Get on with it

If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived. (Galatians 6:1)

I think this should probably read 'when', not 'if', because all of us will eventually find ourselves needing forgiveness and restoration, no matter how hard we try to live according to the principles of grace, goodness, and kindness. We all slip up in weak moments, saying or doing something we later regret. When that happens, do we judge one another, holding onto those judgments and allowing bitterness to form deep within our heart? Do we lovingly restore one another, without judging the actions of the other, not giving place to bitterness and anger? Easier said than done, huh? We might want to remember that what we criticize the most in others may just be at the root of what we find ourselves struggling with, as well. The adage, "It takes one to know one", is certainly true and it is also quite convicting!

Stoop down and reach out - that indicates a change of position on our part, doesn't it? It requires us to get 'off our high horse' and get into the thick of it with the one who has fallen, helping them out of that mire they got so bogged down in. It is hypocritical to find fault with others for the very things that also trip us up and get us bogged in the mire of sin, isn't it? If we want to be strong in our own faith, it means we also need to be humble in our approach to others who find themselves sinning, as well. 'There but for the grace of God, go I' is more than a proverbial expression of grace and humility - it is the truth that we all find ourselves in the need of forgiveness. When John Bradford first spoke those words, he wanted his hearers to recognize our very life and whatever fortune we find within it is entirely based on God's guidance and his mercy.

All that go through in life is a teachable moment, when we allow God to use it for his work within us. Even when we find ourselves 'fallen' and in need of restoration, he can use that moment to teach us how to make different choices next time. Be assured, there will be a next time! Lovingly embrace one another, show grace when it seems to be undeserved, be humble about your own propensity to make unwise choices, and get on with the lesson! Life is too short to live with regret, and it is too long to live with unforgiveness! Just sayin!

In trouble again?

Defeat may serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out. (Edwin Markham)

Is anyone crying for help? God is listening, ready to rescue you. If your heart is broken, you’ll find God right there; if you’re kicked in the gut, he’ll help you catch your breath. Disciples so often get into trouble; still, God is there every time. (Psalm 34:17-19)

Markham also challenged us with the words: "We have committed the Golden Rule to memory, let us now commit it to life." There are far more times when we 'know the rule' but choose to live contrary to the rule. Those are the moments when God stands at the ready to rescue us from the folly of our own devices. Anyone who has ever been 'rescued' in this life can share just how much their need pressed upon them and how great it was to see that rescuer arriving just in the nick of time. We may not fully appreciate how much we need rescuing today, kind of poking along in life, thinking we are doing 'pretty good' with life choices, and then comes along this thing we call the 'big temptation' or 'tumultuous trial'. Just like that, we desire a rescue! We cry for help. We look, wait, call again, wait some more, all the while hoping that our rescuer heard our call. The good news is that even when we get ourselves in the place where we need a 'rescue', the rescuer always comes! God is listening, even when we don't do such a good job of making the right choices. God is ready, even before we know we have need of the rescue!

Defeat may seem immanent; rescue may seem like it won't happen but wait. That time between when we recognize we are pressed up against a wall, unable to escape on our own, drifting further and further from the 'rule' and closer and closer to our own folly may be a little bit, but God never stops listening for our cry for help. He knows there will come that moment when we feel like we cannot escape but he isn't about to ignore our need. He is ready to rescue. Sometimes rescue comes in the form of complete delivery. At others, it requires us to become 'disentangled' from whatever has us so easily 'tangled' into a mess of wrong choices and actions. Whatever 'form' the rescue takes, it is God's plan to bring relief and salvage what is able to be salvaged from the experience. We may want to leave everything behind, not thinking there is anything good that could come from the mess we were in, but God knows what is able to be used to help us avoid the same entrapment the next time. Just sayin!

I messed up

Thomas Jefferson lived by one principle: "Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching." While it isn't a direct quote from the Bible, the principle sure is! All the world watches to see how the children of God will respond in times of need, crisis, and even peaceful repose. Why? They want to know if you will handle life differently because Jesus dwells within you.

Intelligent people are always ready to learn. Their ears are open for knowledge. (Proverbs 18:15)

Robert Half reminds us, "When one teaches, two learn." For me to teach anything, share any of the truths God has revealed to me, I have to learn them first. Do I learn them all fully before I share them? No, but when truth becomes alive to me, you bet I am going to share it! Be ready to learn, no matter the day or the hour. This is how I operate - when God speaks, I want to be ready to listen. How about you?

Do some of God's teachings come at a time when I am busy with other stuff? Yes, and if I don't slow down long enough to acknowledge it, I will lose it. If we go through life at a break-neck speed, we might miss more than one lesson God is teaching. We may not see the example set for us in another's actions. Are the greatest lessons always taught from the pulpit? Not hardly! Some of the hardest, but most profound lessons are learned at the moment we make the dumbest mistakes.

Remember: The 'teachable' do a whole lot of 'teaching'. What do others 'learn' from you? Do they learn of the faithfulness of grace? Do they see the wisdom of humility? Do they understand the importance of confession? These are truthfully what I would label as everyday kind of lessons. As we stumble through our day, we might find there are times to admit we didn't do things very well. Do we just do that silently, afraid someone might think poorly of us if we were to share it with another? They already saw us mess up - why not also let them see how a righteous man or woman deals with that 'mess up' in a godly manner? Just askin...

Just a cry away

All he does is just and good, and all his commandments are trustworthy. They are forever true, to be obeyed faithfully and with integrity. He has paid a full ransom for his people. He has guaranteed his covenant with them forever. What a holy, awe-inspiring name he has! Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom. All who obey his commandments will grow in wisdom. (Psalm 111:7-10)

All he does is just and good - he is to be trusted. All his commandments are 'trustworthy' - his justice and goodness makes a solid basis for all truth contained within them. Our part - obedience. Somehow, I think we got the hard part! Faithful obedience - actions taken with utmost integrity - we just don't hit the mark on that one all of the time. Sometimes we just want to take an action because it makes us feel good, while at other times we want to take it because something made us feel bad!

