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An Ongoing Conversation

November 10, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Over the past several posts we’ve tackled the topic of prayer. We looked at reasons we don’t pray. Why those reasons don’t really hold water as a legitimate argument. And why prayer is so important. The point of this post will be to hopefully show how simple prayer really is when we get right down to it.

We’ve dabbled in this a little in previous topics but here the goal is to get into some practical ways that prayer can be part of the everyday life of a follower of Jesus. So let’s jump right in!

The Obvious

So the most obvious times for prayer are before meals and at bedtime. And to be totally honest most of these prayers are pretty canned. We love to use the ones that everyone says all the time. The most popular are the Come Lord Jesus prayer before meals and at night time we gravitate toward the Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep prayer. These are the most widely used prayers by so many people. But are they too easy?

Some people have a problem with these simple prayers. Some say they demean the power of prayer or lessen its value. But I love the power of an oversimplified prayer! It makes prayer super accessible to children. When we gravitate toward these prayers, that I call canned prayers, we allow our minds to have something to fall back on as we age. I’ve had the honor of being near people in some of their darkest moments. I’ve sat by the bedside of faithful men and women as they’ve moved into their final moments. It’s wonderful to see how in these moments, it is the simplest of prayers that fall out of our mouths. It’s these easy phrases and commonly echoed thoughts that our minds recall in these hard times.

The Big Prayer

There’s a prayer that almost everyone knows. We might not say it daily but we pretty much all know it and could likely repeat it if needed. We call it the Lord’s Prayer or the Our Father. It’s the prayer in which Jesus taught his disciples how to pray. But contrary to popular belief it’s not a prayer we necessarily have to pray.

The purpose of the Lord’s Prayer is that Jesus gave his followers a simple model or formula for prayer. In this daddy of all prayers, we see some pretty simple things we can put into our prayer lives as well. From the relational starting point (Our Father) to the recognition of his power and position (who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name) this prayer stands as a wonderful example of keeping God where he deserves to be kept and being mindful of his love and care for us (give us this day our daily bread).

I strongly encourage everyone to know the Lord’s Prayer. You should even be able to recite it. But I don’t think that this should necessarily be your go to prayer. I think you should take this prayer for what it was intended: a caution for those making prayer a show and a model for the simplicity of prayer.

A Simple Approach

The memorized prayers that we’ve mentioned already are great and they each have their place, but if this is our sole focus in prayer we miss the spontaneity and conversational nature of prayer. Is prayer an event in which we participate or a lifestyle that we live? The simple answer should be yes!

Prayer needs to be more than just a set of words for special occasions. It needs to be more than an emergency response to a bad day. Prayer should be a conversation that leads us through life. Here’s the approach I recommend in prayer. Again this is not a legalistic, must do it this way kind of thing. It’s just a suggestion for how it works best for me.

Start with a simple thank you. A friend of mine starts his morning prayer with the phrase Good morning Father. How cool is that! Get things started with a simple reminder that it’s good to be alive!

What do you need today? Then at some point in your day make sure to express your concerns or needs. The Lord today I need prayer is my go to for this one. I like to start my day with this kind of prayer so I have the rest of the day to watch for the answer to show up.

Random thoughts as they come to you. This is the best part of the simple approach. And honestly this is what brings prayer to life for me. It removes the structure and fear of prayer. When we just throw random thoughts and concerns at God throughout our day, it lowers our guard to the point where we can see God as the one who’s with us all the time.

This simple approach to prayer is designed to show that anyone can pray at anytime. You can do it while you’re driving down the freeway or stopped in traffic. You can pray this way at work or at home. You can have eloquent words or just random thoughts that make no coherent sense. You can have something specific you’re asking for or you can just talk about what’s on your mind. This is the heart and soul of prayer. It’s what makes prayer such an amazing and integral part of the life of the believer. If we could pray more like this, we’d quickly realize just how accessible God is and just how easy it is to do this thing we call praying.

So whether you pray the canned prayers or use the big daddy of prayer or just throw random thoughts at God, the point is to keep the connection alive.

Don’t Give Me Excuses

November 9, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Ok so that’s a little harsh and not very compassionate I get it. But to be fair, no one has ever accused me of being overly compassionate either. In all honesty many of the reasons we give for not doing something are less legitimate reasons and more excuses. I’m too tired. I’m too busy. I’m too this or that. Just about all of these things are simple excuses for not doing whatever is in front of us.

