Better Than Cut Flowers…

 

When was the last time you bought yourself a nice set of fresh cut flowers, took them home, found a nice vase, and set them at the center of a table?

You bought them because it made you feel happy somewhere inside. You knew they weren’t going to last forever, but every time you passed by and saw them, you appreciated the way they lit up the room. It made life a little bit more beautiful.

After several days, you notice a wilting leaf, then a fading flower. By the end of the week, you understand the end is near. After several weeks of admiring and then replacing the fresh flowers, you notice a nice bouquet of plastic flowers at the store and think this might be a better choice, they will never die, unlike the fresh ones. So, you bring them home and set them up as you had done with the fresh ones each week for the past month. There you go, you think, I’m done having to replace these flowers every week, and it will be cheaper too!

You pass by the vase of plastic flowers and think you have made a good decision. The weekend comes and goes, and you don’t have to buy replacement flowers. Yes, you think, a good decision. You see the fresh cut flowers at the store and smile to yourself at the money you are saving each week. Yes, life would be nicer with fresh flowers, but this is easier and cheaper.

Weeks go by and you think nothing of the fresh cut flowers anymore. The irony is - you don’t think about the plastic flowers either. Passing by the plastic bouquet doesn’t bring you as much happiness as you thought it would, but, you think, it’s still easier. You start to become numb and forget the joy the fresh flowers had brought you.

The next time you see the fresh-cut flowers for sale, you feel a little piece of you wanting them again. So, you get a fresh batch and replace the plastic ones, even knowing you are committing yourself to do this every week. You ask yourself why? What’s the difference? The plastic ones were pretty as well, and easier!

The difference is life!

In the same way that taking care of a houseplant, or a pet, or a child brings life into you, this thing we call life brings us an energy that can’t be matched by lifeless things.

When Jesus promised us life to the full, He wasn’t promising us a lifetime full of lifeless things – cars, houses, plastic flowers. He was promising us a life of the living energy that only He can provide to the full.

Yes, living things pass on. Sometimes quickly, sometimes not so quickly.

But the life that Christ offers us is a life eternal. Many religions try and point us towards a happy life, or a content life, or a purposeful life here on earth. How many religions bring God to man to build a life eternal? How many have a God that came to earth to live as one of us, and then be mercilessly killed, only to rise again to validate His conquest over death and the lifeless alternative Satan offers. It is by defeating death that Christ is able to offer us eternal life.

Eternal life is so much more than the lies of Satan, or the words of wisdom other religions offer to try and help us make it through this earthly existence. Life is important, life energy is important, but let’s receive all the life we are capable of receiving from Jesus, which does not end with the passing of our earthly bodies.

The totality of our existence is more important than the limited time spent here on earth, yet people will allow themselves to be consumed with this little piece of earthly time. The short-sightedness of that worldview is sad, the result of that short-sightedness is tragic.

In John 10:10, Jesus promises us life to the full, why would you want anything less?

 Don’t worry so much about the condition of your heart when you considered throwing that first stone, for that was a one-time occurrence. Worry more about the condition of your SOUL when you reached down to pick up the stone in the first place. That is truly the beast that needs to be conquered.

 As our country goes through some turbulent times, some may ask, "Where is God in all this?" Let me reassure you and challenge you at the same time.

God is here. God loves you. He is in ultimate control and works all things for the good of those that love Him and are called according to His purpose.

God also gave us the gift of free will. We are free to act the way He would like, and we are free to make the devil smile. Our call.

Some are quick to say God did this, or God did that, when in all actuality man did this, and man did that.

God did not give us the corona virus. God didn't make sure grandma got it and didn't make it. God didn't lock down your business and/or cause you unbearable financial hardship. God didn't create the political divisions that are killing our country. God doesn't cause riots and turmoil. God certainly did not close your church!!

Man did all of that!!

What God did do and continues to do is to get His people though all of it. God gives us wisdom (just ask) God bestows His grace when we certainly don't deserve it. God gives us the ability to see the picture if we would just stop, pause, and look!

