Temperamental anyone?

Wow… just finished our last sermon series at Mavuno, ‘Players of The Bible’, and Pst. Linda did a phenomenal job! It was great to see that people in biblical times faced very contemporary issues e.g. a sexual advances by the boss, using sex to get what I need etc. She did a weekly ‘talk show’ with a team of 4 panelists whose job description was to keep it real. As one lady who was visiting from another church said to me this past Sunday, ‘I still can’t believe they said such things in church!’ If you didn’t get a chance to hear it or would like to order it for a friend, the complete series should be available on CD at the Mavuno dome this coming Sunday.

Hard to believe August is already here! And with it the beginning of a new series, ‘The Dark Side of Greatness’. The plan is to explore our different temperaments, their strengths and their shadow sides. Not something I’ve heard many sermons on before. But the applications are endless. I believe it will help us all better understand ourselves and what kind of leaders we are becoming. We’ll also understand how to be better parents, bosses, employees, siblings etc. Should be interesting… And hopefully life-changing!

And speaking of temperaments, here’s a great quote for people who share mine.

"I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to."

Sort of reminds me of the old Kenya one that goes, ‘Never argue with a fool… people might not notice the difference.’ I find this rather hard to do! It’s so much easier to prove to the other person how wrong they are and how right I am. That I too am an intelligent human being. With a valid and educated opinion. But by God’s grace, I’m learning to pick my fights wisely: To ask ‘what is really at stake here?’ And to know that when I’m truly secure in who I am, it’s not a sign of weakness to choose to walk away. Can you guess what temperament I am?

Have a great week!

Friends

I had a great time this weekend at the launch of the International Christian Center (ICC) launch of their brand new 15 acre Imara campus. Having just been through our own launch a little while back, I was well placed to appreciate the remarkable work that had gone into setting up. It was an action & emotion packed service and judging from the over 4000 who showed up + ICC’s great history of involvement in their community, I predict the Villa/Imara area will never be the same again. Kudos to our sister-church ICC and to my good friend Pst. Philip Kitoto on a job well done.

And speaking of friends, I read this quote recently…

"Real friends are those who, when you feel you've made a fool of yourself, don't feel you've done a permanent job"

I spoke with one of my friends this week on several guys we know whose marriages have hit a wall. These are people who have loved and served God and had what seemed to be great marriages. And yet after many years together, their wives suddenly (at least to us) left them and moved on to other pursuits. The sad thing for each of these couples is that no one was close enough to them to see it coming.

In the career-building phase of life that so many of us are in, it’s so easy to focus on work at the expense of relationships. And to slowly find that we end up with no real friends. People who can ask us difficult questions. Who can challenge our decisions, not to hold us back but because they have our back.

It sometimes feels like work at this stage to build friends; much easier to be surrounded by colleagues, acquaintances and admirers, aka ‘mafans’. And yet Carol & I are learning that we need to slow down enough to make time for our friends. Because if and when the going gets tough, we’ll be glad we did.

Time Off

Taking it slow this week to work on sermon prep and also think. Am amazed how much of my work is taken up by just thinking! Quite a few good things going on at Mavuno over the last couple of months...

• The energy every time we meet on Sundays is incredible. A tangible sense of anticipation is in the air. And God has graciously chosen to check in every time we've met
• Lots of life change going on. Last Sunday's challenge was to men to stop being 'players' and to live responsible lives in regards to our relationships with the ladies. The response was overwhelming. Lots of great individual stories... very exciting!
  
• We've had over 200 sign up for Mizizi ~ our intro course to Mavuno which also doubles as our Christianity 101 experience!

Exciting days. Now if only I didn't have to take time off to think!

Meet Joe Black

Brushed up my eulogy yesterday… yep, that’s right. The way I figure it, preparation is almost never a bad thing. I’ve spend gobs of time during my lifetime preparing for my career, my wedding, my retirement etc. But none of those is (or was at the time anyway) a certainty. You know the saying thought, that there are two things in life that are certain; death and taxes. With a good tax-consultant, you can avoid the latter category some (with a bad one even evade it, though at considerable personal risk). But no one has yet figured out how to cheat Joe Black.

And so I opened the doc and revised it. Changed the songs I want sang… Changed who I want to read the vote of thanks… Changed the title of my eulogy… Ok, I know; all this sounds a trifle bit controlling! I didn’t write the sermon or the eulogy though (even though I was tempted J) And I didn’t define when people should applaud, gently wipe a tear or say ‘aaaahhh’ in appreciation. I figure I might as well live my life in such a way that those who speak will say the kind of things I hope they will.

I guess all this sounds rather morbid. And decidedly un-African. But life is not a rehearsal. We need to live every day like it’s our last: Because it might very well be. And like someone whom I can’t remember just now once said, ‘when it’s time to die, make sure the only thing you’ve got left to do is die’.

I love the way the bible puts it… ‘You learn more at a funeral than at a feast – After all, that’s where we’ll all end up. We might discover something from it’ (Ecclesiastes 7:2)

What you think you own is simply yours on loan. You were made by God and for God and life won’t make sense until you discover and live out why.