Honk, Honk . . .

Or, toot, toot!

What sound do ships make?  Like when they’re coming in….. like right now.

Good people, Christians are playing the lottery, going to casinos, investing and working so much overtime.  They’re still digging for gold, drilling for oil, waiting for that one big break.  They’re hoping for the raise, the promotion, the private office with the title on the door.

Solomon, the Israelite king, wisest of all kings, would call this “chasing after the wind.”

And it is such pointless effort, when your ship has already come in.

Do you think money will solve your problems?  Of course, all churchy people will say no, but how are we living?  Do you think your job, your portfolio, the car you drive will bring peace, joy, fulfillment?  We all say no, but what are we pouring our lives into?

Jesus Christ, His will, His plan, His life has been and always is the only thing worth my time and effort.  He alone can place me where I need to be to find joy, goodness, love.

And He is already inside of me.  He is already acting on my behalf, fighting for my protection, orchestrating all of heaven and earth to bring me the best of everything!

So what are we waiting for?  What are we longing for?  He is here!  He is ready to bless!

Miracles are about to happen!

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Married and Boring

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Yesterday, I was awakened somewhere in the wee hours of the morning to the screams and cries of my grandson.  They are staying with us for awhile so that my son-in-law can get his visa.  It hasn’t been easy on any of us with him in Mexico and mommy and baby up here without him, but they’re making it.  We’re making it.

We wonder where our time is running off to.  So many things happening, marriages, babies, yes and funerals too, practices, church, work, business and we feel like we never get to slow down and breathe.

So then I read this post where someone said her friends were married and boring and it got me thinking.  Now she was only kidding but we tend to classify things that way.  Kids are less intelligent, incapable of doing some of the cool things that we can do so we compartamentalize them.  Young teens are full of hormones and don’t have a clue what they’re doing, box them up and there you go.  High schoolers and college people think they know everything but don’t have any common sense, roped off, dealt with.  Young adults making huge decisions without any experience to know the impact of those decisions.  Middle aged, married and boring.  Old people, really boring, plus they’re dying and smell bad.  Taped them all up and put them in their place.

We often do this because we can’t see through their eyes.  Sometimes, it’s because we’re proud.  Sometimes we wish we were there and it makes us jealous.

I am married and boring.  I admit it.  I work a lot.  I write.  I play guitar and sing.  I jump and dance.  I hold hands with my grandson.  I still get to hear my teenage sons tell me that they love me.  I listen to rock.  I laugh and do crazy things sometimes.

I rode a mechanical bull recently and actually did ok.  My wife was shaking her head and wondering when the next ER visit was coming but I survived and patted myself on the back.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I think every age is pretty cool.  There are opportunities and blessings that every season brings us.  I hope I’m never too old to rock but should that day come, I know God will give me something else cool to do.

Life can be a blast.  Maybe it depends on what you choose to make of it.

HA!  Maybe every day can be something amazing if we just look for it.

Then we don’t ever have to be boring.

Home Alone (The Christian Caper)

What do we do with our moments alone?

I talk to lots of people throughout my day, throughout my week.  Everyone struggling, fighting, kicking, sometimes winning, often losing, worried, harried, stressed.  I am too often right there with the masses.  A big question on everyone’s mind is, “how do I get ahead?”  The lottery is such a draw because it gives an option, it provides a hope that things will not always be so difficult.  We envy those who have made it, questioning their morals, their scruples, what it took for them to achieve their status in our eyes.

It comes down to one question.  What do we do with our moments alone?

The guys who sell their souls and families to pornography, to prostitutes, to drunkenness, these are glaring examples of wasted lives.  The soap operas and gossip columns seem so innocuous as to be laughable in comparison.  Romance novels, eating, bingeing, purging, sports bars, internet, video games, revenge, bitterness, hating, fearing.

What do you do with your time?

See, the bible says that satan comes to “steal, kill and destroy.”  All the things that we do fall into two categories, those things that make us better, those that make us worse.  And even that is often determined by how we process, ingest, the things that we see and hear.  We have a choice with what we put in and we, at certain levels, have a choice about how it will affect us.

But don’t be deluded, satan doesn’t care if you have fun.  He doesn’t bring things so that you feel better.  My flesh doesn’t crave only what makes me better.  He wants you and me destroyed, burned up, broken, ruined, mutilated, bleeding, crushed.  My flesh just wants more self, more, more, more.

Strange that God would provide so many good things by the cross, by our daily taking up our cross.  Satan provides honey glazed, sugar and sprinkle coated cow shit that only was designed to kill us.  My flesh gives me empty cravings that can never be satisfied but leave me more empty, more hollow.

And it all depends on what I do when no one is looking, when no one is around, when no one sees.

I say we set up the booby traps of prayer and fasting.  I say we surround ourselves with others in pursuit of God.  I say we fight till our hearts come under the submission to His will.  I say we make the choice to be who we should be, even when we’re all by ourselves.

Then it will be our turn to say, “You guys give up or are you thirsty for more?”

Love is spelled T-I-M-E

I had to remind myself to read the bible today.  Totally forgot to pray.  I had other things on my mind.  Maybe ok for someone who doesn’t know Jesus, who hasn’t walked with Him for the past 34 years.  Definitely not ok for me.

I sing my worship songs every Sunday.  I feel His presence and know a taste of His glory.  Now it’s Wednesday and I’ve forgotten to pray.

It is so much easier for me to focus on the things I’m angry about.  The financial worries that consume my life.  The promotion that I’d so much like to get.  I think about my sons and the life events they are going through.  I miss my daughter, my son-in-law, my grandson.  Tick-tock.  Time’s a-wastin’.

I have books to read, books to write.  Movies I HAVE to see.  Music to practice, instrumentally and vocally.  Plans for future.  Recruiting, discipling, encouraging.  Tick-tock.  Tick-tock.

Where am I supposed to find time for You, my Sovereign?  Where do I find the reserves to invest in You, the Source of all life and truth?

There is truth to finding the time, making the time to spend alone and quiet with God.  But that isn’t all He requires.  Think of a marriage where for one hour a day you sit quiet and talk.  Good, healthy, beneficial.  But only as a starting point.  We were meant to live every moment together, quiet and crazy.  It isn’t a check list – there I did my time with Him.  It is an on-going relationship where He promises to “never leave us…”  We need our quiet time with Him.  We need even more to include Him in every moment of our day.

Talk to Him like He’s there.  Rant about your frustrations like He cares to hear how your day is going.  Sing to Him when you feel like singing.  Mention you love Him when you’re not sure that He’s sure.  Ask Him questions.  Tell Him your fears.  Spend your day with Him.

Tick-tock.  Make it count.