A couple of days ago, we did some shopping at Walmart. My wife promised my son and me that it was going to be a really quick trip because all we needed was brats for dinner and some milk. So off we went.

Eighty-some dollars later (seriously!), we were waiting in line to check out and I overheard the cashier talking about her faith with the person in front of us. When it was our turn to check out, Kathy, the cashier, began talking with my wife. Before long, the conversation came back to her faith. I asked her about this and she said something which I was both surprised and thrilled to hear, “So many people dread going to work each day. But I get to come hear and help people. This is my ministry.”

I was excited because I knew that Kathy understood the true reason for work. I was surprised because I rarely hear this as most people don’t.  When I first began to follow Jesus, I was in a corporate sales job. I incorrectly viewed myself as a second-class Christian because I wasn’t a pastor or a missionary. Several years later I had my eyes opened to God’s view of work and my viewpoint totally changed.

Many people believe that work was given to us as punishment for when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. This isn’t true. In the Garden of Eden, God commanded Adam to work in the garden and take care of it. He said this before Adam and Eve disobeyed Him. In other words, work is part of God’s perfect plan for us (work being difficult was the consequence of the Fall).

Furthermore, did you know that the words work and worship come from the same root word? It’s true (that root word is Avodah). So in God’s eyes, we actually worship Him when we work.

Instead of saying, “I’m just a (your job title here).” You can now say, “I’m a minister cleverly disguised as a (your job title here).” So regardless of where you work or what you do, know that God has you there for a reason. You are worshiping Him when you work and you can make a difference in the lives of those around you. Because Kathy (our cashier) gets this, she is clearly much more fulfilled in life. You can be too!

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Colossians 3:23-24

It was both a sad and happy day this past weekend as we sold our trampoline. We were happy because we found a buyer who was so excited to find one at a decent price. Sad because we were reminded about how quickly time is passing. It seems like only yesterday that we bought this for our kids. And now, two of our three have moved out and our son is quick to tell us that he is  past “tramp-jumping” age (apparently that’s not a very cool thing to do at 15).

Lynne showed up on Saturday to pick up the trampoline by herself. She was driving what I thought to be a car that was way too small. And our trampoline was fully assembled as shown in the above picture. When I told her that I didn’t think we could get it apart without help and that I didn’t think it would fit in her car, she insisted that we could and that it would. I helped her to get the jumping surface and outside net down then I had to get a couple of things done so I gave her some tools so she could continue on.

Truthfully, I really did need to get a couple of things done but they weren’t absolutely urgent things. I thought we weren’t going to get it apart. Even if we did, I was certain it was not going to fit in her car so I wanted her to come to that realization on her own and tell me that she would come back the next day with a larger vehicle.

About 10 minutes later, I joined her in her efforts. She had made some headway and when I began helping I was surprised to see how quickly we got it apart. Then we began to load her car and, again, I was astonished to see that it fit with plenty of room to spare (see picture at right). Not only did this shock me, but I was a bit embarrassed. I’m usually a pretty  optimistic guy. However, I was anything but optimistic about this. Lynne taught me a valuable lesson in the power of persistence. To quote Shakespeare, “Much rain wears the marble.”

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13-14

Friday evening we had a great time. We hosted a party at our house for our Truth@Work members and their spouses and the evening was incredible. The middle of last week I mentioned here that I was stressed and worried about the intense heat that was forecast for the day of our party and how foolish my worry was, especially since I have no control over the weather. In our roundtable group last Wednesday, the group laughed with me when I shared my concerns, then one of the members prayed that God would make the day work out great.

As I was working in the yard on Friday in preparation for the party, it was really hot and humid and I lost a lot of fluids through perspiring. About three hours prior to the party a nasty storm came through with heavy winds, rain and lightning. Believe it or not, I was not worried about this at all which was pretty cool. An amazing thing happened in the midst of this storm. The temperature dropped from 97 degrees to 73 degrees in a matter of minutes.

This showed me a couple of things.  One, sometimes God will bring great blessings to us in the storms of our lives. The second thing this showed me was the sense of humor God has. He had to be laughing at me all week as He knew things would work out. This also taught me that I must be much quicker to come to the place of really knowing this in my heart.

I just returned from my son’s mixed martial arts class. It has been really cool to watch him advance, get stronger and gain in confidence over the past two years. This has been a really great thing for him.