We may not always feel like the most 'obedient' creatures on this planet, but if Christ is at work in your heart, you are on the right path! Obedience is not just a one-time deal. It is you and I continually making the right choices - even when we don't feel like it. Because of God's goodness, he has provided all we need for right-living in Christ Jesus. We may not always choose to live right, but with Jesus at the helm, corrective action is about to occur!

If we struggle with bad choices, even after asking Jesus into our lives, we aren't struggling alone. Each of us has our own struggles, but none of us is without the means by which to move beyond them. That means is Christ - his Spirit resident within us, urging us onward, giving us the desire to get up and move on. Obedience is oftentimes viewed as us trying something on our own, failing pretty badly, then turning to Jesus for his help. Wouldn't it be nice if we turned this around, missing that 'failing pretty badly' part all together?

Oftentimes obedience is just a cry away. We forget just how much God has invested in our success! He doesn't want us to fail in the area of obedience - he wants us to grow in the knowledge of his grace, but he also wants us to grow in the knowledge of his power within. We might just have to learn to trust that small voice within that urges us toward obedience. Remember, obedience is not as a result of a master's whip across our back, but rather a 'lover's' call to come closer. Just sayin!

Be successful

Success is the sum of small efforts - repeated day in and day out. 

(Robert Collier)

God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no weekend war that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. (Ephesians 6:10-11)

Many of us go through the same routine day after day, without thought as to why or how we do whatever it is we do within those routines. Do you honestly think through the steps of brushing your teeth, combing your hair, or even putting on your clothing? Do you just head to the coffee pot not really thinking through the 'desire' for that first cup? If you are heading to work today, do you actually think about each twist and turn in the road, or do you kind of drive out of 'habit', already knowing the route you will take? There are routines we don't need to mess with because they accomplish the desired results - our teeth are clean, we are clothed and caffeinated for the day, and we make it to our destination without problems. There are some 'routines' we are called to build into our lives, but they DO require some consistent focus from us - the routines of putting on the full armor of Christ, taking up every weapon he gives for our defense, so we can stand strong against whatever the devil WILL throw our way today. It is the small efforts we repeat that move us toward consistency - what most of us refer to as 'success' in life!

Collier also reminds us: "In every adversity there lies the seed of an equivalent advantage. In every defeat is a lesson showing you how to win the victory next time." We won't always do a great job of 'keeping up' these routines, wavering on occasion because some distraction comes our way, and we find ourselves totally side-tracked. We will encounter attacks from our enemy, unthinkingly respond to them, and fail miserably in our response. In that failure, we can take away a lesson for how to be best prepared for his attacks, or we can miss the lesson in the failure - it depends on our focus. In the winning of the battle, there are lessons, too. We sometimes don't realize those lessons as easily as we do the ones from our failures. Why is that? We relish the 'success' so much, we forget to ask God how it was we actually 'succeeded'. We 'got through' unscathed and we forget to understand the specific 'weapon' or 'armor' that kept us safe through that enemy's attack.

We always want to know how to win the battle the next time whenever there is a failure to win it now, but we don't always look to understand and appreciate how it is we withstood the attack so well today. I want us to consider the last time we faced some temptation to say something we shouldn't say actually didn't say it. Did that happen by accident, or was there some preparation of our hearts and minds to recognize when the words would be best left unsaid? I daresay there was a whole lot of prep work ahead of that victory, my friends, for our words are one of the hardest things for us to control! What prep work occurred? Perhaps God had been exposing you to thoughts from his Word in your study time that recounted the reminders to not engage in gossip, speak only what is helpful, and refrain from critical judgments. You were being 'readied' for the battle - although you may not have recognized it at the time. The 'success' we experience today may be the result of positively recognizing what goes into our past success - not just our past failures. Just sayin!

Shaky footing

From time to time I like to share a quote I come across that speaks to me. Today, I will share one that we all need to learn well: "The past always looks better than it was. It's only pleasant because it isn't here." (Finley Peter Dunne) It was Henry Ford who reminded us that failure was just an opportunity to begin again, wasn't it? The past looks so good because we are probably busy finding ways to fail anew right now! As long as we are still on this earth, we are going to know times of failure - of unpleasant endings to what we hoped would end a little better. We didn't count the cost well - we didn't consider the outcome before we took the leap. The past looks good only to those who don't remember the pain of the failure!

Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. I hope the test won’t show that we have failed. But if it comes to that, we’d rather the test showed our failure than yours. We’re rooting for the truth to win out in you. We couldn’t possibly do otherwise. We don’t just put up with our limitations; we celebrate them, and then go on to celebrate every strength, every triumph of the truth in you. We pray hard that it will all come together in your lives. (2 Corinthians 13:6-8 MSG)

Solid isn't deemed solid until it is put to the test. I have cautiously taken that first step out onto suspension bridges spanning drops so great I could not estimate the distance. The second step comes with a little more bravado, and then a little bit of the bridge's board crumbles upon your third step, and you feel that moment of panic! The first two steps may have been called 'solid', but that third one undid all you believed about the bridge! Your footing is less that secure at that point and you almost find yourself taking a step back. Why? You return to where you knew there was solid footing because you felt more secure there. If you have ever lived in icy regions, you know there is just a fine line between 'firmly frozen' and 'unstable ice'. There is a huge difference in where one stands or ventures between the two! 

We all need regular checkups where it applies to our spiritual health, my friends. We get off on not so solid footing from time to time - because we have a tendency to allow a little drift due to our inattentiveness. The thing about the suspension bridge or the icy crossing is that we are forced to test what it is we are placing our trust in all the time. Each step requires our intense concentration - we really cannot just stop to enjoy the thing around us. If we are a little easier path, we might not pay as close attention, allowing our thoughts to drift and our focus to be less intense. Speaking as one who has come up a few times a little bruised and battered by that one, let me just say we might not realize the unevenness of the path or that we have veered a little askew of straight!

