intentional living

Want to Quit Your Job? It’s Thursday.

/ Erin Kirk / 9 Comments

New York Times Bestselling Author Bob Goff is famous for saying, “Quit something on Thursday. Maybe even your job.”

Bob believes that in order to make space for things you want, you have to clear out some things you don’t – even big things. So at his Love Does Conference in Seattle last year, I took him up on it.

“All right Bob,” I said, and quit my job, with my new BFF Lisa Long standing by.

The Culprits.

The Goff Unemployment Index rises by two.

I heard from that raven haired beauty Lisa Long today, AND GUESS WHAT SHE DID?

She quit her job…And it’s not even Thursday. Now, Lisa didn’t exactly work at the mall, she’s had a very big job for the last 22 years, so quitting was no small thing. But I’ve never heard her more excited.

“I have so much joy today and now I’m like Ok Jesus, whatever. I’m ready.”

Try praying like that some time.

Here’s the fun part.

This wasn’t a whim, Lisa’s been considering it for a while. Yesterday morning she got up early to pray it over and wound up watching a couple of videos Bob posts. This was one of them. It’s 30 seconds. Watch it!

Six hours later, I posted the same video on my Facebook page and she saw it – again. Then she picked up the phone, called a meeting and pulled the chocks like a boss.

It’s not that Lisa isn’t scared, she is, but because she believes the Kingdom of God is a way of being in this world, right now, she is brimming with hope about what is next, and I CAN NOT WAIT….(How about a big white ship? hint hint.)

If you choose to live in the Kingdom of God – and by the way Bob would say, you’re not just invited, you’re welcome – it’s ok to reject coincidence. It’s ok, when people who love you post on Facebook things you’re already thinking, to believe that may just be God saying,

“Let go baby. I’ve got this. I’ve got plans for you.”  Jeremiah 29:11

Without the confidence I gained from reading Jeremiah 29:11 a thousand times, I wouldn’t have had the guts to quit selling insurance. If I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have gone to Zambia, which led me to Mercy Ships, and nine out ten people agree, bandaging the feet of lepers in West Africa is more interesting than selling insurance.

So, where do you need to pull the chocks and who are you trusting to help you?

Bob’s pal author Don Miller put it like this at the Love Does Conference:

“Are you being too careful? Is it robbing the Kingdom of God of something? We don’t want you to be careful anymore.”

Happy Thursday.

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Why I Heart Facebook.

/ Erin Kirk / Leave a comment

sevenly
Did you know Facebook has a charity division? They do.

Their job is to hunt down people using Facebook in charitable ways. Recently, they collected the ten best stories from ten years of Facebook and Mercy Ships is one of them. Evidently they didn’t approach us though. They talked to Sevenly, a lifestyle company that donates a portion of every sale of its limited edition products, like t-shirts, art, jewelry, to a different charity each week – including us.

When Facebook approached Sevenly about featuring them on their top 10 list, they said “sure, can we feature Mercy Ships?”

And that’s how this happened.

*as ever the views expressed herein are my own and not that of my employer Mercy Ships.

Dig Up Your Talents

/ Erin Kirk / 2 Comments

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. – George Bernard Shaw

Around here, we are fairly obsessed with figuring out how to make our lives matter, how to surrender our plans in favor of God’s and living those plans in practical ways.

Mercy Ships, for obvious reasons, is intent on that process too. Today, one of our leaders, Dr. Andrew Clark, showed us this clip of Pastor/Author/Jesus Freak Francis Chan, explaining, in less than four minutes, why we feel destined for purpose, but wind up feverish, selfish, little clods.

In my opinion, Francis Chan has a legal right to be angry at God, but instead he devoted his life to falling deeper in love with him and helping people like you and me do the same. His terrific bestselling book Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God saw an estimated $2 million in royalties, and Chan gave most of it away.

This kind of life is possible, but it’s risky and requires the omniscience we don’t have. We can live ok lives without God, (I think) but if we can live like holy daredevils with him, why wouldn’t we?

Jesus talked a lot about using our gifts, but he’s gets pretty hard-core in the parable of the talents. Remember, the two servants who doubled the master’s money (the talents) and the third hid his in the ground because he was too afraid to use it. Here’s what Jesus said about that:

Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless GodThe master was furious. ‘That’s a terrible way to live! It’s criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least? … And get rid of this “play-it-safe” who won’t go out on a limb. Throw him out into utter darkness. Matthew 25:26,30 The Message.

Yah, Jesus said that. So perhaps we should get busy.

How? Remember the three questions we keep asking:

  • Who are we?
  • What do we want?
  • What’s the first step?

If you’re stuck on the first part because you don’t know who you are, don’t worry. If you’re a follower of Jesus, you don’t have to figure it out because he did it for you. It’s amazing how a singular focus on who Jesus says you are, answers the other two questions.

So, what talent have you buried? What’s the smallest first step you can take to dig it up?