Look to the right

In Australia, when you're crossing the road you need to look to the right first because (clearly) we designed it based on being seated at the right hand of the Father to ensure you always look right first...or not, but it sounds good, hey!.

When I tried this on my first visit to New York about 15 years ago, I was nearly bowled over by a big yellow taxi. Never mind the fact looking left had the same result :)

Back on topic though

...if you look to the right of this post, you will see a funky new badge for Our Creative Community. It truly deserves being described as 'fabulous'.

Click on it and you will be taken to far-away and mysterious land where people who were somehow lacking in stuff to do decided to commit to doing more in areas that really matter to them, and remain accountable to others for that commitment.

And yes, I'm one of them.

AGH!

Since this is what I was referring to in my last post, I thought I'd post to let you know that this is actually serious - we have a badge now!

Nothing to see here

This week, I'll probably not be posting here very much.

There is one thing I need to post which will probably happen on Saturday, and that's because I signed up to the accountability/goal thingy over at inProgress.

For the rest of the week though, I'm posting daily at my Worship+ blog, which you can get to by clicking on the logo below. You should read it every week in normal circumstances anyway - it's dead good.

Australia Day

While not being the same, it's a bit like our version of Independence Day in the US.

But I'm not sure that you'd see this on national TV to endorse the celebrations.

A warning, this has some slightly blue language. Well, I think it's blue overseas...here, it's probably not...I'm not really sure, to be honest.




This campaign has been going in Australia for about 5 years now, and it never fails to crack me up. Lamb sales have increased by around a bazillion percent since it was introduced. That might be a slight exaggeration, but not much.

Interesting to note the capitalisation of the "L" in Lamb...it's because it has been trademarked down here. Though the potential for doing a Christian version of this advert is huge. Probably.

Anyway, you should check here for a much better idea of what Australia Day means to me :)

Manhood

I know, I'm a sop - my wife would wholeheartedly agree. Just see my last post for evidence.

What a great way to start a post titled 'Manhood' !

I've thought about doing a post on something more masculine, but truth be told, I'm not stereotypically masculine.

And I say that in full confidence of my masculinity, because it's much more about characteristics we find in the Bible than what the world would have us believe. Like duh...

For example, I want to be a Psalm 1 Man. Nowhere in there do I see a requirement for me to get excited about power tools/cars/sports/fishing/wrestling/guns, etc. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm just saying that for me it would be totally unnatural. And the last thing I want to be is someone I'm not - I've tried that, it's neither big nor clever.

So if I write about leadership, worship, wisdom - it's me being me, and not trying to be someone I'm not. In Christ, I have the strength to stop fighting that battle and did so a while back.

All of which means when I get a high score in this (thanks to Fred for getting me there), I'm in no way ashamed - that's who I am, no pressure. Srsly. It's all part of a pressure-free life and ministry, as Jesus Culture say.

For humans

I'm not American, but I'm human. If you are too, I don't know how this could fail to move you on some level.

And am I the only one whose mind starts racing about my heavenly Father while watching this too?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Inspired

Over the excruciatingly long history of this blog (cough, cough), the number of blogs I now visit has grown exponentially.

And my equally long history of twittering has only made it worse...or better, depending on how you look at it.

All of which has made me realise this blog is more than just a little crap looking. I always thought I'd have time to make it better as I went along, but one tweet (I think it was @joshuawhite, but I could be very wrong...so if it was you, dear reader, please let me know) made me think I don't really have that luxury ("you only have one chance to make a good first impression", or something like that).

Well, I think I've ruined that for the 20 or so people who stop by here - my most humble apologies - but as you guys have some great looking blogs and have inspired me to step it up, I'd appreciate your views on how to make this thing do a better job of shaping the (aesthetic) space. ;-)

Periphery

On Sunday night we visited ShireLive, which was great. Their opening video sequence reminded me (again) of something which has really helped shape some of my thought process recently.

For the last few years at Hillsong Conference, there has been a very effective video shown before each major session which has made a lasting impression on me. The visuals have changed each year, but the soundtrack has remained the same - and I often think about how successfully I and my church are living up to this statement:


"The church is not peripheral to the world, the world is peripheral to the church"


A statement of fact, but how well does my life line up with that? Or my church? Or my denomination? Can I say that my life reflects the reality that I am "the head and not the tail".

To be honest, while I know it's fact - sometimes I don't think I'm anywhere near close enough given the amount of influence I have in my church, work and social life. And that's more than a little bit scary. I'm not consumed by it - I think it's a healthy fear :-)


How about you? What does this statement mean for you ?

