Just a footnote about the NY23 election. Voters obviously rejected outsiders telling them who to vote for, just as they rejected GOP party leadership for choosing who their candidate should be. I respect the voters of NY23 for making up their own minds. GOP leadership bungled the election from start to finish and lost a seat that should have been solidly red.  But make no mistake about it – while people in the beltway (and political junkies like me) want to make this particular race about GOP moderates being forced out – clearly the voters wanted a candidate that shared their values.  No matter what the R’s did to try to make “their candidate” a Republican in name, the pro-gay marriage and pro-choice perspectives are not part of the Republican platform. Do we have to compromise our values and ideals to become an “inclusive party?” Big tent doesn’t equal no backbone and no firm principles.

I propose that we can keep our principles without compromising as a party, but not be a bunch of intolerant, uneducated mobs that hate homosexuals and protest with grotesque signs of abortion techniques.  We may disagree on these issues that we hold near and dear, but we don’t have to be hateful and condemning and condescending about it either.

Some thoughts about election night 2009:

• Not a Win – Republicans should not be overly excited about this election tally. This had little to do with a Republican vision or agenda that the masses bought into, and more about inarticulate Democrat candidates that were unpopular or unknown. This was more of a Dem loss, and not a Republican win.
• Solve the problem – If the R’s go out and celebrate these two wins, and forget about the reason why we lost the WH and are in the “super minority,” this election will be a HUGE net loss. R’s still have to get back to fixing the reason why we lost big last year.
• No leadership – One of the reasons R’s lost huge last year was a lack of leadership.  Steele, Boehner and McConnell don’t connect with the public and for good reason.  They have no ideas.  It’s hard to re-brand a product that hasn’t changed and has nothing to offer.  Dem’s were catapulted to victories on the back of articulate guy who had some sort of vision – even if it wasn’t specific in it’s policy description. We don’t need another Ronald Reagan, we need a 21st century leader who can cast a achievable vision for this country and can articulate it without a teleprompter. If I hear R’s quote Reagan one more time, I’ll hurl. We keep having to dig up the memory of a dead president, because there seems to be no one that can speak for R’s today.
• No agenda – Another reason we lost big last year, is that we have no real agenda.  We are more than the party of “no,” but we have to start talking like one. It’s not enough to put out a 230 page healthcare plan alternative 7 months after the debate began.  We have to have solid ideas on EVERY issue, including education, healthcare and the environment. R’s care about those issues too, we just don’t hear our leadership talking about them with any real conviction or regularity. And stop talking tax cuts! We can’t tax cut our way out of a recession with a ballooning national debt.

Unfortunately, we lost more than the WH and the majority.  We lost our way.  We still haven’t found it, and two governorships won’t take us back.  This isn’t a bleak outlook, but rather a pragmatic take on where we are and where we need to be as a party. All Americans are craving leadership.  Neither party is giving it.  We are just continuing to talk past each other without really debating the substantial policy decisions that lie before us. Just my take.  Let me know what you think…

The Lord seems to be doing a lot of positioning or re-positioning these days.  I know of so many people who are in transitional periods in life, and awaiting direction or something new that the Lord is preparing them for.

I can relate.

Inside, there is a holy anticipation of the miraculous fulfillment of several things the Lord has been reminding me of over the past year.  Some of them have or are in the process of happening, while still others couldn’t seem further away.

But the Lord continues to speak to me that while I wait, I have to focus on BEING the man of God and less on DOING or trying to make something happen.  If I focus on allowing him to change me internally, He will bring the external change around me.  It’s about positioning myself for what He is calling me to do.  Posturing and positioning are two different things. Posturing is us trying to make things happen on our schedule and in our ways.  Positioning is allowing God to move us into the right place at the right time, and requires an extra measure of faith and patience.

“They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar above like the eagles.”

This is the second major policy summit that I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of in the last few weeks. The previous conference was a gathering of CEOs and other leaders discussing private industry ideas for energy reform. This is one one private sector education reform.

Here’s my takeaway. After working in the federal government and now being involved with private sector leaders, I am starting to believe that the systemic change that our country needs will not come from the efforts of politicians or the government.

