Find a way

We all probably know someone who has a difficult time making their needs known - either because of advanced age, being just a wee tot, or perhaps suffering from some mental incapacity. Who do you know who cannot speak for themselves? Perhaps an individual comes to mind who is mentally handicapped, clearly not able to make decisions for themselves that consistently reflect safety for their well-being. Perhaps it is an elderly person who no longer is able to get around as they once did, with mental acuity not quite at the same level it once had been. Not to meddle or anything, but maybe it is you! Have you ever seen something more than once, a warning or advisement of sorts, and just gone right on past it? If so, maybe you were exhibiting a little bit of 'mental incapacity' at that moment! You clearly 'received' the warning, but did you really 'receive' it? No, because you did not put it into action. What is received is used. Whenever scripture tells us something more than once, we really need to focus in to see what is being asked of us. Twice in our passage today we find the words to "speak up". We are called to give voice to those without a voice. It is much easier to just ignore the plight of the poor or the helpless, but God's instructions are quite clear. We are NOT to ignore them.

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice. (Proverbs 31:8-9)

The poor - those who are lacking - there is a gap between where they are and some object for which they have significant need. They have fallen into a place of lack or want in their lives. As a result, they are in a position where they are neither comfortable, nor cared for or about. In this place of discomfort, God asks for us to be their voice - to ensure justice for them. We know individuals, and often "communities" of individuals, who just cannot make ends meet, have a hard time getting out to the grocery store, or who just cannot function as well as they could. The elderly widow who enjoys those roses in her garden who can no longer tend her yard herself. The single mother scraping up enough to purchase the much needed weekly groceries. We likely can meet some of their needs - we just have to acknowledge them!

The helpless - those who are unable to defend themselves or are unable to act without the assistance of another. Their plight is truly that of being without because they have not been drawn within - they are socially isolated, not because of a 'social distancing' thing, but because they have never been welcomed in by anyone. A less commonly understood meaning is that of being uncontrollable. The idea is of being so far out of control they stand in a place of needing help in order to bring life back into control again. We all know people like this. Life seems to have spun out of control and their ability to "fix" their "fix" is no longer within their reach. They need someone to re-center their focus and get them back on track. They need the voice of reason, counsel, and encouragement. Both require someone to intervene - someone to walk alongside. Both require something they don't already possess. Both have significant need, but they believe they have no means by which their need will be met.

There is a third group in this passage - those who are being crushed. Perhaps the crushing effects of life's decisions weighs them down - having made decisions which leave them enduring consequences too heavy to bear alone. Regardless of how they have come to feel as though they are being "crushed", the effect is the same - they just cannot bear up. They need the support of another to help them make it through and out from under their burden. The burden of another is made lighter only when we are willing to be the hands and feet of Christ. In service to them, we become the means by which their burden is made a little lighter. Our instruction today is simply to be a "help meet". Find a ways to meet them where they are at - something which may not be very comfortable for some of us. In fact, most of us simply don't appreciate having to leave our zone of comfort! We live in such a way so as to turn away from being a help (sometimes without even being conscious we are doing so). Sometimes we run away rather than embracing. Be the one to bring justice, to be their voice, to meet their need. Be the one to be there to walk alongside (be creative in this time of 'social-distancing'). There is no avoiding it - we are called to actively make a difference in the lives of those who need redemption. What God tells us once - we are to do without hesitation. What he tells us multiple times, we are to embrace as a lifestyle! Just sayin!

No matter what...

No matter what...  These words create a picture of determination, don't they? When we proclaim them, we are usually acknowledging there will be hurdles in our path that must be tackled and even mountains that must be scaled. We are not willing to allow what stands in our way to impede our progress. When we say we are determined, we are indicating we have made a decision - one we will stand upon 'no matter what'. We are 'firm' in our commitment and are committed to the course, even though it is going to challenge us. In healthcare today, we have to exhibit this kind of determination against all manner of viral, bacterial, or combined attack. It also seems that we must exhibit great determination just to find groceries, necessities, and ways to keep our children busy right now. Regardless of the course ahead of you, determination is called for!

But blessed is the one who trusts in Me alone; the Eternal will be his confidence. He is like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots beside the stream. It does not fear the heat or even drought. Its leaves stay green and its fruit is dependable, no matter what it faces. (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

We must guard against being 'determined' in the wrong direction, though. Every opportunity we have to 'do good' should be our focus in tough times. I have read reassuring articles of folks stepping up to help the elderly who cannot get out to find their own groceries right now - as they are some of our most vulnerable to contract disease. I have seen social feeds filled with all manner of reminders to 'do good' for one another - if only to share ideas on how to keep the kiddos busy while they are not able to attend school right now. What might not be apparent to some is that 'no matter what we face', we need to face it together. We need each other - we need to stay firm in our commitment to remain at peace in very trying times.

Peace is first and foremost something established within each of us that begins to emanate to others around us. We find our peace in Christ - we exhibit our peace in loving actions toward one another even when the temptation might be to act or behave quite the opposite. As we have had to make adjustments in how we do business these days, where it is we can go and what it is we can do, we all need to remember our 'firm footing' determines our course. The tree planted well will prosper in spite of the storms or drought! Just sayin!

Taste and See - - - You will love it!

I remember when my kids were quite little and they just knew the flavor of breast milk, but they also needed water from time to time. They weren't all that fond of the 'lack of taste' the water had - often turning away from the offered water because it was flavorless and 'not the same' as what they were used to taking in. Over the course of time, they experimented with new 'tastes' as we added in cereals, ground up veggies, and fruits. What happened was that they began to taste and found that what they were offered wasn't all that bad! We started with veggies and worked our way up to fruit. If we'd have started with all the sweet stuff first, they likely would not have developed any appreciation for the other stuff in life that provided ongoing nourishment for their bodies. Sometimes we just need to 'taste and see' in life. We need to know there will always be things that aren't all that appealing to our 'taste', but they may very well be the thing we need the most!

Be like newborn babies, crying out for spiritual milk that will help you grow into salvation if you have tasted and found the Lord to be good. (1 Peter 2:2-3 VOICE)

I don't have to tell you this, but God wants us to develop a 'taste' for his word and for time with him. That goes without saying, but sometimes I think we only want to 'taste' the stuff that is easy and is an obvious 'blessing' in our lives. I remember giving my daughter her first taste of ice cream. At first, the cold was too hard for her to handle - she pulled back and was shocked by the cool stuff. In just a short time, she found that enduring the cold meant a very tasty treat! She wouldn't get it all that often, but when she did, she fully enjoyed it! Some of God's blessings are always there for us, allowing us to 'taste' them very frequently. There are others that we are afforded less frequently, but when we are, what enjoyment they bring us!

The spiritual milk we need helps us grow up strong in the Lord. The 'extra treats' we receive along the way are what almost bless right out of our socks. The miracle that comes when we least expect it. The unexpected advancement of one of our ideas into production at work might not come as quickly as we'd like it to come, but when it does it is because that idea will catapult the company to the next level. The 'taste' was the idea created within us - the enjoyment of the taste becomes real to us when we begin to see the idea take form and then become a reality in the workplace. There is sometimes a little while between the 'taste' and the 'enjoyment' of what it is we have tasted in our spiritual lives. We need to remember to taste and see - see that he is good, trustworthy, faithful in all ways. Just sayin!

Let Him Lead

Whether you call it social-distancing, self-quarantine, or deliberate-isolation, it all equates to us spending time away from the ones we may see on a regular basis at work, church, school, or in other social settings. I have observed many getting very creative about how to occupy their time, creating all manner of funny social posts, baking, and even creating fun activities for the kiddos who are bored out of their minds right about now. I also observed some being very creative in sharing their interests, like the online choir that all log in at the same time, practice their song, then create a lovely multi-state, multi-nation choir online! Now that is creative and what an awesome outlet for your talent. Thank you to all who are listening to the advice of our medical leaders across this country and abiding by the social-distancing / self-quarantine practices. You may not ever know how many times your steps were kept from passing through the path of this disease. Our soul may desire to be with others and to get things 'back to normal' right about now, but God's plan is for us to trust those he has placed as authorities in our lives - those who study and understand the spread of disease. It isn't our President, Vice President, or whatever government official we may submit to that will know the ins and outs of the disease's spread or virulence. It is the training of our medical leaders we should be listening to as we seek to eradicate the spread of this virulent bug. God has given these medical leaders and scientists and epidemiologists their 'gift' - make no doubt it. He guides them in these difficult times and we need to trust his hand will guide us, as well.

