Broken?

I think we are all well aware of the term “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” My question today is what do you do when that something is actually broke? When it comes to your spiritual life, I think you have at least these 2 options:

1) Just let it be – Yep, you are disconnected from God, and instead of doing anything about it you just let it be what it is. You don’t work to fix it and instead you just stay in the dark not caring about being in the light any more. This is too often what people do because they don’t see a value of the relationship they had with God in the past. The relationship they had in the past was fun while it lasted and now that they feel that they have worn out their welcome they leave and don't worry about what they've left behind.

2) You work to get it fixed – This is the one that takes a lot of time and effort some times. Your relationship with God might be totally blocked by the many obstacles you have allowed to come into your life and it’s going to take awhile to work through all of them. You've let TV, friends, sports, sex, work, and many other things come between you and God. Yet, you find it worth fixing the problems and making that relationship whole again. As you work towards repairing the brokenness of your heart you will find that the best glue you can get to put all of the pieces together again is to trust Him completely again. When you give the repair job in God's hands it will amaze you how the pieces of your life will come back together again.

Which option are you taking right now? Take the time to examine your options and where you are today and get back to putting the puzzle of your life back together today, trusting God to fill in the gaps and fix all of the brokenness in your life..

Flamingos

As most of my readers already know, Norwalk Alliance Church does a fundraiser for the youth that, quickly summed up, is a flock of flamingos showing up overnight in someone’s yard. You can buy insurance so if it happens the youth will pick them up, or you can put a hit out on someone else, or pay to have them removed if you didn’t want to do it yourself. It all started back when Andrew Berry was Pastor and, long story short, it’s come back a few times as a fundraiser.

This past weekend our house got hit with a flock for the second time. The first time I quickly had them fly off to another house; however this time they came too late at night and we didn’t find them until morning. Now, true to myself, I was bound and determined to make sure they found another place to play that evening. I planned out my hit and waited all day to finally send them off to their new location. That was the easy part, though, as when I got to the place I was going to leave them, I encountered a few issues.

Issue number one was that the lights were on at the house and it looked like people were moving around. Second was that the garage door was open and it was probable that someone would be leaving at some point and spot the flock. Though, despite all of that, decided to go on with the hit. I was walking towards the house to guide the flock to their home for the evening when I spotted a neighbor who had probably seen me way before that. Instead of turning and calling it all off, I instead went and talked to the neighbor, told them what I was up to and why, and everything was good with them. After that I finally was able to get the flock into location and then got out of there myself.

Now, why do I bring up this fundraiser on my blog this week? It’s because of a lesson that I learned while doing this, or should I say was reinforced. It’s always easy to find a reason to quit and not continue on with something. No matter the preparations that were put in place, there was probably going to be something that I didn’t think of, and it could have easily been the thing that threw off the entire event.

The same thing goes for the work that we are to do for God. The devil is out there trying to throw up road blocks for us that will cause us to turn away from God’s plan and give up. If you give up enough times you’ll be defeated as most don’t continue to try. Yet, if it’s really worth doing, you can find a way around the issues that come up and still complete your mission.

No, the task of placing the flamingos in someone’s yard isn’t a vital task for God, but it does have a part. Yes, I could have easily turned around after seeing the obstacles and gone to someone else’s house and gotten them instead. Yet – I found solutions for the issues I was presented with and completed the task. When I focused on the mission at hand instead of the problems I was presented with, the solutions became easy to find.

The next time that a road block is presented when you are trying to do God’s work, change your focus. Focus on the mission and the value that He places on you completing your tasks. The results of that completed task will be great, although you may never see them in your lifetime. The Kingdom will advance….and it’ll be because you did your part – despite the obstacles that presented themselves.

Born Again

This week I wanted to turn once again to the music industry for my inspiration for this blog. It’s easy for me to do as I listen to Christian radio almost all day during the work day, and songs often hit me over and over again while I’m listening. Today the song that has been hitting me is “Born Again” by the recently revamped Newsboys.

