“When my song through endless ages isn’t “I did it my way,” but “Jesus led me all the way,” then I know God is strong. There are two things I know (that I heard in a song once) that God loves me and He is strong. So tonight I am clinging to that Strong Love with everything that’s in me. God is strong” (Me).

According to Timehop, I wrote that 3 years ago.

I’ve found out since then that I’m not as strong as I thought I was and God is stronger than I ever imagined. In fact, God’s strength more than compensates for my weakness.

I also found out how deeply selfish and self-centered I can be. That doesn’t make me a horrible person. It reminds me that I, like you, share in that universal and fatal condition of humanity: sin.

But God’s love is stronger than my sin, my selfishness, and my shame. It’s strong enough to set me right again.

I still cling to that Strong Love with all I’ve got. I still trust the Strong God like my life depended on it, because it does.

At the end, that’s what I’ll look back and say: truly, Jesus really did lead me all of the way.

Once again, Henri Nouwen expresses my own thoughts better than I could:

“I have found it very important in my own life to try to let go of my wishes and instead to live in hope. I am finding that when I choose to let go of my sometimes petty and superficial wishes and trust that my life is precious and meaningful in the eyes of God something really new, something beyond my own expectations begins to happen for me” (Finding My Way Home).

I have absolutely nothing to add to that.

Every day is full of choices– choices that either take us closer to who we want to be or take us further away from those goals.

A friend of mine talked about 1,000 small decisions that either will lead us closer to or further away from Christ. Each decision in and of itself may seem insignificant and unimportant, but added together, they can move us significantly in either positive or negative ways.

So base on all that, I’ve made some choices.

1) I choose to focus on the positive and not the negative, on what’s right instead of what’s wrong. I’d much rather be an optimist than a cynic.

2) I choose to look for joy in the little things. I do believe that you find what you’re looking for, whether it’s something to complain about or something worth celebrating.

3) I choose to not give up or quit for at least 24 hours. Baby step to 4 o’clock, as Bob Wiley would say.

4) I choose to not dwell on the past 24 hours, whether I had a great day and was feeling close to God or I had a terrible day where I was selfish and grumpy all day long.

You don’t naturally drift into spiritual maturity. You don’t become a better person through osmosis. You have to choose and then act on your choices.

Here endeth the lesson.

I love being a greeter. It does my heart good to see people’s faces light up when they realize that someone sees them and acknowledges them. Especially in a world that ignores and teaches people to ignore anyone who isn’t “pretty” (as they define it).

It was a picturesque fall evening with the temperature just perfect. For me, that means just on the brisk side, cold enough to keep me alert and awake.

It was that magical time between sunset and night when there’s enough daylight to cast a golden glow over everything and give the landscape a dreamish and surreal quality.

I’m reminded how often I feel that I’m entitled to grace. Of course, that’s absurd. Grace by its very nature is undeserved, unmerited, and most certainly unentitled. And most often unexpected.

If I possess true humility, looking truthfully at who I am and who God is, then I must confess that anything good in my life is grace. I don’t deserve any of it.

I hope that I can be a dispenser of grace and give it away just as freely as I’ve received it. Sometimes, I’m better at it than others, but always I’m a little less grace-full and a little more selfish than I’d like to be.

Even the good that I do is grace, because God blesses my self-centered motives and my paltry offerings and multiplies what I do to bless so many more than I know.

The point is not that I’m a bad person. We’re all broken people whom Jesus is making whole again. The point is that God is still good all the time. Always.

I feel old. Not because I’m achy or tired or anything like that. I just realized that 20 years ago the pilot episode of that classic sitcom Friends aired on NBC.

20 years. That means that half the students in college weren’t even born when Rachel came running into Central Perk in her wedding gown. I need to sit down.

I still love that show. I think I love it so much because the characters are so real and so many of the moments ring true. It’s not like so many sitcoms where the dialogue is basically endless setups for punch-lines.

Plus, who doesn’t like friends?

I’ve been blessed with some good ones. So many who love me for me, not as I should be but as I am, warts and all. So many who inspire and challenge me and — best of all– help make me more like Jesus.

Not every friend in my life is a forever friend. Some were only in my life for a season and for a specific purpose. Some weren’t good for me. But God used all of them to grow me up a little.

I’ve learned I can’t expect my friends to be something I’m not. I can’t hold them to a standard that I don’t live up to myself.

I love that Jesus is the friend who sticks closer than a brother. He said that He calls us friends because He’s let us in on the great mystery of what God is up to in the world and invited us to be a part of it.

I read something that made me pause: “Love is an act of endless forgiveness.”

I think that applies to friendship as well as romantic love. I forgive because I know I will need to be forgiven at some point. Probably at many points. You and I forgive primarily because God in Jesus has already forgiven us of so much.

I also love the fact that the one time I took a “Which Friends Character Are You Most Like?” Quiz and got Phoebe. They were more right than they knew.

I’d be okay with mornings if they didn’t come around so often. Or so early.

I actually managed to wake up on my own in time to make it to work, which is a good thing since the volume on my radio alarm clock got mysteriously turned all the way down. Weird.

But I’m glad tomorrow is Friday. Mostly because it’s my half-day at work and because I get to sleep in the next day. Woot!

I know what it’s like to be tired, and I also know what it’s like to be soul-weary, where all the sleep in the world does no good. Soul-weary looks like going through the motions because you’ve lost all hope and can’t see things getting any better.

I love that Jesus offers those people an invitation. Come to me, all you who are soul-weary and overworked, He says, and I will give you rest for your soul. Not just physical rest, but soul-rest.

Oh, and Jesus promises to work everything for our good. That means things will get better, and so will you.

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what” (Atticus Finch).

Periodically, I get the urge to read a book I’ve read before. This time, it’s To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

I can’t remember how many times I’ve read this book, but it’s probably at least twice. I always seem to forget how much of the book got left out of the movie (although that particular movie is still one of my favorites).

Whenever I read dialogue in the book, I hear the people from the movie. Especially when I read Atticus Finch, I hear Gregory Peck. I even hear the two kids from the movie when I read Jem and Scout’s lines.

I’ll probably end up watching the movie again after I’m done with the book. For some reason, I always feel compelled to watch it in the fall.

If you made it all the way through high school without reading this classic, I’d suggest you read it. Pronto. If I could only write one book (as Harper Lee did), I think this would be the one I’d want to write.