I love reading Bible stories that directly impact the way we live life today.

At times the characters in the stories display BAD behavior and we learn what not to do. Other times they display GOOD behavior and we learn what we should do in similar situations.

But I never really looked at the story of Gideon that way until recently.

For those not familiar with the story, Gideon was called by God to lead an army against the Midianites - who had been plundering Israel for seven years.

He started with an army of 32,000 and quickly had his numbers reduced by God in two waves:

• First, 22,000 that were "fearful and afraid" went home.
• Next, 9,700 that took too long to rest and drink water were sent home.

This left 300 men to fight against the armies of Midian which the Bible describes like this:

Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude. Judges 7:12 NKJV

Finally, they were victorious using non-traditional methods and allowing the Power of God to push them over the top.

Life Lessons
Like I said, I typically just read the story and thought it was a cool way for God to help His people. But with fresh eyes I'm starting to see more in the story:

1. Fear: We will face times of fear. But that doesn't have to disqualify us. I'm assuming the 10,000 still had some level of fear or apprehension about the battle, but they didn't leave. When given the out they chose to push through the fear and be part of something great.
2. Readiness: Life is a battle. If we're going to live a purpose driven life and finish strong in the big things we need to be on top of our game in the little things. The 300 knew the battle wasn't right in front of them but they acted as if it was. Instead of kneeling down and making themselves vulnerable, they simply scooped up enough water to keep them going and never took their eyes off the enemy.
   
3. Innovation: "If we always do what we've always done, we'll always get what we've always gotten." Great summation on the truth that just because something is tradition does not mean it is effective. I love how God showed Gideon (and us) how to think outside the box.
4. Super Powers: When we do things the way God asks us to we leave no room for people to say we were the reason for the success. When we do amazing things with little to no help, it is all the more evident that God showed up and worked through us.

In Summary
What really hit me was the fact that these men were always on. They didn't even stop to rest. And these were the guys God used. Not the fearful ones. Not the ones that wanted to slow down and rest. He used the ones that were always on.

Sounds exhausting. But sounds right. Why wouldn't I strive to do everything in my power to be the person God wants me to be all the time?

Not looking for the next time of rest. Not shirking responsibilities because I'm too busy. And not complaining for crying out loud.

I can't wait to get to heaven so I can meet Gideon and his 300 men.

I know people that are totally and completely against camping. They won't touch it with a ten foot pole and would rather be involved in tax paying or public speaking if given the choice...

And in some small part I lean in that direction. I grew up camping and I think I remember it being fun. But as I matured and became more worried about cleanliness and order I just grew out of the camping stage. I mean camping involves a lot of negative things like:

• manual labor
  
• bugs
• humidity and no air conditioning
  
• smoke
• extremes in cold or heat
• no electricity
• no television
• no wireless Internet
• bathrooms off site
  
• etc.

In processing some of these dislikes I came to a stunning conclusion. A bit of a stereotype, I'll give you that, but there is a strong correlation:

Wealthy people don't like camping.

Like I said - stereotyping - but think about it. The more 'things' you have and the more comfortable your lifestyle, the harder it is to give this up and camp. It just makes sense that the wealthier you get, the LESS likely it will be that you would enjoy camping.

Someone living in a trailer has much more in common with camping in a tent than someone living in a quarter-million dollar estate.

Let's Get Spiritual
The Bible describes a similar stereotype by explaining that wealth will make it difficult for people to see their need for God and Heaven.

Just as camping becomes less and less appealing to the wealthy, so too Heaven becomes less and less appealing when you can have everything your heart desires here on earth.

Bringing it Full Circle
But there is Someone who went on the ultimate camping trip. One who made the largest and most awkward lifestyle change just for us.

Jesus chose to go from being the God of the Universe, to being a camper on this dirty, dusty earth. From the having everything to having nothing. For you and me.

This is what I thought about as I camped in Ohio this past weekend. What if camping is a real life way to experience the truly amazing thing our God did for us?

In the humidity and sweat of tearing down our campsite I felt for a brief moment the great discrepancy He endured for me. Because of this camping has taken on a whole new meaning...

The other day I was thinking about how difficult it is for some people to handle situations in life. And how there seems to be other people who do a good job at handling whatever comes their way.

I typically fall into the calm and collected group. And while a HUGE part of it is with God's help as a Christ follower, I was also a therapist for quite some time. I read books, helped other people control their moods and ran groups on how to maintain a life of emotional moderation.

