I like Mat Kearney’s music.  He’s the first artist that I heard that combined acoustic music with rap.  I first heard of Mat Kearney from my friend Mark Krebs when we were on a trip to Latvia in 2006, it was the soundtrack of our trip.  When I hear that album it totally reminds me of Latvia.

I ran across this music video of his today and loved the concept of one take all shot from a drone.  It’s a fun song with fun dancing.  We need more fun in life.  Watching the video made me smile and I hope it brightens up your day.

The first line of the song is “Nashville is burning tonight” and while the video was not shot in Nashville it got me excited about our upcoming move to Tennessee.  I always said I wanted to live in Nashville and God is faithful.  If you don’t get our e-mail updates you can sign up on the right, but we announced that in July we will be leaving Hawaii to move to either Franklin Tennessee or Clarksville to help a good friend of ours with their ministry.

What song has been making you happy lately?  Let us know in the comments.

“A wife of noble character who can find?  She is worth far more than rubies.” Proverbs 31:10

Yesterday Jess celebrated her 30th Birthday!

I get out of the way and let Jess plan her whole birthday, because she does a far better job than I would.

So yesterday started out with an early morning surf lesson with our friend Erica.  And then coffee with friends.

Then she organized a kickball game that was staff versus students.  Which was a blast.  She got all of her students out of work duties so that they could play.  Staff won, which was what Jess wanted.  

Sushi for dinner.  And dominos mexican train, with friends after.

Her friend Ana had collected videos from people on the YWAM base saying encouraging things about her.  At 8pm we went to the SBS classroom and people gathered to watch the video of encouraging words and ate cheesecake.

Since Ana had talked to me about collecting videos I thought I’d do the same to our larger group of friends and family.  35 people sent in videos of encouragement to Jess and we watched the compiled 22 minute video before bed.  It was awesome to hear the common themes, that Jess loves people well and makes them feel valuable.  That’s truth.

Something we do when we lead retreats is a value based life plan.  And the first thing we do is have people write what they’d like people to say about them at a retirement party.  We laid in bed last night after watching the video, and realized that at only 30 years old, people are saying what we’d want them to say about us, and now we have another 50+ years to build upon that.  Jess kept saying we are surrounded by such good people, and it’s true.

Thank you to everyone that took the time to send in a video.  It was awesome to see people from all over the world, and our different seasons of life.

Happy birthday Jess, I’m truly blessed to have you as my wife.  You do an excellent job at loving people well.  

Want to wish Jess a belated birthday?  Or share something that you love about her?  Comment below!

Something I realized about myself last year was that I feel best when I’m producing.  I think I’ve written that more than a few times on here.  Maybe this blog is just a way for me to externally process, which is what I think that when I look at the blog stats, which discourage me.  But its beneficial for me to write, and get these things out.   And from time to time, I get people that write me e-mails that read the blog and are really blessed by it, and that’s a huge bonus.

The dragon that breathes down my throat every morning morning when I wake up tells me that I have no purpose and that my day is going to be a waste.  Something even as small as starting my day by POSTING a blog post sets me up for a better day than if I start my day without doing anything.

I battle with productivity, and perfectionism.  I want to set up a system that keeps me consistently productive.  I’ve been learning lessons along the way and have been tweeking and readjusting.  I’m not going to beat myself up, because there’s another lie that I believe.  That lie manifests itself in shame.  Sometimes I feel ashamed that I’m not more productive or efficient, or consistent than I am.

Waiting to “publish” things until they are 100% perfect (which never will happen) stops the creative momentum.  One of the personal growth recommendations based on my “type 4” enneagram profile was to

• “Avoid putting off things until you are “in the right mood.” Commit yourself to productive, meaningful work that will contribute to your good and that of others, no matter how small the contribution may be. Working consistently in the real world will create a context in which you can discover yourself and your talents. (Actually, you are happiest when you are working—that is, activating your potentials and realizing yourself. You will not “find yourself” in a vacuum or while waiting for inspiration to strike, so connect—and stay connected—with the real world.”

Have you done the enneagram test yet?  Out of all of these types of personality profile tests that I’ve done this one has been the most beneficial, because instead of just pointing at your strengths it calls out some of your weaknesses and then tells you how to work on them.  Ignore all of the eastern religion stuff and take this free test.

I’ve recently deactivated my facebook account again.  Since I usually share these blog posts on facebook, and am no longer doing that, my readership is way down.  I still push them to twitter but don’t have nearly as many followers on twitter as I have friends on facebook.  Being off of facebook is beneficial for me for a myriad of reasons, maybe I’ll dedicate another blog post to that at another time.

When I’m about to post something, I reread it a few times, and I think to myself “what you’re posting doesn’t matter, no one is going to read it, these aren’t even good posts.”  I just click publish anyway to end the battle.  Perfectionism and fear stops me from being productive, and as I said earlier, I feel best when I’m producing.  Seth Godin just wrote a solid blog post on the trolls inside of our heads that’s worth reading.  It’s short.

I’m writing these things out, because I don’t think I’m alone in this battle.  If you’re reading this, you most likely have ideas, and want to produce things that are going to bless the world, but all to often listen to a voice that tries to minimize it’s worth or value.  Tell that dragon troll to shut up, and go public with your idea.

Do you battle with an inner troll that keeps you from producing? Share with us how it usually manifests.

Usually we talk about addiction affecting our communities.. but what if it was the other way around?  What if our communities were set up in an intentional way to free people from addiction?

In my latest sermon I referenced this article entitled The Likely Cause Of Addiction Has Been Discovered And It’s Not What You Think.