It seems to me that the bureaucracy and special interests that control the money and influence on the Hill systematically kill true innovation and change.

What has encouraged me lately is to see and meet private sector leaders who aren’t waiting for the government to step up and initiate change. Infact I’ve been excited to see people who realize that change has to start from the ground up, not from the top down.

In my business I am enjoying helping message these issues for these organizations and policy debates outside the scope of the political battles. It’s refreshing to see change happening even if it’s not broadcast in the media as much as the political trash talking. I believe the private sector and the general public will bring the change and innovation that we can believe in.

What am I created to do?

This was a question that someone posed to me a couple months ago. I’ll be honest, at first I blew it off, thinking, “Does anyone really ever get to the place where they are doing what they were created to do?”  The cynicism from past difficulties in life has jaded my natural reaction a bit.

But these past couple weeks this question has been spurring me to rearrange my life and priorities and goals to begin to pursue what I believe the Lord is wanting me to be and do accomplish.  I’m tired of buying time while I wait for the right thing to miraculously drop into my lap.

The reason I post this is to ask you the same question, “Are you doing what you were created (by God) to do?” I have SO many friends that are working jobs that they absolutely hate or that are keeping them relatively content at the moment, but that even if there’s promise of advancement – they know in their heart it’s not really what they want to do or were created to do. It’s not the dream that God has for them.  And while it’s great to be thankful for a job and a paycheck, it’s also easy to get tangled in this level of mediocrity in which we never really accomplish what God intends for us. Too often we go day to day, trying to conjure up happiness in our next relationship, purchase, or outing.  After all the dates, guys, girls, new cars, new jobs, and new promotions subside, we are left with a lack of fulfillment and sense of emptiness.

Let me challenge you to do something. Take a few minutes alone today or at some point this weekend and ask God what His dream for your life is.  I’m serious.  Book a meeting with God.  Do it now. Put it on your cell phone or BlackBerry calendar. It could be 5, 10, 15 minutes, whatever.  Spend some time asking God for that dream that purpose and then listen. If you’re meant to go back to school, become a missionary, write a book, begin a different career path, whatever… begin moving in that direction.

I have a friend who just landed in Ethiopia a few days ago.  He was in my men’s small group this year.  Back in January, I remember him telling me, “I just wish I could hear the voice of God.  I want to start doing what God created me to do, but I am so unfulfilled inside.”  Well 8 months later, he literally resigned from a posh and good paying job, sold EVERYTHING he had on E-Bay, and headed to Ethiopia where he will be working with children who live on the streets and in sewers, and he couldn’t be MORE happy.

The difference is the JOY.  I’ve learned that you can have a dream job, be well paid, have a new car, great friends, and still have this longing in your heart for something more.  The U2 anthem “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” has become an internal prayer this year.  I want more.  I want to be more.  I want to do more.  And when one finds what God’s dream is for them and begins to walk in it, the JOY is overwhelming.

I challenge you to push past the comfy cozy living and pursue the fire that God has lit internally in your soul.  No matter what it is or how impossible it may seem to be, He can and will make it happen if you pursue it.

Jeremiah 29:11 is my life verse.  It says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” but those plans are nothing more than empty dreams, unless you and I begin chasing and pursuing those plans! Make that appointment happen, and pursue the dream the Lord has and will light in the torch of your spirit.

But as quickly as the summer heat transitions to a cool autumn breeze (as we’re witnessing this beautiful morning), our Father can flip a switch and seemingly change the seasons of our lives as well. That’s exactly what He seems to be up to in my life in the past 9 or 10 days.

After the job search seemed to dry up following Halle’s departure back to FL, in the past 10 days I’ve had 8 interviews, 4 second interviews and a slew of other phone calls to set up future interviews.  The train is moving again, and there are some tremendous possibilities that seem within grasp.  Some of you may know that I started a boutique public affairs firm with a friend a few months ago, and it has been blessed to have been working with some prominent political campaigns.  Well I just signed several contracts with some businesses and organizations that I have a direct interest in.  A few of these are policy shops that deal with issues that I really enjoy working with, and I am loving being my own boss and not being chained to a desk and computer, but out meeting fascinating people who are doing some incredible things.

