Category: Purpose

Posted on

Run the Race

I just woke from a dream in which I was talking with Bobby Wright. It is the middle of the night. What made me think of Bobby? I haven’t seen or talked to him in over 50 years. It quickly brought to mind Jack Raikes, Steve Collins, Joe Halterman, and Dennis, I’m sorry I don’t remember your last name, but your image is evident in my mind. All of you have woken me, and I can’t get back to sleep.

Why in the middle of the night am I sleepless for having known all of you? My memory was from a half-century ago when we were all filled with youthful potential. Some like Jack exceeded what I thought they would do, and I never knew that Jack. Others, like Steve, died way too early following a path much too dark. I wanted to talk with that Steve to see if he left this earth with the same kindness is his heart as when I knew him. My lasting memory of Joe was a fight in the school library. He grew up to receive a Grammy in Nashville as a drummer. He had children and grandchildren and just passed away. He doesn’t care, but I was proud of him anyway. Dennis, I have no idea what happened to Dennis. It makes me sad not to know.

Some people are not troubled by growing old. Are they content because they lived a full life and feel complete? Or are they glad it will soon be over because the time was so hard? I don’t fall in either camp. Although I am a Christian and know my fate, I am still troubled.

I have done more in my life then I could have ever imagined, I have traveled the world; I have run big organizations and started small companies. I have rubbed elbows with the greats. Not the greats that you would bring to mind, but the truly great. Men and women with a passion for a cause much greater than I could imagine. People who changed the world I live in, some with inventions, some with ideas. I have volunteered in Prisons and third world nations. I have grown from an angry adolescent to a man chasing God.

Philippians 3: 8, “What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ “

This, I believe, is my discontent. I have robbed God. I have robbed Him of years on my life. I have deprived Him of my worship, my attention, and my dedication to the plan He had for me. I wish I could say I was ignorant of God most of my life and didn’t know better. But that would be a lie. I knew Him since I was a child. I knew Him and didn’t care. My life was not a series of unintentional sins and mistakes; it was willful indifference. And when I grew tired of being me, He picked me up and welcomed me back into the family.

Ephesians 2: 1-3, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.”

I cannot pass on. For when I do, I will no longer serve Christ on earth. To cross over too soon would be to deprive the person I could have been. My old self is dead and gone, but the memory of him still pushes me forward.

Ephesians 2: 8-10, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

It is not about earning God’s love or salvation. It is about being the person He knew I could be. It is about completing the task He has set before me, He has blessed me with health and resources, so I know He is not done with me.  I must run the race marked out for me, fixing my eyes on Jesus.

Hebrews 12:1-2, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Posted on

I Chose You

John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”

Let me tell you a story. I remember it was late fall. I remember that because it was dark early and as I walked from the MARTA station to my destination, it was cold. Not the crisp northern cold, but a Georgia winter wet cold. The type that crawls under your jacket and digs into your bones. I was late meeting a friend that I hadn’t seen in a while. Walking head down against the wind, I walked across the courtyard exiting the station and just vaguely remember seeing a shadow of a man. The voice in my head said, “stop.” It seemed loud and real enough that I came to a halt.

I now looked at the man standing in the cold. He had on a trench coat, but it didn’t look warm. He stood looking into the air, moving left, then right. He seemed uncertain as to what he needed to do next. I’m late. I said to myself and started to move on. All I heard was, “To the least of these…” nothing more.

God doesn’t yell or intimidate; He reminds us of both the great privilege it is to know Him and the great joy we can receive by obeying Him. It wasn’t a command or even a request. It was just a quiet voice of truth.

I looked at the man’s face. This moment was the first time I saw him. You know if you avoid eye contact, it’s not real. But I did see him; his eyes were sad and pain-filled. There were a lot of years in those young eyes. He knew disappointment; they were traveling buddies. He had lost something important, and he was at a loss as to what to do. I knew to speak to him was to take on his burden. Once I knew, I couldn’t turn back. Reluctantly I asked, “Can I help you?”

God is an incredibly loving God. He is amazing. This man’s need was everything to him. It was insurmountable in his circumstances. But to him, it was just another hard day on earth. To me, it was simple. I gave him what I had, and it was more than enough. He stood erect, shook my hand with thanks, and a nod. But his eye gave it away, relief and surrender. I started to walk away, but I stopped. I turned and said, “You know, God really loves you; that is why I am here now.” He smiled and said, “Yes, sir, I truly know that.”