The graph shows what extreme mood swings look like (graphical representation of mood swings for the person that is Bipolar).

You can see there are HUGE shifts between depressed moods and manic moods. But what the graph fails to show is the differences in frustration tolerance, or the ability to handle things that are not pleasant.

Frustration Tolerance Example

• You wake up happy and ready for the day. Then at work you see you have 250 new emails. You understand it's gonna be a long day but you muddle through because you are in a good place. [High Frustration Tolerance]
  
• You wake up angry and you aren't feeling well. Then at work you see you have 250 new emails. You flip out and throw something across the room, accidentally hit your boss and get fired. [Low Frustration Tolerance]

Now people can exhibit low and high frustration tolerance even on a normal day (not depressed or manic) but when your mood goes to the extreme, so does your tolerance level.

Depressed people tend to have very low frustration tolerance. Every little thing is a problem and the entire world looks dark and grim. Having to go out of their way at all can be the end of the world. Since their energy level is so low they typically just whine and complain - sinking farther into their depression.

Likewise, manic people are so keyed up and have such little control over their impulses that they too have a hard time controlling their behavior when things don't go their way. Low frustration tolerance often comes out as anger outbursts. These rages are often violent and unprovoked. They go far beyond what would be considered a normal response to the situation.

So how do you fluctuate? Do you live in the extremes or do you try to maintain a healthy balance in the middle of the graph?

If you frequently find yourself fighting to have a more positive attitude or keep from getting worked up over such trivial things, keep this in mind:

One of the best ways to control your frustration tolerance is to control your mood.

A group of us recently began to pursue our PADI Open Water Diver Certification through JR Aquatic Center in Niles, MI.

It's something I have wanted to do since high school. In fact I even signed up to do it in college - only to back out due to the cost. So it was a no-brainer when the group of guys agreed to do it together at a discounted rate.

Then throw in the fact that for some odd reason watching Shark Week actually makes me want to go diving in the ocean! And I'm sold on SCUBA.

But this post isn't about the cool stuff you get to do as a SCUBA Diver. It's about the crazy real life applications I've learned from taking the class.

Here are the Top 5 things I've learned from SCUBA so far:

1. Fun Stuff is Expensive: From Golf to Ice Hockey, Snowboarding to Rock Climbing, Skydiving to Paintball, you just keep putting out the money. All of these things require "gear" and if it's called "gear" it will cost you. But then again no one claimed that fun would be free. Sure you can have fun during free activities, but I'm betting you won't be 60ft under water...
2. You Need Your Own Gear: I'm not saying you should never rent SCUBA gear, but it has become very evident that if something fits well, you'll feel more comfortable and be able to get more out of the thing you're doing. Example: If your mask doesn't fit right you'll have more water in it than air...
   
3. Learn Slow to Stay Safe: I don't think PADI says it this way, but this is the way I understand these requirements. In SCUBA there are depth maximums that need to be observed based on your level of experience. Open Water & Recreational Divers should stay above 60ft. Advanced Open Water Divers should remain above 100ft. And no one should go below 130ft. without some crazy training in deep sea diving.
   
4. Rules Are Important: You don't realize how technical SCUBA is until you take the class. Most people have heard about things like decompression, but once in the class you realize that by entering the underwater world you subject yourself to a set of constants (like gravity) that require rigorous attention to detail. Dive charts, proper equipment checks, compass navigation, neutral buoyancy, nitrogen narcosis equalization and the list goes on. Because of this you practice numerous skills like clearing your mask, sharing oxygen, taking equipment off underwater, etc.
   
5. Seriously Fun Stuff Can Be Life Threatening: SCUBA Diving has it's risks. And while hundreds of thousands of people SCUBA each year without a problem, the potential is there. Potential for problems that can lead to death. All the more reason to learn the rules and follow them.

Then realize that these 5 things also apply to our spiritual lives:

1. Fun Stuff is Expensive: What are we willing to give sacrificially for? It's one thing to say we are Christians, or that we want to help the poor. But are we tithing? Do we give above and beyond to help those in need? Truth is, if we want real purpose in life we'll pay for it.
2. You Need Your Own Gear: In life you can't count on the work of others (spiritually speaking). You need your own "gear." The Bible refers to it as "full armor of God." And we get this armor through prayer, Bible study, being part of a local church, etc. But you HAVE to do it for yourself. It's ok to help others along the way - but at some point they will have to get their own "gear."
   
