The following is a guest post that I wrote on Wednesday, September 29, 2010 for TheCreativePunk.com.

I talked about Twilight and Nascar this past weekend when I had the opportunity to talk about wasted grace.

So, you are probably thinking, “What do those things have to do with grace?”

You are going to have to watch to find out.

I know, that is a pretty big cliff-hanger.

(Are you itching with anticipation yet?)

In all seriousness, my hope and prayer for this talk was to challenge how we define grace and more importantly, to understand how we need to embrace grace daily.

For the longest time, I struggled with this idea of grace and so I tried to earn God’s love. I would try to earn it any way I could, whether it be through serving or forcing myself to spend time with Him. This continued until my relationship with Jesus changed from a love based relationships to a guilt based relationship.

It became about guilt because every time I tried to earn God’s grace, I somehow fell short.

If that is you or someone you know, then I encourage you to watch this message.

Click here to watch it right now. (Week 4 in the “Wasted” series)

I will be honest, I got this idea from one of Hannah’s girly magazines.

It’s more than cleaning and organizing put together.

This idea of purging involves getting rid of excess and creating margin in terms of material items.

It is refreshing in an emotional sense (I’m serious).

I don’t know if it works for everybody, but it has been working for me.

I have been aggressively going through all the crap stuff that we own and getting rid of stuff that I:

A) Wouldn’t notice if it were stolen

B) Haven’t used it at all this past year

C) Is Junk

I am a pack rat so there is a lot of stuff that fits in those categories.

Here are a few things that I found that I sold on eBay or a Pawn Shop:

20+ DVD movies ($20), 3 old cell phones ($120+ total) and my old graphic calculator ($60+)

Here are some things that I found that weren’t eBay or Pawn Shop worthy:

An old poster that I took to an Alabama game, old church bulletins and old wedding cards.

So, find a closet or even a drawer and Purge It!

You will feel better, less cluttered and may even make some cash along the way.

Although I have never asked myself this question out loud, it is a tension that we all face as leaders, creatives and communicators.

I was reading TonyMorganLive.com and saw this video.

It is worth all four minutes, I promise!

Here is my wish list of all things related to Church Communications. Every once in awhile, products and services come out that are game-changing. These are those types of products and services. I think I would trade my left arm or right pinky toe for just one of these.

SoChurch. Price: ?

A new tool that promises to facilitate a cohesive social media front and unify church communication for end users.

Clover. Price: $$$$ + $$ (Monthly)

Their tagline says it all, “Websites for people, not programmers”.

Base Camp. $$-$$$ (Monthly)

The leading software solution for managing tasks and projects for teams.

Church Analytics. Price: ?

A new tool released by the man that has started more blogs than himself (aka John Saddington) that will revolutionize stats for church websites.

LifeChurch.tv’s Church Online. Price: ?

A platform for internet campuses that is currently being tested by Hillsong Church, Healing Place Church & of course, LifeChurch.tv.