Giving Thanks

Holidays get crazy don’t they? They bring out the best in people but often they also bring out the worst in people. Check out this story about one family at the holidays.

The day before Thanksgiving an elderly man in Phoenix called his son in New York and said to him, "I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; 45 years of misery is enough. We’re sick of each other, and so you call your sister in Chicago and tell her."
Frantic, the son called his sister, who exploded on the phone. "Like heck they’re getting divorced," she shouted, "I’ll take care of this."
She called Phoenix immediately, and said to her father. "You are NOT getting divorced. Don’t do a single thing until I get there. I’m calling my brother back, and we’ll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don’t do a thing, DO YOU HEAR ME?"
The man hung up his phone and turned to his wife. "Okay, honey. The kids are coming for Thanksgiving and paying for their own flights."

I've always loved that story. Kind of speaks volumes about the world we live in doesn't it? There was a time when you couldn't imagine a Thanksgiving without getting together with family and loved ones to give thanks for all of the blessings that we have. Today, for so many of us the meaning of the day is lost in the middle of cooking, and deciding what football games to watch and making plans for Black Friday. For some, Thanksgiving is really Black Friday Eve!

I promised myself I wasn't going to create just another "the secularization of a Holiday blog," but here I am.

Truth be told, if you can read this, it means you have a computer and internet access. Many of you are reading this on your smart phones. If you are cooking right now, or setting the table for this evenings Thanksgiving feast / dinner, you are so much more blessed than MOST OF THE PLANET.

I can't begin to list the things I have to be thankful; the promise of eternal life, a wife who is a true partner and helpmate, a healthy, smart, talented daughter, a job where somebody actually pays me to do what I am called to do, an extended family that loves me and that I love dearly (though don't say it nearly enough), including parents who trained me up in the way I should go, a church family that is just that, health, a home that is truly a safe place for me to rest, the orange tree in my backyard... the list just GOES ON AND ON AND ON...

What can I say? I am blessed and highly favored by a God from whom all blessings truly flow, and if you take a good hard look at your life, you will find that you are blessed as well. We all have things to be thankful for.

I am so grateful today, and give thanks to the people in my life who make my life fuller and to the Giver of life for all his blessings.

What are you thankful for today?

"O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever." ‎1 Chronicles 16:34

I CHOOSE TO BE DANCING!

Donnie McClurkin is one of my favorite singers. Inspirational, Gospel or otherwise... the man can sing and move you like very few can. On his latest album, he has an song that says:

I choose to be dancing. I choose to be singing. I choose to be loving, every moment I'm living. I don't mind the crying. Life can be trying. But when it's all said and done (said and done) I CHOOSE to be dancing.

What a great outlook. It's kind of the way I've always looked at life. I've come to learn that there are things I can control and things that I can't. All I can do is all I can do. I need to trust God to do the rest. 

I refuse to spend my days worrying about things I have no control over. The truth is, the diagnosis is what it is, the bills are what they are, the exam is coming. I can't change those things. The only thing I can control is how I react to them and I how I allow them to affect me. It makes no sense to lose sleep over things you can change. JUST CHANGE THEM, and if I can't change them, will worrying fix it? 

Will I be any more effective if I stress and freak out?

I choose to be dancing and singing and loving. I recognize that there are going to be difficult and painful moments in life. I WILL walk through the valley of the shadow of Death. I just refuse to pitch my tent there. I am going to keep walking; learning from every experience, growing from every lesson, and serving at every opportunity.

I HAVE DECIDED that I am going to find the silver lining. It's a choice that I make. I can choose to be depressed by the bad or I can get excited about the good. I am BLESSED. I am NEVER living the worst case scenario and that alone is reason to sing, to dance, to be grateful, to hug my wife and kiss my baby, and to sleep well every night.

Deuteronomy 7:9 says:

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.

HE is faithful, I'm HIS kid, so I'm gonna be alright. Need a better reason to dance? 

When it's all said and done (said and done), what do you CHOOSE to be doing?

Seasons and Purpose

Ecclesiastes chapter 3 says

^"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." 

When we are going through seasons of need, hardship, troubles or transition we need to remember that no season lasts forever.

Sometimes we get so caught up in complaining about or whining about why God is allowing us to go through what we are going through that we lose sight of the fact that the word says "all things work together for good for those who love Him", and we don't learn what we are supposed to learn because we are so caught up trying to understand the process that we stunt our growth because we don't go THROUGH it.

Or we look at a new season as a step back or a step down, instead of looking for what this season will teach us in preparation for the next one. Are you supposed to learn contentment? Is this an opportunity for growth? Is this an opportunity to learn patience? Show Faith and trust? Sow into someone else's life?