My soul quietly waits for the True God alone because I hope only in Him. He alone is my rock and deliverance, my citadel high on a hill; I will not be shaken. My salvation and my significance depend ultimately on God; the core of my strength, my shelter, is in the True God. Have faith in Him in all circumstances, dear people. Open up your heart to Him; the True God shelters us in His arms. (Psalm 62:6-8)

Our 'shelter' isn't in our government - it is in our God. Our protection isn't found under a mask - it is found in the breath of God. In these moments we have to be a little less 'frantic' in our day-to-day activities, others are working harder than ever to ensure we can treat those who are ill, give guidance to those who need to understand how to respond in crisis, and create a sense of hope where panic would seek to rise up. Medical professionals everywhere are going above and beyond, some risking it all to help keep you and I well. First responder crews are remaining at the ready, knowing we will call and they will need to be there for us, just like they have always been. Truck drivers are making long drives, waiting in long lines to offload their goods, and finding they are away from home for days on end - all to bring us the needed supplies, food items, and medical equipment we are in need of each day. Teachers are finding ways to connect with students they so dearly love and care for each day, but who they are separated from right now. Pastors are connected via online platforms in an effort to create daily devotional times, prayer chains, and 'virtual' church so we can continue to be challenged and growing. Military men and women continue to do what they do each and every day, keeping us safe and securing our most dearly held freedoms. Government hasn't shut the doors, but continues to problem-solve, create solutions, and work hard at finding ways to get us through this crisis. Yes, life goes on - even when it seems like it isn't!

I wonder if I could challenge us today to think of one way we could open up our hearts to meet some need, even if it is in a 'remote' or 'virtual' way, to bless someone who is still hard at work in the midst of this time of uncertainty? Some of us already have, but those kiddos at home right now with you, could they send emails to shut-ins at nursing homes to encourage the grandmas and grandpas in those beds who have no visitors right now? Most nursing homes would be more than willing to set up an email address where you could send those notes of love and encouragement if you'd just reach out to them. How about writing out a few cards for our first responder crews in our local firehouse, police station, or ambulance dispatch centers, then mailing them the regular old 'snail mail' way? Yesterday I took mom for a stroll in her wheelchair around our neighborhood and was blessed by the simplicity of sidewalk chalk drawings and encouraging words along the walkways and driveways of neighbors. Kind verses of encouragement, words that reflect we care about each other, and colorful displays reminding us who our best friends are and how much we love them. At another turn of the walk, a couple beckoned out from their front porch a friendly 'hi, how ya doing', and others just waved and let us know they took notice we were there. It doesn't seem like much, but it ALL matters. Hospitals everywhere are overcrowded, with staff and physicians working long hours, and support personnel finding every resource needed in order to provide care for those who are ill. How could you bless them right now? Just askin!

Complaint Department Closed - Prayer Department Open

Mom always taught me to treat others as I wanted to be treated myself. If you have seen how some of the grocery store staff are being treated today, you might just realize there are a whole lot of people out there who didn't learn this lesson very well when they were growing up! Complaints, anger, and even disgust at not having enough of this or that on the shelves, as though it were the fault of the cashier, stocker, or even the store manager! Have you ever written a letter of complaint? Perhaps you received less than stellar service, or the product we received just did not live up to your expectations - instantly launching into the "complaint" mode. Our psalm today begins as a letter of complaint. His observation: Things just weren't working out as well as he'd hoped - either for himself or the evil people around him. We all have expectations of how things should work, but does that mean they will always work that way? Not likely!

Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever. (Psalm 73:25-26 NLT)

His complaints were many - kind of like ours at times - but they weren't untrue. Complaints are not always 'unfounded' - some are very truthful facts about a process that broke down, a thing that didn't do what it was supposed to do, or a thing not being there when we counted on it being right where we normally find it. If you find yourself ready to launch into the complaint mode right about now, think again. Is your complaint really toward the clerk, stocker, or manager? Not really. Is it against 'big business'? Not really. Is it against the government? Not really. Truth be told, your complaint is probably best directed at a 'force' that exists in every human heart and is exploited to the maximum every time there is some crisis we have to navigate through. What is that 'force'? Fear.

For our psalmist, he noted that the proud prospered despite their wickedness. They actually were doing well when he suspected they did not deserve to be so well (kind of like us when we compare our current need for something to the guy somewhere we are sure has stockpiled rations, toilet paper, and water for 'whatever will come'). It certainly gets our goat, doesn't it, when the wicked seem to avoid the consequences of their actions or think about how others are affected when they have a need that could easily be met by their surplus? To the psalmist, the wicked seemed to live painless lives. In his eyes, he rarely saw them dealing with disease. Their bodies were healthy and strong - yet God's people were facing things they'd rather have avoided entirely. In truth, we complain when we see God's kids hurting, don't we? We want others to feel the pain, too.

To the psalmist, they escaped the troubles and problems of the others he observed. To him, they kind of walked above the muddle of the other problems faced by either his people or himself. Why is it some seem to live as they want, always escaping the mess they leave behind? They flaunt their greed, almost like wearing it like a jeweled necklace or fancy clothing. They display their cruelty and pride as though it was a thing of grandeur. Now, honestly, doesn't this just drive us nuts? They have all they wished for right now. Theirs is a life of seeming ease. No amount of effort ever seems to be required on their parts - they just succeed at all they touch, while others seem to work hard and realize no reward for their toil. Those clerks in the stores - don't you think they are defeated by the empty shelves as much as you are?

The response of God's people is important because one cannot see this repeatedly and not have some type of issue with it. I don't think it is wrong that we want answers - to understand why there are such inequities between the wicked and those seeking to live upright lives. It is not uncommon to question the outcome of the wicked. Our response needs to be one of turning to God with the tough questions. Go directly into the sanctuary of God. No better place to sort out our complaints, or ponder our fate, than in the presence of God. There we shall proclaim: "I finally understood the destiny of the wicked..." See, in God's presence, we get perspective. Things we just don't get are made clear. This brings me to the point of our complaint. God is never put off by our complaints - he just wants to give us the correct perspective.

To lay things out before God is never a bad thing. In fact, God would rather we be honest about our struggle than to hold back or secretly envy the wicked. When we do, we allow bitterness to enter - feeling as though God is withholding something good from us. In the presence of God, all such bitterness and envy must melt away. "Then I realized that my heart was bitter, and I was all torn up inside." This is the path bitterness takes - a destructive path which leaves us all torn up inside. God's response to our honesty will be to take our hand and bring us through by his counsel. God's goal is not to chastise us for our bitterness and our complaints, but to guide us through to see things as he knows them to really be. We can do no better than to come to the one who can set us straight in our perceptions and our opinions! Just sayin!

Why didn't I see that?

Stop for just a moment to consider a well-worn path - one that has become hardened because of the frequency of the passage over that path. As I hike in national and state parks, I look for the well-worn paths because I know someone has gone down that path enough to have 'carved out' that path. The only problem with always traveling the well-worn path is that sometimes it isn't going to lead you exactly where you'd like to end up. I know that there are hardened paths, well-worn ones, that are the result of sinful choices in my life. These are the ones I'd really not like to continue to travel!

The Eternal is my shepherd, He cares for me always. He provides me rest in rich, green fields beside streams of refreshing water. He soothes my fears; He makes me whole again, steering me off worn, hard paths to roads where truth and righteousness echo His name. (Psalm 23:1-3)

Why does a path become 'well-worn'? Isn't it because it has been traversed so many times that it is impossible to conceal the existence of the path any longer? Sin is like that - it becomes  harder and harder to conceal that it is there! The path isn't always easy to recognize when it is traveled only once or twice, but when it is traveled with repeated frequency, it becomes well-worn (hardened). This is why they say that sin 'hardens our hearts'. It makes it harder for us to choose the fresh path. The wear and tear sin takes becomes evident in our mind, will, and emotions - evident in our heart choices.

When we have taken a certain path to work for so long and then it is somehow disrupted, is that easy for us to remember not to go down that roadway during construction? We will make the mistake of taking that well-known route - the one we don't even need to think about at all - just because it is thing we do my what is called 'muscle-memory' now. It does not take conscious thought any longer to take that path - it requires significant conscious thought to NOT take that path! Construction crews put out those big orange signs and lighted portable warnings because they know we are creatures of habit!

Those signs are advice to avoid the path, but how often do we not even see them? They blend in even though they are orange, flashing, and out in your way! Muscle memory - action without conscious thought almost makes us oblivious to the warnings to drive another way. If this is true in our journey to work via that roadway, how can it not be true of our choices to avoid a particular pathway of sinful action in our lives? A long time ago, construction sites used to be manned by crews of men and women who would hold signs and direct traffic. Was that more effective? Usually - because we have trained our minds to 'see' human beings in the roadway! That 'sight' caused us to stop and consider our actions to take that route!

God isn't going to remove the path we frequent so easily, but he will put up warnings and detour signs. He might even send us a few 'human beings' in our path that will alert us to not take that path today. We won't know what to do at first, but when we are open to having our muscle-memory changed, we can find a new path that is going to get us to the right end, but with less headache along the way! Just sayin!

Swimming against the stream?

The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it. 

(Woodrow Wilson)

What is the 'stream' you are attempting to navigate right now? Is it more like a raging river about to overflow the banks? Or is it more like a babbling brook? Either way, there is still a 'current' to your day. The 'stream' you are navigating doesn't have to have a strong current to make it hard to maintain 'stability' in the midst of it. Right now your 'stream' might be 'sheltering in place' with a house full of kids, spouse, and even an elderly parent. You are attempting this 'work from home' thing and your patience is being tried by the slowness of your internet connection, or the lag VPN can have. Whatever your stream - it has a current - but you don't have to be carried away by it!

I have told you these things so that you will be whole and at peace. In this world, you will be plagued with times of trouble, but you need not fear; I have triumphed over this corrupt world order. (John 16:33)

Some things we all need to keep in mind:

1) None of us are immune to disease, so we need to exercise great wisdom in this time of uncertainty about how this disease is spread, who it will attack, how it manifests itself, and how long it will last.

2) None of us are without a shelter to run to in this time of uncertainty. We all have Christ as our shelter and can run to him as freely as we wish. Will we run to him? That is the real question here. Will we take him our 'currents' and allow him to help us navigate through them?

3) None of us are able to live without close personal contact with others for very long. We all get a little stir-crazy, desire that hug, and need that endorphin release that comes from laughing with each other, holding each other's hand, or getting that bear hug each morning. We might be missing some of that right now, but let me assure you of this - the more we are compliant with 'being apart' right now, the sooner we will be able to be together again.

4) None of us need to stockpile great piles of foodstuff and paper goods right now. We ALL need this stuff if we are to ALL make it through this! Yes, my pantry is stocked, but it usually is. Yes, I have extra toilet paper, but I usually do. Yes, there is extra laundry soap in the cabinet, but there always is. Don't go beyond 'normal' in this time of 'sheltering'. Your 'normal' is sufficient - be wise and allow others to get what they need. Think of your neighbors right now - how can you meet a need they might have?

5) The current isn't felt until we try to navigate against it. Think about that a moment - the current beckons for us to travel in a certain direction - WITH IT. There are those who will choose to follow the current, but if we are to be honest here, God isn't asking us to live without resistance. He sometimes requires us to be the ones who will challenge the 'we are all doing it' kind of mentality. The 'current' isn't always the direction we want to be traveling.

6) No one will navigate your stream for you like Christ will. He is the one who knows the path the current has cut and how the stream will change course shortly because of that very current. Let him take control of your life right now and just be at peace knowing he has this all under his control. Just sayin!

Overturned Tombstones

Some of the hardest prayers we can pray - almost to the point of being dangerous and downright uncomfortable - are those kind of prayers that give God permission to do something IN us or WITH us. Those words that tell God we are yielding ourselves into his hands are all it takes to set in motion things within our lives we had no idea would happen. These are indeed 'dangerous prayers' to speak forth because they will open or shut doors, challenge relationships to grow, and create a desire within us that is unquenchable. Whenever we ask God to dig deeper into our lives it is usually we are desiring to dig deeper into relationship with him!

Explore me, O God, and know the real me. Dig deeply and discover who I am. Put me to the test and watch how I handle the strain. Examine me to see if there is an evil bone in me, and guide me down Your path forever. (Psalm 139:23-24)

Don't pray these words if you don't mean them - if you aren't willing to have your world rocked. These are dangerous words - they should not be spoken flippantly. Mean them or don't speak them! When we ask God to explore us, don't ever think he will leave a stone unturned - God doesn't do anything 'half-way'. It is quite possible we will discover that some of those 'stones' in our lives are really self-erected tombstones - stones that mark dead places in our lives that definitely will remain dead until we experience his resurrection touch! We forget about these stones, but God has his eye on them because he is in the business of resurrecting, not burying!

Before we pray this kind of prayer we have to be sure we are serious about our intent - half-hearted intent isn't going to cut it when God sets to work to do this kind of digging in our lives. We need to be 'all in' if we are to embrace what he is about to do in and through us. I have been so committed at the beginning of these 'stone turning moments', but as soon as the discomfort of having those ugly places of my life exposed to his intense light just made me squirm like a worm! I wanted to pull back, find a new stone to hide that part of me under, and avoid the issues he exposed. Anyone else with me on this one? The 'stone turning' is not for the timid, fearful, or weak - there is something that will be hard in it all, but oh so totally worth every painful moment.

We might observe the freshly exposed earth under a stone we turn over in the desert or along a path - not because the soil is so interesting, but because we see things that have been hidden from our view. We see the tiny creatures that hung out in the dark places, their existence almost unknown to us until that stone was overturned. In much the same way, God goes about 'turning stones' in our lives - not to just get at the soil underneath it, but to allow us to see what has been hiding out under that 'stone' in our lives. Those 'hidden things' are what gets exposed when we pray these bold words to be searched, explored, tested, and examined. Words that should never be spoken in haste - words that will set a new course for our lives indeed. Just sayin!

Embraced and Given - Not Plug and Play

If you have ever had to install a new electronic device, like a modem, router, new laptop, or even a new cell phone, you know how totally frustrating this can be when you cannot figure something out that seems so simple in the diagram. I should not be amazed 'plug and play' smart technology becomes a little less smart in my hands on occasion, but I am always amazed at how easy it was once I figure it out! Each of us has struggled with stuff that should have been as easy as 'plug and play' in life, but it just wasn't. There is an "app" for everything these days, so why isn't there one for 'how to do this the simplest way'? The "little things" like being agreeable, being sympathetic, acting in a loving manner, exercising compassion, and living in a truly humble manner aren't ever going to come to us in 'app form' or in that 'plug and play' kind of moment! They are the "little things" that give us so much trouble, but are only learned the hard way in life!

Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that's your job, to bless. You'll be a blessing and also get a blessing. (1 Peter 3:8-9)

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to push a button, work through a few simple steps and "poof"...we came across as agreeable in those "tough or awkward" conversation moments we feel really uncomfortable in? Or how about being able to take an infrared scan of our eyeball to somehow communicate some "blessing" in the life of another person? We'd all want these "apps" or "plug and play" kind of 'instant abilities', wouldn't we? Life is just not this easy for any of us! It takes work to be agreeable and commitment to be a blessing. It takes connection to be sympathetic, just as much as it does to be truly loving. No matter how "smart" technology gets, I don't find human beings getting a whole lot "smarter" when it comes to living life as described in our passage today! No amount of technology or self-help system gets us to the place of living as we should. We need divine help!

Be agreeable. Simply put, this is being gracious, even when graciousness is not the easiest choice in the moment. It is living in such a way so as to constantly produce harmony within the relationships we impact. Now, how many of us actually are at this point in life? I know full well I am not there yet! One thing I have seen as I get to know people is that we all need grace. Grace embraced is first of all grace displayed. In other words, the more we "need" grace in our lives, and the more we embrace it when extended, we find ourselves becoming a little more willing to extend "grace" when it is needed. Start with embracing grace, then begin to extend it just as freely as you have received it. In the end, you will be practicing "harmonious" living! Not truly "plug and play", but rather "embraced and given".

Be sympathetic and compassionate. In the simplest terms, being sympathetic is really a sense of "identifying" with another's circumstances, feelings, or needs. It is an ability to be compassionate because you understand the old adage: "There, but for the grace of God, go I." We understand the same "bad thing" may have happened to us (or maybe has in the past). There is a connection made in not being judgmental of another's circumstances when you exercise sympathy. Compassion is really closely related to being sympathetic - there is a desire to alleviate the sorrow or meet the need of the one who is suffering. Connecting love with compassion is natural. When we are loving - we are thinking of someone other than ourselves. When we exercise compassion, we are looking for a way to bring someone out of their place of hurt. They go hand-in-hand.

Be humble and don't retaliate. Now, why would I put these two together? Well, why do we retaliate? Isn't it because we feel like we have been "done wrong"? What is the opposite of feeling like someone should treat us differently? It is not being a doormat that people can walk all over, but it is learning to live in a manner that is courteously respectful of others. The opposite of retaliation is learning to return courteous respect, even when the other person may not "deserve" it (humble). Be a blessing. Well, if I could get a "bless" button for my smartphone, I'd be pointing it left and right, blessing all of you with the many things you desire - things like solid relationships, reliable jobs, consistent walks, and good health. The one thing I can do in the absence of such an "app" is to learn to bestow good upon others. It is not as easy as it seems, but when I start at the top of this list and work my way down, being a blessing is an outflow of the other "life applications"!

Now, maybe we don't have "plug and play" easiness in adapting to these characteristics in our lives, but we can learn to "apply" them to our lives. It takes some effort, including doing it wrong the first, second, and even third times! In the end the "embraced" becomes the "given" we can use over and over again! Just sayin!

Huh, so that's it!

There is a pretty familiar question that we might all hear from time to time this week, if not everyday: "Are you serious?" Whenever someone poses this question, they may not really be seeking the truth about your level of trustworthiness, or even your ultimate desire to commit to something. In fact, they might just be saying this to exclaim some message of surprise - like they could not possibly imagine what we just did or said as even remotely possible! There is another saying: "Let's get serious now." This one is often spoken as a word or two of admonishment designed to get us focused (and often to get us refocused) on what is at hand. These aren't words spoken to just hear ourselves speak - they are spoken because there is some need to make a course correction - to get back to what we should be doing.

