Jesus

Just a Friendly Reminder or Two (or Three)

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I was thinking on the way home from a good night out. It was one of those perfect nights that come in the twilight of summer and a good breeze was blowing. I had 10,000 Maniacs spinning in my CD player. It was a good moment. Based on that, I have some friendly reminders for those out there who may or may not need them.

1) Don’t ever take your family or friends for granted. I can’t emphasize that enough. I heard once that when you take something or someone for granted, what you’re granted gets taken. I am learning to not assume that the people in my life will always be there, but to make the most of the time I am given with each and every person in my life.

2) Don’t assume that others know how you feel about them. Tell them. Tell them every chance you can, even if it seems like overkill. It’s better that you know too much that I care for you than you never know it at all. Who knows? They might need the reminder at the particular moment you say those words.

3) Don’t be afraid to break out of the mold and try new things. Try new foods. Hang out with different people. Break away from the oh-so-popular crowds and spend time with those who are on the outskirts of the crowd or sitting alone. I truly believe that’s where you find Jesus.

4) God never gets tired of your gratitude, so thank Him for every thing. Even if it’s for waking up this morning or for drawing the next breath.    You can never be too grateful or thankful. A thankful spirit opens your eyes to see God in a new and fresh way and enables you to see His blessings where you never saw them before.

That’s all for now. I would be amiss if I didn’t tell you once again that I am supremely grateful for every single person reading this little blog. I’m thankful for my family and for every single friend who has stuck with me all this time. You matter to me and you matter to God.

Thank you.

Lord, I Believe; Help My Unbelief

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First of all, you should go to Kairos on Tuesday night if you’ve never been. It’s at 7 pm and it’s in the Connection Center of Brentwood Baptist Church off I-65 exit  71 in Brentwood, TN and it’s awesome. Now that I’ve got my shameless plug out of the way, here’s my takeaway from tonight’s service.

While the scribes and disciples were arguing about who was right and who was wrong, a man was pleading with Jesus to heal his son from a demonic possession. He ended his plea with the words, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”

How many times have I felt that way? How many times has it seemed that my faith was so small that it barely qualified as belief at all? That I was holding on to a minuscule-sized hope?

I’ve heard that faith always comes with an element of doubt, because if I was 100% certain of something, I wouldn’t need faith. I think that’s true. If I needed perfect faith to get my prayers answered, I might as well stop praying because my faith is always tempered with doubts and fears.

Many times, I need to pray, “Lord, I believe. In whatever way You choose, whether it’s the way I want, show up and have Your way.”

I heard a song tonight that basically said, “Lord, help me to believe what I already know.” Sometimes, I don’t need more knowledge about God or about my circumstances. I need the ability to believe what I already know to be true about God. I need to believe what God has already shown me countless times before.

It doesn’t take great faith in God for change to happen; it just takes faith in a great God. Even if that faith is a minuscule-sized, mustard-seed faith that barely registers a blip on the scale of belief.

Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.

Telling Stories

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I just finished watching The Descendants, a film I really liked. It got me thinking about why I love movies. It isn’t because they advance some social or even religious cause. It isn’t because they push boundaries and stir up controversy. It isn’t because of some elaborate CGI-driven special effects.

I love a good movie because at its heart it is all about a good story well told.

To me, a good story is one that I find my story in. I can relate to the characters and what they’re going through. Sometimes, I may wish my life were like that. Sometimes, I find myself empathizing with them because I’ve gone through similar circumstances.

There was no one better at telling stories than Jesus during His earthly ministry. He told stories, or parables, that each revealed a truth about God. The people who heard these stories could relate to them, because they could find their stories in them.

We are called to be witnesses for Christ. That doesn’t mean we argue for the validity of the faith or why Christianity is better than all the other religions out there. We don’t try to prove the Bible or creation or God. We simply tell our stories.

Not to say that these things aren’t important. We can defend the Bible and creation and God (although the last time I checked, He didn’t need our help defending Himself). But no one can argue with you about what God has done in your life and how you are different than you used to be. No one can refute a transformation or a new creation.

This blog is one way I choose to tell my story. Like yours, my story is a work-in-progress, an epic novel with the ending still unwritten. I happen to know the Author of the story and I’m convinced the ending is one you won’t want to miss.

The same goes for your story, too, if you let God write it.

 

My New Daily Prayer (Stolen from Mother Teresa)

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“Dear Jesus, help me to spread Thy fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with Thy spirit and love. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of Thine. Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Thy presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus. Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as you shine, so to shine as to be a light to others.”

Last Thoughts on Chick-fil-A

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This will be my last blog/post on the subject of Chick-fil-A. I promise. I realize it’s been talked to death. Kinda like beating a dead horse (or in this case, a fried chicken patty).

