For all of my loyal followers (all two of you), you will need to update your RSS feeds to my new blog. I’m venturing into the world of self-hosted blogging as a learning tool to grasp the power of this great platform.

So, point your browser over to MANATT.US to see the new awesomeness. This blog will no longer get any love unless I can’t afford the $3.66/mo that Godaddy is asking for the other one.

Christmas is my favorite time of the year for a myriad of reasons: I have some great memories as a child and I love to give and show my love via gifts and the thought that goes behind them. However, the most incredible part of this time of year – this year – is that I get the chance to tell my 4-yr. old son about why we celebrate Christmas.

Sure, he’ll struggle to put some of the concepts together when all he really wants to do is ramp his trucks off the living room ottoman and watch the Thomas video for the 1000th time, but I persist regardless. I’m confident some of it is getting in there and next year more will make it in and every year it will get more and more comprehensible.

For me, this time of year is about hope – actually Hope. There was a time in my life when things looked like they would remain mundane – the days would be “normal” regardless of the activity. At some point in college, I started wondering if this was all there was…was there any hope for anything better – even supernatural?

Growing up in the south, God is talked about as commonly as baseball and apple pie, but this does not make a faith. Did I believe God existed. Sure. Did I believe he was interested in me? Nope. Was He relevant to me day in and day-out? Not in the least. After all, I was in control and managed to keep it between the ditches for all these years – I’m wasn’t sure I NEEDED God.

At some point, I started wondering about eternity. What happened after I died? Who was right about that? Would I come back as a cricket or go to heaven or, worse yet, cease to exist. The only one worth examination seemed to be heaven, so I started asking some questions and found out that, not only is this scenario plausible, it is possible – FOR ME.

There was more! In my research, I discovered that not only could heaven be my destination, but my daily life could have true meaning. A relationship with Jesus Christ promised eternal life starting NOW!!!

Eighteen years later, I still marvel at the wonder of my salvation. The story is absurd from a human perspective – nonetheless, it is true and I believe it to the core. The birth of my Savior put in motion God’s plan to restore hope to humanity. His death and resurrection thirty three years later finalized it.

So, for me, hope was restored during this time of year when Hope was born. Someday, my son will understand the Hope that can be found in this time of year and I pray that it doesn’t take him as long to “get it” as it did me.

A recent “scuffle” relationally has reminded me  how important good solid leadership is needed in our world – especially in the Christian realms. The aspect that is brought to mind is courage. To me, the best definition of courage is found when contrasting it against fear. Courage isn’t the absence of fear, but the overcoming of it. Courage moves you into the burning building when everything in you is saying “STOP!”

Leaders are often find themselves in the midst of difficult situations requiring vast amounts of courage. This happens for several reasons:

1. Leaders are typically trying to move people where they wouldn’t naturally go themselves. In Henry & Richard Blackaby’s book, Spiritual Leadershp, the spiritual leader is defined as someone who is trying to move people onto God’s agenda. If you’ve ever explored God’s agenda, you know that not only the destination, but the journey can be hard to get up for. And with that comes tension and hard conversations. A leader not willing to move courageously into those hard places 1) won’t be a leader for long and 2) will miss out on some of the most exhilarating “God moments” that can be experienced.
2. People are messy and need leaders to help sort it all out. So, from that standpoint, we are all leaders in one form or another. If you’ve ever broken up a sibling scuffle or a stopped your child from doing something very dangerous then you know that on occasion, you get elbowed in the nose or have to endure the tantrum of all tantrums. Every day, we find ourselves faced with choices whether to step up and into something hard or remain silent and let some other leader deal with it. Doing the former is one hallmark of true leadership.
3. Leaders must make the hard decision when nobody else will. James Kirk, the captain of the starship Enterpise from Star Trek, comes to mind when I think about leaders making hard decisions. Military leaders face some of the most difficult decisions on the planet because they deal with choosing between the good of the few and the good of the many. That’s why I admire former President George W. Bush. He led courageously without much thought as to his approval rating. In short, he did what he felt was right for the good of the many. For this, I’m grateful and very glad I work with computers!

