On Life
This week was pretty much swallowed up by my trip to South Carolina. I was invited by the wonderful Mr. Gene Crawford to come and speak at the Converge conference. But I had no idea when I said yes that I would be speaking to my largest audience yet. Don't get me wrong, it's no SXSW panel with 800+ people in the audience, but it was still a decent number of folks.
I don't really get nervous before I speak. The morning of I usually like to take it easy, find some time to meditate and pray, and just go over everything in my head. I find it helpful to focus on my speech as more of a conversation I'm having with the audience. They are just people too, and for whatever reason they're there to listen to what I have to say. That's not something I'm nervous about, but rather something I'm honored by.
The conference as a whole was really good. Good crowd. Good vibe. Good city. I like to see more of these micro-conferences popping up in different places. I think the more regional and intimate we can get with conferences the better the information and interactions will be with those who, not only speak, but attend.
On Work
Work is still at low tide. There are one or two projects coming up this next week that I'm excited about and that's all I know right now. I love walking by a greater measure of faith and trusting that work will come when it needs to. The revelation about "I work because I love to, not because I have to" continues to sink in deeper and deeper.
On Faith
Faith is a funny thing to measure. I used to find myself measuring my faith by my emotions. That's a dangerous place to be. One with really high highs and really low lows. It becomes a place of performance. The more we perform the better we feel, and the better we feel the greater our faith. Thankfully that's not the way our Father intended us to live at all. I love what David says here in Psalm 37:
"Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart."
It doesn't say "Take delight in the Lord... keep these rules, know your lines and don't mess up... and he will give you the desires of your heart." There is no grace in that way of thinking. We are not actors performing for the approval of our God, but rather we are children in the house of our Father who loves us for who we are.