mercy

Come and Find Rest

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I never thought I’d actually say this (or type this), but this blog isn’t for everyone. If you’re content and peaceful and everything is falling into place for you, then you probably don’t need to read any further. If you have a game plan and are workin’ it, stop here.

If you’re harried and worried, this is your blog. If you’re weary and heavy-laden, if you’re overburdened and worked to the point of exhaustion, this is for you. If you wake up from sleep feeling more tired than when you went to bed and if you think you will have to live to be 300 to get every project, assignment and task done, do read further.

Jesus said, “Come to Me and find rest for your souls.” I’m fairly certain that doesn’t mean plopping down on the sofa to catch Monday Night Football (or if you’re me, a really good classic movie). It’s not about a 24-hour sleep-athon.

I like to think of rest this way. Bear with me. I being a complete book nerd like to re-read certain books. I read The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia every year. It’s like going on a free vacation to familiar places with familiar people (or hobbits).

It’s restful. I know how the story will end, but I can still get caught up in it. I can live vicariously through the characters and experience everything without the fear that it will all end badly. I’ve read the ending.

In life, we can live that way. The Book has been written and I know how it ends. I don’t have to worry that my life will turn out to be tragic and meaningless. God’s got a purpose for the world and for me. He’s written the greatest story ever told and invited me to be a part of it.

If you know that the ending is a happy one and that you’re on the winning side, that changes your perspective. If you know that God is for you and His plans for you are not to harm you, but to prosper you and give you a hope and a future, you can rest.

You can keep a quiet heart and a calm soul in the midst of business and chaos. You can face your failures, knowing that God can redeem the worst mistakes and make them the first part of your testimony. You can breathe easier knowing that God hasn’t forgotten you, but is forever with you, singing over you and rejoicing with you and rooting for you.

I pray you find rest. I pray the peace that passes understanding will guard your hearts and minds and you will know the embrace of your Abba and hear Him saying good things about you. Because He likes you, He loves you, and He’s crazy in love with you.

What’s Important

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I’ve been thinking all day about my friend Nathan’s family, particularly his wife and 6-year old son. They said goodbye to him for the last time last night. It was also he and his wife’s 12th anniversary.

I also kept thinking about how I lost touch with him all those years ago and never really thought about him until he was almost gone. I rejoice that he is whole and happy and with Jesus, but I regret that I didn’t make the effort to reach out to him.

My lesson for today that I had to learn all over again is this: life is precious and fleeting and by no means guaranteed. Today is all you have. Cherish every moment of it and don’t ever take it for granted.

The same goes for the people in your life. Never let a day go by without letting the people in your life know how much they mean to you. Work is important, but if it gets in the way of the people you love and who love you, then you’ve lost the mission. To-do lists, schedules, and activities aren’t nearly as sacred as loving the people in your life while they’re in your life.

I heard a pastor say that only two things are eternal: God’s Word and God’s people. That’s so very true. Five years from now, you won’t remember what grade you got on a paper or what you did at work or how many checks you had on your list of things to get done. You will remember those people that touched your life and encouraged you when you desparately needed it. You will carry their love inside you even after they’re gone.

Call someone and let them know you’re thinking about them. Text someone and let them know what they mean to you. Say, “I love you,” and don’t just assume the person knows. Go out of your way and deliberately stop your business to reach out to someone. Your words and smiles and hugs and kindness could be what helps that person survive through that day. You could be Jesus reaching out and loving that person and beginning the healing process.

Nathan, for what it’s worth, I was blessed to have you for a friend and to know you. I love you, brother, and I will miss you every day. See you on the other side.

Attention: God Wants You!

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I’ve mentioned before how I was kickball-challenged and almost never got picked to be on either team. I was always assigned to the team that had the last pick. In fact, my entire sports career was spent on the bench watching the better players while I got in the game a few times after the outcome was already decided.

I am still amazed every single day that God wants me. I’m astounded that He wants to use me in what He’s doing in the world. Not only that He wants to use me, but that He’s working through me, often in ways I will never see.

News flash: God wants you. He wants not just your checkbook or your calendar, but you. He’s got an awesome plan to change the world and that plan has your name in it. If you say YES to God, whatever the question, there’s no telling what He will do in you and through you.

