Most of the people who read this are over 30. Many are leaders. We have a hugely important role to play in our culture right now. The video below may or may not have a political agenda behind it, but whatever your political beliefs, the truth is , the next generation is indeed more educated, more concerned, more politically involved, and ready to do something to change the world. We as leaders need to be aware of what our culture is doing and how we can best be an influence. We need to read, and listen, and watch and care, and be trustworthy…and learn to trust. The next generation is here and is speaking out. We need to hear them. and they need to hear us. Which means we need to have something to say. Which involves wisdom. Which is a gift from God. Which we need to be asking for.
Watch this.

Thus far in my blogs i generally have posted poignant stories about what God is doing or some fun stuff i just decided to write. I haven’t posted anything for a while and I don’t know why i am posting this. I’ve watched it two or three times. It’s….
I don’t know…watch it and enjoy!

Fascinating to watch so many facebook entries tonight. Lots of excitement. Lots of fear and anger. Lots of worry. And i certainly understand it all. But, and i haven’t really blogged much about politics but there is something to say here. I watched 18000 students and leaders make their way to Bigstuf and home this summer. I stood in front of 12000 leaders just recently at Catalyst. Stopped by the NYWC in Pittsburg last week. Gonna be standing on a stage at Northpoint and Buckhead in a few weeks. And, frankly, when i look out from those platforms, looking at thousands of faces… I see students ready to change the world…and who are doing that now. Adults who seek to learn more and lead. Parents, with some worry but a lot of hope, Leaders who stood and wept and sang as 23 little incredible kids from Kenya (who have no money, no floors or doors in their homes, no electricity and most who have no parents.) And those kids led 12000 leaders who have more than they deserve, into a time of worship that went way beyond something that started on this planet. There is phenomenal evidence of God working in the lives of individuals, who have a lot…and who have nothing. What we all have is an opportunity to walk with and experience the character and wonder and grace of the Creator of this Universe. I have yet to see negativity, fear, cynicism (ok well i kinda like to be a cynic now and then) rudeness, blame,and a mean spirit, to take anyone down the road to the wonder of God.
I have seen people who are dissatisfied use their gifts and influence to make a difference in all of the lives around them.
The character of people of God has historically been used in times of doubt to take us to new and incredible places. Things are the way they are. God hasn’t given us the spirit of fear, but of LOVE , and POWER and of a SOUND MIND. The world needs us to reflect him more than ever before, no matter who may have won this election. What do you say we decide to show the world now who God is….I am more convinced than ever that our 410 Bridge is based on a verse that we should adhere to with grace and humbleness….and strength. “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”
So, grow up and follow… and lead… and watch what God does.
This is our planet. Hold on to the one who made it and help to light it up!

Information about the world we live in is what we have to use to figure out how to do whatever it is God has called us to do. How’s that for depth? Click on it.
What ya gonna do with this?numbers-movie

Here is an older ad…you may have seen it. But it is still pretty darn good.

Ok, so i haven’t blogged in a while and most of the time i end up with some story going on that makes you pull out the kleenex. Cuz hey, there’s a lot of cool stuff going on. If you are new here. I’d love for you to go back and read everything so you can get caught up with what this site is about.
But meanwhile…i saw something that just made me laugh and i think i figured out how to embed it in here so….watch and laugh. BTW it’s a lady named Gladys talking to Ellen. watch the whole thing.
Sorry about the video stuff below the main screen….i don’t know how to not have that there.

If you don’t know Jack, then before you read this blog…go back to all the blogs that are about jack…watch his videos, read the blogs and then come back here and read this…and if you do the same thing reading as i am doing while i am writing, you are gonna need some tissue.(There are a number of them with Jack’s name on them, so this will take a while…but you have nothing at all that will be any better for you than this.)

