Always His Child

Have you ever stopped to consider what it means to be a member of God’s family? Certainly, there are many precious truths that we could ponder, but one aspect of God’s redemptive plan that I had not considered, until recently, is that adoption is irrevocable. When a couple decides to adopt a child, by law they can’t reverse the act later if the child fails to meet their expectations. Once the bestowal of familial status has been granted it is final, so that the child doesn’t have to live in fear that if they disobey or get in trouble or mess up in anyway that they will get the boot; rather, their standing in the family is secure. Though there will be both good and bad days, we must never fret about our standing in God’s family, because He does not love us because of who we are, rather He loves us because of who He is. And because of our union with Christ we are now able to live a life that honors of heavenly Father.

Waiting for the Lord

“Waiting” is not an option for many people, especially not in our consumer driven economy where time is money. Our lives are high speed, instant, and less than 30 minutes or its free. We run our lives like clockwork and there isn’t a minute to spare. We want results and we want them yesterday, which is precisely why we have a hard time dealing with waiting for the LORD. We don’t like to wait because we expect immediate results. We, however, must give up this masquerade of control and submit our lives to His Lordship. We must heed the words of the psalmist, “Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!” (Psalm 27:14).  We have to resist the urge to “make things happen” and trust in His providence. We must look to Him for encouragement and not to ourselves, knowing that He is in control and is working all things according to His  perfect plan, which might take longer than we desire, but in end is always worth it. May we always find comfort and strength by trusting in Him for all things.

Slow and Steady…

Do you remember the story of the Tortoise and the Hare? You know the one where the fleet-footed Hare jumps out to an early lead, then decides to catch a few zzz’s, confident that the Tortoise would never catch up. Yet, the Tortoise just plods along, putting one foot down in front of the other, not deviating from the objective, overcoming all the odds. Well I am not sure why, but I have been thinking about this fable and its moral: Slow and Steady wins the race. But what I noticed is that the reason the Tortoise succeeded is because he was faithful to the task at hand and persevered until the end. Unlike the brash and arrogant Hare, the Tortoise was humble and dedicated.

Since moving to Kennesaw, I have learned that God desires that His children be Tortoises, not Hares. We are to be faithful to the task at hand and are called to persevere unto the end, but this is not a race that we run alone. God has given us His Spirit ( John 15:26), His Word (Ps. 119:9-11), His Church (Eph. 2:19-22), and His Son (1 John 2:2-3). God has given us these gifts to encourage, equip, and enable us to finish the race well (2 Tim. 4:7).

Seriously…this stuff will hurt you, bad

Yesterday, I made a trip to the local sporting goods store to find some “equipment” to help me get back into shape. To be more specific I was looking for the latest and greatest technology to help me “strengthen” my core. You know, rock hard abs, like Usher, Brad Pitt, or that guy from the “Rico Suave” video. What I found looked like a garage sale for tacky underused exercise equipment. So I rummaged through the merchandise, thinking to myself, “Self, you don’t need the Chuck Norris Ab Lounge or so other junkie piece of infomercial trash, you need something simple that will make you hurt!” And what did I end up purchasing? Yeah! you guessed it the Pilates: Abs Workout video.

Yes! I am secure in my manhood, no doubt about it. I have pink shirts, or shirts with pink in them, depending on how you look at it. I appreciate a good chick flick every now and then. I even own a Josh Groban album. And no I am not a “metro-”, a “homo-” or even a “Romo-” sexual, I am simply one who does not need to question his masculinity. I know who I am and am secure in that.

Anyway, the thing that I liked most about my new Pilates DVD was that there was only 25 minutes minutes standing between me and flatter abs. In no time, my core could be ripped up spawning a lucrative career as a sexy ab model. I mean Matthew McConaughey was seen doing Pilates on a beach and he was voted People Magazine’s Sexiest Man, it has got to work, right?

When I got home I quickly changed clothes, moved the furniture around in my living room, put in the DVD, hit play, and waited for the flattening to begin. When the video started, there were two women on my TV: one who the beginners were encouraged to follow and one for everyone else. So what did I do? You got it I quickly ignored the beginner chick and went for the gold. Assuming the Pilates position, which I had never been in before, was an interesting experience and then I began to move my extremities in ways that I did not know they could or were suppose to move. Yet I pressed on. I balanced on my hind parts, raised my arms and legs at a 45 degree angle, tightened my abs, and tried to stare at my navel. All of which I had minimal success accomplishing. I performed all sorts of movements that looked mostly likely rolling around on the floor. Since this was my madien experience with the Pilates I had no idea what I was doing, but I felt good trying and I quickly developed a new-found respect for those young women who do this stuff at the local YMCA. After following the head Pliates chick for about 6 minutes, I realized I was in over my head and gladly switched over to the beginner workout. This did not make things that much easier, but I pressed on. Sexy abs…here I come, only 19 minutes and counting!

