That's a Four-Letter Word!

I want to talk about a word that keeps creeping into my conversations way too often. I use it myself, so I'm not judging anyone. This word, though it may seem harmless - may even seem life giving, life affirming or just make you feel good. But it's not always taken that way.

That word is love. We love our cars, we love our clothes, we love certain foods, we love our favorite sports teams, we love our families, we love celebrities, we love our homes, our pets, our phones. The problem is, when we try to tell someone that God loves them, they have no idea what that means.

For some, the only person who ever loved them was their dad, and he left, so they believe Love abandons.

For others, their mom tells them she loves them but doesn't make it to any of their ball games even though she promises every time. To them, Love disappoints.

For some, their friends say they love them, but then gossip about them, so Love betrays.

Some know love to be the one who comes to them in the middle of the night, leaving them feeling hurt, alone, dirty and scared. They don't understand why love harms.

Others have heard they are loved only when they get good grades or do their chores. They believe love is conditional.

Some people have only known others to love them when they need a favor. Love uses them.

The list of distortion of the word goes on and on. But love is so much different than that. The Bible teaches us God loves us, but until we actually experience that love, they are just words on a page. Telling someone who has a distorted view of love that God loves them, is like telling them who won the ball game last night. It may sound interesting, but it doesn't really change them.

God is pretty clear that we are to love him with all of our being. He's also pretty clear we are to love people. And he didn't tell us to just say the words "I love you", but he gives us examples of how we can love each other. We need to be patient and kind, forgiving and humble, willing to put others first and forget about our own desires. Love is not simply an emotion, but is a motion.

And there are people around us that need to know what love really is. It's not about stuff, or the current trend, or the latest boy or girl friend. It's about God, our Creator, who made us for himself, loving us so much that he sent his Son to live in this broken world, to be broken for us so that we can be restored to the relationship God intended for us to have with him. Love means nothing without knowing what Jesus did for us. Without that, it's just an empty word that gets thrown around way too much. God sent... Jesus died... those are action words, not emotions.

So today, be the example of love that someone else needs... they won't know what hit them.

Puzzled

"The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful,
a puzzle that no one can figure out.
But I, God, search the heart
and examine the mind.
I get to the heart of the human.
I get to the root of things.
I treat them as they really are,
not as they pretend to be."
God, pick up the pieces.
Put me back together again.
You are my praise!
Jeremiah 17:9-10,14

I used to love puzzles. Sorting through all the pieces to find the edges and then putting all the inside pieces together in places where they appeared to fit. We had a puzzle that came in a plain white box with black letters on it. Basically, there was no picture of what the actual finished product was supposed to look like.

That's how it is with us. A bunch of broken pieces of ourselves thrown around and mixed up with nothing in it's proper place until we meet Jesus. Then, the edges of ourselves begin to come together with only the Creator knowing what the finished product will look like. The rest of us are just blindly picking up the pieces of our lives and trying to make them fit in places where they just don't belong.

Once in a while, a piece from someone else's puzzle gets dropped into our pile. At first, we may not realize that the piece isn't ours - that it just doesn't fit into the picture of our lives - but we keep trying to fit it in somewhere. And once in a while, after getting all the pieces put together, you discover there are a few pieces missing, and the picture is never complete without all it's parts.

I remember sorting through (or watching someone else) a bunch of puzzles that got mixed up together. No matter how hard anyone tried, the pieces just didn't fit in the wrong puzzle.

I love that God can tell the difference between what belongs in our lives and what doesn't. He can sort through the pieces and put them all in the right places. He can even fill the empty spaces left by the missing pieces. But we have to ask him for help. He'll let us put the puzzle together ourselves and wait patiently as we struggle. Then, sometimes gently, sometimes not so gently, He will pull apart the things we forced into place and replace them, putting everything back in order, and loving us the whole time.

Working puzzles is always more fun when you have help.

Picture by Artem Chernyshevych

You Paint the Sky...