Last Friday Night, we had our annual fund raiser called Night for Africa. We showed the two videos posted on the earlier this summer about Jack. Then Jack came to the stage. He was kinda quiet at first.
He sat across the table from me on a huge stage in front of 2500 people. He spoke of how thankful he was for all the people who had blessed him and who had helped him to get his arms. As i started to walk with him off the stage he whispered (into my mic) which wasn’t then really a whisper. Mr. Lanny may i say something else? I was a bit nervous but what was I going to say? Sure Jack, say anything you want. I wish i had it recorded, because i won’t do it justice here. But it went something like this. Imagine if you will this monologue in a very broken Kenyan accent spoken from a young man with two artificial arms, who has grown up in the slums with almost no education, but with a beautiful smile and a heart as big as the globe.
“In the book of Joshua, there were men who surrounded a city and they obeyed God and screamed and yelled and made enough noise to bring down the walls of the city of Jericho. There is hunger and poverty and AIDS and death in my country and i would like you to stand and make noise and let it be loud enough that your very voices in this place would begin to ring out loudly and bring down the walls of hunger…and poverty…and disease….and death….and when those walls come down we will have hope. Will you stand with me now and shout?”

Holy Cow (my words) 2500 people stood to their feet and began to shout and i stood on that stage and watched a young man who just months before had been orphaned and trying to figure out how to pick up scraps of food outside of restaurants in Nairobi with no arms to accomplish it….and I saw God’s grace and mercy pouring down on this young man as he valiantly lifted his prosthetic arms to proclaim that we as a people can be used by God to bring down the walls that destroy us.!!!
That, my friends, was combined with the spirit of God working through Jeff Foxworthy, and then the Daraja Children’s Choir to show us the smiles and songs and beautiful face and wonders of God.
Add to that…TONIGHT…

At about seven thirty this evening, most of us were preparing to watch the debates which would potentially tell us the fate of our nation ( to a degree). But about 30 of us were gathered around a swimming pool watching a story with so much more drama, so much more spirit, so much more of the things that make life what it is. I stood beside Jack and grabbed his upper arm ( he wasn’t wearing his prosthetics) and we walked out into a pool together. We laughed because it was cold. We joked because i am old and might not pull him back up in a minute especially since he had nothing to hold on to me with …so it would be all me. I mentioned the story of Mephibosheth in the Bible, where for so long this young crippled boy ran away from David because he thought David would punish him. He wasn’t aware that David was pursuing him to show him his love. Jack had believed for a while that God had punished him but …like Mephibosheth, Jack has learned that God wants jack to sit at the Kings table and eat the kings food…Just as David wished that for Mephibosheth. Becuase He loved him and wants the best for him. God loves jack and wants the best for him and has shown him that in the past few months. And then in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, i slowly brought jack down into the water, held him for a sec,
and raised him back out. His small arms were raised and his smile beamed across his face. for a moment i just stood there thanking God for letting me right there in the center of that cold pool, holding on to a man whom God was holding on to.
Many of the people who entered into Jacks life were there to watch. The man who first heard of him and said he would like to give money to get Jack some arms. The Dr of Prosthetics, who formed Jacks arms and got them to fit. The man who takes care of Jack while he is here. The people who donated special funds and houses and time and energy to take care of Jack while he was here. It was a powerful night.
A young man from the streets of Kenya today professed his faith in Jesus in front of 30 people in a swimming pool in Alpharetta GA. There is a chance that that particular incident will affect more lives than either of the candidates we watched debate tonight. He is going back to his country on Monday.
His whole life is in front of him. Just the way Billy Graham’s life was in front of him when he was 25.
He lives in a starving nation of 32 million people. Maybe he or someone he touches will set his world on fire and help to men to see the real issues. Or maybe, watching him tonight, will help US to see the real issues…and not worry so much about the ones we heard on the Fox network tonight.
Think about that.

I’ve been a bit tired of all the naive ignorance in the rhetoric on both sides of aisle lately.
At Catalyst i got to bring a donkey and an elephant together across the aisle. Mainly just for the fun and the speech that followed. But, the dang elephant was big. I put the picture here because it has a tendency to grab your attention. It’s big. But “big” and “small” are both relative. so…this is just a blog to get your attention because i think the blog before this one is the BIG one. Go back and read it.

