Today was a little bit of a rough morning. I did manage to get up at 5 to work out, and during my "quiet me time" afterwards I heard the boys stirring and starting to get up.
That was at 6:15am. An hour before "me time" is supposed to be over.
I did manage to ignore it until about 6:45, but then Haden decided to leave his room and call for me through the kitchen. This was followed by Liam yelling gibberish in his crib (meaning he was ready to get up as well). Things were fine. It was earlier than I wanted it to be, but fine. No big problems. Then 30 minutes passed.
Liam's breakfast went everywhere and he spit out all his medicine. Afterwards Danielle got up and Liam freaked out because he suddenly wanted mama to hold him while she was trying to get her coffee ready. Haden got his finger smashed in the bathroom door and, naturally, freaked out as well. I got mad because he was screaming and crying (not knowing about the finger smashing until I walked over to see the problem).
The fits continued for far too long.
Then Haden decided to play Sonic. That was fine. Liam was a bit calmer, and there weren't any problems. For a bit.
After game time Liam decided he wanted mama's breakfast. She didn't let him have it and ate in the kitchen, while he screamed in horror that she would dare to actually eat her own breakfast. After breakfast Liam was playing with his own toy. Haden decided for whatever reason he did not want that toy to be played with. Trouble, anger, and pouting ensued. Liam was then allowed into the kitchen while Danielle did something, where he dumped and entire 1lb 2oz. box of Corn Flakes on the floor.
It was now 9:15am (about 1 hour ago). It was a rough start to the day.
About 15-20 minutes later everything was quiet and I heard some giggling. This is what I found:
Apparently they decided they were hungry, and Haden had dug out the goldfish from Liam's backpack. All the anger and frustration and general irritation seemed to evaporate right there. It was as if both of the boys had forgotten all of the badness of the morning and decided they wanted to have a little fun.
The way I saw it, I might as well do the same.
Sometimes we need to just accept and let go of what has happened so far. It's not always easy, but it definitely makes the rest of our day and lives easier. At this point there is really no reason for me to hold onto it.
Jesus tells us to place all our burdens on Him. He will take care of it. He will take care of us. We need to trust Him to do that. It is a big part of what gives us our joy. We are not forever linked to our rough starts. We can move past them because He enables us to, regardless of what has happened and is happening around us.
Instead, let us have loving hearts so that we, too, can giggle and share our goldfish with those around us. :-)
When I was in high school and college I was very much into the straight edge, punk and skater scene. I listened to a lot of bands and paid attention to a lot of famous skaters and just knew that I would never, ever change. I would like what I liked and not worry about what anyone thought about it.
One of the big, big no-no's in that culture is becoming a sellout. For a long time I (like most others in that culture), considered anyone who went to a big music label or changed anything about themselves as a sellout. Being called a "sellout" was fightin' words. You didn't do it lightly and you didn't take it lightly. It meant that you had decided to trade your genuine, true self for money or something else equally materialistic. In that culture, it was pretty much the ultimate sin.
Of course, being older now, I realize that most of those bands and people that "sold out," didn't really become disingenuous at all. In fact their music usually barely changed. They just got paid for it. As someone with a family of my own to take care of, I now respect the choices they made. The true "sellouts" were few and far between.
I've also learned that being a sellout is one of the best things you can become. If it is to the right bidder.
In Luke's gospel Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’." Let's break that down.
"Love the Lord your God," is pretty simple, right? As God's children we need to love Him. We know how to love our friends, family, and even strangers, so this one doesn't need much explanation here.
"with all your heart," is a little bit harder. This requires our full love. We don't get to split a little off and offer it. God wants us to love Him even more than we love our children, and even our spouses. He wants all of it, nothing less will suffice.
"with all your soul," is even more difficult. This requires our very being, the essence of who we are, to be wrapped up in Him. The love we have for God needs everything we have. There is nothing hidden from Him, and we can't try to hide it in the first place. We need to lay on Him everything (everything) if we are to love Him how we should.
"with all your strength and with all your mind," is perhaps the hardest out of all these. I say these are the hardest because it requires action. It requires movement. Loving with our heart and our soul are inner things. They can't be seen plainly with our eyes. To love God with all our strength and mind, however, is a very different beast. It means that we make those choices for God, even when we don't want to. It means we go to worship and help others and do what is right and stand up for the weak and everything else, even when there is something else going on or we feel like we can't. It means giving up things in our physical life in order to love God.