Last week I had a phone call from a good friend, who hired me to run the media relations for a major energy policy conference at the Mayflower Hotel.  It was an out of the blue opportunity and in the course of 2 days I got to spend time working with the CEO’s of Caterpillar, Dupont, FedEx, Office Depot, along with two cabinet secretaries, and 2 U.S. Senators. Out of this day and a half of work, there are now huge contracts on the horizon that will now enable me to hire possibly 2 full time people with Hill experience (specifically E&C committee experience).  The financial potential for this new company is exploding faster than I can comprehend it, and the opportunity to be my own boss, donate significantly to missions and take off time to potentially travel to Africa (as God has been burning in my heart) all seem to be within sight.  It’s amazing.

And I just got word that the manuscript for a book I recently finished, “If Only God Twittered,” (a book on hearing the voice and direction of God for one’s life) is being looked at by a couple of publishing companies.

Add to that a new apartment, a new roommate and a renewed joy, happiness and sense of confidence, and life is good.

As I awoke to run this AM, feeling the crisp breeze in my face I couldn’t help but be amazed at what God can and will do – when it is HIS timing.  Just like that, God can turn a glass ceiling into an open window.  He can lift the lid of confusion and frustration and liberate a tired and worn out soul.

The moral to this testimony is what Pastor Joel preached a few weeks ago – during a message on the Parable of the Seed.  For too long I have tried to MAKE things happen in MY time and on MY terms. I have frustrated people I love many times and have often left unintended carnage on the path forward.  But that is stupid and unnecessary.  My job is simply to follow God’s leading, obey Him, invest in people and situations as He leads, and leave the outcomes to Him.  I am not responsible for miracles, but in His goodness and mercy, Hc can make a crooked path straight.

For those of you who have been praying for me, please continue to do so.  I do not have an offer on the table from a full time job as of yet, and my plans are to take a job for the next 6 months and take a stipend from the firm, while I allow it to gain some stability and a financial track record.  I haven’t crossed the finish line, but I can see it from here!

To those of you who are frustrated, angry or weary from a confusing season of discouragement, let me encourage you to continue to seek Him – and not the outcome you are praying for.  I’ve learned that He wants ME, my heart, my attention.  As soon as I put His heart first, the job, the relationship, the finances, the direction… it all falls into place.  It’s a beautiful thing. This God of miracles is a Beautiful One.

"As We Forgive" Documentary

I love how God works.  He seems to stitch our lives together with people, divine meetings and experiences that form a pathway to his purpose for our lives.

If you’ve read any of my previous blogs from earlier in the summer, you’ll know that I’ve had a burning in my spirit for the continent of Africa…a development that spans back to years ago when I was in a much different place in life and thinking.

But over the past couple of months, I became busy with the joy of having my daughter in town and the chaos of helping launch a start-up business venture, and somehow I lost focus with where my God was leading my heart for the future.

This morning I went to a prayer meeting for Africa that is regularly held in a Senate office, and we had a guest who spoke briefly before the prayer time.  She is an American University grad student who made a documentary about the Rwandan genocide and specifically the powerful stories about how God has moved the hearts of many people to reunite and reconcile with the people who murdered their family members.  As We Forgive, began as one student’s master’s thesis and now is being endorsed by the president of Rwanda and is being shown all over the country and in public schools as a tool for healing and reconciliation.  Other amazing developments and projects have been spun from this one film, and it’s incredible to see how God can explode the efforts of one person into a huge movement of good in the dark places of the world.  You can watch a trailer of the film by clicking here.  There will also be a showing  - with a new and powerful epilogue that was just recently shot and edited – at the new Capitol Visitor’s Center on Sept. 16 at 6pm.  Over the course of 100 days in 1994, nearly a million people were murdered in Rwanda.  The destruction is unfathomable.

