News flash! As a culture, we don’t wait well.
That’s why, in the previous post, I mentioned that it’s easy to get into trouble when we’re in those waiting seasons. (In theory, of course… not that I have ever actually gotten so impatient that somebody in a uniform decided it was time to have a little chat… but I’m sure you know somebody like that.)
One of the problems we have with waiting is that we don’t know how. We think of waiting as the kind of thing you do in a bureaucrat’s line or a doctor’s office (now you know why they call them “patients”).
In the Bible, James offers a different idea. And when I read this during a particularly hard waiting season, it really got my attention:
“The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts…” (James 5:7-8).
I happen to live in the middle of the largest contiguous cotton-growing region in the world. My neighbors know a thing or two about waiting on a harvest. Their livelihood depends on it. And believe me, you won’t find a busier bunch. [click to continue…]
I want to take you to a place where, frankly, we aren’t invited. For just a minute, let’s be one of “those” people we often gripe about – those rubberneckers on the highway, who seem fascinated with somebody else’s messes.
In this case, we’re creeping up to a closed bedroom door, where on the other side, we can hear muffled sobs.
A man’s sobs.
A few days ago, somebody from home had rocked his world. The news was bad, and every ounce of optimism he once had was crushed.
You should have been here yesterday. He was really blubbering then. And he will be again tomorrow. Fasting, too. And praying. Lots of praying.
But as he cries and prays and cries and fasts and cries some more, something happens. [click to continue…]
No telling how many times I’ve said to someone, “Put this in your oven and let it bake for a while,” or “I don’t have this all sorted out yet – it’s still in the oven.”
I thought I’d share some of the “bread” that’s in my oven right now. Here are seven half-baked, half-raw ideas I’m heating up. I may toss ‘em. I may cook ‘em up. Put them in your oven too, and let’s see what comes out. You can help, if you’d like, by sharing your thoughts in the comments below.
+++++++
There is no such thing as a porcelain healer. There are expert healers, wounded healers, bloody healers, spiritual healers. But if your goal is to look pretty on a shelf or remain detached from the broken, the sick, the wounded, or the dying, you aren’t much use. For God’s sake, stay out of the way of those who are.
+++++++
“The Lord has made everything for its own purpose…” (Proverbs 16:4). If God is purposeful, He must be faithful to complete His purpose. Otherwise, He’s an idiot or impotent, a scoundrel or attention-deficit, careless or passive. In other words, if He is purposeful but not faithful, He’d be created in our image.
+++++++
Even my dog hates closed doors.
+++++++
The Ultimate test of a leader is whether he will “lay down his life for his sheep.” In other words, will he say no to his instinct toward self-preservation and do what is best for the people he leads? If you must maintain your position, your salary, your perks, or your title at all costs, you are no leader.
+++++++
“Have you ever considered how often we judge ourselves by our intentions while we judge others by their actions? Yet intention without action is an insult to those who expect the best from you.” –Andy Andrews, The Noticer.
+++++++
Having a wallet that’s an inch thick is NOT a status symbol. (Wait for it… wait for it… Here it comes… What’s in YOUR wallet?)
+++++++
Overheard on “Criminal Minds” a few weeks ago: “Scars remind us of where we’ve been, but they don’t have to dictate where we are going.”
Maybe it’s because I majored in history in college. Maybe it’s because I’m an explorer at heart (not always a good thing). Maybe it’s because I’m a typical man who hates to ask for directions, or maybe it’s because I often wind up in places I didn’t intend to go. But regardless of the reason, one of the most common questions I ask myself is, “How’d I wind up here?
That’s a pretty handy thing if you want to stay out of the bad neighborhoods, the dead ends, or the “I told you so’s” in the future.
But wouldn’t it be more helpful to have a bit of a roadmap ahead of time? Maybe to get some directions that apply to whatever path I or you think we’re on? [click to continue…]
“So much of our time is spent in preparation, so much in routine, and so much in retrospect, that the amount of each person’s genius is confined to a very few hours.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Whatever happened to Green Stamps? They’re an indelible memory of my childhood. In case you missed it, the Sperry & Hutchinson Company, began offering stamps to retailers back in 1896. Grocery stores, gas stations and the like bought the stamps from S&H and gave them as bonuses with every purchase, based on the amount you bought. In their heyday, 80 percent of U.S. households collected some kind of stamp.
