Do you want to be awesome? Sure, we all do. If you want to be certifiably awesome then all you have to do is follow these five steps.

1. Buy trendy clothes so that people will like you before they get to know your personality. Right now that means buy colored jeans. Like red. I tried to buy red jeans but they are only made for skinny people. I’d have to go down four sizes to fit into the skinny red pants that I was looking at.
2. Lose weight. Truly awesome people are skinny. After all they don’t sell tight skinny red pants at the Big & Tall store.
3. Only say trendy words. If you still say “whoomp there it is” you probably need lessons on being awesome. To obtain an awesome vocabulary watch a lot of E on cable, listen to rap, and avoid saying anything that was trendy when you were in high school.
4. Find awesome people and become their best friend. If they won’t be your best friend don’t take no for an answer. You will become awesome by association whether they like it or not.
5. Talk a lot about how awesome you are. Nobodies perfect. That’s true, but nobody needs to know about your flaws. If you talk about how awesome you are on a regular basis it will magnify your awesomeness and overshadow you imperfections.

With these 5 steps you too can be awesome!

Or you can find your identity in Jesus and boast in your weakness. Do what?

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. – 2 Corinthians 12:9

It’s exhausting to try and make people think you are awesome. On the other hand it’s freeing to find your identity in Jesus and to boast in your weakness.

I can’t fit into tight skinny red pants, when I hear that swag is the new word of choice for awesome people I can’t help but think of S.W.A.G. – stuff we all get, I have a sign on my forehead that says “if you are awesome run away”, and I can’t help but talk about my flaws.

A goal of my life is to be me. To be the me that God created me to be. I often forget this and try to please people. Thankfully awesome is as awesome does and I am found in Jesus. I don’t know if that sentence makes sense, but I am still found in Jesus and that’s wicked awesome.

What characteristics do you think make someone awesome?

I thought I’d take a short break from the Next Level update to answer a question that I get asked a lot. No, not “Can you teach me how to Doogie?” The other question that I get asked a lot. What do I do all day?

Monday: 7:00 – 9:30 AM prep for a full day of meetings. 10:00 – 12:00 staff meeting. 1:00 – 5:00 programming with Stephen Haggerty (Worship Pastor) for Sunday. Programming includes listening to new worship songs, talking through transitions, thinking through the welcome, talking about future series, brainstorming series graphics, thinking ahead for future series, and planning every second of the service so that we can get done in 1 hour.

Tuesday – I keep Tuesdays open for counseling meetings, vision planning, and website stuff. There are a lot of updates that have to happen on the website. Everything written is written by this guy. I do a lot of premarital counseling on Tuesdays or Wednesdays and this takes a lot of prep time.

Wednesday – I play hackie sack and watch movies all day on Wednesday. Nope. That’s not true. Wednesday I try to have lunch with another pastor or member of Next Level. I also use this day for planning things like our monthly Make A Difference, our student environment Fusion, and working on SBCV (Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia) monthly requirements. It’s amazing how many meetings that I end up having.  Even in a church of 140 there is always someone who needs to talk, meet, asks for prayer, or is getting married. Most people just think that Sundays happen but everything about a Sunday has to be thought through. If my day is not full of planning or meetings I try to read and prep for future sermon series.

Thursday – I spend all day Thursday writing the talk. I study, read, and write all day.

Friday – My day off. I try to spend this time doing something fun with Monica and the kids.

Saturday – We are always busy on Saturdays. We are doing something all of the time. I only get to see my kids for a few hours each day. I leave for work early and get home around 5:30. They go to bed at 7:30. I try to spend as much time with them as I can on Fridays and Saturdays.

Sunday – I start working at 12:00 PM. I go to church at 2:00 and prep until 3:30 for our run through. We have a volunteer service at 4:30 and a public service at 6:00 PM. Church is over by 7:00 and by the time I clean up and lock the building down I normally leave by 7:45 or 8:00 PM.

