Just in case you’re thinking I get this “stay connected” thing right most of the day—you’re wrong. I find most of the day my thoughts quickly drift into old patterns or habits that exclude or ignore God or don’t even stop to consider His will. That’s why understanding the Grace of God—God’s immeasurable mercy, patience, forgiveness, and willingness to pick us up and help us “do the next right thing together with him” is so essential to grasp. “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) This is the gift of God that we must simply receive and live in—you don’t earn it, work for it, or purchase it with good deeds (Read Ephesians 2:8-10 if you’ve never realized this).

God won’t force his way into our lives, but he makes a way for us to reconnect and stay connected—if we’re willing! Even as we’re falling and failing, he stays with us (that’s his love and forgiveness demonstrated through Christ). As we take this in as true (we believe), we learn to live free. Free from fear, condemnation, performance anxiety, worry about pleasing that invisible audience in our heads. “God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)

So even though I screw it up more than I get it right (staying moment by moment connected), I live by God’s Grace and trust that he forgives and doesn’t pull away, but enters in with me to help me…this next moment…then the next…then the next. That’s how you keep failing forward, growing despite our failures. Do you find you hide from God when you realize you’ve screwed it up? What do you hear in your head that keeps you running and hiding? Curious to hear comments on this.

One thing I realized I’ve gotten in the habit of doing that really helps in the 60-60: Every morning my first thoughts are “Good morning, Lord, what’s up for today…?” And then I hit snooze and begin to think through the day, asking God to guide me, or give me strength, or insight, or go before me. Yesterday I knew I had a big meeting to help two people reconcile a business issue, but they had been best friends, so it got all convoluted. Knowing I was facing that, I prayed that God’s Spirit would go before me in their lives, and give me wisdom. Some days it’s, “I know today’s gonna be a day of intense meetings or lots of decisions, how should I handle them?” I’ll just talk over each one with Him and ask for His will to be done, and sometimes I’ll even picture how He would want me to go into those situations.

This morning I was facing an intense day where I know I have to concentrate and create an important talk in a short amount of time. As I talked it over, I felt a peace that “You’re not alone in this, John. Let’s do it together.”  That’s a great reminder that I’ve seen change my whole outlook facing a challenging day ahead. It doesn’t guarantee that the day goes my way, but it sure helps me get a head-start doing the day more His way.

One warning:  Don’t try this without a “snooze” button. You’ll end up drifting back asleep, late for work, and blaming God. Bad idea! (oh…and drifting back to sleep is not a sin, but if you do it regularly you may want to find another approach!).

I’ve never been good at gratitude, but I’m learning. I find it’s one area the Lord will prompt me in if I’m staying connected, little thoughts to slow down and be grateful, and when I respond I find it not only does something for others, it does something for me—go figure! (something like “more blessed to give than receive?”)

I got a prompting today to thank Becky Laswell on this blog. I woke up one morning early summer realizing we needed a website to build online community for this experiment, but I had no one to own it. Becky has single-handedly designed, created the architecture, coded and made functional this website to serve our church and others doing this experiment together. God has given Becky an amazing mix of gifts, and I’m so grateful for her servant-hearted spirit and diligence to get this done to serve all of us doing this experiment. Yeah Becky!

If you haven’t done so, surf the site, because Becky has also created lots of amazing resources to support living out Jesus’ vision of a community growing together.
Ask the Lord if there’s someone you need to show gratitude toward today? If so, respond—for their sake, and for your sake.

Sometimes I say to myself, you’re not stressed or tired, you’re doing fine—but my body talks to me and says “shut up.” It’s amazing, but I have this ability to pretend I’m doing better than my body tells me I am. Ever get tense shoulder muscles, or maybe a rumbly stomach, or an eye twitch, or maybe a headache and it’s on the backside of you pushing hard? I’ve found our bodies talk to us about how we’re really doing when our soul is in denial.

When we think we’re doing fine, but our bodies are telling us something different, we should listen to what God might want to tell us in that. He gave us the Sabbath rest for our sakes—we need rest. It’s a gift. Do you find you have a hard time listening? Why do you think that is? I wonder what the deeper message is that keeps us in denial when we’re pushing too hard?

A big misunderstanding people have doing the 60-60 Experiment is that they’re supposed to stop and “pray” when their watch beeps every 60 minutes. Please—don’t just “pray!”  I mean, prayer is great, but so often prayer becomes stopping to tell God what’s up or what we’d like him to do—this is different. It’s not that any kind of prayer is bad, but in this 60-60 Experiment, we’re trying to do much more than “stop and pray” every hour.

The watch beeper going off every hour and other creative reminders (like “60-60” post-it notes everywhere) are just that—reminders to interrupt our habit of ignoring God most of the time. We’re seeking to develop a new habit (using this spiritual discipline of a simple watch beeping). The goal is minute by minute communication with your Creator—in both a “talking over” and a “listening” posture. You’re seeking to develop a habit of including God in on all your thoughts, pure and sinful, all your decisions, all your lustful looks, all your victories, all your judgmental pronouncements, all your stresses, all your celebrations, talking it over with Him.  See, this is living in reality (where God lives).