Here are the lyrics to the chorus of the song, which is on a soon-to-be-released CD of the same name:

This is what it is

This is who I am

This is where I finally take my stand

I didn’t want to fall

But I don't have to crawl

I met the One with two scarred hands

Giving him the best of everything that’s left of

The life inside this man

I've been Born Again

To me this is extremely powerful wording. To me they are describing that time in all of our lives when we finally come to an understanding of what it is to follow such a wonderful God. A God who doesn’t judge you for what you have been before you found Him, but instead wants to have a relationship with you. How many people in this world won’t hold anything against you from your past but instead see you for the person that you are now and is willing to take that? Our Heavenly Father not only sees you for who you are but loves you despite all that you’ve done in the past, and all the scars you have because of it. He knows you better than you know yourself and still is willing to accept you and make you a new person in Him.

To be “Born Again”, as the Newsboys put it, is very powerful stuff. They are not only willing to write this lyric about it, but scream across the world as they tour that not only are the members of the band Christians and new in Him, but that all those in the sound of their voices can be as well.

When was the last time you and I were so proud of our faith that we screamed from the mountain tops that God saved us and made new beings?

If you get a chance check the video below on YouTube and get a sense of what it feels like to really be Born Again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuaavycxU1Q

2 Hands Can Get You To The End Zone

Currently there is a very popular song out by the group Jars of Clay called “Two Hands”. The message that I get from this song is that the song writer struggles with giving only a part of himself to God while other parts of him are not, in this instance represented by his two hands. He wonders what work he could do for God if both of his hands were actually working together. As I was listening to the song today I really started to think about it more closely.

Are we all as Christians in that same predicament? How many of us hold something back from God when in fact if we would give it all to Him he’d make our lives so much better? How often do we say, "Here, God, please help me with this, but well, let me keep this away from you as I don’t need you there." How about when working for God, how often do we all go forth completely and give all that we have?

I want to give another illustration to this as I think it’s very pertinent to the discussion. Last week our family had a movie night and the kids picked out the movie Facing The Giants. Now, I love that movie anyway, but one part really hit me watching it for the 3^rd or 4^th time, as we were. That part is when the football coach picks his best player out from the team and has him carry another player on his back while that star players is on all 4’s and blindfolded. The coach asks the player how far he’ll make it and he said the 30 yard line (starting from the end zone). The coach asks him to give a little more, and that player then says the 50, he thinks he can make the 50. Well, long story short, when that player gave everything he had to his coach, and when he kept going even when he thought he couldn’t go so far, it was amazing what he was able to do. That star player, the player that the coach wanted to be the leader of his teammates, made it to the other end zone. He went a full 100 yards!

These are powerful examples of what we can all do with God urging us on and our not just being willing to give up when we think we’ve done enough. What will you do the next time God asks you to put your two hands together and do more for His kingdom than you have before? Will you get to that point where you think you did enough and stop there? Will you push yourself to go a little further so you can feel really good about yourself? Better yet, will you pray for Him to come along side you and push you to the goal that He’s set for you in the first place?

Everything is Spiritual

What a simple phrase, right at the top there: Everything is spiritual. Have you ever stopped to consider that before? Let's look at it a little closer:

Losing Weight - spiritual by far. Ask God in prayer to help you feast His Word instead of that bag of chips or carton of ice cream.

Budgeting - spiritual again. Put God first and ask Him how to control your finances. You'll see Him at work in that area of your life in no time, and your debt will start to shrink because you put Him in control of it instead of you.

Parenting - You have a father in heaven who sets the example of how to love, so why wouldn't you take advantage of that? It's not easy, but when you allow God to control it, this is more manageable as well.

Your Job(s) - Working can be spiritual, even when you are at a place that isn't so "religion friendly". If you want to be the best worker you can be, then you can't do it alone. You may be asked to do things that you aren't qualified to do and with His guidance you can get through anything at work, when you allow Him into this area of your life as well.

I've just listed a few different examples above, and I've done that to remind you that no matter what area of your life you are thinking about right now with God in control you can do great things. We often allow God into one area or another of our life but keep Him out of others thinking we've given enough to Him as it is. If you want the life that He's set out for you why don't you go ahead and lay it all down at His feet - your life will only get better and better from that point.