I learned a lot in kindergarten. Apparently, I liked it so much I went twice. That, and I was sick a lot with strep throat, which lead to tonsil removal and loads of ice cream (which is never a bad thing). There are a few things I wish I had known then that I know now:

1) It’s really OK to mess up. Failing does not mean the end of the world, whether it’s in school or the workplace or relationships or anything else. Failing doesn’t make you a failure. In fact, some of the best lessons you’ll ever learn and the most beautiful moments of intimacy with God come through failure, not success.

2) It’s really OK to be you. Warts, cooties, and all. You don’t ever have to feel second-rate or inferior to anybody. You are unique, handcrafted in God’s image by God Himself and loved by that same God more than you will ever be able to understand or get to the bottom of.

3) Your life is your own, not anybody else’s. You don’t have to measure up to anyone else’s standard of success or let anyone tell you what and where you should be right now. Married or single, on your own or still living at home, in your dream career or still searching for your place, you only have to please one person. Jesus. And here’s a news flash. If  you’ve accepted His gift of salvation, He’s pleased with you just as you are right now.

4) The best place to be in the entire world is in your Abba’s arms, knowing that your world is safely in His hands. Knowing that no matter what comes or goes, who stays or leaves, and what you gain or lose, you can believe that God will be your Eternal Refuge and Fortress.

5) Sometimes you just have to let the top down on your car or roll the windows down and turn the radio up and let the breeze blow through. Sometimes you just have to be in the moment and receive whatever God is saying to you, whether that be the people He brings you, the places He takes you, the small details you notice on the way, or snatches of songs or verses that randomly come to mind.

There are lots more things I wish I had learned earlier (and lots more blogs I could write about them). But I know that where I am is where God is and that is the absolutely best place to be in the entire universe. That’s where I want to be.

Amen and amen.

I read an Easter toast last year or possibly the year before last that I thought was perfect. “We raise our glasses and drink to a Love that never gave up.” So simple, yet so completely profound. It is in essence a toast to the gospel in its purest form: relentless love.

That’s what we’re celebrating, after all. It’s about a Love that our sin could not quench, that our failures could not drive away, that the grave could not hold down. It’s a love that not even death and hell could overcome. No person or group or religion or cult or movement since has been able to stop it.

The best part of it all is that Love came in the person of Jesus with you and me on His mind. All He went through was to find a way to woo and win your heart back to His. When He saw our need and our helplessness, He determined that nothing would stand in the way of His coming to our rescue. When He saw our sin and failure, He took it upon Himself to make us right. Literally.

He took all our sin and paid for it, and then some. Why are we still trying to pay for something that’s already been paid for? We don’t have to, but we do. It’s called religion. The good news is that Love found a way to do what religion could never and will never be able to do. What our best efforts will never be able to do. Make us right with God and make us clean and pure again.

We are justified, which I heard defined as “just as if we’d never sinned.” I like that. All that because of Love. All that because of Love for you and me.

So raise your glass and drink to that relentless love of Jesus that still pursues your heart and won’t ever give up on you, but will make you, the beloved, into something exactly like the One who loves you– Jesus.

Amen and amen

I talk to myself a lot. Out loud sometimes. Yes, I’m one of those people. And for fun, I talk to myself in a gentrified Bristish accent along the lines of a Colin Firth or Hugh Grant. I may be crazy, but at least I sound cool. And I’m getting loads of practice for my inevitable movie stardom.

Along the way, I’ve started asking myself some questions. Such as these:

Am I really willing to give up everything to follow Jesus? If He asked me to sell everything and go live in a poor African country or in the projects in some major city, would I be obedient?

Do I love Jesus so much that my love for my family and friends seems like hate in comparison?

Am I really trying to know Jesus and follow Him or am I just all about doing as many churchy activities as possible and gaining as much Bible knowledge as my brain can hold?

If I am such a big fan of grace, especially when I need it from others, am I willing to give it to others, especially when they deserve it least (and need it most?)

Do I really expect the people I work with and live with and hang out with to read my mind about what I belive, or will I put a voice to those beliefs and not just live my faith but proclaim it?

When will I stop putting off reading my Bible while I talk about it and actually read it?