Just because we ignore God doesn’t mean he doesn’t know what’s really going on inside us—now, we’re just getting brutally honest with ourselves before God and talking it all over with Him. And…we’re trying to trust Him enough to take risks to do it His way and just see if His way isn’t actually what we longed for all along. God wants to do life—all of it—with you. “Cast your cares on Him (all of them) for he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)

On my flight back from speaking at the Leadership Summit and then at Crossroads Church in Cincinnati. I’m pretty tired, but enjoying chillin to the latest Coldplay (very different but very good! IMHO. I saw them live at ACL–amazing). I’m thanking God for keeping me calm and helping me not freak out about speaking to 60 countries across the globe; even writing it makes my knees weak.

The speakers were all fantastic, they all motivated me tremendously to be a better leader. When I got the brochure with the pictures of all the leaders speaking, I took it home to my kids and told them all the amazing things each speaker has done, leadership wise, then I said, “Hey kids, lets play a game—which one of these is not like the others?” They guessed it right away, “You dad!” So I definitely felt humbled to be included.

I can’t believe how calm I stayed, I think because I really know this whole gig is a God-thing. Nothing else can explain it. I never set out to be a pastor, speaker, writer; I was an engineer and a project manager. I was great at math and science in school, my only ‘C’ in life was in English (so I end up speaking and writing?). I was terrified to speak in public and had never done it until late in my 20s. God has taken all the things I thought I was terrible at and used them for his purposes (so much for “Strengths Theory”). Or maybe they were potential strengths (gifts) God had given, but I had suppressed them in fear.

Fear really can get in the way of us becoming all God intended, because you have to be willing to take a flyer and risk to follow God. All I know is that I was in business headed one way, but I started experiencing more and more of this constant connection to God’s Spirit, started taking one little faith step after another, and every year I liked who I was becoming more and more—so I just kept following step by step, and somehow here I am. And I’m loving what I’m doing!

When people play that game, “If you had all the money and all the time to do whatever you wanted, what would it be?” I’m doing it! Sometimes I wish I was doing a little less of it, honestly, but I’m doing what God created me to do. I’m not going to say overcoming the fear wasn’t a struggle though—there have been lots of struggles to let go and trust along the way—some small, some huge. I’m curious about what fears some of you might be fighting (whether huge or seemingly little) as you seek to do this 60-60 and radically respond to God. Think about how this might connect: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.” (1 John 4:18).

It’s my first day back to work from vacation. I’ve found myself saying, “Lord, help me focus” multiple times this morning. Not so much because I can’t focus, but because I must focus to get it all done before I fly to Chicago to speak at the Leadership Summit. When I think about this practice of focusing on One Thing – staying connected and responsive moment by moment, the two places I find it most helpful are in the stresses of work, and in my closest relationships (with my wife, son, and daughter). That’s also where I find it easiest to slip back into my old autopilot ways faster than I raced down the Dragonblaster waterslide with my son this summer.

In fact, the way I always dealt with too much to do was to work myself into a ball of stress, and then use that frenetic energy to get more done. Only problem, that whirlwind I can spin into leaves lots of relational collateral damage in my path—including in my own soul.

So Lord, help me focus on the next thing You want me to do. That’s actually the best I can do. “Without faith it’s impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:6) So I do my work with God, trusting (having faith) that as I ask for wisdom in what to focus on next, he will lead me. It turns everything into a faith-venture. And if I’m doing it with Him and for Him, and I truly believe He leads me as I stay connected and trust—that can actually bring peace to an impossible-looking list of “to dos” and interruptions. I can “rest” knowing I’m only human, so I do have limits. I can’t do it all, so He must not want me to do it all, but He can lead me to do the things most important to Him, and to use my gifts to better lead, delegate, and do the things I can do best to contribute.

Now here is a great example of the world most of us live in…while trying to get this blog done, I had three interruptions involving three major decisions that could affect lots of people. Part of this comes from being gone, but part of it is just life—interruptions, more to do than time to do it—what do you do?

I’m sure many of you have a lot of great ideas that you’ve found work for you (I’d love to hear some insights). I remember one day years ago, feeling overwhelmed, and saying “God, why are you doing this to me?” To which I had this verse immediately pop into my brain, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) This is how God’s Spirit works, he brings to mind the truths Jesus taught. In that moment I realized, “You’re not doing this to me, I’m doing this to me. I’m not doing it right, am I Lord?” I realized if I’m feeling weary and burdened by “all I have to do” or “all the interruptions” then I’m not doing it staying connected to the one whose agenda for me is not burdensome! It’s really that simple.

