I do my best to keep my blog posts here as open and relevant as possible to all of my readers. But today, I feel compelled to share how with my pastor and church staffer friends. Many of us suffer from a weekly phenomenon I call “Monday morning hangover”. A long Sunday leads to a full calendar Monday without a full energy tank.

I know that I have Monday morning hangover from several symptoms. First, I get in the car to drive my wife to work and instead of turning towards her office, I instinctively turn towards the church. She corrects me and we get a good laugh out of the experience. Second, I get in later that I want, lack the focus I desire and get behind in my task list by the time I hit the meeting schedule that takes out most of my day. Third, I don’t have the creativity and imagination to find words for sermons, lessons, emails or blogs that I normally find easily. Work is tougher than normal. Four, a disappointing conversation, lackluster attendance numbers or an error on my part devastates me in an unreasonable manner.

So, how do you kick the Monday morning hangover? I do it in five ways.

1. Exercise. I do my very best to exercise every Monday morning. I need it most on Mondays and if I get Mondays in, I typically make it happen the rest of the week. Currently, I am running 5-5.5 miles on Mondays and that 50-55 minutes is a great time to push back the fatigue and get a fresh wind for the week. Whether you lift weights, walk, run, or do a program like P90X or Insanity, break a sweat on Monday morning.

2. Get into the Scriptures. And not just for your next sermon or lesson. This month, I have been reading the book of Acts. So this morning, I listened to Acts 16-23 during my run. Allow God to minister to you before you attempt to minister to anyone else.

3. Pray. Take time to get before God and thank Him for a new morning, full of new grace and mercy for you and all you lead. Pray for the needs you discovered on Sunday, for the people who made decisions and commitments. Repent for the blunders you made and thank God for using someone like you to further His kingdom.

4. Spend time with some people encourage you or in some activity that encourages you. In 2010/2011, I tutored a 2nd grader on Monday mornings. If nothing else, I knew that hour was well-spent. I knew that for those 60 minutes with that one boy, I was making a difference by helping him improve his English, gain confidence in reading and feel valued by someone older. I take time on Mondays to call or IM friends who will encourage me. I make sure and laugh with co-workers. I read a few blogs that renew my perspective and fill me with hope. I talk with teammates about good things God did over the weekend and we celebrate them together.

5. Drink some coffee. If you knew me, you knew I had to put it in there. I don’t overdo it on Mondays, since I typically do caffeine in the morning AND afternoon on Sunday. But I grab some java after my run on Monday mornings. It definitely takes the edge off and I love that bean water.

Regardless of whether you are a pastor or church staffer or a teacher or involved in business, I hope that today is day full of encouragement and hope for you. If you are struggling, consider one or all five of these things as some ways that God could renew you and your perspective today.

“Preach the Gospel at all times. And when necessary, use words.” -St. Francis of Assisi

I bought a t-shirt with this quote on it when I was a teenager at a conference for Christian students. I heard these words repeated many times in books, sermons, arguments, and blog posts. These words were used to justify being an example to others, not ramming the good news down someone’s throat (ramming and good news never go well together). During a different season in my life, I used this quote to question the motive what I called “drive-by evangelism”.

Somewhere along the way, the original saying (attributed to Francis) got shortened to – “Preach the gospel; if necessary, use words“. St. Francis was a well-known monk, whose work and writings in the Middle Ages continue to influence many today. There is just one problem with this popular and well-known saying – St. Francis didn’t write it.

Those words cannot be traced to any writings or sermons of St. Francis, nor any stories told about him within 200 years of his death. The first appearance of this phrase with attribution to St. Francis was 200 years after his death. Long after those who lived with him were dead as well. Many believe that someone said this and tagged St. Francis’ name on it, so it would get more press.

A modern equivalent would go something like this. You create a cool gadget or device. You want it to be successful and marketable. So you say Steve Jobs helped design it. You share a quote from Steve, about how he thought it was pretty cool. Since he was the brains behind the iPhone and the iPad and the MacBook Air (and those are all pretty cool), the general public believes this must be pretty cool too. The only problem is that Steve Jobs didn’t really make it and the product is nowhere near incredible.

