The theme for this post came to me from two different magazines I was reading yesterday (Discipleship Journal and Marriage Partnership). Two very different sources with the same message (and from two very different article topics). Here’s the thing…I don’t think the message is for me. It’s not that it couldn’t be for me (and perhaps it will be sometime in the near future), but my heart is telling me that I am supposed to write about this topic for someone else—someone who might be reading this right now. So I will be obedient to His leading and trust Him with the results (and if it turns out it was meant for me…that’s OK too).

Here are the quotes from the magazines:

The thought never crossed my mind that God might want to use my pain to turn my heart toward him. (MP, Fall 2008, page 16).

Most Christians believe that God will never give them anything—any hardship—that they cannot bear. They rely on what they read in 1 Cor. 10:13…The context of that verse, however, is key. Paul is speaking about the temptation to sin…most of us don’t read the verse that way. We think the apostle is assuring us that God will never give us a trial we can’t bear. The fact is, God will allow hardships in your life that you simply cannot bear…Yet there’s purpose in the pain…You can go through almost anything if you know the Lord of the universe is going through it with you. (DJ, Sept/Oct 2008, page 34-35).

I am only giving you a small piece of each article. I highly recommend that you read the second one in its entirety. It is entitled Borrowing God’s Smileby Joni Eareckson Tada and it is a great article. But even in these small excerpts you get the point.

Trails will come into our lives. We will have pain. You’ve experienced it. I’ve experienced it. I see it every day. It breaks our hearts. It hurts. We don’t understand it. But it’s still there and we often question why God allows it. Certainly don’t be fooled into thinking God promises to protect us from all pain and trials. Very much the opposite:

 Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through,
as if something strange were happening to you.
Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with
Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing
his glory when it is revealed to all the world.
1 Peter 4:12-13, NLT

It is through our trials and our pain that we become more like Him. It is then that our hearts are turned toward God. It is then that God gets to shower you with His love and grace and mercy. Are you going through a tough time right now? Do you know someone else who is?

Take heart. God isn’t surprised by it and He wants to use it to shape you into His image, turn you toward Him, and show you just how much He loves you. Now that’s a great message…and I pray that God will use it to minister to those who need it (you know who you are).

I’m still not exactly sure why, but yesterday was full of discouragement as a dark mood settled over me. As I pray and think about it I am sure it is because of the great weekend we had with the boys (more to come on that in another post, but I want to give it the attention it deserves). It really hit me after lunch…more specifically, after going to the gun range with two of my buddies.

But when it hit me, it hit me pretty hard. I started thinking about all the stuff I have to get done this week, this month, this year. I started thinking about finances. I started thinking about my garage. I started thinking about my uncertain future. I started thinking about homework. I started thinking about being there for my family. I started thinking about church responsibilities. I think you get the picture…it was overwhelming.

It is times like this when I usually would turn to something I shouldn’t (food recently, porn a few years ago). But God has been working on me to turn to Him. So I did. I put all of this on the table, confessed my discouragement and asked Him for a little encouragement. Did I get it? Yes and No. He isn’t letting me off quite that easy, but He does hear me and He does love me…and He is working on me ever so slowly.

So what did I hear from Him? Here’s what I got: “Be Still”. Not exactly word of encouragement, and not exactly new words of instruction for me. This is also an area He has been working on…my need to slow down, be still, and be with Him. Seems counter-intuitive to my mood this morning. Wasn’t what I was looking or hoping for. But then He reinforces the command with this…

Be still, and know that I am God!
(Psalm 46:10a)

Okay…even I get it. Be still, right? But that’s not my nature. He knows. So here I am, doing my best to be still and wait on God. He’s here. I’m waiting…

This is how Michael Yaconelli described his church in Messy Spirituality: ”‘our church is a church ‘for people who don’t like to go church’” (p. 63). There is something about that description that I like. It’s a church I would at least try out once. I think it’s the church Jesus started too.

Church and being a Christ follower isn’t about religion (in the usual use of the term). It’s about getting to know Christ better and becoming a better disciple by becoming more like Him. And we become more like Him by spending time with Him…by “abiding in Him”. For several days now God has had me in one passage of Scripture (which is a little different for me as I tend to like to move on once I’ve read something).

What have I learned? Not enough, I’m sure. But for me, the point has been that I need to slow down and spend time with God…and even enjoy the journey. I need to “abide in Him” and let Him abide in me…I need to spend time with Him and let Him rub off on me. Here’s the passage for you to munch on too…

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.

