God has blessed me with an amazing family. I have a beautiful and wise wife.
She challenges me as a husband, leader, and follower of Jesus.

Recently she challenged me with something I had picked up a long time ago from Carlos Whittaker’s blog post “12 THoughts For and From A Worship Leader”. - Paraphrased it’s basically the idea that, as a worship leader, what I say on stage between the songs I lead on Sunday is equally if not more important than the actual songs we sing. 

Kristin challenged me to be more intentional about what I say. I fall into ruts. I think most worship leaders do. One of my ruts is to say “Isn’t it great that we get to do this?”

Now it is great that we get to sing songs about God, to God, for who He is and what He has done for us. That is a great thing. It’s awesome, cool, amazing, “insert your favorite adjective here”. The problem is when that become my default. When it becomes my default, I’m on auto-pilot. When I’m on auto-pilot I’m not intentionally listening through or planning through what I need to say or what God wants to teach us.

When I’m on auto-pilot I’m relying on my own strength.
I do things out of habit instead of out of humility.  

So I’m starting a new practice. 
I’m calendaring time to literally script out / pray through the songs we’re doing each week and what I will say before / after / during them.

My goal as a worship leader is to give people the opportunity to respond to Jesus because of who He is and what He has done for them. That means that I have to be there already. If I’m helping people take steps, then I need to be some steps ahead on the path beckoning them onward and closer to Jesus.

I’m hoping through this new practice that I’ll get better at listening to the Holy Spirit’s leading. I’m hoping I’ll become a better leader. I’m hoping I lead people to Jesus. 

Go. 
Tell me all your thoughts on God.  

The True Measure Of A Man is something all men struggle with, grasp for, strive to understand, hope to achieve. Yet if we polled a group of men we might find that their definition of “the true measure of a man” would be scattered, differing, and confusing.

Richard Simmons, writes in the The True Measure Of A Man that every man “struggles with feelings of 1) insecurity, 2) inadequacy, 3) isolation, 4) loneliness, and 5) fear washed in anxiety.”[1] All of these things are heightened when men begin to look at the world’s standards of what it means to be a man. When we place our eyes on Jesus and begin to define manhood based on biblical standards, everything changes for the better.

One of the ways men try to deal with these struggles is to ignore them, but “true success cannot be sustained over any extended period of time by denying the existence of internal struggles.”[2] Men deny the struggles and might even say that they have it all together. Simmons illustrates this thought process with the story of a ship called The Persona. This ship looked on the outside like it had it all together. It was topped off with all of the bells and whistles, but had a poor foundation and wrecked in a storm. “Seaworthiness seems not to be an important issue while one is in dry dock.”[3] To admit internal struggle means to admit weakness, something the world frowns upon.

Men try and pad their insecurity with possessions, and their significance with fame and notoriety. It would do one well to remember “The headlines we write on earth are printed on pages that will eventually fade and crumble.”  [4]

“Your worth as a person has to do with your value. Your value is not based on what you do but on who made you. God is telling us that He is the One who gave us our existence, our very being. We are here for a reason, for a purpose. God has a plan for our lives—a plan that is full of meaning and purpose. Why will people pay millions for a painting by Rembrandt? It’s probably not so much because of its beauty but because of the artist who painted it. Our lives are of such great worth because each of us is God’s work of art. The great demonstration of our incredible worth and value to God is that He sent His Son, Jesus, into the world. His willingness to die for us was the most visible way that God could express to each of us that we matter to Him and He loves us individually, each and every one of us. When a man can get this truth into his life it will transform his identity. Remember what Charles Cooley said in his theory about the looking-glass self: A person gets his identity in life based on how the most important person in his life sees him.  “[5]

A question that comes to the mind and heart of a man is “Will I make the cut?” We need to know that we are valued and that we are making a difference in the lives of our families. We need to know that we can push through the hardships, that we have accomplished our goals. That’s why when we are in the midst of storms/trials in our lives that it’s the hardest to find redeeming value. If something is going wrong at work or at home our initial inclination is to fix the problem. We can become blind to what God is teaching us through our trials. In fact some of the most profound truths we will ever learn about God can come through trials in “breakthrough” moments.