This post is about the reasons we give for not praying. Or to follow my less compassionate side – the lame excuses we give for not praying. Again the point is not to offend you but to open our collective eyes to the way we’ve tried to dumb down what it means to follow Jesus.

Here are some of the key reasons I hear for people not praying: it’s too personal, doesn’t he already know, I don’t even know what to say, and does it really even work? Ok so let’s look at these one at a time.

It’s too personal. I guess? Maybe? But if you’re talking to God, who knows everything about you anyway, can it really be too personal? Admittedly, this reason is mostly heard in response to someone not being willing to pray in public. For a person who thinks prayer is too personal to pray out loud I really want you to think about that for a minute. If your prayers are that personal, then why wouldn’t you want someone else to experience the closeness of that kind of relationship. So I understand the personal nature of prayer. I really do! I’ve had some prayers that I have prayed that I don’t include other people on. But in general prayer is a conversation with God about things God cares about! It doesn’t have to be overly personal all the time. Make it conversational.

Doesn’t he already know? Yep sure does! But I know much of what happens in my children’s lives and I still talk to them. I know that my wife probably emailed people about vacations and talked to a lot of people on social media through the day but we still find things to talk about regarding how our days went. Just because he knows doesn’t mean he doesn’t want you to tell him. Not praying because God already knows is a pretty weak excuse for not praying. I’m not even going to apologize for that one.

I don’t know what to say. Well, that’s a bunch of crap too! You can talk to the barista about the kind of coffee you like, your buddy about the score of the game, your friend about your favorite show you just binge watched. You can find something to talk to God about. Likely, you’re making it a bit too formal. Just have a conversation. Tell him what’s going on. What are you excited about? Afraid of? Looking forward to? Anxious about? All the things you would tell a friend or coworker, he wants to hear these things from you!

Does it even work? Well this is where things get fun. I love to have this conversation with people about prayer. Does prayer work? Well give it a try and find out. You won’t believe me regardless of what I tell you anyway! 😉 So try this little exercise. When you get up in the morning try to pray. A friend of mine introduced me to a way of praying that’s a lot like ordering at the drive-thru. You tell the little speaker thing what you want. Then you drive around and expect it to be there. Well, pray this way. Tell God what you need that day. Then get up and go on with your day just expecting it to be there. Caveat – don’t pray for anything you can touch. So no praying for a new car or a million dollars!

Just pray this simple prayer. Lord, today I need…

That’s it. It’s that simple. Lord acknowledges you’re not in control. Today sets the time frame on when you need this answered. I is what makes it personal. And need expresses the thing going on in your life that needs addressed. Then what you ask for is the thing you actually would benefit most from that day. Remember nothing tangible! So pray for peace, focus, productivity, joy filled heart, compassion, etc. These are the things you’ll benefit from most so pray for them. Then sit back and watch to see what God does in your life as a result of this kind of prayer. Then you can tell me if prayer works.

If you pray for things like this and watch as your day unfolds, I’m pretty sure you’ll quickly see how well prayer actually does work. Go ahead. Give it a try. I dare you.

Importance of Prayer

November 8, 2022 / / 0 Comments

In the last post, we discussed the idea of prayer. We looked at what it is and why some people who call themselves Jesus’ followers, don’t do the whole prayer thing. I’m not sure if any of the reasons I gave in that post resonate with you or if you have your own reason for not praying, but I think prayer is the most vital part of our lives as Christians that we can’t go without it.

So why is prayer so important? I mean I believe in Jesus and I read my Bible. Is prayer really necessary? Short answer is yes, without a doubt, for sure, unequivocally yes!

Prayer is the ongoing conversation we have with God. It happens at the dinner table or the bed side. It happens when we’re driving and when we’re struggling. We pray when we need something or when we have an unexpected celebration and don’t know where else to turn. Prayer is everywhere.

The wide receiver who scores the touchdown involuntarily points to the sky almost like he’s saying thank you. Sounds like a bit of a prayer to me. The young mom can’t get her child to stop crying so she just quietly whispers what am I supposed to do? Sure sounds like you’re talking to someone. Or the man who stumbles to the bathroom in the middle of the night only to have his little toe make contact with the bed post. His reply…well you know what that is and it sure sounds like he believes in a being that is able to send his bed post to hell. Like it or not that’s kind of a prayer.

