How to Discover Your Story
When I was in grad school one of my classes had us do this exercise. I found it so helpful and insightful that I thought I'd share. First take a piece and draw a large rectangle, covering most of the page. On the left side write, "born", and on the right side write, "now". Then by the top of the left vertical line write, "good", and on the bottom write, "bad." Now, plot your life up to this point. You can start by making dots representing the major high points and low points of your life. This can include things ...
Dear Younger David #1
My First Entry I've been journaling almost everyday ever since I was in tenth grade. What you’re about to read is part of my first official journal entry from 10th grade! I recently starting reading back through my journals and found there are many things I wish I could have told myself back then. So, I’m going to share a few of my entries along with my present day response to them. Background A little bit about me. My father died when I was in third grade from Leukemia. After 8th grade my mom decided to move us to VA. to ...
4 Steps to Using Your Past for God
The R.E.M. song is true- everybody hurts. Everyone has a story of some storm they’ve been through in life. I’m on a team teaching a class right now called GIFTED and this past week we talked about how God can use our experiences. Everyone worked though an exercise where they charted their biggest life experiences. (I’ll share the exercise in another post.) As people sat there, examining their life on paper, we explained that God can use your life experiences. Your greatest passions probably stem from the biggest moments of your life, this includes your moments of joy, but also ...
Stuff My Kids Say
Stuff My Kids Say Kids are a lot like salt. Salt can take almost any boring food and make it taste better and more interesting. When you have kids your day is never boring. Exhausting? Yes. But never boring. Over the last few weeks I've been keeping track of some of the weird things my kids say and I thought I'd share. For perspective: Caleb- Age 7 Logan- Age 5 Micah- Age 2 Dad- Hard to say Wife- Ageless The Weird Things We Say: 1. Dad: "Micah, please take the fork out of your eye." 2. Dad: "Logan, please don't ...
Personality Matters in Leading Your Team
Blindspots A few weeks ago I wrote a post about 4 quadrants of our life representing our public persona, secrets, blindspots, and potential. You can read it here. If we want to grow as a leader, we need to attack our blindspots (things everyone knows about us that we don't know about ourselves). One way we can decrease our blindspots is by learning more about ourselves. Earlier this week I asked a group of our leaders to take a simple personality test. It's actually one of the most simple tests out there. You can find it here. Also here's an even more ...
The Most Important Thing I Learned from a Life-Sized Singing Songbook
A Singing Songbook Memories are a funny thing. Growing up there were probably toys you played with or shows you watched you thought were the coolest. But, now when you go back and see those same toys or shows, they seem ridiculous. I grew up listening to tapes starring a giant, blue, singing songbook named Psalty. He helped teach kids about God through song. The tapes about Psalty are still great, but the movies are another story. A man with a blue afro, wearing more makeup than the Ronald Mcdonald clown, while sporting a big blue book costume and singing ...
David: The True Story?
We shared this video on Sunday, talking about my life story. My really real, not made up life story. Enjoy. https://youtu.be/E3byhKo-waE I hope you enjoyed my really really real, not made up or exaggerated life story.
How Blind Spots and Boogers Can Better Your Leadership
That Song Have you ever heard a song on the radio and then had that song stuck in your head the rest of the day?! You can't shake it, and without warning you begin singing it quietly to yourself out loud. Pretty soon everyone around you has it stuck in their head as it spread like a melodic virus! Something like this happened to me a few week ago, except not with music, but an idea. At our staff meeting one Monday morning, a church planter named Scot shared a personal development tool which divides our life into four quadrants. Ever since ...
Gideon: The Time Music and Candles Won a War
A few weeks ago I spent two weeks talking about how God used an ordinary man named Gideon to save the nation of Israel. If you're facing an impossible circumstance right now, this series is for you. Enjoy. Click the links to listen: GIDEON: part 1 GIDEON: part 2 EXTRA MATERIAL: Here's some stuff I wasn't able to share in my sermon. Here's where the battle most likely took place. The Israelites were up in the mountains with the Midianites down below in the valley. Here's a picture of what the Israelites were up against: Thinning the men round 2: ...
When Faith Feels Like the Hamster Wheel to Nowhere
Rainbows and Leprechauns Growing up, I used to love hearing stories about leprechauns and their hidden gold held at the end of a rainbow. I admit, there are times today when I’ll see a well-formed rainbow and only the adult pressure of responsibility keeps me from throwing caution to the wind and trying to find the end of the rainbow. It’s not that I actually expect to find the end or gold, but there’s still that little boy inside wanting to try. Now, I know that finding the end of a rainbow is impossible. No matter how fast or far ...