why is it that after ages of reading of the love of the Father for his children and how he wants to bless us and give us abundant lives… we still stoop to the tribal, primitive and downright heathen beliefs that God is a “Man in the sky” that rains down destruction, judgement, and “tests” of our faithfulness.

God knows our hearts inside and out… he doesn’t need to test us to prove our loyalty. But as a loving Father he wants to test us to expose who we really are to ourselves.

We often build up images of ourselves that are quite favorable and help us have great self-worth but what value is our self-worth if we establish it based on lies?  God wants us to discover our true value from his perspective… the trials we endure are for our own good… and they make us stronger and more dependent on him.  So if you find yourself in a tough place begin to look for what your situation is bringing out in you… what it is exposing… and deal with it… the sooner you do, the sooner you will move on and you will see the glory of God being revealed in your life!

Tags: Belief, Faith, financial problems, Tests, Trials, trouble with trouble

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Finding The Strength To Be Radical

// February 19th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // My Life, My Thoughts

Most of the time I feel like an average guy… in fact almost all the time I feel like for some reason or other I actually fall below average… I am petty, egotistical, boisterous, insensitive, and childish. But deep in my heart there is a strong desire to be remarkable… to be above average…to live without the handicaps that I so often place upon myself.  Unfortunately what comes out of me often feels like a lumbering Ox trying to escape a yoke that just does not- seem- to fit!  I look at life in a simplistic manner… it is an adventure…that we should embrace and own in every way… the good and the bad.  But somehow jobs, and rules and societies “norms”, keeping up with the joneses,  comes and steals away the adventure of life.  And we often get convinced that all we really need is a bigger TV, a new vehicle, a better house.  What we don’t realize is that all of those things can form a prison that forces us to take the good paying, stressful jobs that end up sucking the life out of  us…. and we end up as mindless drones cranking out an existence, wondering whatever happened to the spark of life… when do we get to relax?  or better yet how do we relax?  We are so close to multi-tasking ourselves out of existence that we can’t even realize that almost every part of our lives are crumbling around us…It has taken me the better part of 34 years to figure out that all of the things that I thought were important actually don’t matter at all.  Many people talk about being radical but I don’t witness it very often in real life,  I often see people “acting” radical but they only go far enough to make a splash.  I decided a while back that I want out of this rat race lifestyle driven by a never ending hunger for more money and more stuff… I started analyzing my buying habits and my motives for spending money. I decided to get out of debt and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.  But more than that I am finding the strength to be radical in my commitment to become a more focused child of God. I am seeing the benefits of turning my back on materialism and thoughtless living. The further I walk away from the ideals of materialism the more power and authority I gain over my life to actually live in freedom.

So what about you?  have your found the strength to be radical in your life? Have you sacrificed any earthly comforts or amenities to reap spiritual or lifestyle benefits?

Tags: materialism, sacrifice

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Internet Addiction…America’s New Dysfunction

// February 3rd, 2010 // 10 Comments » // My Thoughts

I have heard of bizarre cases of internet addiction in China… and even that there are some pretty harsh boot camps in China to deal with internet addicts.  The odd thing is that the addicts respond in every way exactly like any other addict would when they are deprived of the object of their addiction.   It seems that the reality of internet addiction or “Excessive Internet use” is upon us… and is actually linked to depression.

Excessive Internet use is linked to depression

People who spend a lot of time browsing the net are more likely to show depressive symptoms, according to the first large-scale study of its kind in the West by University of Leeds psychologists.

To me this is a serious wake up call because I spend an incredible amount of time on the internet… (like right now writing this post!)  The reality is that we are slowly trading the personal interactions of the real world for the sterile transactions of the virtual world… No matter how we polish it,  the internet is slowly disconnecting us from the reality of our lives.    As we further disconnect from reality our morals and ethics become less important or even relevant to us because … after all … its not real! right?

In my head it feels like I have somehow looked into the face of advancing technology and seen too far… too far for comfort at least… and all I want to do is walk away… partly because I am beginning to recognize the intrinsic value of  life… inconvenience… and even Oranges… and partly because I have a very real feeling that in the not too far distant future possibly within in the next generation… that we will be struggling to retain our humanity as we become less connected to the physical world around us and more connected to more interesting “virtual” realities.

Getting back to the subject… statistics show that a good majority of our country is clinically depressed and rather than going after the key causes of depression we often choose to continue our lifestyles and sidestep the issue with medication.  I am not condemning the use of medication for the treatment of depression. I actually took Lexapro for a year myself for depression/anxiety.  My point is more that we cannot ignore the drivers that are creating the condition of depression in so many people!

  • How do we move forward as Christians in an increasingly disconnected society where social interaction is so sterile?
  • How can we deal with technology like the internet that is so addictive?

What do you think about this?

