From the Mind of MandoRon

On Monday, I mentioned the Lion Chaser’s Manifesto.  Feel free to go back and read what I wrote.  I’ll wait for you.

As I mentioned, there are few things that jumped out at me in this Manifesto from Mark Batterson.

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshiping what’s right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze new trails. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don’t try to be who you’re not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away.

My seven-year old daughter is constantly asking questions.  And not just things like “when is snack time?”  Last fall, she spent 30 minutes grilling us on the presidential election process.  Did I mention that she’s incredibly brilliant?

There’s a link between asking questions and knowledge/wisdom.  Whether it’s googling something you heard on the news, asking your boss for advice, or cracking open your Bible.  A thirst for knowledge is essential.

A second aspect of this is to keep asking “why?”.  Why do we do it this way?  Why do I believe this?  Improvement comes from questioning the status quo. 

Even our faith grows stronger when we question what the pastor tells us on Sunday.  Don’t send him a hateful email though…   Go home and look it up in the Bible for yourself.  The pastor at the church where I grew up would always say “Don’t take my word for it; look it up yourself.”  My friend Cody has been questioning his beliefs, and it’s strengthened his faith.  God can handle your questions.

And the last thing… don’t automatically accept the first answer.  Dig deeper.  Ask more questions.  Then you’ll be able to get to the heart of the issue.

Any questions for me?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 5:59 am and is filed under Leadership, My Faith Journey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.