Remember singing these songs in church? "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!" "Go, tell it on the Mountain! Over the hills and everywhere!"
And yet some of the same people who love singing these songs say "As for my relationship with God, well, that's personal."
What gives here? Why the dissonance?
Sure, I get it. You're afraid. You don't know how people will react. You aren't sure of yourself.
Too bad. Time to get over it!
You are called to be the light of the world. You have the answers people are longing for. You can point them in the only direction that matters. You share everything else about your life, funny or embarrassing things that happened with you, what games you are playing, what you are doing with your job or hobbies. Why is there a wall against the most important thing you could possibly share? You have to break it down if you want to truly help people!
There's any number of reasons not to. But the benefits of doing so are enormous. I've found that telling people about what God has done in my life is one of the most rewarding things in this world. Telling people the small miracles I've seen. Sharing the story that God is unfolding in my life. In fact, I had so much to say I had to start a blog!
Faith is such a big part of life. If you share that part of yourself it really helps people to get to know you better. Perhaps that's yet another reason not to share: you don't want people to see that intimate part of you. But how else are you going to get people to truly understand you? How else can you show people why you have great peace, love, and joy in your life? How else are people going to be able to see you as you truly are so they can help you as well?
How are you going to be a light to the world? Lift off the cover of selfishness (yes, it is pure selfishness) and acknowledge the one that shines through us. It's the only way.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Another Chapter of Grace
With the birth of my second child, life has gotten... busy. Always something to clean up or look after or play with. Not much time left for God unfortunately.
I know I could make more time for it. I could. But when I do get a minute, I am just worn out. Exhausted. Doing some deep reading or praying seems like too much work somehow.
I do try to keep up with the simple prayers though. Give me strength. Guide me. Thank you.
And, somehow, that is enough for now. He comes to me where I am. He knows my heart and that I still do want to serve him. He still does nudge me in the right direction. Spend more time being creative with the kids. Pay more attention to your wife after the kids are in bed. Simple, practical things. Makes sense. I can do that.
Naturally this leads to more prayers. Thank you for showing me these things. I see they do need to change. Keep me focused on what is important. Show me how to be a better father and husband. Give me the courage to change in order to do these things.
Soon enough, God will open up yet another chapter of His grace. And the cycle will continue. It's an amazing thing.
I know I could make more time for it. I could. But when I do get a minute, I am just worn out. Exhausted. Doing some deep reading or praying seems like too much work somehow.
I do try to keep up with the simple prayers though. Give me strength. Guide me. Thank you.
And, somehow, that is enough for now. He comes to me where I am. He knows my heart and that I still do want to serve him. He still does nudge me in the right direction. Spend more time being creative with the kids. Pay more attention to your wife after the kids are in bed. Simple, practical things. Makes sense. I can do that.
Naturally this leads to more prayers. Thank you for showing me these things. I see they do need to change. Keep me focused on what is important. Show me how to be a better father and husband. Give me the courage to change in order to do these things.
Soon enough, God will open up yet another chapter of His grace. And the cycle will continue. It's an amazing thing.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
A Recommendation
So you found someone that you like. That is wonderful! You seem happy. Great. Since you're my friend, you have asked my opinion on what I think of them. Here's what I think:
She seems kind, intelligent, and outgoing. Also it sounds like she has her life at least somewhat in order, especially financially. Big plus. You 2 seem to get along and banter well. I feel comfortable when I'm with you 2.
I do have one small reservation: The constant banter and self-deprecation (mostly on your end) seems good-natured now, but it does eerily remind me of the parts toward the end of your last relationship where a similar banter turned ugly and controlling. Then again, you are the sort of person that seems to invite it somehow. And it is fun. I guess that's alright.
Now here's where it gets interesting. You both are Christians, right? So this is how it's supposed to work, according to the Bible:
No fornication (read: sex before marriage). I would take it even further than that... the more physical you are, the more that desire builds up and the more you want to do. Why even begin to open that? I would say far away. But why does it even matter to begin with?
