Personality Patterns

I took the Personality Patterns assessment, and my top four were: Creative, Intellectual, Innovative & Introspective.

I don’t usually like personality assessments because in my experience they have been used to limit instead of enhance relationship.  This seems like it could be helpful to expand relationships.

Creative

You are good at solving problems, coming up with original ideas, and seeing connections between things, connections that most other people miss. People with a high score on the “creative” trait often are employed in such fields as finance and scientific research, and enjoy avant garde and classical music as well as literary fiction and scholarly non-fiction.

You do not shun abstractions and concepts in favor of the concrete and tangible.

Intellectual

You are thoughtful, rational, and comfortable in the world of ideas. People find you interesting to talk to. You’re the living embodiment of the saying “You learn something new every day.” In general, those with a high score on the “intellectual” trait are employed in such fields as teaching and research, and are enthusiastic about reading, foreign films, and classical music.

You do not avoid abstract conversation, experimenting with new ideas, or studying new things. It bores you to stick to the straight and narrow of what you already know.

Innovative

You come up with a lot of ideas; if one doesn’t work out, there’s always another waiting in the wings. You often have interesting solutions to difficult problems. You’re practically a one-person brainstorming session.

You are less interested changing the world than in dealing with things as they are. Unlike those who spend all their time trying to solve problems, you prefer to zero in on things that work and stick with them.

Introspective

You like your own company; you’re a very interesting person. Tracking your own mental processes, knowing what you’re thinking and why you do what you do, is important to you. Often, what’s going on in your mind is more compelling than what’s going on outside. For the most part, those with a high score on the “introspective” trait enjoy reading, taking long walks, learning new things, and other solitary activities.

You are not someone who is constantly looking to be among a group of friends; you never feel bored when you are by yourself.

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I think this profile was a pretty good assessment of my personality.  I think these kinds of assessments are valuable to individuals because they help us to know who we are and how we think.  If we are going to follow God, one of the most vital aspects of that is knowing how we work, think and view the world.

Who are you?

Worth It

Today I am tired. Partly because I took my brother in law to the airport at 4:30 am.  But also because yesterday was a busy day at Creekside.  We had 5 baptisms, a baby dedication and a BBQ.  So we had a packed day.

Saturday I learned how to set-up the baptismal.  It’s not fun, but it’s worth it.  It’s worth it to sweat for the gospel.  Celebrating changed lives is worth it.  A lot of people serve at Creekside.  And Serving is not to make you feel good about yourself.  Serving on a ministry team is all about loving others and creating an environment where they might meet Jesus.

Worship teams, Coffee teams, ushers greeters, kids workers, media teams, let’s not ever lose sight of the fact that all that we do it’s worth it. You get up early you make arrangements for your kids and family, and you sacrifice your time and energy, and it’s all worth it, because lives are changing, and more and more lives are going to be transformed because of your willingness.  It’s worth it.

Thanks to to everyone who made yesterday happen.

Great perspective

Read the whole post here.

This is part of the dialogue between John Chrysostom (347-407 AD)and Empress Eudoxia:

“You cannot banish me,
for this world is my Father’s house.”

“But I will kill you,” said the empress.

“No, you cannot,
for my life is hid with Christ in God,” said John.

“I will take away your treasures.”

“No, you cannot, for my treasure is in heaven and my heart is there.”

“But I will drive you away from your friends and you will have no one left.”

“No, you cannot, for I have a Friend in heaven from whom you cannot separate me. I defy you, for there is nothing you can do to harm me.”

Am I that focused on God’s mission to this world that I can see that it’s all his?

Are my treasures truly in heaven?

Is my friendship with Christ my greatest comfort?

Jesus, help me to have this kind of faith everyday!

Yesterday all my troubles seemed so . . .

Right in my face.  I think it’s easy to memorialize the years or yesterfar.  I would bet that the problems we faced in the past felt just as big as the problems we are facing now.  They’re not as big because we have already overcome them.  So now we are on to the next challenge.

We all have things that stress us out, and I would bet it’s because we’ve never done them before.  Or perhaps it’s because last time we actually failed.  But what did you learn from your failure?

My dad had a great line whenever he was lost on one of our family drives.  “Don’t worry, I’ve been lost here before.”  It’s totally a cheeseball, dad joke, and when he would say it I’d roll my eyes, and fear that I would never return home again.  But because he had been lost there before he knew he could get unlost again.  He didn’t just pull over and set up camp in West Seattle because he was lost.  He kept working and finding his way back home.

Our problems, old or new, are teaching opportunities, and when we take a moment to actually learn from them we are better equipped to face the same problems and bigger every time.

So what are the problems that are overwhelming you?  What are the troubles that are right in your face?  You can over come them.  I believe it.

what are you afraid of?

All my life, I’ve been told that I’m a funny person.  And I like making people laugh, but I have never been successful at writing jokes.  I am afraid of trying to be funny and failing.  I want to overcome this fear, and I want to do a comedy open-mic.  Just writing that sentence scares me.

I really want to overcome this fear, so I’m working on writing jokes.  They’re not great jokes but I’ve got to start somewhere.  So I’m trying.

What are you afraid of?  Lets conquer some fears together.

Pastors who Hate

Sometimes I read the news and want to go smite people. Usually the smiting is directed at pastors who do dumb, horrible things or say ridiculous things and put Jesus’ name on their statements. It’s a good thing that I’m not God and don’t have any kind of smiting ability.

I get so frustrated when pastors preach things that are intentionally hate filled. I really doubt that Barak Obama is the anti-Christ and I’m not going to believe that this healthcare reform is leading to Nazi healthcare practices. And even if I’m wrong I’m going to trust Jesus through it all anyway because I read the end of his book and it says Jesus wins.

Pastors you have better things to do with your pulpit than to push a hateful message to the world. It’s distracting you from the gospel of reconcilliation and it’s making the rest of us look like idiots.

I wonder if God’s message against the false prophets in the Old Testamet are applicable to the pastors who are so easily distracted by politics and ‘Merican patriotism. Because the false prophets were used by the enemy to distract the people from the issue of their own sin. Pastors when you preach politics are you distracting your people from their own sin and projecting all sin and all evil on the democrats, liberals, or lefties? Jesus message was that everyone is a sinner and we all need to come to the cross for forgiveness and reconcilliation. Even pastors like you and me, we are the same level of sinner as Barak Obama, we both need the cross.

Jesus did not say that we would have elections for when the kingdom of God would crash into the kingdoms of this world. But he did send us out to proclaim that the Kingdom of God us coming and is even now here among us.

So pastors, please stick to preaching the gospel and not politics. Jesus wasn’t distracted by the politics of his age and neither should we. Please, I’m begging you. I’m tired of apologizing for you and your words. It’s distracting the rest of us.

Vote and vote your conscience and your convictions. But don’t be a jerk! I think that might be what Jesus meant when he said we should love God an love people. Don’t be a jerk. What you are doing is making us all look like jerks. You’re not helping the bigger cause of the gospel.

Thankfully aware of his need for forgiveness of his own sin,

Jason