This place is beautiful, full of mountains (well large hills really) and streams, which all funnel down into one valley. We had spent the day hiking as we stood on top of the largest hill we realized it was time to go home.

Instead of walking down one the trails we decided the quickest way down was straight down. So we all got on our backsides and slowly made our way down the steep slope, that was except for one of us. Adrian decided that he could walk down the slope like a regular path.

Adrian was the last to make the decent as he was in charge of making sure all the kids were following the correct route. I led the decent and looked back regularly to make sure everything was fine. Then in a split moment the calm decent turned into frenzy. Adrian’s walk had quickly turned into a jog, and his jog had turned into a run. As Adrian came hurling down the hill the momentum of his body was so great his legs could not keep up. Adrian flashed past me at the speed of a gun and then suddenly he disappeared.

As we made our way down to check if he was okay, we saw Adrian lying on his back in a thorn bush! Adrian was okay and we laughed so hard my sides literally did split.

However, this episode taught me a huge lesson about life. Momentum is something that we all need in life. Momentum will push through even the toughest situations, but momentum must be keep in control otherwise you will end up being out of control.

We all experience momentum, whether it is the momentum of a new healthy lifestyle or on the flip side it is momentum dragging us towards an unhealthy diet. It may be momentum to get organized, or the momentum that drags us into a state of clutter.

Very often the place we find ourselves today is because an action we started has gained momentum. Without momentum it will be impossible for you to push through the boundaries of your current life, but that momentum has the ability to push you way beyond where you are capable of holding your own.

As we have started Generation Church I have realized that momentum is essential; too many church plants stutter for years because they cannot gain momentum. However, I have also seen too many church plants who had so much momentum that they could not keep up and five years down the road the church that started out with such a clear vision now looks nothing like what it was intended to be, all because their momentum got out of control.

So today you may need to do a little pushing to start the ball rolling to gain some momentum, but some others you may need to make some drastic changes to your life/organization to stop momentum taking you places that you may never recover from.

Being a kid who loved to play outside I soon found out that there was a mat at the back door for a reason. I was told time and again to make sure I use the mat to scrub the dirt off my shoes before entering the house.

The mat at the back door always had a few pairs of shoes which were too dirty to be cleaned. No-one dared to walk through the house with any type of loose dirt on their feet.

The reason for the mat was to make sure that the dirt from the outside didn’t pollute the inside of the house, simple as that. Now every time I enter any type of building I always make sure I wipe my feet on the mat.

Most of us have physical mats for our homes, but very few of us have spiritual mats for our mind, body and soul.

So often our lives get plain filthy from playing out in this world. We were not created to stay inside all the time (for us Christians that means we weren’t created to stay inside the church all the time!). However, there comes a time when we are to transition from outside to in and we must make sure we don’t bring the loose dirt with us.

I have developed a system in my own life which I like to call my spiritual mat. This helps to make sure I’m not a loose dirt carrier. The system is very simple. It comprises of three parts.

For the body, I have the mat of workout! Let’s be honest most of us allow loose dirt to filter our bodies through junk food and laziness. For me an intentional effort to workout wipes me clean.

For the mind I read and I dream. I read books that will not only stimulate my mind but will help me think purely about ourselves above myself and to help me develop into someone I am not yet. I also dream I what God desires me to become.

The final mat is the one for the soul. This is the most important yet one so many forget about. For the soul there is only one mat that I have found will wipe off the loose dirt. That is to daily make the choice to worship my God. I do this through a one chapter of the bible a day bible study (I take one chapter and just explore what it is truly saying) and I also worship through having a daily conversation with my savior where I tell him how much he means to me and how much I appreciate him.

When I use these three mats I find my life is so much cleaner and I rarely have to go back and sweep the places I have already trodden. If I don’t use these mats, let’s just say there’s a lot of cleaning that has to take place, and I HATE cleaning!

The place of okay is the location between great and very bad. Often the place of okay is traveled through after you have been to the place of great and sometimes you find yourself in the place of okay after pulling yourself out of the depths of very bad.

You know the place! This is the place when someone may ask you, how is everything going? You answer, it’s okay!

I’m currently in that place with regards to my health, fitness and weight. Last year I knew I needed to do something about my own personal health. I was in a place of urgency and knew something had to be done. So I did something about it, I was motivated and had an urgency to workout everyday and eat the right things. I the space of several months I went from very bad to doing okay. It was here the urgency left and the motivation deserted me. Now I’m not working as hard because I’m not as urgent. This is dangerous!

I was once on staff at a church that found themselves in the place of okay. When I started they were in a very bad situation. People had left in droves the months preceding and the people that remained had become anxious and very sad of the situation. This led to an urgency to do something about it, and so we did. It was a beautiful example of paid, unpaid, young and old working together to bring this organization back onto its feet; and on its feet it got!

Then all of a sudden we started to travel through the place of okay! People started to think we were okay because we were back on our feet. We became less urgent, not so anxious and the motivation started to leak. There at the place of okay it stayed. I wonder today what that organization today could be if everyone had stayed with a sense of urgency and not walked through the place of okay?

So here’s the leadership lesson in all this! The best leaders are the ones who can take their people and organization through the place of okay in the shortest amount of time. Anyone with something about them can lead in times of urgency, good leaders can lead in times of victory and success, but the great leaders are the one who can take their people through the place of okay without stopping and losing motivation.

Do you have what it takes to be a great leader?

The first two goals I set myself for 2009 were more for professional development. The next two goals I set myself for 2009 were for personal growth and development. So here they are:

Goal 3: To lose 20 pounds of weight!

