Matt's Blog

The the word EXAMINE usually brings a negative image to our mind.  We’re reminded of school exams we had to pull all nighters for.  Or we remember physicals where some stranger under the label of exam poked and prodded us. And who can forget the visit to the dentist where someone is way too close to your face and stretches your mouth out to examine your teeth.  However,  I’ve recently realized that you and I EXAMINE a lot everyday that is NOT negative but positive.  Think about it…

We EXAMINE our:

• Ourselves in the mirror before we leave our home
• Bank account to make sure we have $$ to spend
• Our email so we don’t miss out on communication
• Our cellphones do we don’t miss out texts or call
• Our social networks like facebook to see what others are saying
• Media such as the TV, web, or newspapers to not miss out on whatever we think is important
• Our financial investments if you have them

The truth is we spend a significant amount of time examining things.  We’ll spend time examining reviews of restaurants,  products we want to buy, and which  vacation spot is the best bargain.

However, I wonder if we miss examining the MOST important thing you and I can look at…how we lived TODAY.

The truth is each DAY get’s our BIGGEST investment of one of our most limited resources TIME…and yet how we spent that investment rarely if ever gets examined.

I’m guilty as the next person, so I’ve decide to practice a habit that will help me examine each day.  I’ve created a SHORT list of questions that I’ll put in my journal and at the end of each day I will try to answer.

• Did I listen for urgings from God and did I obey when I sense He spoke to me?
• What did I do to practically love my wife and children today?
• Did my attitude and behaviors give proof that I’m being led by the Holy Spirit?
• Did my spending of money match the teachings of Jesus?
• Do I need to forgive another person or myself
• What am I thankful to God for about today?

These are my questions…what would your questions be? I wonder is there any truth to the quote, “An unexamined life is not worth living”

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Let’s be honest…have you ever been out at a restaurant or Wal-Mart and seen someone you didn’t really want to talk to?  The person isn’t bad;  either they talk too much or you’re just tired.  So what do we do?  Well, (being honest) I pretend like I don’t SEE them and I just keep on going hoping they don’t SEE me.  That’s where the phrase  “turning a blind eye”  comes from.  That statement means you can SEE but we CHOOSE not to and act like we don’t SEE.

I was reading in my 1yr Bible this morning, and I was struck by the fact that God sees! In Genesis 29:31 it says, “When The Lord SAW that Leah was not loved…” God did something.  In Matthew 9:36 it says, “When He (Jesus) SAW the crowds He had compassion on them…” God did something.  In Psalm 11:4 it says, “He observes the sons of Men: His eyes examine them.” God does something.

Now, you might be thinking, “Duh” of course God SEES and then responds.  It’s not the fact that God SEES that struck me.  It’s the fact that 5x’s in the first 10 chapters of Genesis God reminds US that WE are made in HIS image.  And here’s the question I asked myself this morning…

Do I see and then respond, because God created me in His image or do I pretend I can’t see so I won’t be inconvenienced? I wonder how many people you and I come across everyday hope to be seen but for whatever reason we “turn a blind eye”?

On the front page of the News today is a TRAGEDY of a massive earthquake that ripped through Haiti and leveled parts of that country! I wonder how those who follow Jesus will respond? I know the economy is tight, and that we can’t do EVERYTHING, but we can do SOMETHING!

I think partnering with a great organization like “Bright Hope” (please visit their web-site) is SOMETHING all of us can do – to SEE other human beings who are also made in the image of our Creator.

May both you and I SEE well today and all of our tomorrows….

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I was at a leadership training event at Granger Community Church in Indiana when the Sr. Pastor Mark Beeson made a comment I’ll never forget.  He said, “Everybody’s 12, and adults are not different.  They want to know, ‘Who else is going?’  Or, ‘Do you like me?’  And most of all everyone wants to hear an, ‘Atta boy’ or ‘Atta girl’.”

Too be honest my first thought was cynical, but as I reflected upon my own interactions with people I realized how TRUE that statement really is!

This truth was on display yesterday.  Now before I share the very quick story you need to realize I’m a 40yr old grown man who has been married for 15yrs with a couple of kids in 4th and 5th grades and have been in full-time ministry working with people for the last 12-15yrs.

Last night my oldest daughter Leah and I had our Taekwondo class that we take together. There happened to only be a couple of people in the class, 3 to be exact including myself.  So towards the end of the class as we were practicing our kicks the instructor was being very animated and exuberant with his praise and compliments.  In almost 6 months of classes he has rarely complimented me (that might say something about my skills) but for some reason last night he include me in.  Now I know and understand why he does that for the young kids, but for adults like me?

Here’s what’s funny, I noticed myself trying harder the more he complimented me.  Not only did I try harder I realized that I really enjoyed the class more.

Now as an adult I know I’m paying the guy to give me compliments, but did that matter – NO! Then it hit me…if a grown man like me enjoys and is motivated by praise and compliments by a guy I’m paying – it just shows the POWER that genuine compliments can have on a person.

I might be wrong about this, but I do believe, “Everybody’s 12″.  I believe that ALL of us are THIRSTY for compliments.  I don’t know if it’s our culture or the time we live in but it seems to be rare that we run into people who will water our souls with kind words.   All I know is if a grown man like me is motivated by the praises of someone I’m paying, what would it look like if we FREELY and REGULARLY gave our spouses, our children, our friends, and our coworkers who are around everyday encouragement and praise.  I wonder if anyone is in need of this kind of generosity?

So maybe today or sometime this week we can all be gracious and find something TRUE about another human being who is made in the image of their creator and give them a compliment.

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I recently saw a commercial for Domino’s Pizza.  The basic point was that Domino’s realized their Pizza’s weren’t as good as they should be and they needed to make a change. But why make a change, because they know unless the customer has a BETTER experience they’ll be out of business.

This got me thinking…how many of us would like a BETTER experience out of our daily lives?  I wonder how many of us look back at past days and ask, “could they have been BETTER?”

I’m at the start again of my 1 year Bible (I highly recommend – at SouthPoint we give them away for FREE!) and I noticed something while reading the creation account in Genesis 1.

Genesis describes a DAY as:  “…there was evening, and there was morning – the first day”

I’ve always thought about a DAY starting in the morning and then ending with the evening.  A typical “American” day is up at O:dark thirty-scarf down a cup of coffee for breakfast-commute to work-work late-commute some more- if you have kids chauffeur them to wherever they need to go-eat dinner on the run-collapse on the couch-watch TV to decompress-go to bed later than you should.  Then we repeat the process over and over again, and we wonder why our EXPERIENCE of daily life isn’t better than it is?

What if we were meant to life “daily” life differently?  What if our DAY began in the evening, which sets up how we will experience the following morning? I mean what would it look like if we STARTED our day in the evening:

• What if we COMMITTED to ending our work day at a reasonable hour – so that when we show up the next day we can be at our best
• What if we took time to CONNECT with our family, friends, and loved ones even for a 1/2 to an 1hour in the evening?
• What if we (and I know this might seem radical) LIMITED the amount of evening activities for the sake of the WHOLE family.
• What if at a reasonable hour we started to PRACTICE something that clears our mind and will allows us to get a good nights sleep?
• Practices: journal about your day, read with our kid, converse with your spouse, review you schedule, make a list of things you want to accomplish 2morrow, make a gratitude list…
• What if we decided there was NO t.v. show worth being a zombie the next day? (btw-there’s a thing called a DVR now)
• What if we went to bed at an hour that would give us the NECESSARY hours our bodies need to recuperate?

What if A BETTER EXPERIENCE of daily life is simple as beginning our day in the evening?

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