Pete Wilson's Blog, page 10

Be Fully Present

Ecclesiastes 11:4 says, “Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.”

It’s so easy to get paralyzed in life waiting for the absolute perfect conditions. My experience is that there are a couple of different mentalities that keep us from being fully present in our lives. Are you Hyper Past, or Hyper Future?

Some of us are living in the Hyper Past group. We are either victims who are defined by our hurt, paralyzed by the past, or we are romantics, stuck in our glory days. We relive old dreams and think our best days are behind us.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have the Hyper Future group. Some of these are the planners who miss out on today because their main focus is on building their giant nest egg. Planning for your future is important. But we can still enjoy the present while we are saving for the future.

There are also those in the Hyper Future group who I’d call the After-Lifers. These are the super religious people who have no interest in this world and are just waiting around for heaven.

We are either hiding in the past or we’re paralyzed by the future. Take advantage of the moments God is giving you in the here and now.

Creativity: Learned vs. Unlearned

Back in the 1960’s a guy named George Land developed an assessment that he performed on engineers and scientists at NASA to identify the most creative people.

In 1968, Land distributed this creativity assessment among 1,600 5-year-olds. He re-tested the same children at 10 years of age, and again at 15 years of age:

Test results amongst these children as 5-year-olds: 98% creative

Test results amongst these children as 10-year-olds: 30% creative

Test results amongst these children as 15-year-olds: 12% creative

The same test was then given to 280,000 adults, and only 2% of these adults tested as creative.

“What we have concluded,” wrote Land, “is that non-creative behavior is learned.”

I found these results fascinating. It challenges the idea that we need to learn to be creative. Maybe it’s actually something that is unlearned.

Perhaps a better explanation is that we all have an amazing potential for creativity. We have been created in the image of God. God is a creative God. But over time we seemingly lose this ability and we need to relearn it. This begs the questions — What causes most of us to lose our creativity?

Maybe a parent, teacher, authority figure, standardized test, or critic came along and convinced you that you weren’t creative. Has that caused you to shy away from some dreams that God has given you?

We Will Have Scars

I’ll never forget the day my sister and I got in a huge fight in our backyard. This led into a bit of a physical altercation that prompted me to chase my sister down. I knew if I could catch her, I would come out on top. However, as we ran into the house she quickly slammed the back door in my face. My momentum carried me right through the glass door leaving me cut in several places.

She had won the battle, but not the war.

Numerous stitches later, I was assured that I would be fine, but there would forever be scars to mark this epic fight. For years as a kid I would proudly show off my scars with friends hoping to garner the “prize” for the biggest scar. It was proof that I was tough. It was a symbol that I had survived. I often left out the minor detail about getting beat up by my younger sister that day.

Over time, though, I became quite self-conscious of that scar. It’s interesting how childhood innocence fades away into grown-up mind-sets that teach us that scars are to be hidden. And not just the physical scars, but the emotional ones as well.

One of the most intense, surprising, and hopeful scenes in Scripture is centered around scars. Following his resurrection, Jesus’ followers are holed up in a room, scared that their lives are in jeopardy.

After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples. To prove his identity, he showed them his scars and invited them to touch the scars.

Can you imagine the moment?

Jesus offered his scars as irrefutable evidence of his identity.

I can’t help but wonder if in much the same way, we are to offer our scars to the world as evidence of our identity, our life story, and the healing power of Christ in our life.

But Take Heart

There’s a great verse in the book of John that describes two overlapping realities about life:

John 16:33  I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.

Trial and sorrows will happen. And we’re not talking about your favorite basketball team lost kind of sorrow. We’re talking about the kind of trouble that makes you wonder if there is a God. This is the kind of trouble, pain, or crisis that can rock you to the very core of your foundation.

But notice that he says he’s telling us this so that we can have peace. Anyone interested in this peace he offers? He says “in me” you may have peace. When you immerse your current reality into his reality, that is where peace is found.

We are not exempt from trouble. We are not exempt from hurt and brokenness, but we do have a confidence that Jesus has overcome the world and our past. There is hope in surrendering to him.

