Tag: Purpose

Purpose or career driven searches that might use vocation, job search, calling, passion, or direction as descriptors.

Posted on

Waiting on God

Let me start with a short story about patience. On the very first visit to a prison, God helped me better understand patience when waiting on God. I went with Champions for Life, and I was in Broad River Correctional, Columbia, SC. I was standing next to the rail overlooking the cellblock below me. I was in this particular location to avoid speaking to the inmates. Because it was my first visit, I was uncomfortable, and I didn’t feel I had anything to share. So I was hiding in plain sight. I was there without really being there.

My thoughts were on a hundred things without landing on anything, fleeting moments of clarity that dissipated like the fog in the morning sun. I know they were there, without knowing what they were. Then I heard, “I have been praying for weeks that my lawyer would find a way to get me out of here.” This inmate had settled next to me, without making eye contact with me, and started talking to me. You see, he wasn’t a Christian, but he thought he would try out prayer. He didn’t expect anything, but he had hope. I was a Christian; maybe I knew the answer.

Jeremiah 29:12, “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.”

The good news was that this was a conversation that didn’t require scripture memorization. This inmate didn’t know scripture. He had no preconceived theology. He didn’t even know if he had the right to expect an answer. He just made a statement. New evidence came to light that proved his innocence. But getting released was a process, not an event. A lawyer had taken his case and was working on his release. For two months, the inmate hadn’t heard a thing. That had to be incredibly depressing; to have spent years in prison knowing you are innocent, evidence finally surfaces proving your innocence, the release would come from outside the walls, and you were stuck inside.

I can’t remember the exact conversation as none of the words were mine. It went something like this; there was evidence to be reviewed, docket to be cleared, maybe hearts to be softened, liability to be assessed; God’s time is not our time. I remember his response; “Thank you, I prayed for encouragement, and He sent it through you.” That floored me. I couldn’t remember what I said; how could it have been encouraging. Was what I said even true?

1 John 5:15, “And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

What I took away from that weekend was to wait upon the Lord. I’m impatient, get it done, execution is everything type of guy. Ideas are a dime-a-dozen; success comes from following through. With my first visit to a prison, my challenge was that I wanted to experience changed lives, souls reborn. I wanted God to provide me with immediate fulfillment. I didn’t see this first visit as a step toward a new destination; it was the new destination. I fall into this trap all the time. I’m impatient about God’s plan for my life. Everything is significant, and I want to know why. I want instant feedback to confirm I am on the right path.

How do these seemingly false starts keep me on the right path? Why hasn’t this person or that person responded the way I thought they should? Why has nothing happened when I have worked so hard? I am waiting on the evidence that God is with me.

Mark 11:24, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

The second I ask, the prayer is answered. When Jesus saw the fig tree without fruit, he cursed it. But it did not die right away.

Mark 11:12-14, “The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.”

Mark 11:20, “In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots.”

The fig tree died from the root. It started dying the second it was cursed, but the evidence wasn’t clear until the next morning. God answers prayer the second we ask, but the fruit of that blessing may not be seen for some time. My impatience saps the joy out of that blessing. Sometimes when I don’t get what I want, when I want it, I stop looking and miss the blessing altogether.

Today I have a situation that I have prayed about for years. I have not prayed for a specific resolution, just that one happens. I want God’s will to be done. It ebbs and flows like the tide crashing over the shore; good days followed by bad days followed by good days—every fiber of my being screams out to walk away. I’m tired of it all. But a small, meek voice always cautions me to be patient; one day, God’s plan will be revealed. One day.

God may send someone to encourage you, He may not, but the blessing is already happening. Know that it is happening and know that God is faithful in all things.

Romans 12:12, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

Posted on

The Hand of God

Genesis 45:8, “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.”

Today Joseph visited me. He wanted to remind me of something. Remember, Joseph is the guy that alienated himself from his brothers. He listened from the bottom of a well as they bartered away his life. His flesh and blood despised him so much they sold him to an infidel as a slave. Later he was wrongfully accused and sent to prison. Despite all Joseph had been through because of his brothers’ actions, he held no animosity toward them. Instead, he believed the hand of God was in everything.