“What could we be blind to that might lead God to try and make a breakthrough in our lives? In Jeremiah 22:21 we read: “I spoke to you in your prosperity. But you said: ‘I will not listen!’ This has been your practice from your youth, that you have not obeyed My voice.” Could this be true of us? Some of life’s most sacred truths can be learned only as we walk through our individual storms in life. We all have them. Yet all we ever seem to want is relief and comfort. We demand instant solutions, but what we fail to recognize is that although God can solve all of our problems, instant solutions are not important to Him. What is important to Him is how we respond to our struggles.”[6]

Understanding and seeing breakthrough moments in the midst of trial requires stepping outside of a situation in order to see things as they truly are. Often in the midst of the storm we cannot see how hard things will get, or how easy. We have no idea of when the wind and waves will subside. We have only our faith and trust in the strength of Jesus Christ.  Stepping outside of the storm means that we have to understand that we cannot fix anything. We can only fix problems and wade through the deeper waters with the help and strength of Jesus.

It really comes down to what we value most and what we are going to put our faith and trust in. Simmons calls this out “box”. What is in your box? What is the primary loyalty in your life? For each of us, something is in the box, but are we willing to confess that it might be something other than God?[7]

 Author Louie Giglio talks about this in a different light. In his book The Air I Breathe he makes the statement that we all “worship” something.  What we worship is where our primary loyalties lie. If we have a hard time tracking that down, he encourages us to find where we are putting our time and our money. Most of the time what we put our time and money into is what we worship.

The true measure of a man is really determined by what that man does with Jesus. If he values Jesus and his relationship with him than the “feelings of 1) insecurity, 2) inadequacy, 3) isolation, 4) loneliness, and 5) fear washed in anxiety” will all be dwarfed in an identity and hope rooted deep in the love of Jesus.

[1] Preface

[2] p. 3

[3] p. 4

[4] p. 32 – Jill Caratini

[5] p. 35

[6] p. 54

[7] p. 103

I can’t even remember how many times I’ve posted things like this before. Posts where I’m digging in deep into my heart and mind and striving for a consistency in every area of my life.

I had a good friend yesterday come to me and apologize for something said, not to me, but around me. He wanted me to know that he wasn’t normally the person he was acting like in that moment. He wanted me to know he was striving for consistency in his life. He wanted people, no matter who they were or where they were, to get the same him in every environment in which they interacted. 

I desperately want and need that. When people look at me, I want them to see the love of Jesus. I want them to see me live, like Jesus lived. That begins with consistency. It begins with being the same in every are of my life. When people meet me, no matter where or with whom, I want them to get Micah. 

When I’m on stage leading worship at NewPointe Community Church, I want our community to see me. When I’m at home with my wife, I want her to see the same person. When I’m interacting with my soon-to-be-born daughter, I want her to get the same me. I want my life to line up. 

That’s a lot of wanting. 
I guess what I’m saying is that I’m opening this up to all you guys that check my tumblr. You guys see my posts, my LOL’s, my quotes, my pics, my vids.
If you see things here that don’t line up with my life in follow Jesus, call me on the carpet. You have permission. Message me. Reply to a post. Call me out.
I need that.

I’m so very thankful for the people God is placing into my life to help shape me to be more like Him. It’s coming at me hard. It’s coming at me in ways I didn’t expect. God is in the process of some molding me right now. I’m ready.

Sometimes I don’t understand why God allows us to go through some of the hardships we go through in life. What I do know is that He never leaves during those times. Those are easy things to talk about. When it hits close to home in the lives of friends and family it’s where all the blog posts get melted down and the heart is exposed to the harsh realities of it all. Shaping must come through it all. 

We are broken, what must we do to restore our innocence, and all the promise we adored? Give us life again, ‘cause we just want to be whole.
- Paramore: We Are Broken