I know I’m not the only one asking these questions. And I know I’m not the only one who talks to myself. You do it, too (just maybe not in a Bristish accent). I hope you start asking these and other questions. I also hope that you and I will not beat ourselves up and get discouraged over the answers we seem to find. Jesus isn’t nearly done with us and when the time comes, He will breath courage into us and give us the words to speak.

I know I fall short on a daily basis, but I also know that those failures don’t in any way lessen the love of God for me. I am still His Beloved. So are you. That won’t change, byt thanks to the grace of God and through the power that raised Jesus from the dead, you and I will. For the better!

Amen and amen.

I like the idea of an extreme makeover. Probably because I could use one. Plus I like the idea that people can change, whether it be from a new hairstyle and new clothes or better yet, from the inside out. That’s the best kind of makeover there is. The expert at these makeovers is Jesus. Here’s a few before and after snap shots to prove it.

Once you were wandering aimlessly apart from God with no purpose, but now you have a purpose and a calling greater than you or any one person. In fact, it’s the greatest single calling anyone could ever have– to be His ambassadors and lights to a dark world.

Once you were rejects and castaways with no worth to anyone and better off dead, but now you are sons and daughters to the King of the universe, worth all the blood Jesus shed to purchase you and treasured by your Maker who is also your Abba Father.

Once you were enemies of God, against everything He stands for, but now you are on His side and your name is written on His heart. You are on the side that has been promised to win, and has already won.

Once you were empty and unloved, unwanted by anyone and used up and thrown away like property, but now you are full of life and love and all of God. You are His beloved and He chose you because He wanted you.

Once you were a mess, with a broken heart and a broken life and a trainwreck of a past that most would consider beyond any hope of redemption, but now you are being made whole and being put back together by the One who made you in the first place. He knows where all the pieces go and He won’t lose one. You won’t just be as good as new, but better than you’ve ever been before. In fact, you’ll look just like Jesus.

Once you were dead. Not sick, or even comatose, but dead. You were finished. Now you are alive. Fully alive. You’ve been totally remade and the new you is fantastic. God looks at the new you and sees all the holiness and perfection and righteousness of Jesus. He looks at you and sees Jesus.

So the next time you look in the mirror and don’t like the person staring back, remember how God sees you. When you look at your life and don’t see hope or a future, believe God has promised both for you, and His word is as good as done. When you feel like a colossal failure or a mistake, understand that God only makes masterpieces and He calls you not failure or mistake, but “My beloved Son” or “My beloved daughter” and His name for you trumps what anyone else (including you) has ever called you before. Ever.

People like extreme makeovers. So let people see yours. Live in such a way that people see not just your strengths, but your weaknesses, too. Let your life prove that God can and does use anybody, not just the brave and the strong. Be a vessel that Jesus can shine through until His light and His life and His love are all that people can see. Live surrendered and available for God to use. God uses people like that to change the world. That’s the best kind of makeover possible.

Just ask the original disciples of Jesus. Ask the early church. They’ll tell you the same. The Gospel produces the most awesome makeovers ever.

Amen and amen.

I never thought I would ever say that I was a blogger. But I am. I could look at my blogging in two ways: I could be disappointed that I don’t have a vast audience by now or I could be thankful that anybody reads my ramblings that are not always coherent and sometimes a little odd. I opt for the latter.

I try to be me. I try to be honest and open and transparent, because that’s what people like me can relate to. I never have been able to relate to someone who had their world figured out and never struggled with anything and issued edicts from on high for how to live a godly life. God knows I can’t begin to relate to perfection. I can relate to failure and fears.

I don’t want to be one of those believers who use their faith for political means. I don’t want to be one of those whose god is made in their image and hates all the same people they do (thanks to Anne LaMott for that one). I want my God to transcend political parties and issues. I want people to know that God loves them passionately and can take any brokenness and make it beautiful and can turn anyone’s mess into their message (got that one from Cross Point Church!).

Yes, we are all sinners in need of grace. We all deserve hell. We are all equally broken and scarred, though some show it more and some are better at hiding it. None of us has the right to point at anyone else and write them off or despair on them.

Yet all of us who trust in Jesus find that He is more than able to take care of us, to meet our need, and to be all that we could ever hope or want and to do for us what we could never possibly do for ourselves. He is able.