Catalyst is over for this year. Night for Africa finished a few hours later. But God is not done yet.
This was an incredible year at Catalyst. I sat in the back with Andy Stanley,Jeff Foxworthy, Franklin Graham, Reggie Joiner, Dave Ramsey, Jim Collins, …the list goes on. and we all chatted at different times about life and God and the financial crises our country was in. We joked around some. Most of the guys came into our little studio and shot part of a rap ….who would think Franklin Graham, Andy stanley or Seth Godin, would even consider doing a rap? Then i went up on the stage with John, Abbu, Gladys, Josephine, Francis and 19 more children from Kenya. This is where i want to be clear.
Andy is one of the most gifted speakers in the world. Dave is helping people all over the nation figure out how to handle finances. Jim Collins has helped more businesses think about how to be successful than maybe anyone. But you just now heard about Francis, and Gladys, and Josephine and John. They all live in houses without doors, with mud floors, have no closets. Their homes are smaller than most of the closets that many of us have. Yet…23 kids from Kenya led 12000 leaders from around the world to a place where we could open our hearts to worship God. The men in the green room stopped what they were talking about and watched these kids…and wept.
Everyone in the back wanted to meet everyone else in the back. People wanted their pictures taken with the famous ones. And i certainly think that is ok. But when i stop to think about it. I see God so clearly in the faces of Francis, and Rodney, and Wanjiru. I love being with ALL of these people but not because of what the world thinks about them. Because of what God thinks about them. He used Jeff Foxworthy this week to make people laugh and cry. He used Abbu to make people stand in awe during a song. He used Andy to make people think. He used little Rodney to shine His glory from a little spot on the stage to light up a whole arena. I am going to post some of the pictures i got this week from Catalyst. I don’t have them all yet but when i post them….here is what you will see.
Earthen Vessels standing beside earthen vessels. Some old. Some new. Some big or small. some cracked and some smooth. They all have been created by a master potter. And there are pieces of Him inside each one.
Until i get the other picts….here is a good one with some of the most precious looking jars of clay lighting up the stage.

I have been working on the Catalyst conference almost every day for maybe close to 37 1/2 hours per day for the last three weeks. Lots of filming, thinking, writing, memorizing, coming up with ideas, shutting down ideas….emailing, etc. Then i remembered we have our Night for Africa the same night as Catalyst. This was either a brilliant idea or a dumb one. Either way…what a week it will be.
It brought to mind some stuff. A bunch of people sit in a room for many days during many months to talk about ideas. What an important thing to do. THINK. We have been programmed and we often stop learning after college. CANT DO THAT! Thinking and coming up with ideas and seeing other ideas and putting them together with the ideas of people around you….that creates New Stuf. I am just gonna ramble here. To tell you to get together with people and talk about what you think about Sarah Palin, and Barack Obama, and what you would do if you had control of 700 billion dollars. and what did CS Lewis do in his free time. And how did you feel the first time you went to see the blue man group and how does that compare with your church and do you like donald miller any less because he says how he is voting, and is the song Healer any less powerful because the writer was a liar. Talk about what you can do with your kids to help them bond with you more, and go home and talk to your kids and see if they know how you feel about their friends. Do you know their friends names? Why would you like Don Miller less. Are you narrow minded and don’t know it?
Why does inhaled helium make your voice higher…do any of these thoughts make you think other thoughts. Are you a writer or a speaker. Are you stuck. If God created us in his image and he is unfathomably creative, does that not mean that you are too, and someone or some culture just ripped it out of you and you have an empty spot where it used to be and there are ways to fill it back up.
Why do we have the “oooh” sound in these words all spelled differently. To, Too, Two, Glue, Flu, shoe, Bleue, who, jew, coo coo, lieu, you ….that is twelve different ways to make the short “u” sound.
Probably because most of them are from an etymological background evolved from a different culture. Why would the word phonics not be spelled fawniks?
this is just a rant.
I like Don Miller. I like Sarah Palin. I know Don better than Sarah.
Here is the thing to end with. Let’s keep reading. Keep learning. Keep having new ideas. Stay open minded. Remember that we might not be as open as we think. We might be wrong. We can be 50 and change our minds about things. Young people need to hear our thoughts. We might be wiser than we think. Love and truth are always the things that win. You may be great at some things you haven’t even tried yet.
Life is short. 95% of the rest of the world don’t have as much as you do. You can make a difference in the world. Maybe one that no one else can make. You’re not using as much of your brain …or your heart…as you can. When your voice mail doesn’t work and you are frustrated with customer service at At&t because they can’t seem to figure it out….and it’s wasting your time as they try….that is not as big a deal as you not doing anything for the people who are starving or hurting who need hope.
Use your head and your heart and your connections…do something GREAT.
No i am not on some strange drug. now and then i just wanna let my brain free flow. so i did.