Ten Minute Poem Winners!

So I have been busier than normal. Sorry for not announcing these sooner! My bad.

I asked several friends to help me judge the entries by submitting poems they liked. Then one pushed back with a good point. The idea wasn't to make a great poem, but simply to write a poem in 10 minutes! In other words, you get an "A" just for participating.

So what to do to find the winners? We selected three numbers at random and selected the corresponding poem . Here are the three that won. If you wrote a winning poem, be sure to send me your mailing address so I can send you your winning loot.

And now ... (drum roll please) .. the winners are (cymbals crash)

Emily , The Demise of Indulgence, and Leah Nicholle!

Congratulations to all our winners and to everyone who took time to create a moment in 10 minutes by writing a poem!

The winning poems are listed below. You can see the others here.

Blue
Fades to gray
As clouds appear

And the rain

Begins to fall
Down, down…
Tumbling from the sky
Streaming down my face
Through my hair

I can feel

The coldness
The wetness

The freedom
And I wish
For it to never
Stop.

But
Then ends comes
As it
Always does
And the rain
Stops.

Gray
Fades to blue
As the clouds
Disappear

And the colors
Begin to show
Brighter, brighter
Across the sky

Streaming across the sky
Around the sun

I can feel

The warmth
The glow

The freedom

And I wish
For it to never
Stop.

-- Emily


In this life, the one that we're living,
Are we all about taking?
or should we be about giving?
We need to despise, the demise, of this compromise,
We need to embrace, every race, every face, of every man,
We need to go in with a battle plan,
there's only one hope, one love, we all share,
Whether someone is sad, mad, or glad,
We all have emotions; we all have feelings.
Each one has their own flavor, don't waiver, do all men a favor.
Whether it's just a smile, a grin,let love get the win.
Let's not be so fake, we need not to forsake.
Do unto others as you would do to yourself.
There are two choices waiting for you on the shelf.
Which will you choose? Giving to others,
or pleasing yourself?
Doing something little, is better than nothing at all.
Picking someone up and not letting them fall.
For until we do good to all people,
we're the ones that need help.

-- The Demise of Indulgence


Insecurities

Tonight God is teaching her to dance
oh the angels are watching
How great the love of the Father for his daughter
He pulls her close
He spins her around
Tonight He's teaching her she's precious in His eyes
As He takes her for a dip
her foot slips
She pulls away
Full of insecurities
Wondering if anyone saw her mistake
Losing her focus
She walks away
But little did she know
He was there
Ready to carry her through
He wasn't going to let go
So He went briskly to her side
And He looks her in the eye
He calls her his princess
and takes her breath away
She takes His hand once again
And they dance the night away

--Leah Nicholle

Wisdom On ... The Future

I'll be posting the winners of 10 Minute Poem Week later this week. Today, I have a Facebook question I thought I'd share along with my response. If you have any advice for Logan, please leave a comment.

hey mark im a freshman in high school and lately i have felt like god has really been trying to tell me he wants me to do his work for a living after high school and college but I'm not sure what he wants me to do but i know he wants me to help with his work in spreading his word. do you have any advise for me considering you probably went through the same thing at one point in your life? - Logan

Here is my response:

Hi Logan!

I went into college with the exact same feeling. I wasn't sure what God wanted me to do specifically, but I somehow felt ministry might be the path. The best advice I can pass on comes from Jesus in Matthew 6:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I have met many people around the country that are stuck, waiting for God to use them in the future when God has plans for them today. God gives us something to do today! There isn't ONLY something waiting in the future, we are to seek Him and the Kingdom now, today. And when you are obedient today it will lead to the place God wants you to be tomorrow. We don't know what will come tomorrow (or whether we will even be here).

When I look back on my life, I can trace my current place in ministry back to specific moments of obedience to live for God in the "now". I NEVER would have jumped on a path that led to doing conferences with teenagers but daily decisions to serve God in the "now" led me to the "now" I am in today. Make sense?

So I would encourage you to look around today and see how you can be an ambassador for God TODAY. Tomorrow will take care itself.

Mark

2009 Ten Minute Poem Week

It's back! The week where we create poems in 10 minutes or less.

Not familiar? Here's the basic idea.

God has made us to be creative but all too often we take our creativity too seriously and we don't create at all!

Here is how it works: Forget your lack of poetic instincts and write a poem in 10 minutes or less.