My sister and I grew up licking green stamps and pasting them in books. When the A&P bag began filling up with completed books, we started getting excited. We’d peer at the two pages of toys in the S&H catalogue, surrounded by page after page of sheets, clocks, toasters, and other boring things. (Truth be told, you could get virtually anything with stamps; a school in Erie, Pennsylvania, exchanged 5.4 million stamps for two gorillas for the local zoo.)
Anyway, when we had collected enough to make the trade, we’d go off to the Redemption Center. Technically, we’d already “bought” the stuff. We were presenting evidence of our purchase (the stamps) in order to redeem – to buy back – our merchandise.
This is not about Green Stamps, but about redeeming. About buying back something that already belongs to you – namely your opportunities and your time. [click to continue…]
“I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!” -1 Corinthians 9:22-23, The Message
I’ve devoted a lot of time to a life powered by wishful thinking. With that came a lot of declaring about what I was going to do, and by when. Those lists I referred to in the last post even contain a pretty crazy collection of audacious plans. Just one problem. Some of them are lifetime pursuits, and I still haven’t started the chase.
Setting goals or writing down wish lists is a bit like writing a check. [click to continue…]
Have a dream? A vision of what could be, if only…? Do you have a vision of something greater to come, which you passionately long for? This past Saturday night, on what was as much a holiday weekend in Thailand as it was in the U.S., a visionary, passionate Christian leader taught me a priceless lesson about how God brings vision to reality. Here’s how I described it, straight out of my journal.
Saturday night Dui and his wife Gift invited us to join them for what he called a home Bible study. Pastor Preecha and Nit joined us as well. When the van came to pick us up, it was already loaded with an army of others – Dui’s father and stepmother, brother and sister-in-law, and a couple of kids. As we made our way, we stopped at a roadside chicken roaster’s stand, where a woman had five cooked chickens on a rotissarie. Gift picked the best looking one, the middle one, and the lady whacked it off and gave it to her. That, Dui said, was going to be our dinner. [click to continue…]
What gets you to mash on the gas? To run, not walk. What gets you to turn off the TV, marshal all your forces, or move to the front of the line – even if you, like me, are a procrastinator?
There, I admitted it. I’m one of those people who dances with deadlines and lives by the motto, “Only do today what you can’t put off until tomorrow.”
But that doesn’t mean I never hurry. (After all, even the hare hurried when he woke up from his nap and found out he was losing to a tortoise.)
Yesterday I got a kick in the quick. It wasn’t so much a Jesus-jab in my procrastinating rear end as it was a moment of conviction that really captured my attention. More on that in a minute. As a result of God’s little attention-getter, I did some thinking. I’d like you to do the same: What do you hurry to do?
My Hurry Points
I found five things that get me to “grab a gear.” [click to continue…]
In the previous post I talked about the principle of planting abundantly. Today I want to tell you about somebody who did it.
I married an MK. That’s “missionary’s kid,” in case you’re uninitiated. It was enough of a culture shock to marry a Texan, but to say “I do” to somebody who could have repeated her vows in Thai if she wanted was really special. For 26 years I have heard the stories, met most of the major players, and lived vicariously through the memories, the loves, and the laughter of a family whose lives are invested to this day in Jesus’ mandate to take the gospel to the world.
All of that came calling the day after Christmas 2004. To this day Robin refers to the event as if it were a proper name – an evil killer who has somehow become an unwanted part of the family.
His name: Tsunami. [click to continue…]
Emma Thompson drops by our church from time to time. And yesterday, she prophesied.
No, not the actress. Emma and her twin sister Annie are the eight-year-old daughters of my friend and our communications pastor, Todd.
So get the scene. Our entire church foyer/fellowship area is covered with Christmas decorations. We’re getting ready for a big night of volunteers showing up to decorate the building for the holidays. The office staff is scattered out into the various rooms that have their names on the door. And in comes Todd, Emma and Annie bouncing behind.
Mary, our receptionist, is friendly territory for the twins. She often visits with them while they’re waiting for their dad to finish a meeting or project. She’s also learned that it’s good to offer them something to do to occupy them on days they don’t have homework or something.
Emma is loaded with questions. What’s all this? What are they going to do with it? When? The usual 8-year-old excited kind of stuff. Laughing and chattering away.
Mary says to Annie and her sister, “I have something y’all can do to help us.”
(Okay, get ready, here it comes…) [click to continue…]
News flash! As a culture, we don’t wait well. 