The problem with those infamous words from someone other than St. Francis isn’t just that Francis didn’t say that (although we could argue whether the words reflect his spirit). The problem is that it puts into question whether our words are necessary. And words are incredibly necessary. They are essential.

Now, I have seen some people who have been all words and no action. They preach at a person about hell and sin, while the person is hungry or thirsty or in serious physical need. It’s like the infamous quote from Peanuts where Snoopy is begging for food and Charlie Brown tells him to “Be of good cheer” and then goes on his merry way. That’s not the right approach. However, some overreact and say “we are just going to show them the gospel, show them love, and if we need to, we will open our mouths too.”

But that’s just as much over the edge as the person we are reacting against. Both matter (words and deeds), both are important. And you are going to have to determine which are needed in the moments and relationships you are in. In the book of Matthew, chapter 5, Jesus says the following.

Many of us have forgotten that we celebrated Christmas a few weeks ago. We have a struggle keeping that season and reality in mind throughout the whole year. For example, if you attend church, you will hear sermons from passages of the Scripture during the Christmas season that you will not hear from during the rest of the year. It is as if those passages are seasonally, not perenially, relevant. Even the concept of the Incarnation (God taking human flesh in the person of Jesus) gets a lot of noise and attention during December but much less fanfare the other 11 months.

One of the most significant verses that we read during the Christmas season is John 1:14. In the NIV, this verse reads, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” But we miss the rest of the verse – “We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” 

It is that final phrase “full of grace and truth” that I have been chewing on lately in my personal moments of reflection and prayer. Maybe I find those words to be timely because they are so absent in election season and political campaigning. Maybe it is because I have been in conversations or relationships where just one or the other was present, not both. I have talked with people who classify themselves as a “grace person” or a “truth person”, as if it were only possible to be one or the other.

When someone asks me about my religious stance, my answer is typically, “I follow Jesus and I happen to attend a Baptist church.” I have overheard many that I know use the phrase “follower of Jesus” or “Christ-follower” to describe someone that might also be known as a “Christian”. From where I sit, if we are following Jesus and becoming more like him, it is always BOTH, full of grace AND truth. We do not have the luxury of embracing just one or the other.

What I find even more intriguing is that Jesus was full of grace and truth, but he seemed to express different postures and responses to different groups based upon their response to Him. To those who broken and knew it, he was full of grace. To those who were arrogant and religious, he was brutally truthful. To those who were open and listened, he was full of grace. To those who were closed off, he was full of truth. To those who said, “Please forgive me”, he extended grace. To those who said, “I will not forgive others”, he brought harsh truth.

In a world where anonymous comments viscously attack one another on blogs, where wusses turn into warriors behind a keyboard, in a culture where we attack first and ask questions later, where we reach for labels and judgment quickly, where we seek to condemn before we seek to understand…what would it look like to follow Jesus? To be like Him? To be full of grace AND truth?

I think this one verse, John 1:14, is a picture that we need to embrace and meditate on in 2012. I think we all need to be full of grace and truth, as we follow the One who can do more than we ask or imagine within us by the power of his Holy Spirit.

Where does this idea challenge you the most?

What’s your biggest roadblock to being a person that is full of grace and truth?

Over the past several months, I have discovered a conversation taking place in several venues regarding the state of manhood in America. Some venues are very religious and others are incredibly secular, even anti-religious.

At TED, an incredible conference for leading thinkers in the area of technology, education and design, Phillip Zimbardo asked the question “Are we headed for the demise of guys?” and challenged the TED community to pursue solutions. You can watch the 5 minute video here.

Later, I discovered an article in Relevant Magazine which created a great deal of buzz, regarding the ongoing conversations regarding gender roles and our conceptions of what manhood looks like. You can check out that article here.

I have continued to reflect on these two pieces again and again over the last month. I know this can be a fairly polarizing issue. But I feel drawn into defining the problem and addressing solutions. As a 27 year old husband, soon-to-be father of a son, a pastor who primarily works with young adults, and a friend to so many twenty-something men, this is not a theoretical issue. But it is a difficult challenge nevertheless.

So, I would love to know your thoughts on it and I look forward to fleshing out mine in a future post here on the blog. For now, watch the video and read the article. THEN, share a comment below. I am going to moderate comments on this one to keep everyone honest!

In light of these two pieces, what do you think of the state of manhood in America?