Wide Awake the Live Blog: Chapter 6

The Activist

One of the truths that J. R. R. Tolkien believed is that humans are "sub-creators."  While God is the ultimate creator of the universe He has designed us with a wonderful capacity to create in this world.  In fact to be creative is part of who we are.  Erwin McManus opens this chapter by writing; "This is both your birthright and your destiny.  To create is in your essence and is essential for living the life God created you to live" (p. 154).

Part of what it means to follow Jesus is to use our creative abilities to build for the Kingdom of God.  We are not to be selfish in how we use our talents, but we are to use them for the benefit of other people.

The world, as Paul describes it, will rob from you your uniqueness.  If you conform to it, you will lose your soul.  You will lose yourself.  To conform to Christ is to allow the One who created you to shape your character.  It is here that God begins to reclaim, redirect, and unleash your creative potential.  To conform to Christ is not to surrender your creative potential but to fully actualize it (p. 157).

Wide Awake the Live Blog: Chapter 5

The Seer

If we are going to live the life of our dreams and fulfill God's call on our lives we need to focus our intentions.  Dreams and passion might be the launching pad, but sooner or later we must use those things to create life.  That is what chapter #5 is all about.

Every great journey begins with only potential and possibilities.  What can happen as you begin to dream and imagine and open up the full spectrum of all possibilities of your future is that you end up dreaming and never living (p. 124).

As much fun it is to dream we do not want to become just another daydreamer.  In my estimation this is doing the same thing with our lives as the one talent man in Jesus' parable did with his money: hiding it in a hole for safe keeping.  To discover the life of our dreams requires that we take risks with our lives.

Wide Awake The Live Blog: Chapter 4

The Believer

It is very easy to become jaded and hard hearted on the journey to live out the calling God has placed on our hearts.  We can remember the times when the circumstances of life turned sour, when our dreams shattered, and our hopes were dashed.  The result is that we give up on our dreams and we tell ourselves that this is as good as it gets.  Life is tough and we just have to deal with it.

In chapter 4 Erwin McManus tackles this reality and reminds us that much of success depends on our outlook:

If you're going to create the life of your dreams, you're going to face a lot of failure, difficulty, and obstacles.  You're going to be informed by the world around you that you cannot accomplish what you are setting out to do or become the person you long to become.  You will be told it is impossible to accomplish the goals you long to achieve, to create the life of your dreams. 

One of the most important characteristics of people who achieve the extraordinary is they live a life of expectation--they expect the good to happen; they internalize optimism (p. 92).

Wide Awake the Live Blog: Chapter 3

The Alchemist

Very few people are able to live the life of their dreams.  I think most people have a longing in their hearts to do something meaningful, to accomplish something which will echo through eternity.  It is certainly true for me.  While I may be working with men who have a mental disability, my desire is to write books which will connect people with the Scripture and to train people to hear God's voice.

Erwin McManus begins chapter 3 by attempting to connect with this common experience in our lives.  He then goes on to write; "You can't escape that there are hopes and passions inside you, waiting to come alive" (p. 60).  Stop and consider that reality for a moment.  If money was no object and you had no responsibilities holding you in place, what would you do? Do we believe that God has the power to make our wildest dreams come true?

The life of faith is a life of mystery.  God doesn't hand us a detailed map of our lives, rather He sent Jesus and tells us to follow him.

For most of us, walking with God is a mysterious journey of faith and discovery.  I wish that  the moment we entered a relationship with Jesus, God would send us a memo that spelled out everything.  Erwin, this is what you need to do and give your life to.  Here is what you're going to be really good at, and attached is the paint-by-numbers version of how to create the life of your dreams (p. 61).

A life like this would lack faith and the vital experience of trusting God in the unknown.  It would also hinder us from taking the risk to discover the life God created us to live because everything would be just handed to us.