Great leadership requires courage – not just personally, but also for others. The word encourage means to instill or give courage to another person and great leaders can do this better than anyone. They instinctively know the right words or most effective gesture to breath life into our crusty innards – to warm us in places long since cold.

As you look around you, who needs encouraging? Who needs some courage to face the lions of the day? Who absolutely must have you stand up and be strong and look them in the face and say, “together…we can make it!”

Go and be that for them. Don’t hesitate, just go and BE the source of courage for the world…we all need it.

It struck me that the “age old” question, “What is the meaning of life?” isn’t a mystery to me and hasn’t been for some time, but for whatever reason, I just now put it into one cohesive thought. The answer isn’t going to be popular with some, but that’s what happens when you answer age old questions.

Before I get to my answer though, I would like to define the term life for just a minute. Some would say that as long as blood is flowing and air is being turned from O2 to CO2, we’re alive. And, by the strictest of technicalities – they’d be right.

However, as humans, life is much more than functional biology. Life is emotional, mental, dimensional, spiritual. Life is experienced and those experiences, for better or worse affect us in both small and profound ways. Life is moving and changing and ever-fluid – sometimes in spite of our best efforts.

Another component to life is time because another way to define a thing is by it’s opposite – in this case, death. Life is our existence prior to an inevitable and inescapable death. So, when we talk about life, we’re normally talking about being alive physically and therefore requires us to consider time.

To sum up, I think we can all agree that life is more than biological success and that it has a limited timeframe, at least physical life. With that in mind, the meaning of life would seem to be a question that has no definite answer unless we have more criteria to add to the mixing bowl. How about some qualifiers?

Perhaps we can all agree that the desire for life is that it be positive when all things are considered. More good, less bad; more fun, less pain; more laughs, less grief – that’s the goal. Perhaps a term that fits is “abundant” – we desire to have an abundant life. Great – now we’re cooking with gas.

This makes me want to rephrase the original question – “What is the purpose of my time pursuing the abundant life?” I mean we spend a tremendous amount of energy trying to make happy memories, build relationships, accumulate niceties, survive the valleys – but why? For what? Is it so we can say today is better than yesterday or might it be something more majestic?

I think hope believe so.

Life, with all of the potential for amazing adventures and incredible experiences is best described, in my mind, as a quest. Yep – like the quest for the holy grail in King Arthur’s tales. An adventure with a beginning, journey and climatic end. But to have a quest, you must know what you are seeking and at least an inkling on how you will go about finding it.

To me, the purpose of the quest is to know God. I believe He created not only me, but everything I can lay eyes on…for a purpose. I believe He designed each of us with gifts and talents that, when used according to His design, make it possible to achieve the abundant life we all seek and, in knowing Him, we get a sense of how to do just that. Thus the journey part of our quest is finding our purpose by examining our design. Haven’t you ever experience the sweet spot when you took a swing at life and hit a home run – where it just felt natural. That’s your design in the flesh baby.

Therefore, the meaning of life (quest) is to know God – our Creator. The journey is to understand our design and put that to use exploring abundant living. That just leaves one part – the beginning. Have you begun the quest yet? Are you pursuing the abundant life through trial and error or are you going to the master’s workshop to get the goods first-hand? Perhaps it’s time to stop wasting your precious time wondering around the castle and actually get on your horse and ride – the grail is out there, just waiting for you to discover it.

If you’d like some help with your saddle, let me know – I’d be honored to be your stable-boy!

Before getting started, my wife has written a blog post on http://aimingarrows.wordpress.com on this same topic – be sure to check it out. I haven’t read it yet and wanted to write my own post without influence from her thoughts.

Some friends of ours told about a day of celebration they did with their adopted daughter and son called “gotcha day and big brother day” that represents the day they received their daughter and their son became a big brother. I thought that was an incredible idea and we’ve decided to make it a part of our yearly celebration schedule as well.