The truth winning out in us isn't the result of a one time test - it is the result of being aware of our footing along the way. We don't lose focus - we don't need to 'reset' our course. Yet, if we have lost our course, it is easy enough to 'reset'. This thing called grace is actually a great 'reset' point in life. We lay hold of grace, it lays hold of us, and we get pulled back to firm footing time after time again! The truth is that our footing isn't going to always be solid. When we need that 'reset' in life, we might find we look back and think it wasn't all that bad 'back there', but we soon forget just how shaky that footing was! Just sayin!

Do you wallow?

"Your attitude towards failure determines your altitude after failure." (John C. Maxwell) How many times a day do you fail at something? You meant to keep your mouth shut about something that should have never been spoken, but alas...those words escaped. You meant to take care of that piece of pending work, but it seemed the hours slipped right on by before you could turn your attention to it. You planned to spend "quality time" with the family, but you were saying your good nights long before you realized. You thought you'd start that exercise program today, but the hotter than expected weather made a good excuse to delay until tomorrow. We have innumerable opportunities to succeed, but probably many of these opportunities pass us by, getting categorized in the "failure" pile of our life's choices. What we do with the failures makes all the difference with how we will deal with the new opportunities that come our way.

The Lord is kind and merciful, patient and full of love. The Lord is good to everyone. He shows his mercy to everything he made. (Psalm 145:8-9 ERV)

Since we all fail (some in greater degree than others), it is important to know how it is we are to "handle" our failures. It is important to realize God doesn't see any failure as "permanent". Each failure becomes an opportunity for grace in our lives, when confessed and allowed to be a place for his hand to change us. If we ever get to the spot where we think our failures are "too many" or "too big" for God to actually forgive, we are looking at our failures much differently than God does. He doesn't see our failures - he sees our possibilities. This is why he made a way for each failure to be a launching pad for change through grace. 

We can wallow in our failures, much like a pig does in the mud and muck of his pen. All that does is rub in the failure! It takes what could have been a launching pad toward change and "grinds it in". The moment we wallow, the more we will see our failures as defining who we are. Pigs aren't trying to escape or be free of the mess they are wallowing in - they are content to just wallow. Pigs wallow because they don't sweat, and this helps to "cool" their bodies a little. Sometimes we wallow in our failures because it brings us some "relief" from the sting of the failure, but that relief is short-lived because it never fixes the core problem. Pigs have to wallow time and time again because they still haven't changed their ability to sweat! We have no excuse because change is possible - we just need to embrace it!

We can make excuses for the failure, but that does little more than discount the failure as "expected" or "tolerable". To make excuses is to attempt to remove "blame" from the behavior. We want it overlooked, but until we stop "tolerating" the bad behavior we are not free to embrace new behavior. Excuses don't really remove the blame - they just attempt to change the focus. Much like the pig who wallows to get some relief from the heat of the sun, the one who makes excuses is just looking for a little relief from the pressure of admitting they have failed. To admit failure is hard, but it is a necessary step toward admitting we may not know how to change our course! Just sayin!

Positive or Negative Reinforcement?

Have you ever heard the little acronym for fail: First Attempt In Learning?  Bill Gates is credited for addressing failure this way:  "It's fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure." We might think he was merely speaking about success when we first examine this quote, but he really is saying how success is realized - by a few or more attempts at learning what success will actually look like! If success if based upon the lessons we learn from our failures, does that change how we might just come to view our failures in the future?

The one who hates good counsel will reap failure and ruin, but the one who reveres God’s instruction will be rewarded. (Proverbs 13:13 VOICE)

Thomas Edison was asked about his inventions and all the things scattered around his workshop which didn't work.  In addressing that issue, he simply stated he had not really failed with all those inventions, but rather found a whole lot of ways that didn't work.  Failure isn't always a bad thing - it shows that we tried something and it didn't work.  When we keep doing the same thing over and over again, thinking maybe we will get a different result from exactly the same actions, that is when failure becomes a "bad thing" because we didn't learn from what didn't work!

J.K. Rowling is probably best known for the Harry Potter series, and although I have not read her work, I came across something she said which did stick with me:  "It is impossible to fail without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default." (found on brainyquotes.com)  If we never start anything, we fail by default - pretty telling of how we sometimes see things in life and then avoid them because they just look too overwhelming or difficult for us to ever achieve.  

Spoiler Alert:  In our walk with Jesus, we will fall or "fail" a whole lot.  If we view the fall / failure as a stumble from which we can recover, we are more likely to get back up and try again.  If we consider it impossible to ever recover from, we will wallow in our self-pity and never grow.  Plain and simple, walking involves the occasional stumble, and even the periodic falling!  We just cannot avoid all the points where we might fail in life - life is riddled with them!

Nothing is more true than when it comes to choosing the right counsel in life - we may think we have tuned into the wisest choice, only to find we didn't reap what we hoped to in the end.  The counsel we listen to in life may come from a trusted adviser, such as a close friend or spiritual leader.  It may come from something we read, studying it until we think we have it "down" and can put it into practice in our lives. It may also come from that voice inside our own heads which confuses us at times because of how loudly it calls out for us to do things our own way!

Wisdom is not the absence of failure - it is the ability to take the steps we think are the best counsel, and if we stumble along the way, to get back up to try it again with a little different plan!  As I said earlier, to try the thing we were attempting using exactly the same effort, wisdom, etc., over and over again will likely get us the same results.  If the first results were less than desirable, what makes us think the repeated results will be more so?  We need a change of attack when it comes to taking future action - getting new counsel, or listening to a better counselor is probably not the only solution.  We need listening hearts, teachable minds, and willing spirits if we are ever to grow in Christ!

B.F. Skinner was a well-known psychologist we studied when I went through nursing school.  One of the things which stuck with me from his work was this belief of all human action being dependent upon the results or consequences of past actions.  In other words, we do what we do based upon the results of what we did in the past.  If those results produced things we enjoyed, we repeat them.  If they produced pain or sorrow, we are less likely to return to those actions in the future - such as when we burn ourselves on a hot stove.  He taught the concept of humans learning from previous actions.