I encourage you to go read that article and think about its implications.   If they are true, we need to take a good hard look at “how we’re doing community.”

How do we cultivate and improve our communities so that it helps free people from addiction?

My church Streams of Life has been gracious enough to let me preach about every 6 weeks.  I’m honored by the opportunity.  Here was my Valentines day sermon.

A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post entitled “Here’s a Sure Way To Fail At Your Goals.”  It’s funny how you can learn something but have to keep relearning that same lesson.  I ran into it just this past week.

Basically, the blog post I’m referencing above talks about removing the unnecessary extra steps between you and your goal, or on the flip side, adding more steps between you, to make it harder for you to access whatever you are trying to avoid.

I want to be blogging more, but there are times when I’ll sit down to write and know what I’m going to write about but can’t find a photo to fit.  After searching and not finding what I want, I’ll just say forget it and not write the blog post.

That reminds me of one time I was returning an item to walmart with a friend, I had the item but left the receipt in the car, and for some reason, even though I was there, that extra step, of having to go back to the car made me just say forget it and I drove away, which drove my friend nuts haha.  I’m ridiculous.

I talked about the steps concept with my friend RK who is one of the most productive people I know.  (Check out his latest youtube video about white board productivity)  He reminded me that this was a concept in Mindless Eating which was a book that I read back when I lived in MD.  They talked about how moving the office candy jar off of your desk and in a place that required more work to get to, like across the room on top of a shelf,  would deter you from eating it more than if it was accessible.

So basically, what steps do you need to remove that are standing between you and your goal?  Or what steps do you need to implement between you and your vice?

Completely might be a better word than totally in reference to my failure at the goals I set out for February.  How we deal with failure though and disappointment is huge I’ve realized, that will be a whole other blog post someday maybe.

I have however been READING a lot more in February.  And I’ve been off  of social media until recently because I had to post a wedding I just shot.  You can check out those photos here.

I’ve also been feeling good and social lately too.  I wonder if that’s the lack of social media.  A few people have even commented “Jim you’re so social lately.”

While I haven’t been doing great with the goals I set out to do, February has been a productive month.  I’m acting on some of the ideas I’ve had for a while.  One of those was recording a podcast.  I’ve got 5 episodes done and am having the logo made currently so be looking for a new website/business venture launch soon.  And I’ve gotten some other ideas about another possible online business type thing that I’ll hopefully be putting some major work into soon as well.

How have your February goals been going?

I was hanging out with my friend RK last night and he was telling me about how he and his wife and kids have started a GOAL board on their fridge.  Every morning at breakfast they look at the goal board and when a goal is accomplished they make a big deal about crossing them off.  RK told me his daughter asked him this week if he could do 5 goals, so they can have a bigger house.  

Imagine if you were setting goals weekly, and stating them publicly.  At the end of 52 weeks you would have accomplished a lot.

I posted earlier this week that Jess suggested that we really push through the 28 days of February and really commit to some of the goals we’ve been wanting to do.  So here’s our goals.

1.  No eat out February.  Which will help us save money and eat healthier.

2.  Jess wants to do a half hour of cardio and a half hour of stretching every day.

3.  I want to be doing my morning walk, along with pushups and crunches 5 days a week.

4.  I want to be doing an evening walk up a hill here in the valley.  5 nights a week.  As well as a Saturday hike.

5.  Eating CLEAN.

I realized Monday on my morning walk that I always ask God to take away my desire for bad things, instead of praying for the wisdom and tenacity to overcome.  Jess and I were talking about how we think that if you give into whatever that temptation is, that it will satisfy it, but the reality is you’re only feeding that desire and allowing it to grow bigger when you give in.

Here’s a quote from The Cross Of Christ that I’m reading that really got me.

‘Don’t you know’, he asks incredulously, ‘that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?’ On the other, ‘You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body.’ Our body has not only been created by God and will one day be resurrected by him, but it has been bought by Christ’s blood and is indwelt by his Spirit. Thus it belongs to God three times over, by creation, redemption and indwelling. How then, since it does not belong to us, can we misuse it? Instead, we are to honour God with it, by obedience and self-control. Bought by Christ, we have no business to become the slaves of anybody or anything else. Once we were the slaves of sin; now we are the slaves of Christ, and his service is the true freedom.

Stott, John (2012-11-29). The Cross of Christ (pp. 181-182). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

Lord help me to honor you with my body in the hard work of ONGOING obedience and self-control.

What are your goals for February?  Let us know in the comments.

[A sample “chart” from one of Jess’ students.]

Jess is on staff with the Chronological School of Biblical Studies.  This is a 9 month school where students study all 66 books of the Bible.

Please click here to read a blog post from one of her students to see some of the work that they are doing.  Please note that one chart covers about one chapter of each book.  So for big books like Isaiah which they just finished they are completing over 60 of these charts.  Which means Jess is grading those charts for multiple students.

Those charts are only PART of their homework.  They also have to do a BRI, or background required information, which answers questions like, who is the author, when was it written etc.  Then a  horizontal chart which helps outline the big picture of the book, as well as write a final book analysis and an application.

Besides grading, Jess also studies and then teaches certain books.  Her teachings include some of the controversies about when books were written, and some of the difficult passages, and then the content of the book.

This week she is teaching Obadiah.

I’m proud of my wife.   She’s a hard worker, and loves and invests in her students and has studied diligently and has much more knowledge about the Bible than I.

What type of Bible Study tools do you use?  Let us know in the comments.

Jess brought up the really solid point that February is the shortest month, 28 days.  She suggested that we really push through the month of February and set and complete some of our goals in that month.  Does anyone want to join us in a big push towards goal accomplishing this February?