Doing or Duplicating

It's easy to get lured into the trap of doing. In today's day and age, productivity is everything. Task lists; packed schedules; meetings; business trips; overtime; and if you're in ministry, the number of nights you're out... these are the benchmarks for what we have come to value.

But is this the right value? What are we really doing if all we do is "do?"

It seems to me that, in reading the gospels, Christ was far more concerned with duplicating than He was with doing. His ministry didn't revolve around a speaking itinerary, nor the number of miracles He could fit in by day's end. His ministry benchmark was 12 men.

Don't get me wrong, Christ "did" great things. In fact, He did more in His 3 years of ministry than I'm sure I ever will in 30. But at the end of the day, what Christ evaluated wasn't the details He had accomplished - whether or not He had satisfied His "to-do" list in Galilee before He could move on to Jerusalem, and so on... - on the contrary, every detail Christ pursued was designed to meet the greater goal of what He was doing in the lives of those around Him, especially His disciples.

So what are you busy "doing" in your ministry right now that maybe you need to quit? Maybe its time to spend a little more time duplicating and a little less time doing.

Long Night = Long Day

Late yesterday Ethan began running a fever. Within an hour he was at 100. Of course, this isn't news when you have a kid... its life. What is news is that the little bugger decided to wake up at 2:30 this morning.

He never really went back to sleep.

Neither did we.

So this morning I'm sitting at home watching him while Dawn puts in a few hours at the church. At noon I'll head out to LeadNow in Irving where I will bravely attempt to stay awake during the main sessions. Maybe I'll even do a little blogging on the event, provided it doesn't interfere with the dangerous amount of caffeine I plan on sucking down.

It's going to be a long day. But it will be a good one. And its always good to have a few hours in the morning with my boy...

and Elmo...