The New You

Growing, maturing and changing is one of the most difficult things we can do. This is partly because we tend to get stuck in "who we want to be" and in "who we have been in the past".

My vision of "who I want to be" conflicts with the vision of who God is calling me to be. God has better plans than I do, yet I keep dragging Him down to my limited (seeing through a glass darkly) vision. Even in the most basic things, like the love of God, I invert His love for some lesser image that I have in my own mind. I tend to make the love of God performance based because my "self-love" is performance based. So here is a short list of things I do that makes me lovable to myself.
1. Keep my mouth shut when I know the truth and the others do not.
2. Give until it hurts - literally.
3. Help those who I feel need help (even if they don't want my help).
4. Grumble and complain only as a form or wisdom or insight.
5. Show extravagant mercy on others and none on my self or visa-versa.
6. Make a significant different in the world every day, even if no one knows.
7. Eat right, fast right, exercise right, rest right, work right, sleep right, listen right, speak right, know right, do right, and avoid putting to much pressure on myself. (note the absence of "spelling right")

Some People Don't Get It

Do you know people who represent this ...
Everyone is wrong but them.

Now they would never say that, but they live it out in attitude and mindset. I think I "see" more of these people because I am like them. You can usually see in others what is in yourself. Yet I struggle with those who are just a little better, bigger, wiser and more skilled than others. Have you every had someone who can't read Hebrew lecture you on the grammar and structure of the OT?

I think I need to find the sign that I had a few years ago.
"I don't know what I don't know"
It's tough enough being as stupid as I am, it is almost impossible to be as smart at I am.

So back to by College Days
When in question
When in doubt
Run in Circles
Scream and shout

Figuring it all out

Figuring out what to do, when and how to do it can be a full time job. I think you can consume your life by trying to manage many of the details that you need to just "live out". Sure I know that some people would have no identity without being the "every detail under control person". But maybe this is the very person who need to live, and not just manage details.

Jesus was a detail guy. He did everything that He saw the father doing. His management system was obedience to what was revealed and not the troublesome life of introspection. The inward gaze should always be to find the Lord, not to fix yourself. Self-improvement by definition results only in more you, more self.

Figure out your life by living in relationship to the Lord, you shepherd. God is desiring to lead each of us daily. He wants the walk with us, direct our steps and fill us with revelation(vision) of what to do. Get an energy boost by trusting the Lord to direct your steps.

Things Wonderful

I love to see people who try new things (good things). Those who join peanut butter and sausage, string instruments and intercession. I wonder if David ever used a bow on his lyre?

New things help us connect with God, if we want to. They help us learn about change, the security of the uncertain and the beauty of uncertainty. I know most of us order the same thing every time we go out to eat. But what if we learned to love new things, even the new things that God is doing.

Some of the schools in our town are purposed to be closed. There is quite an outcry. I understand that a part of history is being closed (not lost). Long ago I left my mom and dad to start a life on my own. It shut the door to my old history and gave me a new history. This happens personally, with organizations and with God. Next year me and God are going to be doing some new history things.

Maybe if we leaned to enjoy things wonderful we would have more than one type of music in our meetings, more than one soft drink in our refrigerators and more than one method of devotion to God.

Why not shock the world today and try something new.

Needing help to live

So many need God's help to live. I do. Those who are dying, suffering, in emotional pain do. So what do we say to them? What promises, what hope do we have for those who are in need?

At this moment, we need a confident love of God and a true knowledge of who He is. We will be tempted to make excuses for God. We will be tempted to give a "God cares but can do nothing" answer. This would be miss-representing God. God is all powerful, all loving, just, righteous and full of mercy. We do not need to make excuses for Him as much as we need to personally pursuit knowing Him rightly.

Join me in boldly proclaiming a God of power and love in the face of fear and death. Let's believe, trust and honor God with our mind and emotions as we live lives that do not make excuses for God. We really do not have any other place to turn. If the Lord does not help us, we are lost indeed. But we are not lost. We have a way, a light and a ever present helper.

Life

Jesus is the life giver. God is the one who breathed into us and gave us life. But what is it that we really want? Do we want a ministry, a career, a certain identity? Maybe we want to be a sports, film or religious star. Maybe we want to be something special and unique.

The best thing we can have is life. It is life, in all it's "lifeness" that makes us live, be filled with emotions, enjoy, suffer and well....live. We do not need to be fooled by the powers of influence that we need more than life. Living well is the most important function of the life we have been given. All to many people waist their lives by the endless seeking to be something more. There is nothing more than being alive, both now and forever. Anything that is added, if we use that language, is a part of life, it is not more than life.

God is the life giver and we need to live our lives well, to the fullest and with great zeal. The acquiring of titles, positions, status or events does not mean we are living life well. We can be well traveled, well educated, secure in job and family and still not be living well. The very idea of life transcends all the stuff of life and calls to us of "other worldly" adventure.

The next time you wonder why you are alive, take a slow deep breath. Consider the wonder of breathing in the first place. Get distracted by the amazement of your ability to breath. Consider how in the world it came to be that you breath, live. Let the life you have connect you to the source of living - God. The more this is done, the more you will have a great life.

In Him we live. Apart from Him we can do nothing.

YOU MATTER