If you follow the PURE blog at all you know that I don’t respond to that little calendar reminder very often, or often enough.  To be fully transparent most of the time I click Ignore and think nothing of it.  That’s probably due to the fact that I am wrapped up in responding or catching up on emails, Facebook messages, or working on the final (or not so final) touches to the message for that Wed.

What you might notice instead of a Blog…a few Instagram’s and a few Tweets that point toward Wed nights and encourage or tease you to show up, watch online, or invite your family and friends.  Here’s a little secret no pastor wants to admit but everyone has wrestled with…every pastor, speaker or leader has a crippling fear that no one will show up.  So from time to time those of us who haven’t totally let go of that fear…do silly things like advertise our stuff the day of the service or the event…when truthfully that might work a little but really people showing up has NOTHING to do with us.

Wheeeeww…ok got that out of the way.

If you are like me you might find yourself from time to time ignoring those little reminders.  And if we are brutally honest with ourselves we know that those little reminders start to pile up and they grow into something much larger.  In this case, an unfulfilled audience that looks for hope and encouragement from time to time through the things that I share about my life and what I am learning.

If we ignore that reminder to pay a bill or that reminder to track our finances…we might get away with it for a while but after a bit…a problem starts to brew.  While its obvious with finances…its not always so obvious in other places like relationships, leadership, or our spiritual lives.

There are constant reminders that pop up. Life Lesson :: don’t click ignore.  There might be fear, anxiety, chaos and failure to face when we acknowledge that reminder. But…here’s what I am learning…your hole that you think His grace isn’t big enough to fill…It is.  Call it your Grace Hole.

I have forever made decisions in ministry, counseling and leadership that I didn’t think twice about…major ones.  But when it comes to my personal money and marriage (I named it my ‘M&M)’ I ‘know’ that they are God’s and that they always have been.  When it comes down to the day to day decisions and living that out I haven’t lived like they were.

Why?  All of our reasons for living in fear or holding on to stuff stem from different places…but here is what I know about me.

Marriage – Last year (I think) I truly began to make decisions and live like God was responsible for and owned my marriage (future speaking of course) and made some fun crazy decisions and moves toward that next season in life.  And I can honestly say that I am to a place that I fully trust what He is doing and going to do…thank God for Grace.

Money – I am learning that over the last 2 years I have worked really really hard to ‘fix’ my financial situation.  I have tried and tried and sold things and tried to pay debt off.  But every effort I have made I have done with the thought that it was my job to figure it out.  What I didn’t do…make decisions based off the right set of figures.  The figure I left out…That my money mess, my personal debt, was His.  It was my mistake but my life, money, and relationships belong to Him…no matter how messed up, backwards or confused they are.  MyGrace Hole…I didn’t think that my debt, my financial decisions were worthy enough to be His…so I lived like they were mine.

It might sound crazy that my Grace Hole, in this stage of life at least, is money…it probably isn’t for you.  What I do know is that your ‘Thing’ might be different and this might just help you learn a lesson that’s taken me a long time to get my head and heard around.

-Shane

823

The question is still lingering for some of us…

“What is the One Thing that keeps us from fully following or committing to being a follower of Jesus?”

No doubt some walked away from Wed knowing exactly what you had to share with someone this week…you knew exactly what that one thing is.  And I hope you took the challenge to do it before this Wed.  Some of us still think that there is no way it could just be 1 or 2 things and we gave up because it was too complicated to tackle…so for those that forgot or got overwhelmed this is for you.

• -Don’t Over Complicate It!
•      We love to make things complicated…it makes it easier to not deal with.  So don’t over complicated this!!! It’s simple get down to that 1 or maybe those 2 things you know are you big hang ups.
• -Don’t Get Confused
•      Most of us, if you’re like me and love to focus on the symptom without tackling the source.  When we try to ‘manage’ the symptom or build coping mechanisms sometimes we forget that there is something further under the surface that is driving that symptom…the source.
•      So don’t confuse the Symptom with the Source! They aren’t the same!  If we only treated the symptoms of Pneumonia, we treated the cough and congestion, but never sought out the the source and realized the fluid remaining in the lungs is the source of the body’s illness we would have perpetually reoccurring pneumonia.
•    The Point:: Tackle the Source, Dont Just Treat the Symptom
•         Maybe Anger is your ‘One Thing.’  Then ask yourself this questions…What is it that makes me have a short temper: Im angry….and then ask why am I angry?  Usually we will find someone hurt us.