3. Learn Slow to Stay Safe: People can only handle so much information at a time. A new believer needs the small packet of info called "Giving your life to Christ" first and then maybe later will come to appreciate the small packet called "Eschatology." Dumping the entirety of the Christian life on a new believer is like a green diver going down to 130ft. on his or her first dive. Both are doable, but the potential for something bad to happen is huge...
   
4. Rules Are Important: You typically think of rules as things to be broken. But 99% of the time rules are meant to keep us safe. Man-made rules are sometimes questionable, but God's rules are without a doubt for our own good - even when we can't see them that way. In SCUBA, the rule "Never stop breathing" doesn't seem important since we hold our breath out of water without problem. But try it under water and your lungs can explode...
   
5. Seriously Fun Stuff Can Be Life Threatening: Living a life with purpose can be dangerous. It means having faith in the unseen, putting time and energy into things the world views as a waste of time and at some point may even cost us our lives. But we know that it's all worth it. Given the fact that this life is but a scratch on the surface of eternity, we can lead this dangerous life with a real sense of security.

In a couple weeks we take a road trip to Ohio for our open water dives. Hopefully I'll learn at least another 5 things from that. We'll see...

I've been thinking a lot lately about the Great Commission and how that plays out for the Christ follower. I grew up in a traditional church where the highest expectation was church attendance and following the rules. We left "helping people" up to the super Christians we called "missionaries."

Needless to say this created a level of anxiety within me. It was hard enough just trying to be good all the time, much less the thought of becoming a missionary.

To this day I still wrestle with feelings of inadequacy since I'm not directly feeding poor people or traveling to India. I struggle with questions like, "Does my work count?" "Is what I doing fulfilling the Great Commission?"

Luckily I attend a church uniquely positioned to answer this question. You see aside from the traditional, mainstream, middle-America attendee, there are at least three unique populations that we engage both on the weekend and Outside These Walls:

• The Down & Outers (local, regional and international): Granger has developed a local strategy at the Community Center in South Bend. Regional efforts are made in low-income housing projects in Chicago. And partnerships are strong in India where church planters are being resourced multiple times per year.
• The Up & Outers: Wealthy members of our community are in a slightly different boat. They are resourced to the max which typically leads to a sense of entitlement and self importance that makes it difficult for them to see their need for a Saviour. Granger's level of excellence and seeker-sensitive focus create the perfect environment for people in this category.
• The Connected: Social networking and connectedness via the Internet is growing daily. Unfortunately the forms of media, topics and other connecting factors can be less than ideal - the Devil's playground so to speak. Which is exactly why we need to be out there too. We have the ability to bring His light into the dark and depraved places on the web. There is an entire community out there who never leave the house. Their broadband connections just might be the only gateway through which His love can reach them.

Knowing this, what are we to do?

Must I dedicate 33.3% of my time to each area or do I pick one or two of the three and focus all my energy there?

I'm going to frustrate you by saying, "I don't know."

It's easy to rationalize and say, "There are people going to India so I don't need to." But is that the right attitude? Even though I spend countless hours helping The Connected and the The Up & Outers is there more I should be doing?

I mean what if we took 1000 people to India on the next trip? What could we accomplish?

These are the sort of things that run through my head...

There are some things that you CAN do but SHOULDN'T do because the intent is questionable.

I found yet another example in the web field the other day. I was creating a website for a local company and the owner asked how he could make the site more visible to search engines like Google, Yahoo, Answers, etc.

I began to explain what meta tags were and how he could come up with a list of words for the search engines so they would return the site in searches for those words.

He seemed to understand and then asked how it could be that every time he searched for his store, the competitor came up in the list before him.

A quick "view source" showed us that the competitor had entered my clients company name (word for word) as one of his meta tags.

My Two Choices
Given this turn of events I had the following options:

1. Tell him 'turnabout is fair play' and simply put the competitors name in our meta tag.
2. Use the opportunity to model ethical business practice for my client.

Luckily it was fairly easy to choose option 2. My client agreed that it was low business practice and he wanted nothing to do with it. I can only pray that I would have been so ethical if he had have pushed me to do the opposite.

In Summary
In this upside down world it makes sense to do anything to get one up on the competition. And while you may lose market share due to ethical decision-making I believe God will bless you. If not here and now, in the near future or at the end of it all.

Either way I'd much rather be on this side of the fence...

By the way, there is a slight chance you could be taken to court for this behavior. But this isn't the judge I'd be worried about. Even if you get away with your meta tag mayhem in this life, you will stand before The Judge someday.

