Bloom Where Planted (A Reflective Entry on Nehemiah 05)

I was driving a friend to dinner one night and happened to have a conversation with her over the phrase “bloom where you are planted”.  You may have grown up with the phrase, like I did, but she is from a different country and was unfamiliar with the phrase. 

“Bloom where you are planted. Basically, it means to grow wherever God puts you. You know, like a flower blooms in the soil.”

Then, my friend made a very valid statement, “But sometimes, the flower dies.”

Ah, yes.  Sometimes the flower dies.  Sometimes the plant withers and the heart breaks.  Sometimes the dream is turned to dust.  Sometimes the walls are destroyed.  Let me be a little vulnerable here: sometimes I don’t bloom.  Sometimes my dreams are crushed and sometimes my walls are destroyed.  Sometimes, all the work of my lifetime that I have put into a task or a project is looked over and I’m left wondering, “What is left?”

Well, a fragment.  Fragments are left.  Nehemiah’s city was fragmented.  And what did he do with the vision God placed in his heart?  Nehemiah led his fellow countrymen (and women!) into a strategic plan to rebuild what was fragmented.  The key to their success was to take what was in front of them and build it up based on the threats that were specific to their part of the wall.  Each person was responsible for a little part, and their little part, in turn, helped fortify the whole city.

God has a vision for rebuilding us, too.  When you or I find ourselves left with pieces of a fragmented dream, or even a reality that went badly wrong, God will step in to redeem these fragmented pieces and build something even greater out of them, if we let Him. 

Garden of Gethsemane, Israel
May 2012

You see, sometimes the flower dies, but sometimes it only dies for a season.  Sometimes it just needs to be replanted into richer soil (like when you lose a job and are relocated), fertilized with the right nutrients (like when you become sick and have to cleanse your body of the sickness), watered (like when you are simply drained from life and need to take time to rest and recuperate), or placed in the right light (like when you have a bad day that helps you see a different perspective). 

Chapter 3 of Nehemiah shows us that God’s plan for our success involves not just where we’re at, but it is also about taking advantage of the other resources He has given us in this place.  Also, we learn that no success is found alone – there are always people surrounding us and God directing us.  As in blooming, I may be the best gardener ever, but God alone sees that the seed opens and life comes forth.

Blooming is not easy.  Blooming requires lots of growth, lots of change, lots of waiting, and lots of weather changes.  But this process also develops strength and beauty that cannot be found in a closed seed sitting in soil. 

Dare to pick up the pieces of what is left.  Dare to go to God with a fragment and work with Him as He rebuilds what has been broken and lost in your life.  Dare to bloom where you have been planted.

Questions for Reflection

• What things in your life have been shattered (seemingly) beyond repair?
• Can you see where God has had a divine purpose in allowing these things to happen?
• How might God use your broken walls to draw people closer together? How might God use your broken walls to draw people to Him?  What makes the difference in bringing people together and bringing people to Him?
• Are you willing to let God restore what has been lost in your life?
• What is holding you back from daring to live a life of Christ-honoring influence in the place God has planted you?

Solid Ground amidst a Shifting World (A Reflective Entry on Nehemiah 04)

Wait. 

Wait wait wait wait wait…..!  Ugh!

Many of us struggled with this part of Lesson 04 of the Nehemiah study.  We share a passion to see things done effectively and efficiently in our world while still keeping a perspective of how things are affecting those around us.  But to tell us to wait?  Haven’t we waited long enough? 

Often, I find myself in the same boat as these amazing women: filled with a vision of destiny and yet so very limited by my “here and now” circumstances.  You may liken it to a paraplegic who was once an amazing athlete or a person in the throes of the aging cycle who used to be so independent.  Waiting can feel like a trap.  And acting on a whim can feel like the solution. 

But a whim fails.  Sure, sometimes you pull it off without a hitch and internally wonder “how on earth did I make that happen??” Most times, though, the whim is an immature response to our fear of the wait. 

What a great encouragement Nehemiah’s example was, then!  He waited in prayer before he spoke to the king, he waited in inspection of the city’s status, and he waited in sharing the king’s approval of his mission (Nehemiah 2:20).  Likewise, we can have freedom from lies that tell us we have to rush forward when we remember that restraint is not a bad thing.  Waiting helps us to see a different perspective while God works out the details. 