To his credit, he realized it was possible to learn from our past actions - through a process he referred to as "reinforcement".  Now, mind you, we don't always learn that quickly, but it is possible to learn - according to Skinner, through positive or negative reinforcement!  If all of life were that simple, huh?  Some of us get a whole lot of negative results from our actions and we still return to them.  If wasn't something within the action which caused us to not learn from the negative consequences - it was our own heart, mind, or will!  If we were to submit these to God even before we set out to take any action, I wonder if we might just get a little different results?  Just askin!

No towel throwing allowed!

I run into people in all walks of life, "trying" to serve Jesus, but struggling with obedience, all the while knowing I am not unlike these fellow believers in my "trying".  "Try" as we might, we don't always get things right the first time.  This is kind of the way most of us learn things - by trying, failing, and trying again.  If I had given up on learning to tie my shoes as a child, long before the days of velcro fasteners, I'd have had to go barefoot!  If I had given up on mastering the clutch, brake, and gas combination, I'd never have learned to drive a stick-shift.  We define "success" in terms of something we call "failure" - hit the nail on the head each time you swing the hammer and we call it success; hit your thumb a few times and we call it failure.  I challenge us to think of failure as another form of "success" - simply because we often make the determination we will not choose to place our finger in the way of the hammer the next time!  We don't throw out the hammer and convert to using a drill and screws - we learn how to use the hammer and the nail.

I try with all my heart to serve you. Help me obey your commands. I do my best to follow your commands, because you are the one who gives me the desire. (Psalm 119:10, 32 ERV)

Failure is a means to success - plain and simple.  If we don't at least try, we won't ever know if we can succeed.  Some of us have a tendency to see the mountain in front of us and forget how many steps it takes to actually climb it!  Still others of us count on some mystical plan like telling the mountain to move and knowing it will because that is what scripture says.  If every time I needed to drive a nail into a piece of wood I simply looked at it and said, "go into the wood you silly nail", how many of you would look at me as though I'd lost it totally?  All of us know nails get driven into the wood by the pressure exerted on the nail - either from the nail gun or the hammer.  I am not so fortunate as to have a nail gun, so the hammer means is the one I must use.  That means in order for the nail to get driven into the wood, allowing it to do what it was designed to do by joining the wood to the structure I am placing it upon, I need to wield the hammer.  That also means my thumb can be in the direct path of accomplishing this mission!  Failure is a means to success - not a barrier to it.  I don't hit my thumb any longer and I still use hammer and nail when the project calls for it!

Too many times we discount the value of having tried and failed.  I think this may be because of how we think those around us view failure.  I have invested wisely on occasion, realizing a good return on my investment, while there are other times I have lost a little in the venture.  It doesn't keep me from trying again, though.  I may be a little more cautious, doing a little more up-front work to find out about the investment, seeking advice from others who are also investing, etc.  Life involves risk - any success is a mixture of trial and error.  In terms of our spiritual lives, we may not always realize success over the things which seem to easily get us to follow down the road of temptation. Remember this - that is a six lane highway with all kinds of entries and exits!  It isn't a simple one lane country road!  The good news is the number of exits on that highway to sin!  We might enter here, pass an exit there and another emerges a little further up.  Take any one of those exits and you will realize a new degree of success in your spiritual walk!

We try not to get on the highway in the first place, but sometimes we get caught up in the "flow of traffic" in our lives.  It is like the attention we pay to where we are going isn't all that careful - and before we know it, we find ourselves squarely merging into the six lane highway travelling at break-neck speed toward that temptation.  All is not lost, though.  We can still find an exit - it may take us a while, but the exit is there - we just have to merge over and slow down long enough to recognize it is coming up and is a means by which we can get off the path we are on!  We have all missed an exit on occasion, but it doesn't keep us off the road we call life.  We still get up every morning, venture out into the big open world and start our venture anew.  If we gave away the car because we missed an exit on our way to work one day, we'd be committed to the funny farm!  So, why do we so easily give up on ourselves when we miss the exit and find ourselves at a destination we don't want to be at in our spiritual, emotional, or physical lives?

Rather than viewing failure as the stopping point, we need to see it as a means of learning something new.  If we hit our thumb once with the hammer, we will be more attentive to how we hold the nail again when we wield the hammer the second time!  In life, all God asks of us is to take the steps toward obedience - he doesn't expect us to master this perfectly the first time each and every time. As nice as that may be, he knows we are human!  He knows we will fail and he only hopes we will view that failure as a means of moving toward success in our lives, not as a point whereby we throw in the towel!  Just sayin!

Own up to it

It goes without saying that we will all "slip up" now and again - regardless of how committed we are to following the scriptures.  We are human, will always have a human nature while here on this earth, and we do human things based on what this nature wants.  We feel guilty almost immediately when we do them, but we didn't stop short of actually acting upon those urges whatever they were.  When we do "slip up", we want the encouragement of someone to come alongside us to help us pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and get moving again.  We don't want another person to judge us for our misdeeds - we all know too well how many people there are out there who do this without even being asked!  Learning to be the kind of individual who "helps make that person right again" is indeed something we all need to learn.

Brothers and sisters, someone in your group might do something wrong. You who are following the Spirit should go to the one who is sinning. Help make that person right again, and do it in a gentle way. But be careful, because you might be tempted to sin too. Help each other with your troubles. When you do this, you are obeying the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to do this, you are only fooling yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Just look at your own work to see if you have done anything to be proud of. You must each accept the responsibilities that are yours. (Galatians 6:1-5 ERV)

Looking at this passage closely, we can observe a couple of important points:

- Everyone is subject to failure. To think we can live without failure is to never live!  If we are breathing and possess a heartbeat, we are going to stumble on occasion.  If we believe it is possible to live "sinless" and "perfect" lives, we are probably deluding ourselves.  We might set that as our goal, but we are still going to struggle with pride periodically, indulge in some kind of pity-party when we don't get things just as we wanted them, or the like.  If these are the worst of our sins, so be it, but they are still "stumbles" and we will still need to find our way out of them!