Answer God’s call folks. Be that person. I don’t have words that can accurately paint the picture of how it will change your life forever.

There are big things that God will nag us over. He will plant the seed, he’ll water and fertilize it. God will come back over and over to prune it. He just won’t let it go. Those things we eventually come around to acknowledging. They’re BHAG’s (Big Hairy Aggressive Goals). They take time and energy and planning, but they are worth it in the end.

What I love, and crave, are the whispered moments when God has a single opportunity to share. It is like God says, “Tomme, see that rainbow?” “Look, it’s over there.” And when I turn, it takes my breath away. I stand in awe. These are the rocks in my memorial. I pick each one up and remember a time when He loved me so much He asked me to be in His plan for someone else. The stones are the BHAG’s that I could have never accomplished without Him. The rocks are His way of telling me how much He loves me for the little thing that makes life worth living.

I don’t know that man and he doesn’t know me. But I do remember the emotion of the moment when God rest His hand on my should and said “well done.” Be that person.

Posted on

Disconsolate Love

This are unusual times. We are sequestered, against our will, for extended periods of time. It is only human nature that we befriend that little voice in our head. As time flies, the discussions turn personal. For most of us that voice isn’t our best friend. It has a tendency to want to dwell on our shortcoming and things we should have done better. If we listen too long we can go to a very deep dark place and start to believe the lies.

What brings me to my knees is that lonely dark domicile of desperation. It is the oppression of my soul. It is the unquenchable hunger to be loved, accompanied by the nonsensical perception that I am not. It is not quiet desperation; it is a roar, a thunder; it is the sound of a thousand freight trains overwhelming my existence. There is no foe to be defeated. There is only a vast endless nothingness to fill. My brain shuts down, and I am lost.

There is no greater sadness then the thought of not being loved. These thoughts defy logic. We have family and friends, but in these times, they don’t seem to be enough. The hole is too big, and we are too small. It is not their ability to give that creates this vacuum, but our ability to accept.

I have been there, praying that a merciful God would not allow the sun to rise on another day of my life. Thankfully He knew better.

Two Great Truths

Truth One

John 15:9, “Jesus loves us with the same love that the Father loves him.”

The God of the universe loves you, specifically you. The God of the universe that created billions of stars, billions of light-years across, who also created 7 billion people, multitudes of animals and fish, a staggering number of insects, molecules, atoms, and sub-atomic particles, knows you with absolute clarity, and loves you.

Psalm 139:13-16. “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”

You are unique in God’s kingdom. You were created for a specific purpose. God’s greatest joy is to see you achieve that. You were created to further God’s Kingdom on earth. You are that important.

These two great passages show the extent He will go to that you might know His love.

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

That God cared so much for you that he gave, that which is most precious to Himself, for your atonement. He could have wiped us out and started over. But God loves you; you are worth more than any of His other creations.

Then comes the big part. God could have wanted to save His creation. He could watch over us because He has compassion over the whole of what He has done. We could be a grand experiment that He didn’t want to end. But then there is the second passage.

John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

He calls us friends. We are not organic matter in a petri dish; we are His friends. When you pray, you are not talking to a dispassionate God who is benevolent toward His creation. You are talking with your best friend that wants everything for you.

Truth Two

Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

God wants you to experience love and acceptance. It is not enough for Him to want you to know of His love for you; he wants you to experience what He experiences when He loves you.

1 John 4:19, “We love because He first loved us.”

The hardest part of climbing out of the pit of despair is taking the first step. The effort required to put one foot in front of another seems massive. The single nugget of encouragement I can give you is that God never fails. Trust me, God doesn’t want this for you. We live in a fallen world that sometimes deals us a bad hand. It is God alone that can and will deliver you. Healing starts when we decide to give to others what has been given to us. When we reach out to show love when we least feel it, it is the act of loving others that heals us. Don’t focus on tomorrow or next week. Get through today by turning your attention toward showing God’s love to someone else.

Romans 8:37-39, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Posted on

Joy

James 1:2, ” Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, “

A common question, “If I have a foundation in Christ, why is it that I have trouble finding joy?” Joy is a choice; much different than happiness, which is an experience. The lack of joy generally comes from a conscious decision. I don’t mean to be judgmental, it’s just an observation.