Joseph reminded me of Ester and Jonah and others in the bible that endured heartbreak and calamity on the path to great things. Joseph consented to God’s power and had hope because of it. Jonah feared God’s providence and ran from it. Ester had to be told by Mordecai. They all were on the path to greatness, but greatness was over the horizon out of view.

I am always reminded that great stories start from great sadness. We love the joy of overcoming and sometimes fly over the journey. We gravitate to the feel-good ending without savoring the life they lived. No one wants to retire in war-torn Beirut. We do not want to talk ourselves to sleep at night by reliving the struggles; we want to bask in the overcoming’s glory.

As I struggle through this day, Joseph reminds me that his journey was critical to his prosperity. It is through his story that he  has value. The things I face today can either be obstacles in the way of my happiness or stepping stones to God’s glory. It is my choice.

John 16:33, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble and suffering, but take courage—I have conquered the world.”

The bible is very clear that we will all face struggles in this world. Some of those struggles are of the nascence variety; some are devastating. Their value is mostly seen in the rearview mirror of life. The path is seldom flat, and wide, and lined with flowers. There are a lot of hills and rocks and roots. We shouldn’t lose sight that every twist and turn has meaning and value; God’s cemented His plans in everyday actions.

I love Mordecai’s statement to Ester:

Esther 4:14b, “Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”

What we face; what we endure; what we triumph over is part of the fabric of our lives. It is part of the great tapestry God created for you before you came into existence. It is one of the greatest stories ever told, written by the most incredible author in the universe. It is meant to be lived. As hard as that may seem at times, it is true. Joseph was in a well listening to his family, betray him. Ester lost her family and was sent into exile to serve a pagan king. Jonah survived in the stomach of a whale. Each of these had their moments. We, too, will have ours.

It is what we do in those moments that define us. It is who we see in the mirror that determines our greatness. Our efforts do not create our greatness, but the action of the one who made us just for this moment. The courage we must muster is not the courage to overcome, but the courage to reach out our hand and ask our creator to take over; not to struggle and persevere, but to fall into His grace and turn the fight over to Him. Only through Him can we prevail. We can’t see over the horizon, but He can.

We live in trying times. Our plans are on hold, and the future became a fog of uncertainty. God knew this. It is part of His plan for you. It is times as these where we as Christian become separated from the weeds.

Matthew 13:30, “Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.'”

When our time comes, we want people to remember our greatness. We want them to remember how we held tight to God’s promise. We want them to remember when we could have taken the low road, but chose to have faith. We were born for times, such as these.  It is in these moments that God marvels of the greatness He created in us, and the greatness we chose to pursue. Today, choose to make God smile.

Posted on

Peter Pan

Peter Pan said, “You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it.”

Peter wasn’t wrong. Paul put it a little differently.

Philippians 3:7, “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.”

Many people, men, more likely, have sacrificed everything else to gain power, privilege, wealth, or fame. The worldly trappings and the expectations of others drove their view of self-worth; they believed Peter Pan before they believed Paul. They thought that the uneasiness they felt was the product of not having enough. It was just the next thing that would make a difference. Many would look back on their lives and see that they had sacrificed everything in vain.

I don’t want to be that man. I want my life to count for something. I want to leave a legacy that will echo through eternity. In my death, I want to be bigger than life itself.

Matthew 6:19-20, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on Earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.”

The world pulls at us with the gravitation pull of the Sun. It wants to keep us in its orbit of mundane, meaningless accomplishments. Eventually, our orbit will decay, and we will find nothing but a fiery finish. When the time has run out, we will realize that all that we accumulated will either be forgotten or exploited by others we have never met. We cannot reach back for a do-over. The do-over starts now.

Ecclesiastes 5:15, “Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb, and as everyone comes, so they depart. They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands.”

