prayer

Empty Hands

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A friend of mine once taught me a simple, profound, beautiful morning prayer. It goes, “Lord, I come to you with empty hands. If all I have from You today is You and the next breath, that will be enough.”

Ideally, you pray this prayer kneeling with hands outstretched and with palms facing up and open. It’s a way of letting go of your own expectations of how things should go and how other people should act toward you. It’s a way of surrendering to whatever God has in mind for you.

I’d like to say that I’ve prayed this little prayer every morning since I learned it. That would be a big, fat, stinkin’ lie. In fact, I completely forgot about it until today. I think God reminded me of this prayer for a reason.

God wants me. Not my best efforts or my promises or my service. He wants all of me, not just what I feel like giving or the parts that are cleaned-up or what I think makes me look really good. He wants all of me, the good, the bad, the weird, the bizarre, and the ugly.

When I come with empty hands, I am letting go of my will to embrace the will of Jesus. I am saying that whatever agenda or plan I had in mind is gone and I only want to do one thing: be where God is at work and hear what He’s telling me and obey it.

I read this once “Purity of heart is to will one thing.” I know I get sidetracked and distracted by a myriad of things and I forget who I am and Whose I am. God never fails in time to remind me and love me back home.

I challenge you to pray this prayer every morning and in the evening you can thank God for what He gave you. Instead of it being something you feel you’re owed or your right, you will see everything as it really is– an undeserved gift and God’s grace poured out on you.

Thank you, God, for reminding me again of how much I desparately need You today and every day. Amen.

What Jesus Said to Me Today

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“My child, you have been listening to your fears again.

Those fears told you lies with just enough truth in them to deceive you. Those fears told you that your friends will see your faults and leave you. Your fears told you that I am not enough, that my provision is lacking, and that you need something more than Me.

When I died, I defeated the Master of all Lies once and for all. His lies have no more power over you except that which you give them. If you listen to the lies, you let them control you and have power over you, but if you listen to My voice and fear Me only, the lies lose their power.

All you have to do is speak My name over these lies. Believe that My love is more powerful than any pain, any hurt, any half-truth, any stronghold, and any temptation you face. I have overcome them all and in Me you are more than a conqueror.

I have you safely in the palm of My hand. Nothing can get to you to harm you and nothing can come near you that I haven’t allowed.  I will protect you and surround you with My love and fill you with My peace. I will sing songs over you that remind you that You are Mine.

I love you. You are my BELOVED. Nothing will ever change that. No lie can erase that. Sleep in this truth and know that I am with you now and forever.”

A Blog on Halloween Night

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“There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us” (Richard Sibbes).

It is Halloween night, but this blog has nothing to do with Halloween or the debate surrounding it. That’s for a whole other blog. This one is about something I was thinking about today at work.

There really is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.

There is more strength in Christ than weakness in us.

There is more victory in Christ than failure in us.

There is more belief in Christ than doubt in us.

There is more acceptance in Christ than there is in all the rejection and slander and ostracizing we face.

What we lack, Christ is that and much more.

What we need, we find not in the gifts but in the Giver Himself.

In the end, it really doesn’t matter to me whether you celebrate Halloween or not. What matters to me is this: Is Christ your Sufficiency? Is He your Rest? Is He your Consolation and Comfort in trouble? Is He enough?

The more I know of Him, the more I am finding out the answer to all these is a resounding YES! As the old hymn goes, “I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart.”

I pray you find the same. When you have exhausted all the broken cisterns and empty wells, when you have found people fail you and promises get broken and dreams die and your props get kicked out from underneath you, Jesus still remains faithful.

I pray you will cling to Him as if your very life depended on it. I pray you will come and find rest in all that Jesus is. I know I have said this many times, but I really do pray you come to know the voice of Jesus as He sings over you in the night and you will sleep the sweet sleep of a Child of God

Blessed

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 I could some up my life right now in one word it would be . . . . chocolate. No, not really, although chocolate does take me to a happy place. My life could be summed up nicely by the word “blessed.”

I am so blessed. I have great family, great friends, and a great God who loves me so much more than I deserve. He loves me so much I can’t stay the same. I can’t receive all that love and not become a better person, one who looks more and more like Jesus every day.

I am blessed that I know how my story ends. I know that one day all the injustice and wrong in the world will be made right. I know that everything I’ve gone through that didn’t make sense will make perfect sense and I will see it as what drew me closer to Jesus.

