Today, I bid ‘my 20′s’ farewell. 

Frankly, I’m ecstatic to burst into my thirties with energy, passion, joy, focus and a sense of a little life experience under my belt. I like the idea of being 30. My good friend and mentor, Stan Endicott, always reminds me about the mark of the decades…which makes growing older sound like A LOT of fun! Stan says, ‘In your 20′s you discover who you are, in your 30′s you do it, in your 40′s you get really good at it, in your 50′s you train up and teach others how to do what you’ve done and in your 60′s you’re the wise old sage and you it’s then time to reinvent yourself. WOW, now I like that kind of thought process when I think about getting older, don’t you? I am so grateful for guys like Monty Kelso & Stan Endicott who have taken the decade of their 50′s to train and mentor guys like me, while I was in my 20′s, to go do what they have done in my 30′s. So much of that could be vocational in mindset, but, I like to think of it more holistically in my life. Sometimes we only see through the lens of work and I want to look at life with work as a driving component but certainly not the only defining element.

So what have been significant markers of my 20′s? What have I figured out about myself in this last decade of discovery and what are the implications for the dawning of a brand new decade?  I thought I would just take some time to reflect and capture it here. One thing is for sure, although I have figured some things out, about who I am, I want to preface all I am about to write by acknowledging that I have certainly not arrived in completely understanding all of who I am. There is so much more to learn about who God has made me to be and the life value of becoming is one of my greatest discoveries. Never quit becoming! I’ll break my learnings down by reflecting in a few sections: Following Jesus, Life, Relationships & Vocation. 

Following Jesus: The past 10 years have been a journey I could have never painted on a canvas of my own. First and foremost my 20′s were a decade of learning that when you choose to trust and follow Jesus, He will absolutely lead you! One of the biggest leaps of faith I’ve ever taken was as a 20 year old and I knew, with confidence, that I should I follow Jesus to Chandler, Arizona. It would be a time where He would have to show up like never before and wow did He ever. Trusting in a God that is predicated on ‘putting your faith in’ can sometimes feel pretty ambiguous in our finite human minds and especially as a punk 20 year old. All I know is that I am so glad that I made that choice to follow Jesus in these past 10 years and it has sincerely marked everything I have done with any significance. This verse has often come to mind in many seasons of having to trust Jesus with all that I am: 

1 Peter 1:3-9

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Life: Some of the best life lessons I’ve learned in my 20′s have been rooted out of Galatians 5 and really soaking in trying to learn how to live in light of the fruit of the Spirit. Here’s what Galatians 5:22-23 says: ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.’ I am so thankful that I have a lifetime to keep pursuing these things! I definitely need a few more decades to hone in to those great attributes of God. A few other quick life lessons I’ve learned…always be a student, ask lots of good questions, buy lots of different kinds of people coffee or lunch, be spontaneous/whimsical, travel and see the world, laugh a lot, don’t take yourself to seriously and lead a life full of gratitude and generosity. I’ve also learned that engaging the less fortunate is close to the heart of God and to ignore the plight of the poor is to ignore the missional call of Jesus in the hear and now. Truly some of the greatest joy I’ve experienced in the last decade have come from the experiences I have had being being with those who have had the most need. Jesus is truly with those people in a rare and beautiful way. James 1:27 puts it his way: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Relationships: First things first, I am so incredibly thankful for my wife, Promise. She has been the source of such great joy and is the sparkle factor of my life. I have fallen madly in love with you Promise Tangeman-Wurzell!! These years of our young marriage have been the most life-giving years of my life to date. We have shared the heights of joy, travelled the world, toured this great country on a bus (thanks for letting me tag along), sobbed together when we thought it could be cancer, slept in hospitals together, experienced healing, talked each other off of life’s cliffs (many a time), encouraged each other to accomplish dreams, accomplished some of those dreams and had TONS of fun in the midst of it all. I have been the greatest recipient of your love and I hope I can reciprocate it back to you! I am graced to be able to call such an incredible woman my bride and to think we are JUST getting started…what a ride! 

