Here are some pics from Haiti. These are tents that have been supplied by Lord of Life and Lutheran Church Charities for the people of Pastor Mesidor Ernst’s church.
Archive - March, 2010
Tropical Plantation
Only a few more days left on our vacation to Hawaii. Yesterday, we took a tour of a tropical plantation. It was the most educational experience of the trip so far. The tropical plantation is at the base of the mountains in the central valley of Maui. The area just up the mountain from planation receives more than 400 inches of rain every year.
I imagined Hawaii to be filled with sun everyday, but I have learned that it depends where you are on the islands. We have often seen sun and we have often seen clouds. The tropical plantation is one of those places where you will often see the clouds.
Taking the tour we first came to the sugar cane. This was a staple crop of Hawaii, but not so much anymore. Many other things are now being grown in Hawaii beyond the sugar cane. The most interesting thing I found out about the sugar cane was how it is harvested. The first step to harvesting is to burn the field to get rid of everything that is not needed. To burn the field, the plantation will simply turn the irrigation off for about three weeks, and it will be all set to strike the match.
Ti (not the tea we drink) came next. Ti leaves are used for Hula skirts. It is also used as aluminum foil to wrap fish and other food. The tea leaves are very strong and have many uses.
Coconuts are prevalent in Hawaii. You see them on the Palm trees everywhere. We were able to watch a demonstration of this lady husking a coconut. We learned that more people have died in Hawaii from falling coconuts than shark attacks. Coconuts are easy to harvest. You just wait for them to fall to the ground and you are good to go.
I had no idea how pineapples grew. I had always assumed they grew on a pineapple tree. Wrong! They grow from a plant. They will take up to two years to grow. Below is a picture of some pineapples growing.
I learned about Jackfruit. This is the fruit that is used to make Juicyfruit Gum. It supposedly smells awful when cut open. It is also the largest growing fruit in the world.
Didn’t know anything about Bananas either. I learned after the Banana tree produces its fruit it will die. The plantation workers will then cut it down and a new tree will grow up in it’s place.
We learned about Coffee, Papaya, Guava, Macadamia Nuts, and Hawaiian flowers. So much to see here. Hope you enjoyed just a small taste.
Hawaii Vacation
You might have noticed I have not posted in the last few days. That’s because I have been on vacation in Hawaii. Hawaii is so beautiful. It was one of those things where people kept telling me how beautiful it was. I didn’t want to get sucked in to they hype, fearing that the scenery would not match the impossibly high expectations. I would say it surpassed expectations.
Things that have been interesting include:
- Much of the fish we have eaten doesn’t really taste like fish. More like chicken.
- Hawaii doesn’t observe daylight savings. So it is now 5 hours ahead in the central time zone.
- I don’t know how you are expected to concentrate on anything here. When I was playing golf, there were so many distractions. The whales jumping in the background, the beautiful sunsets and rainbows, and of course the weather. It was sensory overload.
- The plane ride is really, really long.
- Everything is more expensive. $6 for a gallon of milk.
- It’s nice to move at a slower pace. We look to do about one thing a day. Yesterday, that one thing was nothing more than go out for dinner. The rest of the day we just hung out at the pool.
- There is an art to cutting a pineapple.
Here are a few of my favorite pics so far:
Productive for Jesus
I have been having one of the most productive days of my life ever! I have been checking things off the to-do list left and right. It is totally awesome. Leaving for vacation has a way of helping you do that. It is like a sprint to the finish.
It got me to thinking, why can’t I be productive everyday. There would be so much that I would be able to accomplish for the kingdom. Just think of all the possibilities.
But as I thought about it some more I realized that I would be burned out in a week. There is a time to work and there is a time to rest. If all we ever did was work, work, and work some more we would be out of balance. Life is more like a long distance marathon than a sprint. If we tried to sprint the whole way we would not make it very far.
Work is a gift from God, and rest is a gift as well. So the question – is your life balanced? If you are finding that you are not living balanced what can you do to discover that balance?
Balance applies to so many things. For example are you taking time to learn God Word and to live the Word. Many Christians fall into the trap of so religiously learning the Word that they never take the opportunity to live out the Word. Sometimes the last thing we need is another Bible Study, because we haven’t applied what we learned in the previous study.
If you need some help finding balance in your life, join me in praying the following prayer. Consider praying it out-loud to pray it with conviction. Lord Jesus, I love you with everything I have. Help me to walk in your footsteps. To walk in sync with you in every area of my life. Help me to find balance between work and rest, between speaking and listening, between learning and doing. Most importantly help me find the balance between the tasks and the relationships you have called me to. May I never be too busy for the people you put into my life. Amen.
