A Trajectory of Destruction

Have you ever heard of “hurry up sickness”?

 

Even if you haven’t heard of it, you have probably suffered from it. Don’t be confused, hurry up sickness is not busyness. Being busy might be a symptom, but most of us who are trying to make a difference in someone else’s life, our families life, or even our own life will be busy to some degree.

 

What i’m talking about is a schedule that leads to a behavior that causes a mindset which produces irritability, feelings of futility, difficulty in relationships and a general displeasure with things that should be fun and/or satisfying.

 

When busy turns your everyday into something like this, you have hurry up sickness. This has been the subject of my daily devotions in a journal thatI am working through recently. It’s been a challenge to hear words like slowdown, process, and “be in the moment you’re already in”.

 

Most of us seldom sit down long enough to enjoy the moments of our day. In fact, wherever we are at any given point on the timeline of our lives we are usually rushing to get on to the next point. So, during these devotional times I have been required to slow down, meditate and really try and let the Lord speak.

 

The Lords prayer which is so familiar to us is easy to skim over because we think we’ve already covered it. But, that seems to be the point. I was instructed to go over each line of that incredible prayer, chewing on each word and thought, journaling what the Lord was saying. I want to encourage you to do the exact same thing.

 

It might take you a half an hour, or an hour, or maybe even a weekend. But, one thing I know for sure… it will be worth it!

 

I don’t want this to influence your own experience, but let me share with you right out of my journal as an example of what I hope god will produce in your life. The following reflects my reflections of the Lord’s prayer back to God.

 

After you read this, scratch out your own time where you are alone and in relative quiet… read through the Lords prayer slowly (Matthew 6:9–13)… write down everything you think and feel.

 

There are no wrong answers, just the opportunity to spend some time with your Maker.

 

Our Father- I have never really known a father, but I desire that role for my own life more than all others. I believe a father to be Continue reading “A Trajectory of Destruction”

What does tertiary mean anyway?

After nine months of study and filling no less than six hand written journals, today I have completed a spiritual journey.

 

Long ago, I decided to study the book of Romans with more depth than I ever studied a single book. It’s been a blessed, frustrated, beautiful, agonizing endeavor (and, no, I am not being dramatic).

 

But, here, even on the last day as I pour through Paul’s concluding remarks, I am smacked in the face by a lesson I can’t wait to preach. So, let’s blog it!

 

In his 27 verse long conclusion (he sounds like some preachers, I know, I know, yuk yuk), Paul sends his greetings to 26 individuals, two families and three house churches. But, one greeting stands out in an amazing way!

 

Romans 16:22 I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.

 

Tertius was a scribe (a secretary if you will) who wrote down the letter as Paul dictated it. For this one brief verse he breaks form and speaks in the first person, to say “Hi” to all the believers in Rome.

 

This is so amazing because Romans is so amazingly Continue reading “What does tertiary mean anyway?”

Watch your mouth

We really need to learn to be careful with our words.

Most words are important and tend to get thrown around flippantly. And, I don’t mean  just the bad ones.

Criticism, condemnation, cursing all cut deeply. Even if the hard to hear words were not spoken with malicious intent.

For example, I got to play bass with our worship team at a children’s camp a couple weeks ago. It was so much fun and the kiddos were totally into it. There were a couple of days I was really feeling it, and loved saying, “I’m with the band.”

But, one day in the lunch line this precious little 4th grade girl asked me, “Why are you so old and the rest of the band is, like, teenagers and stuff?”

She didn’t mean a thing by it, but I have done at least a 1,000 sit ups since then. Pass the Rogaine, please!

I think its obvious we need to watch what we say when negativity (intentional, or unintentional) comes tumbling out of our sound holes like a devastating mudslide. But, that’s not what I’m writing about.

I think we, especially believers, need to be careful how we use our words, even in a positive sense.

For example, watching the NBA playoffs… by the way… you did hear that the Dallas Mavericks are world champions… MMMMAAAAVVVVEEEERRRRIIIICCCCKKKKSSSS!!!!

Pardon me, getting back to the original thought, watching the NBA playoffs I have innumerable times seen a Bible-believing, Jesus-trusting professional athlete give a court side interview and thank Jesus for the win, or give glory to God.