I try to get home each day by 5:30 so that I can feed my kids and get in some serious hang out time. Next Level is five months old and so far I’ve done 4 weddings, 1 funeral, a hospital visit for a gunshot victim, and a total of 24 sessions of premarital counseling, dozens of website write ups and changes, and a whole bunch more that I don’t think anyone cares about. It’s been an awesome ride so far.

Last weekend my in-laws hung out with their grandkids for 24 straight hours. Not only did Monica and I get away for a quick getaway but our kids had a lot of fun. Like a whole lot of fun. Like the type of fun cowboys and cowgirls would have had in the wild west if AC would have been invented. Want proof?

Yee-Ha!

It’s that time again. Time for Random Facts Facts Facts Facts Facts. No that’s not a typo. That’s the echo of the announcer voice.

Here’s how Random Facts works…I give five random facts about myself and in return you give me one random fact about yourself in the comments.

Ready.

Set.

Random.

1. At one time in my life I knew every word to every song on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles soundtrack. I still think I can pull out the lyrics to Turtle Power.
2. I have never seen the movie Gone with the Wind.
3. My shoe size is 10 1/2.
4. I still have multiple shirts from my senior year of high school and I wear them with pride.
5. If there is a blank piece of paper in front of me I will doodle 3D boxes. I don’t know why.

There are certain thoughts that I think that aren’t bad thoughts but if I were to say them out loud to strangers I’d probably get punched. Thoughts like…

• You smell amazing. Not that weird to tell to your spouse. A little weird to tell to a friend. Completely koo koo for Cocoa Puffs to tell a complete stranger.  I think this often though when someone walks by me and they smell amazing.
• Can I touch your gun? I don’t own a gun. I don’t really have a desire to. Something happens though when I see a police officer with a gun strapped to his side. I often want to channel my inner Clint Eastwood, take his gun, and say “do you feel lucky?” After thinking this thought it dawns on me that the question alone sounds inappropriate. Add to that the fact that I’d probably get arrested and have to start screaming “don’t taze me bro!” and you understand why I resist the urge to touch someone else’s gun.
• I like your facial hair. I have never had successful facial hair. Sometimes when I see another guy, or women working at the Waffle House, and I think “that’s some mighty fine facial hair. I refrain from saying it out loud because I think it would make things awkward.
• Pull my finger. This one really needs no explanation. It just should never be said to a  stranger.
• TICKLE FIGHT! Now if this is done with anyone over the age of 9 1/2 and is not your kid it’s strange. Sometimes I see someone with their arm lifted high and I think “I wonder what they would do if I tickled them and yelled “TICKLE FIGHT.” I then think through getting punched over and over again until I see Jesus face to face.
• I want your teeth. I have good teeth. I’ve never had a cavity. Yet I don’t like how I’ve never smoked a cigarette and yet I have smoke stained teeth. Sometimes I see someone with nice white teeth and I want to compliment them. I don’t if I don’t know them.
• Can I have a bite of that? I often go to a restaurant and see someone else’s food and think that I’d love to try that. I don’t know if I’d like it enough to order but it looks good. I wish it wasn’t so awkward to walk up to someone, stick my clean finger in their dinner, and scoop out a bite.
• What are you thinking? I love to know people’s stories. I love to know why someone would choose to wear wool socks with sandals, a fanny pack, cargo shorts, and a Hawaiian shirt when not on vacation or playing dress up at grandpa’s. There are many times where I’d love to ask someone “what are you thinking” when you put that on this morning?

The truth is until you’ve earned a right to say something most people won’t receive it. Once you’ve earned the right people will put up with you and maybe even listen to what you have to say. Until then people won’t hear you no matter what your message is.

What is the weirdest thing anyone has ever said to you?

I recently saw a video from Francis Chan that is rocking my face off. He’s one of my favorite speakers and I’m really excited to hear him speak this week at Catalyst in the ATL. Check out this video and let me know your thoughts.

Francis Chan – Making Disciples from Verge Network on Vimeo.

In almost all areas of life it is way easier to be a guy than a girl.

