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!

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!

V-Day

Victory! What does this term mean to you? Perhaps it means you have succeeded in something you never thought you'd be able to complete, or that you triumphed over something that held you back in life. Maybe it carries the idea of having achieved superiority to your enemy - no longer having to engage that enemy in battle because you have been declared "victorious" over that enemy. If we look at this in the truest sense, any victory is really a sense of achievement where an advantage is attained and maintained. There is something in the one who is victorious that screams, "I have overcome!" There was an obstacle in your way and now that obstacle no longer stands as any impediment to your progress or success in life. I wonder just how many obstacles God has removed for us without us even knowing they were gone - allowing us to walk victoriously in areas we never really had any idea how to overcome?

Only through God can we be successful. It is God alone who will defeat our enemies and bring us victory! (Psalm 108:13)

Victory comes one way and one way alone - through the work of God in our lives. It is only in Christ that we truly can be successful over the things that hold us bound. God defeats our enemies - even when our enemies are our own thoughts, emotions, and doubts. There are tons of us who are facing obstacles that aren't external to us, but are right there in the thoughts we frequently reconsider and ruminate on repeatedly. There are those of us who find our emotions huge hurdles to overcome, binding us to some specific course of action because we cannot seem to overcome how we 'feel'. Still others of us are intent on doing something that will result in a life-change we desire, but all those doubts and frustrations keep creeping up, paralyzing us, holding us back from ever taking more than the first step. Obstacles aren't always easy to identify, but when they are within us, ever-present with us, we find their taunts hard to overcome.

It is only through God we can be successful in overcoming these internal hurdles. No amount of self-help, positive intent, or mind reset techniques can help us. We might get to 'feeling' a little bit like we can take on these hurdles, but if we were to be honest here, these tactics and techniques might work for a while, but they aren't lasting! They fizzle as soon as the next negative thought pattern takes hold, crumble when we find ourselves too fatigued to try any harder, and evaporate when we realize changing our thinking isn't all that easy. God defeats all our enemies - even those that are of our own making! Success - how would you define that in terms of your present 'internal enemy'? In order to define our success, we must first be able to name our enemy correctly! This requires honesty on our part and the help of our Savior to help us understand the true enemy that stands as the obstacle in the way of our victory.

We don't have to overcome on our own. We don't have to understand every nuance of that internal obstacle that mounts defense after defense, avoiding any attempt to eradicate it from our midst. What we do need is God's presence, power, and peace. As his presence begins to be entertained and made a more prominent thing than the obstacle that stands in our way, we find that obstacle begins to lose its power over us and his peace begins to permeate our entire being. We aren't asked to use our power, but to rely upon his. Yes, we will be asked to take steps of obedience toward the obstacle and then to actually begin to tear it down in his power, but we don't do that alone - he guides us step by step until it is finally removed. On the other side of that obstacle stands a victory we won't know without his help. Don't go it alone - remember he desires to go before you in the battle! Just sayin!

I am not hiding

My protection and success come from God alone. He is my refuge, a Rock where no enemy can reach me. (Psalm 62:7 TLB)

Protection is often thought of as the preservation from harm or injury. It comes from the root word 'protectio' in Latin and means "a covering in front". We want God 'out front' in our lives - shielding us from all harm that is attempting to find a means to lay us out. The idea is that of 'guarding' so as to keep safe from invasion or loss. The President of the United States has a 'protection detail' with him wherever he goes. His 'detail' is huge, not only in number, but in the armored vehicles he has at his disposal and the military defense at the ready wherever he goes. The purpose is to keep him safe from any harm that might be planned for him. This allow him to do his job, much like God's protection 'out front' in our lives helps us 'do our job' on this earth. The right 'protection' makes all the difference, doesn't it?

Success speaks of more than just beginning well - it refers to the way something is ended. The 'termination' of the thing is deemed favorable whenever we say it was a 'success', right? The word success comes from the root word for succeed and carries a meaning of thriving, growing, and prospering. With the right 'out front' covering, the ability to thrive is much different than being exposed to the things set against us in this life, isn't it? The one who knows 'success' has accomplished what was intended - the attempt had a positive outcome. The main thing about success is that the desired result is accomplished. As our scripture today points out, with the appropriate covering in place, the ability to see the desired results in life are much better than if we go out there 'exposed' all on our own!

Refuge might be considered to be a hiding place - a place of safety. We only need a place of refuge when danger drives us into that place, right? The root of this word comes from the word meaning to run or flee from. This implies there is danger in what we are escaping - causing us to need a 'hiding place' where we will be safe. I don't live in tornado country, but I have lived in earthquake regions and know every opportunity is taken to instruct people how to find the best place of safety when the ground starts to rumble. You don't run out into the open, you find a sturdy place of safety, such as under a strong table. Why? Things come 'at you' when the ground starts to rumble, maybe not with the force of the tornado's winds, but an earthquake has a damage all its own. Regardless of the 'force' coming against us, we need a place to 'run into' for our safety. Let that be God and you won't ever find your place of refuge faulty! We aren't hiding out - we are sheltering within. Just sayin!

Success matters - careful planning matters more!

