Be Not Afraid

A week before Thanksgiving I tweaked my back and it has been giving me trouble since. Back problems are nothing new to me, but they always just go away. This time it did not go away though. It progressively got worse and so I went to see a doctor and they prescribed some medicines and all of those medicines gave me side effects (at one point I think Suzanne thought I had cancer and was going to die) and then finally I got an MRI and they discovered that I had ruptured a disc in my back (then I thought that I was gonna die!)

When the doctor told me the news I really thought I would puke. I had to have him open the office door and get me some water it was so bad. For several days after that I was irritable and really worried. It wasn't just the 'roid shots they gave me either. I was scared that it wouldn't heal, that I would have to have surgery, that the doctor might hit a nerve when they operated on me. All kinds of things were running through my head. Fearful things.  Over time though I remembered a song that John Austin my area director had played for us at a YL staff retreat and I began to calm down, I began to relax and I began to trust that God saw me, knew me and loved me. The song that he played that day has calmed my heart through many trials and situations. God has planted it inside me and brings it out whenever I need it.  John took a lot of flack from some of the other staff folks for playing a somewhat cheesy version that was sung by monks, but I love it and am thankful for it.

I have heard it said that God, in one form or another, tells us to not be afraid more than any other command in the Bible. The world wants you to be very afraid. The enemy of your heart wants you to be afraid. Afraid you don't drive the right car, that God doesn't really care, that you aren't pretty enough, are going to go broke, don't know the right people, will never find healing and the list goes on and on and on. But the God who loves you says in his word....

You shall cross the barren desert, but you shall not die of thirst.
You shall wander far in safety though you do not know the way.
You shall speak your words in foreign lands and all will understand.
You shall see the face of God and live.

Be not afraid.
I go before you always.
Come follow me, and
I will give you rest.

If you pass through raging waters in the sea, you shall not drown.
If you walk amid the burning flames, you shall not be harmed.
If you stand before the pow'r of hell and death is at your side, know that
I am with you through it all.

Be not afraid.
I go before you always.
Come follow me, and
I will give you rest. 

The refrain is the part that I love and sing in my head when I need to hear from him. To be reminded that whatever I am encountering and whatever is happening, he is with me and before me. This is a link to an equally cheesy version of the song if you would like to listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBH-Eh9Bjjg&playnext=1&list=PL0FFD26345FE4A297&index=4

Blessings...

The Recabites

The Recabites... ever heard of 'em? Yeah, me neither until the other day. I did something that I don't do very often. I simply opened my Bible and just read wherever I opened it and I came upon the Recabites. They are an old testament group of folks in Jeremiah 35 that God used as an example to the people of Israel.

You see they had an ancestor that gave them some commands from God and he said that if they would simply follow what he told them they would live long good lives in the land they were in. The people of Israel have  not been listening to God and have been going off doing as they please. God has Jeremiah go and let the people of Israel know that he is not happy with them because they have not been doing what God told them to do over and over again.

This little story got me to thinking about how important it is to have people in your life that are speaking truth into you. Telling you things that are going to help you have a full life worth living. Things that point you to God. I can't tell you how grateful I am for the countless people that God has given me the opportunity to hear from. Some for just a talk or an encounter and some for many years. It is not enough though to just have them in your life, we need to follow the example of the Recabites and heed their advice and be open to what they have to say to us.

It also gave me a different kind of encouragement. For a few weeks now I have been meeting one time a week with Ryan and Matthew and going through a Bible study in the back of my FCA Bible called, "Starting Line". It is allowing me to pour into the boys as they begin to grow. To stop one time a week and purposely look at God's word together (we probably spend half our time just looking up verses, but that is just fine), see what our need is and what he has done to fill that need and then see what that means going forward as they live out life as 2nd and 5th graders at Orchard park and in our neighborhood.  It has been really fun. This morning Matthew had to be excused because he simply could not stop laughing after Ryan was reading in Hebrews and stated that there is no longer any difference between Jew and Geek! Of course he meant to say Greek, but it was too late once it came out.

I am not sure that I would recommend just opening the Bible and starting to read, but the story about the Recabites made a great impression on me. It reminded me about the importance of listening to those that have gone before us and can speak wisdom into our lives through their actions and words and then turning around and sharing the truths of God's word and what he has done in our lives to the next generation so that they might live a long good life in the land.

