Hey, Coach...over here!

Gonna meddle a bit this morning, but who doesn't meddle once in a while? How many times do we see someone struggling and then turn the other way, ignoring the struggle because it would get 'too messy' if we got in the middle of their muddle? How about the times we see someone about to jump off some cliff in life that you know will just leave them all messed up and we just shake our heads as we watch them take the leap? If we are to be honest here, we have all likely been in the position of seeing someone about to 'fall into sin' and then found it has become fodder for 'gossip' and 'poking fun' at that individual. Why do we point out the sin of others instead of stepping in to help them be restored? It could be us there one day, my friends. How would you like someone to respond if the tables were turned? Just a little food for thought here, but I think we all might like to have someone come to our aid rather than poke fun at our failure or find fault with our sin.

Live creatively, friends. 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 MSG)

God doesn't say, "If you feel like it today, why don't you step in and share the burdens of another." In fact, there is an imperative in this passage - we are give a few 'if - then' statements to consider AND act upon. IF someone falls - THEN forgivingly restore him. IF someone is oppressed and weighed down under the burden of life - THEN stoop down and help them out of the rut. IF their burden is great - THEN help them carry it. IF you think you are too good to do so - THEN you are badly deceived. Notice that I reminded us of the need to not only "consider" the condition of another, but to "ACT" to help them in their need. This is the way of God every time - condition exists and the need is met. Nothing in God's way of doing things ever relies upon us 'feeling like it'. In fact, most of his most fruitful actions in our lives are oftentimes in direct opposition to our feelings.

God calls us into relationship with each other because we desperately need each other's encouragement and even a little coaching from time to time. Encouragement would be defined as inspiring another by giving them approval. Coaching goes just a bit further because it encompasses instruction. God's requirement for us is to know when encouragement is enough, but then to go the extra mile when coaching is required. Sometimes I don't know how to handle a situation, or how to get myself out of the muddle I have made for myself. I need more than your encouragement - inspiring words, approval that I can get out of it - I need some downright help to know the way out! IF I need coaching - THEN be there to instruct me as you also are there to encourage me with each step I take.

Do you know what some who fall repeatedly need more than anything else? They need a coach! They need someone who will come alongside and do more than encourage them to 'live better'. They need to be shown how to live - how to take the first step that helps them be ready for the second one and then the third. Coaches actually help us 'train' - not just 'try'. Repeated failures are not fodder for gossip - they are fertile fields where a mighty harvest of new and developing faith is possible. That may be what God had in mind when he calls us to share the burdens of another - encourage them - but then go the extra mile to help them take the steps out of the muddle. Now, lest anyone think a coach is someone's conscience, let me set us all straight here - a coach knows how to instruct because they have already walked the path! The coach is able to instruct - not be someone's conscience - but assist another to find the right steps to take in order to move from where they are to where they need to be. Just sayin!

Planning for Temptation

Leonardo da Vinci reminds us, "It's easier to resist at the beginning than at the end." Thinking on that one for a moment, we all probably could benefit from keeping that in mind because most of us try to resist closer to the end than at the beginning of the temptation. We go to the store hungry - then wonder why we are tempted to buy all the things we aren't supposed to be snacking on if we are to maintain our healthy lifestyle. Now, if we had planned a little better, having a nice breakfast before we head out to do the shopping, we are likely going to stick closer to the shopping list and avoid those unhealthy choices! Why? We resisted by planning on the temptation to be there!

So give yourselves to God. Stand against the devil, and he will run away from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. You are sinners, so clean sin out of your lives. You are trying to follow God and the world at the same time. Make your thinking pure. Be sad, be sorry, and cry! Change your laughter into crying. Change your joy into sadness. Be humble before the Lord, and he will make you great. (James 4:7-10 ERV)

Resistance takes on meaning when we 'come near' to God - why? Because God comes near to us - giving us the ability to resist (flee from) temptation. Come near - what does that mean? Do we have to go to church to be 'near to God'? No - but God encourages us to gather together because 'corporate worship' is important to help us grow in Christ. There is to be a sharing of our lives with each other, but we don't have to 'go to church' to come near to God. We can do it in our everyday trust in him - in our time, talent, and treasures. We learn to trust him with our time - giving him the first part of it each day. We trust him with our talent - those things he gives us skills to do - because they are what help us be productive and find purpose in our daily lives. We trust him with our treasures - because our heart will follow our money!

