the BAKERS | www.jimjessbaker.com

I’ve heard it called “#virtuesignalling

And we’re all real good at it.

Agreeing loudly with an ideal in the presence of others who think like us.  Maybe someone spoke up and shared an idea and we’ll make sure to let everyone know that we too are in alignment with this #philosophy and #idea.  Even more bonus points if it’s on the interwebs.

But ideas are just the fodder to action.

I wanted to use the word tinder there… but that app forever ruined that word.

If we never move past agreeing with a system of believe in our minds, and never allow it to permeate our being, allow how we think to affect how we act and live our lives, then we only are part way on the journey.

What are you saying that you #value, that you aren’t truly valuing?

This process is not easy.  Self awareness and vulnerability.  Maybe you’ve been head nodding instead of taking action for many years, and that’s a hard realization.  But it’s necessary to be real and honest and speak truth about where you are right now if you want to grow.

If we don’t take ownership for our own growth, society isn’t going to change.  Healthy cultures are made up of healthy individuals.  Healthy individuals aren’t stuck, they are choosing to do the hard work of growing.

My word for 2019 is DOING and I’m so impressed by people who are getting after it and doing the hard things required from them with their lifestyle and action to value what they say they value.

I’m getting increasingly not impressed with the people that emphatically nod in agreement with an idea but never take any #personalownership of it  when in a group and then don’t do anything about it.

So where’s the tipping point?  How do we move from idea to action?

I chatted with two missionaries today that are in closed countries.  Countries where it’s illegal for them to be there as missionaries.  Countries where their safety is at risk because of the gospel.

If you know people out there doing hard things that you value, ENCOURAGE them.  With words and resources.

#Christians if we say we are #followers of #Jesus are we just coming into agreement with a system of belief, or are we living out His commands.  Have we taken ownership of the #kingdom

Let’s not head nod to this post.  Let’s examine ourselves, not point to others and make excuses.  I don’t care if you’re doing “more” than your neighbor, how are you matching up to the standard that God created you for?  And if you’re living in less than that purpose, let’s figure out why.  And take some first steps.

Thoughts?  Comment and let me know, especially if you have the secret for moving from agreeing with an idea to ownership and action.

Also, someone told me that my post a few months ago about me switching to medium got them signed up for all kinds of spam?  Did anyone else have t his problem?

Wall of text incoming… 

Woke up to this letter this morning.

This is almost getting comical, except its not funny. In the past few months we have lost 8 committed regular supporters.

Everyone who has stopped has given really solid reasons as to why they are stopping so there is zero condemnation or judgement, that’s not what this is about, we feel ZERO percent entitled to anyones hard earned money.   

8 supporters lost is ONE FORTH of our support team. The timing doesn’t make sense at all in this new season of life.  Our expenses are at the highest they have ever been with the move out here to a high cost of living area and the addition to our family. 

God’s timing surely is funny though.  Had this happened before we moved out here 6 months ago… God knew we probably wouldn’t have come. 

Losing a couple supporters here and there is par for the course if you are relying on ministry partners for the bulk of your salary.  But losing over a quarter of our team?  What gives?  I think I need to fast and pray and see if we’re doing something wrong. 

One of this mornings proverbs was “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold but the Lord tests the heart.”

The other day when I found out we were losing our 7th supporters I went over to the first worship morning of the quarter.  We just got a batch of 30+ new students who are here for their Discipleship Training School.  They will be here for 3 months getting trained and getting ruined for the ordinary, and wrecked and transformed by the love of God and then head overseas to share the gospel and help people in need. 

Through tears I worshipped the Lord.  Not tears because we’re destitute, we’re not, but tears because it is so evident that this is what we we’re created for and called to do.  And sometimes you have to realize in your own heart that even if we lose 1/4 of supporters we’re gonna keep going. 

What are we called to?  To encourage and equip wide eyed foolish young people (sorry guys, I was that at 18, probably still am now, thats why volunteer for this organization and don’t receive a paycheck from them) who believe God wants to use them to change the world. 

To inspire and train followers of Jesus at every age to ACTION.  To BE and demonstrate love in a real hurting world.

