Who am I trying to be? Am I trying to be like a certain movie star, athlete or entrepreneur? Am I trying to be more like Mother Teresa or Billy Graham? Am I trying to be more like Jesus? I don’t think we should try to be like any of those people. What does trying to be someone else gain me if I’m not that person? I think that anytime we’re trying to be any certain way, it’s a sign that something…
(Below is a take on what might have been going on inside the woman’s head that was caught in adultery in John 8. There’s a lot of accusing and judgment in the world around us. Dragging our enemies, our exes, and our presidential candidates into a circle to be stoned for what they’ve done. It’s refreshing to think about how things could go differently.) It’s all become so clear now. I’d never seen my sin before this moment. I’ve just…
I’ve got a feeling that while what I posted in “Part I” may make some sense, it may still leave a lot of questions unanswered. Perhaps questions like: “If God’s desire is for us to be so comfortable, rested and pleasured, how do you explain the torture, jailing, and gruesome killing of Jesus’ first disciples? And the promise that we’ll experience persecution and share in his sufferings? And the fact that life is painful and difficult?” It does seem like…
Food. Sex. Pleasure. Comfort. Rest. Ruling. Does this sound like a list of things that some preacher somewhere should preach against? Does this blog title sound like some hedonistic reality show? I admit that my knee-jerk reaction might be something like that. But I’m learning something entirely different. Early this year, I began to see a new theme emerging. That all of these things come as gifts from God. He thought them up himself and then rained them down as gifts for the…
God has always been well aware of the shame problem and it’s affects. Adam started passing shame potatoes like a pro right off-the-bat after eating the forbidden fruit. God asks: “Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” Adam’s immediate response was an advanced double-potato-toss: “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit, and I ate it.” One potato at God. One at Eve. He seems to almost be saying…
There have been times when I really felt the love and presence of Father God. It seemed as though I was the most special person in the world to him. He and I were going to do great things together. There have been times when I stopped feeling that love and presence, but saw other people experiencing it. This was upsetting and evoked jealousy. It felt like God had moved on from me, and now he thought someone else was the…
A few years back, I heard a sermon in which the speaker was describing someone who was afraid of flying. That person never flew in airplanes. When asked if he had any fear in his life, he would say “I don’t have fear in my life.” The speaker’s response to that person was: “No, you don’t have fear because you reduce your life to accommodate the spirit of fear.” This really struck me! How much life do I miss out on…
I watched a young boy in the coffee shop today go nuts because he wanted a cookie. He was being quite obnoxious about it and this really bothered his older sisters. Then they were a bit mean to him in response. Watching this had a way of confirming something that I’ve been realizing lately. Our biggest problem isn’t that we’re mean to each other. Our biggest problem is that we’re self-focused. Being mean is the fruit of selfishness. The fruit…