- Believers (people following the Spirit) must not see coming alongside one who has fallen as interfering.  As long as we have a relationship established with that individual, we can feel free to go to them, stand with them, and help them get back up.  This is the important part of this passage - the relationship part.  We just don't want to randomly pick individuals - we need to have been established in relationship for a while, able to share from the depths of our heart, and be trusted by that individual.  For trust to be established, there have to be some key factors, but most of the time when we are willing to be "transparent" with others, they begin to trust us to be real, keep it real, and help them be real.

- We are to be gentle in our approach to another's failures.  There is nothing worse than being approached in a judgmental, or prideful manner.  It isn't us lording it over another - but rather us associating with the commonality of their failure.  All of us struggle with generally the same stuff, just in different ways based upon our own make-up.  When we approach another, we must look inward first - being sure we aren't just finding fault with them other person because we see the same thing in them we just refuse to see in ourselves. 

- Part of restoration is accepting responsibility for our "slip ups".  Whenever we slip and fall, part of getting back up again is our willingness to admit to the slip up - to "own" it.  It isn't someone else's responsibility to assign "ownership" to our sin.  It is ours.  When we begin to see another stepping in to help us up again as being there to help us see our "part" in the failure, we might just welcome their help even more.  As painful as it may be to own up to our failures, it is harder to hide them under the guise of another person being wrong!  Just sayin!

Not gonna focus on that one....

Ever been accused of being stupid?  I usually tried to have my children avoid the use of this term because of the negative connotation it carries and the way it makes a person feel when they are described as stupid.  In the most literal sense of the word, it indicates someone lacks the intelligence to do something. In terms of this new math they are teaching my grandchildren in school, I would have to say I am a little "stupid" when it comes to understanding it!  I thought I learned "new math" when I came through school and I have done pretty well keeping my checkbook in order, bills paid on time, and have even managed to know what a 25% savings on an item on sale will cost me!  So how come we need "newer math" than the old "new math"?  I don't see the sense in it, and it is a constant "Google search" item for me whenever my daughter calls and asks me to explain it over the phone to my grandson!  I have to read the instructions, then try to figure out why they do the problem that way and then maybe, just maybe I can help him out.  I am quick to admit to him I must look it up - I don't want him to get the sense of me being "in the know" about this anymore than he or his mother are.  As we all have experienced at times, we have moments where our actions lack any evidence of "intelligent thought", or perhaps it would be more accurate to say they lack "intelligent forethought".  In those moments, we feel pretty doggone "stupid" for having responded as we did, right?  The difference (and I really mean the subtle difference) between right responses or actions in our lives and the "stupid" ones are not because we are unwilling to be obedient in our lives, but rather we failed to recognize all the "nuances" of possible responses in the situation.  It doesn't make us "stupid" - it makes us unprepared.  I am not stupid when it comes to the "newer math", I am just unprepared!

It’s better to be poor and live right than to be a stupid liar. Willingness and stupidity don’t go well together. If you are too eager, you will miss the road. We are ruined by our own stupidity, though we blame the Lord.  (Proverbs 19:1-3 CEV)

If we are honest about what stupidity really refers to we will find the very first definition of stupid describes as a mental dullness - the lack of ordinary quickness or keenness of mind.  That suggests we probably do fairly well with out "quickness or keenness of mind" on most of the occasions we get to actually use it.  There are just other times when we don't do so well!  Let that one sink in for a moment, will you?  You and I do a pretty good job most of the time living this life of obedience.  There are twenty-four hours in each of our days. There are sixty minutes in each of our hours.  There are also sixty seconds in each of our minutes.  Now, we take one minute to respond in a way which is pretty "stupid" (lacking the normal quickness or keenness of thought we usually exhibit) and we think our entire twenty four hours has been a failure!  Nope - that moment was, but not the entirety of the day.  Sometimes I think we try to live the entirety of our day without giving ourselves any mercy or grace!  We expect we will somehow be totally keenly aware of each word, thought, action, etc.  When we slip up in one form or another, we beat ourselves up for it - calling the entire day a bust!  

We are "willing" to live right - aren't we?  We are "willing" to make correct choices, respond in the right manner, and even take steps in the right direction even though it is a little hard.  But...one slip up and we head into a tailspin, believing the entire day was a wash and we are back again on an upward climb. Here's the truth - we had a MOMENT of stupidity!  We didn't make a lifestyle change which said, "From now on I am only going to do stupid stuff"!  We got a little too distracted, were overwhelmed with fatigue, or some other factor entered in and we had a moment we now regret.  Regret is the enemy of our ability to let go of the past.  It rages in our minds - because our minds are like steal traps - holding all those "moments" in there and recalling them at will. The thing to focus on is not the moment of failure, but the other 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds of obedience!

If you have ever brought something BACK to God which you had confessed before, but you just cannot seem to break free of your remembrance of that "moment of stupidity", let me assure you that you don't do this alone.  There are a whole lot of the rest of us who do exactly the same thing - we bring up those past failures time and time again.  We are justifying our "dullness" of forethought by showing God how many "past seconds" we spent in failure.  God isn't aware of those past seconds anymore.  He has already covered those with the blood of Jesus - they are washed away.  It is as thought he gave us back that lost second each and every time we asked for his forgiveness in the past. We just hold onto those seconds until the mount into minutes and then hours and then days of regret and remorse.  We are good at flogging ourselves over and over again for our past "stupidity", aren't we?  We need to stop this, though. It is contrary to all we know about God and how he deals with our moments of failure.  Those seconds are actually not "lost" - God restores them so our day starts all over again as though the moment of stupidity didn't even exist!

We might lack mental keenness at times - but God helps us move past those "lost seconds".  We might not always exhibit the soundness of judgment we hoped to exhibit in the moment - but God brings us back on course and helps us put the past behind us.  We need to stop looking so much to the moments of failure to judge how well we are doing, but begin to focus on the moments of pretty solid walking we do in between!  Just sayin!