For one, standing strong against it builds a strong foundation in your relationship, by struggling against temptation together. If you just give in, you build a broken foundation of giving into temptation. Giving up. That's not good. For another... sex does of course bring you closer together in many ways. It's a very special gift. So why waste it on someone that you're not fully committed to? It just makes it much harder to separate, if you don't decide to get married.
I could go on, but enough of that. Now for the other fun part: Can you be the spiritual leader? She does seem to have a strong personality. Will she submit to you? That will be a lifelong struggle even if you do commit to it, but it's important to start now while things are more malleable.
I love this circle: Husband is leader, he's the final authority on decisions. Woman submits to husband and does her best to help him, even pushing him into that leadership role. And the final part that everyone seems to forget, the part that makes the whole thing work: The husband must put the wife before himself in his decisions.
One final thing. The most important of them all. Do I recommend that you stay with this girl? I really can't say. It's not my decision. And furthermore: it's not your decision either. At least it shouldn't be. God has a plan. Some things are far too important in life to get wrong. Stop, pray, and pay attention. Does God approve of this? Yes? Great. Go forth and be happy and get married before too long. Take hold of the confidence you can have that you are supposed to be together.
If not, if you don't feel completely at peace with this, call things off. That's ok too. The process still worked. God just has an even more amazing plan for you coming up. Wait for it.
She seems kind, intelligent, and outgoing. Also it sounds like she has her life at least somewhat in order, especially financially. Big plus. You 2 seem to get along and banter well. I feel comfortable when I'm with you 2.
I do have one small reservation: The constant banter and self-deprecation (mostly on your end) seems good-natured now, but it does eerily remind me of the parts toward the end of your last relationship where a similar banter turned ugly and controlling. Then again, you are the sort of person that seems to invite it somehow. And it is fun. I guess that's alright.
Now here's where it gets interesting. You both are Christians, right? So this is how it's supposed to work, according to the Bible:
No fornication (read: sex before marriage). I would take it even further than that... the more physical you are, the more that desire builds up and the more you want to do. Why even begin to open that? I would say far away. But why does it even matter to begin with?
For one, standing strong against it builds a strong foundation in your relationship, by struggling against temptation together. If you just give in, you build a broken foundation of giving into temptation. Giving up. That's not good. For another... sex does of course bring you closer together in many ways. It's a very special gift. So why waste it on someone that you're not fully committed to? It just makes it much harder to separate, if you don't decide to get married.
I could go on, but enough of that. Now for the other fun part: Can you be the spiritual leader? She does seem to have a strong personality. Will she submit to you? That will be a lifelong struggle even if you do commit to it, but it's important to start now while things are more malleable.
I love this circle: Husband is leader, he's the final authority on decisions. Woman submits to husband and does her best to help him, even pushing him into that leadership role. And the final part that everyone seems to forget, the part that makes the whole thing work: The husband must put the wife before himself in his decisions.
One final thing. The most important of them all. Do I recommend that you stay with this girl? I really can't say. It's not my decision. And furthermore: it's not your decision either. At least it shouldn't be. God has a plan. Some things are far too important in life to get wrong. Stop, pray, and pay attention. Does God approve of this? Yes? Great. Go forth and be happy and get married before too long. Take hold of the confidence you can have that you are supposed to be together.
If not, if you don't feel completely at peace with this, call things off. That's ok too. The process still worked. God just has an even more amazing plan for you coming up. Wait for it.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Good Friday
I had the opportunity to speak at church this past Good Friday. I had to pick some of Jesus' last words before he died and give my thoughts on them. Here's what I came up with:
"Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing". Powerful words.
If I were put into that position that would not be my first thought. So where did He get the strength and wisdom to speak them? How did he muster up that courage? Well, I'm not so sure that He was the one that did.
Surrender. That's another powerful word. God's been teaching me a lot about that this past year. Through projects falling apart at work, a good friend going through a nasty divorce, and the never ending work of caring for a toddler and pregnant wife at home, God has taught me that I can rely on him for strength. For the words to say. For the courage to say them.