September 16th represents the day we got the call from Bethany about our daughter’s existence. She was 13 days old and the risk of the birth parents changing their minds had passed – no take backs this time! Today, one year ago, our life changed forever. I now had a daughter. A black daughter. Both things I have no experience with as I grew up with a brother. And our son had a sister and his journey as a big brother started and from day one, he’s cherished his little sister.

So, today we celebrate God’s goodness to us – a gracious and merciful outpouring of His love to his hurting children (Heidi and I). We celebrate the end of a long trek through the valley of longing for a second child and sing about the mountaintop that God has once again given us the privileged of experiencing. Our family is a miracle and not a day goes by that we aren’t reminded of this fact.

Adoption is a weird deal – as you’ve no doubt gathered if you’ve read any of the adoption posts on this blog and it’s the little things that make the biggest impact. My wife is the best about making sure these things are captured in print and photo. She thinks about such things all the time and I’m so thankful for her heart.

With a humble heart, I ask you to help us celebrate our family on this very special day. Thank you all for your support and love – we’ve felt it all and it has been good.

After a recent encounter with a 17 yr. old gone south, I’m reminded how much I hate arrogance. Webster defines arrogance as, “an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions.” You see, it’s an attitude…a mental position that comes out as overbearing. At the center of this mental position is ego (self) that is inflated with an unnatural confidence born out of compensation or fear.

Arrogance is a mask that is designed to keep people from seeing the real person. For anyone with time on the planet measured in decades, the illusion that we are the best – AT ANYTHING – has long since faded. With that comes a realization that anything positive that comes from one’s effort is a blessing bestowed because we’ve seen how horribly wrong things can also go when we get involved.

I’ve had the incredible blessing in my life to have men that cared for me deeply spend the time and risk the relationship to instill in me humility. At times, those lessons hurt and were unappreciated. Other times, there were exactly what I needed to hear. Regardless of how I took them, the wisdom of these men took hold to some degree because at 36, I “get it” – at least more than I did. Life isn’t about me – it’s about others and arrogance gets in the way.

Knowledge is the realization it’s raining. Wisdom is the sense to come in out of it. So, here’s the question: are you driving a wedge between yourself and the world because you’re afraid they might get too close and see your dirty underwear and therefore not love you? Don’t answer now – think about it…it takes time to process. If the eventual answer has even a hint of “yes,” then it’s time to get some new tapes playing and the first one starts like this:

God loves you. Did you hear me? The creator of the known and unknown universe loves YOU. He knew about your dirty underwear and He still sent His Son to die so you could have life – right here; right now; and for all eternity. Wrap your noodle around that and you’ll stop caring what other people think about you and the need for the mask will go away. You’ll finally be free from shame and letting people get close will be met with joy rather than fear. Want to know more about how God loves you, read the book of Ephesians from the Bible – it’s a great place to start.

You don’t have to hide any more – arrogant isn’t something you want to be in the list of adjectives that describe you. It’s ugly and a horrible state of mind. It’s also unnecessary and wastes opportunities to build meaningful bridges rather than strapping C4 to them and pushing the plunger. Joy awaits, but it starts with coming in out of the rain…

I heard the term “immoral profits” today from Nancy Pelosi in reference to the insurance companies’ financials and it floored me. I have never heard two words put side by side that don’t deserve it more in my life. In fact, I’m not even sure I know exactly what that means when you look at the words individually. I do; however, know what she is attempting to convey and it is something that is at the crux of the liberal mindset.

We’ve heard this type of talk for months now – it’s always been around, but Obama has made it mainstream. In terms like “spread the wealth” and new taxes for only those that make over $200k. The message is that people (and organizations) that make a lot of money should feel guilty because there are a ton of people that don’t and the rich should give all of their money away to help elevate the financial status of the poor and we should all have basically the same.