Joy is a choice, and God wants us to choose joy, but happiness is also part of God’s plan. Not perpetual happiness with laughs and birthday cake, but true deep down happiness that grows from the soul. The type of happiness that brings tranquil sleep. It is a happiness that radiates throughout your body in quiet moments of reflection. It is a contentment that nothing else can give.

Peter Pan also said, “Never is an awfully long time.” To never experience the pure love of Christ is indeed a long time. It makes life a marathon in Death Valley, rather than a walk in the park. To always have to trust in yourself is exhausting. To always have to know the answers, have the plan, make a move, is to live a  life full of anxiety and worry.

Matthew 6:33, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Seeking His kingdom and His righteousness is not just to put your sights on eternity with Christ; it is to live a life worth living here on Earth. It is to free yourself from chasing the esteem from others and only pursuing God. It is about having the type of faith that knows that Christ is with you, and your needs will be met. There will be setbacks and challenges, but you are not in it alone. You do not have to create the person that God wants you to be; God already created them; you have to find them within yourself.

Peter Pan, “To have faith is to have wings.”

Peter Pan wasn’t all wrong, but I’ll take Paul.

Posted on

Answer God’s call

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 is 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 court yard 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 was the first time I actually saw him. You know if you avoid eye contact it’s not really real. 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 lost 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 a 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 just nag us over. He will plant the seed. He’ll water and fertilize it. He 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 Harry 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 make life worth living.

Be that person.

Posted on

Overcoming Challenging Times

Isolation with too much social media can amplify the challenges in our lives. We should view these challenges as a means to display God’s power and glory. Bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people. It is the result of living in a broken world. Making sense of it will drive you crazy. But there is one part that has to make sense. We want to know why when it happens to us.

Psalm 139:15-16, “My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 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.”

Darkness is relative. The darkness in our lives is relative to the life He has given us. Some of us will never experience what it feels like not to know when we might eat again. Some of us may cruise through life without ever losing someone without whom we cannot exist. Some of us will not fight addiction or fear or anxiety. But we will all drop into darkness at some point. The depth of that darkness is directly proportional to the degree that we experience hope.

Ephesians 1:11, “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,”

I have lived through very dark days. My rock is knowing Christ was with me every step of the way. My thorn was uncertainty. I know that my life has meaning. I understand that each morning when my eyes first open, I have a purpose. I know that the God of the universe, the most amazing being ever to exist, loves me. But when the path ahead of me is unclear, I fear. I do not fear the ending; I fear the journey.

Psalm 71:5-6, “For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. Upon you, I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you.”

Challenges are God’s way of showing just how much He cares. It is in the dark times His light shines brightest. It is when we cannot help ourselves, that He demonstrates why we should rely on Him and why we should always have hope. The journey is sometimes difficult, the path steep and narrow. There may be times when we don’t think we are up to the task and prefer to quit. But it is at that moment, the darkest of all moments when we should take God’s hand and rise.

1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

He is always with us. He wrote your story before you came into existence. He is the author of your life. Your life is not pulp fiction; it is an eternal biographical classic. Every story has to have moments when it seems all is lost. It is in these moments we see the glory of the author as He pens the impossible, comes from behind, overwhelming all odds rescue. That is our rescue, yours and mine.

Isaiah 46:10, “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.'”

Tough times will come. They will try men’s souls. If we let them become only tough times, we have wasted everything. If we use these tough times to experience the glory of our maker, we have chosen life over death. He will use us to demonstrate His power to the world.

Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

God loves you, unconditionally. He will fight for you even when you don’t have the strength to fight for yourself. He created you for great things. We know the ending, do not fear the journey.

Psalm 33:11, “The plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations.”  

Posted on

Jumping over the Bar

Acts 20:35, “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

A hard lesson for me to learn is that life has never been about me. As a strong “A” personality, I never really thought about life being about me, as much as I thought it was about being all I could be. There is a slight nuance in that statement.  The nuance is that I tried to optimize my performance with the resources God gave me, but not for the betterment of anyone else. I wasn’t narcissistic, just ambivalent. It was like God set the bar, and it was my job to jump over it. To me, this was a righteous attitude.