Now I didn’t say that any of these are good, right or proper prayers – whatever that really means. I’m not saying that these prayers convey any level of saving faith. They’re just the basic format for communicating with someone outside yourself who you believe is able to address the situation you’re in at that very moment.

But if God already knows what’s on my heart and that I stubbed my toe or my child won’t stop crying, then why do I need to tell him? Am I going to change the outcome? Yes and no.

You’re not going to change God’s mind by wearing him down or anything. Prayer isn’t nagging God til he gives in. But it actually will change the scenario for you. Prayer will at a minimum change your perspective of the situation and allow you to see other options. Prayer is so very important. It’s found all over the place in the Bible. All of the key players in the Bible spend time in prayer, even Jesus does it! And if Jesus feels it important to pray, then it’s probably a good idea, right?

One of my favorite reasons to show why prayer is so important is to use the passage from Ephesians where Paul talks about the armor of God. You have the belt, breastplate, shield, sword, helmet and all the parts of the armor. Each of them correlate to an aspect of the life of the follower of Jesus from the Bible to faith to righteousness. But prayer is embedded in that almost as a throw away phrase that is easily missed. It’s right near the end of the section where Paul says to include prayer. I like to view prayer in this illustration like the chain mail that holds the whole armor set on the body. The breastplate has to have a place to hang as does the belt and sword. It’s like prayer is the webbing onto which all of our other spiritual practices have to fasten. If we don’t have prayer, then the rest of our spiritual lives are in danger of falling apart.

We don’t pray to change God’s mind but to shift our thinking. We don’t pray because God needs to know what’s going on, but because he wants us to know we can come to him. We don’t pray just for the big things or the key events that need special attention. We pray for the little things and for the seemingly insignificant moments in our lives because he’s in those as well.

Next week we’ll address the reasons we don’t pray and poke a few holes in them. Not in a mean or derogatory way but in a way that shows they don’t hold water. And hopefully get us to a place where we feel more comfortable praying and realize its necessity!

For now try seeing prayer as an ongoing conversation you have with God. Start before your feet hit the floor in the morning with something simple – Hey God, thanks for a good night sleep! Then go about your day popping little one liners back at God throughout your day. End with a quick Good night God. And you’ve done it. Pretty simple! Then watch how your perspective shifts throughout the day as you give little and big things back to God realizing how much he cares for you.

Talking To The Big Guy

November 7, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Ok so I get it. If you’re not a person who does the whole churchy thing, then you probably don’t know if this post is for you. And if you’re a churchy person who does the whole prayer thing, then you probably think you’ve got this nailed. But I’d challenge both groups to a different understanding. Perhaps there’s something we all can learn if we just dig in a little bit to understand this concept.

I’m working from the perspective that everyone prays. We all might not pray the same way or to the same being or for the same purpose, but everyone prays. It’s just a natural thing. When something goes wrong we turn to some other being for help. When you make the touchdown, the reaction is to point upward like you’re giving credit to some higher power for the ability. So I truly believe that everyone prays in some manner of speaking.

But what is prayer?

So many of us look at prayer as the thing we do before a meal or right before bedtime or even that action we perform when life is spiraling out of control. If this is our view of prayer, then I believe we might be missing something pretty important. There is far more to prayer than pulling the handle on some cosmic slot machine and hoping against hope to get triples of anything! Prayer is far more than asking for a goodnight sleep or that you don’t choke to death on your hamburger.

Prayer isn’t just a thing we do, it’s a life we live.

I think we miss a few things when it comes to prayer. This post comes from a conversation I had recently with the men who serve as the board of elders at church. We were evaluating some key things in the life of the church and wondered about the overall spiritual health of the congregation. This was an eye opening and pretty deep conversation! The bulk of our time revolved around prayer and its place in the life of the follower of Jesus.

If you’ve ever asked someone to pray in a group, you’ve likely been met with a blank stare or two. Some people are just unable to pray in a group and I’ve often wondered why that is. Here are a couple of thoughts that came from our discussion. We’ll talk more about some of these in future posts and these will shape a future series we lead in worship. Perhaps something along the lines of dispelling spiritual myths?

Many see prayer as an intensely personal thing. Now there’s absolutely nothing wrong with prayer being an intensely personal expression of faith because it really is! I value those who think of prayer in such personal ways! I wish more people took prayer this seriously to be honest. But does holding prayer this tightly actually rob us of some of the benefits of prayer?

