Jesus and .38 Special

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” --Pericles

The American dream is to own a piece of land to call home and build a life around it, raising a family and acquiring possessions. Nothing wrong with that.

And yet...

when we consider how Jesus lived, His stability was not found in possessions or a house with His name on the mailbox. It was not even found in an untarnished reputation.

It was found in relationships with the ones that He led and ultimately the One that He followed. That is pretty simple.

Things get complicated when we rely on the lives we build for ourselves to fill the void. Equity and assets are very nice but we must remind ourselves to hold on loosely (thank you, .38 Special!). And disappointment is inevitable when we depend on the absence of change to maintain our peace of mind. Some equate stability with unchanging circumstances when really stability comes from unchanging commitment to relationships, first to God and then to those people He puts in our lives.

Starting over, bottoming out and reaching dead ends are not nearly as daunting when we can see and embrace the bittersweet truth of James 4:14, "You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." With that in mind we can focus on our nearness to God and the deposit we make in the lives of others and let everything else fade into the periphery. Where it belongs.

I want to live life like Jesus did...holding on loosely with open arms and an open life.

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Unlikely Warriors

"Some of the most brilliant battles have been fought by the most unlikely warriors."
-A Wrinkle In Time (movie)




I had the privilege of speaking to more than seven hundred kids and adult leaders at Kids Aflame Camp this past week. I am amazed each year to see children run to the altars and surrender their hurts, their hopes and their very lives to the living God. He knows all too well what hellish pain many of them have endured and He is always faithful to heal, to fill and to make new the lives of some of the tiniest of His warriors.

Children are not merely the hope of tomorrow. They are the unlikely warriors of today and my desire is to see the church make room for them, for their gifts and callings. Now. Today. Oh, how we need them!

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Are You A Family On Purpose?

I have spent the past week on my couch watching movies and trying to get well. I cuddled up with my youngest son yesterday and we watched "National Treasure 2-Book of Secrets." The second "National Treasure" flick was about finding another enormous treasure but it was also about clearing the Gates family name after false accusations threatened to ruin it. I love both of these movies because of the rich history and the love of country. And I also love Ben Gates' determination to preserve the good reputation of his family's name.

In my family, we have taught our three sons that wherever they go and whatever they do, they do not just represent themselves. They also represent the Taylor family, and our God whose name we all wear. One way we have made that concept more tangible is by developing a family purpose statement which we have posted on the wall in our family room. It is crucial to establish a family identity while your children are young so that as they grow up and other people become increasingly more influential in their lives, they have something to fall back on. A strong family identity gives kids a sense of belonging to something larger than themselves and also a sense of stability. If we are going to have a purpose statement in our business plans, in our governments, and for our churches, how much more important is clearly laying out who you are as a family and why you exist as a unit? What about your family? Who are you and what do you stand for? If we don't give our kids a sense of purpose, someone else will.

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New Year's Resolution

What's that you say? It's May 13th??? I do not care. I am making a resolution anyway. It's my blog, I can resolve if I want to.

Sunday was my second Mother's Day since my Mom died and these past few days I have been looking at pictures of her when no one is looking. I do this when no one is looking because pictures of her make me cry, especially around special days, and I just like to cry by myself. That way no one sees the snot drip off of my nose and into my lap. Very sexy.

I am sad to say that there just aren't very many pictures of my Mama and me together. For that matter, there aren't very many pictures of her at all. And then I started thinking about the pictures of my own family and I think I might be scarce in those pictures. Why do we take so many pictures of our kids and so few with us in the pictures with them?

I know why. At least for me, anyway. It is because I hate how I look in most pictures so I only make my way into a few of the family shots. And I haven't been letting the boys post pictures of me on their Facebook pages if I think I look yucky in them, which I usually do.

But I don't want my boys to look through the family albums one day, searching for a shot of just them with me and find nothing. I would give anything to have a few pictures of my Mama and me together.

Happy.

Laughing.

Acting silly.

Just being together.

And even though no picture could ever fill the vast void left by Mama's death, it sure would help my heart to just see her. With me. A long ago moment, forever captured, that would wrap itself around me like a blanket and comfort me a little when I miss her.

I want to leave my kids with lots of pictures of all the fun we are having now and all the laughter. Oh, we do laugh. And they know what I really look like. They won't care if my tummy pokes out or my roots need touching up in a picture. I don't notice those things when I look at pictures of my Mama. All I see is the woman who gave me life and only occasionally threatened to take it back. And my boys will one day (a really long time from now) look at pictures of me and remember-not what my hair looked like or how much I weighed, but rather who I was and how I made them feel.