To help people value what they say they value. 

Jess’ Biblical Core Course just graduated 14 students, all of them in their late teens and twenties.  And do you know what they did in that 3 month school?  Read through the whole Bible, dug into the original context, made observations and interpretations of the text and then applied it!  That’s no small undertaking.  And we’re sending a team of 7 to Mongolia to work with believers there to help equip them to better study, teach and apply Scripture. 

So maybe this is the crucible and God’s testing our hearts.  Are we in this for the money?  Are we in this because we get to live in Hawaii?  I don’t think so.  We’re just trying to be obedient to what God’s calling us to, that’s why we’ve never lived anywhere over 3 years.  Right now it just happens He’s called us to a beautiful place and we need to be more intentional about enjoying the beauty while He has us here. 

Maybe I haven’t done a good enough job over the past year to keep you all updated.  I wasn’t on social media in 2018, because I find it harmful to my soul.  I find it a distraction from what I feel called to really be doing.  I find it stealing my joy and energy.  I feel it fueling envy in my life and allowing disgusting insecurities to surface. 

But I guess you cannot full time fundraise without social media.   So I’m back.  And I’m gonna get after it. 

I cannot sit and dwell on this loss of over a quarter of our committed supporters.  I can’t sit and feel sorry for myself.  I’ve got a family to take care of and we’ve got a mission to accomplish.

As my family has grown I’ve thought about what our family mission, vision and values are.  And I recently moved the word “RESILIENCE” to the front of our values.  The Bakers are resilient.  My parents have bounced back from serious hardships and set an example for me to do the same. 

When I think about resilience, I think about my dad who was the first person in his family to go to college, and when he lost his teaching job in NY (I was 4) he went and worked as a manager at mcdonalds, and then at a toy store, he didn’t quit, he didn’t withdraw and hit the bottle like some men do, he pushed forward, humbled himself and did what he needed to do for his family. 

Yesterday I made the lock screen on my phone a picture of Ansel in a shirt that says be strong.  There’s no more crawling back in bed and trying to hide.  I picked up this side job cleaning construction offices for you son.  Because Bakers are resilient.  We also walk in loving kindness, and prudence and diligence.  I’ll do a facebook live soon sharing about that.  

So if you’re facing adversity today I encourage you keep after it.  Double down, put in the extra effort.  We can’t shrink back right now.  Remind yourself of the why of what you do. 

Even beyond the programs we run, we do it for the individuals.  The other day we sat with a twenty something who was asking for relationship advice.  Ya know what?  Family is the foundation of society.  And the worlds message on relationships is way different.  I’m glad that Jess and I can have a voice in young peoples lives when it comes to marriage, family and relationships. 

I recently went to a Church hospitality training where the last session was from the Honolulu Police Department on active shooters.  They started out their session by thanking the faith community for raising up the next generation with morals stating that it was making their jobs easier. 

We try and set an example of life and family for the people that are younger than us here.  We’re just a tiny step ahead, but we are trying to share the reality of the battle of everyday life.  The disciplines that we’ve put in place to stay sane and have a trajectory of success.  And the reality that some days you get plowed over and have to brush yourself off and get back up again. 

We’re not destitute, just losing a quarter of your donors is not a good trend.  I do have a part time salary from my part time Pastoring job and I’ve picked up a part time job cleaning offices.  But we are relying on our ministry partners from the Bakers ministry for the bulk of our salary. 

In the mean time we will keep doing what we’re doing, and I’ll be better about sharing what we’re doing.  We’re going to  choose to stay encouraged.  Keep good attitudes and keep pressing in.  Enjoy the beautiful scenery that God is allowing us to live in.  We’ll readjust our budget and be wise stewards and frugal. 

So if you’re the praying type we’d love it if you’d pray for us.  Pray that God would raise up more committed ministry partners.  People who truly believe in and want to partner in what we’re doing. 

We really believe in prayer.  And we wanna pray for you too.  If you feel like you’re facing adversity in your finances or any other area of life, message us and we’d love to pray for and encourage you. Lets keep, keeping after it.  