I don’t even know what to ask for so why should I pray? This is one that I’ve heard before and honestly think it’s kind of scary. If I don’t know what to say to my wife, that doesn’t mean we don’t talk. It just means we talk about stuff we already know! Same is true for prayer. You might not have anything you need to ask God to do or ask for from Him, but you can still share what’s going on in your life. Which really feeds the next reason some don’t pray.

If God already knows, why do I have to tell him? Indeed you don’t have to tell him anything. He most certainly already knows what’s going on in your life and what you’re up to. But what kind of a relationship is built with no communication? I know we all have that friend we can not see or talk to for long periods of time and then get together and not miss a beat. But what is that relationship missing? How much better would that relationship be if they were able to connect in communication on a regular basis?

I’m not sure it even really works. This one is a bit more scary of an answer. It shows not only a question about prayer but also raises a question about faith in general. Prayer is the number one way we can talk to God, and if we doubt that it is at all effective or beneficial then we are really calling into question what we believe about God and his ability.

There are likely several other reasons why some people don’t value prayer, but these are the tops in my experience. In some future posts here we’ll navigate these reasons and try to rationally examine them in a way that hopefully will help us better understand what God is up to in our prayer life.

Change The World

November 2, 2022 / / 0 Comments

That sounds like a huge task doesn’t it? I mean there’s no way we can possibly change the world. And if you’re thinking this way then you’re pretty much right. There’s no way that one person can change the entire course of life for everyone in their lifetime. I know that I can’t do it that’s for sure! But what if we tried this from a different angle?

I remember going with my mom to get her hair done when I was growing up. We had a friend who ran her own shop and mom would take me whenever she went. I would generally sit around and read the joke book she had. And yes she only had one. And yes I read the same jokes over and over every time I was there.

One of these jokes kind of speaks to this matter. It’s the old how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. I know it’s lame. I get it! But think about it. If you try to eat an elephant, you’ll be so overwhelmed that you’ll quickly realize this is not possible to do. But if you take your time and over a long period of time slowly tackle the big project then it is possible. Small disclaimer – no elephants were harmed in the making of this blog post. So you animal rights activists out there it was just an illustration. Now back to our regularly scheduled post.

Take that imagery of slowly tackling a project over a long period of time and apply that to changing the world. It’s actually not as impossible as one might think. I know the world is far bigger than an elephant. And I know impacting every human on the planet still is an impossible task for a single person, but we’re still looking too big. Try this idea on for size.

A long time ago I heard someone say do for one what you wish you could do for everyone. I can’t remember where I was when I heard it but I know it’s not my phrase. The concept is pretty cool. I mean think about it. If I want to make the world a better place for all of humanity, that’s an impossible task. But I can make a difference impacting one person’s life for the better!

If we would just change our focus from the whole world to the ones in front of us daily, we might realize that by changing the world for one person we might actually be making a much larger difference. If you can positively impact one person’s life, and that person is changed by the difference you made to the point that they change someone else’s life then you’ve created a small wave. Then if you and the other person do the same for yet another, this small wave can turn into a tidal wave that can have implications that could drastically change the entire world.

So maybe you can’t bring about world peace or economic stability across the globe or anything like that. But you can bring peace into one person’s life. You might be able to help one person this Christmas be able to celebrate with their family. You might be able to do something for someone that will change the entire trajectory of their life and have the potential to impact more than just that one person.

Go ahead and try it. Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone. Don’t try to change everything for everyone in the world. But what about changing the world for one person and see where that gets you.

Moving The Sticks. What Really Matters?

November 1, 2022 / / 0 Comments

It’s super easy to measure the measurable. I mean seriously. Take a head count and you’re good to go right? Well, not so fast. There is likely a lot of information that you’re missing if you simply count butts in seats. Let me propose a better way.

Ok before we dive into this let me set the stage a little. Admittedly, this is written from the perspective of a pastor of a church. But I’ve lived in the real world as well so some of the principles here are transferrable to other trades. Actually, I believe most of this information is transferrable.