• Details like officers and horsemen to protect you.  Nehemiah did not ask for them, but the King provided them anyways.  Earlier, Ezra needed them as well, but was ashamed to ask for them (See Ezra 8:22).  Despite Ezra’s shame and Nehemiah’s lack of shame, God provided.  God does not need us to come to Him with all our shame, but He does not turn away from us when we bring it to Him either.  In both circumstances, He provides exactly what we need.  And so we can confidently wait on Him. 

• Details like opposition that is already in place.  Nehemiah likely knew of Ezra’s opposition when he tried to rebuild the wall years earlier, but he had no way of knowing what was to come.  Sanballat and Tobiah proved to be deeply threatened by Nehemiah’s attempts to rebuild the wall.  Nehemiah needed the confidence that God had sent him, not the king.  As the footnotes in my Bible read, “Knowing that God is behind your task is the best incentive to move ahead in the face of opposition.” Certainly Nehemiah’s preparation for this task showed that God was behind Him.  God will show us too, when we seek Him.  And we can confidently wait on Him for this also.

Sanballat and Tobiah were city officials, probably similar to mayors or governors as we know leadership today.  If the city was rebuilt, Sanballat and Tobiah would receive less money in taxes, which would be reason enough to be threatened by the welfare of the city and its people.  Even more threatening was the knowledge that the rebuilding of Jerusalem threatened their entire position of power.  Think about it – would you be more threatened by a decrease in pay or a possibility your job was going to be eliminated? 

Their response makes sense from a worldly perspective.  In order to survive in our world, we often find this threat creeping into our lives.  It may come in the form of competition in our workplace, jealousy in a circle of friends, or a broken economy.  Why?  Because the root of the problem is not work, not jealousy, and not opportunity! The root of our entire issue with waiting is security. 

We desperately want something true and solid to stand on in life, so we look to jobs, property, relationships, or wealth.  Every single time we are disappointed in the long run.  Everything we use to try and stand on aside from God’s truth fails us.  And I would challenge you with this today: it was made to do so!  Do you get that?  Our world was designed to collapse so that we would land on the one thing that does not shift for all eternity: God.  (See Hebrews 12:27)

All this from learning about Nehemiah’s wisdom in waiting… wow!  It’s hard to imagine how nearly 2,500 years ago there was a man living in a world so dramatically different than ours, and yet we can relate so intensely to his story!  That’s the thing: it’s not about Nehemiah’s story.  It’s about God’s thread through history.  He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and His truth applies to every generation.  Including ours! 

Jerusalem at Sunrise, May 2012

Questions for Reflection

• Nehemiah’s waiting makes me wonder: what caused him to wait?  What life experiences caused him to stop and consider things before he acted on them? What life experiences have charged you to wait before you act on, or react to, something?
• What things do you find yourself turning to when life gets tough?  Does this thing have a possibility of failing you?  How would you react if even that one thing crumbled?
• What are some active ways you can choose to wait on God and seek Him for your confidence instead of other forms of pseudo-security?
• Do you get annoyed or frustrated when you see insecurity in others?  Take time to pray for the people you know who are struggling with a very obvious form of insecurity. 
• What vision have you had for your life that you are still waiting on God for?  Has He given you any direction to act on that vision?  Do you ever fear acting on something God tells you to act on for fear of not being able to tell what the result will be?  Pray for God to give you confidence to step out when He gives you a vision.

Judging a Book by its Cover (A Reflective Entry on Nehemiah 02)

I grew up doing musicals.  

Without sharing my life story with you, let it suffice to say that memories involving music, drama, or arts, always seem to stick with me.  One of the musicals I was in at some point in my childhood was called “O Me, O My, O Nehemiah!”.  The first thing I thought of when I heard about this Bible study was one of the predominant memories that remains of this fun little children’s musical: Nehemiah rebuilt the wall (see what I mean here if you are unfamiliar with what wall I'm talking about).

I say all of this to tell you one thing: the book of Nehemiah is so much less about the rebuilding of a wall... 