When all was said and done, I was laying flat on the floor, with sweat trickling off my forehead, gasping for air. Yet my stomach didn’t hurt, thus I wasn’t very satisfied with my workout and began to wonder if I had wasted my money. But allow me to fast forward to this morning, when the alarm breaks the silence at 6:45 am and I reach over to hit the snooze button, but I can’t without pain. I notice that my core is a wad of throbbing cookie dough. It hurts to laugh. It hurts to bend. And at times it hurts to breathe. I have a new respect for Ana Caban and any other Pilates instructors who I may have previously made fun of, because this stuff is serious and it will hurt you. So if you know me, ina few weeks feel free to ask me how its coming along. Who knows? Maybe I will be a testament to the power of Pilates and have the abs to prove it.

Enjoying the Here and Now

Do you ever worry about your future? I mean do you find yourself daydreaming about what you will be doing in 25 years? Who you will be married to? Where you will be living? Wondering whether or not you will be able to retire at 50 or which would be a better place to own a second house, Jackson Hole or Destin? I know I do, but the problem is not that my heart desires these things, rather the problem is that I often find myself neglecting the here and now because I am trying to manipulate the present in order to maximize my happiness for the days to come.

More often than I care to admit, I find myself neglecting God’s gift that are in my life today. For example, I will see God’s provision for my life and think that it is nice, but wonder about what bigger and better gift might be over the next horizon. Or I will be so focused on where I am heading that I don’t stop to take in the sights and sounds of my current location. Basically, what these two examples tell me about myself is that I am ungrateful and dissatisfied with what God has given me.

Worrying is not something new to the human race, in fact it is such an issue that Jesus Christ addressed in the Sermon on the Mount (cf. Matthew 5-7). He said, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on….Look at the birds of of air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matt. 6:25-29).

The reason we are anxious about the future is that we don’t truly believe that God is sovereign, or in total absolute control. Or we don’t want Him to be in control for the reason that we think that we can do a better job ourselves. It is humbling to think that those things that God gives us on a daily basis is the best possible thing that we can have in our lives. But the Lord tells us that His provision for us exceeds that of birds and lilies and what was given to them was, well dazzling. So the next time you and I find ourselves daydreaming about the future remember that God is in control, that He is a heavenly Father who give good gifts to His children, and that He knows precisely what we need. And because of this our worrying is really and insult to Him. So stop and smell the roses that God has planted in your life and know that it is there for your enjoyment and relax. Who knows you might even like it.

The Show Must Go On…

There are many things in this world that I don’t understand. I don’t understand quantum physics. I don’t understand women. I don’t why people enjoy shopping. I don’t understand the BCS. And I don’t understand why people get up before the sun to save a few bucks on junk they don’t need. But the one thing that baffles me more than all these, although women would be a close second, is why God has delighted to use me to accomplish His redemptive purposes.

Now you might be scratching your head wondering what I am talking about. Let’s just say that the past few months I have been privileged to start a ministry working with college students. There were days when I did not want to go to work. There were others when I was more concerned about things of the world than the things of God. And there were still other days when I was selfish, sinful, and sarcastic. I have considered the things that I have accomplished in recent months and in all honesty most of what I have achieved is not able to hold water. Yet in spite of all this, God is at work! I am know this on account of two reasons: 1) the Bible says that He is and 2) I have seen it myself. At the moment, I don’t feel the need to recount how I have seen Him work. You are just going to have to take my word for it. But like I said I don’t understand why God delights to use me to further His redemptive plan.

There are others who are stronger, better looking, more eloquent, smarter, and more creative. There are those with more experience, greater vision, and more charisma, but for whatever reason these things don’t really matter much to God. Sure, He delights in these things, but only when He sees Himself reflected in them. And God delights to use busted vessles like you and me because when all is said and done and I am honest with myself, I have to admit that I did not really contribute anything apart from how God worked through me and then God gets the glor and I get an assist, at best. But assists aren’t bad, John Stockton and Magic Johnson had brilliant careers in the NBA dishing out assists. However, this is different to put it mildly. The fact of the matter is that I am not a point guard in some sort of spiritual basketball game, rather I am role player who is playing my part to help make Chirst look great, as if he needed my help.

I realize that this metaphor can be picked apart and some smarter than I would be so bold as to point out the logical and philosophical inconsistencies of such thinking, but like I said it is a metaphor. Then again those individuals probably see themselves as being vital to the success of God’s plan. Just between you and me, the secret is that they aren’t and neither am I and for that matter neither are you. So conisder how God has delighted to use you to extend His kingdom, to bring glory to His name, and even though you thought screwed up the whole thing, the show went on and will continue to do so until He decides when to it is time for it all to end. Yet until that day, there is work to be done and it will be done with or without me.