God made you and gifted you and called you to a place that only you can serve. There’s somone out there who won’t step inside a church or go near a minister, but you have the best opportunity to be Jesus to that person and turn their world upside down.

The disciples weren’t overly smart or clever or skilled or innovative. They just stuck around Jesus and soaked in everything He had to say. When He spoke, they listened. When He said, “Follow Me,” they did, and the world hasn’t been the same since.

God is calling you and me to be lights in a very dark world. He calls us to be Jesus to the world that for the most part doesn’t know it needs saving. God is able to take your broken life and bless so many others with it and make your failure and wreckage into a beautiful story that will captivate and enthrall those who see it.

God wants you. Not after you get your life right. Not after you complete a 12-step program, get cleaned up, get dressed up, get your act together. He wants you right now, just as you are and right where you are. He’s not calling you to condemn you, but to change you. And He is calling right now.

All it takes for the incredible journey to start is your YES. That’s all.

Fear

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I’ll admit it. I have watched my share of suspenseful and scary movies in the past. There’s something about the adrenaline that comes from the rush of fear from things that go bump in the night. It helps that I know it’s not real.

Sometimes the fear is in real life and seems very real. Then there’s not so much of an adrenaline rush. At least not the good kind.

I have run the gamut of fears. I have been afraid of the dark and afraid of storms and afraid of loud noises. I outgrew those, thankfully.

Other fears have been harder to shake. There’s the fear that I had that if people really found out what I was like, they would leave me or at least have nothing to do with me. That the real me wasn’t good enough.

There was the fear that if someone didn’t respond a certain way or at all, that I had offended them. I had myself convinced more than a few times that a person was furiously angry with me when they weren’t the least bit bothered.

Of course, there’s the old standby fear: that I will eventually end up alone and I will run off all the people I love.

Fear doesn’t have to make sense to be real. I can know a fear isn’t rational and still have it control me. In fact, fear is always based in a lie that I choose to give power over my life.

The Bible says that there is no fear in love because perfect love casts out all fear. The more you know love, the less you are controlled by fear. The less power it has over you.

I have known nights when fear was in complete control and all I could do was whisper a “Father, please help.” I have known what it’s like to be wrapped up in Everlasting arms and swaddled in perfect love. I have known a perfect peace that settles my heart and makes the fears vanish.

That’s what I pray for you. That you would be so overwhelmed and filled with this Perfect Love that there would be no longer any room for fear to take hold. That you would feel God holding you close, feel His smile over you, hear Him calling you Beloved, and know that nothing can take you away from His love.

The old saying goes, “No Jesus, No Peace. Know Jesus, Know Peace.” I think I would amend it to say, “No Jesus, Know Fear. Know Jesus, No Fear.” The more you know and love Jesus and know how much He loves you, the less you have reason to fear.

That’s a good thing.

Thankful

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A friend of mine is in his last few days of life. He has brain cancer and isn’t expected to live much longer. That got me thinking about my own life. I really have a lot to be thankful for (to use the words of an old Bing Crosby song).

1) I’m thankful that I woke up this morning. To most people, it’s a given, but I know that someone didn’t wake up this morning. So I thank God I did.

2) I’m thankful for good health. I won’t be competing in any triathlons any time soon or scaling Mount Everest tomorrow, but I am able to do pretty much what I want and get where I want to go.

3) I’m thankful for my family and friends who show me what love looks like and who are Jesus to me on a daily basis. I am better for all of you being in my life.

4) I’m thankful for music and the right song at just the right time that speaks to me when nothing else can.

5) I’m thankful for saving grace and for new mercies and endless second chances that never will run out.

6) I’m thankful for a Love that will not let me go, for the warm embrace of my Abba Father who roots for me and calls me Beloved and looks at me and sees what Jesus did for me and in my place.

7) I’m thankful that somewhere someone will read this and be reminded that God is still good and He still loves them and there’s one more reason not to give up or lose hope.

I challenge you to have your own list of what you’re thankful for. I challenge you not just to think about it, but write it out someplace where it’s a tangible reminder of the goodness of God.