Happiness is a fleeting experience in a fallen world; it is unpredictable. It comes from strange places and hides from the obvious. An antagonist fails; we find happiness in the act. A promotion or a vacation leave us indifferent, why? If finding happiness in life is your thing, welcome to the world of sporadic, maddening, and inconsistent fulfillment.

James 4: 1-2, ”  What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. “

Joy is another issue. Joy can be created, at will, regardless of the situation. It is critical that we, as Christian, know the difference. We need to understand that there will always be challenges, but the challenges need not define us. What defines us is the way we react to the challenges. Do we lean into Christ, or do we separate from Him?

Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us”

There are two main obstacles to creating joy; one is to avoid running after other gods, and the other is focusing on the right question.

Running after other gods.

Psalm 16:4, “The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply.”

One of my vices is that I do not always see other gods in my life as other gods. I have a passion for or dedication to something; I don’t recognize that it might slowly elevate itself to a god in my life. Most of the things I am talking about are good things, like family. The problem comes from me putting it before Christ. Do I derive my happiness from it, then allow my joy to be an extension of that happiness?

“You must have more joy in Christ than anything, or you are an idolater.” – John Piper

Our Children are important, we can sometime elevate them. You want them to be well rounded. You want them to have experiences that broaden their horizon. You’re in the car seven days a week taking them everywhere, sports practice, music lessons, dance lessons, tutoring, you are exhausted. Between the kids, housework and a job there is no time for sleep. Exhaustion brings on mistakes, mistakes create conflict, conflict can separate us from God. But you won’t give it up; it is your kids. You have a responsibility.

We can say the same thing about marriage, jobs, careers, school, vacations, hobbies, and even church (little c). The goal is admirable, the process sucks the life out of you, yet you continue.

Wrong Focus

Sheryl Crow “Soak Up the Sun, “It’s not having what you want; It’s wanting what you’ve got.”

It’s all about focus and perspective. I remember several years ago at a Champions for Life Weekend; I heard the testimony of Bruce Collie. Bruce won two Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers. Bruce was a hard-charging, live life to the fullest kind of guy. But after the Super Bowl wins, he was left empty. He spent his whole life wanting a ring; now, he had two. He talked about it not being the highlight of his life, but the low point. He questioned his whole existence. Luckily for Bruce, he went to the Philadelphia Eagles and ran into Reggie White. Reggie opened his eyes to the Gospel and turned his life around. Christ gave Bruce a real purpose that never disappoints.

John 15:9, “Jesus loves us with the same love that the Father loves him.”

How do I change my focus to eliminate the idols in my life? Here is the hard part. It should be the natural part, but it’s not. You have to believe in your heart of hearts that God cares about you. I mean, really cares about everything you do. He cares about your kids, your job, your education, your life. There is nothing about which he does not care. In everything He wants the best for you.

James 1:16–17, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.”

The massive things that I can’t handle alone, I give to God. Why not, it’s too big for me anyway. It is the small things, the things I want, and I think I can do by myself, that I hold to myself. These are the things that build up stress and anxiety and eventual disappointment. It is at this point I have a choice. I can pout because bad things happen to good people, or I can decide that God is in control of everything, and this will prove to be the best. It has always been about Him, not me.

To believe that God redeems even when I can’t see takes faith. It takes faith to believe that God really cares about me. It takes faith to believe that the small things in my life are just important to God as the big things. All things work for His glory (Romans 8:28).

Joy is a choice, but it is a big choice. Many times, it is a hard choice. It is counter-intuitive. The God that created the universe cares about my bad day. The fact that He can even see that I am having a bad day is mind-boggling. You would think He had better things to do. He doesn’t, He cares that much about you.

Psalm 37:4-6, “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.”

Posted on

The World of 1910

More than a year before the pandemic, I was thinking about what my life would look like if I were born in 1910. It was to give perspective of how blessed I truly am. I thought I would pass it on as a reminder in these troubled times.

Today we believe that our world is afflicted. It is not a wrong observation. The 2109-nCov pandemic is racing around the world. We are cautioned about meeting in groups of 10 or more; our churches have turned to video conferencing to spread the word. God is, and always has been, in control. God’s sovereignty will never change.

What would my life be like if I was born in Europe in 1910?