The Approach

My approach didn’t intentionally belittle anyone else, although, in hindsight, it was probably a by-product. Other people had their relationship with God, good or bad, and they had their bar. Their performance was their issue unless it hampered my performance. Then I use biblical principles to remove the obstacle, through mentoring or outplacement (I always hated that term). My life was my little private war. We should all play to win, that is the only way to play.

I know the moment it all changed. I had just given a kick-off talk at our annual all-hands meeting. I was looking over the crowd of employees; there were quite a few. The thought came to me, “What about them?”. What about them; they have their private war to fight. Then the light came on. It was never, ever, been about me. It has always been about them.

Hebrews 13:16, “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”

The Take Off

I don’t know how I could have been so stupid. If we back up and look at this for a moment, we will see that it is intuitively obvious. God’s greatest joy in life is to serve us. I know that sounds backward, but hang with me a moment. God wants us to be utterly dependent on Him. By God giving us what we need, He experiences joy in that we recognize we need Him to accomplish anything. Everything we have, or ever will have, comes from Him. God gets pleasure from us, asking, and then receiving blessings from Him. The caveat to this, less we start to think of God as Santa Claus, our asking has to be within His will. He will not give us things that are bad for us.

How does this translate back to us? It is not a matter of will I, but I will receive joy by blessing others. I started to recognize, in my little way, God had given me resources that I should use to bless others. I now try to do this at every opportunity and receive great joy because I do. Not that they should become dependent on me, they should always be dependent on God, but God could bless them through me.

Luke 6:38, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Think of the good feeling you get when you help someone out of a jam. That is a mild version of what God feels when we turn to Him in our hour of need. Then think of a time when someone was too stubborn to accept our help and how that made us feel. Do you not believe God may have some of that same feeling? God heaps resources at our disposal; it may be material resources; it may be spiritual resources; it may be experiential resources; we have a storehouse of blessings waiting to be distributed. We are part of God’s supply chain. If we hoard these resources, eventually, our warehouse will fill up, and our supply will dry up. One of the silly visuals I have is someone angrily running around reorganizing their warehouse so they can store more things. I want to shout “Dude, give some of it away, then you can get more.”

Malachi 3:10, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.”

The Finish

God loves us. He wants everything for us. There is no limit to the amount of joy He receives by blessing us if we will let Him.  There is no limit to the joy we can experience if we allow God to work through us. The bar in front of us is to serve others in much the same way God helps us. Be a plentiful resource for others. Get joy from their asking and your providing. Always remember to give glory to the provider of all things.

2 Corinthians 9:8, “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”

Posted on

Pandemic Pause

In speaking, there is a handy tool called the silent pause. This pause enables the speaker to fill their lungs with air, allowing the audience to absorb what was said and create pictures in their minds. In Sales, there is an adage, the first to speak after a silent pause loses; that is, they have lost ground in the discussion. You see, people hate silence in a conversation. These drawn-out moments that require us to absorb and think are awkward. One of the reasons the “connected society” is so popular; two people can sit at the same table in complete silence, focused on their phone, and not feel awkward.

Lockdown

Lockdown has thrown the world into a silent pause. Thomas Lecocq, a seismologist at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, stated the volume of the earth’s noises dropped significantly once the lockdowns started. He said it was a unique time in history because now they could study seismic events that they could not in the past. It was like the world implemented a white noise filter.

Trains and buses and factories shut down, people stopped commuting to work, and concerts, sporting events were canceled. Airplane traffic dived as destinations closed. The world went silent.

This pandemic pause created a unique opportunity for all of us. Like many opportunities, it can have a good side and a bad side. The good is a chance to pause and reassess; it is an opportunity to improve and move forward. The bad is that we may have time to look too deeply at ourselves and not like what we find. We may dwell too long in the awkwardness of it.