As I sat in the room and listened, my heart once again was gripped with a passion to be a part of what God is doing and wants to do there.  I am reminded that God can do anything, with anyone, at any time.  He is reminding me that he will “regurgitate” the dreams and purposes that He intends for our life at the right moment if we are completely dependent and surrendered to Him and His calling for our lives.

Once again, I stand ready saying, “Lord here am I, send me.”  The anthem, You Said, once again rings in my spirit.

I know that I’m not headed to Africa immediately, and I have no idea when or what it will look like in the future, but I am determined to stay focused on His path for my life, and not some contrived thing that I can produce or come up with.  The Lord is blessing with a new venture that I am involved with that may provide both the time and resources to actually travel and invest in what God is doing in the continent.  It is not something that I would have expected or seen coming, but then again, the Lord seldom seems to move in the timing and method that I expect…and that’s OK with me!

The Top Thrill Dragster. Climb 420 feet and down at a top speed of 120 mph.

Last night I returned from one of the most fun-filled trips I’ve been on in a long time. A group of friends and I traveled to Sandusky, OH to make a early fall visit to Cedar Point.  It was just the trip I needed, and while I’m a bit tired, I am mentally refreshed.  It’s amazing what 60 hours outside the Beltway can do… and a dozen or so heart-grabbing roller coasters can add a little bit of excitement as well.

The trip was really kind of an allegory for the season of life that I’ve been in – a roller coaster of sorts.  Since I left my Congressional office back in May, the search for a job, the summer with my daughter, and pursuing direction in relationships and friendships, it’s been an up and down period of time.  I’ve enjoyed some of the richest experiences in my life as well as some of the most discouraging and frustrating.  It’s been a ride to say the least.

But as I stood in line at Cedar Point, awaiting the most exhilarating 17 seconds or so a human can possibly, there was an overwhelming sense of excitement, anticipation, and even fear.  The photo posted in this blog is the Top Thrill Dragster, which takes you from 0 to 120 mph in the first 4 seconds before hurling you straight up 420 feet and then back down.  The visual can grip even the most adventurous of hearts, and it did mine.

But after getting off the ride, I literally told a friend, “Wow!  That was awesome.  It wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected.”  And off I trotted to the next thrill inducing coaster.

What I’ve learned is that it’s easy to expect the worse and hope for the best.  It’s easy to just kind of “get by” – in our jobs, relationships, friendships, and life in general.  But I can’t settle for average or good.  I’m determined to press on toward ALL that God has determined to bring my way. And over the past 2 and a half weeks, God has stirred in my heart such a huge anticipation for an outbreak of incredible things – job, relationship and friendships that are coming over the horizon.  And while there may be a corkscrew or upside down loop that maybe in between here and there – I’m more than just hanging on – I’m pressing forward with expectation.  Already I am beginning to see some of these emerge and my heart is so incredibly full of life.  I know that the best is yet to come.

Just this past week, I participated in a video conference call and spoke with someone who is sure to run for President in 2012 and seen several clients move to within reach of signing respectable contracts with a new public relations startup that a friend and I have recently launched.  I can take no credit for all this, but it’s the hand of the Almighty reminding me and demonstrating that while there are ups and downs in this life, He desires to bless us and give us good things.

And while there are certainly interesting times ahead, they are no match for a loving Father who is always looking out for us.  I have never been more excited about the future and the things that God is positioning me to encounter and walk in!  Lord, bring it to pass!  I’m buckled up and ready to be launched!

I found that altar this weekend.  You can watch or read a blog entry from my pastor/church to get the full low down on the message, but afterwards, the worship leader and campus pastor “opened up” the “altar” for people to continue to seek God after the service had technically been dismissed.  For me growing up, these altar times provided memorable and pivotal moments in my spiritual walk, but it’s been way too long since the last one.

The front area was crowded with people so I simply turned around at my chair and knelt on the cement floor in an empty row, and said, “God I want more.”  It was only 15 minutes, but that 15 minutes was exactly what the doctor ordered.

My heart has been focused on my daughter this summer, and rightfully so.  But deep inside there is and has been a restlessness, a pregnant expectancy for God to blow the lid off of my play it safe, know the outcome before I take the risk type of life.  I’ve had some great opportunities and done some exciting things the past year or so, but I have this sense that God is preparing me for much more.

