Built to Last

We have the potential to experience special spiritual moments that challenge and touch us more deeply than others. It could be a mission trip that changes our perspective, a week at camp that shows us new things about ourselves, or a week at CIY Move that exposes us to new direction for our lives. These become markers of maturity that we look back on with great fondness and that hopefully spur us on to something new and fresh in our faith. The great challenge is always in maintaining the intensity that we find in these moments.

It's obviously not possible to stay at the exact same level that we experience in these big events and in fact, we wouldn't want to. Being exposed to varying degrees of intensity makes each moment special and reminds us of the journey that we are on towards maturity. Each experience then becomes a catalyst that propels us forward toward God and teaches us something new as it becomes part of our faith history. Our hope is to take these occasions and add to them so that we maintain a steady commitment to a life that honors God. It's not a matter of relying entirely on these special times for impact, but combining them with our daily faith and watching God work in us all year long.

That is something that will last.

Take a Step-Part 2

As a follow up to my previous post, I have been meditating on practical next steps. There is nothing fancy about any of this, but it should encourage us to know that we can begin to move forward even in small ways. The journey of a 1,000 miles begins with that first step.

• Find some way to exercise today-even if it is walking around the block.
• Eat less food & make better choices for your meals today.
• Ask your children what they want to do & do it with them.
• Don't spend money on something just because you want it. 
• Take a deep breath instead of responding to your spouse in anger or frustration. Think the best of them & not the worst.
• Pray--even if it is one sentence.
• Read your Bible--start in John 1 and simply read it. Then ask the question, "What can I do with what I just read?"
• Tell your spouse you love them.
• Turn off your computer and walk away from the distractions that keep you from engaging with people around you.

Take the first small step today and then add to it tomorrow. It's the only practical way that progress and transformation are ever seen.

Off Track

When we feel that we have gotten spiritually disoriented or distracted, we might describe ourselves as "off track." We get discouraged when we feel this way & can feel that our misplaced priorities have taken us away from the story that God is telling in our lives.

While we might feel that way (and I have in the past) I think it is an erroneous assumption on our part. We have convinced ourselves that we have delayed God's plan for our lives and therefore messed up what would have been a grand tale of faithfulness. In actuality, our current and future choices are the story we are living. It is the exact tale that God knew before He created us. He knew (and knows) the ebb and flow of our faith and still works in grander ways than we can imagine to shape us on the path we have chosen.

We aren't disappointing Him with our choices-that would mean that He didn't see them coming. In His inimitable fashion He is redeeming us through our faulty and flawed steps. We are operating from a present-based perspective that limits our understanding while He reigns from the end of our novel, having seen the triumphs that await us through our own imperfect and yet perfectly-written-for-us story.