On the way home, my sweaty son said, “Each time before we come I feel like I want to quit. But every time when I’m finished I feel so good that I never want to quit.” This led to a great discussion about life, discipline and feelings. We discussed the fact that our feelings lie to us all the time and those who are led by their feelings are going to be in for a long life. They oftentimes will not do something that is hard and they will resist getting out of their comfort zones. The big problem with this is that people only grow when they are outside of their comfort zones. So, those who are led by their feelings will not grow much. When a person is not growing or working toward being the best they can be, it is very difficult, if not impossible, for them to be happy. This is why a feelings driven person will struggle in life.

On the other hand a diligent person is one who does what is right regardless of their feelings. They will have a much different outlook in life. I have never met an effective leader who lacked diligence.

The fact is, life is hard. Jesus even promised us that in this life we will have trouble. This is why diligence is so critical.

You face choices every day. The question is, Will you choose to please your feelings or will you choose what is right? Choosing what is right requires diligence and discipline. In the book of Proverbs, the value of diligence is mentioned numerous times so this is obviously a trait that is valued by God. The Bible says that the diligent are rewarded while those who are lazy will suffer consequences. The choice is yours.

I was in a funk this afternoon and I couldn’t figure out why. Then I realized that it was due to the weather forecast of all things. Highs are predicted to touch triple digits on a couple days, including 100 degrees on Friday, the day of our outdoor party for our local Truth@Work members and their spouses. A couple of posts ago, I explained how God is trying to get me to relinquish control of things and trust Him. Well, apparently I have a ways to go in this area.

You see, I would like things to be great in all ways for our members at our party. I want everyone to have a great time and I certainly don’t want anything to happen which might dampen the atmosphere. 100 degree temperatures is not what I would order. So there I stewed, feeling sorry for myself. What makes this even more incredulous is that my morning went great as we had an incredible Truth@Work roundtable meeting today in which God did some awesome things. And yet, I’m embarrassed to say, there I was moping around. Silly, isn’t it?

As I was conversing with God about this, it occurred to me that this was, again, all about control. I was bummed because the weather forecast was not what I wanted. When I got honest with God I painfully became aware that the only reason I was not happy was because I had not relinquished control of this event to God. I was acting as if I could control the outcome when all He wants me to do is do my best and leave the outcome to Him. So after a painful couple of hours I finally did that. Once I did, I knew that He was going to work everything out and I experienced much more peace.

To quote Joyce Meyer, “I am not where I want to be but thank God I’m not where I used to be!”

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28

I just finished reading Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman–a great book…if you want to be challenged. In the book he says that we are raising up fans of Jesus rather than followers. Fans are those who want all the benefits from Jesus but don’t want to change their lives or pay any sort of price to follow. At one point in the book, he mentioned that fans oftentimes act much like the religious rule-followers that Jesus was so against. He said when get caught up in following the rules rather than following Jesus, this leads to fear and guilt. The keyword for those in the fear and guilt camp is “do”–we try to do enough to win God’s approval. On the other hand, those following Jesus understand that they don’t need to do anything to win God’s approval. The keyword here is “done”–God’s grace has covered us.

Idleman shared this in the book regarding how his high school chemistry teacher effectively taught this lesson:

During my senior year at the Christian high school I attended, Mr. Hollingsworth was my chemistry teacher. He did something a little unusual for our last final of the year. He had been reading an article by Charles Stanley on the grace of God and wanted to show us what grace looked like. He handed out a test to all of us that we knew would be difficult. We had been preparing for this test for several months. Before we began to take the test, he told us, “I want you to read through the entire test before you begin to take it.” As we read through the test most of us realized we were in trouble. We should have studied more. But then I got to the end of the multiple-page test and read these words at the bottom: “You can try and get an A by taking this test or you can just put your name on it and automatically receive an A.” This was not a difficult choice. I immediately signed my name, walked up to the desk, and headed out, thanking Charles Stanley for saving my chemistry grade. But there was a girl in the class who was the daughter of the biologiy teacher. She was quite intelligent and had studied hard. Apparently she got quite upset because she had spent so much time studying, and it wasn’t fair that everyone else was getting an “A” for nothing. She stayed and took the test on principle. If she was going to get an “A” she was going to earn it.

He goes on to say that fans of Jesus say the same thing, “I’m not taking any handouts–I can do this on my own.” They spend their lives carrying around the heavy burden of religion and making sure others carry that weight as well.