The trick is simple: just get out of the way. Empty yourself of.... yourself. Surrender your own desires and wants and independence. We talk about God wanting to come into our lives. To give us good things. Well, if our lives our so full of ourself, He has no room.
Jesus had learned to empty himself. He let the power of the Holy Spirit guide him. With this source of unending courage, he was able to do the impossible. To look with God's eyes instead of his own. To see people as they really are, broken and in need of help. To love those he saw, even in the midst of terrible pain.
That power is open to all of us. You just have to make room in your life for it.
"Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing". Powerful words.
If I were put into that position that would not be my first thought. So where did He get the strength and wisdom to speak them? How did he muster up that courage? Well, I'm not so sure that He was the one that did.
Surrender. That's another powerful word. God's been teaching me a lot about that this past year. Through projects falling apart at work, a good friend going through a nasty divorce, and the never ending work of caring for a toddler and pregnant wife at home, God has taught me that I can rely on him for strength. For the words to say. For the courage to say them.
The trick is simple: just get out of the way. Empty yourself of.... yourself. Surrender your own desires and wants and independence. We talk about God wanting to come into our lives. To give us good things. Well, if our lives our so full of ourself, He has no room.
Jesus had learned to empty himself. He let the power of the Holy Spirit guide him. With this source of unending courage, he was able to do the impossible. To look with God's eyes instead of his own. To see people as they really are, broken and in need of help. To love those he saw, even in the midst of terrible pain.
That power is open to all of us. You just have to make room in your life for it.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Religious Rules
Some people say rules are made to be broken. Others say you better follow the rules or you will be in trouble. Christian rules don't follow either of those concepts.
Following all the rules to the letter with no regard for anything else is actually frowned upon in Christianity. It's called legalism. You can't get to heaven that way. You earn no favor with God that way. Your life may be a little bit better off is all.
The rules God lays out in the bible are not meant to take our fun away, or make us pious so that our lives consist of nothing but serving God through these rules. In fact, if you really read and understand them, it's hard to even take them that way at all.
God gives us these rules, these guidelines to live by, because he loves us. Because by voluntarily following them, we grow much closer to him and because of that our lives will be fuller in every sense. He will show us how to utilize our natural abilities to the fullest. He will put wonderful people in our lives that bless us as we bless them. He wants us to live life to the absolute fullest.
This only works if you almost disregard the rules at the beginning. Don't start with the rules, start with love. Get to know God personally. Let him show you what you need to do. Learn to love him more and more. As you do this, he will naturally start to align your will with his and you will want to follow the rules. Not because you feel like you have to. But because you have a desire to serve him better. To know him more.
That is the key. There's a world of difference between following rules by rote because that's just what you feel you have to do, and following the rules because you have a desire to serve the one that put the rules there. The former means you gain nothing, the latter means you gain everything.
Following all the rules to the letter with no regard for anything else is actually frowned upon in Christianity. It's called legalism. You can't get to heaven that way. You earn no favor with God that way. Your life may be a little bit better off is all.
The rules God lays out in the bible are not meant to take our fun away, or make us pious so that our lives consist of nothing but serving God through these rules. In fact, if you really read and understand them, it's hard to even take them that way at all.
God gives us these rules, these guidelines to live by, because he loves us. Because by voluntarily following them, we grow much closer to him and because of that our lives will be fuller in every sense. He will show us how to utilize our natural abilities to the fullest. He will put wonderful people in our lives that bless us as we bless them. He wants us to live life to the absolute fullest.
This only works if you almost disregard the rules at the beginning. Don't start with the rules, start with love. Get to know God personally. Let him show you what you need to do. Learn to love him more and more. As you do this, he will naturally start to align your will with his and you will want to follow the rules. Not because you feel like you have to. But because you have a desire to serve him better. To know him more.
