No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems….
Vacation time baby!!!! I am out of here for the next week…
Here are two videos that describe my approach to vacation (Minus all the drinking stuff!)
Also, while I’m gone . . . I highly recommend checking out these blogs/posts:
Here are some links to past posts I’ve written that were popular and that I believe will add value to your life… So here you go:
What Experiences and Opportunities are You Giving Away?
July 30, 2009 by bubba
Filed under Blog, Ministry, My Life, leadership
Giving Away Experiences and Opportunities Will Produce Vision in Others
Tomorrow I’ll be leaving for vacation in North Carolina – so pumped! I’m going with a family that offered to take me for free. A free vacation… Such a blessing. It got me thinking though… This family is choosing to love me and allowing me to have an experience that I wouldn’t have been able to have on my own. Here is what I know about Experiences and Opportunities in my life:
- Because someone introduced me to Starbucks, I now enjoy the Starbucks experience
- Because people have taken me on vacation with them I’ve been to places I would have never gone in my life: NYC, Chicago, Bar Harbor, Maine, DC, etc.
- Because someone gave me an opportunity to speak and develop my gifting, I’m now able to speak to large audiences often.
- Because people modeled what an awesome Godly family looks like, I now have a vision of how I’ll raise my family.
- Because someone was willing to share Christ with me, I’m now able to experience God everyday.
These experiences and opportunities all expanded my vision for my life. My vision for what life could be like, what a relationship with God could be like, what wearing nice clothes would be like, what raising a Godly family would be like, what annual vacations with my family would be like, the list goes on and on.Edit Post ‹ BubbaSmith.net — WordPress
What’s my point? Some people have never experienced a cup of coffee at Starbucks, have never been on vacation, have never owned a pair of nice clothes, have never got to use their gifting, have never seen what a healthy family looks like, or have ever experienced God in their lives.
All too often we take these things for granted, not recognizing that if we’d share our experiences with people or giving them an opportunity that they wouldn’t normally have, that we’d increase their vision for their life and ultimately, their quality of life.
Imagine someones life being changed forever cause you shared Christ with them or someone getting a vision for their future, or career, or family, etc. because you shared your own experiences with them. Imagine someone changing the world with their gifting because you gave them a chance to use it. Is there any greater privilege?
What experiences are you sharing? What opportunities are you giving?
When’s The Last Time You Got Stretched?
July 27, 2009 by bubba
Filed under Blog, Ministry, My Life, leadership
“Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life.” –Proverbs 19:20
I just got back from a training to become a Making it Count Speaker. Man did I get stretched! To make a long story short, I had to memorize 2 presentations and present them before trainers (who are all veterans with the company) along with the other speakers trying out. I felt like I was in front of Simon trying out for American Idol!
Did I mention I was probably the youngest one there? Everyone else consisted of professional actors, professional speakers, pastors, business owners, teachers, etc… A ton of talent was in the room…just a little intimidating – So what did I learn through the process??? SOME VALUABLE LESSONS!
1.) The Value of CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM – Speaking in front of other professional speakers and having them critique my communication skills was very humbling, but they did it in love and gave me things to work on that will make me better. I’m so glad they were willing to be honest with me.
2.) To Check the Source of Compliments – We should want complimented by people who do what we do. That should actually encourage us more than someone who is just saying “good job” because they appreciate our gifting.
3.) Our Gifts Need Challenged - When was the last time you were actually stretched in the area of your gifting? It took this weekend to realize it’s been a while for me. If it’s been a while for you, I strongly recommend you do something to get out of your comfort zone.
4.) I Need Coaches, You need Coaches – Definitely want to start pursuing coaches in the areas of communicating and writing… anyone have any contacts that would be good? If you’re gifted in an area – find a coach in that area, no matter how good you think you are.
Thoughts?