Let it go; Surrender

“The only possible way to move out of our obsessive self-awareness and into the life of Christ” writes Brennan Manning, “is to surrender ourselves and let God be God.”

Surrender is a foreign concept in this day and age. Surrendering is for losers. And losers are those individuals who are destined to become obscure answers to trivial pursuit questions. Surrendering is counter intuitive. It is humiliating. It is simply not the “American way.” And for most of us, it is not even an option.

From cradle to college, we are taught by our teachers, coaches, society, and even shoe advertisements that if we only try hard enough, studying more, practice longer, and look out for number one then we will capture our dreams. We contend for popularity, power, and prestige. We struggle for greatness in work, play, and relationships, because we think when we capture the proverbial carrot that is dangled in front of us that we will then and only then be satisfied. Our desire is to achieve upward mobility, to rise out of the ashes like the Phoenix, to control our destiny regardless of who we have to step on to get to the top, because we are convinced that social prowess and a fat bank account will fulfill the hole that is at the core of our being.

So I have tasted a few of the worlds so called “pleasures” and I am here to say that they are bitter. They aren’t filling, in fact they only leave me confused, jaded, and curled up in the fetal position asking myself “What have I done? The hole in my heart is still there and now it just plain hurts.” I suppose if I go through this routine long enough that I will develop a tolerance to pain and guilt. Hell, maybe I will even get to the point where I can’t feel anything at all, but at least I will have my penthouse suite, trophy wife, social prowess, and throngs of adoring fans to make it all go away.

Christ tells us that He came that His children would have life and have it abundantly (cf. John 10:10). However, the requirement to gain acceptance into His family contradicts everything I know in this world, yet how could it be any worse that the mess I have made of my life thus far? So what are these requirements you ask, well they are faith, hope, and love. They are humility, obedience, and submission to the will of the Father. But Christ tells us that we won’t go about this alone. We will run this race surrounded by a great crowd of witnesses, who have gone before us and are at the finish line cheering us on (cf. Heb. 12:1-2). Jesus tells us that if we should go to him then He will give us rest (Matt. 11:28).

The Lord’s call for us to surrender to the Father’s Will requires only that we believe in Him and to follow His lead. In doing so, we will truly find ourselves. We will realize who are and what our purpose is. We will be received into the number and have right to all the privileges of the sons and daughters of God. So surrendering is not a call to submit the oppressive regime of a tyrannical megalomaniac, but One who knows us better than we knows ourselves and has laid down His own life to vindicate the righteousness of God and to give us life. Now that doesn’t sound so bad does it.

Just when you thought it was safe to get your hands clean?

Not too long ago, while perusing overpriced outdoor sporting equipment, something caught my eye. It is a pump hand sanitizer bottle situated to the left of the cash register. Now it was the Christmas season and the crunchy folks working at this particular outdoor recreational store knew that many germ infested shoppers would frequent their shop and they would be sneezing into their hands, wiping their noses, and fondling the merchandise that would later need to be refolded or properly shelved. Staring at the hand sanitizer, I noticed an interesting advertisement: “Kills 99.99% of the germs that make you sick.” I must admit I was intrigued by this remarkable declaration. I mean if this stuff could actually do what it claimed then these chemists should be paraded through streets and awarded a key to the city. Bacteria everywhere should cower in fear at the immense power of this hand sanitizer.

Then it hit me. What about the other .01% of the germs that make me sick that this goop doesn’t destroy? What kills them? I suppose the fleet of T-Helper and white blood cells that our immune systems use to fight these little pests would. But am I weakening my body’s defenses by taking out the light weight bacteria first? Are we culturing some sort of supped up killer bacteria that has the making of the next great New York Times bestseller, i.e. The Andromeda Strain?

Rest easy, I am not some sort of OCD germ-a-phobic nut job who won’t touch door knobs or drink from public water fountains. I am just thinking about future generations who will have to deal with these uber-bacteria that we are creating. I mean our grandchildren are going to need to live inside a plastic bubble because their immunities are shot because some overprotective mother wouldn’t allow her toddler to play outside for fear that precious little Timmy would eat a bug or stick his fingers in an orifice before washing up.

What good is it to live 107 years if you able allowed to have any fun? I don’t want to live a boring life cooped up inside some sterilized facility playing Sudoku or Mario Kart. I want to enjoy God’s beautiful creation. I want to climb mountains, hike trails, and dive off scary high cliffs. So what if I get a little unfiltered water in my mouth. It will be good for me. My motto is “God made dirt, so dirt won’t hurt.”

Thus, when my neighbor’s little Nancy-boy, who is pasty white because his body has never been violated by the UV rays of the sun, can’t go outside out of fear of what he germ may pounce; me and my boys are going to be out with the germs enjoying nature, collecting bugs, and playing in mud holes, because that is what “good” little boys should be doing, just not in their Sunday best…well maybe sometimes, just as long as their mother doesn’t find out.