Any capitalists out there? Hello! You should be IRATE at this because you know that the reason people (and most organizations) amass wealth is because somewhere, somebody found the goods/services they offered to be valuable and are willing to part with some of their hard-earned money to acquire it. In a capitalistic society – innovation (doing it better, cheaper, faster than your competition) drives profits and if left alone, you either challenge the big dog in your market or you go out of business. Since the beginning, more chose to challenge than go home and the result of this effort is the greatest nation on the planet. Competition, not government intervention is the key to making sure the markets stay (and remain) reasonable.

Take Apple for example. Did they create the first portable music player – no, but the iPod has blown all others away and is now synonymous with portable music. How did that happen? Innovation. Apple developed better hardware (sleek, sexy) and a better interface (simple, functional) and then made it affordable. That’s innovation and it has made Apple a literal TON OF CASH. Are their profits immoral? Of course not.

So what makes insurance companies profits immoral? Nancy would say it’s because they deny claims to sick people to protect those profits. Profiting while people suffer when something can be done about it. I guess that is the immoral part of the term.

The problem with demonizing profits in this way is that there isn’t a clear-cut delineation of where profits could be considered moral. Would any profit be OK? Who gets to decide? Turn on the TV and you’ll find the answer. Obama, Pelosi, Reid – they get to decide, or they are trying. They want to use these terms to make you think that the redistribution of wealth from those that have it to those that don’t is the moral high ground and anyone that doesn’t agree needs to be shut down or taken over.

Just watch out for the references – “big oil”, “big banks”, “big medical”, “big insurance”, etc. Most of us don’t make enough money to be personally affected, but our employers do. Most of us don’t need to be concerned about being in the top tax bracket and having our wealth stolen to support more and more programs that don’t work. But I think we all want to know  that the possibility for financial independence is obtainable. Allow the liberal politicians to have their way and you can kiss that dream goodbye.

Your voice and your vote are the only tools you have to affect change in this country. Write, talk, send smoke signals – whatever it takes to send a clear message to Washington that you want profits to be encouraged, not demonized; less, not more taxes; less, not more government intervention; and to SLOW DOWN the amount of change being introduced. How can they tell what works when they are changing hundreds of variables at the same time? They can’t,so perhaps…just perhaps, they aren’t interested in actually fixing anything…chew on that one for a bit…

What a time we live in these days – the economic landscape of the world is the worst it’s been since the Great Depression.  We have the most liberal government in power that threatens to turn our great nation into a socialistic mediocracy.  People are choosing anonymous 140 character sound bits over real, face-to-face relationships.  News stories impact our lives only as long as it takes the blogosphere to write the next 3 paragraphs.  And I find myself stuck in an existance that is flying by at the color of vanilla.

Oh there are bright spots of color – like getting to swim with my 3 yr old boy in the lake for the very first time and seeing my 10 mo old pull herself up for the first time and watch my wife develop into the most wonderful mom on the planet.  But for the most part, I wonder what God has for me – why does he keep me here on this planet, in this time, in this job, in this _____? No answers yet, but I know there has to be something more.  Until I get the “word” – I’m striving to stay relevant – to my family, in my job, at my church, in my community.

Relevance is the key to being given the chance to make a difference. If you aren’t considered relevant, then why would anyone listen, act or be moved by what you say or do? And the same can be said for organizations – especially and most significantly churches.  The moment a church loses touch with the culture around them is the moment their influence diminishes.  When that happens, because it is usually a slow boil, the way back to relevance is cloudy at best, if it can be seen at all.

It is, therefore, better to spend some time each day connecting with the world – seeing what they see, feel what they feel and be interested in what interests them. This has traditionally been hard for church staffs to do as they are neck-deep in running, planning and managing the various ministries of the church.

Very rarely would the majority of the staff even have the opportunity to interact with the world during the work day, which is consequently when the culture is most active. That’s no excuse though…for them or for us. As technology progresses and access to integrated tools becomes more prevalent, the excuses become less and less…well, relevant. I challenge you to stay connected to your world; to lift your head up and take notice of those around you; to ask the question, “Am I relevant to anyone? Do I make a difference?” and then do something to improve your scores.

