In or Out?

And then he prayed, “God, I’m asking for two things before I die; don’t refuse me—banish lies from my lips and liars from my presence. Give me enough food to live on, neither too much nor too little. If I’m too full, I might get independent, saying, ‘God? Who needs him?’ If I’m poor, I might steal and dishonor the name of my God.” (Proverbs 30:7-9) 

Neither too much, nor too little - are we operating by the "Goldilocks Principle"? We don't want too hard of a bed, nor too soft - it has to be just right. We don't want too much food, nor too small of portions to satisfy - we want them to be just right. We don't want too much hardship, but neither do we expect to live totally without any - it just cannot be too overwhelming to deal with. Most of us want to live by the standards that "suit" us the best. The only problem with this is our inability to really decide on what "suits" us best. We have a "warped" idea of what is "best" for us - because we base what is "best" on what brings us the most comfort, suits our present needs, or just plain doesn't cost us very much to obtain. Not always the best way to make decisions, if I may say so myself! Too much allows us to live just a little too independently and too little might just lead to us making a few unwise decisions which we not only will regret, but which will bring dishonor to the name of God. If I get this scripture correctly, there is a fine balance God is looking for - one which keeps us close enough to him to feel deep peace, yet just hungry enough to move whenever he moves! Being so content with God's love that we desire no other - our hunger drives us closer, not searching for something or someone else to satisfy us.

Nothing satisfies quite like the magnitude of God's riches. Some of us imagine getting closer to Jesus than ever before. Indeed, a good starting place for our day - yet, if we draw closer to him and still don't reach out to others, we really haven't grown in the closeness he desires. We might just have become a little more "religious" instead of growing in the depth of our relationship with him. It is this relationship that brings us to the place of reaching out to others in need, seeking to share from the abundance of what we have found in our relationship. To become so "heavenly minded" that we are of "no earthly good" is not what God desires. In fact, he desires we become so "heavenly hearted" that we cannot help but be of "earthly good"! Neither too much - for it leads to independent thought and action. Neither too little - for it leads to misconduct and damaged reputations. Is the "middle-ground" what some may refer to as "mediocrity"? Nope, I think God has a perfect middle-ground for each of us which really makes us more "grounded" individuals. It is when we are close enough to his heart to experience his heartbeat firsthand, and yet not content to experience this alone. We want others with us in this experience, so we continue to reach out to those who haven't drawn close to him yet, drawing them into his presence and close to his heart.

Independent thought leads to independent action. I am a pretty strong individual - sometimes too strong for my own good. I can fix my own plumbing, but whenever I have to get down on my knees for too long to actually fit into those tight spaces, I find I don't bend as easily as I did before! I can mow my own lawns, but I pay the price of dealing with my allergies when I do. There are a lot of things I can do in my independence and strength, but the consequences of always doing things independent of God's direction and wisdom are not always those we'd like to experience! A lack of contentment can drive us in many different directions, cannot it not? Sometimes it drives us right back to square zero and we find ourselves relying heavily upon developing our relationship with Jesus a little deeper or afresh. At other times, it drives us toward more "promising" ventures - but the "promises" of any venture that takes us further from Jesus is really not any venture we'd like to be on. Trust me on that one! My prayer for us today - neither too much, nor too little. You in? Just askin!

What is your 'else'

If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? (Romans 8:38)

Is there anything ELSE he wouldn't GLADLY and FREELY do for us? Sometimes I think we expect God is somehow 'finished' with us at some point, but let me be the first one to admit he is far from finished with me! God didn't stop redeeming me at the moment I said 'yes' to Jesus - in fact, he is still in the process of changing a hard heart and sinful nature into one that will respond with obedience. My 'redemption' - a really big word for having my sins forgiven and my life transformed by the power of Jesus' grace - only began the work of 'creating me anew'. Yes, we are totally 'redeemed' at the point we say 'yes' to Jesus, but there is a lifetime of work being done within us to help us reject the desires of our sinful nature and to embrace the new nature of Christ within.

God indeed did put everything on the line for us at the cross, but he continues to put it all on the line for us each and every day. Feel like it or not, God is there. He is working within - nothing stops the work that he begins. Yes, he embraced us when our spiritual, emotional, and even our physical condition was going nowhere good. Gladly and without reservation, he embraced us and is still embracing us. From the very start - he loved. He never stops. Someone needs to hear that today. There are moments I have to tell myself this very thing - God never stops loving us. Freely he embraced and continues to embrace us in his grace - freely - get that, please. His gifts of grace are free - there is nothing we do to deserve them and he is not 'measuring' out little bits and pieces of his grace in a stingy manner. It is freely given - in immeasurable proportions.