I like this thought:

If you're going to engage in a journey with God, if you are going to follow the God who created you, if you're going to explore mysterious, dangerous, unknown, uncertain places—then you need to know how to reinvent yourself.  You have to learn how to adapt (p. 63)

Over the last few years I have reinvented myself.  My political views have been radically changed, my understanding of Scripture has been transformed, plus I got married.  Change always occurring in life.  One of the things we must decide is whether or not we want to direct that change.

What a wonderful truth to remember; "Your circumstances do not determine your opportunities" (p. 66).  There may be all sorts of circumstances set against us, but no circumstance can complete block us from faithfully following after Jesus and the life God created us to live.  We can take initiative back and begin to live the life God created us to live.

Erwin McManus goes on to write; "Your circumstances do not equal your opportunity, because your opportunity is shaped not simply by your external factors but by the internal factors of who you choose to be and become" (p. 68).  Part of faith is choosing the path of life, the path God laid out for us to follow, rather than quitting because of the circumstances which are set against us.  Daniel and Esther, the two people he focuses on in this chapter, persevered even though deadly circumstances were staring them in the face.

This require humility.  "Part of learning to reinvent yourself is learning how to be teachable, resourceful, and flexible" (p. 70).  We are able to reinvent ourselves through the help of other people.  We should never allow our pride to get in the way of surrendering to God's will.  To become content with who we are is to establish a roadblock to becoming the person God desires us to be.  Humility helps us understand the areas of our lives that we need to change and the voices we need to listen to in order to make that change possible.

Here is an important lesson to remember; "You either adapt when you face circumstances you cannot control, or you allow them to become the boundaries of your life" (p. 72).  Obstacles, tragedies, and unforeseen circumstances make up the journey of our lives.  If we are going to rise up these things and live the life God created us to live then we have to be flexible.  We cannot allow the circumstances of our lives to hold us back, but rather we need to seek wisdom as we look for a way around those obstacles in our lives.  It is by being teachable and seeking out the guidance of other people that God will direct our paths around the roadblocks of life.

As we follow Jesus and seek to do the good works that He has created us to do we need to be teachable and we need to be resourceful:

But when you become resourceful and start pulling out the stuff God has place inside of you and start drawing on that creativity, intellect, talent, and experience that God stored within you and start becoming resourceful, then you become extraordinary and begin to develop your own uniqueness (p. 73).

Each one of us has a unique set of talents, experiences, education, and resources at our disposal.  When we allow these things just to set and collect dust all we have is potential, but when we decide to use these wonderful blessings God has given to us then we begin to influence our part of the world for God's Kingdom.

I like this; "Improvisation is not the result of shooting from the hip but knowing where you're aiming" (p. 77).  It is easy to "just wing it" because our lives are full and we don't always have time to prepare.  This isn't bad, especially when we have enough experience and resource to draw upon.  A good jazz improvisation is beautiful because of the experience and talent of the musician.  The musician knows what he is aiming at.  Improvisation and flexibility should never be an excuse to be lazy and not to prepare, for true improvisation is the result of being so prepared you are able to handle the unforeseen circumstances that come your way.

While we need to be flexible we should never surrender our identity or core beliefs.

If you want to reinvent yourself, you have to know who you are and who you long to be and not violate that on the journey.  At the same time, you must strengthen your core in order to be flexible in every other area of your life (p. 82). 

When it comes to adapting and reinventing ourselves we first need to have a firm foundation to build upon.  Several years ago when I encountered my crisis of belief and considered walking away from faith I had to come to grips with what I truly believed.  What I discovered was that at my core the belief that I never doubted was that Jesus was the Christ the Son of God and that he was killed and resurrected.  There are a lot of things I don't understand or don't know, but it was this foundation that I began to remodel my life upon and I have never looked back.  Jesus is the core of my identity and all the changes that happen in my life must fit with him.

I think this thought is a great way to bring this chapter to an end; "While our dreams may be different, and each of us has a unique path to walk, this I know is true for if Jesus Christ guides your life—your life can never be simply about you" (p. 85). What more can I say?  As we seek to reinvent ourselves and to adapt our lives to the circumstances of our lives we must constantly remember our lives are about Jesus.  He is the source of our lives and when we surrender to his will he will get us to the place he wants us to be.