But, have you ever heard an interview from the losing locker room where some dejected, defeated athlete asks, “Why does Jesus hate me?”

Or, worse yet, have you heard an athlete give glory to God in a halftime interview and them watch them mouth the F-bomb half way through the third quarter.

We need to watch Continue reading “Watch your mouth”

When you can’t wait on hope

Don’t you hate that, “We’ve got good news and we’ve got bad news” conversation.

It’s always followed up with the question, “Which one do you want first?”

Neither! Why don’t you go back out the door, fix the bad news and then come back in here with just good news… sound like a plan?

But, it never happens that way. Taking the good with the bad just seems to be one of the natural processes of life:

  • You get unexpected cash, and the car breaks down
  • You get some time off, you get a cold
  • You get married, you… wait, I think you get it

It’s a pattern that plays out almost everyday, but the blessings are hard to see. For example, you would not have had the money to fix the car (bad news) if the unexpected money hadn’t showed up (good news).

This same pattern seems to be confirmed in Continue reading “When you can’t wait on hope”

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means

I love Easter! I even love Easter for the stuff that we “serious” Christians should not love it for:

  • small children in new Easter clothes
  • that fake plastic grass you put in the bottom of Easter baskets
  • Cadbury eggs… Oh, thank you heaven above for those eggs
  • the knowledge that the week after Easter they’ll start putting the Christmas displays up at Walmart

I just love this time of year, even for those nonreligious, way over-commercialized things. But, the reason I love Easter the most is because of what this time of year means for people of faith.

We celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. We were lost in our sin and desperately needed a Savior. The God of the universe became flesh for us, lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death, all for the purpose of paying the price for us, a debt that He did not owe. Then after three days in the tomb, He rose from the dead putting an exclamation point where the devil wanted to put a question mark.

He’s alive!

The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves that He is who He said He was; that He had the authority to do what He came to do. Easter is awesome.
Every year during this holiday I feel the need to clarify some Christian vocabulary. I think we have trouble with the word Continue reading “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means”

Wake up!

Below is a writing from the most beautiful of The Addi. My wife has some amazing things to share and teach, but is often reluctant. So, until I can get her to start her own blog, I will continue to steal her stuff and post it here for you.

——————–

Some people like to be scared, I don’t. Some people, like my beloved husband *note sarcastic tone* think it’s hysterical to try to scare me. Thankfully after 16 years of marriage I am catching on to him and can usually avoid it. There is still one device that he will occasionally use that I can barely tolerate having in our home…an alarm clock.

I hate (yes, I know that is a very harsh word and shouldn’t be used lightly, but it is very applicable here) waking up to an alarm clock! I find them to be a tool used by the devil to put me in a very bad mood. I know many people who use them regularly and wouldn’t think of getting up any other way, but for me it is almost a guarantee that the rest of my day will be cranky.

The sad thing is that I have always been this way. I have never appreciated that piercing sound regardless of what setting I had it on. It was always the most wretched sound I can think of!

For me the thought of being yanked from my dream world of slumber in which I am typically playing a role of some kind or being chased down an old empty hall by a guy with the head of Will Smith and the body of a goat while I’m wearing a prom dress, is frustrating and profoundly annoying.

For as long as I have had to use the awful things, they have started my day off on the wrong foot. I feel the need to apologize to my Mom and sister for being so hateful on so many mornings growing up.

Consequently, as a means of maturing in my faith, and trying to save my marriage by not being such a grouch I started earnestly praying about this very subject 12 years ago. Through His amazing grace and forever faithfulness, He planted an idea in my head that seemed so crazy, but a welcomed alternative.

After the birth of my oldest son, God gave me the incredible blessing of being able to stay home with him, and I no longer had much of a need for an alarm clock. I really appreciated this, but there was on occasion a need to be up before my kiddo and I was presented with the same old issue.

That is where this idea was brought to life. As I prayed about having a better attitude, God made it very clear to me that I needed to learn to trust Him more, in all things.

The verse in Proverbs 3 that says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will direct your paths.” began to make a little more sense.