Oh. My. Goodness.

I really have no idea how it's happened. Well, OK, I do...

There was never any intention to leave it so long between posts. I guess 4 days isn't really that long, and it helps make up for the times I posted more than once per day earlier in the month, but still...

What's been "preventing" me has been has been the project that I blogged about back here. It's very contagious for me, and very boring for my long-suffering wife. But I never intended for it to stop me spending a few minutes sharing my space shaping adventures.

Today is day 2 of my new job without the predecessor being here. I've spent a considerable portion of those two days moving offices - always fun - and am now surrounded my piles of paper. I don't usually work that way - I'm generally very "filed" - so I'm a bit on edge about it.

There's been a couple of opportunities to be an influencer in the way things are done, but I'm mainly taking a 'get-along-side-and-find-out-what-makes-you-tick' approach so that when the real changes are made (and there are going to be changes, there needs to be) it comes from someone who has established relationship.

And someone prepared to say "no". That bit will be really hard. I've been reading a lot lately about leadership v management, and being able to say "no" is one of the differentiation points apparently. As long as I do this by adding God's addendum of "in love", that wisdom I and others have been praying for will be evidentiary and not just theory.

Evidentiary - I don't think I've ever had the opportunity to use that word before. I like :-) Much better than fiduciary. If more people in fiduciary roles sought to ensure there was adequate evidentiary material, the world economy may not have imploded. Oh wait, that was greed wasn't it...

How did that happen?

Where did this week go? One minute I'm posting on Tuesday and next thing I know it's Friday!

My fortnight of letting the former General Manager (old COO) download his head into mine ends today, and next week the Managing Director (CEO) and I (new COO) get into implementing some change to make the management function better suit our respective skillsets (I'm even sounding like a manager).

So I'm about to get to work shaping my (work)space. Your prayers for wisdom are greatly appreciated. The opportunity to be a living example of the Gospel in the way I manage and influence staff, customers, suppliers, and other interested parties is both invigorating and scary.




And one day, I'll learn Photoshop or something like it and make pics as cool as the ones you find on this blog ;-)

Such a little thing

Being a senior manager can be tough.  Even when you're just 7 days into the role - or should that be especially when you're just 7 days into the role.

Today, in one of my five meetings which took up around 80% of the day, while my staff downloaded one-on-one about the past and dreams for the future, eight words meant a lot to me :

"I think you will be good at this".

That made my day.

Thanks!

As I begin this week in my still-new job, I wanted to thank everyone around the world who was praying for me during the weeks leading up to this point. It's incredibly cool to know that I've got friends across the globe who are holding my future up in prayer to our Lord!

Very, very cool.

But this blog is also to apologise.

See, I actually drafted this post to put up at the beginning of last week, and I was just reviewing my posts lists during lunch and noticed I had a draft still sitting there. Of course, it wasn't one of frivolous posts like my one on cheese toast, but probably my most important ramble so far because it thanks you, my God-following readers :-)

So - thanks! I appreciate you more than these words can ever express.

I've said it before...

...and I'll probably say it again and again : I love Sundays.

Waking up and spending personal time with God, and then often turning on the computer to print out some papers for the worship team (or in this morning's case, blogging about what a great night we had last night), then fellowshipping with my church family, enjoying lunch (Italian today, and pretty good it was too) and then - during summer - spending the rest of the day soaking up the wonderful weather.

So why am I in here blogging?  Well, truth be told, I'm actually nearly outside on our balcony having almost been out there dozing on the deck.  But since I'm now about to get started on some more songwriting/arranging/recording, I thought I'd just pop in here quickly to share how blessed a day I've been having.

If you've had some less-than-perfect days lately (and we all do - I was there myself not too long ago at all), just remember that God has plans for you - plans for good and not disaster, plans to give you a future and a hope!  Jeremiah 29:11

In a hopeless world, in Christ I have hope - yet another reason to never stop praising Him.

Summer

I love all seasons, but obviously for very different reasons.  One thing I love about summer is the proliferation of outdoor cinemas that open across the parks and other outdoor spaces in Sydney.

Some show new releases, serve champagne, and are set up with their own low-chairs...and basically cost as much as going to a regular cinema in Gold Class.

Others, like the one at Sydney Olympic Park, are free family events, attracting many thousands of people to see movies from the past year or so.  For us, it has the added attraction of being very very close to home and we can take our picnic blanket and wander over to enjoy a good film on a huge screen with a big crowd.  It's totally cool, and I particularly enjoyed the walk home last night with my wonderful wife.

