I’ve been teaching all my girls how to play the guitar for years.  So, when I watch this little guy…it just makes me a little mad at God.  This kid is just born with a freak talent, a natural gift, and he is as cute as a bug!  As much as I try not to, I still kind of don’t like this little punk.  Why him and not me or my girls?  I’m just playin! We have a blast playing together and singing as a family!  In fact, here’s a link to my little girl Moriah and Ally just singing, playing, and worshipping the other night!  Now that is some good stuff…how in the world could I be upset with God at all about that??

Do you ever meet somebody and wish that you were them?

Yesterday we shared our personalities and it really brought out a ton of great conversation and self-examination.  I loved seeing you learn about yourselves and learning about you.  Today..let’s take it one step further and talk about the importance of listening to those around you as a sounding board.  A lot of times it takes those who know you the best in order to help bring some of your strengths, gifts, talents, and weaknesses to light.  For me, that person is primarily my wife along with a few men.  (This works in any setting, especially in leadership, to know your team better and to help a staff to work together, however, for me, it has been the most beneficial in my marriage.)  A lot of marriages and relationships stop taking the time to learn about one another and instead of doing the work, they give up.  become a “students of your spouse or significant other!” So, for my wife and I to do the Meyers-Briggs” test together was a HUGE revelation of…“OH…so, you’re not just trying to irritate me…you really are just that way!!”

See, Ally is the exact opposite of me!  Again, I am an ENFP and the antithisis of that is an ISTJ, so the slogan, “opposites attract” is literally very true in my marriage!  Ally is the “Duty Fulfiller” and I am “The Inspirer”.  Let me flesh that out for you…I am the optimistic dreamer and she is the realistic responsible one.  At times, it makes it very hard to even have a conversation…we are so polar opposites that it’s not funny.  I want to jump off the cliff and spend, she wants to read a book and save.  For Ally and I to embrace one anothers differences will be a lifelong pursuit.  We are so incredibly different that it’s not even funny.  There are still days that we drive one another nuts, but on the same hand, we are best friends!  I could not possibly find a better match for me.  I married way-way up and I often feel sorry for her having to tolerate me.  Like I stated yesterday, there are a lot of things about myself that really gets on my own nerves!!  For example, I wish that I had better control of my tongue.  Ally is so reserved, and only speak what she means.  I, on the other hand, have to process out-loud, and it continually gets me in a ton of trouble!  I’m telling you…I would not want to be married to me! Anyhow, I have really enjoyed the process of “embracing the differences!”  It has required a lot of self examination, hard conversations, and revealing truths about our character together.  In the end, it has been some of the best work that I’ve ever done in my life!

What personality traits do you have that get on your own nerves?

I don’t know if you are into personality profiles, but they really intrigue me.  I don’t want to be defined by it, but I do want to maximize my relationships and knowing your personality often helps me in how to develop relationships, lead effectively, and respond appropriately to the people that I work with and love the most.  I’ll go ahead and let the cat out of the bag…I am an ENFP…there I said it…now you know!  Sometimes, I don’t really like my personality type because of how much I crave attention, try to please others, and always want to play.  I have a friend that says that I am an E N F U…but that’s not true!!!    Here are some of the traits of my portrait:  (More extensive study of an ENFP PORTRAIT )

ENFPs take their relationships very seriously, but also approach them with a childlike enthusiasm and energy. They seek and demand authenticity and depth in their personal relationships, and will put forth a lot of effort into making things work out. They are warm, considerate, affirming, nurturing, and highly invested in the health of the relationship. They have excellent interpersonal skills, and are able to inspire and motivate others to be the best that they can be. Energetic and effervescent, the ENFP is sometimes smothering in their enthusiasm, but are generally highly valued for their genuine warmth and high ideals.

I have found the meyers-briggs to be very comprehensive and pretty dead on…especially along with the book “Type Talk at Work“.  You can take the test and find out right…  HERE <<click me!

Now…what did you learn about yourself-did you like it or was it depressing??

There is a movement starting in our student ministry called, “Charge.”  This past weekend, there was 7 students who were baptized at the Dickson Campus, along with 8 at the Nashville Campus.  George Stull asked me to be a part of the fall getaway this year and I got to see God move powerfully in a lot of students lives.  We spoke about the importance of protecting your hearts.  One of the stories I told was about what it must have been like to interview one of David’s mighty men.  Talking about David’s mighty men is one of my favorite things to read, study, and preach about.  I had a lot of fun with this story and I wanted to share it with you.

What story from the Bible makes your imagination go wild?

I was a server in several restaurants in my 20’s and I was really good at it!    I learned several invaluable lessons while I was there that has served me over and over for years.  Here is one of them…“when you slow down…you speed up.” I loved the fast pace of having 5 to 8 tables and I would find myself completely overwhelmed and scurrying as fast as possible to get my orders in, get the food out, make sure drinks were filled, and getting the bill to them without my customers ever waiting.  My goal was to try to keep my customers from ever paying any attention to me.  I would get to the table and (even though my mind was racing and I was completly stressed out)…I would talk slow, make eye contact, make small talk (get them laughing) and wait patiently on their order.  The key to a big tip and/or success was to make them feel as if they were the ONLY THING ON MY MIND and ALL THAT MATTERED!!