I remember looking at myself in the mirror at the end of 2008 and realizing I was 20 pounds overweight. Not only was I overweight but I realized that I had some minor health issues due to some excess poundage. Also I did not have the energy necessary to be fully productive in my life and I had some clothes in my wardrobe that were leaning towards the XL sign on the label!

My wife, Raquel and I decided this was going to be the year we got healthy. We first started out by watching our calorie in take. Then we made veggies, salads and fish a regular part of our diet, then we made an investment that changed our lives! No it wasn’t the ‘Total Gym’ but something even better! We bought a Wii Fit! Yes, you heard me, a Wii Fit! This little baby worked just the trick. I was 193 pounds back in January and before this Christmas season I was 160 pounds!

As a result I discovered energy I thought was never possible. I found losing weight had a tremendous impact on your spiritual life (a whole new meaning to being a temple of the Holy Spirit), I did not get very sick and I was able to look at myself in the mirror again without a look of disgust!

Goal 4: To follow-up on Facebook, Twitter and Email better

This one is still a work in progress. I have never been a great, ‘follow upper!’ However, I believe I am better today than I was one year ago. The reason for this was a little more intentionality on taking time each day to make sure I replied to messages and emails. Even though I still have a long way to go! After the Wii Fit the second best investment I made this year was the purchase of a new ‘super’ phone. I had a PDA phone before but this new phone allowed me to do everything I could do in the office at my finger tips! I still have a long way to go, but with the gift of technology I am improving.

Tomorrow, I will write about the final goal I set myself for 2009. This is a goal that seemed a far off dream, but has become a reality as I have watched as God has opened some impossible doors!

At the beginning of the year I wanted to make some changes. And I did! I did not want to diet because diets do not work, but I wanted to become healthy. To cut a long process short, here I am five months later feeling a whole lot healthier, lighter, fitter and with more energy. I chose to change my lifestyle instead of continue on this path of self-destruction. The great thing was that my wife Raquel joined me on this adventure and it has helped us both, spiritually, mentally and physically.

This past Monday I got home from the office and Raquel was cooking a big fat juicy steak! Oh the smell was enough to make my mouth water. She had cooked two big pieces and asked which one I wanted. I pointed to the biggest piece and said, “that one!”. Raquel then took the other one and started to wrap it up to put in the fridge. I asked her if she wasn’t eating. She looked puzzled and said I thought we were going to share that big piece (normally we share a lot of food). My eyes had become bigger than my mouth and I wanted that whole big fat juicy steak to myself.

I ate the steak, Raquel ate the other piece. After about ten minutes I started to feel very ill. My stomach hurt like crazy and I felt unbelievably tired, so did Raquel. It got me thinking. I use to eat this stuff all the time and it never made me feel like this. Then I realized that was because my body had grown accustomed to foods like this, foods that weren’t that healthy for my body. I thought my body must have been in bad shape, because this one piece made my feel so bad, imagine what four years of steak would have done to my body.

This episode with the steak reminded me of what sin does in our lives. When we have a healthy spiritual life our bodies, minds and souls get sick when exposed to sin and things that are not spiritually healthy. However, if we live a life that is consistently unhealthy spiritually, our bodies, minds and souls become accustomed to t unhealthiness. We don’t even realize when something is unhealthy, and we don’t realize we are on a journey of self destruction.

What things in your life has your body, mind or soul become accustomed to that once would have turned your stomach sick? What things make you feel sick now that at one time you did without a problem?

At the beginning of the year I set myself a goal to lose 20 pounds in weight this year. Well, to my surprise I have already lost 15 pounds. This has been because of a consistent routine of working out a little everyday and watching what I eat. However, it only took four days to break my routine and I felt the effects. Until last night it had been a whole week since I had worked out, and I felt it. I had put some weight back on and felt very tired. I could tell that my body that I was out of routine.

I’ve realized that routines are an important part of our lives. I am not someone who likes too much routine as I get bored. However, when we get out of important routines we lose focus. I got out of the routine of working out, and what happened? I stopped thinking about what I was going to eat! My focus of taking care of my body was lost.

The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy about Godliness. He said that exercise of the body is a good thing and you will profit a little from it. However, more than exercise, it is Godliness that will benefit you in everything that you do. Exercise will benefit your body, but Godliness will benefit your soul, mind and spirit.

I have discovered that unless I keep in a routine I cannot measure things correctly. Unless I exercise daily and weigh myself regularly I cannot measure whether my body is strong or too weak, overweight or normal. In the same way we need to get into a routine of Godliness and find ways to measure  it; if our soul, mind and spirit is strong or too weak, whether it is alive or dying!

The thing about exercise is that you can’t do it occasionally and think you will get good results from it. This is the same with Godliness. I know when I am not feeling very Godly! These are the times I am out of routine and have neglected the things I do to stay “Godly”.

One of the ways I try to remain “Godly” is to remain my body it does not control me, but I control it. This is why I try to keep daily and weekly routines within my prayer life, personal bible study and also reading of books. These are not easy things to do, neither will I lie and say I do them everyday, but I have discovered how important it is and soon realize after a day or two when I am out of routine.

If you are looking for ways live in Godliness then get hold of Bill Hull’s book, ‘Choose The Life. It really is a good book that looks at spiritual disciplines and practical ways to live out a life that is “Godly”.

What are some of the ways you try to live a life of Godliness? What routines do you have that check you in check? Leave a comment and let me know!’