In fact, in all the peripheral research I did in personal preparation for his week’s group study, almost every resource I came to primarily talked of Nehemiah’s focus on prayer.   Prayer.  He was no engineer, after all.  He was a trusted, faithful leader that relied heavily on prayer.  For this reason, when we study Nehemiah, we may have to throw away some of our cozy childhood memories of our Biblical expertise and look at what the book really says.  We’re only in week two of this study, and still on the brief chapter one, but already we see a foundation Nehemiah builds in his life that has little to do with cutting or moving stone and a lot to do with relying on his communication with our Creator.

There are some very distinct truths that we can pull out of these 11 verses about Nehemiah, about our lives, and about prayer. 

We can pray with confidence!

As a God-follower (specifically now, a Christ-follower), we can have confidence in prayer.  Nehemiah demonstrated this confidence in that he knew the God he was praying to when he made his requests.  Nehemiah had a respect for God’s wonderfulness, he had a trust in God’s faithfulness, and he had a righteousness that taught him God was approachable.  Our attitude about prayer is often shaped by our attitude about God.  Nehemiah would have grown up learning about the attitudes toward prayer of Kings in his heritage, and one of them was Hezekiah.

Hezekiah prayed confidently to God in the same manner that we see Nehemiah doing so.  (See 2 Kings 19:14-19).  Hezekiah’s confidence was not just a boldness with the intent to flatter or manipulate God, but was to demonstrate his reliance on God’s faithfulness to keep His promises. We were reminded that prayer is not an opportunity for us to align God’s plan with our wishes, but as we seek God, our wishes are aligned to God’s plan.

Prayer brings success!

Do you see?  This is the answer to success in every area of life!  Prayer changes our heart’s desires to God’s desires.  God’s desires always match His great plan and purpose, and His purposes never fail.  Therefore, prayer always leads to success when we are seeking to have the heart of God, rather than seeking to have our own way.

God’s answers are immediate!

When we are praying for the plans and purposes of God to pan out, we can be confident that He has already answered those prayers.  Here are some examples: In 2 Kings 20, the prophet Isaiah came to tell King Hezekiah that he was going to die.  The King prayed as soon as the prophet left, and before Isaiah had passed through the courtyard of the temple (which was not very far at all-perhaps from your house to two doors down), God gave him the answer to Hezekiah’s prayer: “I’m giving you 15 more years to live.”  

Wow!  That's pretty immediate!

Consider also, Daniel and his prayer (see Daniel 10:1-14).  Daniel started praying and immediately God sent out the answer.  The angel sent to deliver the answer was held up for three weeks, though, and so Daniel kept praying.  Come to find out, Daniel’s prayers weren't just for an answer from God – they were for the delivery of that answer.  Do you get it?  When we pray, God answers immediately!  If we don’t see or know the answer immediately, we keep praying for the delivery of the answer!  God’s ready to dish out answers to prayer.  They are not as few and far between as they may seem, but we have a responsibility: act.  Pray.  Ask for what we need and then pray for a clear delivery of your answer while you praise God for what you can confidently trust that He has already done.

Prayer is valuable!

In verse 11 of Nehemiah chapter 1, we read that Nehemiah was praying with other people.   His request of God was not just to hear his prayers, but to hear the prayers of all the faithful people who have been in prayer.  Nehemiah was the spokesperson for his people at this time, but he was not the only person interceding through prayer for the Israelites and for the city of Jerusalem.  Sometimes we are in a place in life where we are a “spokesperson” – we are in the position and have the ability to speak up for that which we and others are praying.  But sometimes, we are the silent warrior, praying with other believers, expecting from our faithful God, but not necessarily writing a book about it or leading a movement for it.  Each prayer is vital.  Each prayer is valuable.  And no prayer goes unheard.

That “circumstance” in your life is your divine opportunity!

In fact, Nehemiah’s mentioning that he was a cup-bearer to the king wasn't necessarily as out-of-placed as it seems, initially.  The assignment of cup-bearer was a high honor bestowed on people that were loyal leaders and whose character had been tested.  This testing of character would have taken years, perhaps Nehemiah’s entire lifetime up to this point, but certainly before Nehemiah knew how God was going to use him.  Instead, while this verse states a fact, it also states a history: God had been putting this plan into place for a very long time!  His statement (in 444 B.C.) resembles the heart of what Mordecai spoke to Queen Esther approximately 40 years earlier (in 473 B.C.) – God has placed Nehemiah (like Esther) in the position and with the express ability to carry out a divine plan “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14). 