I continue to learn that the secret to relationships, especially my marriage, is wrapped up in four things:

1. I don’t always need to be RIGHT (big epiphany for me & unbelievably freeing)

2. Admit when your wrong, apologize and ask for forgiveness (the power of confession)

3. Forgive quickly (the secret weapon to joy and peace)

4. Pray with people (don’t just tell people you ‘pray for them’ actually do it. the ministry of prayer is a game changer)

A couple final thoughts on relationships. I’m a naturally wired extrovert, so people energize me, but, I can say that diversity in relationships (regardless of how shallow or wide your contact list might be) has been something I’ve come to value at a high level. Get a mentor, in fact…get a few. I’ve got mentors pouring into me from every angle of life and these wise souls continue to show me the value of being a student. I would not be who I am becoming without the great mentors I’ve had through this last decade. If you are a 20-something reading this and you don’t have a mentor…just remember this is the decade of discovery and to try to figure it out on your own is A LOT harder. Find a mentor, make it a priority, learn to talk less and ask more questions. Oh and always have something to take a note down on while you’re learning from people!! My memory is terrible and most of the mentors I meet with say things that I hope to remember for the rest of my life. I simply cannot trust my learnings wholly to my memory…I’m still learning how to write it down! A few key areas I have mentors: vocation, theology, leadership and life/marriage.

My relationship with my parents is also a treasure. I continue to feel the great indebtedness to them for the spiritual foundation, in Christ, that they invested into deeply and in my young life. As Isaac Newton puts it, ‘If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.’ Mom and Dad, I am standing on your shoulders. Thanks for all you have done to exhibit love in your life and marriage. I’m a better man because of all of you continue to help me become. 

Lastly, I have learned that taking time to celebrate, make a memory, mourn or just to pause and be present with people you care about is vitally important. There are some things in life you don’t get a do over on. Things like being at family members/close friends weddings, celebrating your parents lives, being with someone that is sick who you love, visiting people in the hospital, crying with family/friends who just lost someone that you/they love and so much more. A filter I have tried to begin using is…will my presence/investment in this ‘moment’ matter in 10-20 years? If it’s a yes…I do everything I can to be at whatever the moment might be! Sometimes it does, momentarily, inconvenience MY life…but…my late 20′s have taught me that it’s worth it! As Bob Goff says, as it relates to what would be ‘the last things you would do on earth’, ‘I’d want my last things to matter a lot too. I’d want them to point to something much bigger; much more meaningful; much more enduring and consistent than my short and wavering life.  I would also want my last things to be about hope.  I’d want my last things to act out a genuine faith.  I’d want those last things that I did to be chock full of whimsy.  Hope, faith and whimsy are great traveling companions too.  I’ve experienced that hope makes it possible; faith makes it matter; and whimsy gives it shelf life.‘

Vocation: Probably the biggest thing I’ve learned about vocation in my 20′s is to work hard, stay committed, talk less, listen more and ask lots of questions. I’m incredibly grateful to Cornerstone Christian Fellowship to Linn Winters, Brent Richardson and Chris Haidet. Those guys believed in me even when I had no idea what I was doing and invited me to join a journey that I’ve been a part of, literally, almost all of my 20′s. What a ride and it’s not over either!  

I am learning that reading is a key component to leading. The more I read the better I lead. This hasn’t always been an easy one for me and will likely be a continued learned discipline in my mildly A.D.D. personality type. All I can say is that I am a sharper person in m work when I’m reading to improve my professional aptitude. 

I have also learned that my vocation isn’t everything. It is so easy to let ‘what I do’ be the definer of ‘who I am’ and I continue to learn that the opposite is actually true. I am trying to focus more consciously on the ‘who I am’ and let that shape ‘what I do’. So much of that has come out of fantastic mentoring and great people around me, but, at the end of the day being a great Worship Leader isn’t the end goal for my life. Although, I want to be a really great Worship Leader! Rather, to follow Jesus well and to let His life transform mine has the cause effect of me being great at ‘what I do’. Colossians 1:27, says, ‘CHRIST in ME the hope of glory!’  This is something I am also glad, God-willing, I will have a few more decades to refine! 