The population of the world in 1910 was about 1.5-1.7 billion compared to 7.2 today. This revelation puts the following numbers is perspective. To understand the impact of these events, if they happened today, you could see multiple everything by 3 or 4 to get the equivalent result.

When I was 12 years old, the Titanic sunk losing 1,500 passengers. But this was only a sign of what was to come. By the time I was in middle school, “The Great War” had started. It wasn’t called World War One until 1939 with the start of World War Two. Who thought there would be two of them? The Great War would claim 40 million military and civilian casualties, 6 million to war-related famine and disease. It left 23 million wounded. It was fought in my backyards with such weapons as mustard gas (a vomiting agent), tear gas (affected the eyes and lungs), and barbed wire.

The Great War ended at the end of my High Schools years (although I wasn’t in High School, I was in the army) just to be followed by The Spanish Flu epidemic in which millions died, approximately 5% of the world’s population. It targeted 20-35-year-old’s, my age group. Citizens wore masks to schools, theater, and other outside events. Businesses were shuttered, and bodies piled up in makeshift morgues before the virus ended its deadly global march in 1919. By the end of 1919, the average life expectancy plummeted by a dozen years. The first vaccine was created in 1940.

By the time I turn 39, the Second World War was starting. It would claim another 50 million lives, 20 million in Russia alone, another 12 million executed by the Germans. Five million in Poland, and 7 million in German. Again, it was fought in my back yard. Over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded, or went missing during the Battle of Normandy alone.

When I was born, life expectancy was only 46 years. If I lived through all of this, I was lucky and had maybe another 10-15 years left. I would die in the middle of the greatest military arms buildup in history. By the time I turn 60, there are over 30,000 nuclear warheads ready for deployment.

During my lifetime, over 190 million people would die from war and flu alone, very unnatural causes. This death toll had to mold my view of life. Today we complain of political corruption, loosening of moral standards, self-centeredness, and the pandemic. We point to Revelations and say the end must be near. What would you say if you were a child of the early 20th century?

Don’t get me wrong; our problems and perceptions are real. Our world is slowly circling the drain. But God is still the God of love and compassion. He is not the author of evil; he is the vaccine. He and He alone has gotten us through a lot of worse situations.

Psalms 136:23-26, “He remembered us in our weakness. His faithful love endures forever. He saved us from our enemies. His faithful love endures forever. He gives food to every living thing. His faithful love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of heaven. His faithful love endures forever. “

Posted on

Whisper

Today I am dealing with a tsunami of bad news. I can get over a broken water pump or a pulled muscle, but I experience separation anxiety when it comes to people. I have received bad news concerning three people close to me; an old high school buddy, a family member, and a close personal friend. All of which reminds me that life is but a whisper, and then it’s gone.

James 4:14, “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”

There is so much I could say about this. I could extol the virtues of loving hard means hurting hard. I could rejoice in their heavenly freedom from pain and worry. I could wallow in my sadness. But none of these would begin to paint the picture of the depth and width of my despondency.

When morning their loss, I must face my future. The life they lived raises a mirror to my own life. I desperately want something more. I don’t necessarily want to be remembered, but I don’t want my time here forgotten.

“Give me a longing for a scent of a flower I have not found, the echo of a tune I have not heard, and a grace so powerful that it changes all the lives I touch.” – CS Lewis

I want people to weep over my passing because they want just one more day with me. I want to have an impact. I want Heaven to dance and Christ to sing. I want to be the man God made me.

Psalm 139:16, “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.”

Eternity is a very long time. My lifespan Is a blip on the screen. But it is all the time I have to gather those who need to hear the message. I am not an evangelist; we talked about that this last week in my Monday night group. I’m a life-on-life kind of guy; an empower other people type of guy. It is who God made me. Seeing those close to me and their impact on God’s kingdom makes me want to be a fireworks display. I want my life to explode into the night with sound and fury and light. I want to be unmistakable, intentional, and deliberate.

John 15: 13, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

When the emotions of the moment ebb and flow away, I have to hold on to the reality that I will leave a legacy. The question is, what legacy? 

Proverbs 3:27, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act.”

“When it is in your power to act,” This is a specific command to do. Not to think about, pray about it, and plan about it, but to do. Everything starts with prayer. When God opens the door, prayer without execution is dead. James 2:14-26, read it, and believe it. I must act according to God’s will.

