That’s what change looks like from the outside. Everything’s the same for a while, and then BOOM everything has changed. But that’s not how it looks underneath.

If you could see beneath the surface, you’d se thousands — maybe millions — of minute changes, like when the ocean current wears away the shore over time. Minute to minute, day to day, it looks the same, but in 10 years it won’t look the same.

Day after day, you look and feel the same, but one day you will look back at who you are now and see the difference. You will see what the unseen hand of God has been up to all that time.

If you trust in only what you can see, you will grow frustrated and lose faith. You won’t see God or what He’s doing. You will only see part of the picture, like the tip of the iceberg. But what’s important is what’s underneath and unseen.

That’s why the old adage says about God that when you can’t see His hand trust His heart. Trust that He is at work even when you can’t see it and can’t feel it. Then the frustration turns to faith and the restlessness turns into peace.

“The entire human race was created to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Sin has diverted the human race onto another course, but it has not altered God’s purpose to the slightest degree. And when we are born again we are brought into the realization of God’s great purpose for the human race, namely, that He created us for himself. This realization of our election by God is the most joyful on earth, and we must learn to rely on this tremendous creative purpose of God” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

It’s amazing how much simpler everything gets when you seek God’s purposes over your own. When you finally surrender and let go of everything you’ve been chasing all these years, you find that what you really longed for and sought after was in God all along. You find that just as water is to a thirsty man in the desert, so is God to your soul, and everything else is dry sand.

I can attest that so many things offer fulfillment that fades, but only Jesus offers living water that never runs dry or runs out. Everything else will leave you wanting more — or just leave you wanting.

Trying to find your purpose or identity in your sexuality or your ideology or your profession falls short of fulfilling all of the purpose for which you were created. Only the one who made you can give you your purpose.

According to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, our chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. I think we do that when we live out of God’s purpose for our lives — knowing Him and making Him known.

That’s my hope. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only reason I’m alive and not in hell and headed for heaven.

The gospel of Jesus Christ isn’t something I trusted in once to get eternal life and then moved past. It’s what I believe in every single day.

This gospel is non-negotiable. You don’t get to pick and choose which parts you like to keep and which parts you don’t to discard. You need all of it all the time. I need all of it all the time.

The gospel of Jesus Christ isn’t about me making the right choice or being smart enough to follow Jesus. It starts with Jesus, keeps going with Jesus, and ends with Jesus. From first to last, it’s only and always about Jesus.

I love a good bargain. I also love to go to my local Goodwill in search of treasure. You really never know what you’ll find on any given day.

But my new favorite is hunting for vinyl at record stores. So far, my favorites are McKay’s, The Green Room, Pink Star Vintage, and Luna Record Shop. Recently, across this gem at McKay’s for a very reasonable price. I like all kinds of music, but lately I’ve been gravitating toward early Jesus music and Contemporary Christian music from the 70s.

It’s finds like this that make the hunt worthwhile. Also, when you find free records that the store is giving away, that makes for a pretty good day. Remind me and I’ll tell that story at a later date.

And side note, but is it weird that I love the smell of old records? I don’t know how to describe it, but it triggers memories of when I was a wee little tyke going through my parents’ record collection back when we were living at Fox Meadows in Memphis.

So I guess I’m officially a convert to all things vinyl, but my favorite part is flipping through stacks of records in hope of a treasure. Hopefully, there will be more in the not so distant future.

This picture captures the essence of Peanut quite well, I think. Even though it’s a bit blurry, it shows how she loves to roll over on her back and wait for the inevitable belly rubs to begin. She’s one of the rare felines who will actually accept people petting her belly without taking a pound of flesh. She even sometimes purrs.

She also likes to be undercover. As in literally under the covers. She will disappear underneath a blanket for hours on end. I wonder if she thinks that she’s invisible because she can’t see us. Or maybe she’s just in need of yet another nap. Poor baby only gets 23 hours and 45 minutes of sleep a day.

My favorite part is that she likes to be around me. She likes to camp out in my lap whenever I’m listening to records or flipping through channels in a (mostly) vain attempt to find something worthwhile on TV. She can be quite chatty when she’s in the mood (which is often, apparently).

I’ve learned that cats are like people. No two are alike. She’s about as polar opposite to my first cat Lucy as night and day. They both hold a special place in my heart. I really am thankful that I didn’t try to find a Lucy 2.0 when I went to the animal shelter over 6 years ago. I let the right animal pick me.

I’m not sure where I’m going with all this other than to say rescues are great. I’m all for breeders and purebred animals, but there’s something special about the love a rescue will give you. That animal will never not be grateful for your love.

“O my Father, give me eyes to see, a heart to respond, and hands and feet to serve you wherever you encounter me! Make me a billboard of your grace, a living advertisement for the riches of your compassion. I long to hear you say to me one day, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ And I pray that today I would be that faithful servant who does well at doing good. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen” (Max Lucado).

That’s not a bad prayer for the upcoming week.

Most of us already are dreading the upcoming week. All those emails. All those tasks. All those deadlines. We look at the overflowing inbox and think that there’s absolutely no way to get it all done.

But what if we changed our focus? What if we choose to see our job as our place of ministry? What if we decided to be a witness in our workplace? What if we remembered that ultimately we’re not working for a boss or a supervisor but as unto the Lord Himself?

20 years from now, those tasks and emails won’t matter nearly as much as the people we work with. It won’t matter if you checked everything off your task-list if you didn’t make a kingdom impact on the people around you.