———–

I know this is quite a reflection, but, 30 is a quite a significant mile marker, at least to the guy who is turning 30. Thanks for letting me share some of what I’ve learned in my twenties, as I’ve been discovering WHO I AM! I’m actually ecstatic to wave goodbye to an AMAZING decade and welcome in this brand new one that will have, likely, even more significant moments. I think growing older is fascinating. The more life under your belt the more you have to offer people and the world! I also understand that around thirty, without proper eating & consistent exercise, ‘life’ can tend to hang under your belt too (God, help me)!

Lastly, I’m excited to see the man that God wants to produce in me as I willfully follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in my life. I’m excited to love Promise in ways I haven’t experienced yet. I want to live a life full of whimsy, fun and love with Promise! I am excited to consider the thought that KIDS will be a likely addition to our lives in this next decade. I am excited to understand life through the lens of a Father (God-willing) and I hope I’ll be a good one! I am excited to point people towards Christ with all that I am and to hopefully look a lot more like Him when I’m 40! I am excited for the unknown, the whimsy things Promise and I will do, the people I’ll meet, the experiences I don’t yet know about and for each breath I’ll breathe! Truly, I am grateful and have much to celebrate as I wave goodbye to my 20′s and say HELLO to my 30′s!

Promise & I both have November Birthdays. This year I turn 29 and Promise turns 25. It’s here Silver Birthday and so she takes the priority in the celebrating this year. Truth be told, I hope she always takes the priority!

As we’ve talked further about ‘what we want to do for our birthdays this year’, we’ve decided that we wanted do something with the celebration of life beyond our receiving. Trust me, we will celebrate, but, we want you to help us with the ultimate celebration this year.

We want to give our birthdays away this year. We want our birthdays to bring LIFE to some that may not celebrate another Birthday if we didn’t give it away to them!

We continue to discover the extreme need in the world for sustainable life giving resources. We’ve heard from our friend Scott Harrison and his team at Charity: Water that millions of people don’t live to see their 5th birthday. And why? Because they didn’t have access to clean, safe water. That reality has shaken us to do something. We need to not be okay with this happening while we’re alive.

We are asking for $25 from everyone we know – and every penny of the money raised will go directly to fund freshwater wells in developing nations through Charity: Water, an organization that we know and trust. Even better, every dollar is “proved” when the projects are complete, and photos and GPS coordinates are posted using Google Earth. How cool is that right?! We’ll get to see our work and giving come alive!! Now THAT is a cool birthday present.

Our goal is to raise $5000 by Promise’s birthday, 11-23-10.

Please consider helping us. We need 200 friends to give $25 to reach our goal. This is so attainable and we want to ask that you wouldn’t wait and consider it, but, that you’d join us now in helping dying people live by giving them clean water this year!! This is a party, this is a celebration, this is our heart…more birthdays for more people!

Click Here for our Charity: Water page.

I really loved this little preach by my buddy Mark Connelly. Do you agree or disagree?

I get the chance to be a co-host of catalystbackstage.com this week in Atlanta. I’m joining up with John Acuff, Shauna Niequist and Carlos Whittaker to bring you live interviews with the Speakers and all kinds of behind the scenes stuff at Catalyst this week. This is a little real time conference resource for all of your that couldn’t make it. There’s also rumor that they’ll be streaming a couple of the main sessions. Tune in starting Wednesday starting at 12pm (EST) as we get started and follow along with us through the end of Friday.

Anybody actually going to be at Catalyst this week?

One of the things that Jon has been doing the last few years is getting back to the good old roots of what music is all about. He’s doing all the things that ‘new school’ rockstars don’t and it’s what makes him great. Most bands do a few P.R. events, do a meet and greet, play their show and get on their bus to head to the next city. Honestly, I don’t blame them. The road is a tough gig.