So yes, I say and do stupid stuff. I am afraid and I am doubting. I have regrets of chances not taken and blessings not opened. But I have been so blessed by my God. His love has transformed me so radically that I am often amazed when I look back at my life. His love is my life.

I hope and pray you find that Jesus love can heal you, too. Maybe you will have a song to sing, a story to tell, or a blog to write. If you do, do it for the glory of God and be yourself, with all the good, the bad, the ugly, and the wierd. May God shine through you more brightly than ever so that whoever looks at you sees Jesus. That’s my prayer for me and for you.

Amen and amen.

I was driving down I-65 tonight when out of nowhere a solid sheet of rain came down. The lightning was so vivid and bright that it almost blinded me. I couldn’t see the lanes or where the road curved and I almost started to panick. Then the voice came.

It said, “It will not come near you.”

That’s all. Just that one phrase over and over. “It will not come near you.” I can’t say that I knew exactly what that means, but I know that at that point a peace came over me that defied the bad weather and my own iffy driving skills. I knew I would be alright because God had said I would be.

I think if you listen you can hear God’s voice telling you, “You’re safe with me. You can trust me in this. I’ve got this.” No matter what storm you’re in, or maybe if you’re in a calm right now, you still need to be reminded that your life is in Good Hands. I know I do. You need to hear as a believer that nothing touches you without God’s say-so and that heartaches and struggles often are blessings in disguise.

The question is not if God still speaks, but if we are listening. Are we open to all the ways God can speak to us? Obviously, He speaks foremost through Scripures, but He also speaks in many other ways. It could be a lyric from a song or a line from a movie or a quote from a book. It could be a small whisper in your head. It could be a church sign or bumper sticker or a random scribbling on a wall.

I miss about 90% of what God is saying to me. The good news is that He is patient to keep repeating what I missed until I finally get it. The better news is that what God is saying to me is not that you’re hopeless or that you’re one strike away from being done, but that you are more loved than humanly possible and more blessed than you have any right to be and you won’t spend one second outside of God’s watchful care and tender mercy.

Oh yeah, and He speaks through friends as well, through facebook posts and texts and emails and random conversations. I experienced that tonight as well.

May you have ears to hear what He’s saying and the ability to believe that it’s not anger, but absolute love and compassion being spoken over you.

Amen and amen.

I have to admit something. I have an absolutely ridiculous amazon wish list. I think it’s like 20 pages long and for every one item I buy from there, I add three more. I’m just crazy like that. But I also have a wishlist for my non-cyber world, too.

I wish that people wouldn’t be so quick to seek the negative and look for things to criticize in others, but would show more forgiveness and grace and look for ways to build each other up.

I wish people would stop using the Bible to prove other people wrong, to win arguments, to condemn, and to boast in their own knowledge, but instead would use it to glorify Christ, to seek to know Him more, and to show His love to the world.

I wish that we as Christians could talk less about what we believe and live it more. I wish I could do better about sharing what I believe with those I work with.

I wish we would stop using faith as a political platform or as a means to get “our” people elected, but instead live it as a lifestyle of thankfulness to the God who saved us.

I wish I were a whole lot better at trusting God and waiting on His promises instead of working so hard to help Him out and messing things up.

I wish my friends could see themselves the way I do, or better yet, the way God does. I wish they could see how much Jesus loves them and how He sees Himself in them and is very proud of them.

I wish chocolate was naturally fat-free. Ditto for all Italian food.

I wish and I pray and I hope that I see revival in my lifetime and that the Holy Spirit would burn inside us to love each other better and love the outcasts and downtrodden and needy in a radical way.

I wish everything on my amazon wishlist could be 90% off tomorrow (ok, that one was silly).

I wish all of you would fall in love with Jesus and see how crazy in love He is with you and be captivated and transformed by that love into people who are willing to live surrendered and give their lives away for the Kingdom of God.

Amen and amen.

What really is there that can separate me from God’s love? Is there anything? Theoretically, I’d automatically say no, but let’s make this more practical.

Can me totally failing at my job and getting fired cause me to lose God’s love?

Can the repeated times I’ve repented only to fall back into the very same sin pattern the next day earn me the boot?

Can my own deep insecurities and fears about me, others, and even God negate His love?

Can all the promises I’ve broken, even the broken promises to pray for others, or the general lack of discipline and passion drive God away?