And since the film last night was WALL-E, that was even more brilliant.

This photo is more modern art than photography, but it's a picture of WALL-E as he was collecting rubbish near the start of the film.  No really, it is.

Now, how to get as many people / families to come to an outdoor church service?...hmmmmm

A Good Day

You know how some days begin well, progress well, peak early, maintain the high (like walking on a ridge), then stay there right through to the end?

No? Just me then?

Well, today was one of those days. Nothing mind-blowing, but "A Good Day".

Selected highlights:

1. The flexibility in my new job came to the fore today when I took 3 hours off in the middle of the day to meet with my pastor and get my sadly neglected hair cut...my fringe was half way down my cheek, and considering I'm a short(ish) hair person, that's pretty bad methinks.

2. Talking of the job, I'm loving that I have the space to take in all the minutae from the outgoing person, create goals and plans for change that is both needed and wanted, and generally being able to ease into the role - rather than being dropped in the deep end.

3. An opportunity for further creativity has come up that I'm excited about, but I have to share with some others before I blog more.

Meanwhile, my wife and I are believing for a house where we can "increase the scope" of our hospitality to our church and beyond. We are taught to speak out the dreams God has placed in our hearts, so we are, even when it feels a little selfish. I'm going one step further and blogging about it here too! At the moment, it feels like a dream, but in many ways it feels closer than we can fathom as well. We'd have some serious praying to do as we removed the Buddha statues if this was the one though ;-)

That's it then. A Good Day = A God Day.

"It won't be long before this generous God who has great plans for us in Christ—eternal and glorious plans they are!—will have you put together and on your feet for good. He gets the last word; yes, he does." 1 Peter 5:10, 11 - The Message

Wow

So work is going well...it's still only day 3, so it should be really, shouldn't it. Lots of new stuff, even though I'm very familiar with so much of the place.

But the real highlight you can read about here.

That's all :-)

Creativity

These past few months have been a bit of a selah for me. Learning to listen more closely to God, to place all my trust in Him and none in me, to deal with life's removables.

It has hurt.

Yet it has also been one of the most fulfilling periods of life. The pain has drawn my wife and I closer together. The stripping has made me love God even more.

As I posted yesterday, He's the Master of surprises!

So this year, I'm going to complete something I've had on my heart for a very long time, but lacked the confidence, will, time, insertexcusehere to do.

But I have decided (I have resolved) that it doesn't matter if no-one else cares about it. It's for God first and foremost. Sure I believe it can and will be a blessing to others as well, and will just be the very start of an exciting journey. But isn't it enough that it glorifies God and is my personal gift for Him?

That last bit I'm not totally sure about. More later...and do let me know your thoughts in the meantime.

In the Beginning

Today, the first Monday of 2009, began like most other days in Australia. The sun rose into a clear blue sky, the birds began singing, the cat blinkingly looked at me as I got out of bed, and my wonderful wife slept on beautifully.

Nothing out of the ordinary. And nothing like Escher's interpretation of day two of creation over there. But what a great picture!

What was out of the ordinary was that for the first time in 4 months, I got ready to go to work. Sure, I'd done a bit of that in the intervening period, but generally the appointments I had were scattered throughout the day and evening, rarely early.

Today was different.

Except it wasn't. You see, the place I was going to work I already knew very very well. Probably very very very well. In fact, I'd worked there before.

Up until 4 months ago actually.

What the???

The sequence of events is too long and complicated to go into here. In fact, this post is already longer than I'd intended, but you've possibly worked out I suffer from typarrhoea by this stage anyway. Suffice to say that God worked some amazing miracles to bring it all about. With a significant pay rise, and totally new role - I'm now the General Manager (which would be the Chief Operating Officer if I was in corporate USA rather than Australia ;-)

I did say it was weird, huh! Our God certainly is the Master of surprises ;-)

A Great Day...

...in God's House.  I love worship services.  I love my personal time with God too, but I love coming together with my church family and corporately worshipping.  Unfortunately, my wonderful wife was ill and couldn't make it, which always feels weird, but praise God she's on the mend !

Refreshing, powerful, humbling, beautiful, awesome, mighty, real.  All these words come to mind when I reflect on worship today.  His people reached out, He came.

I have decided, I have resolved to wait upon You Lord.

My Rock and Redeemer, Shield and reward

I'll wait upon You Lord.

As surely as the sun will rise You'll come to us,

Certain as the dawn appears.