So, my resolution is to jump in all of the pictures and not worry how I look, but instead just enjoy how I feel. Because life is so good and so full and I really do love every minute of it. Go check out your own photo albums....are you there? It really will matter one day.

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Mentoring: The Twos of Timothy

2 Tim2:2 "The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."

I began my relationship with God when I was fifteen years old and when I was sixteen I met my mentor. He was our new youth pastor, just moved up from Tarpon Springs, Florida to our small southern Georgia town and little did I know then the lifelong impact he and his wife would have on me. Most youth pastors are loved and admired by their students and many go on to maintain relationship with former students, but few understand mentoring and the eternal impact of reproducing themselves.

I learned from my mentor that mentoring was simply the truth found in the above passage from Timothy. You allow your protege to shadow you and learn from you that they might in turn do the same. He taught me that the real fruit of discipleship is when the sons and daughters you have taught have their own sons and daughters to teach and train. If it stops, then you didn't do your job right.

What has always troubled me is the obvious shortage of Christians who are willing to mentor others. Surely this lack is due in part to insecurity deep within a man or woman who feels unworthy or unqualified to mentor, but this need not be. One only needs a pulse and brain waves to mentor another person and the willingness to give of their time. This is how the church was intended to propagate itself, not through programs and classes. It is each man and woman's responsibility to reproduce and to disciple the next generation of the Church.

Monday, I am going to share the number one lesson I learned from my mentor and "father", Ray Owens. You don't want to miss this. I would love to hear your thoughts on mentoring and discipleship. Don't be shy...jump on in.

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Have You Ever Wondered?

Have you ever wondered, if all of your roles were stripped away, who you would be? Much of our sense of identity becomes wrapped up in web-like fashion in the different shoes that we fill, the hats that we wear and when those become so numerous that we can no longer wear any of them well, then we are even less sure of who we really are. The work that we do and the people we love can be some of the greatest pleasures we can know in this life, but if we were to take all of that away, what remains is a truer picture of who we are.

It all goes back to why we are here to begin with. God wasn't lonely, He simply chose to create a "someone" who could choose to love Him and be loved in return. Hosea 6:6 says, "I don't want your sacrifices; I want your love. I don't want your offerings; I want you to know Me." (Living Bible...I know, don't stone me) At the end of the day, when the hats and shoes come off, we are stripped down to what remains in our depths. Most are not in tune with that place within and so it is easy to miss, or we shut if off because the pains and cares of this world drown out the still, small Voice that beckons us inward. In that inward oasis we can simply be His son or His daughter and know Him and love Him, thus fulfilling the sum total of why we exist. To know and be known, to love and be loved by the only One who can ever know us, love us, fill us. And it is only when we are Divinely known...loved...filled that we are able to wear the hats and shoes of this life is such a way that we leave a grand legacy of His design long after we are gone.

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Liston Elkins' Legacy

What kind of legacy is there in your family? Is there anyone in your family tree that made an indelible mark on you, that influenced who you are today? That person in my family was my maternal grandfather, Liston Elkins. He was a remarkable man and a born leader who cared far more about others than himself. He did much for our little Georgia hometown, Waycross, and when he died, they named a stretch of local highway after him. But what made the greatest impression on me was his voracious appetite for books and his passion for writing. He wrote for our local newspaper and had an opportunity to write for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. But my grandmother didn't want to leave their small town, so he declined the opportunity and determined to fulfill other dreams within the borders of home.

My Papa wrote all the time, scribbling his thoughts on little bits of paper that he forever carried in his shirt pocket. He was a brilliant communicator in many ways, but the written word was his medium of choice and I marvel still that he never wrote a book. Much of what he did write was about Waycross and the people that made it great and I have always believed that people loved him so much because he celebrated others and cheered them on to greatness, never noticing the level of greatness that he, himself, achieved.

The passion to write that kept him at his typewriter is the very same passion that courses through me and draws me to my laptop when so many other things scream for my attention. My Papa's dreams of writing live on in me and what drives me is a deep desire to leave a legacy of words that will impact generations to come. If he could know what a legacy he left for me and how it has shaped who I am and who I will become, he would grin his mischievous grin, cigar clinched between his teeth, and he would cheer me on just as he did countless others before me.

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