God gives us the faith to trust in Him for all our needs. We need to work on that faith and build it so it is there when we need it. We may think we are faithful people, but if it isn't there when we need it, was it ever there? Or was our faith in ourselves, thinking that we are good people so bad stuff shouldn't happen to us?

Let's turn our eyes to the One who loves and cares about us more than anyone. Let's turn our minds to the One who has always been there since we were even a thought. If we can step back and look at the big picture, not at the big picture of earth and all it's troubles, but the big picture of what and who matters the most, God, then we will see a peace that passes all understanding. That is when we can wake up and welcome the day instead of dread it.

Change your perspective. Change your demeanor. Change your focus. When you pause and give your spirit to all that, you will find that peace. You won't stress over the news of the day. Because God is good. God loves you. And God's got you!!

 

Well, here we are, at the end of one crazy year. Most people saying that they can’t wait for 2020 to be behind us. What did 2020 look like for you? Did you lose a loved one? Did you welcome a newborn into the world? Did you deal with incredible stress? Did you remain calm through the storm? Will you breathe a sigh up relief when the virtual ball drops in a zoom meeting tonight? Do you look forward to 2021 more in a, “well, it can’t be any worse” kind of way, or do you say, “bring on 2021, I look forward to a great year?”

Did you grow in 2020? Have you become a more caring person or a better educated person? Have you grown in your relationship with God or have you struggled to see Him in the storm?

Remember your resolutions from last year? Did you…take that trip? Read more books? Spend more quality time with your kids? Eat healthier? Lose that weight you wanted? Create and stick to a budget? What was your resolution? How does that look now? What’s the excuse? Are we blaming the corona? Some things were beyond our control, yes, but more weren’t.

We can’t just go making resolution after resolution every year and look back and say, well…. that’s because….

Are we still going to make resolutions this year? And what will we be saying when 2022 shows up? Well… that’s because?

Can we try and make a resolution that 2021 will be different? Not because the corona won’t be as bad or that now the elections are behind us, but because we are going to assume responsibility for our own stuff. If we can’t keep resolutions, why are we making them? If we are just setting ourselves up for failure, then let’s stop. No, it’s not better to continually make resolutions and then fail. It’s not, “well, at least I ate well for January!” When we continually see ourselves as not being able to follow through, as though we failed again, our self-image takes hit after hit. We get accustomed to failure, and that’s not good, and it’s not healthy.

You can control a lot of your life. You need to live your life, and not let the world live it for you. Let’s start out by making fewer and less intense resolutions. Let’s make a resolution that you can look at and say, “that’s easy!” Let’s start waking up 15 minutes earlier in the morning. Let’s stay off our phones until we’ve at least gotten dressed. Let’s tell our kids that we love them, every single day! Let’s not bring the entire bag of kids to the living room. Grab a bowl and fill it, and that’s it! Let’s set realistic weight loss goals. Let’s drink more water. Let’s take a walk every day, it doesn’t have to be a mile, just get out there!

Most importantly, let’s spend more time with the One who loves and cares for you more than anyone! Read a devotional every day. Put your Bible on your breakfast table and read it while you eat. It’s so much easier going through life when you know God’s got your back. It helps give you the confidence to approach a new day. You no longer fret over the minutia but tend to see the bigger picture. You become a more caring and less judgmental person. You become a light in someone else’s day.

I am not going to be looking to 2021 as some new breath of fresh air. I am not going to be hoping for a fresh pair of rose-tinted glasses. The world is a mess. That won’t change at midnight. There are good people and there are bad people. There are people that think they are good but they’re not. Many people go through life thinking to themselves, well, at least I’ve never done (fill in the blank).

We can’t approach life thinking, “I’m not that bad!” We can all find someone to compare ourselves to and say that. How about we approach life thinking, “How can I make a positive difference in someone’s life? How can I help someone?” A life lived for others is a life well-lived. It’s a purposeful life, an important life, a life that has meaning and purpose. It’s a life we can be proud of when it comes time to look back.

