“It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last forever. We must take it or leave it.

Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow-creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).

The Bible puts it another way:

“So remember: fear the Eternal and serve Him sincerely and faithfully. Put away from you any gods your ancestors served across the Euphrates River or in Egypt, and serve only Him. If you decide that you’re not willing to serve Him, then today is the day for you to choose whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors bowed to in the land beyond the great River, or the gods of the Amorites whose country you possess. But as for me and my family, we will serve the Eternal” (Joshua 24:14-15, The Voice).

“Just because something is technically legal doesn’t mean that it’s spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I’d be a slave to my whims.

You know the old saying, ‘First you eat to live, and then you live to eat’? Well, it may be true that the body is only a temporary thing, but that’s no excuse for stuffing your body with food, or indulging it with sex. Since the Master honors you with a body, honor him with your body!

God honored the Master’s body by raising it from the grave. He’ll treat yours with the same resurrection power. Until that time, remember that your bodies are created with the same dignity as the Master’s body. You wouldn’t take the Master’s body off to a whorehouse, would you? I should hope not.

There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, ‘The two become one.’ Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever—the kind of sex that can never ‘become one.’ There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for ‘becoming one’ with another. Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body” (1 Corinthians 6:12-20, The Message).

In the age of microwaves and instant fixes, waiting can be difficult. Especially when there’s no clearly defined end in sight.

But sometimes it’s good to love the process. It’s like the saying about when God doesn’t open the next door, praise Him in the hallway.

With God, it’s not about where you are or where you’re going but who you’re becoming. It’s no good to be in the place God wants you to be if you’re not the person He wants you to be. You won’t be able to handle it.

Be patient and learn to love God’s timing as much as you trust in His promises. Both are sure and both are perfect.

Learn to wait well, not sitting idly by with folded hands but preparing yourself in every way to have open hands to receive what God will give you when you’re ready.

Life is a journey. Enjoy the ride. Trust the Guide.

It was two years ago this very day that I got rescued by a little tortie kitten at the Williamson County Animal Shelter. Has it really been that long?

I really didn’t have any specific kind of cat in mind when I went into the shelter that day other than I wanted it to be a kitten.

I probably looked at several, including a few tuxedo cats. They were all fine, but none were exceptionally cuddly or friendly toward me. Nevertheless, I had one picked out and in the carrier. All that was left was for me to sign the papers and it would all be official.

But then I saw this little bitty black paw reaching out toward me. As I drew near her cage, she began to purr loudly. She was saying, “Pick me, human.”

More accurately, she had already picked me to be her “furrever” human and was waiting to see if I had enough sense to realize it.

So I took her home instead.

Thus the adventure started, and I haven’t regretted it for one single second. I chose the name Peanut for her one tan foot that looks like she stepped in a jar of peanut butter.

She’s grown quite a bit since that fateful Friday. Sometimes, I still miss that little kitten who was a champion snuggler. But I really like how Peanut has grown into a beautiful tortoise-shell cat who’s extremely friendly and loves her some belly rubs.

There is no rule that limits the amount of peanut butter that you should put on your bread. There’s also no rule that says that you have to choose to like either crunchy or smooth peanut butter. I happen to like both.

There’s no rule that say that you must conform to a pattern of life by a certain age, i.e. married by 25, kids by 30, etc. God’s timetable for you is your own and nobody else’s. Comparison is the thief of joy, and it keeps you from appreciating all that God is doing in YOUR life, not somebody else’s.

You will always be a second-rate version of whoever is out there that you try to imitate. You will be a first-rate version of yourself if you only try to be yourself as much as possible.

By the way, my preferred peanut butter is The Bee’s Knees by Peanut Butter & Company. They sell it at The Fresh Market if you’re interested.

I posted this Wordsworth poem on social media a few years back for reasons unknown. Perhaps it was it stirred up beautiful images and emotions within me.

Reading it again just now, it conjures up pictures of Radnor Lake State Park (or anywhere where nature still reigns over man-made habitations).

I still believe poetry is good for the soul. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I have:

“And O ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves,  
Forebode not any severing of our loves!  
Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might;  
I only have relinquish’d one delight  
To live beneath your more habitual sway.  
I love the brooks which down their channels fret,  
Even more than when I tripp’d lightly as they;  
The innocent brightness of a new-born Day  
Is lovely yet;  
The clouds that gather round the setting sun  
Do take a sober colouring from an eye  
That hath kept watch o’er man’s mortality;  
Another race hath been, and other palms are won.  
Thanks to the human heart by which we live,  
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,  
To me the meanest flower that blows can give  
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears” (William Wordsworth).

Yeah, basically I had no intention of starting my day off with a spectacular nosebleed. But sometimes it happens.

It’s a bit unnerving to see that much blood coming out of your nose, especially when it doesn’t seem to want to stop. The rest of the day involved a trip to Urgent Care and a day spent at home resting.

Here I am, 18 or so hours later (and currently nosebleed-free), writing these words and thanking God that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

Maybe days like these will help you to appreciate your health a little bit more. I know I probably won’t take mine for granted any more.

Also, it makes me appreciate even more the grace of God that wakes me up every morning and sings me to sleep every night. Without that grace, I’d be screwed.

I’m learning not to take anything in this life for granted but to trust God for everything in every moment, casting all my cares on Him and leaning on His understanding and not mine. It’s another step toward my declaration of utter and total dependence on God that will only increase and grow as I get older.

While I may not have enough of what I want or what I think I need, I have more than enough grace. I have more than enough God to overcome any lack of anything else.

That’s still the key for me. Give thanks because every moment of every day with God in it is grace, pure and simple. Anything good on top of that is gravy.

Yeah, it was a good day. It was also a Monday. No, those two are not always mutually exclusive. Sometimes you have to decide in your mind that you choose what kind of day you will have by your attitude going into it and how you respond rather than react to the day’s events.

Was it my best day ever? No. I’ve had better. Was it the worst? By far no.

But it was a day filled with new mercies and fresh grace. It was a day covered in hesed, my new favorite word that basically means deserving nothing and receiving everything from God.

I had sunshine, good music in my car, a fairly smooth commute to and from work, a good hike with a friend, and the joy of waking up for one more day. Those are what constitutes a good day in my book these days.

It’s not about having everything you want that money can buy. It’s about having everything that money can’t buy– what you can never put a dollar amount on, what can’t be bought or sold.

“Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known” (Garrison Keillor).