Put right is not us getting it right all the time!

So many times we want to assume that there is no way we can be "put right" in life because we can only see the "wrong" we have done.  We see how frequently we fall and struggle to get up - God sees how many times he has the opportunity to help us to our feet again.  God doesn't see the wrong as much as he sees how he has already put things right for us in the sacrifice of his Son, Jesus.  Isn't it about time we change our perspective of the "wrong" we think is unforgivable in our lives and begin to see what God sees when he looks at us - lives "put right" with him?

God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.  (2 Corinthians 5:21 MSG)  

We evaluate people by what they have and how they look - God sees them by a totally different standard.  He sees them not as wealthy, or well-dressed, but as "needy" individuals - needy of a Savior - needy of being "put right". This is indeed a different perspective of how we should begin to view others, is it not?  When we finally begin to transition to this "view" of another, we begin to see them as Christ sees them.  As scripture so aptly points out, anyone who has accepted the work of Christ in their lives gets a new start - they get things "put right".

Think about this for just a moment - it isn't that we "work our way" to being "right" again.  It is that we are "PUT" right.  This is really more of a passive action than "working" our way toward anything - it is the action of another on our behalf.  Isn't it just like us to think we have to get all our "fallen leaves" in a pile before we can even begin to think our "yard" has been cleaned up? It is indeed good news to me to know God "puts" things in my life "in order" through his Son, not by what I am able to do in my own effort.  It isn't as though I need to just "sit back" and do nothing once I ask Jesus to be my Savior - but obedience to what he asks is not really me doing the "work" of salvation.  I am "put right" by his work - anything he asks of me from that point forward is just a way of revealing my commitment to his work within me. 

It may seem a little hard for some to believe - someone who never did anything wrong to assume the total wrong of another.  It is contrary to how we act and how we view life - for this type of sacrifice is indeed not "normal". It is "super" normal!  It took God about one nano-second to put my life in order again - it has taken me a lifetime to realize I don't have to work at being "put right" anymore!  Why is it so hard for us to accept this work of God on our behalf?  Probably because it is harder to accept a gift we don't deserve than one we feel we have earned!

Forgiveness is really a fresh start - you don't have to focus on the fact you have fallen because you are / have been "put right" on your feet again!  When we find it hard to "get beyond" our failures, we sometimes need a good "setting right" in our focus again - because somehow we forgot God has "put us right", will continue to "put us right", and is all about the business of "putting us right" for as many times as we need it until we get "put right" for good! Maybe this isn't rocket science here, but I genuinely think there are more people who struggle with this than are willing to admit they do - for those individuals who are constantly "working" toward "being right", please just listen.  God has put you right ALREADY - so why are you trying to do all the work over again?

When God declares something to be a certain way, it is.  When he declares us as "put right", we are.  All God ever asks of us is to accept his gift - all we need is this close intimate connection with him.  We cannot add anything to what he does for us - for what he does is a completed work.  Think about it - when something is "completed", it is finished.  All parts needed are already there - we are lacking nothing.  Perhaps today is a good day to begin to accept God "putting us right" and stop all this fruitless "work" of trying to put ourselves right.  Just sayin!

Stepping stone or stumbling block?

Scripture teaches wisdom is something we acquire over time - it says "become wise" - it doesn't say "zap, now you are wise"!  Most of the wisdom we have acquired is done so in what some refer to as the "school of hard knocks".  You know exactly where you learned some of the lessons you have learned, while there are times when you really could not say it was one place or time when the learning happened - it came in the "course of time".  The point is, we don't stop "becoming wise" at any one point in life.  The process of acquiring wisdom is to be a continual thing.  Therefore, every opportunity presented is an opportunity to incorporate some knew knowledge or application of truth. We just need to use what we "amass" and let it affect how we make decisions in the future.  This seems to be the point of our struggle - in using what we already know to help us avoid mistakes and to amass more wisdom in the process!

Become wise, dear child, and make me happy; then nothing the world throws my way will upset me.  (Proverbs 27:11 MSG)

This may not come as a surprise to you, but your success in any given matter is NEVER final.  Yet, on the other hand, we often accept our failures as final. Why is that?  We hold out our success until the next opportunity comes along, then when we master that challenge, we call it a success.  Let us fail, sometimes even one time, and all we see is the failure!  Another thing I have recognized is our capacity to start out well, but then end miserably.  If you have ever dieted, you probably recognize this truth!  It took me a long time to realize failure was just another opportunity for God's grace to help me get back up again.  It was his grace which actually made me strong enough to even try again. Maybe this is where you find yourself today - thinking failure is final - but if you look closely in the midst of what you have come to accept as your failure, you will see this little thing called "grace".  

I once had a pastor who told us each failure could be one of two things - either a stumbling block which keeps tripping us up, or a stepping stone to the next chance at success.  I believe he was trying to tell us the choice is in how we view the failure.  You see, we can either view it as a permanent, final thing, or we can see it as a temporary "set-back" on the road to obedience! In success there are lessons - in failures the lessons exist, as well.  When we invest wisely and see our monies grow, we view our savings plan as "wise" or a "success".  When we invest poorly, not doing our diligence to ensure the growth of our monies, we label our endeavors as a "failure".  These two labels have the potential of "sticking" - but one thing we control is what we will do with every failure - either use it as a stumbling block, or choosing to step over it in the process of moving on.

Most of the time, if we view our failures as final, we anchor ourselves to the failure in some way.  In other words, we allow the "stone" to become a dead weight in our lives.  It becomes a heavy burden we carry - like a pack-full of regret.  The memory of "what could have been" is a powerful tool in our enemy's arsenal my friends!  The thoughts of "what is only possible through grace" is a more powerful tool in God's arsenal!  Which one you gonna believe?  The failure is final or the failure is a stepping stone to success?  It is a matter of choosing the right use for the stone!  Some of us have a tendency to not only trip over our failures, but then we pick them up, carrying them around like a dead weight around our necks.  All they do is weigh us down and throw us off balance!  Failure is not a permanent thing!  It is not a weight we are meant to carry.  It is an opportunity for us to embrace grace, attain wisdom, and learn to walk again.