One of the easiest things to do to measure the growth of an organization is to ask for some statistical data. The simplest form of data is raw numbers about how many people show up to events, gatherings, come through the door, etc. This is what we’ll call attendance numbers. This is the primary lot of information that most church bodies like to gather for their churches. And as easy as it is to gather, the information is totally invalid. Actually, it’s often times misleading to be quite frank. Raw attendance shows one side of an equation that does not tell you about overall health. That’s where we’ll spend the rest of the time in this article – growth verses health. You can be big but weak and that’s no good!

There needs to be a metric that measures movement or progress from one area to the next. Something that drives to a deeper level of engagement or ownership in the life of the organization. Mere attendance shows a level of knowledge about the organization and that’s helpful to an extent but there’s no ownership involved at all.

A better way to measure the overall health and vibrancy of an organization is to move from singular attendance data to a cyclical view of engagement. In the church I serve, we use four key concepts that show levels of engagement ranging from observation to participation to involvement to ownership. The key is to get someone to move through this cycle to exhibit ownership of what they believe in. The same is true for other areas of life, not just church life.

Take my time in car sales as an example. Someone knows the dealership exists and they even drive through the lot on a day when the place is closed. That doesn’t do you any good. They move to participation in what you offer, meaning they end up buying the car. That’s great and it helps your bottom line, but if they never return you’re missing out. When they become involved in what the dealership offers they’ll bring their car back for service. That’s when they are actually buying into the culture of the organization and not just getting a product from you. Finally, the ultimate is when they become repeat and referrals to your dealership. That’s when they own it as their preferred place of business.

This metric of moving people through a cycle of deeper engagement in the life of the organization is critical to long term viability and sustainability of the organization. If you’d like to see how this can apply to your particular are of work, I’d be glad to assist. Specifically if you’re a church or church planter, applying this to your context is the world in which I live currently! The end goal is to move us to a place of thriving instead of merely surviving in life, business and ministry.

Answering The Wrong Questions

October 20, 2022 / / 0 Comments

I’ve noticed a bit of a trend in many of the churches I’ve worked with over the past couple of years. It’s a trend that is likely much larger than just churches though. It seems to be a way of life for civic leaders, small business owners, and others who are in the community service world as well. The problem? We are answering the wrong questions.

Are we answering questions people are not asking?

It seems that leaders in varying parts of the world are answering some pretty good questions. The questions are really critical and important to address. The only problem is that these questions aren’t the most pressing ones to the people they serve. This is true in the public sector as well as in the church!

We have a tendency to find our pet projects and really focus on those. We see things that we think are the most important and run with all of our might into those scenarios. But what if we’re answering a question that isn’t the greatest need for our communities? Here’s a quick example of what I’m talking about from the life of Jesus.

There are several stories in the Bible about people who were gathering to hear Jesus teach. The message he was teaching is really important to be certain! The only problem was that they were hungry or hurting. Their hunger and their hurt prevented them from really being able to listen to what Jesus was teaching. Instead of focusing solely on his message, he would often stop what he was doing and meet their critical needs first. He healed people before he taught them. He fed them when they were hungry instead of expecting them to just push through and listen harder. He was answering the questions they were asking instead of the one that was on his agenda.

What about you? Do you answer the questions that are most meaningful to you? Or do you really take time to listen to what is important to the people around you?

Whether you’re a pastor serving a church or a small business owner trying to increase traffic in your shop or a politician trying to set policy for your community, it’s critical to find out what the people you’re serving need most. But you can’t assume you know the answer. You have to ask the people you’re serving.

In the church I serve, this is a regular part of our ministry life. Talking to community members. Asking neighbors. Polling the people we meet. What do you see as important for our community? What do we need in this area that the church can provide?

Perhaps it’s time to stop pushing our agenda and start actually listening to what the people around us are saying. Slow down. Have good conversations with people. Listen to what they’re saying. Take people out to lunch or sit with them over a coffee or a beer and just let them express their hurts, pains, concerns, celebrations. You’ll learn a great deal of you put your agenda aside and listen to what’s on someone else’s heart.

A New World Order

October 5, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Wow that sounds like a Star Wars image or something a bit sci-fi doesn’t it? The idea of a new world order is kind of strange to say the least. It’s scary to some and exciting to others. For most it’s future oriented although in some people’s minds it’s sooner than we might want. But rarely do we consider a new world order a present reality or even an old world reality, but that’s kind of my perspective.