I am NOT saying that the Chick-fil-A appreciation day was wrong. I am asking the question: what were your motives? Were they really out of love or were they all about proving a point or showing that your side was right and the other side wrong? I realize that I don’t have the best track record when it comes to having the best motives.

I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in social media-land. It seems that lately, if you disagree with me (or I with you), then not only are you 1) wrong, but you must also be 2) evil and 3) immoral. When you’re not busy dissin’ my dreams, you must be out there hating puppies and kittens, sacrificing small animals to Beelzebub, making fun of Girl Scouts and driving around with a bumper sticker that shouts, “I DON’T BREAK FOR UNICORNS OR RAINBOWS!”

That’s just my observation. We are free to disagree and still respect each other. Disagreement is not the same as hate, and love is not the same as condoning everything you believe and say and do.

Above all, I think we need the reminder (and me most of all) that what really matters is what is done out of love. What counts are those things done out of faith.

The Bible doesn’t say that the greatest of these is a well-thought out argument that no one can refute. Nor a picket sign with a Bible verse on it. It says that the greatest of these is LOVE.

I mean the LOVE that God has for us that accepts us just as we are but refuses to leave us that way. A love that won’t rest until we are a perfect reflection of the image of God. A love that won’t stop until all that is not of God is purged out of us and all that is left in us is God.

What really matters isn’t what I think. I’ve been wrong before. I’ve jumped on and off of plenty of bandwagons in my time. What really matters is this: am I showing the supreme love of Christ in what I do? Will what I do draw people closer to or push them away from following the Jesus I love and serve?

That’s all.

Kudos

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I would like to give recognition to some people. You can call it “giving a shout-out” or “giving props,” but for the sake of not dating myself, I’m going to give kudos. Besides, kudos kinda sounds like candy, and who doesn’t like candy?

Kudos to those who are willing to step out from sitting in the same place with the same people at church events and will sit with a stranger and start a conversation and make that person feel welcome. Sometimes, it’s good to break out of the familiar cliques. It’s hard, but worth it.

Kudos to those who send out random notes or texts or posts of encouragement throughout the day. I know for me, those have rarely been random, but have always come at the right time when I needed a good word.

Kudos to those who try and fail regularly, but who keep trying anyway. To those who know that success is 99 steps back, but 100 steps forward.

Kudos to those whose names and faces most people will probably never know, but who are the real heart and soul of any local church. Those who take care of babies in the nursery. Those who stand out in the parking lot and direct traffic. Those who set-up for events and clean up afterward. Those who are mentoring new believers and helping them understand what following Christ really looks like.

Kudos to you for every time you didn’t feel like it, but chose instead to do a small act of kindness anyway. To you who went and served the homeless or volunteered for VBS. To you who smiled and offered a word of encouragement to a stranger. You served Jesus.

You may not feel like you did much or that anyone saw or cared. You may feel that in the grand scheme of things, your little contributions didn’t mean anything.

But God knows and He sees. And just as He knows the number of hairs on your head and the number of tears you’ve cried, He knows all that you’ve done for Him out of a heart full of love and gratitude.

Trust me. He knows.

Fueled by Joy

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I’ve been thinking about gas a lot lately. I mean the kind you put in your car, not the kind so prominently featured in the Ace Ventura movies or in the ads for Gas-X. This is a family blog, people.

I keep waiting to see one of these signs in front of the nearest Shell gas station (or Exxon or BP or any of the others, for that matter).

I’ve also been thinking about something a friend of mine posted a lot. What if we could run our cars not on gasoline, but on joy? How far could we get and what kind of exhaust would we leave behind?

Maybe that’s not so far-fetched as it sounds. Maybe what the world around us needs to see are lives fueled by joy. Not happiness which comes and goes on a whim and is affected by every little change in circumstance, but joy which God promised us as believers would be made complete in us and remain in us.

How many people in your life are known for being joyful people? Aren’t those the kind of people you gravitate toward? Aren’t those the people you secretly envy at times and wish you could be more like?

Those full of joy, running on the promises of God and powered by the Spirit living inside of them, leave behind an exhaust of peace. They leave behind love. They leave behind patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Most of all, they leave behind more joy, because true joy is infectious and lasting.

You won’t get far fueled by fear. You might get where you’re going fueled by hate, but you destroy yourself in the process. You’ll go nowhere fueled by the need to please everybody or the need to have everyone like and admire you. The best fuel on the market for running your life comes out of pure joy that you can only get from living in the abundant overflow of God’s unconditional love for you and believing His promises about and for you.

So choose to fuel up on joy. You won’t regret it for one single, solitary second.

The Broken-Hearted God

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“And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:41-44).