God doesn't hesitate to embrace us in our sin - he surely won't hesitate to embrace us when we fall flat on our faces in some form of sinful compromise. It is God's work to help us 'put things in order' within our lives. Sometimes I think we get this backwards, thinking maybe it is our 'job' to get things in order and then God will 'accept' or 'appreciate' us. Do you honestly think God would give so much in redeeming our lives and then require us to 'do' more? The question isn't if we need to obey - we do. The question isn't if we need to respond when he speaks - we do. The question isn't if we need to cry out when we are losing our grip on life - we do. This isn't 'earning' grace - this is living as his new life within us demands.

Today someone is thinking there are things God won't do for or in them, but that just isn't true. There is nothing 'else' we could ask or need that he hasn't already provided for within our lives. In fact, the 'else' we can imagine is really already settled in heaven and God isn't stingy in meeting that 'else' with his grace, love, and provision. There is nothing 'else' he won't freely and gladly do for and within us - nothing. If you need this today - embrace it. If you aren't there today, pray for the one who is - they need our support and love to fully accept God's truth that they are loved, accepted, and fully appreciated just as they are. He is enough for their 'else'. He is enough for our 'else', too! Just sayin!

When enough is just enough

If you live in the area where Cox Television is your cable provider, you are inundated with commercials with a guy constantly adding "tay" to the end of each word.  He calls it "portabili-tay" when we can see his football game on his iPad while shopping with the wife.  He calls it the ultimate in "connectivi-tay" when he can move from room to room while checking emails, phone messages and the like all from his laptop.  The emphasis is on the "tay" - you have to really emphasize that last syllable to get the gist of how he says it. When he asks his friend for his hose because he is so absorbed in his "portabili-tay" and "connectivi-tay" that he forgets he has dinner cooking on the grill which is now in flames, his friend kindly shares by spraying the guy with the hose!  To this, the man responds, "Immaturi-tay, Randy!  Immaturi-tay!"  I wonder how many of us walk around just embracing all we can get our hands on and then wonder why we are still dealing with such "immaturi-tay"?

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:1-2 MSG)

Life is full of stressors, right?  Some of them are physical, others emotional. It is what we do with them which really matters - not that they exist.  I have found when I slow down a little, I really begin to sort out the things which are just adding to the stress and the things which are providing the right kind of stress which will actually help me grow.  Now, let me explain.  We have good and bad stressors in life.  The good ones actually allow just enough tension so as to drive us toward some goal or produce some change.  For example, apply a little exertion to a muscle and you will keep it in shape.  Apply a little more tension to the muscle and you will begin to stress it.  The stress you apply actually serves to "build" the muscle.  Now, apply way to much stress and you get a tear, strain or sprain!  The difference is in the amount of stress allowed.

Too much stress distracts us.  As with the strained or sprained muscle, the stress ends up directing our attention toward the pain and not the thing which caused the stress in the first place.  What does a strained muscle make us do?  Either we give up, limping around, saying it was too hard and we now quit, or we massage the thing, go right back to what we were doing and continue to put the same amount of strain back into our lives.  Do it long enough and you will realize permanent damage from the strain!  One of the hardest things to do is to alter our course of action when stress is fully upon us.  In fact, we view having to make such alterations as impeding our progress and therefore, a negative thing.  One thing I know for sure - success is not in the continual doing of stuff which hurts us, but in realizing the stuff which needs to be eliminated in order to avoid the constant hurt!

Paul was warning the church to beware of the world getting us so wrapped up in its level of "immaturi-tay" by drawing us into the stuff which actually lends more stress to an already stressed life.  I call this the "more must be better" philosophy.  If you have ever tried something the first time, just a little smidgen of a taste, then find you liked the smidgen, you may have spooned up a heaping helping and sat down to enjoy it.  Before you can even get halfway through the heaping helping, you find the "taste" you thought was pretty good actually turns on you when you have way too much of it on your plate!  If you continue to take it all in until your plate is empty, you end up rather "sickly" - because you took in an amount you could neither tolerate nor could your body figure out what to do with it all!  The same is true in our lives at is applies to the things we commit to do, the projects we take on, the things we think we must fit into our days.  Too much of a good thing actually becomes more than we can tolerate and more than we can figure out what to do with!

Our culture tells us more is better.  Our heart tells us less was simpler.  Our spirit tells us we will always have enough if we keep our focus right.  Which one are we going to listen to?  The one we listen to the most will be the one we see the outcomes from the quickest.  Listen to what the surrounding culture in your workplace, neighborhoods, or society at large tells you is important and a "must have" in your life, and you will be miserable toting around a whole bunch of stuff you never knew you "needed".  Things like extra debt, things you don't have the time or talent to maintain, etc.  Listen to your hearts and you will yearn for the good old days when life seemed to be simpler.  Listen to your spirit and you will hear clearly - enough is all you need.

I will leave you with this quote from Bob Parks:  
I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.

I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough “Hello’s” to get you through the final “Goodbye.”

Read more at Poem : I Wish You Enough … 

Just sayin!