People ask me often what’s on my list.  You know “the list,” right?  Single people have them… it’s the imaginary requirements one person has for their potential mate.  I won’t give you my whole list right now because I don’t think I’m ready for the flood of e-mails that would follow.  However, I do want to question one thing.

I’m looking for “purity” in a potential mate.  Since it’s one of those wishy-washy words, I mean that I’m looking for someone who is a virgin, having not gone farther than kissing with a previous boyfriend.

Immediately upon saying that to people, they will almost always say, “What if God has worked in her life since then?” or “You know God forgives, right?” or “What if she’s changed?”

If I said that I wanted a girl who has red hair and freckles as part of my list, no one would balk because that’s just preference.  God apparantly will allow me to choose superficial things like hair color.  But when it comes to the big stuff, like purity, I’m not allowed to include that on the things I am looking for in a mate?

I wonder why people have a hard problem with that one?  Are there that few virgins left?  Am I the only one who’s waited 25 years?

I finally started reading Mark Batterson’s “In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day” today.  (You can download the entire first chapter here.)  This book has been on my reading list since coming back from the Catalyst Conference last year.  We heard Mark speak at one of the pre-conference sessions.  WOW!  This man’s heart is amazing.  He’s pastoring National Community Church in Washington DC, a church that meets in theaters that are nearby metro stops.  Check out their Web site.

The reason for this post is that Batterson rocked my world today.  This one idea, emerging from the story of a man killing a lion with his bare hands, shook me up.  Batterson says:

Goodness is not the absence of badness.  You can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right.  Our calling is much higher than simply running away from what’s wrong.  We’re called to chase lions - look for opportunities in our problems and obstacles, and take risks to reach for God’s best.

The line that shook me up: “You can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right.”  This past year-and-a-half, I’ve changed.  I’ve settled happily in to “adult life.”  For the first time, I have a real job, a real pay check, and real bills.  It’s changed me.  Since I’ve become a bona fide “adult,” I’ve stopped taking risks, stopped chasing lions.

In college, I was the guy who decided, against all advisors, to follow God to Vermont for two years with barely any sign of a paycheck to work with people who were completely different from me.  That risk payed off hugely for me and hopefully also for the people that I worked with.  I consider it the most influential time in my life. I was a lion-chaser.

Hopefully as I finish the rest of Batterson’s book, I’ll learn how to chase lions where I am, in the course of my 9-to-5 duties and in the world that surrounds me.  I challenge you, as I challenge myself, don’t get so wrapped up with life and security that you miss the lions that are all around you.  Remember that you can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right.

I just returned from a week long cruise to the Mediterranean.  We made the 11-hour homeward journey Wednesday, and my body clock has still not adjusted.  We visited a number of places on our trek through the Med: Rome, Pisa, Lucca, Naples, Livorno, Taormina, Sorrento, and Pompeii (Italy), Valletta (Malta) and Dubrovnik (Croatia).  We had a great time, and we had the opportunity to see some amazing sites.

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.  Click any picture to be taken to the Picasa Album.

I’ll be away for a little over a week.  I’m headed to Europe with Holland America, this time as a guest.  I’ll be cruising aboard the ms Noordam. It’s a charter cruise with a non-standard itinerary, so I really don’t even know where we’re going, and I can’t find it on HALs Web site. The only thing I know for sure is that I am flying in to Civitavecchia (Rome).

Anyhow, I’ll be having fun and I won’t be checking my e-mail. Don’t feel like I’m hating on you, I’m just not around. I will however leave some Web goodness to auto-post in my absense.

Well, I’m not exactly a parent, but I do sponsor three kids with Compassion (you should too, by the way).  I realized that I’m a bad “parent” today.  See, I was walking down the street and the iPhone told me that it was my day to write them a letter.  I’ve been pretty poor about doing this lately.  The past few times, I’ve gone to Compassion.com and “e-mailed” them, but you know, it’s just not the same to the kids as receiving an honest-to-goodness letter.

I was trying to figure out what changed.  Why have I gone downhill in this area that I used to excel in.  Do I have too much on my plate?  Am I over-committed? The truth is, I’ve been too absorbed in my life to care about theirs.  That’s a pretty bitter realization, a hard pill to swallow.

As I began pondering this more and more, I kept thinking about that old adage, that “anything worth doing is worth doing well.”  I don’t want to half-heartedly do anything.  So, do I have too much on my plate?  Do you have too much on yours?

Well, as it turns out, I have allowed my work to overpower everything else.  God has called me to release children from poverty, but I have allowed my job to steal that.  Notice that the blame is placed firmly on me.  I’m not working more because it’s expected of me - it’s just because I do.  I have set firm boundaries in the amount of time I spend at the office, never more than 40 hours a week unless a major emergency comes up.  However, with computers, the office comes easily to my living room.  So, I’m actually working 60-80 hour weeks.

Here’s my recommendation to myself, and to you.  Leave work at work and don’t spend too much time there.  Meet and exceed the requirements of the job, but realize that you’re no good to anyone if you burn out.  If you’re single, like myself, consider this time preparation time for having a family.  The habits you form now will most likely stick with you.