Conversations of LIfe - 1

This is a conversation of a good friend of mine, a student in Atlanta Masters Commission, RC. He is a great kid (a 21 year-old man), with an awesome heart, loves to bike freestyle and MTB, and even enjoys disc golf.

AIM IM with RC 7/3/08 4: 11PM

RC hey bud.
SM hey man
SM outta cali yet?
RC nahh
SM or stayin for the 4th
RC yea
RC how's the disc golf?
SM went good, nice to get out but a little warm, you ever play?
RC I'm jealous, of course, we have the third hardest course in the nation in my hometown
SM that is awesome

RC hey, I have a couple questions for you...
SM sure..
RC you're married, right?
SM yes
RC ok, How did you KNOW that your wife was the girl for you?
SM God, i know that was the answer u were expecting to hear
RC haha, well, I mean, what made it click in your head? like, there had to be something that just TOLD you that she was IT
SM i had made a vow that i would not date until it was the girl god wanted me to marry
and then when we wanted to date i prayed about it and knew that was what i was suppose to do
many said we were young and didnt know, but i knew
RC how old were you?
SM then, 19 when we started dating
RC not bad... yea...I'm just asking cuz, well, I met this girl... and I think she's perfect... well, more than perfect, if that makes sense
SM if there was one thing that you could change about her what would it be?
RC where she lives, lol, hmm... lets see... I'm really not sure... dang
just curious, what is the point that you are trying to make? cuz I think you have one...but I don't know what it is
SM haha, sometimes we look at people and wish we could change things about them. No matter how perfect she may seem now, sooner or later you will find something u wont like
RC mmk
SM you must be able to accept those things that you cant change
RC i was just about to ask how you handle that...
SM the truth is you cant change someone else, you can only change your perspective of that which you dont like
RC wow. thats good
SM that will help you not only in marriage but in every relationship you are in!
relationship/friendship/etc
RC yea... dang, thats good ;0 you're the freaking man...
SM in changing our perspective it allows them to keep their own personality and character
and be themselves and allows them to live more whole
RC wowww. yea, I need to get to AZ.
and chill with you for a while
SM when we try to change them we force them into our box of perfection then they always are trying to live UP to our standard and then they end up feeling like a failure
and in marriage that is not healthy, she then feels like she is hurting you then makes you go on a power trip and puts u in control and not in a healthy manner
RC wow.... i never would have thought of something like that
SM marriage isnt about power, its actually about submission, "wives submit to your husbands, husbands love your wives"
RC loving is submitting, yea?
SM in loving our wives we submit to their needs, they submit to our spiritual authority
two different kinds of submission
RC wow...
SM control authority and spiritual authority
RC yea
SM that will get u mileage in a relationship
RC it makes so much sense!!
SM good, and know that girls never make sense, haha
RC haha, yea, I got that one
SM dont ever tell them that, thats not good either, haha j/k
RC yea, that would be bad
wow... dang dude... how'd you get so smart? like, I'm still shocked. for lack of a better term.
SM ran to a wall a lot and too many drugs, lol, no idea
i dont see my self as smart as much as i would say i am an observer
learn to watch your world and learn from it
RC ahhhh
SM be experiential and allow everything to be a moment of Ahaa!
RC I like that.

SM i want to blog this conversation, is that cool with you?
RC I am down for that... whats your blog site?
SM www.shaunmayfield.com
RC haha...you have a blogger account with your own domain name! Awesome!
SM haha, i figured i better get it before someone else does
RC haha, yea. I don't know what I would do without friends like you.
SM awe, thanks man, that is very cool, im glad we got to know each other in ATL
RC haha...yea. I'm very glad for that. I'm gonna blog this convo too, just so ya know
SM sweet man.
RC You honestly don't know how much this meant to me... I honestly feel a whole lot better..cuz I was worried about so much...
SM that is so cool
RC yay for friends who are there for each other!!
SM haha, woot!

I shared this for a few reasons.

1. Take a good look at how you see people and understand the ability to change our perspective on someone else's 'lack of' and realize that we can either focus on the 90% negative of who they are to us or we can look at the 10% positive and focus on that and begin to change the only one we control... ourselves!

2. Marriage is about love and submission. Wives submit to the control authority, ultimate say so goes to the husband... HOWEVER, and a big however, before any one presumes I am chauvinistic. (Just ask my wife, I am not allowed to be chauvinistic ( that's a joke, get it?!?)) When husbands truly love our wives we then submit to there needs, emotionally, physically and mentally, there creating a balance.

3. I am not smart, as matter of fact, I consider myself to not learn as well as others and I am self-admitted learning disabled (no doctor proof as of yet). However I have learned to observe the world around me. This point deserves a blog on it's own and will quite likely lead to a blog/book/short story of some kind to show how my outlook on life is all from observing; it is what I have coined reasonable deduction (common sense+mathematical calculations+not allowing ignorance to blind me). Be a watcher, soak up your environment, breathe slowly and observe the motion, hear the dialect, watch the mannerisms, be a learner, be a CREATIVE!

...read more on "Conversations of LIfe - 1"!

Encounters With God - Altars//Week2

Here is the TwitterNotes of Week 2 of Encounters With God where we discuss altars.

The Altar is: A Place of Stability.
When the Israelites settled into their towns they began to build an altar for stability.
So the altar was a place of stability in an environment of uncertainty.