Erwin McManus, Wide Awake, Thomas Nelson (2008)

Wide Awake the Live Blog: Chapter 2

The Explorer

It should bring hope and meaning to our lives to know that God has created for a purpose.  In this world there are certain things only you can do.  Like Esther in the Old Testament you were put into your situation for just such a time.  Much of faith comes down to the way we respond to the situations of life, because our response declare what we truly believe about God.

Erwin McManus opens chapter 2 by writing:

It's an inescapable reality that if we're going to live the life of our dreams, it's going to take courage, willingness to risk, to attempt, to fail, to get back up.  To live a life bigger than ourselves requires going beyond words or even thoughts; this kind of life has to be created in our imaginations. And our imaginations must be continuously fueled by an insatiable curiosity (p. 35).

What he seems to be saying is that we need to continue to have a desire to learn.  No matter what our level of education maybe, what separates those people who achieve their dreams and those who don't is a willingness to continue to learn: new ideas, new skills, new experiences.  It is this desire to learn, to explore your curiosity, that gives chapter 2 its title: The Explorer.  Are you willing to explore?

On page 39 he writes; "Unfortunately, we who build our lives on the Scriptures are at times most in danger when we conclude all we need to know is in one book so we can be ignorant of everything else."  For Christians this is a dangerous place to be.  While we do not possess the same curiosity for everything, each of us has a desire for knowledge in some area.  I want to encourage you to nurture that curiosity whether it is in economics or knitting; in engineer or gardening.  Remember all truth is God's truth and we should never be discouraged about increasing our knowledge of the world.

Part of our design as human beings is to learn:

Human beings have an unlimited learning capacity.  You've been designed by God to learn.  Now that doesn't mean you can learn everything out there, but it means that  you can learn everything you need to know to properly inform your dreams.  Curiosity is essential for life.  Curiosity is essential for learning. Curiosity keeps you exploring (p. 42).

It is easy to zone out when it comes to learning.  We have TV News shows, talk radio, and millions of internet websites to keep us "informed," but more often than not we are expecting others to feed us rather than doing the hard work of learning for ourselves.

I liked this thought, "Real genius, real invention, is not about identifying a problem but solving it" (p. 45). This has gotten my mind churning. Could it be that part of our purpose in life is to see problems and the put our energy towards developing a solution? Part of my dream has been to develop discipleship materials for churches because the problem I see are churches full of attenders and very few followers of Jesus.  This would mean that exploring for me would be to discover ways to connect church goers with the reality that God has a higher call for their lives.

You and I have to see ourselves as part of the solution; "God seems to free the oppressed, end injustice, feed the hungry, bring victory, and do every good work through men and women who refuse to surrender to the problem" (p. 46).  Since God created us with free wills means that He has given us a responsibility in the choices that we make.  We can choose, when we see evil, to ignore it, to join it, or to fight against it.  If we are going to be citizens of God's Kingdom we have to choose to fight against the kingdom of darkness.  We must do our part to bring love and light into this world.

This point of caution is essential to remember while talking about curiosity:

The Internet is a popular way to extrovert the human imagination.  We are quickly and sadly discovering how dark the human heart can be.  What begins as curiosity can fast become corruption (p. 53).

We should not indulge all of our curiosities, otherwise we can be taken to some very dark places.  We need to surrender our imaginations, our minds, and our passions to God and allow the Spirit to guide them.

To discover the life of our dreams requires that we be explorers, learners, and pilgrims in this world.

Erwin McManus, Wide Awake, Thomas Nelson (2008)

Wide Awake the Live Blog: Chapter 1

The Artist

I am back and I am finally ready to move on in Erwin McManus's book Wide Awake.