On a final note, you might have noticed this email came a little earlier in the week than normal. As I said, this has been an incredibly productive day today and I am getting many of the things done on Monday that I would normally get done later in the week. Tomorrow, Barbara and I will be leaving for our vacation in Hawaii. There will be no weekly email until after I get back next week. I don’t think I can say it enough, but thanks to everyone in the Lord of Life family for blessing us in this incredible way. We love you all!
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
Just finished this book. Listened to it as an audiobook. I would say that this was one of those books that made a lot of sense. There was nothing in this book that I would say was revelatory. Nothing that made me say “wow, I had never thought of that before.”
Yet, I would say this book is a must read for anyone seeking to affect change in their lives, in their business, or in their organization. It really helped think more comprehensively about change. The authors talk about the motivational side of change and the analytical side of change. In other words people need to want to change and they need to have a plan or path to change. So often we focus on the motivational side of change, but don’t give people the path. Or we focus on the path and don’t give people the motivation to change. Both go hand in hand.
We often talk about how people don’t like change. This book seeks to debunk that myth. We write people off because they “don’t want to change.” But Switch shows there are often other factors that create roadblocks to change.
Top take-aways from this book include:
1) Knowing a problem is not solving the problem. Even knowing the cause of the problem is not solving it.
2) Be a bright-spot evangelists. Lift up those who are succeeding in change to show others it’s possible. Change can be contagious.
3) Ambiguity puts change efforts at risk. Clarity dissolves resistance.
4) Create the simplest path to change. It’s not enough to have a clear path if the path is complicated.
5) Compliment and affirm those who are affecting change. They will begin to take even more pride in their change efforts.
6) Instead of saying something is impossible. Say it is not yet.
7) Create action triggers. In other words what actions can I take to initiate a desired behavior. 
Help people develop a growth mindset where they see the brain as a muscle that can be developed.
Definitely considering picking up a hard copy of this book and would recommend it. I also read Made to Stick by the same authors last year, and thought that was an excellent book as well. With both of these books what impressed me was not so much the information but the stories that helped to illustrate their points were always excellent. Four stars out of five!
Instant Gratification vs. Divine Intervention
Living in America, we thrive on instant gratification. I found I have become so spoiled with my iphone. I can find almost anything I want in an instant. Directions, movie times, books, music, websites, it’s all there at the tip of my fingers.
Many of us are not all that good at waiting. We want instant results. I wonder if that is some of the reason we are not so good at developing healthy habits. It will often take some time before we see the dividends.
Many of us overestimate what we can accomplish in the short term, but we underestimate what we can accomplish over time. You are not going to lose 10 lbs in a day, but you might be able to do it over the course of several weeks. You are not going to read your Bible in one sitting, but you can easily accomplish the feat over the course of a year.
Consider the disciples. When Jesus called them, they were not suddenly transformed into the apostles they would become. But Jesus would take these common, non-religious mean and over the course of three and a half years would radically transform them. They would heal the sick, raise the dead, speak with incredible conviction before hostile crowds, and write the Scriptures by the inspiration of God. All in three and a half years. It was not in an instant. There were lessons that were to be learned. Lessons that took some time. But the training was far shorter than one might have expected to lead the largest movement in the history of the world.
If God gives you a gift you may be able to master a skill in an instant. For example, he could give you the ability to pick up the guitar and start playing even though you have never played before. It could happen. More than likely however, if you were to pick up the guitar and you commit to learning to play it for the glory of God – I can almost guarantee you that if the Holy Spirit is working that gift in you, you will pick it up in an amazingly short time. It will take some time. It will take practice. You may take a step back in order to take a few steps forward. There will not be instant gratification, but God will divinely intervene and give you an anointing to do his work.
It is not about your skill, but the Spirit of God working in you. It is not about your ability, but it is about your availability to be used by God. To him be the glory.
EL-burn
Lord of Life by some accounts is considered part Elburn. Although, that is up for debate. It is also considered LaFox at times and has been associated with Campton Hills and with St. Charles as well. It is sometimes aptly described as the church that is nowhere, but somewhere. The reality is that Lord of Life is in just the right place. The reality is that Lord of Life is in all these different communities. The church is not a place. It is not a location. The church is the people of God. So wherever the people are, that is where the Church (with a capital C) is at.