I confessed my weakness of being easily irritated by such a little thing like an alarm clock and asked God to help me have more trust in this. He offered me a solution that has worked for me everyday since.

I trust the Lord to get me up when He feels I need to be up. I ask Him to give me enough time to get done what I need to and He has faithfully woke me without fail for the last 12 years. Even on those mornings when we have had to be up super early, He always gets my attention.

Here’s the kicker, when He wakes me, I better get up! See, this arrangement doesn’t
just depend on Him finding amazingly creative ways to wake me, the other half is me doing my part by obeying Him and getting up when I feel His gentle nudge.

God has been very creative in the ways He wakes me with things like our cat meowing me out of bed, my husband snoring (which is rather unusual) or the traffic outside. There have been a few times when I really think He has simply whispered my name.

Regardless, He wakes me and my day is better, no matter when He decides to do it. That is one aspect of this arrangement that I had not really planned on. His schedule is not always the same as mine. There are many mornings that He will wake me when I am certain it is way too early, usually around 5:00am.

I know many people get up by then and even before, but for me, that is EARLY. He knows that is when it is the quietest in our home and He and I can spend some quiet time together. I would love to say this is the way it always happens, but sadly it’s not. I am very often stubborn and disobedient.

I don’t pretend to ‘get’ all scripture and I am far from a theologian, but I believe God has given me a very practical application to Proverbs 3:5-6. I trust Him in the simple matter of getting me up in the mornings and I seek His will for me in what time my day will begin.

I am so thankful for the privilege of serving a God that cares about even the smallest part of our lives.

God may not be wanting to be your alarm clock, but He is wanting to be be the One you trust, depend on and seek. In the many arenas of your life like marriage, faith, career and family, we need to let Him set the agenda.

When He whispers your name, however that whisper comes, it’s time to wake up!

God bless the mess

Sometimes we need to look at what we’re not looking at.

Coming into work each day is pretty routine, unless it’s the day after services. I must admit, walking into my office on those days is usually frustrating.

The reason it’s frustrating? It doesn’t have anything to do with the life of our church, workload, or cantankerous individuals as you might think.

No, the reason it’s frustrating is my children!

Because we have 7 services each weekend, and I want my children to love church and not hate it, we don’t require them to attend every time their parents do. One church (or one children’s church) and they’re done for the weekend.

But on the occasions that mom and dad have to be there and they have to be in the building, I’ve tried to create a sanctuary in my office for them.

There’s a PlayStation for some video game action, movies from Netflix, and a computer to play on… basically a child’s hideaway and a little bit of paradise away from the pews.

Continue reading “God bless the mess”

It’s time you got put in your place

One of the hardest words in the English language is also one of the best words: wait.

Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.”

Great verse, makes a wonderful refrigerator magnet, almost nobody I know lives by it… including the author (insert sigh of desperation here).

But, the benefits of waiting are reflected in the receiving.

When we wait we get what is almost always better for us. In waiting we allow God to do His work. When we wait we are ready to receive the bigger, better, righter (yes, I know it’s not a word) thing that God wants us to have.

When we don’t wait, we move too quickly, too impulsively, too selfishly, and we tend to get the cheap imitation of the thing we really need or want. We too often get less than what God wants for us. We get what we can get a hold of, not what He wants to give.

For example, how many marriages have dissolved because two young lovers just wouldn’t wait? They forced a marriage that was never meant to be.

How about finances? How many of us have ever bought into the “greatest deal ever” only to live in total regret within a few years, months, weeks or even days?

It’s a pattern that’s all too clear. It’s just weird that we don’t learn from it. It’s like a dog who keeps going back to the same human for a good scratching, but every time he goes there he just gets kicked. Yet, he keeps going back.

We’ve got to learn to wait. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of getting kicked!

Continue reading “It’s time you got put in your place”

Just hanging with the herd

My wife and I argue regularly about two things in our life. Argue might be too strong of a word. It’s more like regularly spaced, prolonged, futile debates.

We’ve been ‘discussing’ them for so long that we actually smile during these confrontations, realizing neither one will move the other… and, we’re growing kind of conformable with that scenario.

I guess thats just marriage…

Continue reading “Just hanging with the herd”