It's Just A Number

So this past weekend I turned 35.  Yeah, it’s not that high of a number, and to me it really doesn’t mean that much.  Some of the earlier numbers have had more meaning.  16 is when you get to drive, 18 vote, and 21 you get to drink.  All of those were good numbers for me, including many in between.  Yet, when 30 came around I got depressed.  I don’t know why, and it didn’t last long, but that one hit me hard.  I was wondering if 35 would be the same way but it wasn’t, thankfully.  Instead I had a great weekend with loved ones doing things I don’t get to do very often.  It wasn’t even really a speed bump in my life, just another special day instead.

I think the reason that my birthday didn’t bug me this time around is because I have a stronger walk with God than I did in the past.  I’ve come to realize that a birthday is another day on the calendar.  That with each year that I gain on this planet, it’s just more experience that He’s giving me in order to reach others for Him.  It’s that perspective I’ve taken into this new year of my life.  I realize, as I wrote a few weeks ago, that this is not where I belong and that I’m here for His purpose. 

That view on life makes every day worth living for me, how about you?  

Determination

This past weekend I was assistant coaching my oldest son’s sixth grade basketball team in a tournament that was going to end our season.  We’d have a rough season overall, only winning our first game of the year and none since then.  As coaches we’d felt that we had a chance in many of the games, but there was a hurdle that the team just couldn’t get past, something we couldn’t figure out ourselves.

So we go into the round robin part of the tournament, where we were going to play the other three teams in our side of the bracket.  Our first opponent is a team from our league who had beat us by over 20 points in both games that we’d played them previously.  The boys started out pretty well, but we found ourselves down at halftime.  We made some adjustments, but that didn’t seem to help in the end and we lost that first game.  Then the second game we played a team that we hadn’t played previously, and although we as coaches thought we could win, we got ourselves in a hole and we saw that familiar look on the boy’s faces – defeat.  That look was a premonition as it ended up that we lost to them as well. 

So at the end of the first day we were 0-2, with one more game to play.  The head coach wasn’t gentle with the boys after the first game, saying pretty much exactly how I felt as well.  We both knew that the boys had all the talent in the world, but they weren’t handling adversity well and we didn’t know if they had the will to win.  It was pretty much laid out that if they weren’t going to be there to win, then to not come back on Sunday to play. 

Well, it was Sunday’s game time, and all of the boys were there.  It seemed like they were different people when they showed up.  They looked determined to win this game, and they were going to do what it took to get a victory.  They had their ups and downs throughout the game, with the lead going back and forth between the two teams.  Then a big change occurred.  The boys believed they could win the game.  They weren’t going to let anyone take this victory from them, and eventually with that determination came something that they really needed…a victory.  They finished the season at something like 2-10, but the fact that their hard work paid off seemed to give them the feeling that the season was a success.

I tell you this story from the weekend because I think this mirrors the spiritual lives that Christians live.  We work hard at the beginning and get an early victory in our lives, be it turning from a sin that has been with us for years or many other victories that would can obtain in Christ.  The problem with that early victory is that often times that gets the enemy's attention and then we have to deal with adversity.  Often times that tests our character, and those hard times can lead us to feeling defeated and possibly even to giving up on the one gift that we’ve all been given in our lives that means the most:  salvation.  But, God is there coaching us and telling us to show up and get back out there and finish the game.  He doesn’t want us to quit.  He wants us to go out there and keep scraping and clawing our way to the top, knowing full well that the Holy Spirit will be there with us throughout our battles.  God never promised that our lives would be easy when we accepted Jesus into our lives.  He never said that the enemy wouldn’t attack, in fact it’s written that the exact opposite would happen.  Our goal, as Christians, should be to keep gaining victories no matter how hard we have to work.  We can’t give up, and being a Christian and living your life for Him isn’t for wimps.   

Just as this sixth grade team did this weekend, they fought through the adversity with the determination to reach their goal of getting a victory.  Now, we as Christians are called to do the same.  Go out and get victory after victory for Christ.  Go out determined not to let the enemy stop you from getting to your goals, no matter what is thrown in the way.

Where I Belong

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while now, then you know one thing about me:  Music is how I really connect with God.  There are points in my life where a certain song really gets me in tune with God and allows Him to speak into my life in ways that no words on a page could ever do. 

Well, recently another song has been reaching me in that way.  I had my first real encounter with this song at Winter Jam in Columbus when the band Building 429 sang it along with 20,000 other people in attendance.  The song:  "Where I Belong". 

What hit me the most is the chorus of this song.  The fact that all 20,000+ people in attendance were singing this all at the same time was just huge to me.  I felt His presence at that moment.  Just read the words here:

All I know is I'm not home yet 
This is not where I belong 
Take this world and give me Jesus 
This is not where I belong

Up to that moment, I don’t think I’d ever thought of my life here on Earth in that.  Since I became a believer in Christ I’ve known that the world wasn’t my home.  But the way this was sung along with an arena full of people really took it to another level.  This world is just a stopping place on our journey to Heaven.  The fact that this isn’t my home makes it easy to give up.   I’m willing to give up everything I have for Jesus.  Are you?