He sits up the tone for the chapter by telling a story of three people he met in Africa, and then he goes on to write:

To create a different world is both a courageous act and a creative act. Life is a work of art.  The canvas you paint first is your life.  Then your life becomes the brush from which you paint that part of the world you touch while you are here on this planet.  You are an artist.  What work of art will you leave behind (p. 4).

This idea connects with the idea that you and I are sub-creators with God.  The quality of our work begins with our character which flows out of our relationship with God.  I am reminded what the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians:

Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames (1 Corinthians 3:12-15; NLT).

The type of building material we use is determined by our character and our character is determined by our faith in God.  If our relationship God is poor or non- existence then our building materials will be poor, but if our relationship with God is on solid ground, then our materials  will be of the highest quality.

The bottom line is that God has created you and me to have a positive impact in this world by ushering in His Kingdom into our little corner of the universe.  This reality begins with the character we develop for our lives.

"There are times you have to see yourself and your future differently than everyone else. You have to be willing to dream of a life that seems unlikely or maybe even impossible" (p. 10).  When we begin to have this conversation about living our dreams and doing something big I think it is important to remind ourselves of the context.  This isn't about finding permission to pursue the dream of becoming a famous, the reality is that many who try to become famous fail because they lack the talent and resources to do so.

This talk about living the life of our dreams is about knowing the call God has placed on our lives and pursuing that even though it might not make sense to those around us.  This is the place Jenny and I are at right now in our lives.  We believe that God has placed a certain calling on our lives, but it doesn't make sense to do and financially it isn't the safe or the wise thing to do. We are often drawn away from the unknown of our call by what is safe, and in the process we miss out on what God desires to do through us.

I think this is a  vital truth for us to remember:

There are dreams we try to recruit God into, and frankly I think he looks at us and says, Not on your life.  God is not going to invest himself in a dream fueled by greed, arrogance, self-indulgence, and self-centeredness.  Jesus spent much of his influence trying to get those who would listen to change what they cared about (p. 14). 

What is important is the quality of our dreams.  It is not enough that our dreams are big, but they must also be aligned with God's character and with what He is doing in the world.  We need to take time to evaluate the quality of our dreams. Are they compatible with God or are they selfish in nature?

God only created one of you, and there is something that only you can do in this world.

"Living wide awake is about realizing that the world needs you to live up to your potential...The future needs you to dream God-sized dreams; these are the only kind God gets involved in.  And if the future needs anything, it is God working through people" (p. 19). 

Amen, and the dream of my life is to empower people to do just that, to live out the God-sized dreams of their lives. I want to help people to live out the call God has given to them.

I don't think this needs any extra commentary; "Part of the way God works in us is he begins to give us dreams of the lives we could live  or the people we could become if we would trust him and live courageously" (p. 21). When God has blessed us with a dream, now it is time to trust him and pursue it!

These are wise words as we begin the journey of fulfilling God's calling on our lives, the dreams He has placed in our hearts.

Our dreams, the ones God places inside of us, are a foretaste of our destiny.  But there is a danger of wanting that dream so badly that your're willing to sacrifice your character.  God will never sacrifice who you are for what you can accomplish.  We are in danger when " getting there" becomes the most important thing to us.  Even when you have the right dream, you can make the wrong choices (p. 22).

With God it is not just about the end results, the end never justifies the means.  This means we have to protect our character and our integrity.  Who we are matters just as much to God as fulfilling our calling.

A key thought to this chapter: "As we begin to create the life of our dreams, we must answer for ourselves perhaps the most critical question that will direct and shape our future—what are you to embrace? This is a question of passion and compassion" (p. 27).  It is essential that we take time and examine our lives.  The apostle Paul wrote; For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned (Romans 12:3; ESV). As we discover our talents, passions, and desires we begin to receive clarity about our calling and the way we can impact the world.

With this talk about living the life of our dreams the key doubt which comes up is our failure in the past.  We have doubts that we have what it takes to make our dreams become a reality.  I know that I do!