Last summer I saw some of the most amazing skies. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get a good picture of any of them. Either I was driving, or I didn't have my camera, or I just couldn't get the shot like I wanted to.
I remember asking God to give me the chance to take a picture of one so I could show of his handy work. He reminded me that His reaching out to me is for me. It's His way of talking with me, one on one. His way of showing me things greater than myself.
I took the upper left photo this past week while driving to work. Just a quick snap with my phone. It's not even close to what it really looked like, but I like it anyway. Once again, I was reminded that the sky God painted was for my eyes - His way of telling me he loves me.

The photo to the right, I also took this week. No, it's not a black and white shot. It was just a gray day. The sun hasn't shown itself in a few days, and that was really starting to get to me. So I thought I'd take a quick pic with my phone and share how unfair it is that the sky has been so gloomy and the rain has been coming down and on and on and on. But once again, I was reminded by that still small voice, that God still painted the sky for me. It's just on that particular day, he chose gray paint.

He again reminded me that even when things aren't going great, and the colors I see aren't vibrant and he doesn't do things the way I want him to, He's still God. He still makes the best choices. I know so little and He knows all. What I see as trouble, or uncomfortable, or unpleasant, He sees as a way to make me grow - to make me draw near to Him - to become more and more like Him. In His eyes, the sky is just as beautiful in the second picture - maybe even more so - because He used it to change my heart, and to further transform my character to be in line with His.

Footprints

It snowed last week. I know. Hard to believe, isn't it? Walking in from lunch one day I noticed all the footprints and it got me thinking. So of course, I snapped a picture with my phone.

To look at the whole picture, all I see is chaos. People going every which way on their way to an appointment or a meeting or just to get to their desk to start their day or their car on their way home. But amidst the chaos, each set of footprints is a part of someone's story. Each person has a past, a present, and a future. Each step taken was representation of that person, who in that moment chose to love or to hate, to laugh or to cry, to come or to go.

But what they couldn't choose was the fact that each step left an impact when they left it. A footprint as a reminder they were there. Even though today, as I walked that same sidewalk, the evidence of their presence is no longer there, they made a difference in that place in that moment.

That's how we are to be, as salt and light in the world. The tiniest bit of salt can change the way something tastes or melt the snow. The tiniest bit of light begins to chase away the darkness as soon as it shines. I think sometimes I get caught up in trying to make this lasting impact that will change someone's life forever. But all I can really control is this moment. I don't know what will happen in their life as soon as I walk away, hang up, or log out. I can only really make a difference right here, and right now. That's why we have to be present in every moment, and not be so worried about other things. It's too much pressure to change a life forever. Only God can do that. All I can do is listen to the Spirit, and follow His lead. Then maybe, just maybe, my own life will be changed in that moment as well.

What's going up?

On my way to work this morning, I decided to do something I haven't done in a long time. I listened to a podcast. I chose North Point because Andy Stanley is one of my favorites. Of course, the podcast I selected wasn't him, but I decided to give it a chance. I realized it was John Ortberg and decided it was still a good choice. This quote stuck with me so I thought I'd share it.

Dow Jones is down, NASDAQ is down, housing values are down, consumer confidence is down, employment is down, commercial real estate is down, you wonder, is anything going up these days?

The opportunity to serve is going up
The market for hope is going up
The chance to build a life on a foundation that will endure through storms is going up

That’s true because certain fundamentals remain unchanged:
God remains sovereign

The beauty of forgiveness is still greater than the stain of sin

The Bible is still the Word of God

Prayer remains the most remarkable communication available to the human race

Love still defeats bigotry

Faith still beats despair

The greatest scandal in this sorry dark world is still the scandal of the cross

God’s mercies are still new every morning

The tomb is still empty

The church is still marching

The kingdom Jesus announced is still expanding and does not need a bail out or a stimulus package

Sometimes we forget how good God really is. How much he wants to fill us with his Living Water. How much he really loves us. The world throws all these distractions at us.

You can listen or download the entire message here. The Me I Want To Be