You can take heart from this, because it is a truth that runs like a thread through the entire Bible, through the ages, and into the timeline of your life today: God has placed you in a position, and has placed in you the ability, to carry out His plan “for such a time as this”.  Your job is not a coincidence, your neighbors are not a coincidence, and your car troubles are not a coincidence.  All these things that shape our lives – the “dailies” that we have to deal with – are all part of the plan that God has in mind – and they have been that way forever!  Trusting, honoring, and following God during whatever you’re dealing with is your opportunity to jump into a divine plan and see restoration happen in your life and in the lives of those with whom you come in contact. 

Logic can be our biggest ally or our biggest enemy!

Often, we fall into “logic traps”, leading us to believe that an answer from God was really not from God at all, but was because “that’s just the way things naturally happen”.  While this latter statement is true much of the time, the reasoning behind it is not true.

When you cut your finger and ask for healing, God may use a salve to heal your finger, but the salve was not the healer.  The salve may have been the resource, and your application of the salve was perhaps the obedience required, but God is the one who did the healing, not the salve.  This is what we mean by logic traps.

Nehemiah didn't succumb to these traps, though he was certainly a wise man.  He chose to bring the details to God and let God work those details out.  His prayer was desperate and brokenhearted for the heritage of which he had only heard stories.  Even with these disjointed burdens, Nehemiah knew that God was big enough to ease his burden, in whichever way was suitable to His plan.  Like the heart of Nehemiah, let’s be mindful to thank God for each and every answer to prayer – even those we don’t physically see.  And let’s remember that while logic has its value, nothing surpasses the power or value that is held in the very being of God.

Despite a busy week and a late, exciting night of preparation the night before our group meeting, I was stoked to share these truths with the ladies!  In choosing to dive in and figure out more about exactly what we are reading, we found that while historical records intrigue and stories themselves can delight, seeking out deeper truths helps us to re-cover our perspective on this book of Nehemiah and to recapture the essence of what Nehemiah was really about: drawing closer to the heart of God. 

Questions for Reflection:

• Have you ever had an event in your life that has caused you such great sorrow that you have wept for days or weeks?  What was it?  Did you take time to seriously pray about it?
• How would you evaluate your current prayer life?  Is there something you would want to change?
• Do you view prayer as a privilege, a job, or both?
• Knowing what we know about Nehemiah’s divine placement in history (like Esther, like Jesus, like Moses), can you see how God may be taking you through places and seasons that could bring Him glory and bring you long-term goodness?  We cannot know which way the hand of God will move, but working to see our “hard times” through the eyes of eternity can give us hope in the short-term.

People Can Be Messy (A Reflective Entry on Nehemiah 01)

People can be messy… especially me. 

You may not look at me and see it, but I've got a past.  I've got a history, a story of heartache and shame; a story of misunderstandings and a broken spirit.  I have it.  You probably do too. 

This is why joining together with friends to get down to the nitty-gritty of life can be messy too.

Tonight I spent about two hours going over chapter one of the book of Nehemiah in the Bible.  It’s a short chapter – only 11 verses.  It’s a scene setup, for all practical purposes.  Chapter one of Nehemiah doesn't have a whole lot of juicy detail that splashes on you from the pages of old.  Rather, it’s quite factual, with a little emotion from the perspective of the writer. 

But…

There’s so much more.  There’s always so much more, isn't there?  I have a history.  You have a history.  Nehemiah had a history, as did Jerusalem.  And while I’ll leave the historical perspective of chapter one to my friend and pastor here, I’ll give you some internal reflection. 

Consequences

My history is not much different than that of the Israelites.  I have had good days and bad days like them.  The Israelites were told that their sin would lead them to destruction, and God has issued the same warning to me.  I knew this even before I had an understanding of God in my mind. As children, we’re taught a basic moral concept of right and wrong.  As adolescents, we test this concept.  As adults, we live in its consequences.  Nehemiah wept at these consequences; his heart broke because of them. He did not weep because he thought it was unfair; rather, he knew how ugly his heart and the heart of his people had become.