That is the key. There's a world of difference between following rules by rote because that's just what you feel you have to do, and following the rules because you have a desire to serve the one that put the rules there. The former means you gain nothing, the latter means you gain everything.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Views on Science
One of the big reasons people don't believe in God (or at least an excuse that is popular) is that they think science doesn't support it. That science somehow disproves God. First off, that whole notion doesn't make sense. If God exists, He exists outside of science. There is no test to prove or disprove that, and there never will be one. The only true test is to ask God to show Himself to you.
Now, there are certainly several key sciences where people consider there to be a sort of round-about evidence for or against God. Things that give people pause in reconciling their beliefs and this fact of science. I enjoy encountering these things that seem to make no sense, as they make me re-evaluate things. It helps me get closer to the truth, and get deeper into my faith.
Here's my current view on these sciences and how things may not be what they seem. Some details may not be quite right, but overall I think I'm on the right track.
Biology: We'll jump right into the big one: evolution. There's a lot of back and forth on fossil records and is micro-evolution ever a net positive instead of just a tradeoff and whatnot. I simply can't follow all of that, there seems to be evidence both ways, and I'm not a good enough biologist to evaluate it myself. So I'd like to go deeper. Back further. Where did it all start anyway? How did life get here to begin with? How did a simple cell form?
Turns out, life in a cell is not so simple after all. As we got better microscopes and got better at looking at these things, the more complex it got. First we discovered it's more like a factory, with parts doing their own specialized thing and various chemicals flowing though the different areas. Then we said wait, no, even that is too simple, it really works more like a miniature city!
Any way you want to look at it, life is far too complicated to have arisen on its own by random chance. DNA, Proteins, what are the odds of these forming by random chance, even given that you have the perfect "primordial soup"? Far, far beyond what statisticians call impossible.
If you have infinite time, maybe, sure. But we don't have infinite time. We only have 2 billion years or so.
Physics/Astronomy: There seems to be a beauty in these things. Some things just happen to work out just so. We are in a unique place in the universe, able to see just after the big bang and also way far out, to the edge of the universe. Most other places have too many other stars or particles around to be able to see things clearly.
Additionally, the whole anthropic principle seems to turn up everywhere - take any one of a number of forces and change it by just a fraction of a percent, and the whole thing would collapse and not work at all. Many people just dismiss the whole thing and say well of course it works out, if it didn't we wouldn't be here to observe it. To me that seems like dodging the question. If there's that much coincidence that there's an actual named principle behind it, then that's enough evidence for me.
And the whole multiverse (an infinite number of alternate universes or dimensions or what have you) - that seems like at least as big of a stretch as God is just to answer the anthropic principle. It's also something that we can't ever test and as such is also firmly outside the realm of science.
In conclusion: The evidence from hard sciences seems very clear to me. Life here currently is beyond the impossible to have formed randomly by chance. That leaves only that it was created.
Historical/Archeological evidence for Jesus and the Bible does not disappoint either.
Most of all though, are the numerous specific prayers that have been answered, and the way I see God moving throughout my life. That is why I believe. All the evidence I can see points directly to the Christian worldview being correct.
Now, there are certainly several key sciences where people consider there to be a sort of round-about evidence for or against God. Things that give people pause in reconciling their beliefs and this fact of science. I enjoy encountering these things that seem to make no sense, as they make me re-evaluate things. It helps me get closer to the truth, and get deeper into my faith.
Here's my current view on these sciences and how things may not be what they seem. Some details may not be quite right, but overall I think I'm on the right track.
Biology: We'll jump right into the big one: evolution. There's a lot of back and forth on fossil records and is micro-evolution ever a net positive instead of just a tradeoff and whatnot. I simply can't follow all of that, there seems to be evidence both ways, and I'm not a good enough biologist to evaluate it myself. So I'd like to go deeper. Back further. Where did it all start anyway? How did life get here to begin with? How did a simple cell form?