A New Adventure, Irony, and God’s Sense of Humor
27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; I Cor. 1:27
I’m in Cincinnati this weekend for a new opportunity to be a Making it Count Speaker. I heard about this opportunity through a friend. Essentially, I’ll get certified in different programs that will enable me to go into high schools and speak to the students during an assembly. Pretty cool right?
The best part is, I’ll be talking to the students about how to make their lives count…How to Make High School Count and How to Make College Count. I’ll be teaching them basic principles like time management, the importance of good grades, what colleges look for, how to become a good test taker, etc..
Why is that the best part, funny, and ironic?
Because I graduated high school with a 1.6 GPA, never did any homework, never thought about college, thought I’d be a janitor, etc. . . . Then I met God! It’s been 6 years since I graduated High school and God has done some incredible things in my life. And now He’ll be using me to go influence teenagers in high schools all over the place on living their lives on purpose.
Why share this with you?
Because God Really Does Use and Call Morons!!! It’s in the Bible… I think if some of my teachers saw me now, they’d have heart attacks! I don’t care where you are in life, God can get you out and use you for great things.
God Really Does Want to Do SuperAbundantly Above ALL YOU COULD DARE ASK, THINK, HOPE, or IMAGINE (Eph. 3:20) – I never thought I’d be doing anything with my life, God has done beyond and above anything I ever imagined in my life and He’ll do the same for you.
God gets All the Glory – People who knew me when I wasn’t walking a God, I’m sure would look at my life and what I’m doing and think… That had to be God… and they’d be right. And my hope is that God will get the glory and people will see the goodness of God and start to pursue Him.
Thoughts?
Cedar Point, $120 Million, and the Church
11 Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. 12 So two good things will result from this ministry of giving—the needs of the believers in Jerusalem[f] will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God.13 As a result of your ministry, they will give glory to God. For your generosity to them and to all believers will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ. II Cor. 9:11-13
Tuesday we took our Youth Group to Cedar Point. As usual, it was an awesome time! As I’ve mentioned several times every time I go somewhere with large throngs of people, I love to people watch and dream. I saw thousands of people enjoying Cedar Point and I got to thinking… They all came to have an “experience of a lifetime” riding all the thrilling rides Cedar Point offers. They had no problem paying hundreds of dollars for their families to come to the park to enjoy the rides that last less than 1 minute. I started looking into the cost of these Minute and a half joy rides:
The Cost of Building the Millennium Force – $25 Million
The Cost of Building the Top Thrill Dragster – $25 Million
The Cost of Building The Maverick – $21 Million
It’s estimated that Cedar Point has spend for $120 million building rides since 2000. Yet, I’ve never heard anyone complain about Cedar Point spending too much money to build rides. I never hear anyony tell Cedar Point that all that money could be given to the poor.
But, as soon as the church starts spending millions to build a new building, start a new program, and do stuff for people, people go crazy. “The church just wants my money” “The pastor just wants my money” “They could be giving all that money to the poor”. Here is just a few thoughts I have about money, giving, and the church: -
- The Result of Us Giving and the Church having Money is Changed Lives – I’ve never heard of anyone whose life was changed forever cause they went to an amusement park. Can you put a price on someones life turning around forever? A restored marriage? Getting purpose? Developing a relationship with God? Without money Cedar Point could not provide the experience they do, without money, the church can not provide the change that they need to.
- You Choose Where You go to Church – The reason most people complain about giving and how churches use their money is because they have been in a church that has not managed their money well. You choose where you go to church, I wouldn’t settle for anything less than going to a church that uses their money wisely to reach people. How do you know if they do or not? Look to see if lives are being changed on a continual basis.
- Receiving is Overestimated, Giving is Underestimated - I promise you’ll get no greater joy in your life than when you give of your time, talent, and money. I’ve never met anyone who tithes and gives offerings consistently that has ever complained about it.
- There is so Much Money in the World – I think it’s easy to think that there is a shortage of money in the world, but that is not true at all. In fact, there is a ton of money in the world. Watch Cribs, go to Beveryly Hills, go to Qatar… you’ll see there is no lack of wealth in the world.