Over the past year, I’ve been Mr. Risk Management, even settling for safe alternatives and missing out on opportunities in business and relationship because the outcome was unsure. This sounds weak and it was. It sounds cowardly and it was.

“Why so dangerously transparent?” you might ask.  The fact is that God I have never had dinner, coffee, or conversation with so many people in the past few weeks who have that same  restlessness, that same hunger for more – to be more and to do more.  It seems like everyone I meet is stir crazy and longing for change, longing to find that purpose that calling for their life.

The other morning I found myself listening to U2′s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” over and over again.  It catches the spirit of what churns inside me lately.

Early this year God spoke to me that this would be a year of breakthrough in a number of areas of my life.  He told me that 3 of my specific prayers would be answered and fulfilled this year.  One of them already has been, but the other two seem light years away.  As the months have gone on, I’ve placed those on the backburner, even settling for distractions or alternative answers, but no longer.

I’m holding out for the real deal. I won’t move on.  I won’t be deterred.  I won’t be guided off course from what God has repeatedly told and promised me.  But I’m not waiting aimlessly.  I’m taking bolder, more assertive steps.  No more hedging, balking or second guessing.  Carpe diem.  Period.  It’s amazing what can be altered at the altar.

This summer has been a growing up period for me.  For many years I thought I knew what love was.  There is the obvious difference between love and lust – the easy differentiation between wanting to fulfill physical desire and a deep care and selfless concern for someone that consumes you.

But this summer I’ve begun to learn what real love is.  As a parent you quickly learn that life is no longer all about you.  Unfortunately I learned that a few too many years into my former marriage.  But the real joy is when you’re able to look past what you want and “need,” and fulfill the desires of the person that is in your care.  It’s going swimming, yet again, when it’s 100 degrees outside, playing Barbies when you want to read, or watching “HSM 1,2, AND 3″ when you really want to watch “Wedding Crashers.”

The art of “loosing myself” has been a painful one and something that I am still a long way off from perfecting, but this summer I can truly say that I love my daughter more than ever and am grateful to be learning how to love and give of myself, to her and others, no matter what or if I get anything in return.  I’ve learned that love is truly a risk, and unless you are willing to be vulnerable, take a chance and put your whole self out there for someone, you will never have the opportunity to experience the joy or the pain of true love.

The heart of the Father is nothing different.  He gave His most precious gift.  He put Himself fully out there, with no guarantees that we – His children – would respond.  He waits for our embrace.  He waits for the love to be returned.  His heart is longing, so many times painfully waiting for us to glimpse His way.  The heart of our Father is consumed with us – with true love for His people.

There are times He must grow tired of our “on again, off again” claims of love and devotion, but there He stands at the door knocking, patiently wooing our hearts to Him.  Love is truly persistent and doesn’t give up on.  It keeps no records of wrongs and gives not in hopes of getting something back, but only for the joy of the happiness that it gives the person loved.

If His love is anything close to what I have for Halle, and I know it is eternally more than that – than we are all in VERY good hands…

The past week has proved much to me.  I traveled out of town this week testing some waters for a business venture, and while driving up, honestly I thought the trip might be a waste of time.  Turns out, it was a huge open door with more opportunities than I’ll be able to capitalize on.  I’ve had people telling me the business venture wouldn’t work and that I shouldn’t pursue it, but it turns out that there are doors opening all around me at the moment – and doors that I would never have even known to knock on.

And with friendships I’ve been bullied and had my head filled with critiques and criticisms of friends by other “friends,” and what I’ve learned is that you have to trust God to guide you, take the risk and choose the adventure.  No one can predict the future, and often God doesn’t tell us what will happen, but I’m certainly done pre-maturely closing doors that God seems to be opening in life or labeling and writing off people that some people don’t like or agree with.

I’m hungry for everything God has for me – with Him, in life, in business, in relationships and friendship, and anything else He has planned.  Bring it on, because there is nothing I’m not willing to try or shoot for – as long as He’s in it!