I don’t always fall asleep right away. Sometimes I toss and turn. Some nights it seems like I engage in a self-defeating battle of willing myself to fall asleep only to wind up frustrated and agitated and wide awake.

Some nights I grab a good CD or go to Amazon Music (or Pandora) and pick a good artist and let the music send me to sleep.

There’s something therapeutic about good music. Especially when it’s of the classic rock variety, although old-school jazz works just as well.

Last night, my musical choice was Journey. Listening to the songs stirred up vivid memories of childhood and youth and what feelings I had back then. Plus, there’s just something special about Steve Perry’s voice to send you to a happy place in your mind.

I remember back in high school I used to fall asleep while listening to a cassette copy of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. One of these nights, I just might revisit that classic album.

Or maybe I could just be disciplined and go to bed at a decent hour like normal folk.

I need to repeat this to myself in the mirror at least once a day for the next ten years or so. But maybe not before I’ve had my first coffee.

“The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances” (Elisabeth Elliott).

Ain’t it the truth?

If all I pray is to be moved whenever my circumstances get tough, all I do is take the same old me to a new location and the circumstances repeat themselves.

It’s not my circumstances that need to change as much as it is me that needs to change. Or maybe it’s a changed me who changes my circumstances.

Sometimes, it’s my attitude that needs transforming. Sometimes, it’s a lesson that I can only learn in the midst of discomfort and difficulties, not in comfort and convenience.

The secret is that if Christ is in me, anywhere I am is my ministry and my mission field and my calling.

I’m 99% sure I quoted this before, but someone out there would love to have one of your bad days.

That’s a good reminder when you’re tempted to throw an epic pity-party or a self-sorrowing soiree. People do really have it much worse than you.

That’s not to discount your own pain. I would never be one to minimize your hurt.

But one of the best ways to help the healing process is to remember and focus on the good in your life. All those good things that you and I routinely take for granted are things that many people out there are praying for right now.

What would happen if God one day took away all those things — and all the people– in your life that you take for granted? What (or who) would be left?

I’m not saying God is capricious like that. I’m saying is that it’s good to give thanks and not to take anything for granted.

That’s all.

Oh, and it’s good to let those people in your life know you’re thankful for them.

The end.

Yes, that season of sweating has come again at last. That season where my hair goes out of control and my sweat glands go into overdrive has arrived.

I do like summer. I even don’t mind hot weather. I do take offense at humidity. That’s what gets to me.

I wish that Tennessee could be one of those places that has dry heat in the summer. That would really be so much better.

I do prefer fall when the temperatures are much cooler and the air has that delicious crispness to it.

But this time I’m not going to waste my days pining away for the next season.

I’m going to enjoy every day and deal with the humid hot weather (mostly by staying inside where the air conditioning lives).

Every day I get from God is a gift, even those sweltering summer days. Including this one.

“But if Christ is amongst us, then it is necessary that we sometimes yield up our own opinion for the sake of peace. Who is so wise as to have perfect knowledge of all things? Therefore trust not too much to thine own opinion, but be ready also to hear the opinions of others. Though thine own opinion be good, yet if for the love of God thou foregoest it, and followest that of another, thou shalt the more profit thereby” (Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ).

I was almost tempted to call the post “Don’t Be a Face Mask Pharisee,” but chickened out at the last second.

I do think that if all you care about are people following the rules and enforcing those rules without bothering to get to know the people, you might be a Pharisee.

Too many people on social media are too busy talking over other people to listen. Too many are too busy thinking up the next clever retort to actually hear the words and get to the heart of the meaning behind the words spoken or written.

Too many of us will insulate ourselves in a safe bubble where we only hear variations and echos of our own opinions, values, and beliefs. We shut down or shout down anyone who disagrees with us at any point and revert to ridicule and name calling over those we deem our enemies in politics and faith.

But Jesus said to love your enemies. Pray for them. Do good to them. Listen to them. You may not agree but you can always walk away with at least one truth from anybody. You might find that your own opinion changes a little or you see another’s point of view.

Jesus didn’t say that the world will know His children by their talking points or how many arguments they’ve won, but by their love. Not the warm fuzzy feel good love, but the love that seeks the best of the loved one over its own, that rejoices for and lays down its life for the one it has chosen to love.

Love is spelled L-I-S-T-E-N.

“…no fears today because your Father is far bigger than your fears. 
‘I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand I will not be shaken’ Psalm 16:8. 
He knows how hard things are. And He knows how *faithful He will be.* 
That’s why He repeats it again & again, 365 times, so we don’t have need to fear any day of the year: ‘Do Not Be Afraid.’
He holds every minute of our day & His grace & timing are perfect. 
So we’re just going to go all out & Trust & Be Brave:
It takes courage to listen with our whole heart to the tick of God’s timing, rather than march to the loud beat of our fears.

#PrayingForOurWorld#NoFears” (Ann Voskamp).

The media wants you to be afraid. The world wants you to be fearful. Fear means you watch the news more, so their ratings go up. It means you buy their products to keep you safe, so their profits go up.

God wants you to know that His perfect love casts out all fear. There is no reason to be afraid for the one who trusts in the Lord, for the one whose hope is certain and secure.

