One Day

One day....we've all heard the phrase...one day, I'll get a round to it, one day, I'll slow down, one day, I'll go on a vacation, one day it will all work out and more. Perhaps, here's a fresh look at one day....that one day could be today as Mark Batterson has said.

A little two-word phrase in Scripture: one day.It's in I Samuel 14:1. It's the story of Jonathan climbing the cliff with his armor bearer and engaging the Philistines. That is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. One act of courage saves a nation. But have you ever noticed how the passage starts out with that little two-word phrase? One day.

It's almost the Bible equivalent to the classic movie line: once upon a time.It's hard to put into words, but I live my life with a profound sense of destiny. God orders my footsteps. If I believe anything, I believe that. And that fills me with holy anticipation. At any given moment, God can invade the reality of our lives and change everything.

So read through Acts and there is that little two-word phrase again: "One day about three o'clock in the afternoon, Cornelius had a vision."You never know when. You never know where. You never know how.But one day, God can invade the reality of your life and change everything. That is what happens to Cornelius. Of course, it doesn't just change his life. Those of us who are not Jewish trace our spiritual lineage back to this vision on this day. If it weren't for this vision at three o'clock one day, the message of the gospel would have remained a Jewish thing. This vision at this time on this day bridged the racial divide. Whosoever will may come!One day.

Today could be that one day! It might not be. But it could be. May you be filled with holy anticipation knowing that at any given moment God can invade the reality of your life and change everything.

Embracing the journey,

If you are cruising through Orlando on I-4 you can look out the window to see this sign.

If you think about it, you might say what? When you exit this highway you can make your way to either of two destinations; you can travel to the Mall at Millenia or you can experience the Holy Land. Talk about options!

At one you get the attention of normal people acting as if they think you are important.

At the other you get the attention of actors who actually think you are important.

At one you may spend money you don’t have, to get things you don’t need, to impress people you don’t even know or like.

At the other you give the time you have, to get the faith you need, to love people you don’t yet even know.

At one you give so you can get. At the other you get so you can give.
This sign is so clarifying. It makes the options in life obvious to us all.

One thing is apparent. If you turn your feet one direction, and take steps that way, you’ll end up at a different place than if you turn your feet the other direction and walk that way!

For each of us, we must ask which way we will decide to go? The choice is yours...the choice is mine...everyday we make the choice.

Psalm 25:8-10 - God is fair and just; He corrects the misdirected, Sends them in the right direction. He gives the rejects his hand, And leads them step-by-step. From now on every road you travel Will take you to God. Follow the Covenant signs.

Embracing the journey, seeking to make wise choices...that serve others and point them to Him.

Trust His Timing

Tuesday, February 17, 2009 from Marc Batterson @ evotional.com -- Great truths to remember and embrace -- He is faithful trust His timing -- He will make the path clear.


Time is relative.

What I mean by that is this: the way we experience it is subjective. It depends on what you're doing. Ever been on a date with someone you love? Time flies. Ever been on a date with someone you didn't like? Speed dating isn't fast enough.The way we experience time also depends on how old we are. If you're six years-old, summer break is 4% of you life. If you're twenty-five, it's 1%. If you're fifty, it's .5%. The older you get, the faster time seems to fly because relatively speaking it becomes a smaller and smaller fraction of your life! By the way, that is why when you were a kid, a two-hour trip in the car seemed like an eternity because relatively speaking, it was much longer for you than the adult who was driving!So what?

Well, I think most of us have a hard time handling a bad day. We have a very low threshold for circumstantial uncertainty or spiritual discontinuity. We need answers. And we need them now. I would suggest that we need some biblical perspective. When we look at our lives through the lens of Scripture, our perspective on time changes.We have a hard waiting for God to fulfill His promise. But what about Abraham and Sarah? They had to wait 15 years before Isaac was born. We have a hard time suffering for a season. But what about the invalid in John 5 who was in that condition for 38 years. And that's when the average lifespan was 20-30. We have a hard time waiting for God to make sense of our circumstances. But what about Joseph? He was a slave and a prisoner for 17 years before becoming Prime Minister of Egypt. Or Moses? He was a fugitive for 40 years! And we have a hard time waiting to fulfill our calling. But even Jesus didn't transition from carpentry to ministry til he was 30.

We need to zoom out and get some biblical perspective. We think in days. But we might need to think in years. Here's what I know for sure: those that God wants to use the most have to go through the longest season of preparation. You might have to struggle a little bit longer so you can learn some more lessons or develop some more character. You might need to suffer a little bit longer so God can reveal a little bit more of His glory in your life!

What I'm getting at is this: trust His timing. He is never early. He is never late. As we grow spiritually, I think we take a different perspective on time. It's less about chronos--time. It's more about kairos--timing. And for the record, He is far more concerned about who you're becoming in the process than when you arrive at your destination. Maybe you need to quit praying for deliverance and start praying for revelation.

One last thought from Acts 1: "You don't get to the know the time. Timing is the Father's business."Not much has changed has it?

Embracing the journey...

When Plans seem to fail

In Isaiah, we read that God's ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts; His understanding is beyond ours. We're also told a man makes plans the Lord directs His steps.

Plans are important for if we aim at nothing (no plan), we may hit it every time.

However, sometimes our best laid plans fail. Circumstances change, new information arises and what we had planned to do, we can’t do.

So, what do we do then? We could tap in to the "do nothing strategy" or

Maybe what we should do is pray Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer.

It goes like this…

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;

Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;

Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;

Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;

That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen."

Embracing the journey,

Perspective

Perspective makes a huge difference. I wonder what would happen if we shared the "why" behind the "what" more often. How would it impact our relationships, our teams, our churches, and our impact?

We've all seen the common bathroom that is shared by many stores in a mall or at the gas station where you have to ask for the key. Well...here's one story...

Recently, someone started locking the communal bathroom, and a sign was scotch-taped to the door. In that inimitable management-font-style, the sign read: “THE BATHROOMS HAVE BEEN LOCKED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE.”

Well, no. In most civilizations, it is considered more convenient to simply push open the door than to request a key from the overworked barrista. But no matter.

One day, a friend asked one of the barristas what gives with the locked bathroom, and she said, “We had to lock it because a crazy homeless man was smearing his feces on the wall, and the janitor threatened to quit.”

OK, that gives us a dramatically more favorable attitude toward the lockup. And it may make us wonder — isn’t there something to be said for the cold, hard, gross truth: “THE BATHROOMS HAVE BEEN LOCKED TO KEEP THE CRAZY, FECES-SMEARING HOMELESS GUY OUT. SO WE KNOW IT’S A HASSLE FOR YOU TO GET THE KEY, BUT JEEZ, THINK ABOUT THE JANITOR.”

Stories aside, perhaps there’s a communication moral buried in here. By keeping people at arm’s length from the real issue, the management allows them to jump to false conclusions. (we assume that the landlord was trying to keep non-paying customers from using the facilities, and we may fume about how petty that would be.)

Wouldn’t our audience understand us better, and feel more empathy for us, if our instinct was to give them a glimpse of our reality rather than try to obscure it?

It's all a matter of perspective. We've all heard "don't judge a book by its cover" or "walk a mile in their shoes." I wonder how you can share a glimpse of reality, the "why" behind the "what". I wonder what difference it might make in the journey.

Embracing the journey, pursuing the dream...