In doing this, Heaven will dance, and Christ will sing. A rock dropped in a still pond send out ripples in every direction, so can I. I can be a light to a broken world regardless of the size of my actions. My task may be small, or it might be significant. It doesn’t matter to God. It matters that I am obedient and intentional.

Today I will do what others won’t so that tomorrow I can be what others can’t.

Ephesians 5:1, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.”

Posted on

Truth

John 18:37, ” In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth.”

Those of a postmodern persuasion have come to question whether we can have an objective or accurate view of truth. We are falling deeper into a world in which reality is subjective. It is a world in which all people can feel vindicated by their version of the truth. This truth is in spite of its conflict with the view of truth from those around them. Each one of us creating our parallel universe independent of others.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”

They will all sit around a roaring campfire in peaceful harmony, eating smores and singing kumbaya until the cows come home: and truth will pass by them.

Colossians 2:8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ,”

I will be the first to acknowledge that finding the truth in our hyper-personal world is extremely hard. We are constantly bombarded with data-rich, personally targeted marketing designed to change our world view. Trying to find and then hold on to truth is exhausting. 

John 18:30, “‘ What is truth?’ Pilate asked. And having said this, he went out again to the Jews and told them, “I find no basis for a charge against Him.”

Over 2,00 years ago, we were struggling with the concept of truth. Pilate himself questioned it when Jesus stood before him. He, like many people today, did not seek an answer but was willing to leave the question unanswered. He washed his hands and moved on. 

James 5:2, “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.”

We do have a source of truth. It is a foundation from which we can build all of our worldly interactions. It will not create peace among many because the truth requires a measure of accountability. Postmodern philosophy allows us to disagree without liability. I have my truth, and you have yours, they don’t have to agree. But real life doesn’t allow for that ambiguity. Real-life can sometimes be very diametric; just because you don’t believe in gravity doesn’t mean you can fly. 

John 8:32, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Conversely, God doesn’t need our acknowledgment to exist. He does exist, with or without our consent. We will be faced with judgment, like it or not. Judgment is not a punishment from God, but a chance to avoid a fate destined for all who do not acknowledge the truth. This acknowledgment is incredibly important concerning how we spend eternity, but it is also vital to the understanding of why we need to pursue God’s plan for our life. 

God’s plan for us exists. It is real. It has meaning and impact. We can choose not to believe in it, but that does not make it go away. It does make it unfulfilled, and with that, us unfulfilled. 

Galatians 4:16, “So then, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?”

We will and should struggle with contemporary definitions of current affairs. One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. But we do have a foundation to build on; it is the foundation of the Gospel. Anything that swims upstream of the Gospel is not the truth, no matter how well it fits our narrative. 

You are going to be happy said God, but first, I will make you strong.

1 John 4:5, “We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of falsehood.”

Posted on

Never let your fear decide your future

“Sometimes, you have to walk away from what you want to get what you deserve.”

I read this statement the other day. There is a half-truth in it. Sometimes we do have to walk away from what we want, but what we get is not what we deserve, it is what is best for us. None of us really wants what we deserve. 

This is not just about possessions in the physical sense

What are the idols in our lives? What are the things for which we compromise God’s goodness? Those that we genuinely love is typically on the top of the list. We believe God would never ask us to forsake them. There is truth in that. God would not have us abandon them, but He might want us to give Him a little room to work. Like us, they may have some rough edges that need sanding. 

Revelation 3:17, “For you say I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”

What about our jobs, our education, our home, our status, our track record of being a good person? What about our political affiliation? Our pets, or how about money in general? There is a good one. Do we think about money all the time? Do we worry about the cost of college education, weddings, retirement?

Ecclesiastes 5:10, “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.”

You will never achieve what you are capable of if you’re too attached to things from which you’re supposed to walk away.

Luke 12:15, “And he said to them, ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.'”

I don’t think that God wants our worldly sacrifice. I don’t think He wants us to give up earthly things. I believe He wants us to realize they are just mortal, temporary, and in the long term, insignificant. As long as they have their rightful place, they are of little concern. The issue is not should you have them, but are you willing to walk away from them. The indication of your actual response was what you first thought after reading that sentence. Did you put qualifications on it? Did you start out saying “Only if”? 

