A Difficult Post

A QUESTION

Last night in my community group the icebreaker question was this:

            Name one thing that you are good at.  (Yeah I know…not really a question, but I kept my mouth shut.)

Then of course we had to go around in a circle and everyone has to share.  First off I hate that.  I hate the expectation of having to answer. 

 

A CONFLICT

The problem was I really couldn’t think of anything.  I ended up giving some BS response that I didn’t really believe.

 

A COMMENT

Now I’m not looking for pity or responses on what you think I’m good at.  Even if you were to offer a valued opinion I probably can’t accept it at this point as it would seem to me only a response to this post.  Not necessarily genuine in my eyes.  However, I’m sure you, my readers, are incredibly honest people, although a little foolhardy to be following/reading what I spout out.   

 

A CLARIFICATION

And what I’m not saying is that I’m not good at anything.  I have a good sense of humor and a good amount of patience and I’m incredibly good looking.  Also I have a good sense of humor and a good self image.  If golden stars were passed out for Seinfeld quoting skills, well…I’d have a lot of golden stars.  And I can list several other things, but moving on, what I am also not saying is that I don’t have things that I enjoy doing either.  (That’s a poorly constructed sentence, but I don’t feel like fixing it).  I love to organize things.  I love bring order where there was chaos.  I love youth and youth ministry.  I love sharing the Bible.  I love doing a lot of things.

 

Some of my negativism is because I’m my own worst critic, but some of it is because really I don’t know what I good for.  You can be good at things, but unless you are acknowledged and appreciated and using your talents, what is…what you’re good at…good for?  Being good at something and not using it is worthless.  If you have NBA talents but never pick up a basketball, are you really good at the sport?  Loving something that seemingly refuses to embrace you, well that just seems sad.  If you are the second coming of Jimmy Stewart, but never win an acting audition are you really a good actor? 

 

A CONFESSION

Just a peak into what steals my joy and robs my passion:

I feel like the past couple of years my hope has diminished and I’m fading into oblivion.

And I don’t know what to do with that.

 

[I don’t know if I’ve shared this with anybody, opening myself up this much (and this isn’t much).  And I can’t say why I feel the need to do so tonight.  This is me trying to be more honest, and this seems to be my most effective forum for speaking this kind of truth. - TSH]

 

 

 

Audible

I had somewhat an off week when it came to listening to sermons.  But here are a few you may want to check out.  I think it was Rick Warren who called today’s sermons, yesteryears commentaries (something like that).  I totally agree.

 

Sermons I Listened To This Week

• First off at church Steve Dye preach on How’s My Neighbor: Orphans and Widows
• On Monday I listened to Mark Scott, Dean of Academics at Ozark Christian College.  His sermon was entitled Love the Church More Honestly (Rev. 2-3) from a series called Living in the Real World.
• Then I listened to an archived sermon by Damien Spikereit, preaching professor at Ozark Christian College.  His sermon was entitled Kiss One Another, from a series entitled Life Together where they were going through all the One Another passages in Scripture. 
• Wednesday (I think) I listened to Chip Ingram preach at Southeast Christian College as a guest speaker.  Jim wrote a book titled Good to Great in God’s Eyes, and that also the title of his message.  This was an interesting message.  A little self-help-ish, but was worth the listen.
• Today I listened to Jon Weece, senior minister at Southland Christian Church in Lexington, KY.  He preached an amazing sermon from their series called BREATHE.  BREATHE is an acronym, each letter representing an action that are immensely beneficial in daily life change.  The E stood for Examine Myself with a Fearless Honesty.  Jon is an amazing preacher.  I’ve met him at Ozark briefly and he is legit.  He reads a letter from an eleven year old girl in this sermon that is heart breaking - - yet beautiful.  Listen and be challenged.
• I listened to a second Jon Weece message as well today from the BREATHE series entitled Amend My Relationships.