You who read this blog are part of the blessing. You never do realize how much your texts or posts or notes or spoken words mean to me. Sometimes, God has spoken through you to me at just the right time with just the right words to keep me going. You’ve helped me make it through some days.

If I never had another dream come true, if I never had another desire fulfilled, and if I never had another visible expression of God’s goodness, I would still be blessed. If God told me that I had used up all my blessings and had none left, I would be good. I’ve had more than my share already.

I do think there’s more to come. The Psalms say to taste and see that God is good. I have tasted and seen and it is better than any buffet or feast. The love of Jesus is truly better than wine and that love keeps getting better with age.

I will forget this, so keep reminding me. When you forget, I will remind you. That’s what the community of faith is all about. My favorite definition of a friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.

Jesus knows my song and He’ll keep singing it over me night after night until I have learned all the words and can sing it for myself. I think my song starts off something like “All the way my Savior leads me, What have I to ask beside?”

Tired Thinking

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I am strange and unusual. I have come to accept that and I am fine with it. I have weird thoughts and say weird things sometimes. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s just plain awkward.

I have learned that when I am extremely tired, my thoughts take on a life of their own. When I am exhausted, my thoughts don’t trend toward happy places. I go negative and dark and self-loathing. I am suspicious of other peoples’ motives and think the worst is going to happen.

I have thoughts like, “See how that person didn’t respond to your post? He/she is really mad at you,” or “See? That person has had it with you and you won’t ever hear from them again.” Or “You really are no good. You don’t deserve anything good.”

The irony is that tired thoughts will keep you awake, mind churning and your insides writhing, and make you even more tired than before. If you let them, they can take you to a place of hopelessness and despair and isolation, not a good place to be.

I’ve learned a few things. First, I know better than to trust my feelings, especially when I’m tired and my defenses are down. I like what I heard, that your thoughts and feelings will lie to you, so you go with what you know to be true about God.

Second, I have to realize that not all the thoughts in my head are from me. Satan can put a thought in my head and make me think that I thought of it. That’s where it helps to pray out loud that God would bind Satan from your thoughts.

Third, I have to tune in to what God is saying about me. I have to listen to the Voice that is saying good things about me. If I can quiet my thoughts, I can hear the sweet voice of my Abba singing over me, like He does every night.

Finally, I know that in the morning, things will seem a whole lot clearer and all those dire thoughts about people who hate me and have abandoned me don’t seem quite as convincing. When you call something by its name, it loses its power over you.

My prayer is that you can have a calm and quiet soul. Psalm 131 talks about being like a weaned child with its mother. That’s how God wants us to be with Him. Completely trusting, utterly abandoned, and resting in His everlasting arms. After all, it’s not what you say about yourself that matters, but what God says about you. And He is saying good things if you only have ears to hear.

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.

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.

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!

Life and How to Live It (No Relation to the R.E.M. Song)

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This past Wednesday, I went to Williamson Medical Center to see my newborn niece for the first time. Displaying my usual directional prowess, I barged into the wrong entrance, meandered aimlessly around for a bit, came back out, puttered around the building, and finally found the right entrance.

As I left the elevator, I almost ran into a lady who was obviously upset and weeping. As she entered the elevator, I heard sobs beginning. I’m sure she had just enough strength to get to her car before she completely fell apart.

I can only imagine the loss of a loved one could bring out such grief. To think I passed someone who had just said their final goodbyes when I was on my way to say my first hello to the newest member of the family.

Life is like that. So much joy and sorrow, laugher and mourning, sunshine and rain (I bet those of you who grew up in the 90’s immediately thought of the same song I’m thinking of now. Good luck getting that out of your head!) Very rarely is life as good as it could be or as bad. It’s usually somewhere in the middle.

I was reminded tonight that the story I’m in isn’t a “me-story,” but a “God-story.” I love the way someone put it tonight: I didn’t invite Jesus to be in my story, but Jesus did invite me to be a part of God’s story of redemption and restoration for the world.

God’s plan is still the best plan because He sees what we oftentimes can’t. He can get you through anything, no matter how dark or hopeless it seems. He is always, always for you. His love is still the most powerful element in the universe, more than any weapon or group or force that ever has been or ever will be.

My advice to you (but mostly to myself) is to live in the wonder of God’s story and never cease to be amazed at what He is doing in you, through you, and around you. Always keep your eyes open with the expectations of seeing God do amazing things.

I love this passage. I think it says what I’m trying to say a thousand times better:

“This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!” (Romans 8:15-17)