One Leg

To stand on one leg and prove God's existence is a very different thing from going on one's knees and thanking Him.

-- Søren Kierkegaard

Will Sustain You

Cast your cares on the Lord
  and he will sustain you;
he will never let the righteous be shaken.

-- Psalm 55:22

A time of open sharing at church today seemed very much to me like 'casting our cares' on the Lord.  I've often read this through a lens of cause and effect.  Like, 'if' we cast our cares on God, 'then' He will care for us.

But we tend to be too much either / or, while God seems to be much more both / and.  God says He will sustain us, so...why wouldn't we cast our cares on Him?  He promises not to let us be shaken, especially in the ways we fear most.  God wants us to go to Him with our concerns...because He WILL sustain us.

Rainful Joy

Perils Alone

I will not fear, for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to face my perils alone.

-- Thomas Merton

God lives with us, in our circumstances.

Convinced

How do we become convinced of something?  Is it not most often a result of suffering or struggle?

Comfort Zone

We seem to grow proportionately to our willingness to move outside of our comfort zone.

We can, and should, move towards challenging things...rather than avoid them.  This is how we grow; how we become increasingly alive.

Only Thing That Can Grow

The only thing that can grow is the thing you give energy to.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Entirely Of Our Choosing

We have no choice, we must all die. How we live, however, is entirely of our choosing.

-- Simon Sinek

What then will I actually choose today?

Delight?

For the Lord takes delight in his people;
he crowns the humble with victory.

-- Psalm 149:4

It is still hard to image that God delights in us. But, God says he does. So, what would it be that makes this feel impossible or untrue?  And, how do we combat how we so often feel with such a truth?

The Christian faith is meant to be lived moment by moment. It isn't some broad, general outline -- it's a long walk with a real Person. Details count: passing thoughts, small sacrifices, a few encouraging words, little acts of kindness, brief victories over nagging sins.

-- Joni Eareckson Tada

What we choose to believe matters, because it informs the choices we make.

Communities Build Bridges

Communities build bridges of all kinds, don't they?

Lord, Help Me...

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, 
   but with humility comes wisdom.

-- Proverbs 11:2

"Lord, help me to have the courage to be humble".

I haven't noticed much of a connection between courage and humility. But, it does seem to takes courage to be humble...to trust in something other than myself.  The wise know this.  The courageous know this.

"Lord, help me...".

Trivial Indulgence

Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.

-- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Energy and Self-Control

Researchers at the University of Nottingham recently published findings from their exploration of 83 separate studies on energy and self-control. What they found will change the way you start your day.

The researchers found that self-control and energy are not only intricately linked but also finite, daily resources that tire much like a muscle. Even though we don’t always realize it, as the day goes on, we have increased difficulty exerting self-control and focusing on our work. As self-control wears out, we feel tired and find tasks to be more difficult and our mood sours.

This exhaustion of self-control kills your productivity, and it makes the morning hours, when self-control is highest, the most important hours of the day.

But the trick isn’t just to spend your morning hours working; it’s to do the right things in the morning that will make your energy and self-control last as long as possible.

-- Travis Bradberry

There are some surprisingly easy things that can help us with this reality.  Continue here...

Organizing

For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned.

-- Benjamin Franklin

NEEDTOBREATHE

My, oh my, were they ready to go last night!

Handicaps

So it's searchable:

Is it possible that the very handicaps in my life are the keys to usefulness in the service of God?

-- Alistair Begg


Humble yourselves, therefore,
under God’s mighty hand,
that he may lift you up in due time.

-- 1 Peter 5:6

The Unique Way

Every person needs to choose to follow Christ...and. particularly, in the unique way that God has made them to do so.

Consistently Fought For

The soul that is not carefully attended to—the soul whose health is not consistently fought for—will erode spiritually, emotionally, relationally, and in every other way. This is why the fight against the wrong in us is a most important and necessary fight. Emotionally intelligent and spiritually healthy people answer the question, “What’s wrong with the world?” in the same way that Chesterton is said to have answered the same: “I am.”

-- Scott Sauls

Continue here....

How God Sees Us

Perhaps, the question is, what do we allow to most inform how we see ourselves?

If we see ourselves largely through the lens of how we believe others see us, we set ourselves up for some serious problems and can only end up in arrogance or despair.  We will always be trying to keep track of what others expect of us, what we need to be, and never be able to let our guard down or relax.  For sure, we won't be able to be who we really are.

If we see ourselves primarily through a definition we come up with on our own, even if we succeed in shunning how others inform that, we likely will end up absorbed with ourselves, only able to serve our own interests, concerns, or threats.  Not to mention, alone.

We must then learn to understand who we are based on something else....not from others, not simply from our own constructs.

Our only viable option is to see ourselves from God's perspective, how He sees us.

...then, we can discover who we really are.

And, it no longer is necessary to get others to see us in a certain way.

Most Informs

What most informs the way we see ourselves?

The Way We See Ourselves

I love this message my wife is sending to her students, as they start a new school year today.

The way we see ourselves is pretty important.

We Really Want

We really want people to see us the way we see ourselves.

Other Way Around

As long as we imagine it is we who have to look for God, we must often lose heart.  But it is the other way around -- He is looking for us.

-- Simon Tugwell

This couldn't be more evident to me than the recent baptism of my son, Conner. I am so proud of him, his willingness to fight for this life that God has put within him.

Tension Between

What is most characteristically human about us is the tension between the desire to be "free" — self-identifying and self-choosing — and to be "related" to love and be loved.

-- Paul Tillich

CUBS WIN!

Another fun time with the fam at Wrigley yesterday...this time they won!

Seedlings Of Our Desires

Our thoughts are amazing things.  They are the seedlings of all our desires, actions and beliefs. In fact, what we think about most of the time, we tend to become.

-- Jas Singh

Only Wisdom

The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility.

-- T.S. Eliot

To embrace what Suze is saying, it seems to me, we must acknowledge what Eliot is saying.

Though not 'new', this truth is a game-changer -- or, it keeps the game changed from the one we so often play in.  Despite what the world says, I really don't need to be what humility is not.

Not More Like You

The key to being a good mentor is to help people become more of who they already are -- not to make them more like you.

-- Suze Orman

Of Itself

If you take care of your people, your people will take care of your customers, and your business will take care of itself.

-- J.W. Marriott

Be Persistent

Be persistent: If you want something badly enough, you need to work at it. This is especially true when it comes to relationships. 

-- Bruce Kasanoff

I'm not on my A-game today.  I'm not emotionally alert, having trouble seeing clearly, mentally foggy.

I can 'bag it' or press in more intentionally to try to overcome.  Sometimes persistence seems natural; sometimes I have to choose it.  I have a sense of what it needs to be today....

Asking

Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the Kingdom. If you may have everything by asking in His Name, and nothing without asking, I beg you to see how absolutely vital prayer is.

-- Charles Spurgeon

I've been thinking about what I ask God for, as well as what I don't...and why.

I Shall Know Him

I'm sucker for b-shop quartet style harmonies.  I went to a competition for my 10th birthday and have never forgotten it.

Alike, Large

This is our Lord's will...that our prayer and our trust be, alike, large.

-- St. Julian of Norwich

The weight of the human future can feel very heavy at times.

Ask yourself what you really want (pray) and just take the next step (trust) in that direction. Do that again and again. You will arrive at a place you didn't anticipate (Lord's will).

 And, you will realize that the load was lighter than you had guessed.