Chris's Musings

I was looking through my Estonia short term trip preparation thoughts the other day, and ran into this blog that I wrote back in 2008... I hope you are encouraged and challenged by it. ---------------- This morning as I am sitting down to have my quiet time (and) to also prepare for my small group discussion on Ephesians, God showed me something really cool.   I thought I would share :).  We are, this week, in Ephesians 4:1-16, where Paul is transitioning from (in my honest opinion) one of the best descriptors of our high calling, position, and value in Christ into the practical "how do you apply this in your world?" section.  This should be a cool section, because we as guys are into action even though I love the "look at who you really are" stuff :). So, I'm reading through this section and I get to verse 7, which says:  "But to each one of us  grace  has been given as Christ apportioned it..." And then describes our calling to be unified and t...

Yesterday, I got into a conversation with some friends about Passion 2011 and a couple of talks in particular.  They happen to be from people who have influenced me a lot... namely John Piper and Francis Chan. I hadn't stopped to listen to Piper's talk from Passion this year and had some margin today, so I downloaded it from the All Access site and watched it today.  It may.  have.  been.  one.  of.  the.  best.  talks.  I.  have.  ever.  heard.  from.  him. Seriously. Now, what really got me tuned in was how he introduced this idea of what ranks higher?  God's making much of us, and God's (and ours) making much of God?  It comes down to joy, what makes us happy? Have you ever really thought about what, at your core, makes you happy? What was really cool about this talk is that Piper pulled out a technique that I learned in a Market Research class in MBA school called "needs-value analysis" to...

You know it's rarely a good sign when people get creative with your company brand :-) I'm on a Delta flight, leaving an hour and a half late (fortunately not as late as other Delta flights here), and when I put a comment on my Facebook wall about "what's up with the Delta delays?" a guy that I worked with during my road warrior work days commented with... Don't you know Delta stands for D oesn't E ver L eave T he A irport? And then another friend commented with... D on't E xpect L uggage T o A rrive. For someone who has endured long delays and has had my luggage lost... not once, not twice, but at least three times by this airline, I had to laugh.  Why?  Because I've experienced this... it's pretty true. Being a marketing professional by training and trade, this intrigues me a lot, because you know that Delta isn't really trying to get this type of publicity and their PR department isn't exactly pumping out this message.  Ho...

This morning, working out at the hotel gym where I'm staying, I caught a little banter that the guys on the financial channel were throwing out for today's Ash Wednesday "so,what are you giving up for Lent this year?" conversation.  Somehow, I caught this little exchange and was a little surprised that the guy who "apparently" observed Lent said that he was giving up watermelon this year.  In fact, he said, he gives up watermelon every year. The other commentator bantered back, "that's not much of a sacrifice."  To which Mr. Watermelon replied with something like "perhaps next year I'll give up something else." Now, I'm not Catholic nor do I prescribe to a ritualistic religion of works, rather an embracing of the grace Jesus offers to us through the cross.  However, I do think there's something cool about the idea of sacrificing something during the 40 days preceding Easter.  I'm not so sure about watermelon, thoug...

small group. great talk. Luke 17. Bell video. Controversial?  Yes! left late. good sign. Monroe drive. clueless girl. Left turn. Smack hard. Airbags work. Car.  Trashed. Neighbors came. Police too. Feeling dizzy. Strapped down. Texting from. Ambulance board. Checked out. Friend came. Mo  Trin! home working. story shared. scarier in. Hindsight yes. had to. Get keys. From inpound. So Baby Would rebound.  (okay, there's a little rhyme in there) Ride to. Buckhead Towing Sketch.  Yeah. Very  Sketch. Key dropped. Oh no! Prayed hard. God.  Help! Interrupted friend. Made call. Explained oddness. Let in. Richard escorted. Cat greeted. very pissed. No, literally. She pissed. Chris cleaned. Ride laughed. Cat inspected. Lysol rocks. Eat Chikin. Chill out. Write blog. Pack bag. Colorado.   Tomorrow. Chris.  Out.