Turns out, life in a cell is not so simple after all. As we got better microscopes and got better at looking at these things, the more complex it got. First we discovered it's more like a factory, with parts doing their own specialized thing and various chemicals flowing though the different areas. Then we said wait, no, even that is too simple, it really works more like a miniature city!
Any way you want to look at it, life is far too complicated to have arisen on its own by random chance. DNA, Proteins, what are the odds of these forming by random chance, even given that you have the perfect "primordial soup"? Far, far beyond what statisticians call impossible.
If you have infinite time, maybe, sure. But we don't have infinite time. We only have 2 billion years or so.
Physics/Astronomy: There seems to be a beauty in these things. Some things just happen to work out just so. We are in a unique place in the universe, able to see just after the big bang and also way far out, to the edge of the universe. Most other places have too many other stars or particles around to be able to see things clearly.
Additionally, the whole anthropic principle seems to turn up everywhere - take any one of a number of forces and change it by just a fraction of a percent, and the whole thing would collapse and not work at all. Many people just dismiss the whole thing and say well of course it works out, if it didn't we wouldn't be here to observe it. To me that seems like dodging the question. If there's that much coincidence that there's an actual named principle behind it, then that's enough evidence for me.
And the whole multiverse (an infinite number of alternate universes or dimensions or what have you) - that seems like at least as big of a stretch as God is just to answer the anthropic principle. It's also something that we can't ever test and as such is also firmly outside the realm of science.
In conclusion: The evidence from hard sciences seems very clear to me. Life here currently is beyond the impossible to have formed randomly by chance. That leaves only that it was created.
Historical/Archeological evidence for Jesus and the Bible does not disappoint either.
Most of all though, are the numerous specific prayers that have been answered, and the way I see God moving throughout my life. That is why I believe. All the evidence I can see points directly to the Christian worldview being correct.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Disappointment
Wait... they did what? No... they wouldn't do that. Really? No...but...sigh.
When this comes from someone you care about, it's tough to handle. Dealing with this issue is a gradual process that stretches far, from denial down the long road to acceptance.
Simply denying it ever happened is easy enough. Forget it ever happened. This is surprisingly easy to do. One off odd situations are probably better off left here.
For something bigger, you have to eventually get on the path to acceptance. It starts with admitting it. It really did happen. Some illusion you had has been shattered. What it really comes down to is: you have to accept that they are not perfect either. They may think what they did was wrong, they may still think it was the right thing to do. It doesn't really matter. They still did it.
You thought you knew them better, and assumed they would act differently. Maybe it's helpful to realize that you are indeed getting to know them a little bit better. Know their flaws. None of us are perfect.
If they had been on a pedestal in your life, now is the time you start to realize that they are human too. They are still learning. Still making mistakes. Sometimes big ones. That's ok.
Learn what you can from what happened. Then get out. Don't stay here, it's a dangerous place. Leave it behind. Forgive if necessary, and move on. Try to think about how you can show your love for them productively. Press forward with the hope of a better future.
When this comes from someone you care about, it's tough to handle. Dealing with this issue is a gradual process that stretches far, from denial down the long road to acceptance.
Simply denying it ever happened is easy enough. Forget it ever happened. This is surprisingly easy to do. One off odd situations are probably better off left here.
For something bigger, you have to eventually get on the path to acceptance. It starts with admitting it. It really did happen. Some illusion you had has been shattered. What it really comes down to is: you have to accept that they are not perfect either. They may think what they did was wrong, they may still think it was the right thing to do. It doesn't really matter. They still did it.
You thought you knew them better, and assumed they would act differently. Maybe it's helpful to realize that you are indeed getting to know them a little bit better. Know their flaws. None of us are perfect.
If they had been on a pedestal in your life, now is the time you start to realize that they are human too. They are still learning. Still making mistakes. Sometimes big ones. That's ok.
Learn what you can from what happened. Then get out. Don't stay here, it's a dangerous place. Leave it behind. Forgive if necessary, and move on. Try to think about how you can show your love for them productively. Press forward with the hope of a better future.
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