Are you willing to get hit?

I was recently asked by someone how to not focus on the bad things in a person’s life.

Now, after some quick consideration, I came up with this idea – one that I thought might benefit others.

Think of yourself as standing in the middle of a long road. There isn’t much on that road that keeps you from seeing into the distance. A bad thing in your life is an incoming car. That car is coming straight at you, at a speed that really doesn’t matter at this moment. Now, you think that you can distract yourself from that bad thing (car) and so you put up some sort of barrier – we’ll go with a brick wall – between you and the car (bad thing) in order to keep it from getting to you. The problem is, you are only fooling yourself. That little brick wall isn’t going to keep that car from getting to you. It’s only a temporary barrier with no support structure and when that car hits it, well the car will just get through it and get to you. All you did was fool yourself that you could actually keep away from that bad thing in your life.

Now, instead let's look at that car coming at you again on that same road. This time you see that car coming and decide to trust God. Now, trusting in God doesn’t mean you stand there waiting for the car (bad thing) to hit you! Instead, you change your focus from the car that is coming your way to the fire hydrant on the side of the road directly to your side. You take a step of faith and step towards the object that God placed there for you instead. And, now because you stepped towards the item that God had you change your focus towards, you barely even notice when the car goes whizzing past you on the road.

Now, that probably dog-pee-stained fire hydrant isn’t really a hydrant. It’s something good that God has placed in your life. It may be a ministry that you are a part of, a loved one, or possibly Him in another form such as a good Christian book, song, or even the Bible. He placed that there in your life because he knew that if you walked towards it that your life would be spared from the bad things in it - and that your ultimate goal of focusing on Him would be achieved.

Wouldn’t you like to change your focus and stop looking at the bad things that can mess up your life? Wouldn’t you rather have more of Him in your life instead? If so, stop focusing on the things that aren’t any good in your life. Change your focus to the things that He has given you to make your life better. When you change your perspective and focus on the good things, you may not even notice the bad things in your life any more – and you’ll have more of Him in your life instead.

We'll Leave The Light On For You - Conculsion

As most of you know, Motel 6 is famous for the slogan “We’ll Leave The Light On For You.” It was a huge advertising campaign and still sticks in the heads of many of us today. So, why do I use this saying at the conclusion of this series today?

Well, if you are plugged in, as we talked about the first week, and if you have found the light and are living in it, you are then living the life that God has set for you. But, what happens when someone falls away from God? What happens if your family member decides to walk out of the light and back into the darkness?

First off, that light has dimmed – but most of the time it hasn’t been extinguished. The information is there in his or her head, but they are choosing to leave the light. The world that we live in is so tempting that many will choose it over God for so many reasons.

These people are temporarily lost, but they are not forgotten. God will not forget them, and He won’t let you either. They will continue to be on your heart and you will continue to be given opportunities to shine back into their lives. This is a trial in this person’s life that will hopefully allow them to speak into the lives of others later on in life. We’ve all been lost at one point and have found our way to Him.

Continue to pray for those who are in the darkness. Continue to shine your light into their lives. Let them know that God wants to renew the relationship with them and that they are special to Him. Let the know that the light can be plugged back in and start shining again.

We'll Leave The Light On For You - Living In The Light

There it is people, our lives in a picture. If you are plugged in and your light is shining, then there you are in the chair. You are in the hot seat, which is in the spotlight. The darkness -- that is the world around you. In that darkness are millions of other people in chairs that could be in a spotlight as well, but instead they are just sitting there going about their day-to-day lives.

So, how do you get others into the spotlight as well? How about moving the chair and bringing others into the light with you? That is what evangelism really is. You are moving around the stage (world) with a spotlight on you bringing people into the light from the darkness. You do this by becoming a part of their lives. You take an interest in others and become a part of their lives. Then, through all of that, you eventually get into discussions about life and faith and let him or her know that you have a personal relationship with a God who wants to know him or her as well.

That effort that you take as you are plugged in and shining your light for God in the world could eventually cause a stage (world) full of spotlights shining for God, working on getting more and more lights onto the stage. What a great place we’ll live in once this occurs! Live in the light, people, and bring others along with you. Let’s light up this place!

We'll Leave The Light On For You - Find The Light

Last week I wrote about getting plugged in. I used an example of you being a lamp and needing to be plugged in for your light to shine. I hope that you have done that the entire week since, if not before that point.

Today I want to discuss finding the light. I think the first thing we have to figure out is what the light is. The light is God’s presence. Every day we should be striving to be plugged in to God so that we can do the things that he wants us to be doing in our lives.

So, what happens when you find the light? You’ve finally decided to buckle down and read your Bible every day, pray every day, or something of that sort. Now you start to notice that things have changed in your life. You may have noticed that it’s easier to get through a Monday because it isn’t as bad as the previous Monday had been. You’ve found that some conflicts easily resolved themselves because you had an inner peace that you never had before.