It means selling out.
It means giving not only your heart, not only your soul, to God. It means giving Him your arms, your legs, your head, everything.
So let's not go in circles. Let's make this plain. Please keep in mind that I am saying these things to myself as well, because I need to hear it too.
If you are replacing prayer and study in God's Word playing games or watching TV, stop it. If you are going to a sporting event (whether you are playing or not), instead of going to worship, stop it. If you are not going and meeting people and talking to them about Jesus because you feel weak or embarrassed, stop it. Instead, do one thing.
Sell out.
God did not say, "as long as you don't consistently ignore me it's no problem." He also didn't say, "just try to move your schedule around, but if you can't, don't worry about worshiping me, it'll be fine." Instead what He says is "Love Me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength."
Sell out.
C.S. Lewis once wrote, "The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become - because He made us. He invented us. He invented all the different people that you and I
were intended to be. . .It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up
myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality
of my own."
Sell out.
It's the only way you will become truly real.
If you've taken the time to look at this blog lately (or even just scrolled down to the next post), you'll see that it has been just over a month since the last post. I'd like to blame various things (vacation, driving, youth camp, driving, catching up, driving...you get the idea), but I won't. Suffice to say things are a bit more settled and getting back into routine so posts will be picking up again.
There is something I noticed, however. We can be really good at doing certain things and achieving certain tasks when we are in routine. However, when we fall out of routine, for most of us things tend to explode all over the place until we are back.
In some areas of life this is OK, even necessary. There do come times when certain priorities need to take over in order for them to happen. I couldn't exactly write a blog post while I was a youth camp, and vacation/driving doesn't lend itself to a lot of quiet time for writing (especially with a 1 and a 4 year old running around). It is simply the way life operates.
When we leave the routine of involving God in our daily lives, however, it is more than unnecessary; it is actually harmful to us.
But this post isn't about having the routine of God in our lives. Not directly, anyway. This post is (as the title says), getting Back in the Saddle Again. Like that curve ball?
Chances are you already know how to build your relationship with God. Reading the Bible (God's love letter to us), attending worship (and every other time the church meets), prayer (speaking to the Creator of the Universe), taking God with you wherever you are, etc. There is a good chance that you do not need to be told these things again.
Instead, I want to encourage you. I want to encourage you to see God in every little thing. The rain, the wind, that nice old lady waving at you, the trees, the grass, the sky. Everything.
I want to encourage you, especially if you have fallen out of routine with God, that you get back into routine with Him. He is not going to abandon you because you haven't come around lately. He is waiting with open arms for you to come back to Him. So get back in routine with God.
And when you mess up and fall off, get back in the saddle again. As many time as it takes.
Because that is what it takes.
And He is always there waiting for you.
I ask that you read the following from gods at war by Kyle Idleman, and think to yourself, "what if church really was like this"? Really, truly think about it.
People arrive hours early for church. On Sunday mornings, they don't just set a backup alarm clock to assure they wake up in time; they set a backup for the backup. They arrange their schedules to make sure they don't miss a gathering for worship. Throughout the week, they talk about what happened on the previous Sunday as excitement builds for the upcoming church service.
There are all-day talk shows on the radio devoted to reviewing last week's service and breaking down the next one. There's even a TV show called "ChurchCenter" that runs highlight clips of church activities that have happened across the nation that day.
When Sunday comes, the members start loading up their trucks, SUVs, and sedans hours before church starts...
The roads are congested on the way to church, no matter how early you leave. At church, there are vehicles parked as far as the eye can see, and folks are out tailgating. Some have elaborate spreads prepared, breaking out portable grills and lawn chairs in the church parking lot. Some have television monitors and satellite dishes so they can catch updates from other worship services while they wait for their own.
It's nice weather today, not that it matters. Even in the dead of winter, they'll be out here in the same numbers. The masses begin filing into the sanctuary, cheering with great passion and excitement.
Once the service starts, the people are all on their feet - not that they ever sit down. Of course, a bunch of young guys are in the front row. They've probably been here since Friday night...
