New Project: Deck Your Heart: 30 Days with God

Journey Bread Readers:

I have started a new project that I believe in my heart will be a success. The project is called Deck Your Heart: 30 Days with God. The idea is to try to "live in the moment" each day instead of always dreaming about the future. I have a tendency to dream so much about future success that I miss the small blessings and opportunities to help people each day. With God's help, I am trying to stay connected to Him throughout the day and look for Him to show up and give me opportunities to live for Him, even in the smallest of events. The text as you will find contains victories and failures and struggles and is very raw - I believe that this type of story will appeal to a large group of people in the world who are tired of the fairy tale stories and who long for a story that they can relate to and from which they can learn. Attached are the first 3 days of the script that I have sent to Tate Publishing who has offered to give me a publishing contract for the book. In an effort to gauge the feasibility of meeting the author participation - financial investment for the book, I would be humbled if you could do the following:
1. Pray for me that God would give me the wisdom to continue to stay connected to Him and to be sensitive to His presence and direction, even in the smallest of events and goings on throughout the coming days, weeks and beyond.
2. Please read the first 3 days that are attached and shoot me a quick note if you would be willing to prayerfully consider partnering with me by offering a financial contribution that I will credit toward your pre-sale copy/copies once published.
3. Even if you are not in a position to financially support the project, I would love to hear your feedback on the idea.

Thanks so much for your support and for continuing on the Journey of knowing and loving our Creator!

Deck Your Heart

30 Days with God

Author: Matt Livigni



Day 1

Jumping In

Today started at 3:00 A.M. as I lie awake in bed nervous that I won’t wake up in time to read the first 5 chapters of a new book that we will be discussing in a block of 12 people at this great new church that Paula, my beautiful wife and I had just started attending several months ago. Normally, I would not have been such a procrastinator; however, my life has been very busy lately. Too busy to worry about the small stuff as my career in the tire business had recently been catapulted from being a successful, independent fleet salesman to managing a team of 14 professionals and being responsible for the business results in one of 4 regions in the U.S. smack dab in the middle of the worst economic downturn since the great depression. On top of that, I had just had my first book published in the past year and was hoping to somehow make it a success despite not having the first clue about how that was going to happen, but secretly believing that somehow it would as I just knew that God had big plans for that book, big plans for me and big plans for my future.

As I read the first 5 chapters of A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Don Miller, I was intrigued by his writing style and could relate all too well to the stories that Don was telling. Don has a gift of being very raw and very transparent, he crossed all the boundaries of how a Christian book should look and feel and sound and yet there was something very special about the truthfulness of his writing, it is as if he was letting the reader peer deep into his soul where all of his insecurities, hurts, dreams, fears, successes and failures were held. The interesting thing about the memorable experiences of Don’s life was that the scenes that he described would not appear on the surface as anything that should be very memorable. They were small insignificant events that mattered most to him and that shaped who he was today. I thought about these small events through the lens of my own personal approach to life with the backdrop of all the big plans that God had (or maybe just I had) for my life and was immediately ashamed of how I had been approaching this journey of knowing and loving God. Right away I decided to change my approach and I remembered a series that Matt and Scott (the pastors at Watershed church) had just completed in December entitled Deck Your Heart.

Part of the Deck Your Heart series discusses this idea that God cares less about the “big” things in this life and more about the small, insignificant people and happenings of your day in which He strives to make His love known. The big things in life will take care of themselves if you indeed make a conscience effort to focus on the day to day activities, encounters, acquaintances and divine appointments in which God can use a heart that’s tuned in to Him and ready to reflect His love in order to make the most of our short time here on this earth. I had just written a daily devotional in December about this idea and so I went back and read what I had just written some 30 days or so earlier. Next came one of those ah-ha moments that hit me upside the head so hard that I could hardly sleep as I went back to bed to catch a few more hours of sleep before the 9:00 block meeting would begin. The words that I had written as part of a daily email ministry called Journey Bread about this idea of decking your heart were very well stated and very inspiring to read and yet practicing them in the daily grind had seemed to get lost in the shuffle as I went back to dreaming about the success of my region, the success of my book, the new relationships and all the people that we were going to have an impact on in our new home and new church in uptown Charlotte. Something needed to change and I was immediately inspired to start walking the talk and to begin to tune in to what God is doing right now, in the moment, in the smallest of the small activities and decisions of my day, in the seemingly mundane business meetings and all of the others events that just happen throughout the day, the events where God had shown up but I had not, the insignificant happenings of the day where God was waiting to give me an incredible gift of fulfilling my purpose for being here on this earth that I had missed altogether as a result of worrying and dreaming about tomorrow, the tomorrow that just might never come. In the book of Matthew 6:34(NIV), Jesus tells us: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I was excited to share this new idea about how I was going to approach life for the next 30 days with the new group with which I was meeting on Sunday morning. As I shared, I was received by these new friends with several deer in the headlight looks. It may had been a little too much to share in the very first meeting but to verbalize it meant a lot to me as I was excited to start this new journey of selfless living and tuning in to how God can use me in the most insignificant events of the day. I was excited to see what God would do if I just had the humility to be intentional about seeking Him and then selfishly I was excited to journal the daily events at the end of each day in order to publish this new book that will hopefully give you just a glimpse of what it is like to encounter God on His turf, with His direction on a daily basis.

The meeting was over and my day had begun. This would be the first Sunday that Paula and I haven’t fought about being late to church. The meeting ended at 10:00 and the service did not start until 10:30. The original plan was to have Paula drive herself and meet me at church, that way I could be on time and not have to worry about her not being ready in time. During the block meeting, Paula was texting me, asking for directions. The weather today was rainy and cold and I thought about this beautiful gift of love that God had given me in my wife trudging through the mud and rain alone to attend a new church where she did not yet know anyone and trying to find me in the midst of the crowd. My first encounter with God happened as I changed my plan and drove home to pick Paula up, knowing full well that we most likely would still be late. This was the first Sunday for as long as I can remember that we didn’t argue or fret about the time as Paula, surprised as she was, greeted me with a special kiss upon my arrival back at our uptown condo. My 30 day Journey had begun and it couldn’t have started in a better way.

Tears filled my eyes as I listened at church to Scott’s wife give the sermon, describing the needs and expectations of a woman. Self-sacrifice, strength and respectability were the 3 pillars that she described that hold a marriage together, all executed with the power of God who lives inside each and every one of us who believe and accept Him. I couldn’t help but reflect on the events of the morning as I grasped Paula’s hand during the service with tears of joy for the gift that God has given me in her and the abundant life that lies in wait as I strive to tune-in to Him in the coming days. I wondered how the morning would have gone if it were a normal Sunday that started with the needless stress of worrying about being late. I wondered how the message would have been received and how my actions might have looked through this new lens of stogies and stilettos(the current series on Sunday morning). I got it right today with a little help from above. I can’t wait to tune-in tomorrow and see what God will do.



Day 2

Head in the Clouds

My facebook status today read the following: “Matt is starting a 30 day journey of living in the small, insignificant moments each day – looking for God to show up and teach me to live, breath and love Him in the midst of His presence throughout each day by reflecting His awesome love to all who cross our path.” The day started with an email from Erica Parkerson, a D.J. from Newlife 91.9 responding to an email that I sent her on Saturday morning answering her request to share a love story. I sent her a copy from one of the devotions in my first book entitled Two Becoming One which described in detail the incredible gift of love that God has given me in my beautiful wife Paula. Her response was so awesome that it catapulted me right back up into the clouds, dreaming about bestselling books and who would be listening to the radio broadcast and maybe, just maybe this was the big break that I needed to get the Journey Bread book off the ground, as far as mass retail sales. So much for living in the moment as that email was all I needed to take my thoughts a million miles away from paying attention to how God would want to use me in the coming hours.