I don’t think 2021 is going to bring the sigh of relief many expect. I think it will continue to present challenge after challenge. But I am not going to let those challenges drag me down. I go into 2021 knowing I’ve got a God who loves me more than anything! I know that He will work things out for my good. He won’t stop the bad from happening, but He will turn the bad around and not only get me through it but have me better off on the other side. He does NOT bring the bad, He loves us. But He helps us through it and strengthens us and grows us.

I’m not to go on a rant about people saying, “everything happens for a reason” beyond saying that is nonsense. (I’ll deal with that in my next book).

This post is not meant to be a downer. It’s trying to give you a flashlight, a way to see through the muck and mire to the other side. God is good, and He loves YOU! He is walking through your day alongside you. If you choose not to even acknowledge Him, He’s still there. He’s still loving you. But think how much more amazing this life would be, and your life in particular if you had a real, authentic and personal relationship with the One walking with you? How much less stress you would be feeling, how confident you would be in your future. We don’t just get there without intention though. We need to talk to the One who made us! When we have that relationship in a healthy place, life is so different. We aren’t angry at 2020. We aren’t looking for a calendar change to make life better. We already see where it’s going. We already know who writes the final chapter. Our mission is to firstly have that relationship, and secondly to try and help others find that relationship as well. We do that by loving them!

My prayer for you this year is that your relationship with God grows stronger. That you understand the importance of your spirit. That you develop the heart for serving others more than you have. That you don’t let the ways of the world drag you down. That you love on your kids even more than you already do. That you develop a deeper sense of purpose and meaning in your life. I pray that as we turn the page from 2021 into 2022, that you will look back on this coming year and smile.

God Bless You!

As I reflect on and thank God for 12 years cancer-free now, I think of and pray for those still mourning the loss of a loved one due to this insidious disease. I pray that you move closer to God, because that is where your ultimate healing is found. The emptiness and sorrow you are experiencing will be healed by the One that is true love. I pray as well for those currently fighting this fight. May God bless you as you struggle to live each day knowing there is an enemy within you. And for all of those with questions of why, why me, why my mom, dad, child or sibling, I pray that you place those questions at the feet of Christ. I pray as well that you hear when He tells you, “This is not from me. This is in no way, ‘My Plan’. My plan for you is to have life to the full. My plan is for you to be blessed, to be prosperous, to have hope and a future. My plan is not now and never will be to harm you. You are my child and I love you.”

When you are struggling with cancer or loving someone who is, remember who is on your side. Whether you see healing in this life or the next, remember this evil is not from Him. You may see the blessing of healing or be a witness for those who watch your battle and how you fought the fight and grew your faith as your physical body was taken by this disease. Understand this, this is not from God. It was never His plan for you to get cancer. It is never His plan for you to suffer. Does He work good out of your trials, yes, that is His promise to us in Romans 8:28. He works all things for the good of those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. He works all things, even cancer. But He did not send cancer to you.  

I love this quote from D.R. Silva from his book, “It’s All About Jesus,”:

“Can He use cancer to bring somebody back on track? Yes. Does He? I’m certain of it. But it’s important for us to remember that cancer is neither designed nor endorsed by Him. Jesus healed sickness, He never prescribed it. He saw it as a problem that needed a solution, not as the solution to a problem.”

I will continue to thank God for healing my cancer, I will continue to pray for those currently fighting this beast, and I will try to continue to show people how much God loves them, despite the constant fight we wage every day against the forces of evil in this world. God bless each one of you.

Faith in What?

As I tell my 6^th graders that are struggling, life has its ups, and life has its downs. Enjoy and share the up times, and when you are experiencing the down times, understand that they are temporary, and DON’T LIVE THERE! Do what ever you can to get out of the valley. If it’s a lesson to be learned, learn it. If it’s humility that is the lesson, accept the shot to your pride and get back to living. Sometimes when we are struggling, it’s not even our fault at all. We q are faced with the question of why. Why did that person do that to me? Why did this circumstance occur? Where do we look for help? How do we find comfort and reassurance that life will indeed get better? How do we escape the feeling we sometimes get that things will never change? Sometimes we are left with the dreadful thought of, “This is it, why even go on?”

