Aggravated?

What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole. I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory. (I Peter 1:3-7)

A new life and everything to live for - what that involves is a new start on life, and the joy of living life as we were created to live it - in close, personal relationship with God our Father. We may think of the "future" as way off in the "then", but in actuality, the "now" is the beginning of our future. We start living our future today - in Christ Jesus. We finish living our future some day - in Christ Jesus. Our future is without end - so is there really a finish? Eternity begins now and lasts a whole lot longer than our limited minds can imagine. God is keeping careful watch over us. 

Healed and whole. Too many of us deal with things today in our physical bodies and even in the turmoil of our minds which indicates we are far from "whole" and definitely not "healed". Wholeness and healing is finalized in our future state as we fall before God's throne in perpetual worship throughout all of eternity. Yet, today's promise is the beginning of this healing and wholeness. In the time between today and total healing / wholeness, we have a whole lot of what appears to be "aggravation" we have to deal with. It is this "aggravation" God wants to help us with in our daily walk.

Aggravation is simply an increase in intensity, seriousness, or severity of whatever it is we are dealing with. As the intensity increases, we experience an increase in anxiety, emotional response, and experiences we had not endured before. There is a "turning up of the heat" and we begin to sense the seriousness of the circumstances. All Christ has provided today and what is promised in him for our future state makes all this intensity and seriousness worth it! It also means we don't walk through this intensity or seriousness of issues without him. We have him alongside and inside.

Do you think today's issues are really little annoyances you can somehow get beyond if you just try hard enough. I don't know about you, but the harder I "try", the harder it gets to get beyond those things that cause me so much aggravation. "Trying" is not "doing" - it is the state of venturing out, but it is in our own effort. The reason we have issues with getting beyond the intensity of the circumstances is that we cannot get beyond it by our own effort. Our faith is what brings us out on the other side - not our efforts. Human nature wants to "do" in order to "get". In Christ's economy, our future state is today - we just have to "be" in that state in order to begin to realize the victory which overcomes today's aggravations and builds our faith as pure and holy. I don't know about you, but I am determined to live in the "future" now, not in the "then". Just sayin!

With or Without - That is the Question

Have you ever just looked at something and thought what was ahead of you was absolutely impossible? We all probably face that overwhelming feeling on occasion. What we don't want is to not move forward just because we think something is impossible. Arthur C. Clarke reminds us, "The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible." When we do what we know to do, God takes us beyond the 'possible' into the 'impossible'.

“What is impossible for people is possible with God.” (Luke 18:27)

As we move right along in our new year, we may have faced a few things we have already labeled as "impossible" - not because we haven't 'tried' to make a go of them, but because we faced many a roadblock when we did. Roadblocks aren't always there to stop us - sometimes they just slow us down and get us to take a different route we didn't already consider. When God is at the helm of our lives, we can be assured that each roadblock is just that. He stops us long enough to get us to consider the route he has planned for us. 

Look again at that passage. It might be impossible for us, but WITH God, there are innumerable possibilities that open up before us. We might fail in our own power, but WITH God, failure isn't an option. The 'impossible' seems to be unfathomable. We just don't 'see a way'. What we need in those moments isn't our own 'vision' or 'perspective' on the matter. We need God's! We need to see what he sees. How does this happen? When we stop trying to do it WITHOUT God and start doing it WITH him. Too many times we work 'counter' to what God desires - because we imagine our own efforts to be sufficient. Sadly, they rarely are. 

With or without - this is really the question today. Will we face the impossibilities WITH God, or without him? If we want to find ourselves ever moving past those roadblocks, we might just want to consider doing it WITH him! Just sayin!

More than time

Treasure your relationships, not your possessions. (Anthony J. D'Angelo)

D'Angelo also reminds us that 'without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community'. As important as our lives may seem at the moment, we must always include quality time for others. I have heard that term 'quality time' bantered around a bit in the 'counseling community', but to be entirely truthful with you, 'time' isn't the issue - 'investment of self' is the focus of any amount of time we spend together. This is especially true when it comes to our time with God - make him first in your 'time expenditures' each day and you will notice a huge difference in how you face the daily grind.

Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

Our priorities can get a little out of hand at times. We don't make the things that should matter most all that high on our list of priorities, while making things that really won't matter in the long run our top ones. Whenever we get those things in the wrong order, we find ourselves out on our own a lot of the time. We aren't listening to the plans God has for our day - trudging ahead on our own. We aren't investing in filling our tank with his presence or peace - then get all wigged out when we are coming unglued as things aren't going as we planned that day. Notice that I did not say 'investing time' in filling our tank - it is more than time. It is being present on purpose, listening intently, and sharing with an open heart whatever is in our heart with the one who will help us make the most out of each day.

I treasure my relationships with others, but I treasure my relationship with Jesus above all others. I have a great relationship with my kids and grandchildren, and I treasure every moment we share together. I so greatly enjoy time with my BFF, not doing anything all that special, just hanging, taking a walk, sharing what's been going on since the last time we saw each other. Why do we treat our relationship with God any different than the ones we have on this earth? We 'get together' with our family and friends, so why would it be any different with God? If things seem a little 'strained' between you and God right now, it could just be that you have been giving him 'time', but not YOU. Just sayin!