Just when you thought Blake Griffin couldn’t come up with a more powerful display of athleticism he does this…

I feel like a 10 year old kid again. I think I even want a Blake Griffin jersey for my birthday.

This dunk was so humiliating my friends at POTSC.com need to feature a mug shot of Kendrick Perkins.

As many have asked for a link to the talk I referenced in both my sermon on January 7-8 and in the Redemption Class I thought I would publish here once again her TED talk. Note she does use a curse word, and I disagree with her conclusion that “I am enough” unless that is in the context that we need not clean up before we submit to Jesus. The reality is that we are not enough, we need help, and Jesus is the help we need.

It has been a while since I last posted something, but I ran across this and just had to share. And it got me thinking that maybe it is time to start a magazine that shoots photos of movie stars and models without makeup, and without Photoshop. I think my daughters could benefit from such a publication. Who else might buy?

This weekend we’ll focus more on what poverty is and how we go about being forces of redemption in the midst of it. So, invite someone and come on out to HCC Saturday at 5:30pm or Sunday at 9:00am or 10:45am.

This transition video that Jon Welch put together for the two sermons I’m preaching is awesome, and I couldn’t be more proud of the voice behind it.

We often fear that enduring someone’s abusive words or actions and being willing to forgive those who participate in them against us somehow makes us weak. See if Joy’s little motivational speech changes your mind. For all of you Harmony folks the ministry she works with may sound pretty familiar.

When darkness dominates in certain parts of the world like India, Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Bosnia it is hard for those of us in the West to appreciate how long it can take to see fruit from labor. If we don’t see the “numbers” here that we tend to associate with God’s movement in a year or less it would be difficult to remain motivated as a preacher and open as a Church. In places like Bosnia people may go years without seeing the first person submit to Jesus, but numbers don’t always tell the story through the eyes of God. Faithfulness to a calling in the midst of dry seasons may eventually be what bears a tremendous harvest even while it may be decades later. As church budgets dwindle in the new world economy the temptation will be to look at the numbers when it comes to supporting missionaries. In order to make a decision other than that then prayer and reliance upon the Holy Spirit for guidance are a MUST. If you have been guilty of playing the numbers game with your church or your church budget I’d encourage you to watch this…

The time has come to be equally concerned with the quality and quantity of relationships within the Church and how the Church is doing outside. It has also come time to figure out how to measure how we are doing apart form the weekend worship attendance.

Do not watch the following story if you do not want to be made aware of the reality of sex trafficking in places like India. At the core of my being is a desire to help make a difference for the enslaved. There are 1,000,0000 children who are trafficked in India alone. To put that number in perspective that’s about 25% of the entire population of the state of Kentucky.

Now imagine being a 16 year old girl who was trafficked, was rescued and rehabilitated only to be trafficked AGAIN. Share this story with as many people as you can and most of all give to International Justice Mission.

“As for me, I am poor and needy,
but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
do not delay, O my God!” (Psalm 40:17 ESV)

LOVE WINS!

Yesterday was a GINORMOUS day! Thanks to many of you for celebrating with us. As far as the United States is concerned three children orphaned by AIDS and extreme poverty have been given a family as if it never happened.

Today I want to encourage anyone and everyone who reads my blog, sees this post on Facebook or Twitter to watch this video and ask God if one of these kids, other than our three, is supposed to be yours. Ask for a dream, like I had, or simply just begin to pray for these children that moms and dads would bring them home. Contact Jill Baker at Promise Kids A Future if interested in joining us on this adoption journey, and maybe at this time next year we’ll be attending your celebration.

November 7, 2011 may be remembered as the day the new Nook Color was announced by Barnes and Noble. It will go down; however, as the fulfillment of a dream for me, and as a testimony to the faithfulness of God my Father.

Here is where it all began:

I was a new dad, a young youth director in a mid-sized United Methodist church, and I had just gotten a new job at Lexmark to help supplement our income, and to put to work my MS in Chemistry.

Duffy Robbins was the speaker at a denominational youth even in Frankfort, and other than enjoying him I can’t remember what he had to say. Sorry Duffy.

What I do remember is walking past a table with a bunch of kids pictures on it. One of the first ministries I implemented as a youth director was sponsoring a kid through World Vision as a Youth Group. The youth would send her letters. We’d take up offerings to help cover the monthly support. I’d post her report card on the bulletin board. She eventually married at the tender age of 14 and she was from Africa.

This ministry was another child sponsorship organization called Compassion. I remember just thumbing through the packets, and eventually it hit me to see if by chance there might be a child with the same birthday as Shelbi Lynn. I felt like I was supposed to do this, but this time it was for us as a family. I made a deal with God that if there was a packet of a child with the same birthday as Shelbi, then I’d do it.

Now as the weekend went along I passed the table several times. I never found a packet with Shelbi’s birthday. On the last day the person at the booth finally asked me if I was looking for something in particular. I explained the desire for the birthday match and that there weren’t any on the table thinking she would just sigh and say, “Sorry, we can’t help you.”

Instead she pulled out a box full of other kids.

In about two minutes, there she was, Dennis (pronounced Daneese) Rafael Campos from Peru. A beautiful child, with a beautiful family, who needed Jesus, and a sponsor and I had made a deal with the LORD…

Go here for Chapter 2 “Compassion”

On Monday, as long as we find favor with the judge, three children will officially become Smiths. Over four years we have been on this journey, and there have been many significant moments in the midst of those four years as we have celebrated life and mourned death. We have expanded in some areas and retracted in others. We have simply become new, different, transformed people. We went from possibility to actuality.

In order to put in perspective what happens in four years here’s a short list:

I completed work on two Masters degrees.

We went from having four in elementary school to still having four in elementary school along with one in middle school and one in high school.

My 11 year old became a teenager, and my five year old became nine (lots of change there), and Kristi and I turned 40 (ouch).

My mother was diagnosed and the lost her battle with cancer, yet left us with a legacy of faith that will be impossible to forget.

Kristi’s grandfather lost his battle with age.

We went from adopting a boy and only a boy to a boy and two girls, from one to three.

We went from private Christian school to public school.

We went from three jobs to two, a working mom to a stay at home mom.

We went from four bedrooms to five, and from a minivan to a Suburban.

We went from none in diapers to one at night.

We went from times when the laundry hamper was empty to a perpetual laundry producing machine.

We went from having leftovers from dinner to barely having enough.

We went from three kids to six, two soccer teams to four, packing three lunches to six, from very little homework assistance to a lot, from kids who were at the top of the class to kids who are behind.

And I won’t even get into the change Kamri, Lucas, and Lilli have endured.

I stand in awe. How naive I was the morning I awoke to from a dream. All of this born out of the pursuit of a dream.

To God be the glory forever and ever, AMEN.