• Guys have the option of standing while going to the restroom. Granted it’s not for every bathroom occasion but it’s still an option some of the time. This comes in helpful when you visit public restrooms that are gag nasty.
• Guys don’t have to wear make-up. That makes getting ready so much easier.
• It’s cheaper to be a guy. A guy can get by with one or two pairs of shoes, a $10 haircut, a good pair of jeans, and a sense of humor. How many shoes does the nearest girl to you own? My point exactly.
• A young fat guy = a potential football player. Girls don’t have the football option. Now I say this just because as a young fat guy I often was complimented with my potential to play football. I was even offered a car to drive if I would play for a team in high school. I’d never played but I was HUGE and that made me have football potential in the sight of a coach.
• A guy farts and he’s just being a guy. A girl farts and…
• Planning a wedding = just showing up for a guy. Planning a wedding = a degree in event planning for a girl.

You get my drift? I’m not saying that guys are better than girls. I’m just saying it’s way easier to be a guy than it is to be a girl. It’s easier in all but one area…

Not shaving. If a girl doesn’t want to shave she can hide that fact by wearing pants. If a dude doesn’t want to shave he let’s the whole world know that he was lazy that morning. The exception to this is Michael W. Smith, George Michael, Andre Agassi, and Adam Levine. Those guys are cool enough to pull off the scruff look every day. Me? Not so much.

So the other day I have this revelation from God. Face Pants.

Face Pants designer Stephen Haggerty

I tweeted the following as soon as this idea hit me “I wish they made pants for faces so when I didn’t feel like shaving I could cover my stubble. Without face-pants people know I’m being lazy.”

If guys wore Face Pants it would hide scruff, zits, and double chins. It would also keep your face warm in the winter. In the summer we could wear Face Shorts.

Okay, so that’s a dumb idea. Nobody is going to wear Face Pants, but the way that we hide things it wouldn’t surprise me if they were one day invented.

Americans are great at hiding. We hide our sin. We hide ourselves in our houses complete with blinds, fences, and panic rooms. We hide our insecurities by pretending to be things that we are not.

I pray often that God would help me be real. I don’t want to fake it. I want people to know me so well that they can see when I’m about to do something stupid that could ruin my life. The more that I get to know Jesus the more I come out of hiding. The more I find my identity in Jesus the more transparent I become.

As silly as it sounds we all wear some sort of Face Pants. We hide so others won’t see our imperfections. Jesus sees us as we truly are. In Him we can find the security that we need to be real. Or we could just start wearing Face Pants.

On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being nobody knows the real you and 10 being everyone knows all about you) where would you rate yourself when it comes to being transparent?

My Facebook, Twitter, and Godspacebookittertubetrest are constantly bombarded with messages from well meaning pastors that declare “this is a life changing message.” Let’s rewind a little.

What is Godspacebookittertubetrest? It doesn’t exist yet but it’s the Christian version of Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Pintrest all rolled up into one. I’m thinking about buying the domain name because this would be hot like fire or incredibly stupid. Either way it’s only a matter of time before someone tries to do this and then they’d have to pay me for the domain name. I digress.

The other day I saw multiple messages from multiple pastors all across America declaring that they had a life changing word in their sermon/blog post/new book. I’m probably being too critical here but I think that we should be careful with this declaration. When we preach the Bible it has the potential to be life changing but…

How many times have you heard a talk and literally had it change your life? I’ve heard talks that were incredibly motivating, inspiring, and informational but very few have instantly changed my life.

Jesus compared the word of God to seeds. I think that’s a perfect illustration for what it is. Seeds take a really long time to produce fruit.

Declaring that a message is life changing before it’s even been delivered is like declaring your fruit tree will be the biggest and best tree in the history of trees a second after you planted it. We honestly don’t know what seeds will produce fruit or in this case life change. All we can do is sow.

This declaration plays great to our desire for instant gratification. All you need is this one blog post/sermon/book to see radically different results. For me personally I become frustrated with myself when I don’t see instant results after hearing that message.