I’m going to start writing a bit more on medium now instead of here.  https://medium.com/@jimjessbaker/  Feel free to follow

I’ve really been loving youtube.  I like finding interviews with interesting people.

The other day I saw an interview with Mad Dog Mattis.

He mentioned the Commandant’s reading list.  I love to see the books that other people are recommending.

One that jumped out to me was The Warrior Ethos by Steven Pressfield.  You’ve probably heard me talk about the The War of Art by Pressfield, it’s probably one of my top 5 books, so I was excited to see another shorter book by him.

I’m fascinated by these elite fighting forces and the self discipline they carry, able to do seemingly impossible tasks, pressing through super hard circumstances.  I’m also interested in their training.  I’ve been slowly reading through The Warrior Elite which follows the training of Navy Seals in Class 228, I’ll write about that soon.

Here were some of my take aways:
Early on in the book Pressfield talked about the wives and mothers in Sparta, and how they championed their husbands and sons as warriors.  This stood out to me because for that to happen, the culture had to have been so clear on it’s vision and values  that it created this unity and willingness to sacrifice.

It reminded me of the Morvaian missions movement which tithed 10% of it’s people, they loaded up their caskets with them because they knew when they were going to foreign lands to preach the gospel they would not return.  And as they shipped out their missionaries the whole community would stand at the shore and send off the young men with a chant of “That He would receive the just reward of His sufferings.”

Another take away was about salary.

For the warrior there are 2 types of salary.  Financial, and psychological.

The financial salary would be meager for the warrior, but the psychological would be pride, honor, integrity, being part of something that serves a great purpose, a community of valor and glory and friends that would lay down their lives for you.

It also talked about how the warrior is willing and eager to embrace adversity, and how the payoff of a life of adversity is freedom.

Again, I totally see the similarity between the warrior ethos and the missionary ethos.

Here are 3 quotes that I liked from the book as well.
“The will to fight, the passion to be great is an indispensable element of the warrior ethos. It is also a primary quality of leadership because it inspires men and fires their hearts with ambition and the passion to go beyond their own limits.”

“The warrior ethos commands that brute aggression be tempered by self restraint and guided by moral principle.”

“Let us conduct ourselves so that all men wish to be our friends and all fear to be our enemies.” – Alexander

This is a short book, about 90 pages I think?  I wouldn’t say it was amazing, but I did have some great take aways which I shared above.  Have you read it?  What do you think?

Why can’t I make forward progress?!

I know what I want to do, but when I try to get there it just doesn’t work!

This morning I took time to write out a morning routine.  I put it on paper, well digital paper, but it was no longer a thought in my head, but a plan on paper.

Do you know what is necessary for a good morning routine?

A good evening routine.

And this is why I think our moments of motivation fail, because there are steps that we didn’t think about that slow us down and eventually derail us.

It’s crazy how one extra step between us and our goal can derail us.

Honestly I almost got derailed from writing this, because I can hear Jess talking on the phone right now and it’s a distraction.  I had to open 3 browser windows that wasn’t blocking the flash player to get a white noise generator out.  That was a bunch of steps between me and my goal, and those little tiny steps sometimes are what trip us up and keep us from success.

So my morning routine, having a plan, having it written, seeing on paper the things I want to accomplish in the morning.  So much mental energy is used up in trying to choose or make the decision on what to do.  If I already have it mapped out for me then thats one less step that I have make to get to the destination I want to be, putting me one step closer to success.

It’s also good to see those plans on paper, because it allows me to move things around, it doesn’t make sense for this thing to come before this thing, and I can move it.  Where as if I was just trying to do those actions in a state of groggy, I might just feel the resistance and go back to bed.  Putting things on paper  helped me optimize, and  have an order for things.  I love order.

The difference between chaos and order is a well executed plan.

Having a plan and writing things down also helped me realize that there are sometimes other steps to success.  Planning for reality.  Putting things in strategic places the night before so there are less steps between me and executing what I want.  Filling up the water kettle, grinding coffee and putting it in the french press the night before.  Two steps completed in advance, so that in the morning, I can simply press one button to heat up the water, and pour it over the coffee grounds, instead of having to take the time to fill the kettle, and grind the coffee.  Plan ahead, and reduce the number of steps between you and success by executing as much as you can before.  Mise en place.