Have you ever really thought about what breaks God’s heart? Has it entered into your mind that God’s heart can be broken? It can. Throughout Scripture, we see how God is broken over His wayward people who refuse to come back to Him.

All throughout the Old Testament, particularly in the Prophets, we see how God refers to His people as His bride who He found abandoned and forsaken and set His compassion and love on, only to see Her turn away from Him after other lovers in the form of other gods and man-made religious systems.

Jesus wept over a people who saw what He could do and how He fulfilled every prophecy about who the Messiah would be, yet failed to recognize God in the flesh right in front of their very eyes. He wept because He knew what was coming for His beloved city.

If I am identified with Christ, then shouldn’t my heart be broken over those around me who are lost and without hope and without Christ? Shouldn’t I be brought to tears over how so many people I know may face an eternity apart from the God who made a way of salvation for them?

The truth is that my heart is not broken, that I don’t shed tears over lost people, that most of the time I don’t really even give them a second thought. I’m too busy rushing from one Christian activity to the next to notice or care. That’s just me being honest.

Lord, break my heart for what breaks Yours. Give me a heart of compassion that weeps for the broken and outcast and forgotten and abandoned. Give me tears for those who will turn to anything and everything but You and find only broken cisterns instead of Living Water. May I see with Your eyes the hurt and feel with Your heart the pain, so that I can love them in the same way You do.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Things I’m thankful for

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If you’ve been keeping up with my facebook posts, this might be a bit of a re-run for you. At least most of it.

I’ve compiled an extensive list of things I’m thankful for, some frivolous, some serious, some in-between. You be the judge. I’m thankful

1) For orange tic-tacs (ever since I saw the movie Juno).

2) For unending and unfailing grace.

3) For the tortilla soup at Chuy’s that I can’t get enough of.

4) For God’s track-record of faithfulness, especially in the times when I’ve been faithless.

5) For chai frappachinos from Starbucks with caramel drizzle (and cinnamon sprinkled on top as an added bonus).

6) For friends who have stood by me when others might have given up and written me off as a lost cause.

7) For coconut water, because once you’ve tried it, you’re hooked.

8) For new mercies every morning.

9) Chocolate in all its wonderful and glorious forms– and yes, I am aware that today is National Milk Chocolate Day.

10) The day Jesus rescued me.

11) That it’s currently not 111 degrees outside. And for air-conditioning inside.

12) That one day God will make everything right again and turn the world right-side up.

13) For spam in a can, ’cause it’s brilliant.

14) That I’m not who I was and I’m not yet who I will be.

15) That every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings (attaboy, Clarence!)

16) That every time I fall down or fail big, I get a second chance and a clean slate.

17) For the chicken cobb avocado salad at Panera Bread on Old Hickory Blvd in front of Target.

18) For every single word of encouragement or blessing or edification or correction spoken over me by family and friends. You didn’t realize it, but God was speaking through you to me to make me more like Jesus.

I could think of about a 1,000 more reasons to be thankful, but I’ll save those for future blogs. When you live with eyes and heart and hands wide open, you can’t help but be grateful and thankful all the time. You can’t help but see blessings everywhere.

So what are you thankful for?

It’s The Little Things

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I’ve come to a few conclusions in my time. One of them has come to me recently.

I’ve always been a fan of the epic movies like Lawrence of Arabia or Braveheart or Gladiator, with big battle scenes behind a massive soundtrack and bold and daring actions. Life is sometimes like that. But most of the time it’s not.

Most of the time, courage isn’t the absence of fear, but being afraid and still taking the next step of faith anyway. It means shutting your ears to what those fears are telling you and choosing in the moment to believe what God has been telling you all along about yourself, your friends and family, and your circumstances.

Most of the time, faith isn’t doing incredible deeds like leading masses of people to Christ or flying halfway around the world to be a career missionary. It’s going next door and doing a small act of kindness for your neighbor. It’s moving out of your usual circle of friends and sitting with someone who looks lost and lonely.

Sometimes, belief isn’t supreme confidence that you know everything there is to know about God and His ways and how He will act. Sometimes, it’s a very small mustard seed. Sometimes, it’s the wavering confession amidst doubts that says, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”

It’s not about big faith in God, but faith in a big God. The saying goes that it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog. I say that sometimes, it’s about showing up even when you don’t feel up to it, when you feel utterly powerless and weak, when every part of you is telling you to throw in the towel and quit.

Those are the times that God shows up. When you are weak, the Bible says, that’s when the power of Christ is made perfect. Paul even goes so far as to boast in his weakness because he knows that God shows up strongest in our weaknesses.

Keep believing. Keep taking the small steps of faith. Keep holding on to that quiet courage that says you can try again tomorrow. After all, it really is the little things, the small things done with love that really matter in the end.