Can anything in heaven or earth or in hell overcome the love of Christ?

The answer to all these is a resounding NO. There’s not even the possibility of a yes in any of these. Nothing else can even touch the power of God’s love or His ability to find and rescue you or the power of His love to hold on to you once you’re his. Nothing. His love overcame the cross, all our sin, the grave and death, and hell. Anything else is a piece of cake.

I like this version of the classic Romans verse:

“I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39, NLT).

Rest in His love. Believe in that His love can transform you. Let it enrapture and captivate your heart. And most of all, make yourself a vessel for His love to fill and flow through. Because those around you need His love, too.

Amen and amen.

I think Jesus is my favorite person. Really. I’m not giving you a Sunday School answer. You know, when you were little and no matter what the question was, some kid would inevitably yell out “Jesus!” This time I mean it. And the reason is that I know some really awesome things about Him.

1) Jesus is God. Period. He’s not just a really great teacher or moral example. If you take what He said seriously, either He’s psycho or He’s God. And I think He was telling the truth (and still does!)

2) Jesus always saves the best for last, like the wine at the wedding at Cana (see John 2:1-12). You can count on the fact that no matter what’s going on in your life, if you’ve trusted Jesus for salvation, He’s got some pretty amazing things lined up for you.

3) Jesus wins in the end. Read the Book of Revelation. It’s not even close. Jesus wins by a blowout landslide and we who are with Him get to share in the victory.

4) His arms are long enough to reach you wherever you are and strong enough to keep you safe and secure from anything and anyone who is against you.

5) He is bigger than your politics or religion. Jesus never calls you to a better morality or political platform or religion, but to a relationhip with the Father that surpasses relationship you could ever have and truly fulfills every longing you’ve ever had.

6) Jesus will push away anything that keeps you from God. He called His Church a house of prayer (not of preaching or worship or miracles or anything else) because He wants you to know Him and the Father and have the same joy He has in His Father.

7) Jesus would rather hang out with sinners who are truly sorrowful than the smug self-righeous churchgoers who look down their noses at everybody else and carry picket signs that say who God hates.

8) Jesus is the only way to heaven because only He is good enough to die for His enemies and strong enough to bear all our sins and reach down into hell and pull us out. Nothing and no one else is good or strong enough.

9) Nothing in heaven or earth or even in hell will ever stop Jesus from finding you. Nothing you’ve done or said or nothing that’s been said or done to you will stop Him. No matter what you’ve called yourself or what others have called you, Jesus has a new name for you written on the palms of His hands and He can’t wait to share it with you.

Those are some of what I know to be true about Jesus and if I focus on those things, I always fall more in love with Jesus. I hope you come to fall in love with this Jesus, because He’s fallen in love with you and is crazy about you. May that be the song of your heart, the same song He sings over you in the night while you sleep. May that be your testimony: I am My Beloved’s and He is mine (and He calls me beloved, too!)

Amen and amen.

3)

I’ve always heard that there’s no such thing as a dumb question. Ask any question and don’t feel foolish. For the record, there are dumb questions, such as the classic “When is the midnight buffet?” for example. Perhaps, we need to worry more about asking the wrong question.

The question isn’t how can you meet my needs, but how can I meet yours.

The question isn’t how can I make you see how you’ve wronged me and make you pay for it, but how can I seek to forgive you just as God in Christ has forgiven me.

The question is not how can I find the fulfilled life or my best life now, but how can I start giving my life away daily for the cause of Christ.

The question is not what will I get out of this Bible Study or service or event, but how can I give to someone else and share with them what God has shared with me.

The question is not how can God bless me, but how can God make me a blessing to someone else that I run into today.

The question (for single folk) isn’t how can I find the right person for a marriage partner, but how can I be the right person.

The question is when will sugar-free chocolate ever taste like real chocolate (and the answer to that one is the day after never!)

The question is not what plan does God have for my life, but how does He want me to be obedient and faithful and surrendered and available for Him to use right now in this moment.

There are probably many many other questions along these lines. The point is not about me, or my life, or my problems, but about God and His Kingdom advancing in the world and His glory displayed and His love winning the hearts of His people. The main question is how can I be a part of that and how can I be Jesus to someone in my world wherever I am.

Amen and amen.