“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other.

There is obviously a lot here to mull over (I am still finding new stuff). But God’s primary message for out of this passage is to “Remain in me…Remain in my love”. I’m trying…but it’s always been hard for me to stay still.

P.S.: I actually don’t mind going to church anymore…but that hasn’t always been the case.

This has been a crazy, busy week! This math class I started has consumed a lot of time and thought processes just to keep my head above water (but I’m determined not to drown). Work hasn’t been much easier this past week either with a major project of mine taking some serious hits…requiring even more thought processes and causing plenty of stress.

So blogging has taken a slight back-seat this week…but I haven’t gone anywhere! And in the midst of all this chaos, stress, and workload God has been very close. And I couldn’t be more thankful! I am learning (slowly) to turn to Him in these times instead of turning to my false idols…the things I used to turn to when things got rough.

And He has come through in spades! This morning He gave me gentle reminder of just how much He loves me and how much He has done for me already…

 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
   And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.
   He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.
 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
   Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.
Isaiah 53:4-6, NLT

What more can I say besides:

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

I think that says it.

My reading this morning from John Eldredge’s Walking with God has struck a cord with me…and has me wrestling with this foundational life question:

What is the right way to look at life?

Before you read on too far, how do you answer this question? How do you look at life? Is it random? Is life hard? Is life supposed to be easy? Is life about getting stuff?

The right answer is that life is supposed to be about God…about loving Him and getting to know Him personally. From the book…

The first and greatest command is to love God with our whole being. Yet, it is rare to find someone who is completely given over to God. And so normal to be surrounded by people who are trying to make life work. We think of the few who are abandoned to God as being sort of odd. The rest of the world—the ones trying to make life work—seem perfectly normal to us (Page 87).

This has me thinking today about how I look at life. Am I just trying to “make it work” or am I truly focused on making God the priority in my life? Am I taking His blessings and making them idols? Do I think of God as “a means to an end rather than the end itself”? John makes the point in this chapter that too often we are looking for God to make us happy…when the only way that ever happens is by us selling out to God. By loving Him with everything that we’ve got.

And God doesn’t often play a passive role in the idolization (is that a word?) of our lives. He desperately wants our hearts to be in the right place, focused on Him. In fact, it’s on this point that God promises to test us:

The Lord your God is testing you to see if you
truly love him with all your heart and soul.
Deuteronomy 13:3, NLT

This leaves one final (and probably obvious) question: Are you and I passing the test? Only you can answer that one for yourself. Me? I’m working on it.

It has been a rough week. And aside from a decent Mother’s Day, I can’t say the weekend was much better. Saturday was not my most shining moment as a father or a husband. And I continue to wrestle with God about my relationship with Him…it just isn’t what I think it should be (which very well may be the problem). I feel David did in Psalm 22:1-2: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help? Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night you hear my voice, but I find no relief.”

This morning I poured it all out to God. I got brutally honest. With God, but mostly with myself. As I spent time in God’s Word (after asking Him to speak to me and help me listen better) this is the word I got:

The Lord keeps you from harm and watches over your life.
The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever.
Psalm 121:7-8, NLT

He’s watching. And He cares. It doesn’t matter if I feel it (although it’s becoming a struggle)…He IS watching. And He DOES care. For today, that’s enough.

This has been kind of a crazy day (a crazy few days to be more precise). In the midst of all the hastle of traveling and attending a conference God got ahold of me today about something I have struggled with for a looooong time…and frankly still do. But God is working and speaking.

Here’s the verse He used:

For the Lord your God is living among you.
He is a mighty savior.
He will take delight in you with gladness.
With His love, he will calm your fears.
He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.
Zephaniah 3:17, NLT

God…the God of the universe…delights and rejoices in His relationship with us. And there it is. Really? I get that God loves us. Even puts up with us. But delights and rejoices? I confess. I struggle with that. Partly because I don’t feel it very often…and I just want to feel God’s love and delight. It’s the desire of my heart.

I read these words and I know God treasures a rich, intimate relationship with me. I read that He desires fellowship with me. But I don’t often feel it and that is wreaking havoc in my spiritual life! I pray for it…I teach about it…I talk about it…

Is it too much to ask? Is it because of my childhood relationships? Is God testing my resolve? I’m not sure, but it is reassuring to read about His delight and His love. And I’m not giving up on it.

Please pray for me on this point…and share your experiences and thoughts on the topic. And always remember that God delights in YOU!