I finished up Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. I felt like all I needed to know was provided in the introduction. They use the acronym SUCCESS to provide an outline on how to make an idea “stick”.

S - Simplicity
U - Unexpectedness
C - Concreteness
C - Credibility
E - Emotional
S - Stories

After the introduction each chapter provides good supporting material and examples for each of the six components to their concept. The ideas in this book will prove very helpful for anyone who communicates (in any form) for a living or is involved in planning and producing church services.

Tony has a great review of the book including some of its more interesting quotes here.

“In the end that Face which is the delight or the terror of the universe must be turned upon each of us either with one expression or with the other, either conferring glory inexpressible or inflicting shame that can never be cured or disguised.” C.S. Lewis, Weight of Glory

One thing is for sure, there will be an end to this life. At that moment our character is fixed and our next step is certain because there is nothing we can do to alter our path at that moment. We will see that Face and the judgement that has already been satisfied must come. Will we be paying or will it have been paid by Jesus?

John 3:16-21
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

We start condemned, but we don’t have to stay that way. We naturally run from the Light, but praise God that he is faster than we are. Once he catches us and turns us around we are not confronted with a face that causes us terror, but a face that brings delight!

We all have the ability to do something well. We all have an area of strength that can set us apart from the crowd. Furthermore, if you are a follower of Jesus you have been promised a gift that is specific to you and essential for the body at large. That’s the easy part.

Here’s the hard part… getting to our sweet spot. Probably the number one reason some of us are frustrated or even failing at what we do is that we are not in our “sweet spot”. So, we must first assess whether or not we are there. This can be tough because if the answer is “no” then a change will need to take place.

This is where many people get stuck. They get stuck because of fear. Fear resulting from the need to make a change, fear that a “sweet spot” opportunity isn’t available, fear over what others may think, fear of not being able to provide, fear that that our chance has past us by, fear that God is punishing us for past mistakes which results in a fear that joy in our vocation isn’t possible and the right thing to do is to gut it out where we are.

In John 15:11, Jesus said he came so that our joy may be complete and in John 16:33 he says that he has overcome the world. If we trust Jesus we can trust that he has an answer to all our fears. We, then, need to get busy about assessing where we are.

So take some time and ask God for answers as you ask yourself a few questions:

1. What am I passionate about?
2. What am I good at?
3. Who knows me better than anyone?
4. How would that person answer #1 & #2 about me?
5. Is that what I’m currently doing?
6. If not, what changes do I need to make to get to my sweet spot?

Once you have done this, you must put your faith in action and trust God to protect you and provide for you as you follow him to your sweet spot. Trust that he’ll make a way for you and trust that he’ll move the heart of whoever leads you to help you get there.

There is an added dilemma for those of us in leadership. One of our primary responsibilities it to help the people on our team get to their sweet spot and we will have great difficulty in this if we are not in ours.

I read these two articles today and wanted to make sure I shared them with everyone. They have nothing to do with each other, but I know we all will sleep better knowing that we’ve been given the ok to believe… in aliens! What?

Also, Albert Einstein was in the news today as well. A letter he wrote in 1954 was found and in it he says, among other things, “The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.” If you’d like, you can read the rest of the article here.

I wonder if Einstein believed in aliens?

Leslie, a great volunteer at NewSpring Church, shows up early every Sunday to make breakfast for our band. We love Leslie. This past Sunday she was telling me about her dog and that when you throw a frisbee he chases it’s shadow and not the frisbee itself. Silly dog.

That got me thinking about how we can be like that with God at times. We chase after things that look like him instead of him. We chase after what comes from him instead of him. If the sun isn’t shining, we won’t chase at all because we can’t recognize him without a “shadow”. Silly people.

Isaiah 42:8
“I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.”

I am so blessed in every way you could imagine. I have a great wife, great kids, great job, good health and on and on. I really lack nothing. I would suspect that most who read this could say the same thing. It is easy for us at times to base our love for the Lord on what he has given us instead of on who he is. If we believe what the Bible says (and I do), then we must realize that he is not pleased with this.

Psalm 103:2
“Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits”

When we chase shadows, we turn this verse around and live as if it reads, “Praising his benefits, O my soul, and forgetting the LORD”.

I just finished reading Walking With God by John Eldredge. This book consists of some of Eldredge’s journal entries over the period of a year. This is not the type of book that would normally get my attention, but I felt compelled to pick it up and am really glad I did.

Eldredge really challenged me on how I view myself and how I talk to God. His journal reveals how he asks questions to God and how he receives answers. He develops thoughts on how we make “agreements” with ourselves that God never intended us to make, which keep us bound up and limping along with God instead of walking with Him.

Here are a few quotes that will give you the flavor of the book:

“The very things I’m doing to make life happen - all those things that feel so inevitable and unavoidable - are draining me and preventing me from finding the life God offers.”

“We are invited to become followers of Jesus. Not just believers.”

“Too many people approach scripture without an intimacy with God, and they either end up frustrated because they’ve gotten so little out of it or, far worse, amass an intellectual understanding quite apart from any real communication with God.”

“I don’t live. I get things done.”

“When it comes to our faith, we have to be careful that our earnest hope and desire don’t cause us to claim a promise God has not given.”

“We try to figure it out. It’s not the same thing as walking with God.”

Eldredge is very transparent in this book and I suppose that is what kept me engaged throughout this book. I am a big fan of Wild at Heart, but I have not been able to finish any other of Eldredge’s offerings. There were a couple places in this book where I think Eldredge is off base theologically speaking, but they did not distract from the book overall.

The book is broken up into daily entries and is very easy to read. If you’re looking to get a glimpse of how someone other than you communicates with God and be be challenged by it, I would recommend reading Walking With God.