I finally challenge you to live out of gratitude. Thankfulness is so counter-cultural that people can’t help but notice. Thanksgiving as a lifestyle is the best advertisement for Christianity there is and you just may be the only Jesus someone will ever see and the only Bible someone will ever read.

So give thanks.

What I Know For Certain

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I don’t know a lot. Shocker. There’s so much to learn already and new information pops up everyday. Old information changes and is rendered obsolete and it’s just plain hard to keep track. Which is why I read the comics page and the sports page.

I do know a few things that are going to be true tomorrow and the day after that and for as long as I live.

I’ve never ever seen a night that wasn’t followed by day. No matter how dark it gets, the sun is bound to come out soon enough.

I’ve never seen a storm where the clouds didn’t break and the sun didn’t come breaking through. Storms come, but those storms have an expiration date. Storms aren’t forever.

The best part is this.

God is the same through it all. The God over the night is also the same God over the day. The God who watches over you in the storm watches you in the sunshine.

The God who is with you as you stand by the deathbed of a loved one is the same God who will greet your loved one with open arms the very moment that person leaves this earth.

The God who saw you fall and saw your life break into a million pieces is also the God putting those pieces back together and will be the same God who looks at the finished you, better than new and a shining replica of Jesus.

I know this because I’ve been through a few storms and prayed through some dark nights. I’ve been afraid and ashamed and I’ve failed more times that I’ve gotten it right. I know for certain that God loves me the same as if I had never sinned or failed or let fear rule my heart. He loves me the same in the storm as in the sunshine and in the night as in the brightest part of the day.

That’s what I know for sure and that’s what I hold onto always.

Whose Side Is God On, Really?

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It’s funny how during an election year how people are suddenly all about God. Both Republicans and Democrats are conviced that God is absolutely 100% behind their cause and 100% against the other side.

Anne Lamott once said that you know you’ve created God in your own image when He hates all the same people you do. The same goes for when God only likes people who are like you and think like you.

I try not to get caught up in all that. All I get from trying to figure all that out is a headache. I do know for sure whose side God is on and who God is for. God is for me. God is for you. That’s God’s side.

If God is for you, who can be against you? So the apostle Paul asks. But in order for that to work, it means God is for you. He roots for you. He wants the absolute best for you.

No matter what your life looks like or how far you are from where you and everybody else thinks you should be, God is for you. No matter how many blown second chances and bad choices and broken promises you’ve made, God is for you.

God is 100% absolutely, undeniably, unmistakably, irrevocably for you. He is 100% guaranteed not to give up on you, walk out on you, quit on you, or love you even one iota less than His fullest capacity to love.

I know whose side I want to be on. I want to be on the side of God. I want to be on the side of Jesus. But even on those days when I am so wishy-washy and undependable that God is still on my side. Those are the days where it may look like failure, but God sees it as me becoming a little more like Jesus. I call that success.

God is for you. God is for me. That’s the best news ever.

Another Day, Another Dollar, Another Lesson Learned

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I had a professor once that said, “Of all the classes I’ve seen, this is one of ’em.” That’s how I generally feel about Mondays. Of all the Mondays I’ve lived through and survived, today was one of them. Not great, not bad, just kinda there.

I got reminded that although I continue to fail and sin and fall into the same old temptation traps, grace is as sweet and the mercies of God are as fresh and new as ever. I am eternally held by the loving arms of my God and nothing will ever cause Him to let go. Not the weather, not current events, not famine or feast or flood. Not anyone else or anything else in this whole wide world. And not me.

I also got reminded that all those things I don’t have and all the desires in my heart that are unfulfilled are in Good Hands. I spend way too much time obsessing over how I can ever get married or get a better job or how to help God out instead of just breathing deeply in and out, relaxing, and trusting God to do what only He can do.

I think Monday gets a bad rap. I give Monday a bad rap sometimes. I know you’ve heard that Monday is a terrible way to spend 1/7 of your life. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Monday is the new start and the clean slate of the week. Just as those mercies of God are new every morning, so every week you get a fresh chance to cease striving and worrying and to really trust God and His promises. No matter how badly you failed last week, this week starts with a clean slate.