Yep, we grieve for our losses.  Yep, we celebrate our gains.  Gains or Losses don't have to be our focus, though.  When God is our focus, each gain or loss has the equal potential to produce wisdom - applied knowledge, understanding.  Wisdom is the ability to accept grace, apply the knowledge learned, and then "go again".  Many of us don't believe God gives "do-overs", but I don't think this is true.  No failure is final - the principle of grace is really the opportunity to "do-over" - maybe not in the same way, but with a new tidbit of knowledge, a new drive, and a new focus.  One thing is certain - we can fail, but we don't have to let failure define our course.  Just sayin!

"Thinking" too much?

I caught a post from a friend the other night which grabbed my attention and with which I identified with a little more than I would like to admit at times.  Her frustration came through in the post - not because she was ranting at something others had posted, but because she found herself having reached a point of "failure" in her life.  What came through loud and clear in the post was the fact she has been this route before!  There was something so honest in her post - the ability to admit she was at the end of her rope - traveling an all too familiar path right into the compromise she knew would lead to this exact place of disappointment.  Wow!  Been there, done that, bought the shirt, and wore it out!  Somehow, I felt directed to this passage this morning as I awoke with this friend on my mind and others who also might be at the place of having fallen just one more time.  I hope you will take heart as you read this with me.

But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.  It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.  I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?  The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.  (Romans 7:17-25 MSG)

The truth is - we all need something more.  We know what is right, but we somehow keep doing what is wrong.  I like the way Paul puts it - sin keeps sabotaging our best intentions.  Sabotage is just an underhanded interference from some force.  When Paul says sin keeps sabotaging our best intentions he is simply stating there is some "interfering" force which makes our "best intentions" a little feeble at best.  Maybe the most telling point in this statement is the idea of sin counteracting our intentions.  You see, intentions are nothing more than mental determination - they aren't really totally connected to the heart and often not connected to the spirit.  We make all kinds of "mental determinations" in life - the truth be told, we actually act on very few!

The point I'd like us to see in this passage is the very next statement - "...I obviously need help!"  Truer words could not be spoken!  We don't have what it takes - this is why we keep falling!  We make all kinds of mental commitments - but these commitments can get easily misplaced or sidetracked when something else takes over the space in our minds.  We can only "think" so much about a commitment we have made.  Will yourself to avoid the chocolate bar in the refrigerator simply by mental commitment - go ahead, do it!  You spend more time thinking about the chocolate bar than you do anything else!  The problem with mental determination is the "space" the determination must occupy in order to be effectual in our lives.  I have found I get distracted pretty easily - so mental determination is not the best way to "fix my fix".

Paul puts it very plainly - my decisions don't result in the actions I had hoped for because of some "internal" influence which "comes along" and distracts me from my commitment to my decisions!  Now, tell me you haven't been on this trip yourself!  You have heard me say this before, but it bears repeating:  The loudest voice gets our attention the quickest.  The problem with this is that God's voice is still and small!  So, if we are to listen to the right voice, we need to learn where it is we hear it the best - I assure you it is not in your mind!  Your mind is one mess of a jumbled up bunch of voices - sorting these out takes some work!  Your heart, on the other hand, is quite closely connected to your spirit, so the best place to hear God's voice is when we draw near to him in our heart and allow him to enter into our spirit.

We don't find answers to our failures in any better source than in his presence.  Failure is just an open door to bring us to a place where we move from our minds into our hearts and spirit.  Somehow failure gets us out of the clouds - there is not as much attention turned toward the mess in our minds, because we find ourselves humbled and hurting.  This is the place we end and God begins.  Humbled hearts and hurting souls are his business!  He delights in taking the pieces we are left with and putting them back together again.  The thing is - he doesn't put them together in quite the same order again, though!  We tried putting the pieces together OUR way - each time finding ourselves humbled and broken.  Maybe it is because we weren't meant to find the right "fit" for the pieces - only he was!  

I guess we all need to hear these words now and again.  It saddens me to think we have to fall in order to hear them, though.  Yet, even in the failure, there is a redemptive quality - when the failure is an open door for God to begin afresh in us what we could not do through "mental determination".  Just sayin!

Reacting or Acting?

Ever fail a test?  You know, you think you have "studied" hard enough to make your brain actually leak forth the right stuff in just the right moment - then almost without recognizing the turning point, you "slip" in what you "leaked" and down you go!  Yep, been there, done that, bought the shirt, and wore it out!  The truth is, we all fail - sometimes more miserably than others, but we fail nonetheless.  It may be in some commitment we have made such as determining to eat right, or some "trigger" we just didn't want to respond to in quite the same way the next time we were faced with it.  This week was one of those weeks for me.  The "trigger" came and there came my response - not the grace-filled one I would have like to respond with, but the adrenaline kicked into full gear and there I was facing the same old stuff.  The truth be told - I didn't go as far in my negative response to the trigger - for I held back the words I would have liked to have said at that moment, but I faced the "triggering point" with a response I immediately regretted.  It was a test - and I studied well - but all the studying in the world didn't help me "pass the test"!

I can see now, God, that your decisions are right; your testing has taught me what’s true and right.  Oh, love me—and right now!—hold me tight, just the way you promised.  Now comfort me so I can live, really live; your revelation is the tune I dance to.  (Psalm 119:75-77 MSG)

At that moment in time, I chose to dance to my own tune.  In retrospect, I can see this clearly now.  The triggering point was the beginning of the test.  The apology I extended afterward was the recognition I did not allow the studying to be converted into actual "learning".  So, now you have heard my true confessions - but I don't think I am sailing these seas alone!  We often face "triggers" we think we have under control only to find at the right moment, the very thing we thought we "learned" in our studies was not "fully learned" yet.

