Part I - Minimized Effectiveness

The birds of the air and the lilies of the field. They know what they are doing.

Worry is a lot of things. Worry is how we cope with things we can't handle. Worry is a waste of time. Worry is a defense mechanism. Worry is not going to solve anything. And most of all, worry is a lack of belief in the fact that God has our best in mind.

If we truly believe that God is in control and we then believe He loves us, then Jesus' words ring true: "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" (Matthew 6:26-27, NIV).

Well, that is all well and good. But why is it so hard? We are in a battle here. What might cause someone to worry might not make someone else think twice. There might be something that would give you an ulcer, but it wouldn't phase someone else. . . Satan is wily. He is the father of lies. And our lack of faith in trying situations is not coincidentally tied with Satan's knowledge of what we struggle with. He is going to attack us in our weaknesses. He is going to tell us lies that build us up and tear our faith down.

Be ready. He gets us all comfortable and then just about when we are feeling pretty good about how great we are, we are attacked. Satan fights dirty. . .

I want my passion to matter

There are a lot of things that seem like they matter.

I get sidetracked by things that seem like they make a difference. I get suckerpunched by feelings of loyalty toward certain earthly things and finite products that fain importance. And then I get put in my place.

As passion emboldens us toward action we get immobilized by things that seem like they matter. In the context of what we have been given to be stewards of, we must be responsible with the talents the Master has left in our temporary possession. But even those talents are meant to drive ourselves to be more like the Master and the multiplication of assets ought to be eternal in their mindset.

If we get bogged into putting our faith into the things of this earth, we will awake one day with our arthritic, mutinous bodies wondering what happened to our one chance at life. But if our mindset remains fixed on the only Difference-maker, if our mental capacities remain focused on the furthering of the Kingdom of God and the emulation of the Ultimate Life-liver, Jesus, we might be so privileged to see that Kingdom coming to Earth.

There is no calling to which Believers must aspire that does not involve the spread of the Good News and the fighting of the Good Fight. If we spiral into the realm of meaninglessness where the Enemy draws us, we are not believing God for his best and we are not believing in His ability to work mightily more than we are able.

Don't worry about the temporal things because they will pass whether we pour our lives into them or not. Realize what things matter for eternity and focus on them. Or else we will lose the chance to be the Good and Faithful Servants who have been successful in the job put before us...

On your knees boy

I always say that I will pray about things.

I usually do. Sometimes I don't.

Sometimes it is easier not to pray because I know what the answer will be. Sometimes it is by conversing with God that I find out the answers He has been so desperately trying to make known to me. Sometimes I do a lot of talking. Usually I try to do more listening.

God has promised to answer us when we call to Him. He has promised to show us great things that we could not figure out on our own. When a prayer is offered in faith it has the power to make a sick person well. When we interact with God through conversation, meditiation, or just by being still before Him -- there is no limit to what can happen.

There are no excuses for an inconsistent prayer life. I have tried them all and in the end it boils down to my inability to commit, my inability to humbly bow, my inability to hold a real conversation and my inability to recognize the reality of God's desire to show Himself as being so real. So real, in fact, that I am at fault for excluding Him from a conversation that He has caused to happen.

"I am sorry. Take my every interaction and base it around Yourself so that I might be a light in a world that has forgotten about the lightswitch."

Ask me a question...

There are some great question-askers turned authors out there these days. I could list them off, but you already know who they are. The ones it is cool to talk about in the coffee shops (like the one I am in now), the ones who you name drop to your friends wearing the thick-rimmed glasses, the ones who attempt to "spare you the religion" and get right to the point. While these writers conjure up new choices and indecision, I am left to search for the answers.

I read them all. But somehow I am always left parched. Licking my lips like some dog who doesn'’t understand why the sun is still so hot even after I lapped up all that water; I am still left to my own devices just like before. Except now I am armed with a whole sack full of new questions and observations. I still don't know what I am supposed to do. Tons of great questions are being asked, but very few definitive, good old fashioned, objective answers are claimed. We have got to claim truth, not run from conflict.

And until I can find the "“perfect"” group to worship with and experience God alongside, I am left treading water. But that is not right. Should I look for the perfect group? Or should I take what I am given and roll with it?

As new questions emerge, old answers still stand strong.

Gnashing of Teeth

We were all apportioned different lots in life on purpose. For reasons beyond our individual and limited knowledge God has given some of us very little and some of us way more than we need. In one of the most illustrative and poignant parables he ever told, Jesus explains why there is seeming inequality in our world. As he tells the story of the man who went on a journey and entrusted his money to his servants there is a great amount of truth to be found.

Not only does the parable of the talents explain why Communism doesn't work it goes way beyond that in explaining the fact that we are all responsible for what we have been given. No more, no less. We must be good caretakers of our wealth while the master is away. Upon his return we will be asked how we used his gifts.

As you see this doesn't make a millionaire any more important than the guy who asked me for change outside the 7-11 last night. But here is the real point, are we being good and faithful servants? Upon his return is the master going to say, "Well done?"

Don't get caught up in size, magnitude or pride. Our real test lies in what we do with what we got. And more than that, not discounting the ability of someone or someplace with little to make a huge impact...

So little time...

Someday all the words in my head will be put onto the blank paper that lies in front of me. For now these meager sentences will have to suffice... I'm back baby. If only for myself, these words provide comfort in the midst of a life that could not be going if it were not for the life-giver.

Walking down my overgrown and character-driven street on the evening of the 4th day in July I found myself transported to some abandoned street in the outskirts of some Austrian town toward the end of the Second World War. It was all in my imagination, that is except for the rat-tat-tat and the ka-boom and the ka-boom and the weeeeee-ooohhh coming from all sides. It was a literal and figurative battle. Firecrackers being fired from every direction and yet with the overgrown trees and shrubs I saw nothing but the glow of light over the din of the streetlamps. It was an eerie battle scene, caught in the crosshairs of a proverbial battleground on our Independence Day, I imagined getting fired at, pursuing an enemy and taking no prisoners.

It was real and as I sought the shelter of my 80 year old apartment building I couldn't help but feel blessed to have that be the closest I have come to a wartime experience. Guns fired, bombs dropped and life-fearing are daily events in history books and geographical maps outside this country of ours.

Reality struck on the anniversary of the day that we won our freedom. And yet hundreds of years later there is little more freedom than that in our grave world. O for a Savior to rescue us from ourselves. Thank you Jesus.