There is no fear in God’s love. There is no reason to fear because God is near to those who call out to Him in faith. There is no fear because the end is already written and the last page ends with God on the throne.

I’m tired.

No, I don’t mean the kind of tired where you need to go to bed and sleep for 14 hours (although that does sound great right about now).

I mean tired as in weary in my soul.

I’m tired of Mondays. Honestly, they seem to crop up every week or so. Don’t they ever stop?

I’m tired of how quickly the weekends go by. It really feels like Mooooooonday, Tuuuuuuuesday, Weeeeeeeendnesday, Thuuuuuuursay, FridaySaturdaySunday, Mooooooonday, etc.

I’m tired of coronavirus and COVID-19 and social distancing and self-quarantining and people getting sick and dying who should have no business getting sick and dying.

I’m tired of all the racial strife that never seems to go away and wonder if we’ve learned anything from the teachings of Jesus.

I’m tired of people talking at each other instead of to each other. I’m tired of people who shut their ears, close their eyes, and make pouty faces whenever anyone disagrees with or dissents from their opinions, as if they are being persecuted when ever they are contradicted.

I’m tired of people who keep trying to “improve” on the gospel of Jesus Christ and end up turning it into one of those “other gospels” that the Apostle Paul spoke against because only the true Gospel of Jesus has the power to change and transform.

I’m tired of people who claim Christianity who are known far more for who and what they are against rather than what and Who they are for.

I’m tired of EVERYTHING being political and politicized to death. Whatever happened to common sense and common human decency?

I get tired of waiting, but I never tire of hope. Therefore, I wait with the hope that Jesus will one day make all things right and whole and new again.

“We deafen God day and night with our words, ‘Lord, thy will be done.’ But then when God’s will does happen, we are furious and don’t like it a bit. When our will becomes God’s will, that is certainly good; but how much better it would be if God’s will were to become our will” (Meister Eckhart, A Call to Selfless Service).

I remember that Elisabeth Elliott once said that in order for God’s will to be done, my will often has to be undone.

I’m not a fan of that.

I don’t like my will to come undone. I don’t like my plans to fall apart and my dreams to disintegrate. But often that is precisely what must happen in order for God’s will to be accomplished in my own life.

Something else for me to remember is that God’s will is bigger than just me. It’s wider and grander and broader than my two little eyes can see and more than my puny mind can comprehend. It’s about way more than just my hopes and dreams and desires and goals.

God’s will is about all of time and eternity. It’s about so loving the world that He gave is one and only unique Son so that no one should be lost but that all might have eternal life.

Sometimes my priorities need readjusting and my mindset needs rebooting. I need to see outside my little world to the bigger world that God is working in.

God, help me to see people the way you do and love Your world the way You do. Help me to want Your will above my own and may Your purposes prevail in and through me every day. Amen.

In the midst of all the gloom and doom media coverage of all things pandemic (among other issues), I thought I’d give you a brief respite from all the negativity by updating you on my little feline named Peanut.

She’s a very docile and gentle 3-year old tortie who loves her some naps. I mean the person who came up with the phrase cat nap has probably never seen an actual cat napping. It’s anything but brief.

She also likes to rub up against my legs, which I believe is her way of leaving her scent on me and marking me as her property. Like that was a really big secret before, right? She’s owned me ever since she picked me out to be her human at the animal shelter.

She has her manic outburst of energy for the day, usually lasting about 5-10 minutes. She gets out all of her energy and exercise for the next 24 hours so she can devote more time to napping. I think that’s brilliant.

Pretty much her job is to lay around all day looking cute. I’d say she does that quite well. In fact, I think I’ll keep her around for another 15-20 years. That is, if she’ll have me.

“THE HOLY SPIRIT IS PROPHETICALLY WARNING HIS PEOPLE… 

…the only way to thwart a coming dark spiritual season is to heed Christ’s warning and apply His prescribed solutions. Here in the United States the winds are blowing with such hostility and contempt toward Christians that things are said against believers that would never be said against a Muslim, or Minority. 

Even notice the rooster on the weather vain? It is there because Pope Nicholas I decreed in the 9th century that all churches must show the symbol of a Rooster on its dome or steeple, as a symbol of Jesus’ prophecy of Peter’s betrayal (Luke 22:34). It was a reminder that the fixed laws of North, South, East and West will not change or move even when the winds of persecution can cause us to bend with the times.

When the church has no affixed, absolute, biblical truth on which it stands – when it has no ‘line in the sand’ truths, it has ceased to be the force withstanding the gates of Hell on earth. The danger is this – with this mindset the church is reduced to a good will, humanitarian organization with only a weak Christian philosophy. 

Rick Renner says: ‘It is no secret that the spiritual environment in the world is undergoing a radical change and a great gulf is beginning to divide those who are moving away from established truth and those who see what is happening and are responding by making personal re-commitments to absolute truth. The winds of change are blowing and it is producing a sifting, a dividing — a separation of wheat from chaff. The rift has become so severe that who is wheat and who is chaff may be looked upon differently depending on which group to whom you belong.’

Our job is to recognize these truths, then re-calibrate and upgrade our own lives so to honor Godly principles. A changed Church must start with us” (Lance Wallnau).