The 3 questions of Dave Gibbons

I recently read The Monkey and the Fish by Dave Gibbons. In it he talked about 3 questions that have been a filter for deciding direction for him personally and for the church he leads. They are:

1.  Who is my neighbor?

2. What’s my pain?

3. What is in my hand?

Who is my neighbor? is a question related to Luke 10:25-37.  Through this parable Jesus teaches that our “neighbor” are those who are around us but very different than us.

What’s my pain? is a question about personal brokenness and passion.  What are you most passionate about?  What pain in your past has been a catalyst for passion?

What is in my hand? is a question about the gifts, skill and interests God has given you.  It’s about using what God has given you to work towards His mission.

These may be 3 of the most powerful questions I’ve ever considered.

What do you think?

 

What is the condition of your heart

I have been reflecting recently on our ability to either receive or reject guidance from God based on the condition of our heart.  Sunday, I referenced Matthew 13:39.  It is the story of the sower of seed.  In this passage the determining factor for growth was the condition of the soil.  And then Jesus closed off that passage with a statement he used often, “To him who has ears to hear, let me him hear.” The soil Jesus would later explain is a person’s heart and it matters.

So I have been considering how I cultivate the soil of my heart in such a way that I have ears to hear and how I frankly may harden my heart at times.  Certainly sin, stubbornness and pride harden our hearts.  And Scripture and worship both soften my heart.

One of the things that has cultivated my heart to listen more than anything else has been brokenness.  When I am broken before God…when I recognize my smallness and God’s bigness…when I realize I am not “all that and a box of chocolates” I’m ready to listen.

May we pay attention to Psalm 95:6-9:

“Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.”

 

My family’s fast from media

The first full week in January my wife and I felt convicted that our family should  fast from media.  For us that meant specifically comuter, TV and video games when using them for things not associated with work or school.  Through the Christmas break we saw how easy it was for all of us to flip on the TV or the Wii instead of doing something together.  Now we have had a lot of family fun with the Wii but a lot of our media intake was individual.

So we took 5 days partaked of none of it.

It was a great experience as we talked our kids through it.  Our focus we said should be on Jesus always.  Video games and TV are fun but shouldn’t be a distraction from Jesus. And they had become so.

It honestly was not as tough for them or us as we anticipated.  I saw great things happen…

…my oldest son who’s 12 initiate playing with his younger sisters…

…attitudes of the oldest two change almost overnight to be more respectful and fun…

…desire by all my kids to be together, play together and have fun together…

…my own natural response at the end of the day become to read instead of catching up on a show.

It truly was a great experience.  We have since waded back into use of all things entertainment.  However, we have put some better limitations on our kids use of it.

As for me I’ve decided that no TV during the week is a good thing.  It will focus my time more on things that matter.  Practically speaking that just means instead of watching TV after 9pm (only time I really do anyway during the week) I will read or interact with my son.