Apparently the rumor has gotten out that the pastor is indeed going to teach on biblical stewardship and worshiping God with our money. Everyone is pumped for the giving sermon. It's one of the highlights of the year.
After several hours, people start looking at their watches. Everyone is thinking the same thing: "I hope the sermon goes into overtime!"
What if our services really were like this? What would happen if entire churches got up excited to worship the God who made all things? What if, even for just a month, we treated worshiping God and being with His people the same way we treated our favorite sport, or TV Show, or even the latest movie?
What if?
When I was little a "friend" of mine and myself decided we would go to our respective homes and get swords to play with. Not having a sword of my own, I built one out of Constructs (kind of like erector legos), and went out to meet him.
When we met outside, he had brought his own real (plastic) sword. He then proceeded to tell me something along the line of how mine was useless before breaking it to pieces with his sword and walking away.
Needless to say, I was crushed. I picked up my sad, broken sword, went back inside, and played there until whenever it was I felt like going back out. I still remember that incident clear as day. I remember the weather, the sun, the excitement, and the soul-rending defeat of the moment. I even remember the old man next door shaking his head (no doubt muttering something to himself about mean kids) as he worked on his lawn, bent over probably pulling weeds.
Even now, 20+ years later, I still have this weird, sickly feeling whenever I think about it.
But this post isn't about that sickly feeling. This post is about the fact that I brought a useless weapon, and how we do the exact same thing all the time in our own lives. Instead of coming prepared with our best weaponry, we come to the battles in our lives with poorly made substitutes thinking that the other side will play by our rules so that our flimsy toys won't break and fall to pieces.
We need to realize one thing. The other side does not care if our toys break. In fact, it has a vested interest in making sure they do. Yet time and again we cobble together "defenses" for our beliefs that are not bound or upheld in Scripture. We even use arguments that are completely devoid of a Christian worldview for fear that we will be attacked as kooks or bigots or some other perverse smear.
So we go in our rooms, look at our legos, and build a toy thinking that everything will be fine because we're "on the right side of things". Thinking we will win simply because "we are right," is not only dangerous, but fatal.
Take the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage this week. The way the opinion was written has basically left the door open for the next useful case to declare gay marriage as a "right," guaranteed by the Constitution. When the opinion came out I saw people everywhere rejoicing at the decision. Facebook, Twitter, News, even YouTube has a marker next to its logo "celebrating LGBT pride." Taglines such as "all love is equal," are everywhere, as well.
Yet almost nowhere did I see wide scale denouncement of the decision. It was as though Christians and others got their toys broken, picked up the pieces, and went to go play in their rooms, thinking that they would be left alone if they went into hiding for a little bit.
As Erick Erickson put it, you will be made to care. One way or another, you will be required to take a stance on this issue one way or another. It's not only this issue either. Drug use, pornography, FCC decency regulations on primetime TV, the sexualization of girls and the demasculation of boys, and on and on and on. There are a lot (a lot) of things coming to a head in the next several years that you will have to take a stance on. There will be no hiding from it. "No opinion," will not be an option.
Are you ready for that?
Are you ready to do the preparation and fighting it will take to battle these things? Are you willing to donate your time, your money, your expertise to those who are on the front lines fighting these wars in public? Will you take a stand before there is no ground from which to take a stand on?
Some will say, "you can't legislate morality." I disagree. We legislate murder, insider trading, cheating on your spouse, child support, what can be on TV before 9pm, and a thousand other "morality" issues based on what is right and what is wrong. Legislating morality is all that regulators do. The argument holds no water.
Others will say, "that's not showing love." Is it showing love, then, to not tell someone they are about to be hit by a train? Is it love to look at someone, knowing they are dying while holding the cure in your hands, and not tell them about it? How much love can we show if we do not fight for goodness and holiness? How much love are we showing if we are not showing a broken and fallen world the requirements from a loving God to live with Him forever?
Still others will say, "if you fight back against what is going on, you will run people away from the church." This, too, is a false argument. If we do not hold ourselves to God's standard, are we acting as His church? Are we proving ourselves as the body of Christ by our silence? Better a small church which follows God than an enormous clubhouse of people calling themselves christians who are such in name only.
We must be willing to act. We must be willing to fight. And we must be willing to do so using real arguments based in God's Word, Character, and Worldview. Lego swords will not work. Running away will not work. We must be willing to stand, now and forever, for what is right before God, and Him alone.