Redemption

Still, Nehemiah knew the promise of God was not only to punish wrong, but was to restore what was lost when people did right. (See verses 8-9 in chapter 1.) God promised his people an option for redemption when they turned to Him.  God promises that for me, too.  Through Jesus Christ, I have this prescription for grace with no expiration date.  It’s available to me any time I call it in – turn to Jesus, He restores, He redeems, He heals.

Acceptance

Just like a medicine, I have to receive God’s grace.  I have to accept it, allow it to cover me, and allow it to heal me.  The Israelites had a lot of healing to do after being captive in Babylon, too.  They had a lot of rebuilding of their lives, of their city, and of their commitment to the right living God had planned for them. 

Amidst Bibles, brownies, and Boggle (the game!), I was allowed to be messy tonight.  I was allowed to share shame and my journey through redemption and acceptance of God’s grace.  I felt I was in safe company with Nehemiah – a beautiful soul that dealt with messy things.  But Nehemiah’s story was not unplanned.  And neither is my mess.  God has a plan to use me to rebuild things like He did Nehemiah.  He can use you too, if you let Him.  It might get a little messy, though.

Mangers and the Hard Stuff

It wasn’t wooden.

In fact, it may not even have been covered.

It was certainly crowded.

It most likely wasn’t winter, and most likely was sweltering.

…on the night Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

Mangers in Israel during the first century weren't wooden.  They were stone – like this one…

Manger on the ruins of Mount Megiddo (AKA "Tel Megiddo")
May 2012

Chances are, Jesus was laid in a pile of hay (or feed of some sort).  Depending on where the manger was, it may not have even been covered, or maybe only covered with a small tent sheet.  Given that the shepherds were in their fields, it was probably late summer to early fall that Jesus was born, not the dead of winter. 

There are so many unknowns about the circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus that could be debated over and over, but let me share with you my point: it wasn't wooden.  Jesus wasn't born into a cozy little warm stable on a cold winter’s night and laid in a soft wooden manger.  He came into a hot, sweaty, crowded town full of people registering for a census.  He was born to two tired parents who had just been rejected by society because of the possible “scandal” surrounding Mary’s pregnancy.  He was laid in a hard, stone manger to be displayed before visitors.  The manger never became “un-hard”, but the purpose of that manger was never greater than when Jesus was laid in it.

God took the Delight of eternity and stuck Him smack-dab in the middle of our crazy world in a hard stone manger.  He did it then, and has not changed His technique for all these years.  He comes smack-dab in the middle of our crazy, hectic lives and lays out His love on all the hard things with which we deal.  

Joseph and Mary dealt with a hard manger, a hard journey, a hard society.  We deal with hard questions, hard realities, and hard decisions every day. 

I deal with hard stuff every day.  But God has chosen to come right in the middle of those hard things and lay His Love out for me. 

...for you.

Jesus wasn't just a gift for Christmas.  He was a gift for every hard moment in our lives.  We choose to let Him stay in our mangers of the hard things.  What manger of your life can you lay Jesus in today?  The hard things won’t change, but they will finally have a purpose when we let God use them to show His love to a watching world.  

A watching world of 

kings… 

nobles… 

shepherds… 

innkeepers… 

presidents… 

children...

politicians… 

auto-body repair shop workers… 

hotel managers…

bosses...

the local deli owner...

parents...

neighbors...

Oh to be a Sam Stone

Max Lucado tells this amazing story in his book God's Story, Your Story: When His Becomes Yours, about a man named Sam Stone. 

Sam Stone was a man who lived in Canton, Ohio, in the 1930s. He simply wanted to bless others but didn't want to get the attention that even a blog as little as mine would give him. So until AFTER he died, his generous gift records were hidden away in an attic. 

"In 2008, long after his death, a grandson opened a tattered black suitcase that had collected dust in his parents' attic. That's where he found all the letters, all dated December 1933..."

Lucado goes on to describe how little Mr. Stone had yet how much he chose to give.  