Listen to me, all you who are serious about right living and committed to seeking God. Ponder the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were dug. (Isaiah 51:1)

When you are serious about something, there is a process that occurs. First, there is engagement in conscious thought - you focus your capacity for understanding and processing on the subject or task at hand. Then you have determined the subject or task to be weighty enough to require your attention and time. In turn, you make a determination to undertake it with earnestness. So, the process begins by taking conscious thought and ends up getting us into action of some sort - not any lackluster action, but one that shows our determination and focus. Isaiah is speaking to Israel in his words of prophecy, but there are always tidbits of truth for us in each message spoken so many years ago. God would like us to really think about the things we take seriously in life. If you have paper and pen, take a moment to make two columns. On the left, put a title at the top "Serious About" - on the right, put a title "Not So Much". Now, as you go throughout your day today, take a moment here and there to write down the things you are really serious about today - those things you give your capacity of thought to, that you have determined to be weighty enough to require your focused attention, and those you have some sense of earnestness in seeing completed.

I usually undertake this "exercise" on a pretty regular basis. Why? Simply because I have a tendency to allow things to drift into my realm of thought and attention that really are demanding too much of my attention and time! As I refocus on what it is I am serious about - I often see my list can be a little too self-focused (taking time and giving attention to what will satisfy my needs rather than the needs of those God places in my life). Now, this may not be the case with you, but it could very well be. If so, putting this down on paper actually helps you and I to recognize the things which are consuming our time and perhaps even consuming "us". If you are serious about RIGHT living and committed to SEEKING God....ponder....ow do you see the connection between what Isaiah advises and my little exercise? Yep, as you took time to write those things out in one of those columns, you were "pondering" what it is you are committed to - what you (or others who have influence in your life) have determined to be worthy of your thought and attention. You can think of pondering as a kind of "chewing upon" exercise. You kind of keep pouring over and over the list until you begin to see how each of the things listed is really affecting your relationships with God or each other, and even balance in your life. There is much to be gained by taking time to ponder.

Isaiah was speaking to a nation of "believers" who had taken their eye off of the things which were most important. In fact, they find themselves driven into servitude to nations around them and living under the burden of being "slaves" to another country's leader. God's intention was for them to live free - unburdened and definitely not under the leadership of these hostile countries. How did they get to this point? Maybe if someone had asked, "Are you serious?" a little earlier, they might not have drifted this far! I don't know about you, but as hard as it is to hear an accountability partner ask me the tough questions, I appreciate their words! It is often exactly what I need in order to refocus! Ponder the rock from which you were cut. Are you familiar with the passage from I Peter 2:5 which refers to us as living stones? When we actually take time to consider the rock from which we are cut, we are considering the things which make our "cornerstone" so reliable. His love, grace, and forgiveness. His truthfulness, commitment, and transparency. In turn, we begin to emulate the "stone" from which we were taken - we begin to look and act like Christ.

Ponder the quarry from which you were dug. I live close enough to some of the copper mines in Arizona to know what a mine looks like. I also have been to the quarries from which granite is taken. Having this experience allows me to recognize some things about a quarry. First, it is a pretty dirty place. There is a whole lot of "turning over" of soil until you find the thing you desire most. God has taken us from a whole lot of "dirt". Second, once the copper is removed or the granite cut, it is a thing of beauty and function. We are not dug from the quarry of sin to just "exist" - but to be a thing of beauty and function in the kingdom of God. So, ponder with me today. You might be surprised what it is you discover about yourself - and God! Just sayin!

Are you influential?

Andrew Young reminds us, "We rise in glory as we sink in pride." He also reminds us, "Influence is like a savings account. The less you use it, the more you've got." Two seemingly different statements, but there is something that is consistent in both - WE are not to be at the center. Pride may not be what we label our sense of 'importance', or our desire to be 'noticed', but pride is a result of us being a little bit too close to the 'center' in our lives instead of Jesus. Influence is something we might desire to have in life, so those around us are positively affected by whatever it is we say and do. If the reason we desire influence is so that others will take notice of something we have done, pride may be just a little too closely related to what we believe to make us 'influential' in life. The greatest 'influence' comes not in us being noticed, but Christ being noticed IN us.

When you heard that Good News, you believed in Christ. And in Christ, God put his special mark on you by giving you the Holy Spirit that he promised. The Spirit is the first payment that guarantees we will get all that God has for us. Then we will enjoy complete freedom as people who belong to him. The goal for all of us is the praise of God in all his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)

We belong to Christ, not the other way around. He sends his living Spirit to reside within us because he is working to change us - moving us from glory to glory. It isn't US doing the work of transforming our lives - it is God IN US doing the work to transform us into his image. Ego at the center really shuts down the work of God in us because the 'rebuilding' of our lives comes to a halt when we take up the work of 'self-transformation'. God asks for us to allow him to do the work of building us up wherever our character needs restoration. The hope of glory exists because God is doing the work of regenerating our spirit. Do you know what it means to have something 'regenerated'? It means there is a complete moral reform that takes place! It means there is a remaking that is taking place to bring about a 'better form'. The 'former' existed, but not to the degree of glory that the 'reformed' will!

Transformation begins in the spirit of man, but then God goes about the work of transforming our souls. This is the life-long reformation work that God undertakes within us - daily helping us to overcome bad habits, giving us new direction on how to make the right choices, and helping us sort out all the 'mess' we find in our lives because we have a sin nature. God doesn't rip out our soul and give us another one - he reforms our soul. He helps us make better choices that reflect he is at the center of our lives. He helps us build one right choice upon another until it becomes habitual that we choose wisely. In time, our soul is transformed - selfish ambitions, prideful choices, and egocentric focus are put aside, replaced with God's intentional purpose, his 'influence' shining through in right actions. 

We don't transform ourselves. We don't create a new image. God is the one who does the transformation that allows the image of his Son to become clearer and clearer in us until the influence we have in life is not ours, but HIS. Just sayin!

Is there any end to it?

I can remember saying, "When I grow up, I will NEVER have to do this again!" All these years later, I don't know how many times I found myself complaining about something that needed to be done, but I still have to clean the toilet, pick weeds, and wipe down sticky cabinet shelves. I struggled back then with the "desire" to do what needed to be done because everything inside of me was saying, "I don't wanna!" It was one of those "I'm sitting down on the outside, but standing up on the inside!" moments. Did growing up really change much? Nope! I just came to realize toilets aren't automatic cleaning, weeds keep growing, and if you have any food in your cabinets at all, there will be messes.

Meanwhile, all the other people live however they wish, picking and choosing their gods. But we live honoring God, and we're loyal to our God forever and ever. (Micah 4:5 The Message)

We do an injustice to the holiness of God and the absolutes of the Word of God whenever we choose to "live however we wish" - picking and choosing what we will obey and what we will dismiss as not important, or even not applicable to our lives. Unfortunately, we do this more than we realize! We "filter out" the stuff that is "hard" to understand or "difficult" to comply with. We don't mind the "good" stuff - parts like blessings and riches - but we resist the "hard" stuff like obedience and paying a price. The truth is we need grace. Why? It is because of our desire to resist what we know is best for us! We find ourselves in the midst of the question asked of Eve many years ago...."Did God really say....?" How many times have we faced this same question in our lives? If we could just learn from the past mistakes of those who have gone before us, let alone our own past mistakes!
"But when all is said and done, God's Temple on the mountain, firmly fixed, will dominate all mountains, towering above surrounding hills. People will stream to it and many nations set out for it, saying, "Come, let's climb God's mountain. Let's go to the Temple of Jacob's God. He will teach us how to live. We'll know how to live God's way." (Micah 4:1-2) What NEVER ceases to bring me to my knees is the overwhelming grace of God when we clearly and defiantly choose our own way!

When all is said and done, this suggests there is an end to our rebellion. We cannot forever resist the truth of God. God will dominate - not as a demanding task-master, but as someone we willingly submit to because we see the tremendous love behind his grace! He will teach us to live - because without him, we are just making choices based on what we "think" will produce happiness and the freedom we desire. We can ignore wrong choices for a while, but eventually we want to feel "clean". The only "clean" we will ever need is the one called grace. We will know how to live God's way - because God will connect the dots for us! Today, we may only have one or two dots connected - in the end, he will reveal the total picture! In the meantime, we have moments of repentance and submission which allow the next dot to connect to the last. This process is repeated until we see revealed the final image - his Son revealed in us!

It is not by accident I point us so frequently to God's unmerited favor - it is simply because we need it so much! At least I do! I am not ashamed to admit it - I need his grace repeatedly (sometimes for the same silly thing over and over again!). There comes a time when we just desire to be "clean" again. It is in that moment that we realize that unless we are "washed" we have no hope of them being clean! Someone may point out the things that need to change in our lives from now till the cows come home, but until we actually realize we NEED clean hearts, we see no need to seek God's grace! Just sayin!