This is not designed to be a lengthy soul searching experience. Simply write a poem in 10 minutes and post it here. You can enter as many times as you'd like. At the end of the week, I'll pick a few of my favorites and send you some valuable prizes and gifts (probably books signed by me and some PlanetWisdom gear.) The prizes aren't half as good as the fun you'll have creating and sharing something from scratch!

You in? You've got 10 minutes... Go!

Here's the link to last year's contest if you're interested, but write your poem first!

Does Your Church Smell?

This past Thanksgiving dinner my cousin Connor, who has autism, was able to sit at the table with us during mealtime for the first time. It was a very special moment for all of us. Typically Connor runs around the backyard during our family gatherings and my aunt and uncle spend most of their time following him.

Not so this year. Connor has been in a program that has led to some incredible changes in his social behavior that were so impressive and amazing to witness. He even interacted with me in ways I hadn't experienced since his infancy before the signs of autism began to show.

At one moment he gave me a big wet, open mouth kiss (his mouth was open mine was not!) and then gave my brother Josh a big embrace as we sat on the couch. Surprising as that was, he then stood up, said some words in "Connor speak" (which I have not yet learned to interpret) then blurted the word "CHURCH".

I was totally shocked. Both my brother and I are ordained ministers, my brother is a senior pastor. Had Connor sensed our involvment in ministry?

He looked at his mom, spoke the words only she could understand and then blurted out the word "CHURCH" once again pointing at my brother on the couch.

My aunt laughed and translated, "Connor says you smell like our church. Connor loves church*."

I laughed kind of wondering what "church" smelled like.

That reminded me of a passage in the second letter to the church of Corinth:

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? (2 Corinthians 2:14-16)

So...What does your church smell like?


* [Side note] I was kind of surprised that my aunt and uncle were attending church. Ever since Conner was diagnosed with autism it had been very difficult for them to be part of a faith community. My aunt explained that their church has a ministry to families with special needs, which provides people to watch Connor so they can participate too. This ministry has made a significant difference in their lives. Now that is a church that "smells" of the fragrance of life! A big thanks from me to Cornerstone in Simi, CA, pastored by Francis Chan (whose book Crazy Love is worth reading).

Back From The Hospital

The pic above was sent from Tommy Woodard's (AKA The Skit Guys) iPhone at PlanetWisdom in Lakeland Florida. If you didn't see my last post I wasn't able to attend because I was in the hospital being examined for a "stroke like" episode I had Thursday night.

I am happy to report that I am home and the doctors have given me a clean bill of health. They found nothing significant in my body causing the symptoms, so although the cause could have been very severe, I am fine.

I just want to thank the PlanetWisdom Crew, Dutton and The Skit Guys for doing such a great job fillig in for me. I also want to thank all of those who attended for being so understanding of my situation. We had some videos from another conference we were able to use to replace my absence. One student said he rose his hand to accept a free book I offered then quickly put it down realizing I wasn't even in the room!

Proverbs 27:1
Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.

Last week I was talking to ny son about the future. He had an opportunity to study a little for a test before going to bed, but decided he's just wait for the morning to do it. I told him, "We don't know what might happen in the morning, you should study now while you have the time."

I have been doing conferences in Lakeland for 16 years, and this is the first one I would have missed. Based on my passed history I had every confidence that I would have been there by "reason" alone. But reason does not insure our future, God does.

We don't know what tomorrow will hold, which is why it is important for us to live righteously today. And realize that the future truly is in God's hands.

James 4 reminds us:
13Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.

In The Hospital

I came to the ER Thursday night because I had some strange syptoms. I'm havin to miss PlanetWisdom Florida which is a huge bummer. In over 18 years of ministry I've only had to miss 4 events, and never a PlanetWisdom conference!

Here's a picture of my brain (apparently it shows signs of higher intelligence so they are keeping me longer to study its intricacies). They don't know anything yet, and may not find anything either. But I do appreciate your prayers.

Wisdom On...New Year's Resolutions

December is a good time to spend with God reflecting on the previous year. I have been doing this intentionally since 1989. I know some people hate New Year Resolutions, but if they are your kind of thing here are some things I've learned along the way that may be helpful.

As New Year's Day 1989 approached, my friend Adam and I each prayerfully listed 89 goals we hoped to accomplish in 1989. I was surprised when I came to the end of the year how many of the 89 goals had been completed.

I wondered why? For year's I had been making New Year's resolutions and had never really kept (or remembered) them. Here's why I think I did (and I am going to take a long path to explain why, so hang in there).

Look at the picture below. What do you see?

