I was very honoured to have won a Covenant Award from the Gospel Music Assocaition of Canada last Friday night. We won Seasonal Album of the Year for a CD I co-produced called Christmas Presence. I also played a lot of the guitar on it and sang a bunch too.
It was a crazy night. It all happened very fast and left me trying to come to terms with it over the past few days. I still don’t know what to do with it! It will mean great things for both me as a producer, and for the sales of the CD. 
My father took a video of it all. You can see it here…
http://kiwirev.wordpress.com/2006/10/29/gma-covenant-awards/
If your interested in owning your own copy of the Season Album of the Year, go here…
http://studio.holytrinitycalgary.org/christmaspresence.htm
At my church, Holy Trinity, we have begun a program called the 40 Days of Purpose which is a series of devotional readings and small grouping that are spread over 40 days. The text book is the Bible and Rick Warren’s The Purpose Drive Life.
I’m not one for programs usually. I find the way they package up God to be kind of contrived. I find them kind of like the McDonalds principal of making things consistent and making sure everyone’s experience of a program is equally as life-changing as it was for the very first person. We often us business and makreting pricipals in our understanding of our Christian life and evangelism. A scary thought if you look at it. Shouldn’t it be the other way round. Shouldn’t Christians use their Christianity to affect change in their business and marketting practices rather than our business skills shaping our churches?
Anyways, thats not really the point I was after tonight. I found this very interesting quote that really jumped off the page at me today when I was reading.
“It is impossible to do everything people want you to do. You have just enough time to do God’s will. If you can’t get it all done, it means you’re trying to do more that God intended for you to do (or, possibly, that you’re watching too much television).” Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life p. 31
Doesn’t this just leave you wondering what the things are in our lives that we are desperately trying to cram into our lives that God just never intended for you to spend your time on? I’m one of the few people who actually work for a church, and I’m absolutely crazy busy almost all the time. I know I’m over doing it. I know I’m in for issues later in life if I can’t manage my time better and figure out how to do less. As a guy who tries to do just about everything I do at work as a ministry, I realize that though the things I do may LOOK Godly and necessary, if I’m too busy, then it follows that there are many tasks I take on that go against what God has intended for me. For me this could be serving on City prayer events and that kind of thing. The point is that in order for me to regulate my life, I not only have to get rid of the bad stuff that I waste time on, I also have to find the good stuff that God just never intended for me to do.
Once I identify those things, I need to walk away from them and trust that God will call someone else to them, unless He never wanted those jobs done at all. Sounds like submission and giving away control, doesn’t it. Ick. Who wants to do that?
Well, I’ve done what I thought I might do with this whole blog thing. I’ve managed to get off it because of all my other business. It’s kind of frustrating because I still have a lot of things I’d like to take the time to think/write out.
My dad is here tonight. He has meetings tomorrow. We talked for a while tonight about callings and the issues with our various ministries. Those kinds of conversations can really go one of two ways. We either uncover all our frustrations and find ourselves surrounded by them, or we inspire one another with little tid bits of good information we each can remember from books we’ve read, talks we’ve heard, and the Bible (yes, it is also a book - I know that).
One tought I had that has stuck with me surrounds our purpose in ministry. There have been a few things that come to mind about that. 1. What is in our hand? Rick Warren brought this to my attention. Whne Moses met with God, God asked him, “What is in you hand?” Moses put his staff on the ground and God turned it into a snake. When Moses picked it up again, it turned back into wood. The idea here is that when we lay what we have down, God takes it and makes it come alive. When we are seeking our purpose, perhaps we need to ask ourselves, “what is in my hand?” and then follow that with a simple prayer, “Use me”.
The other though that comes to mind is something that a friend told me just recently. He is going through some tough stuff with his business. There is a chance he might sell it or close it. The whole ordeal has left him wondering where he missed the call or the direction God had planned. What he finds is that sometimes when you get into these kinds of situations you need to ask yourself, “What was the last call I know I got from God?” Once you can answer that, consider whether you might have since stopped heeding that call - or maybe replaced that call with something you wanted more or something that was maybe more profitable in your eyes.
Perhaps in asking the questions, “What’s in my hand?” and “What was the last thing I was truly called to?”, we might be able to readjust our direction and even inject some new inspiration into our attempts at doing ministry - especially if we can actually ANSWER those questions.