Writing things down also helped me realize some of things I want to do aren’t specific enough.  Read.  Read what?  Now I’ve got to make a choice again, and I might get derailed.  This sounds dumb, but I can really get derailed in the decision making, I get paralyzed by trying to make the best choice, and the longer I stay in a position of inaction, and indecision, the greater my chances are of staying there.

Interruptions suck.  I just had to switch from white noise to brown noise so I could focus and in the mean time I got a private message on facebook, in fact, its dinging right now with someone trying to contact me and it totally broke my momentum.

So reading… do I have a list of books that I want to read for 2018?  Am I setting up my computer the night before so that I’m not logging on and being inundated with facebook notifcations that are a great distraction from what I want to do?

Simple things like, opening my book up the night before on the kindle app, to where I want to start reading.

Get specific with your plan.  Table top it, run it through in your mind.  What’s to vague?  What can you prepare the night before, get ready, get in place, so that your day can be a success.

Not much good happens on accident, the older I get the more I realize stumbling onto things is dumb luck, and for me to go in the direction I really want to go requires an intentional plan.

Lets go!

I was at my parents over Thanksgiving and thought to myself…

“My parents keep a much cleaner house now…”

Then it dawned on me.

Oh.

Maybe it’s because I don’t live with them anymore.

I love tidiness.  And when I say I love it, that doesn’t mean I do it.  I’m currently typing this on my dining room table.  There’s a stack of mail here, a book that I haven’t read, a journal, multiple thumb drives, my coffee, some electrical tape, a bluetooth speaker, some receipts.  Gross.

Have you read Marie Kondo’s book about decluttering?  It’s pretty amazing.  And I’m attracted to the minimalist lifestyle.  Wanna know something funny?  I have no clue where that Marie Kondo book is.  I did have it by my bed side for a while… my bedside table is an area that is constantly getting stuff dumped on it.  Dang it, sorry  Marie.  And well, sorry Jess

I got to this sentence and got so frustrated that I stopped writing and picked a few things up.

It’s so important for things to have a HOME otherwise they just collect on flat surfaces.

I hate receipts and paperwork.  CLUTTER.

As I look in my basement and see all of the crap that I’ve collected.  There are so many things that I’ve picked up and thought “I MIGHT use this someday.”  The problem is that day never comes and so… there is a broken propane grill on the side of my house, some extra couch cushions in my basement, a gas lamp that I thought I’d flip (I even bought the glass part) some fishing poles, ugh, the list continues.

So I feel like I’ve learned a valuable lesson.  If I don’t have an immediate use for something, I don’t need to bring it home, because “might” never happens, and it just collects dust bunnies full of regret.

Who wants to go to the dump with me???

 

I love dreaming.  I love  thinking about an ideal future.

Today I feel an urgency to get some of my dreams out of dream mode and drag them into reality with some written goals.

That is the difference between head in the clouds dreaming a real concrete vision.  A good leader can see the ideal future, and has a written plan that they can communicate on how to get there.

But where is the line between being faithful to all that you’re currently juggling and have in motion, and dreaming and planning for the future?

You can’t neglect one for the other.  If you only dream, and aren’t faithful to what you already have going on, you won’t move forward.

And if you’re so stuck in what you’ve currently got going on and never dream, nothing will move forward.

I think I visualize a couple hours schedule a week, that is just for dreaming, planning and goal setting.  And faithful hard work diving in to what I’ve already got going.

Dreaming is more fun than the hard work of planning and doing though.  But lets get it done.

Last year I received a phone call from Jimmie. 

Through tears he told me that our friend Cowboy had passed. 

I remember sitting later in Jimmie’s lawn and our friend Ben came by and we all kind of stared at nothing together. 