When we get to this level of the valley, what are we to do? Where in fact do we turn? We may think to pray, but to what end? Where is that getting us? Don’t people pray al the time for answers and hear nothing? It’s not like God is going to all of a sudden miraculously heal me, or hand me a winning lottery ticket, and cause the offender to finally wake up and realize what they did to me and work to make it all better. So why am I praying? Does it ever do any good? It might calm me down in the moment, but then what?

Do we have faith that God will answer our prayers, or if we want to admit sometimes, do we really think he hears us? Do we sometimes feel as though He doesn’t even care? I mean really, He could fix this if He wanted to! Do we have faith enough to believe that God does indeed love us and cares about us and our hurt? I’ll quote from my book when I say, “If your faith isn’t there when you need it, was it ever really there?” We can all have faith on the mountaintop; that isn’t very difficult. When we are in the depths of the valley, we get a real good look at how strong our faith is - or isn’t.

The Bible tells us in Matthew 17:20 about faith in relation to the mustard seed. I have always found it incredibly difficult to relate to this verse. When it is preached as in the NIV, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.” That always left me feeling faithless and without any basis to pray to God and ask for anything. The size of a mustard seed? Surely, I have more faith than that! I have always thought that was the only translation of that verse. Yet as I questioned more and looked for better answers and explanation of that verse, I find there are many translations that read differently. As we can see from the New King James version, “if you have faith as a mustard seed”; from the International Standard Version, “if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed”; from the American Standard Version, “ if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed”; there are what I believe, better ways to look at this verse. If the mustard seed, can have the faith it needs to grow into a large and productive tree, it has strong faith. Likewise, we have to have strong faith for our own beliefs in good outcomes.

How can we have that faith? We get that faith right from God and His promises to us. Romans 8:28 tells us plain as day that God works all things for good for those that love Him and are called to His purpose. Jeremiah 29:11 tells of God’s plans for us as being those that will prosper us and not harm us, to give us a hope and a future. The Bible is full of God’s promises. If we can’t believe God’s promises, do we really believe God? If we don’t believe God, why are we even praying in the first place?

It’s easy to despair when we don’t see life working according to our plans. It’s easy to feel alone and abandoned by God. Even Christ felt like that in the garden the night before He died. But when we are in the depths of doubt is when we need to stand on His promises and trust that He’s got our back. We need to know how much He loves us. Sometimes things play out hard. Sometimes we see no solution in sight. We hurt. We struggle with God. God sees that. God sees you. And God hurts for you more than you know. We need to trust that God is busy at work taking care of our needs; but we also need to realize He works on HIS timetable, not ours. And His timing is always perfect.

Many times, I have prayed God to help me choose a way out of a situation, either A or B. I didn’t want to pick the wrong one, so I prayed for guidance. A or B God, these are the only two choices I have. Please help me decide which is best. It’s at times like this, when He answers my prayer with something I would never had considered, Choice C, or D or….

And you know what? Those choices turn out to be infinitely better than anything I had even thought of.

Trust Him!! Trust and believe the promises He makes to you. This way when we are struggling through the valleys to come, and they will, we can turn to God in faith and say, “Yes, I have faith as the mustard seed had faith. I stand on and believe you love me and are working things for my good. I’ll do my best while I am here in the valley, and I will give you the glory for getting me out.”

And as Philip Yancey writes in his book on prayer, “Why pray? Because Jesus did.”

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Happy Sunday!!!
It’s a beautiful day here in the Low Country.
Does the thought of a new week get you down? 
Are you still running the treadmill of unfulfillment?
If you aren’t doing anything to change that, then the following weeks, months and years will be the same!
You owe yourself more than that! You know it!
Read my book and find the path that is lit by your passion!
It’s out there; go get it!!