Live there for a bit to gain some experience and then help someone else to do it. Talk to your church staff and encourage them to do what you’ve been doing. Here are some tools that I use daily:

• Facebook | Get on and connect with your friends and then check it a few times a week. You’ll discover both people and information about those people that you didn’t know and can talk about over the next cup of coffee.
• Twitter | It might shock you to know what can be said and shared in 140 characters or less. This tool allows you to share what you’re doing RIGHT NOW and then see what others are doing – whether it is experiencing a moving sermon or the shoe sale you stumbled on in your favorite boutique.
• WordPress or Blogger | Blogging has been around for a good bit and is nothing more than a way to share what’s on your mind and invite discussion. Don’t look now, but your on a blog right now These tools are free and easy to get started with and can provide a great way to share pictures or stories with friends and family that can be more accessible than e-mail.
• Tweetdeck | This tool allows you to send Tweets (Twitter messages) and update your Facebook status from one application – very handy. Also works on most mobile phone platforms.

Lately I’ve been seeing relationships suffer needlessly because of fear. I have an entire “sermon” on fear ready if you want to hear it, but I’ll save it for when you ask for it. In a nutshell, fear is not good (small nut – I know). Fear paralyzes and disables; causes second guesses when your gut is telling your loud and clear; robs us of confidence and makes us forget of former victories. Fear is not good.

In a sermon at my church (www.fellowshiponline.com) several years ago, Robert Lewis said something that I’ll never forget:

“The antidote of fear is faith.”

I think the reason it stuck with me all these years is:

1. I’m prone to be susceptible to fear – my personality is just wired that way
2. The antidote didn’t seem (at first) to fit – I wasn’t expecting him to say “faith”

So, what is faith? Dictionary.com defines it as, “belief that is not based on proof.” But I’m not so sure about that. You see, I think faith isn’t always blind – in fact, I think it is based on experience more times than not. Religious or not, we all have faith and experience it every day.

Take traffic for example. You have faith that the guy coming at you on the other side of the yellow line is going to stay in his lane. You don’t know it and yet he hardly gets more than a glance and produces no adrenaline as he whizzes by. Now think back to when you just started driving – that exchange just about made you nuts each and every time for the first few months. However, over time and with every successful encounter, your faith is grown and fear diminished.

You see – faith puts the results in someone else’s hands and we no longer need to be afraid. The goal is trust – can we trust the object of our faith to care for the situation that we are worrying about? If you’re talking about God, the answer is an emphatic “YES” as He is completely in control and loves you immeasurably – a combination that abates all fear. The question is do you trust him enough to put your fear in His hands.

All too often, we forget the wonderful – almost miraculous – events where our faith overcame our fears; where we felt silly worrying so much when all we needed was a little faith. So, let us not forget our faith and what has happened in our time on the planet to build it up – write it down, tell a friend or ponder it deeply for fear is just around the corner waiting to get you.

I’ve been stewing over the constant dribble over health care reform coming out of Washington and I’ve had enough. It is time for us all to snap out of the trance, put the Kool-Aid down and get our heads into the game. What set it off for me is this excerpt from an e-mail sent by the Whitehouse.

“Over the next month there is going to be an avalanche of misinformation and scare tactics from those seeking to perpetuate the status quo. But we know the cost of doing nothing is too high. Health care costs will double over the next decade, millions more will become uninsured, and state and local governments will go bankrupt.”

There are several things to take now of here, so let’s dive right in (hang with me – it’s a bit wordy).