Congregate vs. Segregate

I know there is a Supreme Being who rules the affairs of men and whose goodness and mercy have always followed the American people, and I know He will not turn from us now if we humbly and reverently seek His powerful aid. (Grover Cleveland)

Who rules your heart at this moment in time? If you quickly respond, "Why, God, of course!", then you are among the many who believe they are motivated and governed by the one who made all things. Yet, I have to ask you again to consider for just a moment who it is who really is ruling your heart at this very moment. Chances are you might just say it is this god we refer to as 'fear', or perhaps that other god of 'greed'. A few days back I wrote of a man who traveled hundreds of miles buying up every hand sanitizer he could find on the shelves, all with the intent of selling them on what has become today's 'black market' - online! To his extreme disappointment, he was not able to 'offload' what his greed loaded upon him. He is now forced to donate them, as he is under investigation for price gouging! He listened to the god of greed, hoping to make the quick buck during a very difficult time in our country. If we are honest here, his 'rule' by which he was living at that moment was probably not 'goodness' or 'mercy'.

But the fruit that the Spirit produces in a person’s life is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these kinds of things. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their sinful self. They have given up their old selfish feelings and the evil things they wanted to do. We get our new life from the Spirit, so we should follow the Spirit. We must not feel proud and boast about ourselves. We must not cause trouble for each other or be jealous of each other. (Galatians 5:22-26)

The affairs of men need to be 'ruled' by something other than our own fear or greed. Whenever we allow either of these to taken on the 'rule' of our lives, we are bound to find ourselves in some pretty unsavory spots in life. Fear has a way of making us do things we otherwise would not have considered 'reasonable' - like buying up an entire truckload of toilet paper. Greed eventually will find us surrounded with 'stuff', but shutting out the very thing we need the most - each other. We cannot live well if fear or greed are our motivating force. We must remember we serve a great big GOD and stop listening to those little gods that keep telling us to live outside of trust, hope and peace. Those who find themselves stockpiling the toilet paper and hand sanitizer, stealing face masks from hospital receptacles, and clearing off grocery store shelves of all that food they wouldn't normally eat (like boiled peanuts), will find themselves 'well-stocked', but very unfulfilled.

My BFF and I made a pact of sorts - to look out for each other. If I am somewhere and notice they have something she NEEDS, I send a quick text or just pick it up for her and her dad. She does the same for mom and I. This is how it should be - looking out for EACH OTHER, not just for ourselves. I am doing the same for my kids and their families during this time - not because they cannot look out for themselves, but because we ALL need each other. Christ didn't ask us to 'segregate' - he asked us to 'congregate'. Do you know the difference? When we segregate, we isolate. Even if we are asked to 'quarantine' for a period of time, that 'social distancing' we are supposed to be doing is really for the purpose of helping to minimize the spread of disease, not to ensure the survival of the fittest! To congregate means we will come together in rather large groups - something we are asked not to do right now due to the spread of disease. Yet, it doesn't mean we stop looking out for those we would normally gather together with - congregating may have stopped, but caring for each other has not! Just sayin!

We don't cross alone

Salty snacks - do you consume them from time to time? I do, but I probably shouldn't. Whenever I consume them I usually end up drinking a lot of water - because they make me very, very thirsty. In the end, they leave me thirsty for a long time, not just while I am taking them in or because I chugged a few glasses of water along with them. Our bodies simply cannot process all the sodium in the salty treats without a whole lot of water. In fact, whenever we find ourselves in the midst of the "excesses" of life, we often crave what we most need to help us deal with the excess.

God—you're my God! I can't get enough of you! I've worked up such hunger and thirst for God, traveling across dry and weary deserts. (Psalm 63:1)

God made us in such a way that we crave what we most need to deal with what we find ourselves enduring! Sometimes we are "enduring" stuff because of our own doing - like when I eat a huge bowl of Cheez-its or other salty snack. The sodium from these snacks cause me to "crave" more of the very thing which will help my body deal with the excess of sodium I just consumed. Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was something like that in our lives that made us crave more of God's presence and holiness in our lives?

Our psalmist gives us an example of traveling across dry and weary deserts as a source of both hunger and thirst. We all have them - deserts are those dry places that leave us weary and thirsting for something that satisfies that thirst. We may live in the greenest parts of the world, but we endure deserts! What are the deserts you endure? The desert of loneliness? How about the desert of despair, hopelessness, or fear? Maybe this is the time in your life where you are enduring the desert of brokenness. Regardless of the desert, the 'relief' is the same - Christ Jesus!

The desert of loneliness is very real to some of us. We may find ourselves alone and without familiar acquaintances. Perhaps it is the result of a move to a new locale, the loss of a spouse, or the lack of solid friends we can pour our hearts out to from time to time. Regardless of the cause, we find ourselves enduring a sense of loneliness - of being truly alone. At the core of loneliness is the idea of being without a companion in the journey. This is a place of isolation - whether you wanted it or not. In the place of isolation, we often find ourselves without the people or things we have found ourselves relying on in the past. As we examine the purpose of this desert, we might find it hard to imagine a "good" purpose! Being isolated is definitely NOT God's plan for us humans - he made us specifically to "relate" to others, not to be alone. So, what "good" comes out of this desert?

Well, I can only share some of the things that have come out of my times of being on a journey in this desert. I have learned I actually NEED other people. There is nothing more revealing about our "dependence" on the feedback of others, or even the sense of hope rendered in a simple touch, than to be left suddenly alone. We need connection. In fact, believe it or not, we crave it! I believe God may actually allow some of us to walk this desert to draw us closer to those he has given in our lives. You know the saying, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder"? I think it is realized the most in the desert of loneliness - the alone driving us closer to who it is we need! God's lessons to you may be a little different, but if you will allow him to speak to you in your desert, he will reveal the lessons!

The desert of despair comes and this is a most difficult desert to endure. It is the one we walk through, but have lost hope for some reason - we are without any sense of things ever getting better. In this desert, we often find ourselves out so far on the limb, the weight of our burden so great, hearing the cracking of the limb as it strains to keep us upright. We are "stuck" - we cannot go further out on the limb or even turn back. This is indeed a most difficult desert to cross. Yet, the most hopeless place is often the place our faith begins to take flight! In the desert of despair, we begin to look for solutions we often ignore when things are smooth sailing. Things like intimate prayer with our Maker - pouring out our hearts to him with eager desperation. In the moment of despair, don't we find ourselves looking back to God? Did you catch that? We are looking "back" to God! It is an amazing thing, but despair often drives us back to God - maybe even without ever recognizing just how comfortable we had become without him!

The desert of brokenness is quite hard to endure. The very thing we need in this desert is the very thing we have absolutely no ability to accomplish on our own. It is only by the restorative and regenerating touch of our God we cross this desert. We may be "broken" by a whole lot of things - bad relationships, words spoken that have left our emotions scarred and damaged, or just a series of bad choices which resulted in us being "undone" by life.  In the desert of brokenness, we need "repair", don't we? What we drink the most freely of in this desert is God's grace. It is indeed a refreshing and restorative "drink". Regardless of the desert, the purpose of the desert is to cause us to hunger and thirst. Hunger for the best, thirst for what will truly refresh. We may have a lot of desert-crossing in our days. Just remember this: No desert is without hunger or thirst of some kind. What we do with the hunger or thirst determines the outcome of the desert-crossing! Just sayin!

Do you say the right thing?

A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used.

(Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.)

True confessions here today - I don't always say the right things! Words escape my lips that would have best been left unsaid. What's worse is that I know there are times when I should just stay silent and someone goads me into speaking and then I let it all out! The truth of the matter is that whenever there is less thought behind the words and more emotion, they don't always come out in the best manner or with the most gracious of intent!

Don’t let even one rotten word seep out of your mouths. Instead, offer only fresh words that build others up when they need it most. That way your good words will communicate grace to those who hear them. (Ephesians 4:29)

Do you always say words that build others up? I have been around individuals that seem to always be speaking very 'sappy' words. The words just 'drip' from their lips like some sweet substance, but I often wonder if they are really heartfelt words, or just some form of flattery. It is sometimes hard to tell the difference between the two! Did you know that words that are spoken to flatter or 'build up' in an untruthful manner are just as 'rotten' as the ones spoken without much thought behind them? Flattery is a relationship killer - not a builder. Be intentional in your words, so that the words you speak genuinely build up.

How about the words you speak to yourself? Are they words that build up or tear down? We all speak 'about ourselves' - sometimes it is in our own head, but we all have these conversations. What do those words say about your view of yourself? If they are words that continually build up and 'stroke' one's own ego, maybe they are as hurtful as the harsh words that tear down. It isn't wrong to build one's self up, unless we are developing an elevated view of our worth in the process. For example, if I begin to tell myself over and over that the project I am engaged in could not go well without me, believing that others really aren't as 'significant' in their contributions as I am, I am likely developing an unhealthy 'mind conversation' that is feeding my ego.

