jayhardwick.com

Santa Knows Me Well

It's been a while since I last saw one of these...

Even better that it had these inside it...

...instead of a pair of socks or underwear or something. :-)

And, a gift card to Books-a-Million means the Christmas book stash stands to expand.

Now I'm...

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Our day/night before Christmas...

• Brunch at MeeMee and Papa's
• Baked cookies for Santa
• Ate some of Santa's cookies :-)
• Watched Frosty the Snowman for the 1zillionth time
• Dinner for the kiddos
• Checked on Santa's progress via Norad and Google
• Read Luke 2...I teared up tonight holding my girls while we read...something about God sending His Son...our Savior...as a baby that just gets me while I'm holding my own...
• Kiddos to bed...STEAKS for mommy and daddy :-)
• Dessert, hot chocolate, and the greatest two hours of movie history...A Christmas Story
• Try to sleep...I'm going on 30 and still can't sleep on Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas to all of you...may your celebration of Jesus be the best ever!

That's Quotable: Tom Brady

While waiting on The Amazing Race to come on tonight, I caught the tail end of the 60 Minutes' piece on Tom Brady.  At the very end of the interview, he made a comment that raised my eyebrows...

“Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, ‘Hey man, this is what is.’ I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think, ‘God, it's got to be more than this.’ I mean this isn't, this can't be what it's all cracked up to be.”

The reporter asked him if he had any answers.  Brady's response:

“I wish I knew. I wish I knew...I love playing football and I love being quarterback for this team. But at the same time, I think there are a lot of other parts about me that I’m trying to find."

Here's a guy who is on his way to shattering every single season record there is for a quarterback in the NFL, is the field general of what go down as the greatest NFL team of all time, already has 3 Super Bowl victories, dates whoever he wants, wears whatever he wants, has a contract worth $60 million, etc. and he admits that sometimes he looks at his life and wonders, "Is this all there is?"

I immediately fast forwarded 30 years in my life and thought, "If this deal in Columbia is wildly successful, would I look at my life and wonder 'Is this all there is?'"  Satisfaction does not come from accomplishments.  It comes from identity, security, and legacy - knowing who I am in Christ, being that person everyday, and leaving a legacy of faith that far outlives me.

Even though his team demolished my 'Phins again today, God used Tom Brady to speak into my life.  I hope He speaks into yours through this, too.  Being Tom Brady won't satisify you...being who Jesus made you to be will.

Overheard at Starbucks

I'm sitting behind an older lady literally preaching at a younger lady. The younger lady looks like she came into the conversation needing some good advice on parenting, or discipling her kids, or connecting better with her husband. Instead, she's getting a sermon about her lack of faith...complete with fist pounding on the table...

The older lady's cell phone just rang...it was easily the loudest ring I have ever heard. To top it off, it was the Hallelujah Chorus. When she finished the call, the younger lady looked at her and said, "You're pretty scary."

Nice.

But this isn't scary...

I'm cheating on my Venti Bold with 3 splendas and enjoying a Venti Caffe Americano. I feel so European. :-)

One Sentence

A friend/entrepreneur/advisor gave me a valuable reminder that I needed big time. He asked me a simple question:

Can you summarize your life mission in one sentence?

It's funny how much time we spend playing around with words and phrasing to get the perfect, one sentence mission statement for our churches, organizations, etc. Then, if we're serious about actually doing it, we go to work aligning strategy and systems to focus on advancing that one sentence mission.

Meanwhile, our personal lives are all over the place.

I am so guilty of this...especially when I don't have a "real job" and a "real office" to go to everyday. That conversation came at the perfect time and I have taken that challenge to heart. My friend is convinced that one of the biggest keys to his success is that he learned who he is and who he's not early on and ordered his life accordingly. While God has given me loads of lessons on leadership, mission, church, the gospel, etc. over the last 4 months, the most challenging lessons learned have been about me.

So, can I boil it all down to one clear and simple sentence that will be my controlling mission everyday God gives me? I'm still working on it...:-)

Christmas Came Early

That, folks, is just ONE of the bags that "The Greatest St. Arbucks Gift Pack Ever" came in! Yesterday and last night, Center Grove Church in Winston-Salem, NC supplied my addiction for many months to come. A few of the highlights...