My One Thing::

For a couple years now I have been sharing that the One Thing that has held me back in life was fear.  Sometimes it was fear of being rejected or not being accepted (thats a symptom of the source that is hurt and pain from being rejected or being told I wasn’t good enough).  One of those fears was trusting God to make me a better manager of my own personal $.  Confession #2, I think money is an awesome tool, but I have a very unstable and anxiety driven relationship with it!  So of course for me my one thing…facing my $ fears.  Today I can tell you that not tackling that fear sooner has cost me a lot.  More than I may ever know.  What I know most recently is that it cost me the ability to become a husband.  Does that mean that the door has closed…I think and believe that Grace has something to say about that and everything is redeemable…but for now I have my ‘One Thing.’ What’s yours?

So the challenge is still there…figure it out…and tell someone your ‘One Thing.’
-Shane

live//PC

Moving Forward Requires us taking a Step…Sometimes that Step requires huge amounts of Faith.

Here are what we think are the keys to taking that step:: Enjoy

• Connect, Commit, Serve, Share 
  • -Connect
    • -In Community Groups, Counseling (if you have stuff you know you need to work through), Classes (learning is always good)
      • -Circles are better than rows
      • -Conversations are better than being talked to
    • -This step is the most important to everyone we know with a meaningful healthy relationship with Jesus…we asked and they all said connecting changed them! We think it can change you.
  • -Commit
    • -To community group, and healing, and then when you explore enough commit to Jesus, were here to help, we can’t create your experience with God, that’s between you and Him but we consider winning in our environment when the atmosphere is created where you can!
  • -Serve
    • -You have a treasure, it may be small but give what you got! You have more than you started with…empty whatever is in your cup and give it to someone else!
  • -Share
    • -Tell your story…at home, work, school, in bed at night (for the married people only haha).  Take a risk.  Your story matters!
      • -Jesus didn’t die for Heaven. He died for now too!!
    • -Take what you know and share it!!

If you would like to know more about his life…it was incredible…You Can Read his Autobiography here.

application-packet-2013global-outreach-trips

A habit to learn?  Yes…for me at least its one that has helped reshape my outlook on life, God, and leading.

We will talk about these tonight but heres a few thoughts about looking (call it reflecting or observing if you want):

• Look Back -> He was there, He shapedyou and your life, He prepared you for now.
• Look Around -> His crafting relationship for and with you right now.  Wednesday and Sunday should just be a fraction of our spiritual experiences.
• Look Ahead -> Ask :: Instead of waiting or anticipating that He hasnt already started doing something…ask if He has already started doing it.  Better yet, look for it, we might just be surprised by what we find.

-Shane

live//PC

Even though there is a broad crosscut each and everyweek at PURE each of our life stages share a common thing.  The need for Purpose.  All of us at some point ask the question ‘what am I supposed to do with my life?‘  Mabye for you it was ‘Why on earth am I alive??!!  What am I here for!!??’  No matter where we are in life the question still remains until we settle it with Him.

There’s 3 questions we ask before we do anything at PURE.  1. What do we want people to know? 2. What do they need to do?  3. How are we going to help them get there? (or in other words, what’s their next step?)

Sounds formulaic right?  Its not for us…we really do it to make sure that we arent just doing things for the sake of doing them and that we are following the PURPOSE we felt was given to us 5 years ago.

So ‘What Now?‘ What now is the question most of us ask after we encounter Jesus open the door for Him to be in our life and run it.  Our thought…lets talk about it.  So for the next few weeks were having a conversation about God’s will for our lives.

Fewer things in life are more transforming and motivating than understanding, realizing and living out the PURPOSE we were created and stuck on this big ball of dirt for!  Can’t wait to hear what He says and the ‘ah ha’s‘ that come out of the next few weeks on Wed, in community groups, outreach and worship.

-Shane

live//PC

So about principles.  We recognize that while not always the case some of what we communicate as principles can be questioned.  The best principles are those we know to be universal to all people to be absolutely true.  I don’t know for sure, but I am guessing to some degree or another you find the reality of the values, habits and lifestyle choices built in you, both good and bad, through the environment you grew up in to be central to the way you operate think and function.

So do I.  And there have been 2 unwavering principles in my life that have never faltered in the last 22 year.  The first; the local church is central to the Gospel and Jesus instruction to us as followers.  The second; Go, share, live in the places I ask…the world needs to know.

Those 2 principles have been pounded into my life through my heart and head.  They were 2 principles that my parents didn’t have to discipline me in order for them to stick.  They themselves lived them out.  As uncomfortable as it was for them to do and no matter how counter-intuitive it might be they still choose to love the church and go.  They went and still go places that are often uncomfortable, hot, cold, dirty, or otherwise beyond their comfort level to love and sacrifice their lives for both principles.