Jon Foreman has been cutting through the status quo by being a real person to his die-hard fans. After a Switchfoot show he’ll usually Twitter out a location for a short little ‘aftershow’ near the venue. He comes out with his acoustic and plays a 25-30 minute set of songs they didn’t play at their show that night, talks with fans and does his mellow thing.

They were in Tampa on August 15th, 2010 and he was peacefully doing his ‘after-show’ thing until Tampa Police, Officer Fisher, came and asserted his authority in one of the lamest demonstrations I’ve ever seen. He, eventually, forcefully removes Jon from the after-show. Watch Officer Fisher BARK orders in the most annoying yard duty kind of way. LAME!!! Where does the 1st Amendment play into this situation?

shortened version

extended version

Don’t you think there’s a line for authority to assert what is theirs to enforce? What was the offense? What was it hurting for him to allow the guy to do ONE MORE SONG?

Honestly, it’s guys like Officer Fisher that give Police a bad name. He was just bored on a Sunday Night with nothing else to do but assert his authority in a super lame way. I think Tampa PD needs to publicly reprimand  Officer Fisher for his poor representation of the Department.

I’ve got some good friends who are cops and I know that how you handle a situation like that is up to the Officer’s discretion. As long as the situation was peaceful, even if it was in a place they maybe weren’t allowed to be (behind the venue?! on second thought…maybe not), they’d of let him do one more song and then shut it down.

What do you think? Where are my ‘authority’, ‘the law is the law’ people? Can you argue with this guy isn’t being a little over excited about his Sunday graveyard shift? Office Fisher needs a new gig!

Hey guys!! I am so excited to tell you that Promise & I are going to Rome THIS SUNDAY for a little over a week. We really can’t wait. This trip came as a huge surprise to us! Our good friend is house swapping with a family in Rome and they invited us to come be a part of it. AHHHH!!! Promise and I have been trying to play catch up and research some things that we would want to see before we get there. So, we need your help!!

Have you been? WHAT DO WE NEED TO SEE? Any favorite places, restaurants or key tips? Promise vows to take tons of photos.

“LORD, TEACH US TO WORSHIP!”

Interesting that the disciples of Jesus never asked this. In not making this request, they assumed they could worship on their own, that they had not to learn how to worship. The phrase ‘learning to worship’ sounds strange to us today. If our heart doesn’t overflow and begin to worship by itself, we say, we’ll never ‘learn’ how to worship. But it‘s a dangerous error, very widespread among most Christians, to think that the heart can worship rightly by itself. For then we confuse wishes, hopes, sighs, styles—all of which the heart can do by itself—with true worship. We then confuse earth with heaven, man with God. Worship doesn’t mean simply to pour out one’s heart. It means rather to acknowledge the awesome glory of Christ and to submit to him as Lord, whether the heart is full or empty. No one can do that by oneself. For that he needs Jesus Christ.

When Jesus joins us in his worship of the Father, when we are privileged to worship along with him, when he lets us see the awesome glory of the Father and engages us in his worship, then we are free from vain worship. And that is precisely what Jesus wants for us. He wants to worship with us and have us worship with him, so that we know intuitively that the Father accepts our facedown obeisance to Christ in his vicarious death and resurrection. When our will whole-heartedly enters into Christ’s worship of the Father in the Spirit, he has taught us to worship in spirit and in truth. Lord teach us such worship.

(Liberally adapted from Psalms The Prayer Book of the Bible. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Minneapolis: Auguburg. 1970.)

John Hubley. Mindheart Foundation, All rights reserved

THOUGHTS?

For more on John Hubley check him out HERE!

Today, we Arizonans have been released of the Speed Camera cops. The 2 year study is over today and will not continue as of right now. I’m, personally, not a fan of the cameras as it doesn’t have the ability to actually enforce the written law. This is what the ‘Basic Speed Rule’ in Arizona states:

Basic Speed Rule: A person shall not drive a vehicle at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent speed under the conditions and actual and potential hazards then existing. §28-701(A) & (D)

My argument is that the last time I checked camera’s don’t have judgment on what is ‘reasonable and prudent’ speed for conditions. I’ve got some friends that disagree. I think it’s a brilliant little scheme to make up for an extreme financial deficit in the State, but, probably not the best way.