Sin has a way of 'getting into' our lives in ways we may not readily see at first, but the fact is that it is there. Sin has a way of 'getting us to do something' because we don't resist it very well BEFORE the temptation has a chance to appeal to the desires of our flesh. Sin needs to be 'cleaned out' much like when we do spring cleaning of our closets. We go through, get rid of stuff that has just gathered in those places that doesn't belong, things that don't work well anymore, etc. Then we organize what is left - leaving us with a sense of feeling accomplished and satisfied. Why does 'spring cleaning' of our closet or drawers make us feel accomplished? There is order again! Sin creates disorder in our lives - we need to get rid of it if we are to feel 'order' again.

Make your thinking pure - the temptation begins with our thinking. We don't entertain the unhealthy snack until we see the end-cap display. This is the purpose behind using end-caps - to draw us into purchasing what we didn't even know we needed or wanted! The truth is that Satan uses a whole lot of 'end-cap' tactics to get us to 'buy into' things we don't need to buy into, my friends. The temptation isn't new - it is 'usual' and 'typical' of all the things we have been thinking on, my friends. The way to overcome the temptation begins in changing the way we have been thinking about the 'end-cap' appeals! This begins by drawing near to God - because he helps to change our focus. He helps to change what is on those 'end-caps' in our lives.

The truth is that we are ALL tempted to sin. We ALL have to change our thinking. We ALL change it not by being 'more religious', but by 'drawing near' to the one who changes our thinking. It is God that takes what the enemy means for evil in our lives and turns it for good. He is the one who changes what we cannot change on our own. He is the one who not only helps us recognize our temptations, but to turn away by 'pre-planning' for their eventual occurrence in our lives! It isn't that we won't have temptations - we will just have thought through how we will respond to them in a way that keeps us from giving into them! Just sayin!

How do we overcome judgment?

Praise the Eternal!  All of you who call yourselves the children of the Eternal, come and praise His name.  Lift Him high to the high place in your hearts.  At this moment, and for all the moments yet to come, may the Eternal’s name ascend in the hearts of His people.  At every time and in every place—
from the moment the sun rises to the moment the sun sets—may the name of the Eternal be high in the hearts of His people.  (Psalm 113:1-3 VOICE)

What does it truly mean to be an overcomer?  I was listening to a gal share an article from her AA magazine which described a transition in thought and practice which occurs when you are finally "overcoming" your addiction.  It described the situation of being in line at the checkout counter, finding yourself constantly counting the items the individual has on the belt in front of you to see if they "really" qualify to be in the line - judging others.  As you first begin to overcome the addiction, you find yourself in a place where you might still count, but when you have finally overcome, you not only don't count anymore, it just doesn't matter to you how many items are on the belt because they belong to the other person. 

I probably didn't do this article any justice in that explanation, but one thing that spoke to me is that she said, "You just leave things alone which you really don't need to be bothered by any longer. You don't assume the "items" of another really need to be part of your worries any longer."  She shared how in her worst place of addiction she was constantly overwhelmed because she took on things others put on her that really didn't matter in the whole scheme of things, but because she was so compromised in her judgment of self, she was constantly engaging in judging others.  I think as we move from "being under" any weight in our lives into a place where we are free from that weight, we move from being judgmental about self and others into a place of leaving that to God.  She was spot on in what she shared - the items on the other person's "belt" really aren't hers to deal with - the person deals with God about those "items", not with her.

As I was reading in the Psalms this morning, I came across the passage above and something caught my attention - I put those things in italics.  There is a song I absolutely love that has recently come out on the Christian radio called "Chain Breaker" by Zach Williams.  The words of the song set it out pretty clearly - if you have pain, he's the pain taker; lost...he's the way maker; needing freedom...he's the prison breaker; got chains...he's the chain breaker.  Wow!  Now look at the passage I copied for us today.  Got chains...lift HIM high to the high place in YOUR hearts.  Needing freedom...let his name ascend in YOUR hearts.  We don't move easily from being judgmental, carrying the worries of the world upon our shoulders, and internally conflicted, but as we begin to place God in the high places of heart, we begin to feel weights lifted, places of bondage loosed, and the confusion of internal conflict settled.  Why?  It is the place he ALONE was designed to fill!  