1. I don’t think anyone – no matter what political party or affiliation – is asking for the status quo to be perpetuated. Health insurance costs too much and is, consequently, harder and harder to get (and keep in some cases). This should alarm us, but the source of that alarm is what is in question. The Whitehouse and Congress want you to believe that nothing can be done about the “cost” of  medical treatment and the trouble lies in the insurance companies. I’m here to tell you that is a bold-faced lie. Insurance companies are like any other for-profit company. They have a fiduciary responsibility to their stakeholders to stay solvent – i.e. make a profit. As such, they hold to the same supply/demand macro-economic principles everyone else in a capitalistic society does, which is to say that if their costs go up, their retail prices go up.
2. “Health care costs will double over the next decade.” – I’m sure someone has looked at trending from the past several decades and can project the doubling of health care costs over the next 10 years, but in no way should we believe it to be gospel. Nobody can tell the future and to word this in this way only serves one purpose – to scare you into thinking that this has to be dealt with sooner rather than later.
3. If that weren’t enough, to say with certainty that millions more will be uninsured and the eventual consequence is bankrupt state and local governments is OUT OF LINE. In the last 233 years, there has NEVER been a bankrupt government. Do you know why? Because they all have the ability to raise taxes or adjust budgets. Don’t buy this – it isn’t true and the sky isn’t falling.

Back to the real reason you are still reading – the real story. Creating a government-run, tax-funded insurance option doesn’t address the costs, but it does do something else that should make you take notice – it adds competition to the market that is not only unfair, it is un-American. Capitalism demands that competition be part of the mix for fairness and equality TO PROTECT THE CONSUMER. Without competition, we have monopolies, and monopolies are bad for us – remember the telecom breakup of the ’80s?

If the Federal Government can “set” the cost of coverage without regard to natural market pressures (profit & loss largely), they in essence become a monopoly and the rest of the market has no way to compete and therefore no way to survive. The President knows this. Congress knows this. It is what they are counting on. They don’t want private insurance companies to survive because they desire more control over our lives – in part, to justify their own position and to further the agenda of big government, higher taxes and more control.

Taking this to the logical conclusion – without alternatives to the government-run option, we end up like Canada and the UK…there simply isn’t a way to avoid it because the real problem isn’t being addressed, which is the high costs associated with medical services. If the President and Congress wanted to fix the health care problem in America, they would have started there – as it is the most logical place to start. If health care costs are PROJECTED to double over the next decade, are we helpless to prevent that? I think not.

What are the contributing factors to the rise in the COSTS of medical services?

• Advancement in technology | This is a natural (and good) progression. Better technology should eventually lower health care costs as it helps to diagnose faster and more accurately as well as speed the treatment/healing process. We want this to continue and I think we all are willing to pay for it, but what if research hospitals can’t fund research because the government is controlling their profits? You know the answer…
• Malpractice insurance | The courts have done this country a huge disservice in providing a place to attract medical lawsuits. The millions upon millions awarded to those cases are paid via malpractice insurance. And because insurance companies are subject to profit/loss pressures, they must consequently raise the rate for said insurance. The doctor has no choice but to pay the increased premiums and consequently passes that along to you and me in his/her rate.Limit the amounts awarded in medical malpractice suits and the premiums come back down and so will the rates – all a natural consequence of competition in the marketplace. This is known as tort reform.
• Uninsured care | Nobody is denied emergency care in America. Again, something we can almost all agree that is good WHEN RESERVED FOR AMERICAN CITIZENS. A large portion of the costs for uninsured care comes from illegal aliens (I use the term on purpose) as they can’t get insurance BECAUSE THEY ARE ILLEGALLY IN THE COUNTRY. So, this cost is linked to another failure of our government – border security and immigration law enforcement. The hospitals therefore are forced to pass those costs on to those that actually pay the bills, which hits the insurance companies first and so on and so on…

I’m sure there are others as I’m not an expert in the field – my degree is in Physics and I design websites for a living, but even I see bad things ahead.

So what are we to do? First, tell your representatives and senators to slow down. Health care reform is a HUGE issue and should not be taken lightly and needs much debate and investigation. We didn’t get into this mess in a week, and we won’t get out of in a week. In fact, how about we focus on the economy and then tackle this issue? We must not let present-day circumstances force us into thinking that we can’t wait. We can – we have – we must.