Positive words are good, but the intent behind them is equally as important. Be genuine in your praise, but don't speak it to flatter. Flattery is really insincere compliments or praise that has at its roots one's own self-interest. Be truthful within your 'mind conversations'. Remember - the true value of our worth is not found in what we can do, have done, or think about ourselves. It is determined by being in right relationship with God - our worth is found in restored relationship. Life isn't about our 'self-esteem' because that is never going to change in God's eyes. He gave his Son to declare our value! Just sayin!

A little wisdom in dark times

Just read a post from one of my friends about a couple who drove 1700 miles to pick up all the hand sanitizer available in every store he came across and now cannot sell it as he thought he could online! I am sorry, but I have to say that this idea of theirs was awfully stupid! I know they think people will become desperate and want this stuff, but honestly this is just one of the selfish and foolish things I have heard repeated lately with all this hype about Coronovirus. There have been lots of times when I hear people almost bragging about their escapades, but to brag about hoarding to deny others a chance to remain well hydrated, fed, or sanitized is just not something to brag about. Most of these 'hoarders' appear to have a sense of pride with acknowledging their folly! I am not one to "parade" my folly in public, but I went into a store for the first time in a long time and was amazed at how many people were acting like doomsday was coming. What warmed my heart the most was the post of a mother and child, curbside on a busy intersection, handing out one roll of toilet paper or paper towel to anyone who stopped and was in need. Now, that is something to brag about, but she won't!

Fools make fun of guilt, but the godly acknowledge it and seek reconciliation. (Proverbs 14:9 NLT)

What it is we do with our "guilt" when our escapades have been less than honorable reveals a lot about us. The fool makes fun of the guilt they feel. Try as we might, we cannot rid ourselves of the sense of guilt with simply laughing it away or making light of it. If we dismiss our guilt long enough, we become almost "immune" to the sense of guilt we feel about a certain behavior. We begin to justify it and form an "opinion" of it being okay - if not for others, at least for ourselves. In some circles, this is similar to something referred to as "situation ethics". Today's "situation ethics" is actually promoting this hoarding mentality! In the simplest sense, situation ethics holds the belief that the end justifies the means. In fact, with this type of interpretation of life, we find it easy to set aside rules and regulations whenever we feel the "greater good" will be served by our actions. 

Jesus always began with "love God" and then he taught to love "your neighbor" as yourself. You cannot ever "love God" if you throw out the absolutes he proclaims - things like don't cheat, don't covet, don't have any other god before me, and give and it will be given to you. These are absolutes in God's kingdom. So, Jesus was teaching we need to embrace the absolutes of God's kingdom and this will result in us being able to love our neighbor. Fools make fun of guilt - but the godly acknowledge it. It is one thing to acknowledge something - it is another to do something with the knowledge we have! The godly doesn't stop with an admission of guilt - they go on to the place of obeying one of God's absolutes - confession! Scripture teaches us to bring our sins to Christ and there we will find forgiveness. It is not an exercise of excusing our sin - it is an erasure of the stain of the sin and the ability to walk away from the pull to do the sin again.

So, what we do with our guilt determines the end of our guilt. We can flaunt it openly, proclaiming the end justified the means. Or...if we are wise....we can confess it, seeking forgiveness and restoration at the foot of the cross. The first method of dealing with our guilt will only "numb" us to the experience of guilt - it never removes it. The latter not only removes it, it gives us the ability to walk away from the very action which produced the guilt in the first place. The fool chooses to continue the pursuit of the action which produces the guilt - the wise choose to turn away from it, seeing no justification in their sin. It is truly a dangerous thing to "pick up" a false set of beliefs - those which veer from the truth clearly outlined in scripture. We can "interpret" scripture and reflect upon it with all kinds of "opinion". The danger is us forming a set of beliefs which "fit our actions" instead of us allowing God to "fit our actions" to his Word! Lest I meddle further...I will leave you with these thoughts to ponder. Just sayin!

Not always virtuous

If you have ever wondered about how to have an effective relationship with anyone, you know you have to get to know the individual a bit before you can truly 'figure out' what it is you each 'bring' into the relationship and what it is you 'offer' to each other. For example, if I think about my BFF, I know she brings an ability to tell it like it is - she doesn't pull her punches and I appreciate this about her. When I need to hear truth - she hits me with it. When I need her to hold me accountable - she reminds me of my commitment. When I find myself getting a little too 'bent' in one direction - she helps me laugh and put that stuff aside for a while so I can get refocused. These are just a few of the myriad of ways she 'brings' and 'offers' something into the relationship. When it comes to our relationship with God, what do you suppose we 'bring' and 'offer' within it? You might just be surprised to find that we 'bring' very little in comparison to what God 'brings' and we 'offer' some things that are pretty flawed compared to what he 'offers'!

His divine power has given us everything we need to experience life and to reflect God’s true nature through the knowledge of the One who called us by His glory and virtue. Through these things, we have received God’s great and valuable promises, so we might escape the corruption of worldly desires and share in the divine nature. To achieve this, you will need to add virtue to your faith, and then knowledge to your virtue; to knowledge, add discipline; to discipline, add endurance; to endurance, add godliness; to godliness, add affection for others as sisters and brothers; and to affection, at last, add love. For if you possess these traits and multiply them, then you will never be ineffective or unproductive in your relationship with our Lord Jesus the Anointed.... (2 Peter 1:3-8)

God has 'given' us EVERYTHING we need. Not just some of the things he wants to 'part with' or 'offer up' to us, but everything. We RECEIVE not only the things that restore us to right relationship with him, but everything we need to remain within that right relationship. I may not always get this in my life, thinking there must be something I am missing whenever I repeatedly fail at something, but the matter is settled - I have everything I need to overcome that failure. I don't know about you, but I don't always exhibit the virtue in my life that bespeaks what I have been given in Christ. Virtue is just the ability and consistency to act or do what is right and good. Do I always do 'good'? No, certainly not. In fact, I blunder through this life probably about as well as you do! Yet, to today's right choices, I will add tomorrow's right ones, and then the next day's. In time, the 'match' between the virtue God brings within the relationship and the virtue I begin to exhibit will become more consistent.

Making right choices leads us to an understanding of our why it is we made those wrong choices in the first place. That is where knowledge comes into play. We find we recognize we are about to choose a wrong action or response quicker because we have learned to listen to God's voice a little quicker or with a greater intensity. In turn, we find we live more 'disciplined' lives - control, order, right conduct (that which is becoming of a child of the Most High God). We learn very quickly that frequently exhibited right choices, made for the right reasons, in a manner that is out of heartfelt love and appreciation for the one we are IN relationship with begin to introduce an 'endurance' into that relationship that 'rides out' and 'overcomes' the occasional wrong choices. It doesn't take much to develop an 'endurance' in relationship when we are both committed to it as much as God is committed to us! His 'endurance' becomes ours and his endurance is encompassed in repeated infusions of his grace. In turn, we move more consistently into places of unmeasured and limitless enjoyment of each other.

We don't always 'relate' well in our earthly relationships - I am a living example of not always being very 'virtuous' in my interactions. If we lean into Jesus and get this heavenly relationship with him right first and foremost, we have a much better chance of developing strong and vital earthly relationships that are consistently virtuous! Just sayin!

Be at peace

So many today are exhibiting some 'social behavior' that is contrary to what I'd have to call 'trust'. Look at the shelves in your local grocer and you will find it is almost impossible to buy even the 'thin and cheap' kind of toilet paper! The hoarding of toilet paper is very real thing - if you don't believe me, look on Amazon right now to see how many brands are sold out with a 30 day 'expected delivery' date on them! The panic is real - somehow making it impossible to purchase basic necessities - but creating havoc for those who might actually have trusted there would be cold medicine on the shelf when they awoke feeling a little punk this morning! Workplaces are shutting down, meetings are being cancelled, and you know there must be significant panic if the national and professional sporting events all cancel their season! God has a message for those who are panic-driven: "Be still, listen, and trust in me. I am your shield, your protector, and your provision."

We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan. Romans 8:28

The virus is real. The illness can and has claimed lives (so has cancer, car accidents, faulty wiring, and overeating). There are 'right' and 'wrong' things we can, and certainly must do to reduce the likelihood of the spread. Panic is not one of those things! Panic buying is not one, either. You don't need to steal the hand sanitizer out of hospital lobbies, nor do you need to grab fistfuls of face masks from their dispensers. What you likely need to do more of is use good old soap and water to wash your hands, cover your sneezes and coughs, and be diligent to stay home if you are ill yourself. Reason should not go out the door just because a new strain of the flu manifests! God didn't stop being God just because a new virus emerges! You and I did not stop being under his protection just because the Governor, President, or world leader declared a 'state of emergency'.