At my desk, I was formulating the response to Erica as she had a few more questions prior to reading my love story over the air, just then Carol, a colleague who had just befriended me on facebook appeared in the frame of my office door – “what an awesome status you had this morning” she said with a heartfelt expression on her face, I smiled and then quickly looked back down at my computer as I have become all too accustomed to doing in an effort to not have to make small talk in the office. So much for living in the moment, and for taking advantage of doors opened by God to reflect His love, share my story and be an encouragement in the moment for other people. No, it was back to the old Matt already, selfishly consumed with visions of grandeur about the future and having dreams so big that I completely missed an opportunity to make a difference right then and there in the midst of a miracle that God had performed in connecting Carol and me together in conversation about His love and grace.

The rest of the day at work is a blur as I once again was so consumed in my work and so consumed in seeing the tipping point for Journey Bread come to fruition that I most likely missed several opportunities to make a difference and to be there for someone else in need. That evening as I walked up the block to the Harris Teeter to grab a bottle of wine and some food to cook for dinner that evening, I passed several people along the way and passed them without even a glance or smile. I had developed the cold way of avoiding people that was all too prevalent in uptown. The city will teach you very quickly not to make eye contact as you are walking down the street, all it takes is one or two unsolicited conversations with a scam artist who has some long and drawn out story as to why you should give him whatever cash is in your pocket and feel good about it. I fell for this scam one too many times when we first moved to uptown Charlotte, and those early experiences helped me to develop this same cold avoidance toward other people that I thought was very insensitive and downright rude when we first moved here. I should mention here that I do, however, very much enjoy selective giving to the down and out on the city streets, the ones I deem to be authentic homeless folks – as if I have any idea who is really homeless and who isn’t and maybe it’s the unauthentic ones who need to see Jesus even more than the real street people do. Nevertheless, here I was passing by several other people who may have just needed a comforting smile to help to ease their hurt or calm their fears and I was not even able to do that this evening.

As I lay in bed that evening, I was wondering where God was in all of this today. Why didn’t Erica ever email me back? Why was I so tired, too tired to even journal my experiences for the day? Why do I get so caught up in dreaming so much about the future and about success and about having a bestselling book and being the number one region in the country? Why am I not more concerned about other people? Why am I so selfish? I prayed a prayer that evening that I could no way do any of this on my own and it was definitely going to take a miracle from God to intervene if any good was going to come from the next 29 days. I asked God’s forgiveness for my failures and fell fast asleep without even the thought of a kiss goodnight to my beautiful bride who lay next to me, the one I wrote about, the one who, I fear, may be even lonelier than I when my head gets stuck in the clouds and life goes on without me.


Day 3

Big City – Big Deal

One of Paula and my favorite cities in the U.S. is NYC. Paula would be packing her bags tomorrow if I told her that we were moving to Manhattan. I can’t see us living there since the cost of living is so high but I love to visit whether the trip is on business or pleasure. My standard reply when she brings up her dream of living in the city is that if we did that then we wouldn’t have anywhere to go to on vacation that we enjoy as much as New York. This never flies with her, and she will never let go of the dream until it is fulfilled. So, on Wednesday I had the opportunity to fly to New York to continue the negotiations of most likely the largest business deal that I have had the privilege of putting together in my 22 year career in the tire business. I was excited about furthering the negotiations but even more excited about the great rate that I found at a hotel in Chelsea as we normally stayed in NJ on these business trips to help minimize cost, but on this trip we were right in the middle of New York City, the place where all the action was, the place that would turn out to be the biggest distraction of my day.