Success:  The accomplishment of one's goals; the favorable or prosperous end to your attempts or endeavors; the attainment of something good or welcomed.   Most of us strive for success in our endeavors, but then find we have bitten off a little more than we could chew, making a true "success" a little out of reach for us.  If we examine the actual meaning of success, it might just give us a little hint as to why we don't hit a home run each and every time we try aim for success.  It is because they are our goals, our attempts to attain.  One thing I have learned in my 5+ decades on this earth - my plans are okay, but they aren't really good until they are blessed and overseen by God each step of the way.

People go about making their plans, but the Eternal has the final word.  Even when you think you have good intentions, He knows your real motives.  Whatever you do, do it as service to Him, and He will guarantee your success. (Proverbs 16:1-3 VOICE)

Plans are simply desired outcomes - we hope for something at the end of whatever it is we are striving to accomplish. In the end, when we miss the desired outcome, we get frustrated.  I had a spreadsheet formatting issue yesterday which just kept baffling me.  No matter how many times I looked at a long list of conditional formatting formulas I had entered, I could not see the subtle error which was causing me to not see what I wanted to see.  I cannot tell you how many times I read, re-read, and even erased, tried again!  The thing wouldn't do what I wanted it to do.  I was getting frustrated because I thought I had everything right.  In the end, I saw one flaw in just one of those six formulas - one! All that frustration was because of one simple symbol!

Most of life's issues as we set out to accomplish some goal in our day aren't because we didn't "plan well", but because we don't see the subtle things which actually get us pretty off-course and deep into frustration.  I spent way longer finding the error than I did in initially "planning" the way I wanted this worksheet to work when I put in the data needed.  This is often the case when we just try to "re-double" our efforts to make something happen.  We get stumped by the things which don't work out as we thought, sometimes even to the point we get frustrated and want to throw up our hands and walk away.  Planning is only part of the mission in life - we also need to be open to listening for God's wisdom along the way.  

As I sat there ready to throw up my hands, a little voice said to look at one set of formulas.  I looked at them, side by side, comparing each and every detail over and over again in the complex set of instructions.  It took me about ten minutes to see that one wrong symbol directing my worksheet to do two equations based on the same value!  We sometimes don't see the issue with our plan because we are too close to it - it has become too routine, too generic.  What we need is God to give us a little clarity, to help us focus in on the very thing inherent in our plan which will become a source of frustration somewhere down the road!

The other frustrating  part we may not realize is that the very thing we planned to do for another may be what gives us so much of a challenge!  This wasn't even a worksheet section I would be using - it was for someone else!  That issue wasn't an issue for me - it became an issue when someone else wanted to "pattern" what they were doing after something I was doing.  We may not realize how much our plans for success actually affect another until we see them struggling with the one thing we didn't "catch" in our "good planning". That one thing became a source of frustration for both of us! Success for her was impacted by a lack of carefulness in executing my plan!  We never know when our "success" endeavors are going to be the very thing someone else models along the way.  Just sayin!

Value vs. Success

What standard do you live by?  I have a little plaque in my office which simply reads: "Every time you walk by the violation of a standard, you set a new standard."  It was given to me some years ago, but it still have great meaning to me, serving as a reminder to not simply "walk on by" those things which really matter in life.   Einstein once said, "Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them."  I believe this is true - we press beyond what we are willing to see as a limit which must be broken in order to move on in life.  There are limits which are kind of the "standards" by which we live - sets of beliefs and rules we adhere to without compromise.  Then there are limits we place on ourselves - beliefs which may not be founded in reality, but are self or other imposed.  I think we need to be careful what "standard" we use as a measuring rod in our lives, for the standard may be too low, or even too high.

For we would never dare to compare ourselves with people who have based their worth on self-commendation. They check themselves against and compare themselves with one another. It just shows that they don’t have any sense! (2 Corinthians 10:12 VOICE)

I will never be an Olympian, so to aspire to be one is kind of silly.  If I tried running like an Olympian at this stage in my life, with my artificial knee and aging body, I'd just look silly. In fact, getting to a good, rapid, heart-pumping pace while walking is enough exercise for this body!  If the standard I measured my cardiovascular workout against was that of the Olympic 5,000 meter distance runner, I'd always be critical of my efforts.  Why?  That is not realistic for me!  The standards we use to evaluate our progress in life need to first of all be realistic.  To bite off more than we can chew in any area of our lives is to set ourselves up to be defeated.

One thing is for sure in this life - there will always be plenty of people we could compare ourselves to - good, bad, pretty, not so pretty, heavy, or slim.  The list could go on and on, but you get the idea.  The "standard" we choose will either serve to defeat us because we don't see ourselves as "measuring up" or get us so self-inflated we see ourselves as "better than" the one we are using as a comparison.  According to our passage, people who compare themselves to other people have "no sense"!  Therefore, using any standard other than Christ as our measurement of "success", "beauty", "spiritual maturity", etc., is just going to point out we have a wrong standard by which we are judging ourselves and others.

Einstein was also quoted as saying, "Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value."  Think on that one a little - a man or woman of value, not of "success".  Why?  "Success" is subjective.  It is based on what is achieved or accomplished.  It isn't a stable thing in our lives.  It can be "undone" by the next "successful" thing someone ELSE does!  Jesus never pointed his followers toward "success" in this life, but rather development of "trust", "hope", and "love".  Success vs. value - one is subjective and movable; the other is objective and immovable. Value is not determined by what we achieve, but rather by what we have been declared to be - a child of the living God himself.  Value is what really gives us worth - worth is more than success - it is a deep-seated assurance we are living by the right standard!  Just sayin!

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!

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!