Of course, that creates some tensions ‘cause there’s still stuff that must be done. As you seek to listen and respond, I’m curious what others hear when lists and interruptions overwhelm and burden us.

It felt good to be back teaching Sunday morning. I feel like the Lord answered many of your prayers—those who were praying I’d feel restored and refreshed—thanks, I do! I’m always wiped out Sunday afternoon after teaching three services, but ironically, I find what helps me recover best is to exercise. So I go play soccer up at Milburn park with the whole world!

I’m not kidding. I’ve made friends with people from Afghanistan, Palestine, Ghana, China, India, South Africa, France, Denmark, Spain, Honduras, Mexico. It’s so cool to see what’s happening. I’ve felt a nudging from God’s Spirit all year long saying, “Do you see what I’m doing, I’m bring the world here to Austin—how will you and your church welcome them?”  I’ve been asking that question a lot.

I find this is the way God works, he brings people or events across our paths, and if we have eyes to see and ears to hear, he will show us what he’s doing and how he wants us involved. For instance, as I started praying about how to welcome the world to Austin, I started interacting with people who had come to faith in Christ at Gateway from all different religious backgrounds from all over the world—Pakistan, Iran, China, Spain…people from all over. But I couldn’t find anyone from India. We’re helping build a hospital in India, which is why I was looking.  So I started praying about this and mentioned it to Aman (my friend from Pakistan), asking him if he knew anyone.

No kidding, the next week, a man came up to me after the service. He’s from the region of India where we’re building the hospital, and he was asking if the Indian cultural community in Austin could use our building to host the most popular singer in Southern India this September. I found out there are about 25,000 Indians in Austin (Dell is the largest employer in Bangalore so I hear). So we will have 1500-2000 Indians on the Gateway Campus this fall, and we’re gonna have our church volunteers serve them—just to let them know they are welcome here anytime. Again, not sure all God is up to here, just following His lead.

Wow, I just got back from playing soccer with about 12 muslim guys. As I was talking with one of the guys I’ve gotten to be friends with, he told me his father was murdered by the Taliban (he’s from Kabul, Afghanistan and his family escaped as refugees in 2003). One of his brothers I play soccer with was imprisoned for five years. He just got released two years ago. I said, “Man, I’m so sorry you had to go through that–that must have been incredibly hard to experience.” He suddenly opened up, “Yeah, in one year my father was killed and my brother was taken and we fled the country—thinking my brother was dead too.” He went on telling me it was like the Nazis, since they are Azeri (of a different race than most Taliban) there was an ethnic cleansing thing beginning. We started to talk about religion—how he’s not very religious because of that. We talked some of how religion that’s just about power and control can really go south. It was an eye-opening conversation. I keep asking the Lord, “What are you doing in these guys lives—what do you want me to do to encourage them toward you?” I really like them, and I know there must be a lot of pain the Lord wants to heal.

I just got back from playing paintball with my son, Justin (he’s 11 and the coolest kid ever). It was his friend Ben’s birthday party, but get this—Ben invited me to his party! “I’ve played nerf guns with Justin’s dad—he’s fun—let’s invite him.” Can you get a better compliment? So Justin and I suited up for a Saturday morning of paintball out in the woods with two other dads and ten kids.

Driving there I was having a running conversation in my head telling the Lord I wanted to do this with him, and I wanted it to be a fun memory for my son. Realizing I’m blogging about this stuff now, I thought, “I wonder if some people will have a hard time believing God would smile on paintball, much less be on the field with me.”

Part of learning to do life with God is learning to enjoy life with God. To recognize who it is that created us playful, and when we bring him into our play and express gratitude and maintain a listening voice—it not only honors God, it teaches us of God’s goodness and nitro-charges our experience of life (that’s what I’ve found anyway). Of course, Jesus’ own disciples thought children and their play was “above” the rabbi—Jesus corrected them: “Let them come to me—the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these!”

So I had a blast and so did my son. We talked about the adrenaline rush, the fun, but also how tough it would be to really be in a war. I thanked God throughout our time playing, and I asked for safety for the boys. As I was hunkered down getting pelted at one point, I prayed for those who have had to fight for our country. I prayed God would heal any mental or spiritual wounds.

Then interestingly, during one break I noticed that a young guy working there (the one with the pierced eyebrow) looked familiar. I had the thought, “He’s been to Gateway, or I’ve seen him somewhere.” So I took it as a prompting from God and said, “I know you from somewhere.” He looked at me and said, “Yeah, soccer!” Then it clicked—he’s the semi-pro goalie I recruited when our men’s indoor team was in the play-offs with no goalie. He’s crazy good, but I knew he was taking a break. He said, “Call me again, I’ll play sometime.” Hmmm.

Interesting, we just started a new indoor season and our goalie said he could only play part-time. We need a goalie. Wonder if God’s up to something in this guy’s life? Paintball, soccer, God? You bet. He’s the giver of every good gift.