...the Way of the Master

Ephesians is one of my favorite books in the Bible and Chapter 6 verse 4 is very challenging for me. Here is what it says:
⁴Fathers, don't exasperate your children by coming down hard on them. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master.

As I said before, I am reading a book with my brother that is called Integrity, but I have dubbed it The Quan and it is really challenging me. As the father of 3 boys that live life at full tilt my home is rather crazy, noisy and difficult to keep tidy. Last night I came home to Ryan having taken apart his entire airsoft rifle and scattered it across the kitchen table, Matthew dancing and flopping around on the second floor so loudly that it sounded as if he was going to come through the ceiling and did I mention that there was a paper target tied to the tree in the front yard, several pairs of muddy boots in the driveway and a boomerang laying in the yard. The rest of the evening was filled with more than its fair share of accusations and frustrations of trying to get things cleaned up, who made what mess and should be accountable for it and then of course the jabbing and nagging of boys towards each other.

Later that night while Suzanne was wrapping gifts I was reading The Quan and a couple of lines really hit me right in the nose. In them Dr Cloud talked about the fact that at home, just like at work you want to win the hearts of your wife and children through true care and empathy and then they will be more likely to follow you out of love and respect not because you have forced them to by shear will power (which can be easy for me to do with my young boys). That is exactly what this verse is talking about in Ephesians. I don't want to exasperate my kids so that they do what I ask in the short term but want to get out from under me the first chance they get. I want to lovingly "lead them in the way of the Master" so that they will want to follow me and ultimately him. It is something that takes great thought and focus for me though. I often have to check myself and evaluate my words and actions so that I do not find myself exasperating them and being too heavy handed with them.I have to constantly be checking my words and motivation. So that as the Bible says, when they are older they will have that foundation of love, discipline and faith and not stray from it. Thanks for the challenge God, Paul and Dr Cloud!

Turn Around

The word repent can be translated, turn around. I heard my friend Allen Levi sing a song at our church in Greensboro many years ago and was looking for some Christmas music on the computer yesterday and came upon it on his website. It is a Christmas song of a different kind.

This song reminds me of how much love Jesus has for each of us. How he sees us and loves us just as we are, yet longs for us to turn around and follow him. To repent of the things that we have done that have caused bumps and bruises on others as well as forgiving folks for the scars they have left on us. Neither is easy sometimes. The baby Jesus, the creator in flesh, though calls us to change. He calls us to bold and daring moves that don't make sense like The Word  becoming flesh and moving into the neighborhood to save that which has been lost. He calls us to turn a round and trust him and as the song says we are often scared to turn around and walk a different way than those around us. To walk differently than the rest of the world. God please give us the courage to turn around follow you in new ways this Christmas season and beyond.

Below is the link to the song if you would like to listen. Blessings...
http://www.allenlevi.com/songsandstories/LandBackwards.html

The Quan

What is "The Quan" you ask? It is a word used by Rod Tidwell in the movie Jerry Maguire to refer to the total package. To Rod the total package means love, respect, community and money. According to Rod, "Other football players may have the coin, but they won't have the 'Quan'". My definition of quan may not line up exactly with Rod's definition but I do love his enthusiasm and spirit in the movie.

My brother and I had a great conversation today about a leadership study that we are doing and a book that we are reading together. It is called "Integrity", but I have taken to calling it The Quan! I really enjoy these times with him and today was a good one. We spent time talking about the kind of wake that we are leaving behind us in life. We thought about our wake at home, work and in our community. 

I think this is going to be an important study for us because as life changes the demands on us change too and this study is going to have us asking ourselves good questions like: Are people in our wake more trusting after working with us? Are they more fulfilled as people? Were they stretched and inspired to become more?
Or, instead are they wounded? Less Trusting? Do they feel let down and manipulated?

The book is by Henry Cloud and in it he talks about the fact that we all will have our metal tested in life and we need to do our best to make sure that we have the "structural integrity" or in my words "the quan" to meet those demands.  If we don't we will have a wake behind us that instead of causing my friends, family and co-workers to grow, flourish and move to a stronger, better place in life may cause them to stumble and wipe out and I definitely don't want that.

Jesus said that He came to offer life and not just life, but life to the full. A life with meaning and purpose as well as eternal life. I want my life to be a reflection of his as much as it can be and to have a wake that the people I lead and the kids and wife that I live with will be encouraged by, challenged by and ultimately help guide them to a full and meaningful life that only Jesus can offer. Blessings...

Are You Passionate About Chicken?