Do you know what panic does? It causes us to limit our perspective - giving us a form of 'tunnel vision'. We only see what we focus on the most - we only trust what we focus on the most, too! Focus on God and panic isn't a very practical response to life's difficulties or uncertainties. Focus on the uncertainty and your mind can get carried away in all kinds of imaginary scenarios of 'what if's'. The more we panic, the less we listen. The greater our inability to listen well, the more we allow the scenario of fear to continue. Whether it is a virus we fear, or the loss of a job, relationship, or financial well-being, God wants us to remember the way out of fear is also the way into trust. If we focus on his Word, his presence, and his will, we find we enter into his peace. Remember - panic is an 'unreasoning terror' that we feel. Reason leaves us and is replaced with all manner of emotional upheaval. This is not the way God wants his kids to live - be at peace my friends. Just resting in him!

Ah...except this, there would be that

Except - do we ever stop to really consider what that words means in terms of how we live our life, what happens to us 'in' our life, or what will come out of our life in the end? In some cases, we use 'except' to mean barring any unforeseen circumstances something else will happen in our lives. We also use it to say we are rejecting something from our lives or choices, such as when we say we will eat everything our plate except the broccoli. Short of this happening, we will expect to have this happen - except is a big word with a lot of potential consequences in our lives!

God’s way is perfect. The Lord’s promise always proves to be true. He protects those who trust in him. There is no God except the Lord. There is no Rock except our God. God is the one who gives me strength. He clears the path I need to take. He makes my feet as steady as those of a deer.
Even on steep mountains he keeps me from falling. He trains me for war so that my arms can bend the most powerful bow. (Psalm 18:30-34)

There is no God except the Lord - no Rock except our God. No one gives us strength except our God. No strength as good, strong, or trustworthy as his strength. Stop for just a moment to consider all the 'exceptions' in your life as a result of following (putting your trust in) God alone:

- The path would be marked with all kinds of landmines just waiting to be detonated in our lives EXCEPT that God has gone before to clear that path for us. Short of God clearing the path, we'd be consumed or damaged by the path! We may not even realize all the 'pathway' protection God has provided in our lives - often totally oblivious to the landmines that lie just beneath the surface. It was his guidance of our steps that made it possible for us to traverse those 'spaces' - those challenging spots we got ourselves into in life.

- The heights we have had to climb to get above the various 'enemies' we have faced in life would have done us in EXCEPT God going ahead, making small crags along the way where our feet could take hold. Those small crags became footholds that allowed us 'solid' footing along the way - bringing distance between us and the very things that pursued us to overtake us. We don't resist temptation alone and the 'climb' away from the things that would seek to pull us in seem like they are a mountain we must climb. We don't climb alone - we don't climb unprepared. The very next step we take upward has been perfectly prepared by him.

- The enemy of our soul would do us in EXCEPT for the strength and power that God pours into our lives over and over again. We dwindle in strength. We succumb to weariness in the fight - unless God builds us up. His strength renews us - building us up for the battle. We don't know the strength we will need until we are in the battle, but God has prepared exactly what we need. We'd bow at the foot of our enemy were it not for the strength of God in our lives!

These are but a few of the 'exceptions' we could consider. I know you may have your own list, but I wanted us to just take a moment to acknowledge even a few of the 'exceptions'. What are yours? How does your list stack up? If you haven't considered the 'exceptions' of God in your life, maybe it is time to just spend a few moments actually doing this and then bend your knee in humble gratitude for each of those exceptions! Just sayin!

Not always eye-to-eye

I know that my intentions are not always in alignment with God's intentions for my life. Whenever the intentions of my heart are not the same as his, I find I can get into a funk for a while as I try to figure things our in my life. The things God is doing may not be the things I believe he should be doing in my life. His timing may be totally out of the timeline I had in the way I thought things should go. His choice of resources he uses as 'tools' to accomplish his purpose in my life are most often not the ones I would have thought I'd need to have used in my life, but if I were honest here, his ways are not always mine!

Eternal One: My intentions are not always yours, and I do not go about things as you do. My thoughts and My ways are above and beyond you, just as heaven is far from your reach here on earth. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

God does not go about things as we do - plain and simple. His ways are most often different than we could ever imagine in our finite minds - because he sees the infinite 'big picture'. The immediate response when God begins to do things we didn't count on happening in our lives is that we want to argue with him that this isn't the way things were supposed to go. We find ourselves kind of defensive with God. Why? I think it is a little bit of our pride rising up at times, stemming from that belief we had things figured out. It could also be that we realize God's way is going to be infinitely harder than we wanted to experience and we kind of shrink back a little because we know the way he is choosing to do something in us is going to cost us something.

Regardless of why we balk at what God is doing, let me just say that his ways are bigger and better than ours - period! The more we limit ourselves by just seeing or doing things the way we understand them to be done, the more we limit the possibilities of what God can do if we allow him to use the resources he has designed for use in our lives. I might liken this to my workshop - not every tool is used everyday. When I have the need to produce a finished edge, with some form of 'flare' to it, I need the router. I don't finish every straight edge with the router, though. Some straight edges just need a little sanding. To limit myself to the use of only one tool is to limit the creativity of what can be produced in that workshop!

When we limit God to use only certain resources (tools) in our lives, we are saying we only want one form of 'edge' in life. We are trying to curtail his creativity in our lives! Alone, I have a marginal degree of creativity - with him, the creative process is magnified infinitely. It isn't me doing the creating, though. I may participate in the work, but he is the one who has the design in mind and knows specifically if the edges will be simple or delivered with a flare. Just sayin!

Is this the on-ramp?

Henry Ward Beecher reminds us, "We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started." A thing we often forget is that every journey requires a starting point. We sometimes get all caught up in the journey and forget from whence we came. We see the 'finish line', but completely disregard we had to cross the 'starting line' to even be on our way to the 'finish'. 

But He knows the course I have traveled. And I believe that were He to prove me, I would come out purer than gold from the fire. My foot has been securely set in His tracks; I have kept to His course of life without swerving; I have not departed from the commands of His lips; I have valued everything He says more than all else. (Job 23:10-12)

I have not always traveled in a straight course - veering on occasion into places where complacency take me without even noticing. I have resumed my course on occasion without much effort, but at others I have found the effort it takes to resume when I have stopped is harder than I want it to be. Think about the last time you got away from a healthy eating plan. Now, think about how hard it was those first couple of weeks to get back on it. The 'starting' is hard, but the 'starting again' is even harder. Why?

It may be because we equate having to start again to failure. We didn't keep going, so we think we failed. The starting line never moved - neither did the finish line. We just got off-course a little and all we need to do is re-enter the path! My foot isn't always securely on the course he would desire me to take, but he knows the course I am traveling. Is it that he didn't 'keep me' from complacency? No, it is that I chose complacency because it was easier! 

How do we re-enter when we have drifted from course? Well, I think it is requires us to realize where we started to begin with, then where we will start again, and where that finish line lies. We look to where we started because it reminds us we really did come a good ways before we veered off-course. We look at where we will re-enter the course because it is a milestone (a marker) of where we chose again to 'enter into' obedience. We look to the finish line because it helps us remain 'forward focused'.

God knows your course as well as he knows mine. He has prepared for us to re-enter the course exactly where we veered from it in the first place. The thing we need to remember is that we take the first step back onto that course! He doesn't take it for us. Yes, he is right there to help us back up, giving us the wherewithal to actually move again, but we take the first step back onto the course! Let's not forget where we started, but let us also not expect 'excellence' every step of the way. We get distracted on occasion and need to remember God's grace is enough for us to re-enter right where we left off. Just sayin!

So...what fulfills you?

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. (C.S. Lewis)

Did you ever stop to consider where you find your greatest discontent may also reveal to you where it is you will find your greatest contentment? If we are so disillusioned with our present world, I wonder if it is because we are desiring another world more? Is that a bad thing? Only if that 'other world' is one that leads us down a pathway away from God! If it is a pathway that draws us nearer to him, then it is not a bad thing at all! In fact, God's hope is that we will keep our attention clearly fixed on the hope of a future with him, while living effectively in this world by living in the present with him at the helm of our lives.

Belief begins in the heart and leads to a life that’s right with God; confession departs from our lips and brings eternal salvation. Because what Isaiah said was true: “The one who trusts in Him will not be disgraced.” Remember that the Lord draws no distinction between Jew and non-Jew—He is Lord over all things, and He pours out His treasures on all who invoke His name because as Scripture says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:10-13)

As we go through life, we experiment with all kinds of things and ventures - trying to fill some void in ourselves. Whether it be a void we think will be filled when someone loves us enough, or we will have no void left when we reach a certain amount built up in our savings accounts, the void will always demand to be filled. Learning which void demands to be filled with anything other than what God designs to fill that void is the only way to ensure we are not being 'filled' with things that will only yield further 'emptiness' in our lives.

As I was carrying my children in the womb, the doctor's always asked me to abide by a healthy diet - one that was free of 'empty calories'. Why? Those chips may have tasted good at the moment, but did very little to aid in the growth and development of the life within. We sometimes try to satisfy an urge or need with 'empty calories' in a spiritual sense, too. We think we can get fulfillment apart from how God tells us he brings fulfillment, all the while oblivious to how 'empty' our pursuit will leave us feeling in the end. 

