One of my all-time favorite movies is City Slickers. You know the one scene among many that makes it that way, don’t you? Yep, the one where Curley talks about “the one thing”…

Curley: You all come out here about the same age. Same problems. Spend fifty weeks a year getting knots in your rope – then you think two weeks up here will untie them for you. None of you get it. Do you know what the secret of life is?
Mitch: No, what?
Curley: This. (Holds up his index finger.)
Mitch: Your finger?
Curley: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean sh**.
Mitch: That’s great, but what’s the one thing?
Curley: That’s what you’ve got to figure out.

How ’bout a little help from you Curleys out there?

• When your personal rope’s got knots in it, what’s the “one thing” you do that helps you untangle?

• What about when your organization/church/family/company/whatever is all tangled up? What’s the “one thing” that raises the energy, re-focuses the team, and gets big wins?

From today’s One Year Bible…

Be good to your servant, that I may live and obey your word. Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your law. I am but a foreigner here on earth; I need the guidance of your commands. Don’t hide them from me! (Psalm 119:17-19)

Well, at least right now, it seems to be the center of the “church world” in Woodstock, Georgia.

Location: The Serene Bean, Olde Town Woodstock
Sound: “Mas Que Nada,” the original, from when Sergio Mendes was with Brasil 66, not Will.i.am

Why is it the center of the church world? Right now, there is a pastor sitting outside with his laptop. There is another pastor sitting at the table next to me with his laptop. And there is what appears to be a pastor with one of his leaders. The pastor has apparently recently discovered Robert Lewis’s Culture Shift and is passionately trying to convince the leader that their church needs to shift its culture. Good luck, dude…I don’t think he’s buying it yet.)

Wait! Hold the presses! It’s the other leader who has discovered the book, and he’s the one trying to do the convincing! It’s the pastor who’s resisting! Cool!

…Bob Wills is still the king.

But now with a sling.

After somebody’s destructive fling.

Got any clues? Give ’em a ring.

Stop it, already!

OK, so it’s a soapbox day, I guess…

See that picture? Cool, huh?

Guess where it is.

Nah, go ahead…guess.

C’mon…guess.

If you guessed it’s in one of the foyers of the brand-spanking-new Georgia Baptist Convention palace headquarters, you’d probably be right.

Thirty. Million. Dollars…

‘Da Vinci Code’ Called ‘Real Danger’ to Christians’ Faith — 05/18/2006

If my faith is going to be shattered or even shaken by a movie, maybe my faith ain’t what it’s cracked up to be in the first place.

Sheesh!

(Stepping down from soapbox…)

From George MacDonald’s The Diary of an Old Soul…

I would go near thee – but I cannot press
Into thy presence – it helps not to presume.
Thy doors are deeds; the handles are their doing.
He whose day-life is obedient righteousness,
Who, after failure, or a poor success,
Rises up, stronger effort yet renewing –
He finds thee, Lord, at length, in his own common room.

Sometimes He whispers in that “still, small voice.” But sometimes, He shouts!

The question, of course, is…

Are you listening? Am I?

…why are the baseboards coated with a half-inch of crud in the same room where a John Piper book is prominently displayed on a desk and a “Name Above All Names” poster is on the wall? And why is the return grate for the air conditioner gummed up with who knows what?

I guess because it’s college, that’s why!