What do you think? Have you been caught by the camera’s here in AZ in the last couple years?

As an Arizonan I’ve been asked A LOT, recently, about my perspective on the new law (SB 1070) that will go into effect at the end of July 2010. If you haven’t read the bill, take a minute and actually READ it! It is a very loaded subject and one that merits discussion and diligent thought.

As a Christ follower, I try my best to align my political perspective with the Kingdom of God and not with political party.  Some of you will agree with me and some of you will totally disagree with me in my opinions and honestly that’s okay. Obviously, the issue is heavily loaded, but I think it’s important for us to discuss. I’m certainly not asserting to be an expert on the issue, these are just a few of my thoughts and observations that I’m, somewhat reluctantly, sharing out loud.

My first thought is that we need to use our brains and prayerfully think through what REAL and reasonable reform looks like in our country. As  we look at reform we need to remember, legal or illegal, that these immigrants are people. Whether you want them to leave today or not they are human beings with souls, dreams, desires and families. One of the hardest things for me to watch is the conversations where American citizens so quickly forget that these immigrants aren’t all criminal, tax sucking, lazy, alcoholic, drug trafficking, DUI offending, murdering, adulteress law breakers. If that’s your perspective on the issue, you clearly don’t know these people and you’ve allowed some source of media or political perspective to give you rhetoric rather than reality. I’m not saying there aren’t those people in that demographic, but it’s a far fetch to make the assumption that all of them fall in to those categories.

I recently heard the story of a Mexican woman here in the Southeast Valley. She’s the widowed mother of 5 Children who are all American citizens. She barely makes it but works odd jobs to ensure her children have their basic needs met. She’s here undocumented and doing all that she can to be here legally. The process has not been easy or reasonable to say the least and she’s been diligently trying to get legal status. She’s a hardworking woman who is trying to make a better way of life for her and her kids than the impoverished life she lived in Juarez, Mexico. She’s heavily involved in serving her community through the local church and is a huge part of a lot of people’s lives.

This woman recently came to one of her Pastors distraught over what she should do about the situation with SB 1070. She’s been in America almost 10+ years and this is where life is now. With this new law the choice is dicey. If she stays she gets to be the mom to her kids, contribute to society through her work, she can serve in her local church and keep trying to gain some long term legal status. Her end goal is to become a citizen of the USA as soon as humanly possible. The risk of her staying under SB 1070 is that it’s not just a deportation under the new law. It’s actually criminal and if she was arrested she’d most likely do some jail time to then be deported after serving her time. This then limits her chances of ever becoming a citizen or even gaining long term legal status to be here, because she would now be a criminal offender. She’s also mortified of what ‘jail’ is even like and fears for her well being in the jail system. She’s an upstanding mom trying to make a better way for her family, not a murderer.

Her choice is ‘going home’. Her Dilemma is that she’ll most likely end up leaving her 5 American children here in the States if she went back to Mexico. She would painfully choose this as she knows the life she’ll offer them in Mexico isn’t one that is in the best interest of their future. What does that mean for the kids and for society? Most likely the kids will end up in the Foster care system, will be split up and who knows the life they’ll live in light of that tough decision.

She also faces the struggle of really having little to no connection with people in the city where she’s from which is Juarez, Mexico. This is because she’s been in the States for so long now. She fears for her life because she’ll be ‘coming back’ to this city with a perception of being rich and American in a money hungry culture. Unfortunately, Juarez has one of the highest murder rates of any city in the WORLD right now and that is where she’s from in Mexico (in 2007 it had the highest murder rate in the world). She’s heard about the loss of close friends and family in her city due to ruthless bloodshed in the last few years. She’s just at her whits end trying to figure out what decision to make in light of SB 1070. Distraught, afraid and with the clock ticking her decision still weighs in the balance. Time will only tell.