Fullness isn't found in the here and now. To be truly fulfilled, we need to be keeping our eyes on eternity. Eternity holds the only true fulfillment. We can be satisfied to some extent here on this earth, simply because we live here and now with Christ at the center of all we do. We can be fully satisfied by remembering we are called to fulfill a greater purpose than what we realize on this earth! Just sayin!

I did it again!

Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success. (C.S. Lewis)

If you have ever tried to read trail signs on some forest trail, or around some preserve land, you may have noticed that it is kind of like an art you must master. Certain symbols mean that the path will go straight, increase your climb, maneuver through harder territory, or even turn you toward a new destination. Those markers are there for a reason - to help you find your way. Have you ever been off-course so badly you totally missed a few of those signs? I have! In fact, I have blazed new trails where no one seems to have gone before! I don't just mean the paths in the forest, my friends, because I have blazed paths into relationship faux-pas where none have gone, cut trail through 'new idea' territory that didn't end so well, and stumbled through some character choice pathways that some would never even consider traversing! What did I learn from these 'not so well-traveled paths'? As Lewis indicated, these failure paths became 'milestones' on the road to actually finding the right course to take!

For all my wanting, I don’t have anyone but You in heaven. There is nothing on earth that I desire other than You. I admit how broken I am in body and spirit, but God is my strength, and He will be mine forever. Psalm 73:25-26 VOICE

I am prone to repeated failure - it is something I do well! I am not sure why I find myself blazing new paths, or worse yet, traversing old ones that only ended up in me pursuing wrong choices. I guess it is because I am human and I am definitely not perfect yet. I open my mouth and out comes words best left unspoken. I act upon impulse and the reverberations of that impulse create relationship aftershocks I have to maneuver through time and time again. Am I much different than the rest of us? Probably not! We don't realize how much the other person right next to us is struggling to get through repeated failures until we stop long enough to recognize the 'pathway signs' that eventually become evident in their lives.

The other day I shared with my BFF my continued concern with managing my emotions when I have to continuously remind mom that she needs to do the simplest of tasks, or answer the same question for the twentieth time in a day. At 101, mom doesn't remember a long series of tasks, so the fewer I give her at one time, the more successful she will be in doing them. That works most of the time, but with age comes this thing called 'short-term memory failure'. Plain and simple - she can ask the same question twenty times over, never even realizing she has already asked it. At times, I can let a little of my frustration come through because it is the twentieth time I have told her what day it is, what we are having for dinner, or that we are the only two people in the house. Mom hears that frustration and thinks I am mad at her. Yup, there I go down the relationship faux-pas path!

If you think it is easy caring for an elderly parent, think again. There can be constant frustrations on both sides of the fence. Hers perhaps because she can no longer do the things she once did and mine because she puts herself in danger every time she tries to do one of those things. If you think it is easy caring for a toddler, husband, wife, or even a good friend in all the 'right ways' that we are supposed to 'take care' of them, it isn't. We all face times when we are going to go down the wrong path in these relationships - what we do in those moments makes all the difference. I have had to learn to step back, allow mom time, not demand so much from her, being willing to step in and do what she cannot. The one who cares for the toddler has to learn to model good behavior, love them when they are acting like spoiled little kiddos, and gently give them guidance to grow in all the right ways.

The thing I have found is that as important as the path is that we are choosing to travel, it is more important that we keep the right traveling companion on that path with us. When our psalmist reminds us that God is his strength, he isn't just spouting 'religious' words. Broken in body and spirit, but God is his strength forever. We learn from the repeated failures - never alone in the journey. Just sayin!

A noodle lesson

It was Voltaire who reminded us, "Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time," but I'd have to say that perfection requires more than the hand of time. It requires the hand of God in our lives. Voltaire was right in his supposition that perfection is something that is attained in very slow progress at times, quicker at others. It is in the passage of time that we begin to see things change. I made macaroni and cheese last night, something I don't treat myself to very often, but I just had a hankering for it. If you have cooked pasta, you know that it requires the water to boil a while in order to soften the hard outer shell of the noodle, then in time the inner portion becomes affected by the heated water. If you leave it too long, you get mush. It is somewhere slightly between 'hard inside' and 'mush' that you reach 'perfection' with the noodle. If you want the best texture and taste to your pasta, you watch and wait, then remove it from the heat at just the right time. God is kind of like that in our lives - he watches and waits, then he removes us from the heat at just the right time so that what is produced in our lives is 'perfection' - coming by slow degrees!

I am confident that the Creator, who has begun such a great work among you, will not stop in mid-design but will keep perfecting you until the day Jesus the Anointed, our Liberating King, returns to redeem the world. (Philippians 1:6)

God's work within us might seem to be coming in fits and starts, but let me assure that his work of bringing our lives into alignment with his comes in slow degrees. He could just wave some "Holy Wand" of magical spiritual power, making us all not only all cleaned up on the inside, but feeling like we are cleaned up, as well. He could wave that magic wand again and we'd never sin again, but how would that be the right thing to do? If you have ever seen someone raised with a silver spoon in their hand, receiving every want or wish on a silver platter, never having to work for anything, you might have observed them to be a little too self-centered and even a little unappreciative of what they have received. They never had to put in any effort to get whatever it was, so their appreciation of the thing they possess is not the same as that of someone who has had to save up for the exact same thing. I had to save for my first car, being able to afford not only the car, but the insurance, as well. I remember driving away from the place I bought it, busting at the seams because I owned this ugly brownish gold Dodge. It took me months and months to save up, making the right connection with a mechanic who rebuilt engines and who was willing to cut me a good deal. Now, it was mine.

The work that went into owning the car was on my part. The saving up was on my part. The long hours put in to earn the wages was on my part. The search for affordable insurance was on my part. I believe the connection made with the Sargent Major who owned the mechanic shop as a side business was on God's part. I would have been too timid to make that connection in those days, but God opened those doors for me. This man and his wife saw something in me they wanted to bless and I believe God created that relationship. That opportunity was a God-thing. Yes, I did my part, but God had a huge part in it! The growth we experience spiritually is not without our own effort, even though it begins with a 'God-thing' and often ends with a 'God-thing', the 'in-between' requires some slow progress on our part! The hard part for us is being patient in the 'heat' of the process - we see the effect of the 'heat' affecting us, much like the outside of the noodle in the boiling water. The thing we forget is that the 'work' of perfecting that thing within our character isn't done until the 'hardness' inside is also made soft in the process. When we reach that point, be confident God will remove us from the heat. Just sayin!

Not feeling very strong today

What is your spirit like? You know what part of you I am referring to, don't you? It is that part in you that animates you, gives you life, drives you onward, and keeps you centered in tough times. If you cannot answer that question truthfully then chances are that you are living a rather haphazard life. You are just willing to be pushed hither and yon, just 'existing', but not really 'living'. The spirit is not only what some refer to as the seat of your emotions - but it is most importantly the part of you that God would refer to as giving you 'character'. It is what makes you stand out and stand strong.

You see, God did not give us a cowardly spirit but a powerful, loving, and disciplined spirit. 

(2 Timothy 1:7)

We are not the cowardly lion of the Oz type. We are not whimpering, timid creatures with no backbone. That is not how God made us. He made us to stand strong, powerful in all ways, able to resist every force that comes against us - IN HIM. We sometimes get this wrong - trying to stand strong, exhibit some form of power over something bothering us, all in our own efforts. That doesn't work well for us - in fact, it usually fails us somewhere along the way. We might have a somewhat positive outcome in our own efforts, but I doubt the outcome would be as good as it would have been if God had been our source of strength and powerful 'intervention' in the situation!

Our spirit (character) is powerful - no longer forced into timidity by our own shame or guilt. Our spirit is loving - not on our own, but because God's love indwells us and that love spills over into the lives of those around us. Our spirit is disciplined - no longer drifting along, but focused, determined, and steadfast. We don't possess these character traits in and of ourselves - they are a direct result of our spirit aligning with the Spirit of God. It is his Spirit within that 'innervates' our spirit. If you know anything about the nervous system, you understand that term. The nerves are what 'innervates' the parts of our body to move, function, and respond.

We don't want to move alone because we don't always find the places we move toward are good for us. They may not be places of safety and protection, but rather harsh and unreliable. We don't want to function apart from what helps us to function correctly. If you have ever had something go 'wonky' on you that was supposed to function one way and it totally functioned the other way, you know how 'incorrect functioning' can have a negative effect on us. For example, sometimes you take a cough medicine to calm your cough so you can sleep peacefully while recovering from your cold only to find it makes you unable to sleep. The 'functioning' was not as you desired!

As important as it is to be move and function in unison with God's Spirit, it is equally as important for us to respond to life events in the way God would desire. We don't do that in a vacuum - we respond as God would respond because we are IN HIM. We find our greatest strength not in standing alone, but in standing in unison with HIM. Just sayin!