The Power of Laughter
Last night I had a great dinner with some friends. What made it a good time wasn't the food, it was the laughter. I think we laughed the whole time. Some say laughter is the best medicine, and science is starting to prove this. Laughter is said to lower blood pressure and increase circulation. Laughter lowers stress levels and greatly improves a person's emotional well-being.
Everyone at last night's dinner is a pastor and most of our laughter came from ministry stories. If you've been in ministry any length of time you will have funny stories to tell. Why? Because ministry is about people and people do funny and bizarre things. And because pastors are people too, we do funny and bizarre things. We had a good laugh at ourselves too.
We all need a good dose of laughter. I ended the night feeling very refreshed and grateful for good friends. I needed that.
God’s Will
I had a thought this morning about God's will, here it is: Knowing God's will is more about education than revelation. Reading from Ps. 143:10, David requests of God, "Teach me to do your will..." This jumped out at me because I often ask God to show me his will. But David asks God to teach him. Moses asked the same thing in Exodus when he asked God to "teach me your ways".
Here are some distinctions between teach me and show me:
The Third Space
Great first day of Catalyst West Coast. Erwin McManus' opening session on "third spaces" was inspiring and challenging. McManus divides one's relational life into three spaces: 1st space is where people are like you, you are the norm. The church is often a 1st space where no aliens or outsiders are allowed; 2nd space is a broader set of relationships where not everyone is like you, yet there's still relationships; 3rd space is where there's no relationships, and there won't be unless invited; you are the alien.
Life’s measure
Every few months I measure the height of my three boys. I do it the old school way. No fancy tools or cartoon wall charts. I make them stand ramrod straight against the door jamb of my office with a book on their heads and note their height with a pencil. Then we stand back and ooooh and ahhhhh at how much they've grown. They are growing fast.
Have you ever thought about how much we humans measure things?
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