You'll come, let Your glory fall as You respond to us.

Spirit rain, flood into our thirsty hearts again.

You'll come, You'll come.

Brooke Fraser/Hillsong, 2008

Fun with Cheese

I know I've already blogged today, and I told myself when I started this that I'd only post once per day.  I'm glad I didn't publicize that though (oops...too late...), since after 3 days I've already "broken the rules" twice.

Anyway, there's a really good reason.  After the D&M nature of the posts so far, this one is much more fun, but still within my blog's BHAG ** ;-)

Today, my wonderful wife casually stated she needed some of my cheese on toast.  I wasn't eating anything at the time, and it took me a while to work out that what she meant was the way I make cheese on toast.

By this stage, you're likely asking yourself what on earth could be so great about the way I make cheese on toast.  Well, I'm here to tell you it is pretty special.  Really.  And yes, I realise this isn't a food blog, but my wife and I are fairly food oriented, so it was always going to make its way in here at some point.

We also often have heaps of fun together when we are either cooking, eating or attempting to clean the kitchen.  I say attempting, because it often turns into a ballroom dancing 'spectacular' (I use the word loosely) rather than getting the kitchen cleaned...

David's Cheese on Toast

1. Toast one or two slices of thick cut wholemeal or wholegrain bread.

2. Spread with cream cheese.  Preferably, use a low-fat version.  Firstly, it's better for you.  Secondly, it actually tastes better for cheese on toast.  No, really...

3. After you've spread the cream cheese, in much the same way as you would spread butter (like, duh), spread another layer of cream cheese.  It should now be all the way to edge of the toast, and fairly thickly spread too.

4. Choose your favourite "evil" cheese.  Usually something really mature and crumbly.  I particularly like using a vintage pickled onion cheese.  But it can also be fun to try things like double cream brie, or chili camembert, or gruyere, or emmental, or even a good fresh parmesan.  So many options, so little time...

5. Slice a thin layer of the evil cheese onto the cream cheese covered toast.

6. Using a good low-fat cheddar, top with thick slices that cover whole of the bread.  No crust should be showing, or it will get burnt.  Again, the low fat cheese melts better for cheese on toast - if you're doing it properly that is, which is slowly.  Of course, this is all my opinion...but it's my blog after all.

7. Put it under your grill.  Make sure it's on a fairly low rack so it doesn't get too brown before all that lovely cheese has had a chance to really melt together.  It should take between 4 and 7 minutes depending on your grill, I'd think.

8. When golden brown and bubbling, remove from the grill and allow to sit for around a minute or two.  This will allow the cheese on top to just start to 'set' a little bit again.  Again, this is vital in my opinion.  If you think otherwise, "it's your funeral"... as 'they' say.  I'm not sure who they are, but they do. Apparently.

9.  Eat.  Be careful not to burn your tongue.  I'd also advise not giving in to temptation by having more than 2 slices.  Even with all that low fat cheese, your body will not be happy.

10. Leave any left over cheese out until it turns blue.  OK, so it's a weak link back to "moulding my world", but it's close to midnight and I should be getting to bed.  Tomorrow is Sunday, and Sunday's are great!

**  ask me if you (a) have no idea what that is and (b) don't want to search my previous posts to find out.  ie: you're lazy...

Weird

Today feels weird.  A bit like this house.

Yes, I realise I've only been up for a short amount of time and it's probably too early to make that assessment...and it might have something to do with the fact that I live in the middle of a city of over 4 million people, and yet at 9.00am it is still unusually quiet.

I think I know the real reason why today feels weird though.

For the past 4 months, I've been self-employed. What this really means is that I've been unemployed, but with God still providing me with a level of income which exceeded (far exceeded) unemployment benefits, but which hasn't been enough to actually meet all our commitments (mortgageandallthatotherstuff).

Ouch.

The thing that impacted me more than not having enough, was that my tithe reduced. Even though we didn't have enough to pay what we needed to pay, we still had to give God His portion first...and I didn't like the fact that His portion was now so small.

But today is the last day of the last week of that season. Tomorrow is a new week, new worship, new fellowship, new opportunity, and then Monday is the start of my new job - which is a whole other story.   Hopefully life will all feel a bit less like this house then : I mean, it looks well built, with solid foundations, but something's just not quite right about it.

Something that changed my life...

With a title like that, you'll be expecting something much grander than what follows...but this truly has changed my world.

Admittedly, not in the same way as what Jesus has done and is doing for me, and not in the same way as being husband to the world's most wonderful woman either, but still...

