R3: radical, revolutionary, different

It’s hard to believe we’re into our first day of 2009.  It doesn’t seem like that long ago everyone was sure the world was going to end because of Y2K.  And now we approach the close of the next decade.  So before we close the 2008 R3 season, let’s take a look at some of the more popular posts:

Top 5 Reader Posts

1. My “about” page - this is by far and away the most popular page on R3
2. what I’m reading: unChristian - a book that shapes how I approach R3
3. prayer thursday: courage - the most popular R3 page in Google
4. what I’m reading: Chasing Daylight - Erwin McManus has a profound impact over my life and this blog
5. prayer thursday: God’s strength, our weakness - this seems very appropriate considering 2008

My Favorite 5 posts

1. i’m a Christian because of the money - No.  Seriously.  I am. 
2. redemption: finding the way home - any time you can tie Darth Vader and the Bible together, you have a winning combination!
3. what I’m watching: RockTV - if Christians used humor like RockTV more than Bible Thumping, more people would be willing to talk to us when we showed up at their door
4. love your enemy (and fellow drivers) - I haven’t stopped thinking about this post since the day I wrote it, talk about living out a life of faith…
5. what’s the point? - always a good question to ask yourself

R3 has been in existence for almost 1.5 years.  And during that time I’ve never taken a leave of absence.  The most time I’ve taken off is over the weekends, or occasionally a day or two when I’ve been sick.  But all that’s about to change!  For the first time since R3 started I plan on taking a few days off.  Two weeks to be exact.  But don’t worry.  You’ll get regularly scheduled posts over the next two weeks.  I have lots of content pre-written. 

I’ve never been very good at taking time off from anything.  Because I get bored easily, I look to keep myself occupied.  Which means I tend to ignore the idea of a Sabbath.  But there’s a reason God tells us to rest.  Nothing was made to always work.  Not even a website. 

For me this rest will allow me to catch up on some reading.  It will also let me refill my “creative well” so to speak.  Those are important reasons to rest.  But perhaps the most important reason is to simply see that the world goes on even if we don’t.  We often talk ourselves into believing that if we stop working, the world (or perhaps just your house) will fall apart.  It doesn’t.  The world always goes on.

It’s comforting knowing that when I come back in two weeks, R3 will be chugging along, even without my direct supervision.

Not to sound melodramatic but I think there’s a moment (possibly several) in a person’s life where they question if what they are doing is worthwhile.  Is the project you’re working on meaningful?  Is the business you’ve started going to be relevant.  Are you making a difference in people’s lives? 

It’s easy to fall into the idea that we’re somehow not doing “enough.”  And that’s where I’ve been the last few days.  I was wondering if I was doing enough professionally.  Was I reaching everyone I could with R3?  Should I do more? 

I expressed these concerns to a friend, and she said something that froze me in my tracks:

I think you’ve got something backwards here :o].  It’s not you that needs to make something out of your life, it’s God.  That I know of, nowhere in the bible does God tell us that we have to make something out of ourselves.  That’s His job…our job is to listen to what He says and act on what we hear, whether that’s physically doing something, or waiting on God to do something.

Ouch.

She’s right though.  I can’t think of a single example where God said, “why don’t you make something out of yourself?  What are you waiting for?”  God always says, be obedient, and let me do the rest.

All I need to worry about is listening to God, then obeying. 

What a relief!

A little house keeping item today. As some of you may have noticed there is now a green tree logo next to the click comments button. This was added by click comments so you can donate a dollar to charity. The charity may be perfectly acceptable, but I don’t know it. Nor do I feel comfortable lending my support to it at this time.

I want a way for you guys to interact with me without needing to send emails or opening up the comments thread. But for many, talk of faith and God is a difficult subject. A lot of us come into the conversation with painful experiences around money and giving. Sometimes we’ve trusted people in a church leadership role, only to find out they were stealing or using it for improper things.

While I’ve been fortunate enough to have never experienced that, I know that many of you have. Which is a major reason you don’t see any advertisements on this site. I don’t think God has a problem with money or wealth, but I don’t want to confuse those two issues. Maybe at some point there will be some kind of financial “system” (whatever that means!) - but if that day ever comes, it’s a long way off.

This is just a long winded way of saying I’m thinking about removing the click comments button. I asked them for a comment regarding the tree to find out if it was temporary or permanent, and they never responded. So I’m assuming it’s permanent.

The bottom line is this: if you like the click comments button let me know. If you don’t like it, let me know as well. If no one says anything, I’ll take the indifference as, well, indifference, and in that case I’ll just remove the tool.

So go ahead, let me know what you think of the button either by clicking on it or leaving a comment in this thread. (Fun = Keep; I disagree = We lose it)

Thanks.

A while back I was having lunch with a friend. We talked about the usual things friends talk about. But as always our conversation shifted towards God. I was describing some of the things happening with R3 and what I thought I needed to be working on next. I talked about some of the fears and frustrations I have around a blog like R3. That’s when she said something to me that didn’t really register until a few days later.

She said I was “patient.”

As Moe says, “whaaaaaa-?”

On the surface I find this idea completely ridiculous. I feel so impatient. Some days it’s simply a struggle to believe that God is leading me somewhere because it feels like I’m not making any progress.

Seth Godin has said, “persistence isn’t using the same tactic over and over. That’s just annoying. Persistence is having the same goal over and over.”

I think that’s true. I also think it’s reflected in how God deals with us. He always seems to be willing to change his methods (although never his goals) when he’s dealing with us. Sometimes he talks to us directly, sometimes he uses dreams. Sometimes we get to see miracles, other times we live by faith.

I don’t know if I am patient or not.  I just know that God is always seeking a way to engage us. And that can be a hard thing to remember when we’re waiting on him.