Fans of Jesus sooner or later find themselves exhausted. Fans grow tired of trying to maintain an outer appearance that doesn’t match an inner passion. They find themselves weary of trying to keep all the rules in hopes of somehow earning God’s favor. And I want you to know, before we go any further, that Jesus came to free you from religion. To those who have been hauling around a long list of rules. To those who are pretending to be more than they really are. To those who are weighed down with the fear and guilt of religion. To all the fans who are worn out on religion, Jesus invites you to follow him.

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

This past Sunday we helped to move our daughter Molly from one apartment (on the 3rd floor, without an elevator) to another apartment 5 miles away on the 2nd floor (again, no elevator). To top it off, it was the hottest day of the year in  the city she lives. We also drove there and back (4.5 hours each way) in the same day. You are feeling really sorry for me right now, aren’t you? Don’t worry, I wouldn’t either.

Anyway, to say we were tired is an understatement. Two days later, I noticed that when exercising I was much more winded than normal. To help, I found myself blowing all the air out of my lungs, trying to empty them completely. The reason? Though this isn’t natural, I remembered our trainer in college telling us that this replenished our oxygen faster and helped us to recover more quickly.

In my last post I shared with you the importance of doing as John the Baptist did and asking to be emptied of ourselves. For some reason, I can’t shake this thing…I keep coming back to it. I needed to empty my lungs fully when I was winded. And we need to empty ourselves of all our “junk”  in order to give God full control of our lives. And that is the rub. That is what keeps us from wanting to be emptied. It requires us to relinquish control in all areas of our lives. Much easier said than done.

This is a big key, if not THE key, to the Christian life…relinquishing control to God. As mentioned in my last post, I have not had a lot of peace this week because of the issues I’m having getting my technology (phones and computer) working correctly. I could say it is because of these issues that I am losing my peace, but if I’m honest with myself, the real reason I don’t have peace is because I’m trying to control the situation and fix it myself. This is why I’m frustrated. I’m learning that in order for me to have peace, I must empty myself (just like my post-workout exhale) of my desire to control. It is only through doing this that I can enjoy the peace which God has for me.

We gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”
Acts 21:14b

It’s been a long day and I feel like I haven’t gotten much accomplished. You see, my laptop has needed a tune-up for some time now and I just installed some new software that wasn’t working quite right. So I decided to bite the bullet and have my system stripped down to nothing and then rebuilt over the weekend. I received my laptop back this morning and began the process of trying to get my different software applications re-installed and working. The key word in that sentence is trying. I’m frustrated to say the least.

I know in the end, I am going to be much better off, at least technology-wise. The reason for the improvement is that over the past three years I have accumulated some “junk” on my system that I don’t need anymore. Without this stuff weighing my system down like a boat anchor, things should run much more efficiently…once I get through this painful phase.

A guy who roamed the earth over 2,000 years ago understood this well. John the Baptist said, “He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30). He knew that he had accumulated lots of “junk” in his life. Because he was human I’m guessing it was stuff like pride, envy, lust and selfishness. He knew in the core of his being that the less of this stuff he had in him, the more room there would be for God. The same is true for you and me.

Society tells us that we must strive to be greater. So many of us spend money on personal growth programs to make us better…to help us to grow.  If that doesn’t work, we might even try to do things to make us at least look the part. However, as John revealed to us, we really ought to be looking for personal reduction programs. Becoming less is perhaps the key to living a victorious Christian life. We become less the more we seek after God. The problem is that the process of becoming less requires the stripping away of our junk which is painful. But much like my computer project, the pain will produce a great reward.

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”
Matthew 16:25

I just posted something less than an hour ago and then went to workout. During my workout it occurred to me that I left something really important out of the last video. Click here to see what I missed or view below (and you’ll see how gross I look after a workout–but I warn you, it’s not pretty!)…

When I was a kid I used to sing my own version of The Beatles’ famous song, Hey Jude and it went something like this…

Hey Jude, I saw you nude.

Don’t try to fake it, I saw you naked.

Isn’t that mature? But pretty creative, don’t you think? OK, I don’t think so either. Anyway, I digress.

I’ve been spending some time in the book of the Bible with the same name as this song. It’s really given me something to think about and provided me reason to really examine my own life. Check out my latest video post and see what it might be telling you. You can do so by clicking here or by hitting the arrow below: