A Little Heaven...Today

I’m creating some heaven in my life
Not so much about holy
Just setting some things right
Looking at living…how it moves along
What I got is right here…tomorrow’s on its own
Dancing and drowning its all just the same
Struggle to get nowhere it looks so insane
So many broken pieces
But nothing left to pay
Won’t you come go with me
Come out and play
We can create some heaven…today
I’m not waiting for this train to go by
Just to say I missed…I didn’t try
It’s worth the risk it’s worth the pain
A little slice of heaven’s rain
I’m creating some heaven…today

Next!

Maybe it comes with my age but it seems that I spend a lot more time pondering the results of my decisions…both past and present. Like most people, I want to make good choices…choices that have long term good results. However, when I go to this place in my thinking the choices that dominate my thoughts are the ones where I wish I could get a “do over”. But instead of getting “do over’s” life simply gives us “Next!”
Recently I sent this message to all the managers in our organization:


Mac Anderson says “The difference in our success or failure is not change but choice…"
Our success or failure is made up of a lot of choices…some big but many small and sometimes seemingly insignificant ones that we make each and every day.
Those choices put on display what we are truly made of…what we are truly about.
As the saying goes…It’s not what you say…it’s what you do.
Choose consistency…choose to stay on task…choose to honor your word.
No doubt, there are changes we all need to make but it is the everyday choices that show which direction we have chosen.

Yesterday, I received a note from someone who had been a part of my Youth Ministry some 20 years ago. They wrote me a short note just to say what a “powerful impact” I had on their life. I have received a few of those lately, since I joined the world on Face Book, and I always read them several times. I do this because I am trying to absorb them. I am trying to experience the fact that as I have moved through this life I have, in fact, made some good decisions and the results have been good.
Proverbs 17:22 says “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”
Kind words from a friend are like good medicine…they nurture the spirit…bring life to the bones…produce a “cheerful heart”.
Dwelling on the bad decisions…those times I failed…even hurt...others…crushes the spirit. While not belittling past mistakes I must advance on today…make a difference to someone today…make good choices today…because I can’t help but wonder…
Will anyone write me a note twenty years from today and say thanks for having a “powerful impact” on my life? As a result of...today?
Today’s choices matter and today is the only day I can control. Because tomorrow morning there will be no "do overs". When I wake up life will simply say…"Next"!

Moving the Boundary

Have you ever changed the boundary on a piece of property or changed the rules of a game...to benefit you?
Job 24;2 says "Men move boundary stones...". Back in Jobs day, I suppose, if a guy needed a little more grass for his sheep he just went out and moved a few boundary stones. And just like that...more food for the sheep.
"That was easy" as the commercial goes. Sometimes its too easy and moving boundary stones has not ever changed. I think that is why the scripture reads..."men move boundary stones..." its present tense.
Today a man might move a few numbers from one column to another or put his name on a coworkers effort or plagiarize someones work of words or change a time sheet or how about just bill for a few hours not worked. I heard about a man that did just that recently. A really good performer...bright career...suddenly unemployed.
Men move boundary stones...when they decide what is right in their own eyes...what fits their purpose today..what best accomplishes what they need at the moment. And sometimes ,really good people, in a moment of crisis or need or just deciding they deserve a little more...move stones.
Once while King David was praying, he made a request that can help keep us in the right frame of mind and keep our priorities and integrity in place..."Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."Psalm 51:10
Its the pure heart that keeps us from taking what is not ours and the steadfastness that helps us do it everyday.
Since it is true that men move boundary stones lets pick the ones we are going to move. Lets pick up some boulders. Lets remove the mountains of rubble called discouragement that have imprisoned a discouraged friend. Or how about we take on the once thrown hard rocks of guilt and forgive the guilty, lets lift the stinging stones of gossip from the many that have been wounded by their blows, and lets bring down the firmly place stones of loneliness that have walled in the lives of people that are right next to us everyday. Lets boldly reset the boundaries for those who are trapped behind them.
Yes "men move boundary stones" Men with a pure heart and a steadfast spirit move the right ones.

Wise Words...Firmly Embedded Nails

I read today in Ecclesiastes where King Solomon said...

"The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails given by one shepherd". 12:11 (Italics and emphasis mine)

I read this several times...."firmly embedded nails". The weight of these words struck me powerfully..."The words of the wise are like....firmly embedded nails...". I thought of how when you'r reading the Bible and you see a truth...it leaps off the page...and for the rest of your life some things will occur to you as filtered through that truth. I thought of how those words affect my view of life....my decision making.

Sometimes I get wisdom from friends, inspiration from a good book or a revelation in a song writers lyrics. Some of these things have stuck like "firmly embedded nails".

It matters where I go to get my truths.

God is in the Mess

Life just keeps on rolling. There are many things I would like to make better. There are many things out of my control. There are many things I mess up all by myself. Every day there are things...good, bad, confusing...there are unanswerable questions and unending decisions...rewards reaped and consequences revealed. I never have to look far to see someone with a struggle that is much larger than mine and yet my stuff still seems big...everyday. Its just life...like waves coming ashore...unending...relentless. But living life is not about the waves...its about how you ride them.
I was reading the book of Job this morning. Job is a character in the Old Testament of the Bible who, through a series of disasters, lost everything he had, including all his children. I am always intrigued with how Job viewed God through all his troubles. I came up with this...Its not about how messy God allows my life to be...its about how I view God from the mess. Job continued to see God as faithful. He questioned what was going on...he wanted the suffering to stop...but his view of God "from the mess"...never changed.

Someone said there is no "answer" for life. There is just living life. And living life is hard. And if you are alive you are involved. We are all seeking answers...steps...principles...formulas...ways to make life better...ways to experience peace in the middle of this sometimes relentless storm. As its winds rip across our souls we seek to find shelter...we look hopefully for the green pastures that will satisfy our longings...we search diligently for the still waters that provide a place of rest for our struggling hearts and minds.

Jesus says simply "Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you". He keeps reminding me that no matter what happens...no matter my own inconsistencies...no matter the actions of others....just seek Him. It is amazing to me how interested He is in the smallest details of my life and yet he lets so many things go seemingly unattended. At these moments,when life is making no sense, when the answers I am getting are vague at best, like Job, I lean on what I do know.."lean not on your own understanding but in everything trust God" and "His grace is sufficient".
Sometimes day after day goes by and I see no improvement. It seems that God is not even involved . However, when I look back on the different segments of my life it's easy to see that how I viewed God in these tough moments....how I viewed Him in the mess, ultimately defines my relationship with Him.

Lou Holtz, the famous Notre Dame football coach, talks about "playing the field" you are given. Lets say your team has the ball and they drive all the way down the field to the one yard line just as time for the game expires. Had they been able to get one more yard they would have scored and won the game. Lou says you can wish your entire life that the field had been 99 yards instead of 100, but at the end of each day it will still be 100 yards long. We don't play football on a 99 yard field. If you want to play football in America...the field will be 100 yards long. Lou says you have to learn to play the game on the field you are given. Its the same in life. We were each given a field. Each has different obstacles and each of us has to learn how to negotiate the field we were given. We can wish all day that we had someone else's field or that ours was longer or shorter or wider or what ever. At the end of the day you will still have your field. Its not a matter of what your obstacles are or how the dimensions of your field have been set. It matters how you play your field and it is 100 yards...not 99.

Besides games are not really lost on the one yard line. That's just where you were when time ran out. That one yard could have been made on eight or ten other plays where someone could perhaps have given just a little more effort. Its all the plays and all the yards. They all count. You never know when you give up or slow down or don't do your best how that is going to show up when you are down on the one yard line and need one more play to win. It is very possible that the play you ran back on your own ten yard line turns out to be the run that would decide whether you win or lose the game.
So who God is to me is not determined by whatever crisis I happen to be in today. The crises actually reveals what I have been doing up until this time. And its how I see Him in the crises...in the mess... that determines my ultimate relationship with Him.

I am determined to hear the still small voice...to wait upon the Lord...to mount up with wings as an eagle...to be able to look back and see the footprints of God all around me and the fingerprints of God on my heart, my mind, and my soul.

Therefore, I will look for God today...in the middle of life's mess. Like Job, I will remember that above all things He is faithful and how I see Him today...right in the middle of life's stuff...is important. Its shaping my relationship with Him for the days to come and He is using today's mess to shape me...its important how I view Him...right now.