So tonight we venture down a road well travelled by my life…a road that leads to uninviting neighborhoods, jungle trails, and dirty cities full of motor bikes, rice, and usually as much coffee as I can get my hands on (those of you who know me well, you are probably laughing just a little right now).  I hope you will join us on our journey for the next few weeks toward understand what it means to ‘Live the Call.’

would love to hear what you thought about our community.

Second, if you are a Christian, or a follower of Jesus, there is always need for us to go somewhere.  Our mission in this life is to be active moving and sharing that overwhelming message of HOPE, Jesus is alive and loves.  Think about that…we complicate the message often but at the end of it all.  It’s really simple ‘Jesus died, He is alive, and wants us to know Him.’

But…as you make decisions to shape this year just a thought…

“The one thing needed above all others today is that we should go be apart with our Lord, and sit at His feet in the sacred privacy of His blessed presence. Oh for the lost art of meditation  Oh, for the lost culture of the Secret Place!”

The truest form of a secret place is deep in your soul…but sometimes…often in fact we need the space for that place to flourish.

See ya tonight!

-Shane

live//PC

The frightening truth is that looking at others meant I missed the divine reflection that HE was generating all along.  Moment by moment, scene by scene of my life were being reflected back to me in the way that He saw and sees me and I, for decades, have never been brave enough to stare back in that reflection   Maybe it was because I was scared that what I would see might be something vulgar and eternally disappointing.  The older I have become the more I realize I am actually afraid that I might look into the reflection and see the image of something valuable, useful, and see standing behind me in that reflection, a Father, a scarred Son, and a beautiful Spirit beaming with joy and affection at me.  The unfiltered, unaltered beautiful creation They have been enamored with since Their first breath into humanity.

The paradox of all of us (the quirky weird way we all work) isn’t much of a mystery…we just don’t talk about it very much.  We try to as we dialogue about God, humanity, and the necessity of our spirituality at PURE, in our community groups, and when we invest through outreach but it is still something we are unfamiliar with.

The truth is…Normal is a Myth.  Proof: Here is the abnormal normality you know as Shane Carroll.

• I love Jesus but regularly let Him down, grieve the Spirit, and fail to understand the Father’s love the way He intends for me to.
• I possess a high level of intelligence (according to an IQ scale), but school has always been a challenge that at times I have failed to understand and overcome.
• I understand financial principles, the basics of macro and micro economics, Keynesian theory and understand God’s perspective on money but regularly find myself struggling to reorient myself to managing His money (after all my personal money is all His, so is yours…like it or not) the way I know I need to and strive to be good at this someday before I die (of maybe just marry someone insanely gifted here and just worry about caring for people, that would work too).
• I have a degree in Politics and Government, spent much of my upper division coursework studying Political Philosophy, read books many people refuse to even pick up, yet still wrestle with how to vote from time to time, and regularly remember why I love what God did in this country and recognize that what once was may never be again, and that isn’t always a bad thing.
• I have a sick fascination with musical theory and love music, particularly Chicago Blues, but struggle just to play an acoustic guitar at a respectable level.
• I was given a crazy gift and ability to hit a baseball, yet walked away from a potential career to live overseas with YWAM and have never played competitively since.
• I adore the game of f’utbol (soccer) and play every week even though I know I am terrible at it.
• At 10 I encountered a demon for the first time, at 9 someone asked if I would like to be ‘filled’ with the Spirit and prayed for me to recieve the gift of tongues (click to see WOL’s understanding of the gifts) and until 16 thought that was normal and all Christians had that experience as kids.
• I see the ‘filling of the Spirit’ as a calling for all Christians, yet one of the most instrumental people in me staying in ministry would have never called him self Spirit-filled but he was one of the most Spirit-filled men I have ever known.
• I preached for the first time at 14, but didn’t realize I had a gift and calling until 25
• I spent 2.5 years doing graduate work for a M.A. in Christian Leadership but regularly find myself at a loss in decision making as a leader, instead of figuring it out myself I ask our team what they think and every time realize that all my schooling didn’t prepare me to love people, only to think about them.
• My dad is a successful pastor by just about every standard a pastor is measured by in our culture today, I lead with him at one of the 100 fastest growing churches in America, and far too often I find myself his critic instead of his biggest fan.  I’m sorry for that Dad…someday I want to be able to declare that I am your biggest fan!

All this and I still only know one thing…I am not normal, my life has never been normal, never will be and neither has yours.  Our stories are unique, and should be told, viewed and embraced that way.  Normal is a Myth, its something we make up to project the confusion we find in sorting through the mess we call our hearts and lives.  Normal is irrelevant  I tried to be ‘normal’ or ‘relevant’ and only ended up in one place, confused, lost and untrue to the story that was built in me.  The real normal is found in that reflection, the one where He is smiling back at us.

-Shane

live//PC