Tags: addictions, depression, internet addiction

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Key Elements Of Leadership

// January 27th, 2010 // 11 Comments » // My Life, My Thoughts

I recently began thinking about leadership and decided to write down some of the things I have learned about leadership over the past few years.  There is no lack of experts that have opinions on the subject of leadership… and I am by no means an expert. however I figured I would share my thoughts.

There are some fundamental ideas about leadership that I feel are important for good leaders to understand.  Some,  if not all of these are already established and accepted ideas in some perspectives of leadership.  Some of them go directly against the grain of everything we are taught about ” Alpha Wolf ” style leadership… and for good reason!

  • Authority is given not taken
  • Leaders should be able to follow well
  • A role of leadership is functioning to promote unity and forward momentum with minimal exercise of authority.
  • It is critical that a leader recognize that the role of a leader is to
    • Lead in humility
    • Develop a mentoring relationship with those he leads
    • Promote mentoring relationships in upcoming leaders
    • Demonstrate proper boundaries in dealing with issues of
      • Pride
      • Personal conflict
      • Burn out
      • Life choices
      • Balance
      • Discernment

Leading in humility is a tough job, it requires a selfless determination to recognize that your authority is given to you and is something that you must measure and use with discernment.

some questions a leader should consider asking.
Will you recognize me as your leader?
If so will you respect the authority that you have given me and trust me to make decisions for you?

Do you give me permission to speak humbly, honestly, and directly with you when I need to talk to you about how you are dealing with the subjects of:

  • Pride
  • Personal conflict
  • Burn out
  • Life choices
  • Balance
  • Discernment

A good leader should promote healthy boundaries yet still welcome to questions and even challenges to their opinions. Often it is difficult when others challenge our vision and ideals.

It is critical that a leader develop a good balance of gracefully accepting criticism, instruction, and even condemnation; Without feeling threatened.

The best way to develop good balance is to hold loosely to ideals that are not based on rock solid principals.  We often set our full weight on issues that are largely unimportant, and forget to defend the core principals that are worth saving.

By regularly revisiting core values; re-establishing their truth,  and by evaluating and holding loosely to the less important ideals and preconceptions of your vision: you can maintain a healthy balance in your leadership.

Maintaining good balance as a leader gives the team  you are leading the freedom to truly thrive and challenge you in new areas of leadership; instead of wallowing in mediocrity and internal squabbles over meaningless issues.

So if you feel like you are having trouble as a leader try applying some of these principals and you may just discover that leading is easier than you thought.

So how about it… any leaders out there that want to weigh in on this??  what do you think?

Tags: Leadership, spiritual leadership, worship leader, worship leadership

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The Orange

// January 11th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // My Thoughts

orange

I tend to dislike oranges, they are a pain to peel… just by peeling it the juice gets all over your hands… not to mention the fruit itself… sure it tastes great… no argument there! but to get to it you have to chew on a tough almost woody membrane… there are seeds to contend with…

My wife sent an orange to work with me last week. I avoided eating it for a day, but for some reason I picked it up on Tuesday. I sat in my cubicle pondering whether to eat it or not. I held it for a minute looking at it almost in disdain… stupid orange… before I even dug into the peel I could imagine the little sting under my fingernail as I tried to break the first part of the peel away from the fruit. Finally I grabbed the trash can and drug it in front of my chair… leaned forward and dug my thumb into the orange… as I pulled away the first part of the peel a fine mist sprayed from it… immediately the smell of orange filled the air. Suddenly I felt like everything slowed down… I continued peeling the orange and broke it in half. Sure enough my hands were already sticky with juice… I pulled a section off of the orange and bit down on it… ahhh tasted great… except for the tough fiber surrounding it… I shook my head “this is why I hate oranges” I bit into a seed… “oh yea and this is why I hate oranges too!” I reminded myself… spitting out the seed. I ate another piece as I crushed the fruit in my mouth I started really thinking about the orange…

what a marvel of creation… the peel being so tough yet easy to peel away! and that fibery membrane… it balances out the sugars and keeps my digestive system healthy. And the seeds?… well the seeds are a pain… but I noticed.. that without much thinking I was easily able to chase the seeds out of the fruit with my tongue and spit them out…
The best part about the orange…

It made me slow down and peel it before I got to enjoy it…

we live in such an instant gratification, convenience obsessed society that we don’t even realize that we have all but eliminated the real meaning of life on this earth… this is Gods creation! we should be enjoying it! Unfortunately we often find it inconvenient to take the time to enjoy Gods creation…

My mind tends to wander on thoughts like these… I have to wonder how many of us go though our lives and are so obsessed in ridding ourselves of inconvenience that we never even realize that the inconveniences are what keeps us feeling alive… they are there to ground us… to teach us that anything worth having is worth working for.

Tags: food

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