- A “Whatever it Cost” Mentality - Cedar Point never thinks about what its going to cost to build a top-quality ride. Why? Because people will love it and it will get paid for because of that. We need to adopt the same mentality… We should never think about what it costs to reach people. As people get their lives changed, they’ll start to give in order for others to have their lives changed. We need to reach people no matter what it costs.
- Everybody Wants Your Money - Cedar Point wants your money, Nike, Giant Eagle, Banana Republic, etc. above the church wanting your money, God wants your money. It’s all over scripture and the church is the God’s tool to use to reach the world. The purpose of God and the church having your money is to change peoples lives. So, if peoples lives are getting changed, I’ll never scoff at the price.
The Bible says where your money is, your heart is.If you were to look at your checkbook and see where you’ve been spending your money, my question to you is, are peoples lives getting changed as a result of where you give your money? If not, you’re missing out on one of the greatest joys you can experience. Being involved in changing a life…
Long post… have a lot of this on my heart and so much more… but I’ll save it for later..Thoughts?
I have an Addiction
July 20, 2009 by bubba
Filed under Blog, Ministry, My Life, leadership
If I’ve been challenged in any area of my walk with God it’s the constant battle of learning about God (information) and knowing God (intimacy). I absolutely love learning, in fact, I often feel like Neo from the Matrix when I listen to tapes, read books, etc.. I get all of this information crammed in my brain and it makes me feel amazing, for the moment. I’m addicted to gathering information.
Glen Packiam recently wrote a book that I haven’t gotten a chance to read yet, called Second Hand Jesus. The thesis is essentially that we live in a culture that experiences God 2nd hand through books, listening to sermons, etc.instead of experiencing Him for ourselves.I believe we’ve experienced a lot of things second hand.
Over time, I’ve come to the realization that I can know a ton about God, but not KNOW God. I can know a lot about leadership, but not actually be leading. I can learn a lot about love, but not actually love. I can learn a lot about successful relationships, and have nothing but shallow relationships.
While I’ve experienced God for myself, I haven’t to the level that I want to. While I’ve led to a certain level in my life, I haven’t developed my potential as a leader as I should have . . . you get the picture. All because I’m more focused on information than intimacy, learning than doing, talking instead of walking…
The problem with this lifesytle is that it’s not real. Until you’ve moved beyond information to intimacy, learning to doing, talking to walking… You’ve never actually lived what you’ve learned, but how often do we learn something new and believe we’re living it because we’ve read it.
I don’t know if you struggle with this or not, but I know this, I’m finished living this lifestyle. While I’m comitted to being a life long learner, I’m making a commitment to refuse to continue to just gather information so I can say I did or quote something cool from a book or sermon. Instead, I’m going to start focusing on being with God, actually leading, actually doing what I’m learning. I know this is the season God is bringing me into… and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
What about you? Are you an information addict? What do you do to combat this?
I Have a Great Life – Do You?
“I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).” John 10:10
13 But they soon forgot what he had done. . . Psalm 106:13
Yesterday, I had lunch with Pastor Larry Bettencourt, a long time mentor and friend. He was pouring into my life about some things and he said this statement (which probably seemed insignificant to him), but that God used to blow me away!
He said, “Bubba, you have and have had a great life.”
He was saying that because I’m so focused on a hundred different things and on going a hundred different places. It’s like I’m convinced that if I’ll just achieve a little more, do more, accomplish more, be more that I’ll finally be satisfied with my life and be content.
When he said that, I knew it was true… I really have had an amazing life. However, I haven’t been taking time to enjoy life, enjoy the experiences, enjoy everything God has done and is doing in my life. I’ve been doing, doing, doing, striving, striving, striving so much that it’s hard for me to slow down and enjoy anything.
