Author: 7holycrap

Pastor Sarah preached yesterday at the church and this point really stuck out to me.  We are starting our series on small groups called Living IN Community or “LINC” and she made a statement that when I heard it just made sense.  She said that in the Bible, heaven is usually referred to in a plural sense.  This struck me because I also remembered that hell is referred to continually in scripture as total aloneness or isolation.  If we think of these two thoughts on a macroscopic scale, heaven is about relationships and connecting humans to help enhance lives with a sense of community and a hope of spending eternity with Jesus.  Hell, on the other hand, is about isolation and seperating people so they will feel defeated and give up.  I know the lowest points in my life have always been when I felt alone or didnt feel like I had someone to talk to or connect with.  If you dont attend church then start.  If you attend church, volunteer and get involved in a small group of people.  Jesus only wants the best for you which includes feeling like you are not alone in this life and doing it all on your own.  The devil wants to steal, kill and destroy but he can only do that by isolation.  Every church I know has issues.  But don’t let that stop you from connecting to others who have issues just like you and I do. 🙂

People who are failures in life all have one thing in common; they all quit. Whatever you are going through in life, don’t quit. When you quit you take the first and most important step in failing. When you don’t quit you put yourself in a position to see something extraordinary in your life. Think of this; if you tried something and were not successful, think of what caused you not to succeed. Usually when you fail at something you learn more than if you were successful and automatically good at it.   You also normally learn something that may be able to help others. Think about it.

I was thinking the other day about how my life makes a difference in other people’s lives and was fairly disappointed.  My wife always tells me that I have had a great influence in many teens lives and people that I have come in contact with through the years but just didn’t have that sense of fulfillment of really impacting people’s lives.  In life I believe we do too much comparing of gifts that we see in people instead of just asking God to use us where we are and to touch the people we have around us.  One thing I started last week with my Facebook friends was to pick one day out of the week and ask for prayer requests from them.  I really dont think FB is used to its fullest by telling people “Brian Morris is going to eat a PB&J and watch some Matlock.”  I had a revelation that my friends on FB need me to pray for their needs as much as I want them to know about the minutia of my life.  I also just talked to Thomas Nelson Publisher about picking up my book I am writing about the things God showed me through my eye situation.  I am excited and a little nervous about it but know that my heart is really just to see people find God again and to realize that being mad or sad about crap that happens in their life does not improve the quality of it.  
I want to challenge every person that reads this blog to evaluate their lives and what they do in this world that matters to others.  Not just your family, although that is a wonderful start.  When I die someday I want to not be remembered as the “funny guy” or the “life of the party” or even the “one who had all the right spiritual and practical answers”.  I want to be known as someone who made a difference in people’s lives to the point that they considered changing something about themselves that changed THIER world.  It really is the greatest legacy that anyone can leave; that He loved Jesus and made a difference in people’s lives.  There is nothing else.

I am done with my test of talking less this week and It was definitely harder than I thought it would be.  I feel like I did very well when it was the first thing on my mind in conversations and just ok as I reflect back on the week and my interactions with people.  I guess the greatest thing I learned from the week was that it was not about how much I talked but when and being considerate of other people talking to me.  I had some nice compliments about me listening when it was something serious, but I want to be the type of person that when people see me they feel like they have communicated with me but also feel better about their day.  I ALWAYS want to make people laugh, but not at the expense of a healthy conversation that doesnt need my certain “injection of humor” to spice it up.  I would give myself a B – for the week and am happy for the experience.  How are you challenging yourself to be better?

Ahhh, good ol day number 3 of the test.  I just got done preaching in the church youth group tonight and I forgot how tiring it is to preach.  Holy Moley.  On the words and talking front, I feel like I did a better job of letting people finish their sentences before I started talking.  I cant say I talked less unless my sermon was about Pantomiming for Jesus with not a word spoken.  I can say without a doubt that God has not called me to that form of ministry.  🙂  I would probably just drive my wife nuts with all the “extra words” I had stored up from not speaking that day.  Anyway, I feel like I had a productive day of putting into action the lessons learned from the first two days of my test.  On to day 4!!  Woohooo!!

Day two of my personal evaluation was much more uneventful than yesterday but still good. I did, however, find out that I dont have so much of a problem talking too much on a casual basis but when I get in a meeting I definitely talk more than I need to. I was in a meeting today with two of my supervisors and was starting to answer questions before they were done talking. This is something that I want to really work on this week and find ways to keep my tongue under control. I know I need times like this to really evaluate where I am and where I need to go with my interaction with people. If you think about it, everything about our lives has to do with communication and relationships. On to day three…

Well I have a day one update for my personal experiment this week. I found out a couple of key things that I can work on and feel they are things that will make this week matter longer in my life. I realized that it is really not about me saying less things during the day, but more about the timing of the things I do say. Also, I definitely want to do better with letting people finish their sentences before I start talking, and not trying to finish their sentences with something I think is funny when it really is just interrupting people.  All these things are intertwined with the timing of my words and responses to people.  I am sure I have more to learn this week but I think this is a pretty good start.  More to come…

I am starting another personal test this week. One of the most popular posts I have ever done was when I tested myself with not talking as much. I think the reason why people checked my blog was that they probably thought I would not do well because of the fact that I love to talk. 🙂 Well if you knew me from college, high school or from any of the churches I have worked at then this is no shocker to you. I am going to try my test again this week. I don’t consider myself a very good listener and so I want to do something about it this week. I will be blogging everyday this week (prayerfully) about my findings. There are a couple of things I am looking to get out of this week. To be able to hear/listen to people better and to evaluate how people respond to me especially if they notice that I am talking less. I also want to read my Bible more and listen to what God wants to tell me. Also, if you are reading this and you are a co-worker then no trying to make me talk more. (you know you would always rather have me talk less anyway) 🙂 Let the evaluation begin!!!