Think about that for a minute. If God asks, it is unqualified. He would not ask you to give up something just to prove you would. Why? Because there are too many other things, He could ask you to give up, which are significant and much more challenging to answer. 

Hebrews 13:5, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Sometimes there are things in our lives that aren’t meant to stay. Sometimes the changes we don’t want are the changes we need to grow. It is not the “thing” God is worried about; it is the emotion behind the “thing.” If we feel insecure about not having it, what does that tell Him about our faith in Him? It is at that point that He might need to make a point. 

Giving up and moving on are two very different things. In God’s economy, giving up something is just an act of moving on to something better. It is not the loss of the former that is of concern; it is the gain of the future on which we should focus. 

Luke 9:62, “But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

The Question of Stewardship

In the Story of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30), Jesus uses the investment of money as a metaphor for the investment in others. Too many people I know believe that their stewardship is about worldly assets, both time and money. I think the issue of stewardship is about people. If we amass great possessions, we invest them wisely, and we help them multiply, but do not apply them to the aide of others, we are the third man in the parable. 

The Bible Cliff Notes, according to Tomme, reads like this. The first man took his resources and taught people to fish, thus multiplying their value. The second man took his resources and gave people fish, relieving their need. The last man, afraid he would be a bad steward by giving his wealth to someone who might be undeserving, did nothing. 

Don’t be that guy.

I can tell you from personal experience; you can give away everything and still have enough. Trust me, it’s true, I’ve lived it.

The Command

1 Timothy 6:17-19, “Command those who are rich in this world’s goods not to be haughty or to set their hope on riches, which are uncertain, but on God who richly provides us with all things for our enjoyment. Tell them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, to be generous givers, sharing with others. In this way they will save up a treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the future and so lay hold of what is truly life.

Posted on

Success is a Fickle Master

“Every poet and musician and artist, but for grace, is drawn away from the love of the thing he tells to the love of telling it…” – CS Lewis

I was reading CS Lewis’ book, The Great Divorce. This book is a retort to William Blake’s book “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” in which Blake expounds on the convergence of good and evil. This passage above pricked my interest. 

The target of this particular statement is a ghost who upon hearing that all artists are equal in Heaven gave in to the sin of vanity because he would not stand out as a well know artist in Heaven. It demonstrates that we can get so caught up in our ability to tell a story or encourage or lend a helping hand, that we forget the intent of doing it in the first place. I have been part of an organization that I eventually had to step back from because it soon became about me and not the organization. I had this belief that I, and only I, had the God-given ability to achieve greatness. I grew to believe that the performance was solely the result of my vision, my ideas, and my tenacity. I started to associate the organization with my self esteem. In my head I became the brand, not the organization. This is a virus that will kill the enthusiasm of every living thing it touches.

Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Success is a fickle master. It will drive us to accomplish great things and, at the same time, takes away that which matters most. As we sprint through life, we forget our destination. God uses our need for validation to keep us on track. Without validation, we feel lost, wandering, burning valuable resources in a lost cause. But God’s validation keeps us on course.

John 5:31, “If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not deemed true.”

The Encounter

One of the more surprising rocks in my life came from an encounter over a decade ago. I was volunteering with a prison ministry, Bill Glass’ Champions for Life. It was time-consuming because a weekend event required leaving on a Thursday night. After driving several hours, or even flying to a destination, I checked into a hotel, I would serve through the weekend, and then reverse the process. Many times, as I left home, I wondered if this was the best use of my time. Working with the inmates was tremendous; the journey was arduous. The challenge was that I didn’t know if I was creating lasting change.

This particular weekend I was getting PC work done by a small firm behind Georgia Tech. If you were from Atlanta, you would understand the Inside-Perimeter verse Outside-Perimeter paradox. I’m an outside guy who seldom ventures inside. The business wasn’t in the worst part of town, but it’s not the best either. It was a bleak industrial park close to the old Atlantic Steel Mill property. That property was under construction, producing what now is Atlantic Station, a multi-use commercial-residential-retail community. Getting my PC fixed would take some time, so I went to the corner to a McDonald’s. After parking my car, a man approached me. He was a construction worker from the Atlantic Station project.

First, he apologized for the inconvenience. Then he explained that he had just been hired to work construction next door. He confessed that buying work boots, a hard hat, and other stuff required for the job left him without bus fare until payday. Payday was tomorrow, but that didn’t help today. He only needed a couple of dollars. I had been to the ATM and only had twenty-dollar bills. I was about to give him one when he blurted out that he had been in prison. He wanted full disclosure of the person he had been.