I think about what Abraham must have felt when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac. Our daughter is a miracle baby herself, so I kind of relate to how Abe must have felt towards Isaac and can't imagine what he felt when he heard God's voice that day.

What I DO know is that it was important that Abraham not understand what God was going to do, because if he had know that God was going to stop him and that there was going to be a ram in the thicket, then it negates the test and the lesson that if we truly trust HIM to keep his promises, then we can step out on faith and understand that HE really will provide.

Jeremiah 29 says " I know the plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

If we really believe in this God then we can face every day with certainty and confidence,  knowing that this season will pass, and as it does, I will learn the purpose that HE had when he destined it for my good!

What are the opportunities the season you are living is bringing into your life?

The Perfect Ending

FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2010

Comedienne and Actress Gilda Radner once said:

"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity."

“Delicious Ambiguity.” What a phrase. How amazing it is to find beauty in the unknown; to understand that life isn’t about any one destination; it’s not about arriving, but rather it is about the journey. Once you’ve arrived at your goal, there’s always someplace new to travel to.

People who hike, who REALLY hike, don’t do it because they want to arrive at a particular place. Usually they hike somewhere only to turn around and hike back. It’s really about enjoying the hike… the views, the sights, the experience.

The beauty of the journey of life, however, is that it CAN have a perfect ending. I was at a funeral today, and although Martha was very ill for quite some time, what people remembered, what they spoke about, was how full her life was, how much she loved God, and how she was now in her eternal reward. The perfect ending. Not in the here and now where things are temporary and fade away; but in the eternal.

How do you see your journey?

Frogs on A Log

THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 2010

Five frogs are on a log. If four of the frogs decide to jump off how many are left? I'll give you second to think about it...
...
...
The answer? Five. Why? Because there is a big difference between deciding to do something and actually doing it.

People make decisions all the time:
"I need to lose weight"
"I'm going back to school"
"I'm going to stop _________________."
"I'm going to start_________________."
"I'm going to get my relationship right with God"

The issue is that those decisions, often made from a place of need, anxiety, fear, anger, or even excitement or joy, have no real weight to them until they are put into action. It's easy to make grandiose statements about change, look at New Year's Resolutions. It's much harder to commit and act on those decisions (again, look at New Year's Resolutions).

What decisions have you made about your life and what are you doing about them?

My GPS and Me

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2009

I love my GPS. My wife got it for me for Christmas last year, and, being that I have a REALLY bad sense of direction, it quickly became one of my favorite gadgets. I even downloaded a variety of voices to make it more interesting (no trip is complete without Yoda or G.W. Bush telling me where to go).

I recently had two totally unrelated conversations with two people who are close to me, that made me take a hard look at myself. Not in a way that was critical or deprecating, but rather in way that challenged some of the "givens" I had about myself and the world I lived in (one conversation wasn't even specifically about me, but rather a discussion on people and happiness in general in response to a question I asked).

Being able to take a clear and honest look at ourselves and really evaluate where or who we are, especially when that evaluation challenges some of our presuppositions, is hard; but it's necessary if we are going to grow and make real decisions. A GPS always starts with where you are, before figuring out how to get you where you want to go. I will say that I am not done marinating on either of the two conversations, but I know that when I come out of this time of self-reflection, I will have a better understanding of who I am, andthat will help me get where I should be going.

Where are you on your journey?

Tis the Season

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2009

Shirley Temple said that she stopped believing in Santa Claus when she turned six years old. That was the year her mom took her to see him in a department store and he asked her for her autograph.

Too often the "magic" of Christmas, the joy of the season, the truly unfathomable greatness of the gift of Christ is lost amid the secular, corporate, consumerist monster that our culture would have this season become. Truly the "magic" of Christmas, that pure thing you see in the eyes of a small child on Christmas morning can only be held as we get older through a relationship with The One who gave that first Christmas gift.

Are you keeping the gift of Christmas alive in your heart?

THIS IS A TEST, THIS IS ONLY A TEST

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2009

Do you remember the feeling you got in school on the day of a test when you were REALLY prepared? When you had studied and walked into the room with the confidence of knowing that you were going to do well?

Maybe you've had too many of the other types of days. The kind where you knew you weren't prepared and you felt disaster looming before you even tried. That kind of stomach-turning feeling of failure that comes with walking into a test you aren't ready for.

Too many of us live our lives in that second place; where decision after decision, assignment after assignment are faced with dread and trepidation. But if we understand that we have access to the Master Teacher, who has given us all the tools we need to succeed and all we need is the discipline to study and get proficient in the use of those tools then we will have so many more days like the first one, of confidence and success.

What are you doing to prepare for the tests of life?