God has been faithful in the past and He’ll be faithful in the future and He wants me (and you) to enjoy our lives and enjoy the journey. Everything we’re trying to achieve and the places we’re trying to get to will both be impossible without God, and even if we achieved some of it and went to some of the places we want to in life, we’ll end up looking back and realizing we didn’t enjoy any of it.
So I’m making a decision from here on out… I’m going to choose to enjoy life, enjoy the journey and recognize and thank God for a great life. I’m going to thank Him for a great life so far and trust Him and thank Him for a great future.
As I slow down and look at my life… it truly is a great life and I have God to thank for that. I’ll never forget it! I’m so thankful He reminded me of this truth…
So how about you? Do you have a great life? Are you thankful for everything God has done in your life?
11 Rules in Life
July 14, 2009 by bubba
Filed under Blog, Ministry, leadership
I shared these with our summer of service students yesterday and I thought it’s something that might interest you. They are from a book by Charles Sykes entitled “Dumbing Down our Kids”. Definitely hits home… Let me know what you think.
Rule 1: Life is not fair -- get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping -- they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
Book Review: The Hole in Our Gospel (A Must Read)
July 13, 2009 by bubba
Filed under Blog, Book Reviews
This is another book I probably would have never read if I wasn’t a part of Thomas Nelson’s Books for Bloggers Program. This book is written by Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision. Let me start off by saying that this should be required reading if you’re breathing! This would make a great book for small group curriculum, to go through with friends, and family. It conveniently has a study guide with questions for each chapter in the back of the book.
This book will open your eyes to so many different issues that need addressed around the globe and really challenge you to something about it. Here were some of my highlights:
- Are you willing to be open to God’s will for your life?
- When we say that we want to be His disciple, yet attach a list of conditions, Jesus refuses to accept our terms. His terms involve unconditional surrender.
- It takes transformed people to transform the world.
- If Christ is Lord, then nothing He asked us to do is optional. his teaching become the operating system of our lives.
- It’s not what you believe that counts; it’s what you believe enough to do.
- What does God expect of you? Everything.
- Our compassion for others seems to be directly correlated to whether people are close to us socially, emotionally, culturally, ethnically, economically, or geographically.
- Don’t fail to do something just because you can’t do everything
- We must not, as Christians, stick our heads in the sand and pretend that the world is doing just fine because we are.
- We must never see poverty or justice as “issues” that need solutions; rather we must see the human beings at the heart of those issues as people who need and deserve our love and respect.
- A church that lives within its four walls is no church at all.
- It would take a little over 1% of income of the American Christians to life the poorest one billion people in the world out of extreme poverty.
- God never asks us to give what we do not have . . . But He cannot use what we will not give.
- We, as Christians can look at our broken world, shrug our shoulders and say, “That’s just the way things are.” Or we can instead embrace a vision of what could be – if we’d pitch in.
As I said before this is a must read and it will open your eyes and your heart to start to see the world as God does, and hopefully it will launch you into action to change this world.
Final Grade: A+ Buy it here!
Ministry Highlight: World Vision
July 10, 2009 by bubba
Filed under Blog, Featured Ministries, Videos
Ministry Highlight: World Vision
What they do: To Read About World Vision Click Here
Websites: WorldVision.Org + You can follow them on Twitter Here!
Get Involved: Find out how you can help – There are several options!
My Thoughts: I’ve been reading “The Hole in Our Gospel” by Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision. This book has been transforming the way I see global issues facing our world and really challenging me about my part in doing something about it. Since reading it, I’ve become a sponsor for a child in Africa. For $30 a month you can provide: Clean Water, Nutritious Food, Health Care, including AIDS Prevention, Educational Opportunities, Spiritual Nurture, Care for Sick or Dying Parents. and HIV and AIDS counseling for a child. I’d highly recommend picking up the book, sponsoring a child, and getting involved in any way you can… It’ll change your life, and more importantly… the lives of others.
