Ten Talent Existence

We’re building more – more and more things we do not need
Acquiring more – only to ignore the ones in need
What have we done? What have we done?

We build bigger barns, while they throw their arms up
For someone to save them; there’s Someone to save them
We build bigger barns, while they throw their arms up
For someone to save them; there’s Someone to save them

We use our time – time that we cannot replace
We use our lives – trying to come in first place
The last shall be first – what have we done?

We build bigger barns, while they throw their arms up
For someone to save them; there’s Someone to save them
We build bigger barns, while they throw their arms up
For someone to save them; there’s Someone to save them

Help us be those, who stand up for those
Who cannot stand for themselves

For the oppressed, the disenfranchised
The widow, orphan and homeless

For the hungry, the weak and thirsty
That they might know our King

For the Glory, of our Great King
He’s the Someone to save us

He’s the Someone to save us
From bigger barns, while they throw their arms up
For someone to save them, He’s that Someone to save them

Big Dreams Unrealized

There are too many thoughts running through my mind right now, so I am going to try to get a few of them coherently down on paper.

I am realizing that I tend to be more of a talker than a doer. I like to talk about doing something big with my life, but I have yet to do that. I like to talk about holiness, but I’m not always striving after it like I want to. I like to dream big, but have not really taken any steps towards those dreams. My life has been characterized by talking the talk, but not necessarily walking the walk; either from lack of opportunity or from lack of seizing the opportunities. Well I met an incredible person recently unlike any that I have met before; unique; very driven; challenging; exceptional; very much a doer and not so much a talker. Our time together made me really think about how I have lived my life thus far; lots of talk, not too much action. I do not want to make it seem like pure unadulterated action is the only way to live well, because like so many other things it is important to be balanced. However, I feel like I am unbalanced and have too much of the talk and not enough action. Hopefully soon I will have a chance to take some action in ways like I never have before.

God placed a dream/vision/hope in my heart a few years ago to make big waves for the Kingdom of God. After playing basketball for a number of hours, my college roommate, Mark Zobeck, and I sat down at the kitchen table of 4000 Oaklawn and began to dream. It was unplanned and fully spontaneous that we even began developing this dream, for we had never ventured so far before, nor had I even considered something of such magnitude. For the next hour though, as we gulped down gallons of water, we dreamed of making a big dent in the lives of thousands if not millions. We were naïve 21 year olds who did know any better than to dream big, so that we did. Unhindered by reality or the difficulties of actually living out our dreams, we dreamed bigger than either of us had ever dreamed before; or at least I did. The ideas were so beyond what we could actually do, it seemed unbelievable at the time to me that we could accomplish something like that. But inside of the absurdity of what we wanted to do, was the thought that this could happen one day. This could come into existence.

But could and will are on two completely different spectrums. One deals with the possible. One deals with the actual. Any infinite number of things are possible, but only so many ever come into being. But what we were dreaming that day, and have dreamed since, somehow fell into both realms. It was both impossible and possible. It was both absurd and completely realistic. It was naïve and somehow well thought out. It was arrogant to even think that much of our own abilities, but somehow it felt planned, as if Someone had laid it out this way from the beginning and it did not matter what our abilities were. It was as if it was just so crazy, it just might work.

So we dreamed that afternoon of how God might use us. We dreamed of going hard and making the most of our time, talents, opportunities and skills here on this earth. We dreamed of not settling for making a difference in the life of one, but striving to make that difference in the lives of thousands, if not millions. We dreamed of spending our toil here on this earth on something that would have eternal impact. We dreamed of using what God has given us for more than successful careers, fancy cars, comfortable futures and handsome rewards. We dreamed of changing our world.

I know that you are tired of reading about a dream that I have yet to tell you about. I realized that I have yet to divulge the details. Mainly, because I do not know the details. Sometimes God places a fire in our bellies not to be spent immediately in flaming glory, but to grow into something that would blaze for His Glory. Sometimes He puts it in us and puts us on the shelf to teach us about Himself. I think that this dream has been on the shelf and will continue to be on the shelf for some time. But I think that I am about ready to slowly start dusting it off, shining it up, and getting it ready to be used for His Glory one day.

Oh that we would dream big. Oh that we would spend our efforts on something so much more than ourselves. Oh that our work would be for those who do not have and have not heard of the Great High Priest. Oh that we would go hard for the King, who has silenced heaven to hear our prayers. Oh that we would make big waves in the Kingdom. Oh that He would reveal Himself to us each and every day as we seek Him.