This week the church website was 'hacked' and believe it or not it wasn't the first time. Not by the same people, but both of the attacks came from within China.

Of course there isn't anything wrong with China. I'm sure there are hackers in every major country. But it was just interesting that both attacks came from China...

The Effects
The site was down for more than 24 hours, an important backup was infected, pages disappeared and important database information was lost.

After clicking through the whole site we were able to get a snapshot of the damage done and an idea what it would take to put it back together again. Needless to say some things were fixed simply while others had to be recreated from the ground up.

People handle setbacks like these in different ways. Some get mad and want revenge while others put the Pollyanna smile on and just move forward. But I tend to take the spiritual warfare approach.

I believe that there is good and evil in the world. Yes, on the level of God and Satan. But also on a personal level. Each has the ability to do good or evil each day. And this is a perfect example:

• Good: Our developers put in many hours of work to create our website. It is meant to help take the good news of the gospel to our attendees and to the world. They take the typical steps to ensure the site is hacker proof, but they don't waste time making it nuclear bomb proof. This because we assume people are intrinsically good. We hope for the best, and believe that the good in the world will outweigh the evil and things like this won't happen.
• Evil: Apparently 'evil' people with 'evil' motives sit around looking for ways to exploit cracks in the armor of the 'good' people with 'good' motives. And when they find them, they damage and destroy the 'good' things the 'good' people have created.

Now I don't know if these hackers were specifically after us, or just infiltrating the hosting provider we use. But either way, the behavior is the same. It's using your skills to destroy rather than create - to do evil rather than good in the world.

The Conclusion

The Battle Always Is

A little self-disclosure is good for the soul...

I don't know how many hours you have in your day, but I only have 24, and most of the time it seems like I have 36 hours worth of stuff to get done.

So what do you do? Sadly, I tend to fill up these hours with the stuff that creates the most noise. And have you noticed that everything in your life makes noise? Everything that is except for your spiritual life...

It's true. God isn't up in our face. He can be found in the Bible, at church, in the world around us and through prayer. But we must be intentional to do these things. In fact, if it weren't for that still small voice, we might forget He's even there.

I'm sure we all struggle with this, but I wonder if those in the technology field are more at risk. We have desktops, laptops, PDAs and smart phones allowing us to email, IM, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pownce, Flickr, and YouTube. Not just at work, but at home, on the road, while waiting in lines and just about anywhere we can get a strong signal.

So here's a thought. What if God plugged in? What if He started lighting up our Inbox, joined Facebook, twittered His status, pownced us clips from the Bible, blogged His will for our lives or uploaded pictures of heaven to Flickr and videos of Bible heroes to YouTube? Better yet, what if He created an aggregated RSS feed of it all that we could subscribe to in Bloglines or Google Reader? Would that do it for us? Would that help us take steps in our spiritual lives?

Sadly, I'm not sure if it would change a thing. The truth is, we put time and energy into the things that matter the most to us. So it all comes back to the heart. If the heart isn't in it, God could walk right up to us and we'd probably miss Him.

So there it is. I threw it out there. If you're like me you're still figuring out how to get the 'Word' in edgewise...

Traditional "religious" upbringings can do crazy things to your world view. And I was no exception. I saw people through the good/bad filter for years - and still struggle with it at times. You know, where you write people off as not being Christians because you see them sin, or because they cuss a lot, or in some way live out their spiritual life differently than you?

Well, over the years I have matured a bit and realized just how different people really are. Sure there is a big difference between Christians and those choosing to go the opposite direction. But there is also a huge difference between people inside the church. You have the drinkers and the non-drinkers, the naive and not so naive, those that hold their tongues and those that let it rip, the happy and the depressed, the humorous and the up tight. And the list goes on and on.

But this is exactly what Jesus dealt with on earth. Take the disciples for example. One had severe anger problems. One let anxiety and doubt get the best of him. And two were so into themselves that they fought over which one would sit next to Jesus when He became king. And these were the cream of the crop!

Amazing! And herein lies the key for me. The disciples in all their glory experienced each others inadequacies, and yet at any given moment could look each other in the eye and take heart in knowing they were walking the same direction. They had the same goal. They were following the King and were part of the greatest revolution this earth has ever known.

So this is my new filter. Understanding that we're all different (including me) but at any given time the cool thing is two Christians that look and act totally different can lock eyes and know they are walking toward the same God. That's liberating...