Curious, I asked him what prison. He said Parchman Mississippi, remember we are in downtown Atlanta Georgia. I said I had been in Parchman Farm. “Farm” always seemed an oddity as Parchman Farm was the common name for Mississippi State, the oldest maximum security prison in the Mississippi Correctional System. He looked at me perplexed and asked why? I responded with my story of Champions for Life. He beamed. “Wait, wait,” he said as he reached into his back pocket for his wallet. Out of this worn and cherished piece of cowhide came the Bill Glass Four Spiritual Laws. He was radiant over the discovery that we had a common bond. He regaled me with the story of his conversion and the change it had made in his life. He was animated, happy, almost giddy over it.

I was stunned. I came downtown to get a PC repaired and ran into an encounter with God. I was dumbfounded. The odds were so incredible that they were inconceivable, except for the hand of God. God used this moment to validated my work. He knew what I needed and erased my doubt.

A sidebar on this event was that when I was leaving for home, I saw this same man taking a homeless woman into McDonald’s. He saw me and yelled, “I only needed a couple of dollars, so I am spending the rest on her.” The ripple effect through eternity is breathtaking. 

The Moral

God validates our good works. The risk comes from taking that validation too far. We start thinking that we have some supreme power that makes us indispensable to Christ. That is where CS Lewis’s warning comes in. When we forget who we serve, forget from whence of gifts come, start keeping score, we lose our real sense of purpose. It is always about the people you are sent to serve.

Proverbs 22:4 “The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.”

Posted on

The Greatest of These is Love

1 Corinthians 13:13, “But now these three things abide: faith, hope, love; but the greatest of these is love.”

There are days when there is both joy and pain in what God tells me. I want some alone time, suppressing everything distracting. But it is not to be, the world will shortly wake up and a new day will begin

.God speaks to me in short sentences that are not easy to remember. The clarity of a moment ago is lost in the present.

I cannot recapture what God has told me this morning, but I will try. It had to do with the importance of love and correspondingly loss. How are these two concepts united? I have a sense of longing for deep, true love. This longing is both good and bad. Good because it is built within all of us to love and be loved. Destructive because that longing can become an obsession. It drives many of us to do things that are contrary to God’s will for our lives. When this happens, we come into conflict with the very God that breathed life into our lungs. This conflict invariably brings pain and a sense of loss.

11 John 4:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Many of us, most of us, and maybe all of us; have come into conflict with love. We have loved mightily and lost. We have felt the searing pain that goes to the very marrow of our bones. It is so intense that we have to remind ourselves to breathe. It so envelops our being that we think that it will never cease. There will be no relief. There are not words or actions that will make it go away. We start to see this pain as an extension of ourselves, part of our DNA. It has permanently transformed us.

The lucky ones overcome this feeling and love again. The unlucky ones live with it in solitude for the rest of their lives.

This morning I look at the relationships in my life. I know that my existence is because God has a purpose for me. I will pursue that purpose with abandon. It is what keeps me going. I also know that all of the deep relationships I have around me will someday bring me a sense of loss. That loss will come through death or disappointment. Just as my passing and possibly my actions will bring suffering to others. All earthly relationships end — the stronger the love, the greater the pain. I will not forsake the love to avoid the pain; it is because God first loved me. God experience incredible pain to show the extent of his love. He gave His son to die on the cross. God will forever live with the knowledge of that sacrifice. It is part of who He is, and it ripples through eternity.

Romans 5:8, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

So, I sit here in the darkness of early morning, embraced by the God of the universe, trying to make sense of who and what I am. I am a survivor. Like all survivors, I wear the scars of my battles — the more extraordinary my triumph, the deeper my scares. Death would release me from all of this, but it would rob me of the joy of life. I am an alien here on earth. My home is in heaven. 

Philippians 3:20, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

While I am here, I am driven by love to take as many people as I can home with me. To do this, I must overcome my fear and love them as long and as deeply as humanly possible. My obsession should not be for the comfort of being loved, but the joy of loving.

There will come a day of rest, but not before my work here is done

James 2:18, “But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

Purpose Driven Life Proudly powered by WordPress