Ok so let’s be a tad less cryptic here. I think the life of the follower of Jesus should be, although often isn’t, an example of a new world order. Jesus peppers the New Testament with references to this new world order. They’re everywhere in the gospel accounts. Admittedly, Jesus doesn’t call it the new world order but that’s what it is. Jesus uses the phrase Kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven. This in many people’s minds is a new world order that one day will be a reality.

Unfortunately this is a short sighted view of what Jesus is actually talking about when he references the Kingdom of God. Jesus doesn’t use the phrase Kingdom of God in the future tense. He doesn’t say that it one day will be here. Instead when Jesus refers to the Kingdom of God, he does so in the present tense, as if it’s already here? How can this be? How can this Kingdom of God thing be here when life looks the way it does? Can this new world order be a present day reality?

It seems that’s the way Jesus was teaching. He was trying to get the people of his day to see the potential to have a different kind of life than they were living. The Jewish nation knew hardship, but Jesus wanted them to see beyond the hardship to the life God desired for them. From captivity to exile to enslavement to living under the thumb of oppressive rulers these people knew what it meant to have a bad day! They wanted out of this way of life pretty much at all costs.

Enter Jesus saying The kingdom of God is at hand. That didn’t mean it was around the corner or coming tomorrow. It meant that it was within reach. And to be honest it still is within reach. The Kingdom of God is ours today just as much as it was theirs when Jesus first uttered the words. But they, and we, have a problem. We don’t believe it, or at best don’t live like it.

The people of Jesus’ day complained more about the bad than they claimed the kingdom realities in their lives. Jesus was telling the Jews of his day that a new kingdom, new world order, had made its way into their lives already. That new world order was far more than a religious approach to life. As a matter of fact, and we’ll address this in a future post, Jesus didn’t enter the scene as a religious leader necessarily. He was addressing far more than mere church membership and attendance. He was driving at the heart of humanity from a political, economic, health care, environmental, friendship, family, society level.

The new world order is here. The kingdom is here. The kingdom was just as present in World War II Germany as it was Jesus’ day. This kingdom was there when the towers fell and when covid rampaged the world. It was there when your political party won or lost. It was there when the hurricane flooded much of Florida. It was there when your loved one fought through their final moments with cancer. It was there when your spouse chose someone/something else over you. It was there when your child rebelled. It was there when your church had to close. It was there when you lost your job.

The kingdom of God, aka new world order, isn’t about getting the good things right now. It’s about living a different way regardless of how things go right now. Jesus was far more concerned about how we treat the poor and disenfranchise than how much is in our bank accounts. He cared more about the orphan and the widow than preserving the freedoms of the Israelites. The kingdom of God is less about you and me and more about the people with whom we interact daily.

You see the long and short is the Kingdom of God is already here. It is a new world order. Not one built with power and prestige and centralized rulers, but with service, love and humility. It’s time that we start living the realities of this New World Order, and there’s no better time to start than today.

Can You Really Have Your Best Life Now?

October 4, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Let’s get this out of the way right from the start. This is not an outright knock on a religious best selling book or its author, well not exactly. If someone told you, however, that you had the ability to have your best life in this moment, would you listen? Or like me, would you think there was some crazy catch, gimmick, or sales pitch coming your way? If you bear with me for a few minutes, I hope you are able to see that your best life really is possible and there’s no gimmicks, sales pitch, or any bait and switch attached to it.

Simply put I believe the message of Jesus in the Bible is one of having your best life right now. Don’t believe me? Read on.

The message of your best life now is often seen through the lenses of prosperity, wealth, power, and fame. All of those things that we can stock pile in our lives to elevate us above someone else are considered ways to have our best life right here and right now. But what about having our best life in some of the crappier moments in life?

The message of the Bible is one that totally throws the whole prosperity message on its head. Essentially, Jesus says that we can have our best life in the midst of the most fearful, dangerous, heart breaking, painful, lonely, hurting moments we could ever imagine.

It’s really less about circumstances and more about perspective. When Jesus came onto the scene the message of who God was, and what God wanted for his people, had become distorted at best. The idea of grace, goodness, mercy and forgiveness became things worked for and earned instead of free gifts given and received. It’s no wonder some people thought, and still think this way today, that we need to work harder for God’s blessings. It’s no surprise that we tend to think our best life only happens when things are going the way we want them to go.