I met Cowboy for the first time when he was speaking at a church that boasted it had been around since the 1800’s.  His giant hand shook mine, and his gruff yet loving southern accent made me feel instantly welcome.  He took us out for ice cream after, and we sat and chatted and joked and laughed.  He shared about the discipleship schools he was running in Alabama and his work in Haiti.  

Whenever we ran a RED School we would have Cowboy come and teach on the Father Heart of God.  He always called it “The Father’s Heart of God.”  Which I thought was a strange way to say it, but he taught it like no other. 

His teaching was good, but it wasn’t his teaching.  It was his authenticity, the fact that he actually carried a Father’s heart. 

I remember one time he stopped the class and his teaching, asked permission from Jimmie and the rest of the class to focus in on one person.   This large man, knelt down in front of them, with a plastic table separating them, grabbed their hands, made eye contact, and in a hushed tone ministered the love of the Father to this person. 

That’s what made his teaching impactful.  It wasn’t just teaching, it was action.  And it wasn’t just action when it was convenient or someone was looking, it was action that flowed from knowing how far out of His way the Father went for Cowboy, that caused Cowboy to stop– and notice– and act. 

Listen to the interview I did with Cowboy here. 

We miss you man.  I pray that everyone you know and impacted, is spurred forward to being intentional in being interrupted, to love the one God has placed in their paths. 

Don’t take for granted what you’ve been taught. Not everyone has had the same privilege to learn what you know.

As I wrote this thought down this morning, I felt like the Lord spoke “gently instruct” to my mind and so I looked up that phrase knowing it was in the Bible.  Here it is.

2 Tim 2:²² Timothy, run away from youthful desires. Instead, direct your passion to chasing after righteousness, faithfulness, love, and peace, along with those who call upon the Lord with pure hearts. ²³ Excuse yourself from any conversations that turn into foolish and uninformed debates because you know they only provoke fights. ²⁴ As the Lord’s slave, you shouldn’t exhaust yourself in bickering; instead, be gentle—no matter who you are dealing with—ready and able to teach, tolerant without resentment, ²⁵ gently instructing those who stand up against you. Besides, the time may come when God grants them a change of heart[c] so that they can arrive at the full knowledge of truth. ²⁶ And if they come to their senses, they can escape the devil’s snare and walk freed from his captivity and evil bidding.

It’s easy for me to think or assume that others should know what I know, but they haven’t lived my life.  And I’ve sat under some amazing teaching.  So if they don’t know, it’s our job to gently instruct, which works well if the person wants to learn.

And if they don’t, then thats fine, that’s their choice.  But it should make us ask ourselves, am I currently teachable?  Am I looking around to be a every day learner?  Am I receptive to what others are trying to teach me?  Am I willing to sit through some of the fluff, and bad presentation of peoples blabbering to get a gem?

If you’re not learning you’re not growing, and if you’re not growing your stagnant and dying.

Deep and heavy thoughts for this grey Monday afternoon.  Enjoy!

Another Friday had rolled around, this was going to be my last time hanging out with B.  (Read part 1 here.)   before we left.  I wanted to take him to a movie, because I didn’t think he probably got to go to the movies very much. 

I picked up Ben at the YWAM base and thought, I should run to the bathroom real fast, but I ignored that.  Don’t ignore the voice of wisdom.  I just had to shishi.  (That’s how people in Hawaii call going numero uno, I know when I first heard it, it sounded like a better name for numero dos… but I digress) 

The carpool lane to pick up kids from school was so backed up that I was on a major road and not even on the street where the school was when we got in line.  I was kicking myself for not going the bathroom and I told Ben.  I probably told him every 30 seconds.  What a teachable moment… the Bible personifies wisdom as having a voice… and the voice of wisdom was speaking to me at the YWAM base to GO THE BATHROOM and I was a fool and did not listen. 

Anyway… we picked up Bless and headed to the movie theater.  I parked and walked quickly to the bathroom.  We all chee-hoo’d in the parking garage, because that’s what you do in spaces that echo is shout.  (Chee hoo is like the Yee-Haw of Hawaii.) 