On the plane, I had almost two hours of uninterrupted time, (this seems to be a luxury these days) and was excited to write day 2 of this book. Upon completion of the second chapter I was once again filled with awe and joy and incredible love for the God that I serve as the words just flowed onto the laptop screen with almost zero effort. You would have thought that I would be used to this by now since this incredible gift of journaling the lessons that God has been teaching me through His Word and through life experience over the past 4 years has never failed to show up when I, alongside God, have set aside time to reflect and share the thoughts that He has placed on my heart. I sent the completed chapter to the co-pastor of our new uptown church with a copy to my beautiful Paula as in writing the chapter I was reminded of how much I love her and how much better I could be as a husband if I could only figure out this God thing of living in the moment. Much to my surprise, Scott responded almost immediately with encouraging words and Paula responded at work the next day saying that I was much too hard on myself. These kinds of responses are what I live for, they are the fuel that keeps me motivated to continue on in the battle, they give me hope for the future and encouragement to keep writing and to keep trying to invest my short time on this earth in a way that will somehow leave a legacy of love and encouragement that people will remember and that reflects the One inside whose strength is made perfect in my weakness.

The bad thing about the city is that it is easy to get distracted by all of the energy and all of the people and all of the fancy restaurants with superb wine lists and authentic Italian food. It is easy to get lost in self-indulgence and that is what mostly happened the evening of day 3. At dinner with my colleague, the subject of the horrible tragedy in Haiti came up in conversation and from the tone of his voice it was as if he was quietly asking why. Why did this have to happen; why does God allow such terrible tragedy in the world. It would have been a perfect opportunity to explain the brokenness of the world and to tell Bill my story of how I was broken and how everyone and everything in this world is broken but how God has begun to heal and restore my broken heart into an amazing relationship with Him through a relationship with His son Jesus. Easy to write these words now but they were not so easy to speak when the opportunity presented itself because I was one too many glasses into the bottle of wine that we ordered for dinner and my thoughts and focus on what God was doing were long gone and had been replaced by the indulgences of New York City and the fine food and wine that we were feeding ourselves that evening. I muttered something to Bill’s questions like “we live in a broken world” and then quickly moved on to a more pleasant topic of discussion.

A late night to bed with an early start the next day, when one of the most important meetings of my career would take place meant that there would be no time to write my Journey Bread devotion in the morning. The guilt and disappointment that I used to feel when missing a morning had been long gone as I secretly wondered if any of the 400 or so people who are on the Journey Bread list ever read them anymore as it didn’t appear as if my Journey Bread email ministry was going anywhere. The book had only sold 500 or so copies and the investment that it would take to publish the other two devotional books that were almost complete appeared to be too much to make my dream of having a series of Journey Bread devotional books a reality. Part of me continues to hang on to this dream since every time I get discouraged God sends a small, unexpected message of encouragement through an unsolicited comment on the book or a heartfelt response to the morning devotion. God will not let me relinquish this dream and it is in those times of encouragement that I feel more alive than I have ever been and so full of hope and ambition for the future to fulfill my God-given purpose in this life. Maybe, just maybe, my timing is not God’s timing at all and I am convinced more than ever that there is a miracle around the corner just waiting to happen and that God is going to show up in a big way to help me realize my dreams and live to my full potential. Maybe, just maybe, I am in the midst of a miracle and God is just waiting for me to eliminate the distractions in my life in order that I can hear His whisper in my ear during the smallest most insignificant events of the day that will lead me to a life that changes people and makes a difference in this broken world.

Father, please help me to listen more for your direction and help me to always be ready to respond to the prompting of your Spirit on my heart to offer a smile or helping hand or encouraging word, whatever it is that you would want me to do. I pray for clarity and for the cleanness of my mind in order that I could hear your voice and respond. I love you Father – thank you for your Grace and for your love and thank you for the incredible journey that you have planned for all who trust in you and give you their life.