Be Who God Made You To Be

“You can be anything you want.” Have you ever heard that phrase? It sounds incredibly inspiring, but it’s devastatingly untrue. It’s a lie. You can’t be anything you want. You can only be who God made you to be.  And to be honest this is really good news because God’s dream for your life frees you to be who you really are, rather than who you think you need to be.

Ephesians 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.

He hasn’t called all of you to start an organization that fights human trafficking around the world. Some of you are called to be a stay-at-home mom. Or an accountant. And they are all equally important. Life is not about doing great things. It’s about doing God things. Don’t chase a dream he hasn’t put on your heart and equipped you for.

Hope Changes Everything

Maybe today you have a shattered dream, or an unmet expectation has left you feeling crushed and disappointed. You don’t understand why life hasn’t turned out the way you thought life was going to turn out. You don’t understand why God hasn’t shown up the way you thought he was going to show up.

Jesus’ death and resurrection reminds me that I can have hope when there is no circumstantial reason to have hope. My hope is not built on things like what the economy does, or what someone thinks of me, or that something in my life hasn’t turned out the way I wanted it to.

Today this is what I want you to know. This is all that matters. Christ was crucified for the redemption of sins and He was buried in the ground, and God the Father brought him back to life. Because of that one event you can have hope.

And hope changes everything.

God Celebrates the Steps

When my son first learned to walk, we were so proud of each and every single step he took. He took a step, he fell. He took two steps, he fell. And we rejoiced and screamed and clapped and cheered him on. We were so proud.  We didn’t concentrate at all on the falls – we picked him back up and set him on his way again. What mattered were all of those tiny steps.

So it is with our Heavenly Father, who rejoices in the steps and heals the falls. So it is with our Father who loves to see us run and doesn’t tire of picking us up when we’ve fallen.

In fact, He says, “I’ve forgotten all about the falls.”

Meanwhile, most of us beat ourselves up over the fall. Jesus is asking, “What fall? I just saw you taking steps. I just saw you running in my grace.”

Easter Planning with Cross Point Kids

Looking for Easter inspiration from our Cross Point Kids turned out to be a lot more interesting than we could’ve imagined. Hope you enjoy some of the fun we’re having as we plan…we can’t wait to celebrate Easter with you this weekend! Details at crosspoint.tv/easter.

https://www.facebook.com/crosspoint.tv/videos/10154026823886796/

 

Easter Carpool Karaoke

Easter is only a couple of weeks away and we’re hard at work planning the celebration weekend! But every now and then, we’ve got to stop and have a little fun. What’s the adventure of a lifetime if you can’t enjoy it along the way?

https://www.facebook.com/crosspoint.tv/videos/10153984765101796/

 

Blurred Vision

I recently hit my forties. I had been told for years that as I got older things would start to change. Metabolism would start to slow down or even crawl. I’d start to develop aches that I didn’t have before.

However, the first change I started to notice was with my vision. My entire life I’ve had 20/20 vision, but all of a sudden I started struggling to see clearly. One day I couldn’t read  teleprompter on a video shoot; the next thing I knew, I couldn’t read street signs!

So, recently, I went to get my first eye exam. Part of the exam included a procedure my eye doctor called “dilating.” He put some drops in my eyes, and for the next several hours I couldn’t see a thing. Everything was blurry.

On my way home I tried to call my wife, and I couldn’t even see the numbers on my phone while I was sitting in the parking lot (don’t worry; I wasn’t trying to drive!). Fortunately, over the next several hours, my sight started to slowly clear.

Similarly, when I am struggling with the gap between my expectations and my present reality, I have to remind myself that fear is a visual impairment. Most of us forget this, especially when we are in the grip of uncertainty, anxiety, or discouragement. Our vision gets skewed by our circumstances, and we start to see things inaccurately. Often, we see things that don’t even exist! I hope you’ll take time today to think about what in your life currently causes your vision to be blurred, and how you can turn that vision to God and maybe, just maybe, start to see more clearly.