That said – in Men of God this morning, our speaker, Jim Mozderin, shared something I never had crossed my mind about the name of the community Elburn. EL in Hebrew is the shortened form of the word Elohim, which means God. This is stretching it a bit, but using two different languages we get God and burn from the name Elburn.
Fire is the a symbol – oftentimes more than a symbol – of the Holy Spirit. God appeared to Moses in the burning bush that was on fire, yet not consumed by the fire. It was by a pillar of fire the Israelites were led in the desert. God used fire to lick up the water in the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Then came the day of Pentecost and as the disciples gathered in the room, tongues of fire danced on their heads.
Elburn is a place where God is present. His fire burns. The Church in that place is rising up!
The Rise of Facebook
Just goes to show how what is hot one day is out the next. Here is a map of dominate social network sites in 2008.
Just two years later you see how Facebook has risen to dominate. The most surprising is in India where for many years Orkut has been king. Not anymore.
Conspicuously absent from this list – Twitter.
Have you ever googled your name?
I have. Found some interesting stuff about me. I found that there is a software executive with the same name. He has most of the links with my name.
The results came back with the expected stuff like my blog, facebook page, twitter page, and the Lord of Life Church website. There was a few newspaper articles including obituaries from funerals I have done. There was the article about truck accident in front of the church last summer. Also found the transcript from when I led the opening prayer for the Illinois State Senate.
Did a second search on “Phil Ressler Lutheran.” That was a little easier to sort through. Dug up the dirt on me in the church world. Most all the search results turned up in this search were me.
Lesson to be learned here. Watch what you post online. What you write online will follow you. I wonder how many people would be embarrassed by what they would find online about themselves if they did a simple search. Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, was recently quoted saying, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place . . .” Big brother Google will find you!
In Courage
Do you ever feel discouraged? I am sure you have from time to time. We all face discouragement. This coming Sunday I will be talking about overcoming discouragement, but I wanted to give you a little preview with my weekly email.
When overcoming discouragement, it is important to understand what discouragement is. Discouragement is birthed out of doubt. It happens when we doubt our ability or when we doubt an outcome. Discouragement comes when we convince ourselves we don’t have what it takes to effect the change that is needed. Discouragement happens when we have a certain vision of the future and we become convinced it is impossible to get there from where we are.
Have you ever noticed that both the words “encouragement” and “discouragement” are rooted in the word? It’s about courage! “Discouragement” is about a lack of courage while “encouragement” is about moving in courage.
The truth is the greater the opportunity there is for discouragement, the greater the opportunity will be for us to show courage. We can be sure that with any vision we have from God – anything worth doing – we will face plenty of opportunities to become discouraged but at the same time we will have plenty of opportunity to move in courage.
Jesus has come to immunize his followers against discouragement. No matter what the circumstance we can be encouraged and move in courage because we know we have Jesus on our side and the outcome has already been decided.
On Sunday, I will share several ways to fight discouragement and to move that in courage. One of the ways I will share with you now. It is to focus on God and not upon our circumstances.
If you are feeling discouraged, praise God. Yes. You heard me right. Praise God. That might seem a bit backwards. You might be saying, “if I am discouraged, why would I praise God?” But it is about our focus.
If I am discouraged, where is my focus? — On my circumstances and lack of ability.
If I am praising God, where is my focus? — My focus is on God.
Discouragement comes from looking down. Encouragement comes from looking up.
You say, well I don’t really feel like praising God.
Here is the deal. You were created to praise. You were created for worship. The question is not if you will praise and worship, the question is what you will praise and worship.
If you don’t give your praise to God, you will be giving your praise to something or someone else. Praise is about declaring God worthy. It is about declaring him able. It is about declaring him King of kings and Lord of lords. It asserts that he has dominion over all things.
When you wallow in discouragement you are declaring that whatever it is holding you down holds dominion, authority, and power over you that is greater than God’s dominion, authority, and power.
So praise God! When you start to praise Him, the Holy Spirit will start to take over. He will create within you a clean heart and a right spirit. He will plant within you the fruit of the spirit which include peace and joy.
As the prophet Isaiah declares, ‘The Spirit of God will give you a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.’ (Isaiah 61:3)
On Sunday, I will share a bit more about this topic with additional insight from God’s Word on how to overcome discouragement. It will also be Teacher Appreciation Sunday. So come help us show our thankfulness to the teachers of our Lord of Life Preschool and to the teachers of our community as well.
Last but not least, if you have not yet taken the transformational church survey. Please do so as soon as possible. You can find the info and the link on the Lord of LIfe Church website. Have a great week!