Risk

14 -18"It's also like a man going off on an extended trip. He called his servants together and delegated responsibilities. To one he gave five thousand dollars, to another two thousand, to a third one thousand, depending on their abilities. Then he left. Right off, the first servant went to work and doubled his master's investment. The second did the same. But the man with the single thousand dug a hole and carefully buried his master's money.
19 -21"After a long absence, the master of those three servants came back and settled up with them. The one given five thousand dollars showed him how he had doubled his investment. His master commended him: 'Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.'
22 -23"The servant with the two thousand showed how he also had doubled his master's investment. His master commended him: 'Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.'
24 -25"The servant given one thousand said, 'Master, I know you have high standards and hate careless ways, that you demand the best and make no allowances for error. I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound down to the last cent.'
26 -27"The 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? The least you could have done would have been to invest the sum with the bankers, where at least I would have gotten a little interest.
28 -30"'Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the most. And get rid of this "play-it-safe" who won't go out on a limb. Throw him out into utter darkness.'
Matthew 25:1-13(The Message)



The journey that you are on with God many times involves risk. In order for you to peel back the onion and really get to know the magnitude of God’s love, you will need to step out on a limb and trust that your Creator and Friend will be there to catch you if you fall. Successful people in this world will tell you that no one has ever achieved anything noteworthy without taking a risk to get there. This principle applies to business, to your relationships, to your finances, to your personal walk with Jesus, to every aspect of life. So, knowing this, I ask you, what is the risk that you need to take in order to continue on this narrow road of abundant life that your heart so longs for? What is God quietly whispering in your heart of hearts for you to do? Maybe it is coming clean on a secret sin that has been destroying you from the inside out, maybe it is forgiving that person that you just know will continue to tear your heart apart if you open the door once again, maybe the risk has to do with your finances as God could be asking you to invest in other people, in His work, in helping to fund the rebuilding of the horrible tragedy in Haiti? Whatever it is I encourage you to take that risk today, don’t wait any longer as God has big plans for your life and He wants to use your story to make a difference in this lost and lonely world that so desperately needs to experience His love.

Hypocrisy

45 "Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, 'My master is staying away a long time,' 49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 24:45-51


As I drove to the office this morning, I passed a sign on a local church which read: “If you love Jesus, then come on in”. I was taken back a bit by this message as it seemed a little hypocritical to me when you view it through the lens of who Jesus really is. You see, I believe that Jesus would want all people to walk through the doors of that church whether they loved Him or not. I mean, after all, His desire is for all to come to repentance isn’t it? Does He not love us and does He not show His unconditional love and saving grace, even when our hearts are not yet aligned with His perfect will and direction for our lives? Did He not die a horrible death on a cross in order that you and I could be free of the evil and bondage of this world which does indeed cause separation from God? It was not until Christ first loved us that we were even able to begin to understand what it means to love Him back. As we read here in this chapter, there will be a day when it is too late to accept His love and to begin living your life with abundance and purpose. Jesus will be back one day, and when that happens the bell will sound, the fat lady will sing and your time to accept this most incredible gift of love in your life will be over as Jesus will take His own back to paradise and you can read on as to what will happen to the rest. Don’t wait another day; start living your life for the King today!

Refocus in the New Year

42 "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
Matthew 24:42-44


As we begin a new year with new dreams and new ideas as to what will happen in 2010, it is good to remember how this life is just a dress rehearsal for eternal life with God. We will be reunited with our Creator in perfect unity and perfect oneness. This will all happen after the appointed time when Jesus returns to finish what He started and to take every man and woman who has trusted in Him back to paradise where you will be rewarded for the effort that you have put forth to advance His kingdom and reflect His love onto a lost world in need. Maybe it is time, this year, to refocus your priorities to things that will matter, not just in this life, but in the life to come. Maybe it is time, as you begin this gift of another incredible year of relationship and restoration with your Savior, to start giving all that you have received from your Father in heaven away to others in order that the people God has placed in your life can also enjoy this incredible gift of abundant and eternal life in Jesus. Maybe it is time to start forgiving others, the way that you have been forgiven; maybe it is time to start loving others, the way that you have been unconditionally loved. Maybe it is time to start expressing to others all that God has done for you and to begin thinking of others as more important than yourself in order that they could see God for who He really is, living in and through your very life. As we read here in the book of Matthew, no one really knows how much time is left or when Jesus will return - let’s not waste any more time my brothers and sisters in Christ, start living your life for Jesus today! Happy New Year!