"You see, it is so hard for these creatures to persevere. The routine of adversity, the gradual decay of youthful loves and youthful hopes, the quiet despair (hardly felt as pain) of ever overcoming the chronic temptations with which we have again and again defeated them, the drabness which we create in their lives, and the inarticulate resentment with which we teach them to respond to it - all this provides admirable opportunities of wearing out a soul by attrition.
If, on the other hand, the middle years prove prosperous, our position is even stronger. Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is 'finding his place in it,' when really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of being really at home on Earth, which is just what we want."
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
I try to make a habit of not starting posts with long quotes, and it is rare that I start with any quotes at all. However, I felt that for this topic, this quote was particularly appropriate. I thought it fit so well because it is true. Read it again if you don't quite believe it. Through and through these may be the most frightening lines I have ever read in a book.
Why are they so terrifying? Because even at age 31, I see them coming true. Not all the time, mind you, but in those moments of weakness or where I'm having a bad day, I see it. What is even more frightening is that I see it in the church today. I see it in the older people who believe that since they have retired from the working world they can retire from God's work as well. I see it in the teenagers who on one hand are so beaten down by the world that their hearts are barely stirred by the Gospel and on the other hand are so consumed with work and becoming well-off that God takes a back seat to anything that can help them "succeed" in the "real world."
Don't believe that you are immune from it. That is a mistake we cannot allow ourselves to make. When you believe that something cannot happen to you is when you are in the greatest danger of it happening. I have seen it happen to elders, men, women, teens, even church bodies. They either become so disillusioned or so comfortable in the world that they cease to be effective in the world around them. Satan doesn't care which one destroys us.
Satan just cares that we are destroyed.
In Matthew 24:13 Jesus says, "But the one who remains faithful to the end will be saved." It comes in the middle of Jesus speaking about terrible things will happen soon after His ascension, but the message is timeless. We must be faithful until death.There is no other way to Him.
Satan knows this. In fact, he is counting on it. If he can wear down our faith so that we are no longer faithful, he wins. He may use riches, comfort, or pain. Indeed, he may use a combination of all three over a lifetime. Anything to make it so we are no longer effective in the service of the One True King.
We may retire from our earthly work, but we can never retire from what God would have us do. We cannot allow ourselves to get too comfortable, thinking that the world is our home. It is not. We also cannot choose to step away and let others do what we should be doing. It is not acceptable before God.
We must choose, every day, who we will serve. Will it be ourselves, will it be our comforts, will it be our pain, or will it be the One True God who loves us and wants us to be His?
As Joshua said, choose this day whom you will serve.
And choose it every day.
Why is it so hard to say, "Consume me, God!," and mean it? Obviously I am not writing about being physically eaten, but I am writing about being devoured. Why is it so, so difficult to ask God to do that, and mean it?
Could it be that deep down, we don't really want to be consumed?
Could it be that really, we don't want to put in the work it takes to be devoured?
"After I finish this show, I'll give myself over," we say. "After I get home from work," we say. "I can't start this when I'm tired, after I wake up tomorrow," we say, "then I'll get to work on being consumed by God. I'll make sure I start fresh and give it all I've got!"
I wonder how many of us have made those statements.
Even more, I wonder how many of us have made good on those statements.
Don't allow Satan to tell you, "you can do it later." You can't. When you feel the urge to start giving yourself to God, do it! Don't wait until after class or after lunch or after you sleep. Do it right then!
It takes work. It takes sacrifice. It takes endurance.
It takes time
And it is not easy.
But don't let the fact that it is not easy or instant make you feel like it is not worth it.
Because it absolutely is.
There is no after, there is no later, there is no "in just a few minutes." Let yourself be consumed by Him now. Let your life, your mind, your heart, your soul be taken over, and push yourself to do the things it will take for God to devour everything you are and were and will be.
You'll be surprised by how much you gain when you give yourself up. It's hard to believe, even for me. But I want to. Not just a little bit either. I want to believe it as badly as I want to breathe. I want to want God as badly as I want air in my lungs. I want for people to see me and say "What in the world happened to that guy? Is that the same person we used to know?" Because that's how it should be.
So I'll work on it. Hard.
Will you join me?
