I once worked at a job where I was expected to put the company’s needs first. Work on a weekend? Why wouldn’t you? Stay late, take work home, and be available 24 hours a day? It’s what everybody does. Get used to it!

At least that’s what was said. And I couldn’t figure out why.

One of the things that I’ve seen destroy more families and more people is the idea that our jobs and professions define us. If I don’t work 60 hours a week, I’ll be viewed as lazy. If I don’t make more money this year than last, I’m a failure. If I can’t be reached after hours, someone else will take my place. And quickly our jobs become our identities. We live to work.

The flip side to that is a much freer place to be. Where work is a means to an end, not the end itself. Where I work to live. It pays the bills. Nothing more and nothing less! It doesn’t mean you can’t love your job. It doesn’t mean your job can’t make a huge difference in the world. It simply means your job doesn’t define who you are.

Now don’t get me wrong. We all have to work. The Bible is very clear about that and has a lot to say about laziness. And trust me…there’s nothing that drives me crazier than someone making excuses as to why they don’t have to work hard! Especially in the church world! But the Bible also has a lot to say about our identities being in Christ. It has a lot to say about true life being found in Christ – not our jobs.

So ask yourself this question today. Do I live to work or work to live? One leads to destruction and identity crisis. The other leads to freedom.

Read more about the balance of work and life in this great, easy-to-read book.

I put a lot of pressure on myself to fight. Fight for my marriage. Fight for what I believe. Fight for my church. It’s an All-American trait; look out for number one!

Too bad that’s not a trait that exactly makes God smile.

Reading through Exodus I came across an interesting verse. The Egyptians are chasing the Israelites, wanting to get them back into slavery. Just when they catch up, all hell breaks loose. And look at what the Egyptians say.

“Let’s get out of here—away from these Israelites!” the Egyptians shouted. “The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt!”

It was God that was in control of the fight. He put his children there and he was going to fight for them. And not only fight, but win.

You probably know the rest of the story. The Red Sea splits wide open and the Israelites walk across unharmed and victorious. They didn’t have to lift a finger in battle. The Lord was fighting for them.

You might be a church member or you might be a skeptic. You might be a pastor or you might be a pew potato. Regardless, who’s fighting in your life? For your marriage? For your kids? For your legacy? For your future? For your church? For your job?

You can keep fighting and keep coming up tired, beaten up, and worried about the next battle. Or you can take a page out of history and learn from good ole Moses and his people. Let your Father do the fighting.

“Excellence” is one of the many buzz-words at most church plants and self-proclaimed “modern” churches I’ve been exposed to. But there’s one major issue.

What exactly is excellence?

At OneLife, we’ve wrestled with this from the beginning. And one thing that surfaced very early was something I learned from my buddy Bruce Pearl in nearly every interview I heard him do in his first year at UT: It’s all about the process!

If our product (whatever that may be) is excellent but the process to get there is a big ole mess, count me out. It’s fake excellence. What we want is a culture of excellence, not just products of excellence. A culture of excellence will affect everything we do: the staff throughout the week, volunteer expectations, OneLife Kidz, the worship service, and on and on it goes.

This morning I shared with our staff what it is going to take for OneLife to have excellence as a culture and not just a buzz-word. It’s going to take a “that can’t happen!” culture.

In other words, gone are the days of accepting mediocrity in anything we do. When something begins to slip, we must approach it saying “That can’t happen!” When something or someone falls through the cracks, “That can’t happen!” When we begin to accept low-risks instead of trusting our BIG God, “That can’t happen!” When my relationship with God isn’t where it should be, “That can’t happen!” When someone doesn’t view their volunteer responsibilities as if eternity weighs in the balance, “That can’t happen!” And when those pesky details don’t get the attention they deserve, “THAT can’t happen!”

What I’ve learned is that no matter how great things are now and no matter how good we get at making things look good on the surface, if we let this culture erode over time then we will lose our excellence and therefore our effectiveness. No matter how much we say we want excellence, if we accept mediocrity at ANY level it will eat us alive. And that CAN’T happen!

OneLifers, our God deserves our best. We as a staff are committed to helping you and our church give him nothing short of that. And when we see the early signs of it slipping away, we’re gonna commit to this battle cry:

That can’t happen!

This weekend was a fun one! Lots to be excited about.

• On Saturday, we partnered with Angelic Ministries in downtown to serve the homeless community.
• Somewhere between 50 and 60 OneLifers gave up their Saturday to help those less fortunate than we are.
• It was an eye opening experience.
• Each person there has a story, a family, a dream.
• Our band did a great job leading worship at Angelic and I preached a message about not ever being able to earn God’s approval without Jesus.
• There were close to 200 in attendance! It was amazing to see.
• Not only did we provide the weekly worship service, but OneLifers rolled up their sleeves to sort clothing, household items, organize their food serving area, serve food, and clean up.
• It was awesome to read lots of really cool Twitter and Facebook updates of OneLifers whose lives were literally changed by this one experience.
• Then came Sunday and we wrapped up One Prayer with a message called God is…Indescribable.
• It was SOOO good to be back in the saddle preaching after two weeks of video.
• I think I will one day do an entire series dealing with how God truly is indescribable.
• We should be in awe and amazed when we think of Him. NOT complacent or unimpressed.
• This summer has showed us a few areas we need to tweak. Some of our volunteer areas are about to get some extra attention.
• As our church grows, our way of doing things has to change, too!
• We need as many OneLifers as possible to keep the pedal to the metal and help us get to where God is taking us.
• The best is yet to come! Let’s keep our commitment to the vision of reaching this community and beyond.
• Speaking of reaching our community, I got to have a great lunch with a future planter and his wife. They will be moving to Knoxville next year and launching some time in 2012. I left energized about what God is doing and going to do in our city! Follow his blog here.
• A busy week is ahead. Some prayers would be much appreciated!

We sing a song a lot at OneLife called “God is Alive.” It’s fast. It’s fun. It gets people clapping. And we believe it.

But do we really?

Something interesting hit me reading Acts 1:1 today. Luke, the writer, is talking about the first letter he wrote (his self-titled, debut album – “Luke”). Look at what he says:

In my first book I told you about everything Jesus began to do and to teach.

That word “began” jumped off the page and slapped me up beside the head! If I had been Luke, I would have said “I told you about everything Jesus did and taught.” But not Luke. He understood something that we sing and that we say we believe. He knew that Jesus had only just begun! All the things that he wrote about in the book of Luke weren’t history. They were current events! Jesus may have since gone back to heaven, but his work was still alive and strong. It was only the beginning of seeing what Jesus would accomplish.

Here we are, thousands of years later, and that one word – began – fires me up. Jesus is STILL at work! In fact, this is just the beginning of what he wants to do in our lives! The same power that healed the blind, raised the dead, fed thousands, and kicked the teeth out of death is still living and moving.

The only questions is this: do I live like I believe the Bible is just the beginning of all that Jesus would do or merely a history book of events long ago?

I’m ready to choose the first and realize that Jesus has only just begun to change my life. I don’t want to live in the past. I want this to be the beginning.