3 lbs. of Coffee
Barista Bears and kid-sized thermal cups for each of my girls...gotta start 'em early!
3 Tins of Hot Chocolate
4 Porcelain Mugs
Dark Chocolate-covered Espresso beans
Peppermint Biscotti
Lots of other goodies
And the finale...a rather healthy supply of Gift Cards!

I preached there a good bit this fall and apparently, I talk about Starbucks a lot! :-) What fun! What a blessing! Can't wait to have some Christmas Blend coffee, Peppermint Hot Chocolate, and some Biscotti tonight after dinner.

Blog Review

Spending some time these days evaluating things around jayhardwick.com. It's been a little more than a year since I jumped in the blogosphere and I couldn't be more glad for that decision. Absolutely the right thing to do and the relationships gained and lessons learned over the last 15 months or so prove it for me.

Just as our family made a huge transition this year, I'm feeling like there may need to be some transitions with the blog. But, as I look at some transitions, some tensions arise...such as:

How personal should one really be on a blog? While I do not have near the readership that some of my blogging friends have, there are thousands of unique readers per month that encompass the globe. Should I feel uneasy about posting pictures of my family, videos, telling stories, etc.? How can I be personal without being stupid?

How do you connect with different readers who read for different reasons? Like a lot of my friends, I have a weird mix of readers: lots of "up and coming" church planters, friends and family, church leaders, people in Columbia, people in Greenville, etc. How do you vary content to connect with those readers?

I guess those are the biggest tensions I'm thinking through. To get gut-level honest, I went through a not so good season with this blog in the early days where I was trying to keep up with the Joneses: checked my stats all the time, checked technorati rankings, thought I was a big deal when the blogging "celebrities" linked to me...then I saw Ben's "No One Cares About Your Blog" shirt and it put me in my place! :-) And, some friends helped me evaluate and it's time for that again.

I want this blog to be a tool - for connecting with people in Columbia, for connecting with and encouraging church planters, for giving people who are away from us a window into our world.

I'd love your comments, thoughts, evaluations, etc. on the tensions and ideas I presented above and your experience with this blog. Leave a comment or send me an email...your thoughts are appreciated!

Friday Five: You Know It's...

1. ...too hot when the icing on your family's gingerbread house is melting while you're decorating it...notice the "icicles."

2. ...South Carolina weather when it's 80 one day, 50 the next, and 24 the next night.

3. ...a God-idea when you're scared to death every time you talk about it.

4. ...Gamecock Football when all there is to talk about in December is who the next Defensive Coordinator is going to be.

5. ...bad when you can draft an All-Star team off the list of baseball players who cheated.

The Fight for Obscurity

I love how God uses Francis Chan. Refreshing and convicting.

See for yourself...read this now.

All together..."OUCH!"

Clarity, Please

Learning a lot these days about being clear. I'm a very external person...if I'm thinking it, I'm likely going to say it. That little quirk has gotten me in trouble more times than I care to recount. :-) The times when it seems to get me in the most trouble are when I am sharing an idea, a vision, or a dream. I'll vomit out every thought I have ever had about the idea, vision, or dream and the person or people I am with glaze over and disconnect.

In Next Generation Leader, Andy Stanley says:

You don't have to be certain, but you must be clear.

God has given us some ideas of what He is up to in Columbia and what He has called us here to do to be a part of it. But I am by no means certain that we've got it figured out and I am not even close to being certain that it will work. But that does not excuse me from being clear.

Yesterday, I had 6 meetings where my responsibility was to be clear...not about all the nitty gritty details, but about the big idea, the bottom line, the compelling dream God has birthed. Here's something I learned:

Clarity - Certainty = Conversation

I learned more yesterday than I have in a long time. Because I wasn't certain, people felt freedom to engage in the idea. They gave advice, asked questions, came up with ideas, pressed my thinking further...and I listened and wrote down as much as I could.

I guess that Stanley guy was right! :-)