Remember, when you're consumed with a project, task, goal or anything you deem as "important", you may think it's the most important thing in the world.  However, the world keeps spinning.   Your spouse, family, kids, friends all keep moving and living.   Make sure you keep spinning with them.

Hit the pause button and evaluate your situation and make sure you're keeping your priorities straight.  Living an intentional life demands we do it.

Just a little mental reminder for myself.  Maybe it speaks to you too?

[image by jpellgen]

Sometimes in life we have to learn how to just suck it up.    Especially in the quest for a more intentional life, a person must learn there are some things just not worth getting upset over and worrying about.   You might call this "pick your battles"; I like to call it "suck it up". 

I'm getting some curve balls thrown at me recently on a big project and so I have two choices:

1.  Get mad, make waves and potentially cause trouble.

2.  Suck it up.   Do what I have to do to finish the project.

Now I should make a disclaimer that "sucking it up" does not apply when you're blatantly getting walked on or taken advantage of.  It just applies to the things that make you internally upset, but in reality are not that big of a deal.

Sucking it up applies to all areas of our lives:  marriage, raising kids, work, church, volunteer groups.....

By resolving to the fact that I can't control everything and that sometimes I just need to suck it up, it makes my life more intentional and a lot more peaceful.   How about you?

[image by Vaidy Krishnan]

Have you ever felt like this picture?   Like you're just barely holding on.   Like a clothespin was all that was keeping you from falling hard.

It's one of those seasons for me.  Big website project due to go live next Monday and it's been a long month prepping for it.

I keep telling myself "just hold on", "just hold on".   "You've been here before and it always works out."

That's the cool thing about experience - you can look back and see that you've been through similar times in your life and lived to tell about it.  

Just hold on.  To whatever you're going through....Just hold on.

[image by stratosg]

I have to admit I got into American Idol this year.  It's definitely an entertaining show.  I didn't vote because I liked Adam and Kris.   I came across this video of Kris singing "God of This City" today and while I was watching it I really felt overwhelmed that we need to pray for Kris.   He's been given a huge stage and with that comes a lot of responsibility.   He seemed like such a humble guy on the show and I loved to see that.   The entertainment world can suck you in and chew you up if you allow it.   We need to pray for strength for him and his family.   We need to pray for boldness for him to use his new stage and a platform to speak truth and spread God's love.

So many people will make an idol out of Kris for what he's accomplished.   I pray that he can deflect that attention off of himself and on to Jesus.

Would you join me in praying for him?

Here's a link to another recent post I did called "American Idol"

Yesterday, I drove past a farm and saw a horse chasing a donkey around the yard.   It definitely gave me a good chuckle and started my brain churning.

Why would a horse be chasing a donkey around and what can leaders learn from it?

1. Maybe the horse wronged the donkey and he was trying to apologize.

2. Maybe the donkey was, well, acting like an ass and the horse was trying to speak some truth into him.

3. Maybe the horse had a vision of a better way and he was trying to get the donkey to stop and listen.

4. Maybe the donkey was slacking on his part of eating the grass and keeping the yard cut short.

How does this map to the life of a leader?

1. Be willing to admit when you're wrong.

2. Encourage and motivate people when they need it.

3. Be inspirational and enthusiastic.  Communicate a vision and consistently remind people about the vision.

4. Commit to excellence and be proactive in bringing along others.

Can you think of any other good ways this would relate?  What are some other leadership traits you could apply to this situation?  Come on, get creative.

What would you do today if it was your last day?  Not something I think about all that often, but definitely thought provoking.

I recently heard this song by Nickelback and thought the lyrics were really good:

Here's just a few things that I'd do:

Kiss my wife, take her in my arms and tell her how much I love her

Wrestle with my boys, run around the yard and play with the hose 

Call my parents and siblings

Live like you're never living twice.  Start today to live more intentional.  What do you think?  What's one thing you would do? 

This past weekend at Northview we were talking about having a Biblical Worldview and what that means.   I was shocked and saddened to hear that only 9% of born again Christians say they have a true Biblical Worldview.    This statistic comes from The Barna Group a leading research organization.

This is what they used to define what a Biblical Worldview means:

1. Absolute moral truths exist.
2. This truth is defined by the Bible.
3. Jesus Christ lived a sinless life.
4. God is an all-powerful and an all-knowing Creator of the universe and He still rules it today.
5. Salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned.
6. Satan is not just a symbol of evil is a a real living entity.
7. A Christian has a responsibility to share their faith in Christ with other people.
8. The Bible is accurate in all of its teachings.

Where do you stand on this?

For more information and more detail you can check out these two sites:

http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/12-faithspirituality/252-barna-survey-examines-changes-in-worldview-among-christians-over-the-past-13-years

http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/2009/03/barna-how-many-have-a-biblical.html

13.1 miles.   Now it actually doesn't sound very far.  That's because I ran my first Mini today.  This was the farthest I've ever run in my life.  I did it today though!  And I think I want to do it again.  You people that have run a marathon, well that's just crazy.  But 13.1, it's doable.

A couple great quotes I overheard while running:

Slow and steady wins the race and by "win" I mean finish.

Running is a mental sport and we're all insane.

I'm going to try and finish this race in 2 hours......maybe.

My mom and dad did the Mini too.  My sister Lisa did the 5K.   It's become somewhat of a family tradition.   My dad has run it the last 5 years.  Each year we spend the night before downtown at the Westin and have a great time.  We go out for dinner.  The boys swim in the pool and just hang out.  

In my quest to live a more intentional life I really wanted to run the mini this year.  My dad signed me up after the race last year.  I actually did train (some).  It was a great accomplishment and I'm happy I did it.   I killed my goal time, but I missed my personal stretch goal by 2 minutes.   My legs feel like spaghetti right now, but it was definitely worth it.   Next step a full marathon?  I doubt it...but you never know!

Did you run the Mini?   How did it go?