We stood in line to get tickets, and I couldn’t see the movie that I wanted to see listed.  There weren’t a ton of kids movies options… I don’t remember the names of them now, but one was really more targeted at girls, and the other cartoon was the one I wanted to go see.  When we went up to the ticket window the movie we were going to see wasn’t listed.  I asked about it, and they said that they pulled the movie.  Oh…

We sat on the steps and thought about what to do next. 

“Are you hungry B? If you could eat anything what would you want?” 

“I’m not really hungry right now.” 

“What do you want to do?” 

“Um…. I don’t know.” 

I had an idea.  I had seen Lucky Strike being built at the mall but hadn’t gone in yet.  So we drove over to the mall.  I was pretty sure that there was a bowling alley there.  We walked in and asked how things work.  The bowling alley was on the floor above and the hostess recommended that if we were going to bowl we do that first.  So we went upstairs and paid, and got shoes and socks, and got our lane.  Of the four lanes, there was one other that was taken.  We located a light ball for B. to use.  B. had never bowled before.  So I showed him what to do.  He was hesitant to try, but did so reluctantly.  We ended up putting the bumpers up for him.  None of us cleared 100.  B. asked how much bowling cost.  It wasn’t cheap, nothing in Hawaii is cheap.  I didn’t realize at the time but this was him asking to play another round, I didn’t catch it.  I’m still to used to my direct East Coast way of communicating, and not the Asian influenced hinting at things.  He really enjoyed bowling. 

We went downstairs to the restaurant and got a booth.  It’s also an arcade, so the flashing lights and noise was a bit overwhelming.  We looked at a menu.  B. said he wanted poke.  Market price.  I tried to suggest something else, more kid friendly, and maybe more budget friendly.  Nope, B. wanted poke.  (Pronounced po-kay)  Cubes of raw ahi.  A delicace.  A homeless 9 year old kid wants sushi grade ahi. 

For some reason this messed with me.  I remember a friend telling me when he was on food stamps in Hawaii that he would go and get poke all the time too, telling me it was the best he had ever eaten.  Wichael could see my internal struggle, “Hey B. what if we split the poke bowl?”  B. agreed.  We also got the kalua pork nachos which our waiter suggested to us.  B. loved those.  I could load a game token card up when I paid my bill.  These places are so smart, if you change currencies enough times, you forget how much you’re paying to play. 

I let B. and Wichael go peruse the game floor while I paid the bill, I wanted B. to look at every game and decide which one he wanted to play before starting so he didn’t miss out on the best ones.  B. came back to me a minute later, eyes wide with a smile on his face.  He had left the napkin tucked into his shirt.  He was so excited. 

I paid the bill and found them, and watched an enthralling game of air hockey, where B at the buzzer beat Wichael.  I’m pretty sure Wichael was trying too… eh maybe not. 

I had a meeting that evening that I had to get to, and I still had to get B. home, and Wichael back to the YWAM base, and pick up Jess and head to our evening meeting.  We played a few more games with B. and headed on our way. 

I got to see B. again at church the next Sunday to say goodbye.  It was my last Sunday at church in Hawaii. 

Last I heard his parents didn’t pick him up from school, and the school called the cops.  CPS picked him up and put him in foster care on a different part of the island.  I guess he’s back with his parents now, but only if his step dad does rehab.  Being a typical addict he can’t take responsibility for himself and is blaming this all on B.  Wichael has been able to spend sometime with B. since then.  When the subject of family comes up, B. avoids its.  “Let’s just play.”  or “Let’s talk about something else.” 

It’s sobering to think about the fact that B’s. story is not really unique.  Unique to us maybe who have had solid upbringings.  But there are many kids all over the world that are growing up in chaos.  I’m grateful to Ms. E who on her own reaches out to these kids. 

I don’t know where to go from here, what to write, what to feel.  How do we stop the cycle of poverty and addiction? 

Proverbs 19:17

Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.

What strange imagery, lending to the Lord. 

I guess all we can do is pray, and then be obedient if God asks us to do something.

Ask God today what it looks like for you to be kind to the poor.  And if you’re having trouble being kind to the poor ask God to reveal to you why that is. 

Pray for B.