Watch and listen to the song on YouTube.  The words are there on this version so you can get the full effect of the song….well, as full as it gets without being in a room full of other believers singing this out with all their hearts, minds, and souls along with you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOtsB4O1p3o

Wild Ride

At some point in your life you’ve gotten into a car when someone else was driving.  Have you ever done so and didn’t really know the driver and how he drove?  Then, as you’ve ridden as a passenger in the car, you’ve found that maybe the decision not to drive yourself was a poor decision?  You know the kind of ride that I’m talking about, one where you are gripping the handle at the top of the door frame or your arm rest because the driver forgot that you weren’t in a NASCAR race.  Yet, when you first got into the car you had total trust in the driver, didn’t you?  If not, you wouldn’t have gotten in that car, right?

So, we as believers in Christ are asked to trust in Him as passengers in the car of life.  We are told to give Him complete control of our lives and we shouldn’t worry.  Yet, there are times when we start to worry because it seems like His driving is getting a little erratic.  Maybe things in our lives are speeding by us too quickly.  Maybe we feel like we’ve taken a wrong direction and are heading for a dead end.  Yet, through it all, we still have to trust in Him, right?

Today I just wanted to impress upon you the fact that we are in that car with Jesus as the driver.  We don’t have the controls on our side of the car like those student driver instructors do.  We can’t just grab the wheel when we want to or hit the brakes.  We have to have total faith in Him and the direction that He is taking our lives.  It’s not going to be an easy thing to do, giving up that control.  Yet if we do allow Jesus to take the wheel, then we’ll find that we’re at our final destination…Heaven along with all the other passengers that Jesus has brought with Him.

What’s Holding You Back?

Does anyone remember this ad campaign run by law enforcement in hopes of getting people to wear their seat belts?  This was promoting the seat belt as the way to help keep the user from having major injuries if they are in an accident.

I thought about this the other day when putting on my seat belt.  I was thinking that the slogan could also apply to our spiritual lives.  All too often we allow our busyness to hold us back from God.  We have the kids' events, our own events, work, family, and the list goes on and on. We just allow all of these things in our lives to hold us down from the life that God wants us to live for Him.  I’m not saying that they are bad things, and in fact I’m all in favor of taking part in most of that stuff, but if they keep you from God, then maybe they should be reevaluated.

So, today I just wanted to take a moment and help us all reexamine our lives and make sure that our priority is God.  If we have Him in our lives and make him the priority, then the rest will fall into place.  Don’t allow anything to hold you back from God and what He wants you to be doing with your life.

Potty Training For Your Soul

As anyone who has kids can tell you, most times potty training isn’t easy.  It’s not just pointing your infant towards the toilet and saying go ahead and use it.  Instead there is a lot of training that is involved, from how to sit on the toilet all the way to how to flush and everything in between.  Most of the time the child will do well for a bit, regress a bit, and then finally figure it out, and from that point there isn’t much instruction needed. 

If something like potty training is so difficult, why do we as Christians often act like discipling a new Christian is less work?  While our mission on earth is to go out and make disciples, we often forget that it’s more than just talking to someone, pointing towards heaven, and then walking away.  Discipling a new believer takes time, and we need to be walking alongside the new believer and being there with them the entire way.  If we’re there with them as they start their journey, then they will have someone there to help them if they stumble, someone who will keep them going in the right direction.

When was the last time you helped lead someone to Christ?  Did you stay with them once they accepted Christ into their life, or did you just leave them alone from that point?  Just remember that the job isn’t done when you show them the door to heaven, you have to show them how to walk through it as well.

If The Shoe Fits – Don’t Buy It!

Have you ever heard someone talking about a purchase they just made and discussing that they “just had to buy it”? What forced them to make the purchase?  Were they facing the barrel of a gun and being forced by the gunman to make that purchase?

The reason I bring it up is because all too often we Americans think that we just have to buy stuff because we saw it at the store, other people have it, or it was on sale. 

Now I have to thank my parents for my love of shopping.  I love to go through the sale ads every week and see all the deals and circle all the stuff that we should buy.  They really taught me how to hunt down a good deal.  But, I’ve found one thing for myself over the years.  Sometimes the best deals are those that you don’t purchase.  If I don’t have the money for shopping, just maybe I shouldn’t be going.  Why step into Kohl’s, Best Buy, or Menards if I don’t have the money to buy anything there?  (BTW – they are all favorite stores of mine, I’m not hating on them at all.)  All we do when walking into a store is tempt ourselves to spend money.

This is where I hit you hard:  YOU NEED TO HAVE A BUDGET.  But, not only do you need to have a budget (even a monkey can be trained to put numbers on paper), you also have to stick to that budget.  If you have $500 for food this month, then you have to find a way to spend only that much on food.  Same thing goes for clothes, gas, and all the other categories!

If you need help working out a budget, then you and I need to talk.  This is a passion of mine, and I’d like to help you get there.  I can show you the principles of doing the budget, and we don’t even have to talk real numbers unless you want.  The thing to know is this:  God doesn’t want you to be in debt.  You are slave to the lender (see Proverbs 22:7) and it’s time to end that relationship and get closer in the most important relationship in your life:  God.