An apple right? Now how did you know it was an apple? Look at the picture below. Is that an apple too?

What if I take a bite? Is it still an apple?
How about this one?

and is this still an apple?

All of those pictures are of apples, but what defines an apple in our minds? God created our brains to be nothing short of amazing.

• It can't just be something green (that would include limes and leave out red apples)
• It can't just be something round, red and/or green (because we are still able to recognize an apple when a bite is out of it, and it would include bell peppers and Christmas ornaments too!)
• It can't just be something with a skin and white flesh and seeds, because we recognize pictures and drawings of apples too.

When you think about it our brains are pretty amazing! We probably have tens of thousands of small rules and memories in our brains that help us recognize an apple. Yet none of them can be too specific because we are able to recognize apples of many shapes and colors (and even some that are drawings!). This is called "fuzzy" logic and it helps us come very close without being so specific we miss it (Without it you couldn't recognize the letter "A" in any other handwriting or typeface than those you had learned!) Crazy I know.

So what does fuzzy logic have to do with New Year's resolutions?

Typically we come up with resolutions that are "fuzzy".

• I want to lose weight
• I want to be more generous
• I want to do better in school
• etc

Fuzzy is how we typically think. When God helps us recognize issues in our life that need transformation, we initially understand them in simple ways. If you want to make changes you have to break down the "fuzzy" idea into smaller parts, and these parts have to be measurable.

This is what happened while I was writing my 89 goals for 1989. I ran out of fuzzies and had to get more specific! Here's an example:

Fuzzy Goal: I want to read my Bible more.

That is a great goal, but we can do even better by breaking the fuzzy goal into several smaller, measurable goals. What exactly does reading my Bible more look like when I think deeply about it?

1. I want to read the Bible for 35 minutes a day.
2. I want to read the book of Mark.
3. I want to read the book of Proverbs 5 times.
4. I want to write a short paragraph about what I'm reading once a week.
5. I want to share something that I read with a friend once a week.

See how really thinking about Bible reading helped me come up with specifics?

My goal isn't just about Bible reading but reading specific books. But for what reason? Just to read? No, I wanted to learn, so I included writing a paragraph about what I read in my own words. I also want to learn and grow and share too, so I made that part of the goal.

Now I've made the smaller goals pretty specific. But real life is "fuzzy " So once the rules are written I realize that 35 minutes may actually be slightly more or less than that. Why is this important?

Once you write down your list, life is going to happen. God will bring people and situations into your life to help you learn more about His purposes for you and who he made you to be. If you'd only seen green apples and then encountered a red one, you'd have to alter your understanding of "apple". While you may stick to the list for several weeks and months, change happens. Feel free to change your goals as well.

When I have a fuzzy idea like "apple" I can change my understanding of it while keeping true to the big idea of "apple". Same thing with our resolutions. When you have a fuzzy goal "like read your bible more" you can change the sub goals goals while keeping the bigger one.

Try this resolution on for size: I want to be more kind in 2009.

That is a great goal but what is wrong with it? It is hard to measure in it's "fuzzy" state. What do I "do" to become more kind? We all know what a kind person looks like, but like the apple, what are the specifics?

• a kind person holds the door open for others
• a kind person wants others to know who Christ is
• a kind person helps someone carry their load
• a kind person encourages others.
• and the list can go on and on and on...
  

From this you make your resolutions.

• help one person at school that is not a close friend
• invite others who normally sit alone to eat lunch with me once a week
• do something each day for my parents without them asking
• say something unusually encouraging to someone each day
  

As you learn more and changes come you will be able to keep the fuzzy goal while altering the smaller ones. The goals above are fairly general, when you look at your own life you may have specific people or situations you can include to make the goals as personal as possible.

One of my goals was to improve my writing. So I made smaller goals like these:

Fuzzy Goal : Improve my writing

Write one short story each week
Write one poem a month
Read a book on writing

As the year went on, I realized poetry was not my strength, so I removed that and replaced it with something else. (sometimes too, we get too ambitious and have to drop smaller goals, that is okay too as long as we stick to the fuzzy one)

To sum it all up:

• Prayerfully reflect on the year and ask God to help you define some fuzzy goals.
• Think about those deeply and break them into personal, smaller, measurable goals.
• Ask God for his strength to help you become the person he wants you to be even if that means changing some of your goals.
• Share your goals with others. God created us to live and grow in relationships with others.

Also, when making plans keep this proverb in mind

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps." Proverbs 16:9

Happy New Year!