Well, blogging just got old for me.  Kind of got tired of sharing my opinion about everything (I know some of you are shocked by that statement).  But truthfully, there’s just too much to do.  Maybe in some way, blogging made me feel important.  I don’t know.

But for now, I’m over it.  Yeah, I know.  You are all so disappointed as my blogs were the highlight of your internet experience (insert sarcasm).  Maybe I’ll start again sometime with a renewed focus and vision for what needs to be said.  Right now, I’m busy doing and there’s plenty of others out there who are more than willing to share their thoughts with you.

Thanks for reading my blogs….until next time.

Gary

Sorry, I haven’t said anything and I’ve just got to say it now.  Obama is simply an idiot.  This guy is so out of touch with reality and with what is happening around him.  He’s always talking about HIMSELF!  He sits with fishermen in the Gulf Coast region who have now lost businesses that were handed down to them through generations and his reassurance is that he “can’t suck it up with a straw.”  What?!!!!  Unbelievable.

Andrea had an opportunity to share a part of our story with our church this weekend during our Mother’s Day service.  Normally, Mother’s Day is one of the hardest days of the year for Andrea due to the fact that we’ve been struggling for some time with trying to have children.  While I think it was a little difficult and scary for her to be so vulnerable about her pain, it turned out to be such a blessing.  We’ve been so encouraged by others sharing their struggles with us.  Mother’s Day this year turned out to be a blessing and a source of strength for us both.

Here is the video.

I also had a chance to share this song that I wrote out of time a of grieving over this situation.  It was actually written last year around our anniversary.  The song all started from putting some words down about how I was feeling at the time in regards to “waiting.”  You can check out that blog here.  In time, I eventually wrote a song called, “Still Waiting.”  Here it is performed live during the Mother’s Day service at our church following Andrea’s story.

Our hope is that through sharing this story we can encourage others who may be facing a situation where they are waiting on God….waiting on their moment of breakthrough.  But the truth is, we’re the ones who’ve been encouraged.

Found this video from North Point Media.  I’m assuming that this was used in the Drive 2010 conference at North Point Church.  This is one of the funniest videos I’ve seen in a while and unfortunately…SO TRUE!

“Sunday’s Coming” Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

I’m learning something new about leadership.  If you’ve been around leadership material and if you frequent conferences, then you’ve read and you’ve heard a lot about “vision.”  And while vision is an awesome thing, and we quote the scripture…”the people perish for lack of vision,”….is vision what retains leaders?

I’ve been under almost every kind of leader…leaders who value me for what they can get from me // leaders who don’t value me at all // and leaders who value me because they just do.  I certainly prefer the latter and I would imagine that most of you do too.  The kind of leader who values me as an individual is more concerned about what God is doing in my life than with “what I’m doing” to help accomplish their vision.  Let’s be frank about this.  It’s been my experience that most leaders have vision.  I’ve never suffered from being on a team that didn’t have some sort of vision.  Vision is easy.  There’s nothing cool or amazing about your vision.  Someone else has a better vision than you.  Oh, and someone else has a bigger building.

As a leader whose being led by other leaders, I’m finding that there are two things that are giving me staying power.  One, of course is to do my level best to be obedient to what God is calling me to do.  The second is on a more practical note, what are you doing to lead me?

This is certainly causing me to evaluate how I’m leading others.  And unfortunately, I can see how at times I’ve fallen into that same leadership trap.  If I can just be persuasive enough and have a big enough vision, then leaders will follow me. Nope.  I’m learning that people will follow me based on how I’m investing in them.  What are they getting out of the deal?  Am I concerned about how they are growing as an individual, or am I concerned with how they are helping me move towards my “vision?”  Are you getting the picture?  Or, am I missing the boat here?