I hope that helps. Tonight I will go to bed, looking back at that one sin trap I not only didn’t avoid but rushed headlong into. I will see sour-graps attitudes, grumbling, opportunities not taken to share and be Jesus to somebody. I will see pettiness and bitterness instead of gratitude.

But tomorrow I will wake up and the score will be 0-0. The slate will be clean and all those past sins forgiven, forgotten and forever behind me.

So if I just wrote this blog for me only, it was totally worth it. I needed to remind myself of just how good the grace of God is and how He’s not even close to quitting on me. I will still hear that sweet voice singing over me in the night and that voice will still call me BELOVED.

The same goes for you, too. Happy Monday!

Excerpts from Sarah’s Journal

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(This is what I imagine Sarah would have written in her journal while she waited on the fulfillment God’s promise. This may not be 100% dead-on accurate as far as ages and times, but I think it’s somewhat close)

Age 20– Married to a wonderful man. Abraham is as kind and gentle a husband as a wife could want, but my heart aches for a child. Lord, please send me a son.

Age 30– More and more I see other wives who have been abundantly blessed with so many children and still I have none. I am ashamed that I still haven’t given Abraham a son.

Age 40– I pretend that Abraham and I are happy and that we are content with being childless. Even Abraham doesn’t know that I cry myself to sleep some nights. I still dream about the son that might have been.

Age 50– It’s hard to celebrate the birth of grandchildren for others when I have given up hope for any children for us. Life goes on and I take it one day at a time. Getting through the day is all I can do these days.

Age 60– There is no more hurt or pain. I don’t feel anything anymore. Just a dull ache and an empty void. Yes, God is enough. He will always be enough. It’s just so hard to have  your dreams crushed.

Age 70– Could it really be that God promised Abraham a nation through us? Did he really say we would have a son? The tiniest spark of hope rises out of the ashes of former dreams.

Age 80– Maybe we heard wrong. I tried to help God out with Hagar, but that turned out disastrously. God, if this is to happen, it has to be you. I can’t be disappointed again. I just can’t. I don’t think I would survive it this time.

Age 90– I am holding 8 pounds of impossible in my arms. Beyond my last hopes and from this dead body, God brought life. My God is a God for whom the impossible is not even remotely difficult. No one is ever too far gone or too past hope for God to see and reach. At the last possible moment in the darkest hour, God did what He does best. He comes through.

When you’re dreams seem past salvaging and your hopes seem like a joke, remember that God is the God of the 90-year old with the newborn child. Nothing is impossible for this God. Nothing.

Grace Moments

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Today, I took my lunch at 11:30. I almost always take my lunch at noon, but for whatever reason, I took my lunch today at 11:30. I got a call from a friend of mine who had free tickets to see Casting Crowns at the Bridgestone Arena and wanted to know if I wanted to go. I was thinking in my head “Is Bill Gates rich? Does the Pope wear funny hats? Heck yeah!”

So I ended up at Bridgestone Arena in the club seat section, witnessing one of the best Christian concerts I have ever been to. It was a very good night. I may feel like a zombie, but I am one content and satisfied zombie.

Mark Hall, the lead singer for Casting Crowns, said something that grabbed my attention. He said that God sees your future as a memory. He’s already in it. He’s on the other side of it.

He talked about life as a kind of parade that we’re stuck in, watching the floats go by and waiting for the candy at the end. Some of the floats make no sense to us and we sometimes wonder if the parade will ever end. God sits above the parade and sees the whole thing from beginning to end.

Some parts of our lives make no sense to us. The pain seems senseless, the tragedy seems pointless, and nothing ever seems to get better. The good news of the gospel is that we have a God who is on the other side of the pain. Not only that, He’s with you in the midst of pain. He was there when you received the wound.

The beautiful part about Jesus being outside of time, as one pastor said, is that He can go back to the point in time where that person wounded you and heal you so that you’re no longer bleeding into the present.

And yes, if you look, you can find moments of unexpected grace even in the pain. Moments where you catch a glimpse of the glory that’s on the other side waiting for you. Moments that give you hope to get through.

Jesus has got a strong-arm grip on you and He’s not about to let you go. Nothing, not the pain, not the storm, not even you, can separate you from God’s love. That’s worth celebrating. That’s grace.