David says something in this portion of scripture which caught my eye this morning.  Maybe it was because my heart was a little sensitized by the failure of the test - or maybe it was just God's timing of the test!  This particular passage is "sandwiched" between two very important ideas - the first being the idea of waiting in expectation for God's wisdom to be "delivered" in the moment of our testing and the commitment to keep our minds "fixed" on God's counsel especially in the midst of the test.  To this, David adds:  "And let me live whole and holy, soul and body, so I can always walk with my head held high."  (vs. 80)  

Triggers are anything which serve as stimuli or initiators of a REACTION or series of REACTIONS.  Notice, I did not say a trigger was a stimulator of an action - it is a stimulator of a REACTION.  Most of the time, the triggers we face in life cause a reaction - they may follow-through with actions, but it is the reaction which really ignites the beginning of any action!  As a kid, we did the experiment of adding vinegar to backing soda into a bottle, observing that the reaction produced a powerful "propellant" which caused the bottle to almost act as a rocket.  The bottle was never created to be a rocket, but the combining of the substances in the bottle caused the rocket to act in a way it was never designed to act!  

The reaction of the combined substances became the stimulus which changed the intended purpose of the bottle into the "undesigned purposed"!  Does this speak anything to you about your tendency to REACT to the combining of substances (the wrong word at the wrong time in the wrong place, for example)?  You were designed by God to ACT one way, but the REACTION of the combined substances resulted in a totally contrary action!  Maybe this is why David asked God to help him learn this process of "waiting in expectation" for God's wisdom.  It would only take the substitution of one ingredient to change the combined substances!  Substitute water for the vinegar and you don't get the explosive potential of the acid and base mixture!  

Now, think about this - when you mix two acidic items together, do you get anything good?  Not really!  Try mixing bleach and vinegar together and you inadvertently end up making chlorine gas!  Not only are you affected by the mixture, but you inadvertently can affect others, too!  There are some "triggers" which end up only affecting you, but more often than not, the triggers we face end up affecting others around us!  

So, having said all that, here's what I want you to see.  The REACTION is only changed when the "substance" I offer into the mixture is exactly the opposite of what will result in the REACTION!  Yep, the test is passed when I recognize (with God's help - that is the waiting on him part) the exact "opposite" of what I am faced with in the test as what needs to be "added" to the mixture! Whatever triggers will then be rendered harmless - the stimulus will have no effect - like launching forth a dud missile!   The missile had potential beyond its knowing, but without the reaction of the "electrical impulse" which acts as the detonator, the missile is a dud!  Just sayin!

Boldly, Confidently, and Fearlessly

Three words are used in this morning's passage to describe our approach to God - fearless, confident, and bold.  These three words could all be interchangeably  could they not?  If we are confident, we are likely fearless and a little bold.  If we are fearless, it is probably because we have confidence which results in boldness.  Why are all three words used to describe our approach to God?  What was it the writer had in mind by emphasizing these three characteristics of approaching God - the AND emphasizes they do not stand alone, but ALL make up our approach.  It doesn't say, "If you are bold, approach God" or "If you possess the confidence, come before his throne".  All three play an important part in our coming before God.  Let's see why.

Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God’s unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it].  (Hebrews 4:16 AMP)

Fearlessly - no feeling of distress, apprehension, or alarm because you don't sense any sense of impending doom or judgment.  In the use of this term, the writer is focusing us on the "possibilities" found in approaching God - we don't see the impossibilities when our approach is focused on the possibilities in God's grace and love.

Confidently - we have to go to the root of this term to understand the meaning here.  The idea captured is that of firmly trusting and total reliance.  It is not trusting or relying upon our own merit, but the merit of Christ (our High Priest) on our behalf to make the way of approach certain and secure for those who follow in his footsteps.

Boldly - the idea conveyed here is one of no hesitation, or sense of hesitation in breaking some rule of propriety.  In the times the passage was penned, people knew the rules of propriety as it applied to "royalty" - you just did not approach unless you were invited.  The idea here is the extended invitation - we don't have to wait for the nod of the head - the way of approach has already been opened for us.

So, this is how we approach - but why we approach is equally important.  Perhaps where it is we are coming also plays an important part, as well.  You see, our writer indicates we aren't just coming into God's courts - we are approaching his throne of GRACE - the throne of his unmerited (undeserved, unearned) favor.  It is a throne specifically designed for our need - he sits not upon the throne of judgment, but upon the throne of GRACE - the place of need comes face-to-face with is provision.  The purpose in our coming - to find mercy for our failures.  Heaven knows - we have many of these!  

I don't know if you realize the irony in this verse, but I don't want you to miss it.  In the times of its writing, the one who approached the throne of royalty would not come empty handed.  They approached with gifts of some kind, even if they were meager.  Here is the irony - we approach the throne of God's grace not with our gifts, but with our failures.  He is "honored" to take these failures as we approach - giving us the very thing we need to overcome these failures.  Now, if this doesn't cause you take a moment of pause, it should!  God's throne is not of judgment, but of favor.  Our means of approach is through Christ, not in our own merit.  Our offering as we approach is our failure - his favor returns help for our failure.  Awesome!

Having approached, we find help - the specific help we need.  His help is well-timed, specific to our need, and given in the appropriate measure which will make a failure a thing of blessing and beauty in our lives, rather than a thing of shame and guilt.  Perhaps this is the intent behind the scripture which says God gives us beauty for our ashes (Is. 61:3).  Ashes were used to declare one in mourning over some loss.  Failure brings loss, does it not?  It is like failure leaves us wearing ashes of some sort - declaring the ugliness of our failing.  In the presence of God, we bring our ashes - he takes those ashes, cleans us thoroughly, and "anoints" us with freshness.  There is an exchange - the thing I notice though is that we seem to come out ahead!  Awesome!

In examining our passage today, I hope you will have taken one step closer to the throne room of God's grace - not fearing or dreading his judgment, but relying fully upon the way made in Christ to receive his grace as we do.  If approach only in boldness, we miss the importance of the one who makes us confident in our approach (Christ) and the one who changes our focus from the impossibility of our failures into the possibilities of the freshness of God's anointing.  Just sayin!