Living By Design and Not By Default - Part One

Sometimes it's comforting to know that even the Apostle Paul said that he finds himself doing the very things he knows he shouldn't, and the things he knows he should be doing, he often neglects. If the very person who admonished us to, "put on the new man", found himself occasionally defaulting to his B.C. (before Christ) thoughts and patterns, there may still be hope for us all!

How many times do we find ourselves engaged in the same behaviors, thoughts and patterns that reflect our old man, our old nature or our old way of doing things? For whatever reason, despite our best efforts, it would appear that we have been programmed with this default setting that seems to bypass what we know in our heart is right. We wind up engaging in activities we know are wrong, yet we do them anyways. 

I know many Christians who have struggled with certain areas of their lives for so long that they eventually end up adopting a passive attitude towards God altogether, simply resolving themselves to the idea that true freedom will never be experienced on this side of eternity. More often than not, they've thrown the baby out with the bath water before they ever really understood the Father-heart of God. 

I do believe that God gave gifts unto men (apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists, teachers, etc.) but unfortunately this issue is uniquely symptomatic of people who depend on a person to facilitate their personal encounters and relationship with God. Those "in the world" often assume that all church-going people are merely mindless zombies, who blindly follow anyone standing behind a pulpit, wearing a nice suit. Sometimes the very reason people don't go to church at all (Or believe in God for that matter) is because at some point in time, they visited a church where the packaging just didn't appeal to them. 

We've become a culture that claims that we're in search of truth, only we're careful to include the caveat that whatever truth we find needs to cater to our personal tastes and preferences. The "Inconvenient Truth" (pun intended) is that not all truth will actually be convenient, or cater to our personal preferences. 

When I was growing up, I thought it was very inconvenient that I had to ask my parents for permission every time I wanted to go spend the night at a friend's house. However, the more inconvenient thing would've been to not ask them, do it anyways and get a woopin when I got home! (Prepare for paradigm shift in your thinking. Starting in 3...2...1...) Did you know that consequences for your actions whether spiritually, physically or mentally don't magically disappear just because you're all grown up and you've moved out of your parents house? 

People have been making it up as they go along for years, but the end remains the same. Destruction. Ruin. Defeat. Any good parent provides rules and boundaries for their kids, not because they have a god complex, but because they care for their children and want what's best for them. The world we're currently living in is merely a byproduct of raising a generation with no concept of self-control. 

Could it be that God is the same? Could it be that God has guidelines and perimeters set up for His children because He knows what we need more than we do? What if we don't like His rules any more than we liked not being able to spend the night at a friends house whenever we wanted to? Whether we realize it or not, what we think, say and do are constantly revealing what we believe to be true about God. Our checkbook, the words of our mouth, the condition of our body and how we treat our spouses or those in authority are a genuine reflection of what our beliefs really mean to us.

Part Two Coming Soon! 

     

Drive Friendly...The Texas Way?

So this one's going to be on the lighter side today, but will reflect truth all the same I promise. 

I've lived in Texas since 2007, and having lived nearly all over the continental U.S., I can confidently say  that there's nothing remotely "friendly" about the way Texan's drive or any other state I've lived in for that matter. In fact, the ratio of 1 ton pickups to passenger vehicles can flat out make you feel a little uneasy on the open road. 

We all encounter less than cordial drivers when we're on the road, people who will take us to the very threshold of losing our salvation. People who are so utterly oblivious to the existence of anyone besides themselves, who make you so mad that you wonder if Paul the apostle ever encountered rush hour traffic when he said that God's grace is sufficient. You wanna see a thorn in the flesh Paul? I'll show you a thorn in the flesh! I digress.

What is certainly a universal frustration for all of us got me thinking, I wonderful if some of us have a tendency to drive our lives much like we drive our cars? Allow me to explain.

First up, my personal favorite. Have you ever been driving on the freeway, and someone cuts across 8 lanes of traffic in order to reach their exit in time? I'm sure that their are legitimate reasons for the occasional necessity of not noticing your exit until the very last minute, but I can't help but think sometimes of the lack of vision people may have in their lives when they can't seem to prepare far enough in advance just to merely exit the highway. 

How can we ever concentrate enough to visualize and obtain our goals, our destiny or our future if we fail to notice what's going on right in front of us?

Next up, the Nascar drivers. These are the folks that are constantly weaving in and out of various lanes in an apparent attempt to reach their destination before everyone else on the road. Aside from the occasional woman in labor or a crazy bad case of diarrhea, what this communicates to me is that where you're going must be more important than where I'm going, so much so that you're willing to put everyone's life in danger (including your own) to get there.

The irony is that I will inevitably see you at the next stop light, and for all your intense efforts, you will most likely end up right next to me or maybe you may have earned the spot right in front of me.