O to be a Sam Stone: to make a difference without a title or a recognition, but to simply give out of the abundance we've been blessed with by God! To be satisfied with the extraordinary concept of the ordinary.

"Ordinary man. Ordinary place. But a conduit of extraordinary grace. And in God's story, ordinary matters." 

Once again, I'm challenged by the magnitude of the ordinary, and it's great place in God's plan for revealing Himself to the world.  Let's not lose sight of this: most of life is ordinary, yes.  But, ordinary has a huge part to play in showing who God to a very desperate world.

I would highly recommend this book. It's full of amazing, inspiring truths of God choosing to be a part of our lives. I don't believe you can be disappointed by this read. You can get it at many places. Click here for one of them.

From Vision to Reality: GCWS

Five months ago I sat in a hotel breakfast lounge on the west side of the Sea of Galilee.  We were getting ready to head out to a day of exploring the beautiful land of Israel near Tiberias.  My roommate and I were just enjoying our delicious breakfast when none other but our pastor, Pastor Dan Betzer, joined us at our table.  Wow!  What an honor!  To have someone you respect so much take the time to eat breakfast with you is something not soon forgotten.

We were glad to have him join us.  Not people to be shy, we included him in our conversation and enjoyed the humor he infused into it.  Then he hinted at a project he was working on, a vision, really.  Something that had been on his heart for a while but that God was just putting the finishing pieces together for it - and they were coming together quickly.  That was all.  He didn't share anything except that God was working out something big.

Now, if you know anything about Pastor Betzer, you know that God doesn't put small dreams in his heart. You also know that when God puts dreams in his heart, he doesn't see them as dreams, he sees them as goals.  The great lesson I've learned under Pastor Betzer's leadership throughout the years has been faith.  Faith, faith, faith.  Not that you can't have doubts, but that faith does not have to be swayed by doubts.

That being said, we didn't think much more of the conversation, and we enjoyed a magnificent day of touring on our dream trip.

Fast forward to now.  Much has happened, you understand, between then and now, to make now a reality.  But this was the work God was doing in Israel: The Great Commission World Summit.  It's like a huge fundraiser, yes: the goal is to raise $50 million in one night, November 2, 2012.

But that is just the tactical end of things.  $50 million represents millions of lives impacted by the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  It is not about the money.  It's about what will happen with the money.  It's about getting Jesus into the hands of people who have not yet heard of him.  A project like this has a ripple effect that will last for generations to come.

Consider Paul's challenge regarding sharing the good news about Jesus:

"But how can they call on him [Jesus] to save them unless they believe in him?  And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent?  That is why the scriptures say, 'How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!'" (Romans 10:14-15)

 You can be a part of lots of things that help spread the good news about Jesus, and I don't discount one over this one.  This is just another opportunity, and I encourage you to be a part of it, whether by coming to the event on Friday night, or by streaming it live, or by sharing it with people you know.

For information on the project, you can visit their website here.

The Great Commission World Summit from First Assembly of God on Vimeo.

Let's show the world the incredible gift of Jesus!

Abortion, the Holocaust, and Salvation

Isaiah 1:18
Come now, let us reason together....

I'm not a fan of trickery or fooling people.  I'm very passionate about people knowing Christ and committing their lives to Him, but no change comes from deception.  This is why I so appreciate Ray Comfort's approach with people.  Give him a chance - he may come off as pushy at first, but you will see towards the end that he was only provoking conversation.  There's no commitment card signed by people in this video, only thought-provoking conversations that encourage people to make an informed decision in their own time.

I also appreciate his down-to-earth approach at the fact that we are all sinners - none of us are perfect, none of us are worthy of God's favor.  But we have a "parachute", we have a "bridge", we have a "lifeline", and that is Jesus Christ.

I encourage you to watch this video if you have not.  What are your thoughts?

Look Up!

I tend to choose books to read that are hard to read.  That is - they are so full of mindful nuggets of wisdom and thought-provoking subjects, that it takes me (literally) years to get through them. So it is with Joyce Meyer's Battlefield of the Mind.  

