Being An Example

People tend to go with what they know. As a whole, humans tend to gravitate towards that which is comfortable and understandable to us. I remember back when I was working at the bank, whenever they tried to implement new procedures for us to use, everyone tended to be hostile towards them. There wasn't anything wrong with the new procedures at all. Sometimes they could be more time consuming than the old way of doing things, but they mostly made sense overall to do. Yet, still the employees tended to only do things the new way for about a week or so until things went back to normal. And then they would only do things the new way when someone was watching. It continued to this way until finally someone said something to them about not doing things the old way anymore.

People aren't as obliged to go with what's easy so much as they are to go with what they know. I think that's why we have such a hard time accepting grace. The things we know in life are control and works. When there's a set list of things to do, even if the things are impossible, we have control over what we do. That's why we love the idea of works based salvation. We get that. Our life revolves around getting what we deserve and giving others what they deserve. The idea of grace is that we get what we don't deserve and there's nothing we can do to change that. Control is completely removed from the scenario.

There are very few examples of grace in our lives, so we have a hard time comprehending it. So here's my thought for the day: We as the Church should start doing a better job of giving people a tangible example of what grace is. In John 13:15 Jesus says that He's our example and we should do what He does. He gives grace freely, so we should start doing the same. That means being more generous with our money, not being mad if someone puts a dent in our car door, showing patience with the person who has to be shown how to do something 50 times and even, Heaven forbid, being a slightly less angry driver. People tend to flock towards what they know, so maybe if we start teaching people what grace is, then more people might accept it from God.

So that's my thought for the day. It's simple enough, but hopefully it's poignant.

That's His Specialty

He's the God who can allow a 90 year old to become pregnant.

He's the God who can turn a prisoner into the ruler of a nation.

He's the God who can cut the sea in half in order to protect His people.

He's the God who would rather use 300 men to conquer a nation instead of 32,000.

He's the God who lights fire to a wet altar.

He's the God who would rather use a young boy to slay a giant than an army.

He's the God who stands in the fire with His children and doesn't let them burn.

He's the God who will chase His servant with a whale in order to save him from himself.

He's the God who can bring life to a valley of dry bones.

He's the God who can take a virgin teenager and give her a Child.

He's the God who wants to use the B squad to change the world.

He's the God who touches unclean things and makes them clean.

He's the God who heals the sick.

He's the God who will suffer for our salvation.

He's the God who killed death.

I serve a God who specializes in the impossible. No matter how big and impossible your problems seem, God specializes in taking care of them. No matter how small and insignificant your problems seem, God also specializes in taking care of them. There is nothing that He cannot do and no lengths that He isn't willing to go to for you to know that He loves you.

Another Milestone Reflection

If you would have asked me a year ago what what my life today would look like, I would have painted a romantic picture of me working in a foreign country like England, or doing mission work in some magical, tucked far away part of Africa. If you would have asked me even a few months ago, I would have told you that I'd be living in Charlotte with one of my best friends, hopefully with a decent job, starting up a career path that might lead to some good money. But none of those things happened. The Lord apparently has other plans for me. In case you don't know, allow me to share with you a little bit of my story from this past year. And by "a little bit" I mean "a long winded retelling that leave out a lot of stuff."

It's funny how, no matter how good of an attitude you have when you start a job, when the job seemingly has no point, you eventually start to have regular "what am I doing with my life?" check ups in order to find an excuse to quit and do something crazy. This is where I was when the Lord met me in November of 2008. I was driving down the road on a Friday night, pretty depressed about the seeming pointlessness of my life when the Lord spoke to me from my iPod of all things. (It makes sense seeing as how God loves Apple and all.) I had it set to shuffle, and every song that came on kept talking about needing to get away and leaving, which was weird as I didn't remember having so many songs of escape at my fingertips. And then, not audibly, but still very clearly, the Lord told me to quit my job and backpack across Europe.

Isn't it weird how we assume that the Lord is vindictive and would never allow us to do anything that we might actually want to do, even though He's the one who puts desire into our hearts? It's kind of like the person who's afraid to give their life completely to the Lord because as soon as he does, the first thing God will do is make them sell everything they own and move to Africa. And I, falling in line with that reasoning, thought, "Is that really You, Lord? Because that's something I actually want to do. No; it couldn't be."

What followed were some of the most crazy and life-changing months of my life. Work wasn't so bad anymore because I had an exit strategy and plans for my trip just kind of fell into place. Money started showing up out of no where, and my roommate who owned the house I lived in was getting married, so I would have had to have moved out anyway. It was all perfect. I had no idea why the Lord wanted me to go; I was just excited that He was giving me the go ahead and something so amazing.

Then, if you know me at all you know that last February my dad passed away due to complications in surgery that was supposed to remove a significant portion of the cancer from his body and my whole world got turned upside down. A lot of stuff happened in me during that time. It was a very dark, lonely and confusing time. I had no idea how to even begin grieving. But, one of my favorite things about the Lord is how well He knows me. He knows that I'm easily distracted. He also knows that when there are people around me who need help, I'm going to help them long before I help myself. And that's not so much because I'm such a great guy, as when I'm busy helping others, I don't really have to deal with my own stuff. The Lord had me makes plans to travel before my dad passed away because He knew that getting away for a while would help me to mourn and heal the best.

So here I am. One year ago today I was getting ready to board a plane for the first time in my life and head to Egypt to begin the biggest adventure I had ever been on. I had no idea what I was in for and no clue what life would be like when I got back.

It's a year later, and other than a short stint answering phones, I've spent the past year jobless. But I've yet to do without even some luxuries in life. I have a roof over my head, food to eat, a car to drive, gas to put into said car, and family and friends who love me. I've changed more in this past year that I knew I could. I'm still on this up and down roller coaster of figuring out what I'm doing with my life and there's no sign of it stopping anytime soon and I have no idea what tomorrow will bring for me. There are times when I start to freak out and worry what I'm going to do when my money runs out, but a little prayer tends to quench that fear. At the end of all of this, probably the most surprising thing I see is that, regardless of what's happened in this past year, both good and bad, I wouldn't change a thing that's brought me to where I am now.