Thoughts...

Some random thoughts as I spend hour 2 sitting in a line waiting to reserve a room for Greek IMPACT for NEXT semester (seriously, why is campus space this critical on a campus this large?):

Intense Determination - I confess, I haven't been the biggest Tiger Woods fan over the years. He kind of goes against my anti-popularity movement as everyone loves Tiger. Plus I've always been a big Phil Mickleson fan and you can't love Lefty and Tiger both, it's almost like liking both Duke & Carolina, IU & Purdue, anyone & the Yankees, etc. But this weekend may have changed my mind. If you watched the PGA Championship @ Medinah you probably witnessed one of the greatest individual feats in the history of solo sport. Tiger just dominated the last 2 days in a way that we should all hope to dominate in our own work settings. He was intense in his determination, his grit and his focus. He was a picture of what I wish our walks of faith looked like. Tied for the lead going into the final day, he accepted nothing less than his best effort. As he pulled away from the field, 6 strokes at one point, he still didn't back off - didn't become complacent a bit. On 16 I think it was his drive went arwy, ending his chances of a majors record 20-under-par. Tiger wasn't focused on personal glory, however, just a solid victory in the task at hand and hit two solid recovery shots to maintain his lead. You had to watch it to truly appreciate the mentality that Tiger used to channel everything he had into his game. A bad shot was a forgotten shot. A solid shot was celebrated and then moved past. His focus was so determined. Oh that we could display that same focus in our jobs, our ministries, our hobbies.

Buzz - Andy Stanley, a pastor in Atlanta, talks about creating 'buzz' as a great way to establish and maintain momentum - in a job, a ministry, a life goal, etc. As I walked on Carolina's campus yesterday I realized what this 'buzz' is all about. Thousands of students running around campus, excited to see each other, glad to be back at Carolina, nervous about coming here for the first time. There was that air of excitement that a new year brings. It was a similar buzz to one that the GI leaders demonstrated at our vision team retreat 2 weekends ago. Our leaders had such an excitement for this new season of GI. The planning was excellent, the community-building fruitful and the free time tons of fun. I truly felt the Lord was in the place that we were and that His hand was over our time together. The prayer now, of course, is maintaining the momentum we created that weekend while students basically go into 2 long and hectic weeks of rush.

Wild - The church that Kim and I have been checking out continues to totally jive with my ever-developing theology and faith life. The pastor talked about how we were basically 'born to be wild,' untamed and free in our fath. He talked about how often the church gives us a different picture of God's hopes for us - that we'd be domesticated, docile and ho hum or that we'd become freaky televangelists. He used the examples of Jesus' use of children as models for how we are to live a life of humilty, teachibility and dependibilty. Children are wild, untamed, and follow God in the simplest way possible (for more on this - check out Erwin McManus' book The Barbarian Way). THANK YOU Dr. Kelly for saying what we've been talking about in GI for years. "The glory of God is man fully alive," said St. Iraneaus in the early days, and it should be as relevant today as it was back then.

This got me thinking - all three phrases I used today - Intense Determination, Buzz and Wild - at some point have been rejected by people of faith around me as illegitamate postures for a true Christ follower to pursue. If this has happened to me, I wonder how many folks around us (especially in the south) have been turned off from the faith, or better yet domesticated, because they think they cannot pursue their passions in the name of Jesus. If Jesus did indeed "come so that you may have life and have it to the full," (John 10:10), shouldn't these words be at the forefront of how we live and act out our faith on a daily basis?