As much as I want to be praised for good work, what I really want to hear at the end of the day — and at the end of my life — is to hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

“‘Hush!’ said the other four, for now Aslan had stopped and turned and stood facing them, looking so majestic that they felt as glad as anyone can who feels afraid, and as afraid as anyone can who feels glad. The boys strode forward: Lucy made way for them: Susan and the Dwarf shrank back.

‘Oh, Aslan,’ said King Peter, dropping on one knee and raising the Lion’s heavy paw to his face, ‘I’m so glad. And I’m so sorry. I’ve been leading them wrong ever since we started and especially yesterday morning.’

‘My dear son,’ said Aslan. Then he turned and welcomed Edmund. ‘Well done,’ were his words. Then, after an awful pause, the deep voice said, ‘Susan.’ Susan made no answer but the others thought she was crying. ‘You have listened to fears, child,’ said Aslan. ‘Come, let me breathe on you. Forget them. Are you brave again?’

‘A little, Aslan,” said Susan'” (C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian).

Susan had been giving Lucy a hard time. Her excuse was that Lucy had made the whole Aslan calling her business up. But really she was afraid.

How many times do you and I act out of fear? How many times do we doubt what we know to be true because of what our senses tell us?

Lest you and I forget, our senses can be deceived and can lie to us, but God never has and never will. Still we can be forgetful when we’re fearful.

But even then God calls to us and whispers our name. He still calls us out of fear and into faith. And not even failure can stop Him. It’s up to us to listen to the right voice.

“If you try to seize the day, the day will eventually break you. Seize the corner of his garment and don’t let go until he blesses you. He will reshape the day” (Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life).

I know for those of you who have seen the movie Dead Poets Society that we’re all supposed to go out and seize the day. Even if I knew how, I don’t think I could. It would be too overwhelming.

But I know for certain that I can seize the corner of His garment. I can be like that woman with the bleeding issue who clung to Jesus as if He were her only hope. I can take the day to Jesus and He will bless it instead of making my plans and asking Him to endorse what I’ve already decided.

I know what it’s like to try to seize the day and live it in my own strength. Typically, it hasn’t gone well for me. There’s always something that goes wrong to remind me that I’m not the one in charge.

But when I let God have His way and simply trust and follow, I do a lot better. Things may still go wrong, but it won’t wreck me when I am free to take it as a lesson of surrender and a reminder to look up occasionally for what God is trying to say to me.

Seize the hem, not the day.

That’s a powerful image. Chasing after anything instead of God to take the place of God is like drinking salt water in the desert. Not only does it not quench your thirst, it actually increases it. Eventually, it kills you.

The prophet Jeremiah said that God’s people had forsaken the living waters to dig broken cisterns that can hold no water. But why?

Maybe they didn’t like what God was telling them. Maybe they wanted to do their own thing and have a god who would never question their lifestyles or choices but smile benignly on them at all times. Maybe they wanted prophets and preachers who would only tell them what their itching ears wanted to hear.

They didn’t want the truth because the truth is sometimes painful. The truth is that we need to be made right with God. Deep down, if we’re honest, we know we’re not right or righteous. We do the things we don’t want to do and don’t do what we know is good and right for us to do. Sound a bit familiar? Kinda like the Apostle Paul in Romans 7?

We can’t make ourselves right. Only God can do that. Our part is to acknowledge that we are sinners in need of a Savior. We cry to Jesus to be that Savior. Jesus does the rest.

“Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean,
    scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
    set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don’t look too close for blemishes,
    give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me,
    shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don’t throw me out with the trash,
    or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile,
    put a fresh wind in my sails!
Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
    so the lost can find their way home.
Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
    and I’ll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.
Unbutton my lips, dear God;
    I’ll let loose with your praise” (Psalm 51:7-15, The Message).

“When Jesus Christ says ‘Follow Me,’ He never says to where; the consequences must be left entirely to Him. We come in with our ‘buts,’ and ‘supposings,’ and ‘what will happen if I do?’ (cf. Luke 9:5762). We have nothing to do with what will happen if we obey; we have to abandon to God’s call in unconditional surrender and smilingly wash our hands of the consequences” (Oswald Chambers, Not Knowing Whither).

It’s interesting that whenever Jesus calls people in the gospels, He essentially does three things: 1) He meets them where they are and loves them there, 2) He calls them out of where they are, and 3) He calls them to follow Him.

Not one of the people Jesus called in His lifetime had any idea of where it would lead them. For many of them, it meant suffering as well as joy. For 11 out of the 12 original disciples, it mean dying as martyrs for the faith. For every single one of them, it meant denying themselves and taking up their crosses.

Following Jesus isn’t easy. In fact, it’s impossible without the calling. It’s impossible without the indwelling Holy Spirit enabling you to follow. Our default setting is to seek our own ways and wishes and do what makes us happy, not following after Jesus.

But following Jesus is its own reward. It’s simply a better way to live because it’s how God originally designed us to live. The best part, even better than living forever, is being near to Jesus. I can’t imagine what it was like for those disciples to be able to sit at Jesus’ feet and hear His words, to see Him in action healing the sick and raising the dead. To see Him rebuking those religious leaders who were more interested in looking good than in doing good. To see Him loving those no one else saw or wanted.

Jesus said that if we followed Him, we’d see and do even bigger things than He did. I think that means that all around the world, followers of Jesus get to see hundreds and thousands of lives transformed, all those who were dead coming alive, all those who were strangers and aliens and hostile to God turning into a family with God as their Father. Those who were enemies coming together as one body with Jesus as their head. Following Jesus changes everything.

“Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading” (Oswald Chambers).