Now think about what it would be like if you continued finding the light every day. Now that you are finding Him in your life, your own personal light is able to shine onto those around you. Let’s go back to the lamp example. A light illuminates not only itself, but the area around it. If it wasn’t for the shade, the bulb would illuminate the whole area around it.

You are the bulb, and that shade is the world getting in the way of your light. In order to get that light to shine onto the lives of others you have to fight to keep that shade out of your way. God wants you to influence those around you, and when they see your light they’ll want the same thing for their lives.

Can you stay plugged in? Can you get that shade out of the way so that your light can shine for others to see?

We’ll Leave the Light On For You - Get Plugged In

Let’s start out this week’s blog by thinking about a lamp that many people have in their houses. We’ll say it looks like this:

You see, it’s nothing special at all really, right? Maybe it’s a little modern looking, and maybe it goes perfectly with the rest of the décor of the house. It really doesn’t do a whole lot right now, right?

So, what is wrong with this lamp? I mean, it’s in the right place, and if you're still imagining it in a house, you realize that at some point in the day it’ll be in that place at the right time, right?

Yet, as you look at this lamp, you realize that something is missing….at least I hope you do. That is right, it doesn’t have any way of plugging in. How can this lamp put the things around it in the light without being plugged in?

Here is the point for the week: You may be in the right place at the right time, but not able to do anything because YOU aren’t plugged in! If you want to do God’s work you have to find a way to get closer to Him on a daily basis. Prayer, reading your Bible, and “getting wet with others” are great ways to plug in.

What ways do you get plugged in every day? Do you only show up to church on Sundays and expect that to keep your light shining the entire week? If that is the case you’d dim out over time, right? Once again I encourage everyone who reads this to do something I think is extremely important: Find a way to be in His presence EVERY day. If you do that, you’ll find your light shining brighter daily, and maybe you can illuminate the area around you as well.

Goals

For some odd reason the idea of having goals has been in my head a lot lately. And yes, I realize that I’m sports oriented, but I’m not talking about soccer, hockey, or anything like that. My question for you this week is if whether, you have goals in your life, and whether you strive to achieve them.

Let me take a step back and talk to you a little about my goals. I have them in three phases.

• Spiritual Goal: To get closer to Him by learning more about Him every day through studies and reading the Bible, at a minimum.
• Family Goal: To ensure that my family grows closer to God, for them to know that I love them, and to get our family out of debt and enslavement of the world we live in.
• Personal Goal: To get in shape, both spiritually and physically.

So, now I’ve been working towards these goals for quite some time, and will continue to do so. Sure, they can all have sub goals along with them, but my main focus is on these 3 things. My thought is that if I can focus on accomplishing these, then I’m going to be in the best position I can put myself into in order to be used by God.

Now, I have the goals in place – now it’s time to take action, right? I mean, anyone can set goals – but only so many people will be willing to work towards the goals they set. Let’s look at the New Year’s resolutions that everyone sets for themselves. Did you realize that studies show that over 80% of people resolving to do one thing or another have already given up by now? Isn’t that a sad fact? We’re not even three months out from people setting those goals and they’ve already given up. No wonder the world is in the state it is!

This week I’d like to encourage you all to set goals for yourself if you haven’t. They don’t have to be like mine at all, but need to be specific to you and your walk with God. If you have already set goals, what are you doing to achieve them? Are you still working towards them and feel good about what you are accomplishing? A successful walk with the Lord needs to have ways of making sure you stay on the right track, and I hope that having some goals will help you accomplish all that He has set forth for your life.

Valentine's Day Thoughts

So here we are a few days after Valentine’s Day. It’s a holiday that is spent by most finding a way to reconnect with their spouse or significant other. Most people do this by spending money on those that they love. Were you one of those people? If you’re a guy you possibly spent money on flowers, maybe a nice meal, or diet-busting candies of some sort. If you’re a lady you got one of those thoughtful things for him that if we admit it, will blow away many of the gifts the guys give to you.

You see, the holiday is about expressing your love for that someone special in your life. We don’t always find time to do that in our day to day lives. We get busy with work, kids, family commitments, and so much more. When you actually have time to do so the rest of the year, you’re often too tired or out of money, etc. So, having this holiday is very nice for all of us to make sure that we reconnect with our loved ones.

My question to you today is this - Do you do the same thing with God? Do you need to have holidays like Easter and Christmas on the calendar to remember to show Him how much you love and appreciate all that He has done for you? If telling your loved ones here on Earth is a smart thing to do on a daily basis, why not do the same with Him? This should be a part of your daily prayer life. Start by thanking God for all of the blessings in your life. You’ll be amazed at how many there are when you start looking for them. If you start reconnecting with Him daily as you do with your loved ones you’ll start to see that each day on the calendar is just another day of being a part of His kingdom – and how blessed you are to be a part of it every day….not just a couple times a year when it’s circled on the calendar for you.