April 13, 2008

One week ago tonight I flew home from India. This morning I am sitting in a hotel room overlooking Dallas. Jill and I came here for meetings but also to celebrate a milestone moment in some of our long lived friends lives. Boy it's nice to have a day that is unspoken for. What joy in having nothing to do one time.

I recently watched the entire series called, "Band Of Brothers." It's a dramatization following the story of Easy Company in World War II. Their trials were immense begining with being dropped all over the countryside in Normandy on D-Day. They faced incredible hardship and incredible loss as time after time they were called on to serve in something mission critical.

We use war metaphors because they inspire us to find our place in the spiritual battle between good and evil and because the Kingdom of Heaven is advancing. It's not always like in the movies though. I am sure that when Easy Company was actually losing limbs to frontbite along the eastern border of Germany it didn't have the romantic film tones and heart wrenching soundtrack to go along with it.

We've just crossed the Jordan in the book of Joshua. Victory and defeat awaits us but we can't go back. In life we've done the same thing. This year is about begining to actually LIVE what the Bible SAYS. The last couple of years have been no less epic in the amount of things we've learned but this year is not just about learning, it's about living. We think of those things in romantic ways but the reality is we have to grit it out day by day at our jobs, in our homes, with our friends and families. We have dreams and passions and God is in the process of refining our hearts and lives to give us the strength and courage to step into those things but in the meantime we are here right now.

Don't make light of this time. It matters. Everything you do now affects what comes next. This is the time to become lean and mobile. This is the time to cut the bloat and fat from our lives and this is also the time to make an indellible mark on those who are influenced by us in one way or another. Pay attention to detail now. As Moses exits the stage and Joshua takes over, Moses is very careful to go into painstaking detail with the Children of Israel what the obligations of the Covenant with God are. They have to follow a certain protocol that enables them to advance.

The men of Easy Company were found religiously cleaning and checking their weapons. Dirt in the mechanisms could mean the painful and bloody end of their lives.

As we go forward into these next weeks and months (and into the Restored class) my encouragement is to pay attention to detail and actively eliminate what doesn't matter. Put everything in your life on trial for it's life.

Onward Comrades,

Brian