Although the moniker, "I wanna go fast!", makes for an utterly hilarious movie quote, as does any phrase with the word "spider-monkey" in it, this isn't necessarily the best motto for how you live your life. Just look at the mess Ricky Bobby's father made for himself. (Yes, I did just use a plot point from Talladega Nights to teach a valuable life lesson.) Selah.

Next up, the red light runners. Sure lane crossing and cutting in and out of traffic can be dangerous, but none so dangerous as the red light runners. Aside from the fact that you are breaking the law, this is where so many traffic fatalities occur on a daily basis. Habitual red light runners simply have no regard for rules. This tells me that you have no commonality or basis with which to reason. It's not that you don't recognize the merit of divine order and principle, it's just that you choose to ignore it, thus placing the lives of everyone around you in danger as a result. This is obviously no way to live your life. 

Lastly, for the sake of not making this blog the encyclopedia of all blogs, we have the texters. These are the folks that you can spot from a mile a way. They are either having extreme difficulty staying in their own lane, maintaining a consistent speed limit or both. Or perhaps you happen to notice that a tree or another vehicle has abruptly and oh-so-irreverently interrupted their texting time, thus perhaps necessitating the need for a new vehicle all together.  

Honestly, I don't mean to be a fuddy duddy (sp), nor do I mean to take any of these instances lightly. In my opinion, the worst one of these examples I've given is the texters. Why? Because this communicates the worst of all human ailments. It tells me that we've lost our ability distinguish, delineate and discern what's truly important in life. If someone sends you a text and you happen to be driving, I'm sure they'd much rather see you again sometime (alive) than know that you remembered to get their orange juice when you went to the store, what time an event starts or what was up and stuff.

See that? I relieved my vehicular frustrations AND communicated some valuable truth at the same time! My mother would be proud. Thanks mom for teaching me some good ol' common sense! 

              

The More Needful Thing (The Deceptive Art of Distraction)

For those of you who know me personally, you'd most likely know how I work for the devil. There are so many horror stories, it would require more than three different hash tags for #leadershipfail because if I were to tweet them all, the world wide web would certainly come crashing down from complete system overload thus resulting in the rapture of the church or a zombie apocalypse. Ok. So that's probably a bit of a stretch. Zombie apocalypse first, rapture second. I digress.

I have a confession to make. Today was actually my last day at my less-than-completely-awesome place of employment. You wouldn't believe how much sweeter strawberries taste, how refreshing the 100 degree, non-existent wind gusting Texas air is and how much my life seems to have slowed down to snails pace less than an hour after I turned in my key card.

Last night, as I was watching The Incredibles for the hundred-thousandth time with my son, I pulled him close to me, gave him a big hug, kissed him on the cheek and told him I loved him as though it may have been my last chance. What I realized in that moment was that I had allowed my not-so-desirable job situation to steal my joy for an entire year of my life. I had allowed it to rob me of the opportunity to enjoy my family time, steal my health, cloud my mind and bring untold elements of anxiety into my life. In some ways, I even allowed it to change me.

I was on my way to church to film a 60 second internet spot to introduce a class I'm teaching this fall at my church, and it hit me, I was put on this earth to help people, teach people and grow...people. What in the world was I doing for the past year of my life? Why did I wait so long to find something else? Then it hit me, like a lightening bolt of wisdom and knowledge that almost split my brain in two. Distraction. One word. Plain and simple. Distraction. 

We've all heard the story about Mary and Martha when Jesus came to their house. Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus, and Martha was whipping out the Pine Sol and the Swiffer Duster ready to take down dust bunnies like Clint Eastwood in a bar full of baddies. Martha thought it was so unfair that she was doing all the work, that she told Jesus to tell Mary what for! Jesus responded to Martha by saying that Mary had chosen the more needful thing. WHAT???

If that's the case, then that means that sometimes WE allow OURSELVES to be "cumbered about" with many things. Could it be that by choosing not to do anything about my job situation, that I was the one responsible for neglecting what is needful? I believe so. I also believe that this is one of the toughest pills to swallow in our culture because we avoid assuming responsibility for our faults or failures like a red neck at a beauty pageant. 

Jesus Christ, Who He is, what He did for us and who we are in Him are the most important things in life. Everything else is secondary. Learn from my mistakes. Don't allow external situations to rob you of your time with your family, rob you of your peace or ultimately rob you of your destiny. Take a moment right now to examine your life. 

Are there things that are stealing your joy or robbing you of your peace? Ask the Holy Spirit to help you identify those things and eliminate or change them for the glory of God. Refuse to allow things to distract you from what is needful. Tell your spouse you love them more, hold your kids tighter, take a deep breath and make it a point to enjoy your life rather than stress about it.