What must you face?  What fears haunt you?  What failures have marked you?  What darkness has consumed you and stolen from you, robbed from you, sucked out of your soul the dream God created you to flesh out?  Maybe there's a dream buried deep inside your soul, and God is waiting to reconstruct it, to put all the bones back together.  He is waiting to put muscle and sinew on it and wrap skin around it (p. 31).

I think for most of us the beginning of living the life of our dreams is being poor in spirit.  It is acknowledging that we don't have what it takes, that we have failed countless times in the past, and that only God has the power to help us.  We give God our doubts, fears, and worries.  We ask God to provide the courage, faith, resources, and strength.  God wants us to succeed!  He desires that we help bring His Kingdom into this world, and that means we can confidently put our trust in Him.

Erwin McManus, Wide Awake, Thomas Nelson (2008)

Wide Awake the Live Blog: Introduction

Awaken

It amazes me to think about this, but Erwin McManus has been an influence in my life for nearly a decade.  I first heard him at the National Youth Leaders Convention in 2003.  Since then I have read the majority of his books and have listened to his sermons via podcast.

So as I start this new venture of  live blogging a book it seemed like a good idea to begin with one of his books.  I will be blogging through Wide Awake, which is the one book of his that I have only read once. This is an experiment, the idea comes from Jeffery Tucker, which means I am making this up as I go along.  The plan is to read a chapter and interact with the thoughts immediately.  This should be very stream of consciousness, as something catches my attention I will take some time and jot down my thoughts. Since this is an experiment, one that I hope will be beneficial to you, I would appreciate whatever feedback you can give to me as I go through this process so I can produce something that is enjoyable for you to read.

The book begins with a few lines of dialogue from the movie Unbreakable.  These lines are used to get us to examine our lives so we can identify with the problem the book attempts to answer: waking up with sadness in our hearts.  The conclusion is that this sadness is the result of us not doing what we are created to do.

”There is nothing like feeling fully alive and dreaming wide awake" (p. xi). Rather than waking up with sadness in our hearts we should be waking up excited because we are able to live the lives of our dreams.

I wonder if this type of thinking isn't counterproductive.  There is no doubt that many of us live far below our potential.  I know that I do, but I also know that such sentiment can be very demoralizing to a person who has worked their tail off and still find themselves trapped in what seems to be a mediocre life.

”...even the best of us can find turning our dreams into reality elusive and overwhelming” (p. xii). As my wife and I begin to pursue our dreams this is the reality that I need to remember.  Just today I told Jenny that I felt overwhelmed with all that is before us.  It is good to be reminded that this is normal.

”The world needs you at your best. This planet is made better or worse by the people we choose to become” (p. xiii). I think this is an important truth to remember. It lines up perfectly with the fact that God created us to be stewards of His creation.  As we choose to follow Jesus and to influence those around us through love, truth, grace, and holiness we begin to usher in God's Kingdom and make this world a better place.

”Very few  are meant for a life of notoriety, yet all of us are meant for a life of significance.  We should never confuse fame with greatness” (p. xiv). In our fame addicted culture this is crucial to remember.  Even though I am an introvert I still long to be able to walk into a room and have people recognize me and thank me for the positive difference I have made in their lives.  I want to be famous, yet being known by thousands of people does not equate into truly influencing people.  It is through influencing people that we can truly bring positive change to the world.

”There is a future that needs to be created, and it is waiting for you and me to wake up and get out of bed.  The alarm has sounded, and it is time to shake off the slumber” (p. xv).  In the immortal words of Van Halen:

Don't wanna wait 'til tomorrow
Why put it off another day?
One by one, little problems
Build up and stand in our way, oh
One step ahead, one step behind it
Now ya gotta run to get even
Make future plans, I'll dream about yesterday, hey
Come on turn, turn this thing around
(Right now)
Hey! It's your tomorrow
(Right now)
Come on, it's everything
(Right now)
Catch your magic moment
Do it right here and now
It means everything

Right now is the time to act! If our dreams are going to become a reality we cannot put them off until tomorrow, we need to start taking the steps today that will turn them into a reality.