This line links to a website has Java-platform Bibles to download...most of them free...

Yes...you read that right...a website allowing Java downloads of lots of Bibles has changed my life.

I guess it's not quite as ridiculous as it sounds - it is the Word of God after all. What makes this one special is just how usable it is. I've got a Nokia E71 (which is a whole other life-changing thing, and I recommend to anyone who likes the concept of Blackberrys without actually liking the reality, and thinks the iPhone just isn't up to scratch for typing) which isn't noted as a supported phone on the site. But if your phone allows Java applications (and many do), this Bible is brilliant.

Now, there's lots of KJV & NKJV Bibles available for various phone platforms, and plenty of audio versions for MP3 players too, but since this isn't a techie blog I'm not going into all of that (and I don't pretend to understand most of it anyway)...but this site includes translations and transliterations like The Message and the Amplified. As I said before, Brilliant!

So - change your life and put the Bible on your phone. Just remember to read it too of course, so no matter where you are or what you're doing (except maybe swimming) you can have God's Word right at your fingertips - searchable, bookmarkable, unchanging, true.

Effective

It's only a few hours old, but I know this year is going to bring something new in a way I've never experienced, and I know that extends way beyond me.

2008 also brought plenty of new things : some of which I was prepared for, some not.  Some were "nice", some were not.  Some were scary, some were not.  All have helped to shape where I am today - the very beginning of a brand new year.

This year, no matter what it brings, I want to be more effective:

- effective as husband

- effective as minister

- effective as servant

- effective as manager

- effective as friend

- effective as child

...there's undoubtedly more to add to that list.

The best way to be effective is for me to be making the BHAG** of this blog happen - to mould the world I live in, to shape this space - by God being reflected in everything coming out of me by thought, word, deed; by the Holy Spirit's power being my every breath; by Jesus' testimony being my testimony as I become more like Him.

Lofty goals maybe.  But what good is a mediocre life?  And in reality, these are not goals in and of themselves; they are the boundaries within which all my goals need to fit...and I don't mean sitting somewhere near the bottom left corner of the huge space these boundaries keep...I mean pushing right up to the edges, overflowing.  I have some work to do !

"For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power (making it active, operative, energizing and effective); it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (the soul) and (the immortal) spirit, and of joints and marrow (of the deepest parts of our nature), exposing (and) sifting (and) analyzing (and) judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart."       Hebrews 4:12    Amplified Bible

**BHAG = big, hairy, audacious goal ;-)

The time is now...

"A time will come when true worshippers will worship God in spirit and in truth...

...the time is now."    paraphrased from John 4:23, The Message

This blog has been a long time in the making.

I've thought about blogging for years, but I never thought I had anything to say that was really worthwhile - not that needed to be broadcast into the blogosphere anyway.

Just recently though, some of the seed that God has planted in my mind has been getting more water and fertiliser, and I can now see just a little more clearly what the crop looks like - but there is still a lot to be revealed.

Hopefully, what I write here will do it (and Him) justice.

So to get started - one of my favourite ever lyrics from one of my favourite ever singers.  It's one of my favourite ever songs really:  Kevin Max "Shaping Space", which obviously has inspired the name of this blog.  I was really saddened when Kevin's solo career just didn't happen (well, not in the way it deserved to), and to read about all the personal turmoil he endured 'back in the day'.  But I love that God uses the most fallible of humans for his greatest works, as so often they (we) are the most malleable.  Just look at all the stuff-ups that Abraham, David and Solomon did, just for starters!  Yet it's their steadfast faith we remember - not the failings of their human frailty.  God's grace is absolutely amazing!  And it gives me great great comfort.

And they said we wouldn't last
And they said the years would break our backs
So here we are again my friend
To mystify their narrow plans

You and I were meant to be
Much more than they could see
You and I are made to stay
As they waste away

We are shaping the space
And harvesting places
We're the princes of the universe
We are living together
In the here-everafter
In the temple of the evening Son
We're the princes of the universe

It's a prophecy of long ago
It's a blueprint for the journey home
And we're writing as we stumble on
Making history to build upon

You and I were meant to be
Much more than they could see
You and I are made to stay
As they waste away

We are shaping the space
And harvesting places
We're the princes of the universe
We are living together
In the here-everafter
In the temple of the evening Son
We're the princes of the universe

And the raven in the towerclock
Spins poetry and devil talk,

And the woman by the endless well

She's drawing water from the mouth of hell

"And these are the days", she says...