One of my favorite verses (I know, I have a lot!) is from Genesis, when Abram was discouraged about his situation.  God told him to take a moment and look all around him...  turn in a circle... do the whole panorama thing...  take it all in... because this was going to be his land.  God promised Abram everything as far as his eye could see. (Genesis 13:14-15) 

A neat point from this passage is that everything around him - all the vast, fertile, beautiful land - that was always there.  But Abram's problem wasn't the existence of it, it was simply seeing it.  Seeing it as the personal promise God gave to him.  

Here's what Joyce Meyer says about it in her book:

This passage clearly reveals that even though Abraham [formerly Abram] found himself in less desirable circumstances... God wanted him to "look up" from that place where he was to the place that He wanted to take him.

...I encourage you to take a positive look at the possibilities of the future... Think and speak about your future in a positive way, according to what God has placed in your heart, and not according to what you have seen in the past or are seeing even now in the present. (pp.195-196)

If you have any experience with dancing, you know that looking at your feet the whole time generally messes you up more than if you just focus on the movement of the person you're dancing with.  I like to think of life as a great dance with God, and as long as I am focused on Him, He whisks me around this dance floor of life with grace and beauty and strength.  

Will you join me on this dance floor, will you look up and into His face?  Will you let Him lead you into all grace and beauty and strength?  I promise the floor is big enough for all of us. 

2012 Goal: Be Who I Was Made To Be

There are things that we have to do in life that - man - we just do not want to do.  We don't want to face the challenge, we don't want to deal with the possibility of defeat, nor do we want to fail.  We sometimes play the voices of our past critics in our head and battle their attacks with ways we can be better to, essentially, prove them wrong.

Last year, my brother went through Officer's Candidate School, and was thrown into a class of incredible, incredible men and women all pining to be dubbed officer's for the US Army.  His class's cutoff scores for physical fitness was higher than any other class before him, and he made it by a hair.  Every day was a challenge - a good one, at that - but a challenge nevertheless.

During this same time, I was taking state exams and not doing so well on them.  I've always been a high achiever, so it hit me hard to be so uncertain about my scores.  My brother was able to call me for a few minutes one day, and we talked about how what really matters at this point is that we have done our absolute best, and that we pass the test.  Not that we actually come in first place, but that we pass.  We've both found ourselves in leagues of extraordinary people this last year, and it's been exhilarating to be in their company.  Humbling, too.  What this means, though, is that while our best score may be the worst one of the group, it's still our best.  And our best is still good enough.

My pastor, Pastor Dan Betzer, quoted Theodore Roosevelt this week, and I was very encouraged by his words on pressing forward.

It is not the critic who counts:  not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better.  The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.


"Citizenship in a Republic"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910*

So please make a resolution to live with me this year, to be who we were made to be, to jump in our life's arena with the heart God put into us and move with Him.  After all, He earns the right to be a critic since He's right there with us all along.



*Retrieved from http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/quotes.htm in January 2012

Remembering the Good in the midst of Tragedy

December 7, 1941 was a terribly tragic day in the beautiful Pearl Harbor.

I think of how many family members were looking forward to seeing their serviceman come home and spend a short holiday with them in just a few weeks. I think of how many servicemen couldn't wait to go home and hug their family members and just spend time with someone that they knew they would feel safe sharing their heart and their joys with.

What a terribly tragic day. 

And yet at the same time, I cannot ignore the incredible sacrifice that was given that day.  The servicemen, and their families who lost them, gave up so much for a war that we were able to eventually win.  They didn't have to, but they did.  And they knew all along that the sacrifice was a possibility.  This sacrifice has not redeemed the attack on Pearl Harbor, but it certainly shows a good thing: honor.

This is real honor to me - someone who knows the risk, someone who knows the sacrifice, someone who knows the need anyway, and who does the necessary to protect the ones they care for so dearly. 

70 years ago, 2,402 Americans were killed.  2,402 families were shattered.  And this tremendous sacrifice has made it possible for me to live my life today - a free, victorious life full of promise.  I hope I live my life with as much honor in my respective life purpose as all of those who sacrificed so much on December 7, 1941. 

And if they could all read this, I would want to say with all my deepest gratitude:

Thank you.





To read more about Pearl Harbor, you can find some information here.