What would you do if put in her situation?!

In some ways I think Gov. Brewers stealth operation to go out in the middle of nowhere to sign a bill that came out of nowhere is a wake up call to our country. I’m not sure it’s the wake up call everyone was hoping for, but, certainly, for some of you it couldn’t have been more timely. The subject of our borders and immigration needs to be addressed and needs reform.

It’s been interesting to talk to people who are being directly effected by the enforcement of this law. We’re talking about people who have been in the states undocumented for decades now. Many of these people like this woman I mentioned have children who are American citizens and have little to no connection with the place where they came from in Mexico. If you’re saying to them ‘go home’ because they’re illegal, I would contend that you’re not really thinking about what you’re saying and the ramifications of what that does to a family unit. If ‘the law’ had been consistently enforced on the Federal, State and Local level this conversation would be very different. Unfortunately, the law has not been effectively enforced in our nation for a long time and so we find ourselves with an issue that needs addressing with that understanding in mind. We have to consider these stories as we reform our process and we also have to consider the stories that aren’t as ideal as the one I told. The story of the illegal that was DUI who killed that innocent American family has to be considered too. There needs to be reasonable reform in this issue and it I believe it needs to include equitable amnesty in the reform.

There are sooo many stemming reasons that make me think SB 1070 isn’t the answer for reform. In my opinion, I believe Gov. Brewer found an amazing way to get another term as the Arizona Governor and to wake the Federal Government to a pressing issue called Immigration Reform.  What I don’t think is a good idea is a Federal lawsuit on Arizona or this bill coming into law at the end of this month. Neither are good answers to reasonable change in our great country.

I hope we can talk about reasonable Immigration Reform? My opinion is that ‘Cold Gavel-ing’ and enforcing a new law like SB 1070 at the end of the month can’t be the best answer we have when we haven’t enforced Immigration Laws or our borders properly in decades. We need to own, at all level of Government, what we haven’t done well in regards to this law. The process for people to get a work visa, obtain citizenship and to actually be here legally, while better than most countries, still needs a 21st Century face-lift. Our Federal, State and Local Governments needs to address this unreliable process and figure out a way to streamline people through the process with efficiency. For some the answer will be YES for obtaining legal status and for others, based on the criteria, the answer will be NO. There has to be lines drawn for who can and can’t be here legally, but, every person should have the right to go through that process in a timely manner with efficiency. We’ve got to lay down the right to politics and start taking up the rights of people once again. Political rhetoric on either side doesn’t get stuff done and I pray that we would find some unified grounds on reform within our great country. It has to be done.

I recently was talking with a friend about The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 from Reagan’s day. I think he really got the idea of what equitable amnesty meant while also beginning to really address legitimate and reasonable reform. I haven’t studied all of the reasons why Immigration has continued to be a lack luster issue in our Government, but, I do know that it’s been over decades of bi-partisan leadership in which it’s slipped through the cracks.

Check out the basics of what this Act provided:

The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), Pub.L. 99-603, 100 Stat. 3359, enacted November 6, 1986, also Simpson-Mazzoli Act, is an Act of Congress which reformed United States immigration law.

In brief the act:^[1]

• required employers to attest to their employees’ immigration status, and granted amnesty to certain illegal immigrants who entered the United States before January 1, 1982 and had resided there continuously
• made it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit illegal immigrants (immigrants who do not possess lawful work authorization)
• granted a path towards legalization to certain agricultural seasonal workers and immigrants who had been continuously and illegally present in the United States since January 1, 1982

Do you think this kind of an Act should be put back on the table with updated dates and a better plan to secure the borders? What do you think about the situation? Sound off and be kind to one another when you do it! Opinions are fine, just don’t be hating on each other as you fire off your opinions. Respect makes you credible in conversations like this one. Remember we’re talking about human beings and not animals. Ready, Set, Go….