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Uneasy.
Ever wake up in the morning unable to shake an uneasy feeling about the day?
Nothing you can put your finger on, just a sense that something upcoming is different.
Not sure if it’s good or bad, just unfamiliar, so you check your calendar, your schedule, your to do list, and seemingly nothing is extraordinary, remarkable or noteworthy.
Your morning routine continues but you’re hyperaware of your surroundings, and not just a little superstitious about what to expect next.
So you take that little package of unknown and intangible something with you out the door, on the road and at work, all the while, staying a couple steps ahead of yourself so that if it’s actually something, you’re not entirely caught off guard if or when it happens.
It’s a little foreboding, a little interesting, and a lot more than you bargained for when you first woke up.
You arrive back home retracing the events of the day, have your dinner, catch part of a show on TV and flip the lights off for the night to land back in bed where it all began more than half a day ago.
And just before drifting off, you realize the true cost of your prolonged anxiety that all began simply because you first believed the day ahead was yours alone to construct when it never actually was.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
Happy Anniversary.
Today I would be 40 years married if not for some dumbass confused druggie douchebag who failed to grow up, own his shit and get real with God and himself before roping in a spouse to his chaos.
Our personal failures teach us all the important life lessons, at all the wrong times, but in all the right ways.
Life never promises to be pretty, just extraordinarily successful at producing life change if and when you finally allow it.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
Redeemable.
Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.
Mark 12:43-44 NIV
We’ve grown to be cynical about church offerings. And for all too many good reasons.
Jesus’ lesson here paid no attention to the actual collection but to heart and faith conditions of the giver.
God needs none of our money.
He transacts in currencies far more important and eternal.
God smiles upon our sacrifices as judgments of our hearts, minds, and faith.
It’s one thing to be a man of means who follows the 10% rule faithfully. It’s another to give out of a love and faith that God provides for our needs regardless of our gifts.
Jesus adores that which drives our behaviors because only there and then are we dealing in the only currencies redeemable in heaven, love and faith.
Less is more.
Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.
Luke 12:15 NIV
Less is more.
If not for the sake of humility, then for fewer distractions from the stuff of life that really matters.
You can’t take it with you and it will be left far behind sooner than later.
For a rich life, invest in assets which, by definition, are transcendent from this life to the next.
Jesus take the wheel.
There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.
What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.
Luke 12:2-3
A clear conscience is an underrated pursuit savored by many but possessed by few.
So many people are spending their days running from their own lies, indiscretions and inconsistencies they are failing to live.
Fatigued at keeping up appearances and denying the fact they are sinners just like the rest of us, their chase of perfection never produces it.
Getting off the hamster wheel is a choice.
It’s one that requires surrender to the truth from which you’re desperately trying to escape.
It’s the only jump that produces true and eternal freedom and lands you in the arms of Jesus and a love and calm acceptance.
But it’s a decision.
A furious chase of the impossible or resting abandonment into care from the God who has been seeking you all along?
Choose life.
Clear your defensive conscience and accept the fact you are a sinner in desperate need of a forgiver and a permanent exit off the hamster wheel.
Join the rest of us who have chosen life by choosing Jesus.
Cultural change vs cultural healing.
Each passing day is one of change.
Some only sleight, others break upon society like a tsunami.
Our culture continues to change, but in doing so, sometimes it heals.
Radical fractures of what has constituted truth for centuries and even from the beginning of time make their way onto the scene to challenge our hearts and minds in search of fertile soils.
Unstable times magnify the messaging and even convince the otherwise stable otherwise.
In stable times however, reason recognizes fundamental harms and hurts of such messaging, easily choking it at its roots.
Change can heal divisions.
Change can shake awake those who too long have overvalued change for change’s sake, giving the unstable and trouble-minded a platform to promote what is come to be understood as a fundamental but untenable fear of calm amid the constant storms and struggles of everyday life.
Fortunately, the cycles of change eventually right themselves, leaving smaller yet significant wakes to navigate.
Culture change is good when it serves to heal and repair small places of brokenness to which we’ve become all too accustomed.
Doing August first.
Been looking forward to August 1 for weeks now.
I can’t tell you why exactly but somehow, it is destined to be significant.
I wish I could articulate the feeling or reason but regardless, I’m instituting some changes in my life since I don’t know why it’s so mysteriously anticipated.
If I never find out why I’ve been anxiously awaiting it, and it just arrives and passes unremarkably, it’s cool.
I’ve already decided it will be a big day for me.
And that feels alright.
Of others for others.
Luke 11:8
Never be reluctant nor ashamed to ask for what you need from those who may be equipped to help.
When you work in charity with a deep passion for the people of your mission and their needs, make the ask of others without shame.
It’s an ask, not a demand, and your love for them remains unchanged by their response.
You are merely sharing needs of others to others for others.
God alone stirs people to action according to His timing, plan and purpose.
Your passion is to always be audacious about it.
Not a bowl of cherries.
Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.
Following Jesus is no bowl of cherries.
It’s a hard life of sacrifices and burdens.
I’ve often wondered if when the rubber really meets the road and my loyalty is tested under pressure, will I have made of myself the stuff that will endure? What will be my breaking point if at all?
If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.
Mark 8:34-38 NIV
Again, following Jesus is no bowl of cherries.
To risk use of yet another cliche, I believe we ain’t seen nothing yet.
We so easily fall into the trap of not taking our position as followers serious enough.
To be honest, the risk is not in the believing but in the behaving. Faith with works that demonstrate it without shame or the risk of embarrassment.
The disciples endured beheadings, torture, and worse without wavering faith.
Whoever loses their life for Jesus and the gospel will save it.
When the day comes, what will it take to have what it takes?