“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” 1 Corinthians 3:6-7

I don’t do this very well, but I want to. I want to help people see that without God changing our hearts no message will produce life change. When we hear an amazing sermon, read an inspiring book or blog post our prayer should become “God make this grow within me.”

This puts the emphasis off of the speaker and hearer and puts it back onto God.  If God changes someone’s life then it’s a life changing message. Now I know what some of you are thinking…”what about the verse that says ‘God’s word does not come back void.” Great question.

“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11.

This verse is from God’s lips. Notice what God said. He says His words will not return void to Me. In context this verse means that God’s words will do what God wants them to do. It doesn’t mean that every sermon preached won’t come back void. How do we know this? Jesus was frustrated with his audience because they continued to listen but not be changed by His message. He would preach and they would listen but not really hear. How do we know if a message really is life changing? It produces fruit.

I hope that everyone who reads this will know my heart. I’m not trying to stir up trouble or call anyone out. I’m simply trying to get us to think. If you hear your pastor say “I have a life changing message for you” don’t get mad. He’s simply excited about what God’s teaching him. If you go to church start asking that God will give you ears to hear and stir in your heart a desire to change.

Am I being too critical with this post? What has God used to change your life?

The following thoughts have been setting me free.

As a Christian I am supposed to produce spiritual fruit. The problem is that many Christians focus on the fruit.

Christians know that they should produce love so they will within themselves that they are going to love more. That lasts for about a nano second because someone that is hyper annoying will enter the room and you will want to punch them in the throat repeatedly until a narrator with a deep voice yells “Finish Him!” You will then want to do things that are straight out of the video game Mortal Kombat and that is not very loving.

Christians know that they are supposed to be patient. They feel bad when they are not so they sing “We need a little patience…yeah-ah” by Guns N Roses and then hope for the best.  What happens? Traffic. Traffic makes me think and say things out loud that are not very Christian. If other drivers would just submit to me I’d have a lot less frustration while driving. I’m betting you’ve had a similar thought.

Joy. Christians should be filled with an unexplainable joy. For most though joy is like a roller coaster and it goes up and down.

“Spiritual fruit is produced in the same way physical fruit is. When a man and women conceive physical fruit ie a child, they are usually not thinking about the mechanics of making that child. Rather they get caught up in the moment of loving intimacy with one another and the fruit of that loving intimacy is a child.” – JD Greear. 

Now for Monica and me physical fruit was difficult to produce. We went for six years before God blessed us with kids. At one point I had to give Monica shots, she had to take her temperature every day and chart it, and then when her temperature hit a certain point we had to cue the Boys II Men music.

The only problem was that the doctor ordered us to do it. And when I say do it I mean a lot in a short amount of time. If you are a guy you might think that this sounds like the best week ever…BUT IT WASN’T! Oh, and there was no Boys II Men music or if you are a little older Marvin Gaye.

At one point I told Monica that I wasn’t a machine. The joy of producing physical fruit became frustrating because we were focused on the fruit and not on the love.

It’s the same thing that most Christians do.

They focus on the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self control and when they can’t produce these things they get frustrated. Not only does focusing on the fruit become frustrating it also becomes a burden. It’s such a heavy burden that many people end up faking the fruit. They pretend to be a better Christian then they really are.

The key to producing spiritual fruit is to stop focusing on the fruit and to start focusing on Jesus. When we abide in Jesus (literally means to make your home in) He naturally produces in us spiritual fruit. Love produces fruit. Focusing on fruit produces frustration.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.” – Jesus.

What’s your favorite fruit? Where you tempted to say “that’s what she said” all throughout this post? Can you see my face blushing because I hate talking about intimacy?

Caption contest! Did somebody say Caption contest?

Here’s how it works. See the picture below. Come up with a caption for this picture and then leave it in the comments. The winner gets a prize package that is worth tens of millions if you could put a price tag on respect. That’s right! The winner earns my respect. See you in the comments.