Listening to the Silence

It took me a while to adjust to the new normal. I usually wake a 4 a.m.; I’m at work by 5. The early quiet in the office allows me to get the bureaucratic tasks under control before the hum of the day starts. It starts to crescendo by nine, and then it is off to the races. Now, well, it is different. The crescendo never arrives; there is just a constant hum. So, I sleep later and work later. I have trouble knowing what day it is. If I need to take a break mid-day, I do. If I think of something in the middle of the night, I get up and do it. I now run on a 24-hour clock. It is decidedly more peaceful, less stressful, less urgent.

But it is filled with silence, at times, mind-numbing, deafening silence.

It took a while to learn to fill that awkward silence in my head with something meaningful. I had to shut off the random thoughts freely flowing through my brain. It was like listening to a crowd of madmen spouting anything and everything. I needed a new order for my thoughts. I had to set goals and channel my thoughts to achieve them.

 Hearing the Music

What brought me back to moving in the right direction was scripture; It has great stories that entertain, it has beautiful poetry and sound advice. When I get stuck in a cul-de-sac of lousy thinking, there is always a verse that pulls me back.  

When I’m thinking along the wrong lines, I go directly to:

Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report: if there is any virtue and if there is any praise, think about these things.”

I’ve gone there so many times I know it from memory.

When I start to think about my inadequacies, I think of:

Moses– He was a murderer, and his people rejected him:

Exodus 2:4, “The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?”

But in the end, God spoke to him face-to-face as a man speaks to a friend:

Exodus 33:11 , “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend.”

David – The Bathsheba ordeal is mind-boggling:

2 Samuel 12: 7-9 ,”This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down, Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.”

And still, God thought of David as a man after His own heart:

Acts 13:22 ,”And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’

There are more; this is just the start. There are great passages that tell stories about great people, all of them flawed, all of them a lesson in Character.

When I start to feel down, or I just need a lift me up:

Romans 8:38-39 ,”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.”

Matthew 6:25-27, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can anyone of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”

Joshua 1:9, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged; for the Lord, your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Psalms 18:28, “My God turns my darkness into light.”

Isaiah 40:31, “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Silence is when God speaks. He won’t compete for your attention unless it is absolutely necessary. God will wait for us to calm down, relax, and start to listen. It is there that He speaks to our hearts.

Posted on

Visions of Heaven

Think of this as comfort food for my soul. Being human, and living on the great blue orb spinning through the space, I think in terms of what I know. We all have our personal view of Heaven. My view might help you paint yours.

1 Corinthians 2:9 “But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”

When I think of Heaven, I think of a vast expanse of glory. It is covered in a brilliant white light that has no origin. The sky is azure blue with puffy white clouds; there are streets with light posts that actually work. There are tree-lined boulevards and gentle streams.  There are beautiful mountains and rolling pastures.

I don’t want a grand mansion. I want a small shack on the wrong side of the tracks. I’m a guy who will be elated just to be there. I want to walk down the streets and see the true greats of God’s kingdom. I want to meet Agur and Jabez.  I want to remember people who did the small things in my life that kept me going in the right direction, people whose names I have long forgotten or may have never known. These people are pivotal to my being here. It is not only the strong, great Christians that I will always remember for the years they spent mentoring and modeling for me, but it is also the person who saw me in a single dark moment and cared enough to lift me.

I want to go down to the Pearly Gates every sunset to welcome the crowds of people coming home. I want to help them feel welcomed and loved and appreciated. I want them to feel as I do.

What I want, more than anything, is to be sitting in the park by the lake, or maybe a small patio restaurant off the beaten track. As I eat my pizza or hot dog, I remember the great swell in my heart when God called my name.  As I am lost in a memory too great to describe, a person breaks the silence to say, “Hey, are you, Tomme Stevenson?’. He’d say, we met in Kenya, or Kyrgyzstan, or prison, or Roswell Day of Hope, or on the street outside a MARTA station. Maybe we met in a parking lot in Asheville or a McDonald’s in Atlanta or the mountains along the Chattooga River. I had said something or did something that changed their heart. I want to know that I made a difference for His kingdom.

I want to know that there are people here, embracing the God of the universe, reveling in all His glory, that I helped get a ticket. I want to know that there are people who did not get left behind because of me.