The Altar is: A Place of Submission.
Genesis 22:1-14 - As a Submission to God Abraham placed his son on the altar for a sacrifice to God.

The Altar is: A Place of Leadership.
Leviticus 6:8-13 - God had Aaron keep the flames going on the altar to establish leadership.

An altar is a place someone can come and find a sense of stability of meaning to life, but the altar doesn’t give us stability... it’s only a table.
An altar is a place where someone can submit to God, but the altar doesn’t create submission… it’s only a table.
An altar is a place to become a leader, but the altar doesn't create leadership... its only a table.

...read more on "Encounters With God - Altars//Week2"!

Encounters With God - Altars//Week1

Here is the TwitterNotes of Week 1 of Encounters With God where we discuss altars.

Genesis 12:7 So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
Altars were built to God for two reason:
1. For prayer and worship.
2. As reminders of God's promise to bless him.

Altars symbolized communion with God and represented powerful encounters with him.

The power of the altar is unspeakable.

Matthew 11:28 Are you Tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest.

...read more on "Encounters With God - Altars//Week1"!

What We Are Buiding Is What We Are Becoming

Altars were created by many religions for sacrifices. For Jews they built them when God showed up as a rememberance and as a place to signify God's promise. What we are building is what we are becoming. We need to build altars to God for the promises He has given us and to remind us of those moments that He has showed up in our lives.

We are doing a 3-week series on Altars. Week one, understanding their importance and significance. Week two, understanding what we become at altars. And next week, self sacrifice. I will follow up with blogs with our TwitterNotes for each week. See the older post title TechKrunch. TwitterNotes is just the 'tweets' that we send out in our eikonLIVE service.

Mobile post sent by shaunMayfield using Utterz. Replies.

...read more on "What We Are Buiding Is What We Are Becoming"!

TechKrunch

Two big moves have began to revolutionize my tech blood. Those of you who haven't realized it, we all have tech blood, the blood that pumps for technology and finding new ways to network and build relationships and see the computer age as a tool. Of course a lot of this centered around the social networking aspect. The two areas that has my blood pumping are Twitter, now this is not new, I have been using Twitter faithfully for well over a year. The newest one is Utterz, not like the utters on a cow that I had assumed it meant, more like the sayings we utter. I seem to explain to many people regularly what Twitter is and try to get them to understand the micro-blog craze. To be honest this type of blog, true blogging, is the most difficult for me, I seem to underestimate the commitment it takes to keep up with my desires for blogging. Welcome Twitter, the world of micro-blogging. Now that I have unlimited texting it makes this service great. One can send micro-blogs such as, "Hanging with the family" or "Going to see The Incredible Hulk" and anyone who is following you can get your updates as well as you can receive anybodys updates via texts for whoever you are following.

Ministry related, our youth ministry, eikon student ministries has it's own Twitter and at the beginning of our services I have students follow us and we send out 'tweets' to all the students who are following us. My philosophy is instead of fighting the war of phones and texting in services we have decided to fight fire with fire. Unbelievably, unexpected satisfaction is all I can say as a result. Currently as of this post we have 136 followers following us. This is just students who have shuffled through our services or some parents as well. We know students are forwarding texts as well so hopefully our tweets are getting forwarded too. Another big use for this is the ability to send updates for events and reminders to students. I believe this is one of those tools if you do not get in now you will be regretting it later.

Now on to Utterz, a social aggregate. The Utterz website allows you to send in pictures, text messages and audio or video recordings via your cell phone then it has it's own mico-blog on it's website. Now what some of you are thinking, just another site to keep up and manage... not true. It's all how you use it, because it's and aggregater it shoots it to a host of other blog/micro-blogs. So if I send in a photo on my phone it sends it to utter.com then Utterz posts it to my Twitter and this blog as well, all on it's own. Another powerful well thought out tool of utterz is the ability to send in a photo then it gives you ten minutes to send in voice recording, text messages, or video and it automatically attaches it to that post.

P.S. Ok I decided to throw in another HOT tool on the net. Pinger, amongst the best tools available. Pinger allows you the ability to upload all your contacts then build groups if you need to then you call a specific number that Pinger provides and you speak the name of the person or group then at the tone leave a voice mail. That voice mail is then delivered to that person/group as a text message that they click on to listen to. There is even an option to get text replies once the recpient/group listened to the VM. The receiver also can hit reply and send you a message back. This is amazing if you want to send 15 people a message and don't have the 15-20 minutes to talk. This is a lifesaver and yet still personal. Voice is always more personal then a text, heres a mixture of both.

All around us are tools that are coming onto the scene. We must always be looking at ways for networking and finding new ways to be a part of our world. The truth is we are moving into a highly social networking enviroment that we can try to be on the front line of and ride the waves. I don't feel it will let up as soon as some speculate. This wave will have lasting affects just like the iPod changed how we listened to music the social network will change how we interlink in our world. If you have any tools that would be useful comment on this blog and share. I would love to hear your thoughts on the direction for the future of social networking. I have a lot of input and some really great ideas. If you are a programmer leaver feedback, maybe we can get in touch and share some ideas that I ahve that could change a lot of our culture.

www.twitter.com/shaunmayfield
www.twitter.com/eikonlive
www.utterz.com/pastorshaun
www.twittervision.com for fun.

...read more on "TechKrunch"!