The way to overcoming isn't to just empty ourselves of the stuff we shouldn't have packed away into those places - it is to allow those places to be filled as they were designed to be filled! Anytime we stand in judgment of another, we elevate ourselves to the high place in our hearts. Anytime we step back and let God assume that place, we find the "items" on the other person's belt don't really matter any longer - they belong to God.  Just sayin!

Walk, fall, walk again...just move the rock!

Toby Mac is a Christian artist, but he also has some pretty profound posts which appear periodically on my Facebook feed. This weekend one came across I'd like to share: "Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent." I once heard it said a stepping stone is a great thing until it becomes the thing we stumble over. Someone once told me it is pretty doggone hard to actually fall down until you are willing to get up. In other words, you cannot just sit there and actually get anywhere - sometimes it takes a few stumbles, downright falls, and a hand to help you up to get you to the next destination in life!

Two are better than one because a good return comes when two work together.  If one of them falls, the other can help him up. But who will help the pitiful person who falls down alone?  In the same way, if two lie down together, they can keep each other warm. But how will the one who sleeps alone stay warm against the night?  And if one person is vulnerable to attack, two can drive the attacker away. As the saying goes, “A rope made of three strands is not quickly broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 VOICE)

Falling alone is not an option!  Not even walking at all is also not an option!  We have been given all things in this life which will help us "walk well", we just have a few stumbling blocks to get past on occasion - sometimes we do this pretty well, other times we need a helping hand to pick us up when we fall.  If there is one thing I know for sure it is the fact NONE of us is without stumbling in our lives!  What?  You say you don't stumble?  Well, let me just point out some of us may have learned to do it a little more "gracefully" than others, but we still stumble!

You've probably heard that quip, "what doesn't kill us will make us strong", but I think sometimes the things we stumble over which leave us "wounded" or "hurt" are more damaging than the things which come against us to all out kill us!  We get battered and bruised with each stumble - emotionally, spiritually, in relationships.  These hurts just get bandaged up, or even ignored.  There are even times when we just leave them "open to air", allowing those wounds to fester and get their "nastiness" onto others around us.  Either way, they don't get the attention they need and the hurt just keeps on hurting.

Have you ever smacked your shin bone a good one on something just the right height to collide with it?  Yep, you read that one right - I said the object was the one who collided with you, not the other way around.  I think this is how we view stumbling blocks sometimes - as rising up in our path, just to give us grief and misery in our lives.  The issue isn't their presence, it is our inattention to avoiding them! The object we smack our shin upon didn't just rise up from the earth one day as we were walking past.  It was the coffee table in the middle of the room for the past ten years!

There are things we stumble over in life which have been in the center of our lives for so long, we just grow accustomed to them until one day they become the thing we stumble over. We are left with hurt after colliding with what had for so long been ignored!  Then we wonder why it hurt us!  Truth is, if we hadn't of ignored the presence of the thing we stumbled on for so long, it may not have been there for us to stumble on it in the first place.  This may be just the reason we need others in our lives - to help us recognize the things which can make us stumble in life - the things we have grown so comfortable with just "tolerating" in our path.

As I assess the safety of a person's home after they may have taken a fall and hurt themselves, I look for objects upon which they might stumble and fall.  Throw rugs are removed, coffee tables are out of the question, and poorly fitting shoes are simply not tolerated.  Why?  They are all obvious reasons for someone to stumble or get hurt. Removing obstacles is only one way of avoiding hurt, but it isn't the only way.  I also remind the person to use good judgment - put on the lights, use their cane, get a portable phone which can stay with them when they move around the house, etc.  What am I doing?  I am preparing them for success - not by telling them to stay confined to their bed so they don't fall again, but by helping them learn to walk within the boundaries of safety!

Many of us lack the closeness of anyone who can speak into our lives so we stop stumbling over the same obstacles in our path time and time again.  We haven't been close enough to anyone, or genuine enough with them to actually allow them to help us when we stumble.  We are missing out when we live in such a way.  To stumble is one thing - to stay down is another.  To walk alone is quite another.  Just sayin!