"Faith Pants" and other life lessons...(Yes, you read that correctly, I had pants that were full of faith...or were they?)

Several months ago, I was shopping at the mecca of commerce we here in the States call, "Kohl's". They happen to have a brand that I particularly love called, "Rockin Republic". The only downside to this brand is that you have to be slightly more svelte than the current version of myself. Be that as it may, I laid eyes on a pair of jeans that I couldn't pass up. 

Aside from the fact that they clearly won't fit (which on a side not means that I'm virtually buying a pair of pants that I cannot actually wear.), I decided that the deal was too good to pass up. I would merely lose the amount of lard necessary to fit into them. They shall be my "Faith Pants"! (Cue inspirational music, begin Rocky Balboa fitness montage.)

Fast forward several months and for whatever reason, my "Faith Pants" have found a new home at the bottom of my drawer. The reason? Up until a few weeks ago I had failed to realize the seriousness of my dilemma. I knew that I was overweight, I suppose I just didn't realize "how" overweight I really was. 

I was on vacation visiting my family when picture time came around. We all got together for the family photo and I realized that I had the biggest boobies of anyone in the picture. If I were a woman, I might have thought differently about this predicament, but being the man that I am, this news was very disheartening. How in the world did I let myself get so fat? Just 5 years ago I had lost 80 lbs. and got down to 183, and in 5 short years I had allowed myself to gain almost all of it back!

My problem was that I had failed to accurately access my current situation or my starting point. When I looked in the mirror, the reflection may have been a slightly smaller version of Chris Farley, but what I actually saw was more like Arnold Schwarzenhoweveryouspellhisname...only his face looked different...and he didn't have all the muscles.

When we fail to accurately access where we're really at in certain areas of our lives, those areas continue to spiral out of control simply because we lack the necessary vision for those areas of our lives to take their proper shape and form. For me it was my body, but it could be your job situation, the real condition of a relationship you're in or a host of other things. 

Zig Ziglar once said, "If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time!" This is what I was doing with my body and my career. I had yet to conceive any clear vision for those areas of my life. I had much more control over those things than what I had realized, yet the only control I exercised at the moment was to allow those things to spiral out of control. 

Luke 14:28 ESV says, "For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?" 

An integral part of counting the cost is being able to accurately account for where we currently stand in the area of our life needing improvement. It's interesting that whenever I use SIRI on my iPhone to tell me how to get somewhere, the first question she asks me is if she can use my current location. What she's telling me is that in order for me to get where I want to be, I must first know where I actually am.

Taking a good, hard look at where you are is only going to increase your effectiveness in attaining the object of your affection. One day, I will fit into my "faith pants", but that journey didn't begin until I was able to accurately discern my starting point. 180 here I come!!! 

The Mr. Roger's Approach to Truth...

I grew up watching Mr. Rogers when I was a kid. To be completely honest, it served as a great segue into nap time for me. Between the mellow sound of his voice, and the slow pace of the show, I was primed and ready for my midday power nap by the time Mr. Rogers put his walking shoes back on. My absolute favorite part of the show was when the little trolley took a trip to the land of make believe.

Ah, the land of make believe where anything is possible, even the concepts of feline royalty and a trolley with a "chip of the old block" personality. I do believe there's a definite place for fiction or "make believe" in our world. A place where we can take the limits off of our imagination and dream, regardless of what kind of reality it may be based in. 

As wonderful as our imagination can be, the land of "make believe" is no place for us to develop what we believe to be true about life, God and ultimately about truth itself. The reason I call this Mr. Rogers theology is because it would appear as though everyone gets to "make up" their own version of truth as they go along. The technical name for it is "moral relativism". 

Take a hot button issue like abortion. The cold, hard fact is that women who engage in sexual activity would like to reserve the right to "terminate" the consequences of their actions. In my mind it's sort of like a criminal who has every measure of evidence stacked against them in the court of law asking for a "do over" on the basis that they never truly realized the consequences of their actions until they committed the crime. 

Someone who shoots someone else with a gun would have to be pretty disconnected from reality in failing to understand that the person on the receiving end of the bullet(s) will most likely lose their life in the process. Just the same, as popular as the subject of sex is in America today and the wide-spread availability of sex education and birth control, a woman would have to be just as disconnected from reality to not really know until she's conceived, that parenthood is simply the by-product of a sexual relationship, no matter how you slice it.

Do I have pity or feel sorry for both the unwed mother and the circumstances that child may have to grow up in? Absolutely! It would've been far greater for that young, unwed mother to experience the responsibilities and joys of parenthood under any host of other circumstances. But the flesh ruled out. Decisions were made, and when two people come together, babies are born. It's been happening since the dawn of time. 

However, the thought that anyone could ever conceive the idea that we can simply "turn back the wheels of time" and erase this child (I mean mistake) by ending his or her life and that's OK, is simply NOT TRUE! In fact, once the abortion is completed, you've simply opened up a Pandora's box of emotional issues in that young ladies life that will pale severely in comparison to what she experienced physically.

The truth is, there's a book out there called the Bible. It's been a New York Times best seller since before there ever was a New York Times. (Or a New York for that matter.) It's packed with truth and wisdom for us to carry out our lives on the authority of One far greater than our own imagination or relying on the land of "make believe". (Future blog on the relationship between Creator and Created coming soon.) 

We'd have to be completely blind to not see how when our country based her beliefs on God's Word, there was a sense of unity and purpose in our country and a genuine respect for others. Now that we all get to go to the land of make believe to find out what truth is for us, it's a miracle if any two people can agree on anything anymore. Truth is not hard to find folks, but it can be hard to swallow.  

Penchant for Truth?

The name is Grooms. Kris Grooms. (Or Kristopher, if you know me really really well.) I've grown up in church since I was knee-high to a grasshopper...or about four feet tall to be exact. One thing that I truly feel that God has bestowed upon me is the wonderful, bless-ed (You must pronounce it bless-ed for the proper effect. Say it with a British-English accent to really give it some oomph) gift of perspective. 

No matter where I found myself, what condition I was in or what circumstances I may have been facing, I've always been able to see God at work. I've seen friends and loved ones die before their time, I've seen people that I went to youth group with bail out on God altogether and I've experienced times in my life where what I believed to be true about God and what I was experiencing were diametrically opposed to one another.

I've seen friends bring their lives and the lives of others to ruin by developing a penchant for drugs and alcohol. I've seen marriages and families destroyed because husbands develop a penchant for other women. I've also seen many friends that I grew up with continue to circle the airport of life a thousand times simply because they never really developed much of a penchant for anything. 

John 8:32 NCV says, "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." At my church, we define freedom as being able to act and react to every situation in life as the person God created and intended you to be. Think about how awesome it would be never again having a sense of guilt or inferiority. Think about what it would feel like to be completely comfortable in your own skin. 

Jesus is saying in John 8:32 that this freedom comes from a living, breathing, experiential knowledge of the truth. Not just any truth, God's truth. So that's what this blog is all about...truth. God's truth, God's wisdom and God's way of doing things.

Lest you get the impression that I'm going to use the Bible to bash people over the head, I'd like to put you at ease in saying that God's truth was never designed to create condemnation in the heart of the hearer. It was meant to bring life and peace. On the other hand, it doesn't condone or support our quirky, crazy ways of doing things either.

That being said, we have a serious "truth vacuum" in this nation that I intend to fill with the best of my ability. Help me start a revolution and join me in developing a culture that has a "Penchant for Truth".