For the past week, Emily and I have been leading worship for a couple’s retreat in Lancaster, PA with our great friends Brad & Rebekah. On our way back to the ‘Burgh, we decided to drive a couple hours out of the way and spend a night at the Gateway Lodge in Cooks Forest, PA.

Beautiful place. Quiet, serene, peaceful, slow.

Did you hear that? Slow.

Mini excursions like this help me re-focus my life on what is most important. For me, it’s not that my job is extremely busy (though there are seasons, for sure) it’s the way I go about my job.

• I make it busy
• I’m stressed when I don’t need to be
• I don’t spend enough time simply waiting on the Lord in prayer
• I do things I could delegate
• I race about doing menial tasks rather than focusing on people
• I spend too much time doing what Scott Belsky calls “Insecurity Work” (Twitter, Facebook, Reading Blogs, checking stats)

Cooks forest is reminding me to focus on what matters. So I decided to write out a mini-list of some of my ‘main things’. I want to use my time wisely to focus and accomplish goals in these areas. Hopefully it will inspire you to write a list yourself.

• Seek God’s face first thing every morning
• Spending time with my wife, the most important person in my life
• Continue to write songs for the church to sing
• Make this blog an encouraging resource for worship & church leaders
• Continue raising up worship leaders and musicians at APC
• Invest myself in creating a culture of worship at APC
• Raise up leaders and make disciples of young adults in the Pittsburgh area
• Loving people and leading them to Christ

So what’s your list? How do you keep yourself focused on the ‘main things’ in your life? I encourage you to find a peaceful spot (doesn’t have to be cook’s forest :)) and think, pray, & write. It will go a long way. Go ahead, you have time. Just do it. You can’t afford not to.

November is “Action Month” for us at APEX. Each of our small groups are doing an outreach this month to put our faith into action. We made this video as a promo piece, but it may be too ridiculous to actually promo anything 😉 however, here it is in all of its glory. Hope you enjoy the humor.

DS

Sometimes you can’t shake the feeling. Questions plague your mind. Doubt settles in. Am I really “called” to do this? Have I chosen the right career path?

And then there are other times where you feel on top of the world. You ‘feel’ anointed, called, gifted, used by God, important.

Whatever ministry you engage in, worship, preaching, pastoring, small group leadership, announcements, greeting, coffee preparation, you’ve had feelings of inadequecy. There have been times in my ministry where I’ve felt, “God, did I choose the right thing here?”

I’ve already addressed what to do when inspiration lacks. In this post, allow me to ease the tension by saying it is normal for anyone in ministry to feel this way. The goal of a minister should not be perfect execution but perfect trust in God. If you are basing your calling on your performance, your emotions will take you on a wild ride you don’t want to be on. Whether we “feel” effective or “feel” we’ve failed, God loves us and God is using us. Isn’t it true in ministry that when you’ve felt you’ve missed the mark someone heard exactly what they needed to hear from God?

Weakness. God likes to shine through our weakness.

I’m not saying to go intentionally suck at what you do for God to use you. Yikes. Work hard. Pray hard. And then just do it. Trust God with results. Stay faithful.

Be encouraged today. You belong to the God of the universe through strength and weakness.

I once read a book by John Ortberg where he introduced me to the phrase “hurry sickness”. In our day we are always rushing, never fully engaged in what we are doing and stressed beyond belief. I have found that when I intentionally slow myself down I enjoy life more. I focus on single-tasking instead of multi-tasking. I focus on being in the moment rather than being somewhere else. I focus on the present rather than the past or the future.

Here are some simple things I’m doing to stay more engaged with my world. While some of these may not specifically apply to you, I hope it just gets you thinking as to what you could do yourself.

• read my physical bible first thing every morning (no online or iphone version to get me distracted)
• check email only after I’ve accomplished an important work-related goal for the day
• limit my email checking to 2x a day (late morning & late afternoon)
• writing all my ideas down using Action Method
• worship and pray out loud. No information intake. Just me and Jesus.
• listen to and engage in conversation with my wife
• pray out loud for APEX and the APC worship ministry
• read physical books
• exercise daily
• consume coffee 🙂
• listen to ambient, instrumental music throughout the day
• less emails, more phone calls
• smile more
• engage with people in public places. Talk. Be a Christian. Share Jesus.

While I don’t always perfect this art, this is what I’m shooting for.

What about you? What are you doing to battle “hurry-sickness” and stay engaged where God has you?

Every day I wake up, I have a choice – play it safe or act in faith. The choice is mine. Will I act on what I know, what I can manage, and what is comfortable, or will I step into the realm of the unknown, ask God for the impossible, and inconvenience myself for the cause of God’s kingdom on earth?

I’m an expert at rationalizing risk out of my life. I’m an expert at playing it safe.

I don’t want to do that today. While it would be easy to blog about stepping out in faith for the rest of my life, I know my weakness. I’m going to start with today – this very day that is right before me with endless possibilities.

What about you? What are some ways you are stepping out in faith? What chasms are you crossing? What prayers are you praying? What territory are you taking?