So what does it take to have our best life now? I think it takes a change of heart. A different perspective. A less selfish approach to life. An others mentality. It’s really not important how you word it. The idea is simple. The way to have our best life now is to put someone else’s needs before our own. I know that it’s super counterintuitive, but that’s why it works so well.

Have you ever done something nice for someone else, like really just out of the goodness of your heart helped them? Then somewhere down the road some sort of blessing, benefit, good deed is done to you? Some call it karma or the universe repaying us. Others just call it good luck. But what if that’s the idea behind the real best life? What if the best life isn’t about amassing large amounts of things for ourselves and it’s really about serving those around you? What if our best life isn’t found in a padded checkbook but instead in the smile on a homeless man’s face when he receives a meal? What if it’s found in the gratitude of a widow when her needs are taken care of anonymously? What if our best life is found in spending time with a friend when he’s lost his wife, or she’s lost her job, or their child is ill? What if our best life is found in serving those around us with no strings attached and with no expectation of repayment?

I am a firm believer that we can and should have our best life right now. And to not have our best life now, in my mind is a misplaced understanding of who Jesus is and how he’s called us to live. The best life is a gospel filled life. The best life is a life that has its priorities straight. The best life is a life that keeps the main thing the main thing and doesn’t let personal ambition take the place of genuine love for those around us.

I think our best life isn’t just possible, it’s the only way to really have an enjoyable life.

Time To Slow Down

September 23, 2022 / / 1 Comment

For those of you who know me, the title to this post will seem a little odd for me. I’ve never been one to really move slowly in much of life. I drive fast, talk fast, eat fast, run fast. The issue is faster isn’t always better. Driving fast means I miss the scenery. Talking fast means some won’t get the whole story of what I’m trying to communicate. Eating fast means I set myself up for an upset stomach or I’m hungry in no time! Running fast might mean that I out run the guy behind me but it also means I don’t have the stamina to run for a very long time.

One of the books that has been pretty helpful in this idea of slowing down is one by John Make Comer titled The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. It’s a really good book. It hits right where it needs but is gentle where it can be. The idea is very simple.

Hurry is violence to the soul.

John Mark Comer

Now I know that sounds pretty intense but the context of that passage really sets the stage for what he means. The simple way of putting this is that we were designed to be able to run at a decent pace. Admittedly some of us can run through life moving quicker than others, but all of us have a limit. Hurry is pushing the limit to its end and then exceeding the boundaries doing harm to ourselves and others. Hurry doesn’t make us more effective. And to be honest, hurry doesn’t even let us get the task done faster (as odd as that sounds).

One of my favorite ideas that comes out of the book is actually a reference to a bible verse. Comer writes An easy life isn’t an option, an easy yoke is. That’s fairly profound but only if you know what a yoke is. A yoke was a tool used to keep an ox on task. It would rest on its shoulders and the load was tied to it. Then the ox would have to pull that load so the man wouldn’t have to pull it. Admittedly it was a great idea, but the purpose of this yoke was to load the ox to the max so you had to make fewer trips. And that’s what hurry does to us.

Jesus says in the New Testament that his yoke is easy and burden light. That means he’s not really all about heaping up load after load and making us move at a frantic pace. He’s designed the load specifically for what we’re able to handle, with his help. Don’t forget that last part!

But the problem is, we try to pursue and easy life instead of the easy burden Jesus promises and that’s where the wheels fall off. Pursuing an easy life will end up bringing a heavy burden. But pursuing an easy burden won’t necessarily result in an easy life all the time.

Running as fast as we can seems like the best way to get the task done. And sometimes you might be right. However, that’s not all the time. You have to use wisdom to be able to determine when is the right time and when is not the right time to put the pedal to the floor in life. I know that I’ve done this wrongly for years. And it’s likely done significant damage to my own body, not to mention several key relationships.

It’s never too late to slow down the pace of life. It’s never too late to literally hit the pause button and sit for a minute. It’s never too late to take a gentle and calming walk in the middle the day to take in the wonder of life around you. Since I moved to a house on just over 12 acres, I’ve added a lot to my plate. But oddly enough the pace has slowed a bit. I can sit outside and enjoy uninterrupted sunrises and sunsets. I can hear all the wildlife moving and talking around me. Most every night I’m blessed by a sky filled with stars.

Maybe you like to move fast, I do too. But you’ll never know what you’ve been missing with all that speed until you slow your pace (perhaps even literally) and see what’s been there the whole time.

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