When I was at a grand opening for a Chick-fil-A in Denver a few years back I met a guy who was an owner/operator at one time but had left the company. At the time I thought that he was nuts because he had been where I was trying so hard to get and had walked away. I asked him why he had left and he said that he was just not that passionate about chicken. He said that he loved all that CFA stood for and loved the atmosphere of the company and the pride that he felt when he told people what he did, but he wasn't passionate about chicken.  He wasn't passionate about rolling up his sleeves, getting coater all over him and making an awesome fried chicken breast.

When he shared that with me it really made me stop and think and has turned into a question that I ask myself whenever I need a gut check in life now. The question, "Are you passionate about chicken?" has come to mean a lot of things to me. It means am I willing to do the little things with my kids? To unload the dishwasher for my wife after a long day? To follow Jesus into places that I don't want to go?  It is easy to be passionate about the things in life that come easy or are not messy or you know are not going to ask too much of you. It is harder to be passionate about chicken. Making chicken is messy, greasy, hot and when you have been breading chicken in the kitchen there is no mistaking it. The rest of the team knows it because you are covered in coater, your sleeves are usually rolled up, you are probably sweating and you most likely have a few good grease spots on your shirt and pants.

There are so many days when I come home and I don't always feel like throwing the ball, doing homework, tackling a "honey do list" or going to set up for church but that is what I signed up for when I said, "I do", when I took that boy from the doctor and held him for the first time and when I told the one who made me that I was giving my life back to him. So Lord, help me to be passionate about chicken! Blessings..

Even When You Can't get There, Just Keep Running

Friday morning I had the opportunity to lead the devotional time with a local football team at their morning breakfast and the following is a bit of that.

I read an article after the Iron Bowl that really got me to thinking. It was about how Auburn had come from behind against The Tide and seemingly insurmountable odds due in large part to the efforts on one play by one man. Auburn DE Antoine Carter ran down Mark Ingram and stripped the ball from him just yards before he got to the end zone and extended the Alabama lead even more. The article talks about the fact that a 256lb DE cannot run down the reigning Heisman Trophy winner. Especially not after rushing the quarterback and starting behind the line of scrimmage. He did though.

The author talked about the fact that Carter simply did what he had been coached to do his whole career. He has probably been playing football since he was a little guy and if you have ever played football you know that one of the first things you learn is to play until the whistle blows. His current defensive coordinator, Ted Roof says that you never know what is going to happen. "The guy could stumble. The ball could get tipped. The ball could be fumbled." After the game Cater said about the play, "Even when you can't get there, just keep running." This is a great life lesson.

Sometimes it is hard to understand what God is doing. Often God tells us to do things in his word or speaks to our hearts and it makes no sense. We think we can't get there or it is impossible or what he says seems so opposite of what we want to do. I have had coaches that at the time I would have questioned whether they were trying to kill me or if they were a bit nuts. In hind site though I can usually see what they were doing and why they were doing it. Our job is to give our best in every drill, to execute the game plan the best we can. We need to be faithful to what he has called us to, no matter what it looks like. No matter how far out of reach a victory seems.

 If you think that your current situation has no hope or your boss will never notice you or your kids are beyond help (feel free to insert your situation here) I would urge you to think again.  God says that it is our job to trust Him and just keep running. To be faithful until the end of the play. We can't control what others do, but we can control our hearts and our efforts.

Antoine Carter chose to keep running and in doing so saved the game for Auburn. Maybe you need to choose to keep praying, to keep showing up, to keep loving or to keep trusting and in doing so you may just save the game for your kid or your wife or yourself. I don't know what it is for you, but I can promise that the God who made you sees you and loves you. He knows what is best for you moment by moment and HE CAN BE TRUSTED. His heart and intentions toward you are good. You nay not always get there to save the day or recover the ball, even then (or especially then) we simply must continue to trust him.

My favorite line in the article is when the author says that because of Carter's faithfulness to do what his coaches had taught him to do and had instilled in Him, "A sure 28-0 deficit turned into hope." I pray that God will give all of us the ability to trust him and that through that he will turn your deficit into hope.
Blessings...

Proverbs 3:5-12 (The Message)
 ^5-12 Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track.
Don't assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil!
Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life!
Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best.
Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over. But don't, dear friend, resent God's discipline;
 don't sulk under his loving correction. It's the child he loves that God corrects; a father's delight is behind all this.

This is a link to the article if you would like to read it:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/andy_staples/11/26/iron.bowl/index.html