Another lesson I learned was that “people buy people!” In the restaurant business…people don’t care about your problems, how your boss is treating you, your relationship with the other servers, how many tables you’ve got…they simply want you to treat them like they are royalty!!   My job was to make them have a great time, help them connect with one another, serve them with wild enthusiasm, and get out of the way!!  When I did that well…I got great tips…”people invest in people.”  Most of the time its not the product…its the people that they want to buy!  Its really not much different in the church world.  I mean after all…I was called a “server!” This reminds me of another statement that my wife says to me all the time…she says, “a servant doesn’t mind being treated like one!“  I am not trying to sound self-deprecating, however, it is my job to tend to the needs of everyone around me and not be as concerned about my own.

Philippians 2:3-4

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Are you good at serving the people around you?

A few years ago, I was teaching my youth group in Parker, Colorado what unmerited favor meant.  I wanted them to understand how beautiful God’s grace really is and how it could not be bought or worked off…but it was given freely or “unmerited”.  I started the sermon by talking about how much I loved “Krispy Kreme” donuts and played a video that our youth staff shot that week.  So, one of the verses I used was, “Taste and See that the Lord is good.“  Ps. 34:8 and I was simply explaining that once you have tasted the forgiveness, grace, and favor of God…that it was really hard to enjoy the things this world has to offer.  Well, when I got to the part about it being completely free…I wanted to do that in a big way so here is what I did.  I had a “Krispy Kreme” guy deliver 600 donuts to our youth auditorium and then I asked the students to pay for the donuts and there was over 400 dollars collected.  I then asked the “Krispy Kreme guy” to come up to the stage and I gave him all the money.  His name was Ricardo and he flipped out…he couldn’t believe it and neither could the students.  I thought it was a creative way to teach about getting God’s grace–something we do not deserve at all!  So, here is a glimpse into my life as a youth pastor! 

Tell me something that was creatively taught to you that really stuck…

This morning I woke up at 4 am praying for one of my favorite pastors in the country whose name is Matt Chandler.  He is a pastor of “The Village Church” in Dallas, TX and he has a brilliant mind and a passion to teach the scriptures like very few I have seen or heard.  There is a vibrance about his life that is contagious and beautiful.  Last week we found out that he has a growth on his frontal lobe that is life threatening and it caused a massive seizure.  So, the week of his surgery he recorded a video to send to his church that is about 2 min. long and very much worth your time.  In the video he recalls Hebrews 11, where there is a list of Heroes in the faith who have been through many victories and trials.  This passage is one of my favorites in the Bible…there is a description of what these men went through that is terrifying…it talks about people being sawed in half, beaten, flogged, shipwrecked…then it says that “this world was not worthy of them.”  Matt says in the video that he “praises God that he is worthy of this kind of a trial.”  WOW!!  I am so proud of him for rejoicing during a time that he might not live.  He is “making much of Jesus” in the good and the bad.  What an encouragement to those of us who get upset about “small stuff”…its all small stuff!

What trial are you worthy to have right now that you are using to “make much of Jesus?”

I love my church!  There are a ton of reasons for that…but one of my favorites is the way that we serve the underprivileged.  Every year our church takes Christmas to Wheelwright, KY for hundreds of people that would never get it!!  Wheelwright is a little coal mining town in the Appalachian mtns that has  a lot of families that have very challenging living conditions.  I hope that our presence blesses and encourages a ton of families!  Please pray for them as they travel 6 hours with 5 trailers and over 100 volunteers to go and love on the poor!

What types of local, regional, and int’l service projects does your church do?

I remember being a young pastor just out of Bible College and being treated by men who were the elders of my church with utter disrespect and brash arrogance.  I didn’t know how to respond…they were my spiritual authority…they were the ones that I answered to for my ministry decisions…I was scared of them and I felt trapped.  I wanted to speak into their lives, but they seemed unapproachable, and who was I to tell them how to live?? Every time that I had to give a report in an elders meeting, it felt as if I needed to come in prepared to fight…that I would need to have a defense built for why it should happen.  Have you ever felt this way?

I’ll never forget something that a friend and a mentor said to me during that season, he said, “Blake, don’t ever defend yourself…let the people around you and the way that you live be your defense.”  I recently heard someone make a statement that I thought was well said and I wanted to see what your thoughts were about it…so here it is:

Defensiveness is an unwillingness to grow!

In my experience, when you confront someone, even if they are older than you, and the respond with defensiveness…it is because they struggle with Pride.  “Pride always puffs up.”  I think its a better rule of thumb to not try to prove yourself, but instead to remain humble, and to heed the words of those that love you enough to speak into your life.  If there is nobody that is doing that, then I’d really examine whether or not you are approachable enough to receive it.

When you are confronted, do you naturally defend or receive?

This weekend I preached at Cross Point and my thoughts were primarily directed at guarding our hearts.  I encouraged our people to really focus in on what really matters and not allowing the rest of the distractions of this world to destroy your heart.

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23

The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it. W.M. Lewis

The situation is grave – we are going to die.  So I think we need to lighten up and live.  Really living is something that we decide to do.  Living is a choice.  God wants us to choose him above all else.

Your heart can not and will not be a wellspring of life if you are not guarding it.  Put your focus back on Jesus.  When your heart is centered and your desires are as they should be, your heart will be a wellspring of life.  Count your moments. Live fully present, fully alive.