I want my sidewalk café and my morning coffee. I want Gracie, the greatest Springer Spaniel to ever live, by my side. Most of all, I want God to call me His friend.

Revelation 21:1-4, “Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Posted on

A Lesson from Solomon

Ecclesiastes 2: 26 “This also is pointless and chasing after the wind.”

This morning I was lamenting my last days of employment. You heard that right; I was lamenting the prospects of retiring and of never working in my chosen field for the rest of my life. Trust me, I have heard all of the “are you kidding?” comments from friends and relatives. I love what I do and have done it for almost a half-century. I have committed to retiring at 70, so I will.

My dad drilled into me the importance of keeping your commitments, all of them. Seventy was a long way away when I made this commitment to myself; now, it is here. Fear not, there will be another season, the Lord works out everything for its proper end.

Ecclesiastes 2: 18-19, “Then I despised everything I had worked for on earth, that is, the things that I will leave to the person who will succeed me. And who knows whether he will be wise or foolish?”

Many of you are far from the finish line. Some of you can relate to my situation, and some can’t. I can’t imagine spending a third of my adult life doing something from which I couldn’t wait to get away. But that is another story for another time. Whether to love your job or hate it, this message is for you.

My lament is along the lines of; who will take my place? Not that I am narcissistic and believe I am irreplaceable, I’m not. I have no great idea or vast wisdom, but I have a place. I am a cog in the wheel. It is not the tasks I do to keep the company running as much as it is what I do to support the people around me. I have friends and relationships that I cherish. Many of these are younger people that would never “hang” with me after retirement. Work is part of the cadence of my life; it provides a purpose, direction, and a sense of accomplishment. That is a lot to leave to someone else.

This morning King Solomon was asked by God to help me understand my priorities. Ecclesiastes 2 was my reading for this morning. I think of some of the greatest names in history; they’re names with extended biographies. We intellectually know about them, but they are pieces of data. Much of what they accomplish has been rewritten by those who followed.

I am afraid that everything I do here on earth will have minimal value. Sooner or later, it will either be surpassed or forgotten. Every accomplishment, and every idea, will turn to dust. What will be left is my eternal impact for Christ.

Ecclesiastes 12:7 “And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”

Here would be my advice, no matter where you are on your journey, serve only God. Use the position God has given you to move His Kingdom further down the road. Treat your situation as your mission field. It is not the money, or status, or ideas, or accolades that will survive eternity. It is the people you will meet again in Heaven.

Proverbs 16:3-4, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. The Lord works out everything to its proper end— even the wicked for a day of disaster.”

I will miss the past. I have more anxiety for me than then the ones I leave behind. I will miss them more then they will miss me. God has turned the page in my life; a new adventure waits for me. He will use what I have learned to keep kicking that can down the road.

Colossians 3:17, “And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”

Here is the full passage, and it is worth taking the time to read.

Ecclesiastes 2: 18-26 “18 Then I despised everything I had worked for on earth, that is, the things that I will leave to the person who will succeed me. 19 And who knows whether he will be wise or foolish? Either way, he will take possession of everything that I have done on earth, especially where I have excelled. This also is pointless. 20 So I came to be in despair about everything I had accomplished on earth. 21 For sometimes, people who strive to obtain wisdom, knowledge, and equity leave everything as an inheritance to a person who never worked for it. This, too, is pointless and greatly troublesome.

22 For what does a person gain from everything that he accomplishes and from his inner life struggles that he undergoes while working on earth? 23 Indeed, all of his days are filled with sorrow, and his struggles bring grief. In fact, his mind remains restless throughout the night. This is pointless, too!

24 The only worthwhile thing for a human being is to eat, drink, and enjoy life’s goodness that he finds in what he accomplishes. This, I observed, is also from the hand of God himself, 25 for who can eat or enjoy life apart from him? 26 After all, to the person who is good in God’s sight, he gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy, but to the sinner, he gives the troublesome task of acquiring and accumulating in order to leave it to someone who is good in the sight of God. This also is pointless and chasing after the wind.”

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.”

Purpose Driven Life Proudly powered by WordPress