Waves Crashing

Some days you feel like you are trying to run towards the shore & big waves keep crashing around you halting your forward progress. Nothing seems to come particularly easy and yet you find ways to push through. The entire day can be filled with a sense of battling through things. It's a struggle to:

• pray
• stay focused
• be compassionate
• see the whole picture
• be understood
• keep your energy up
• get it all done
• maintain momentum
• write the words

The beautiful part of this relationship with God is that He knows these days are coming and is ready to give us a fresh start tomorrow. He specializes in new beginnings on a daily basis.

Two Worlds

I have to admit to a guilty pleasure. Probably at least once a month I go to YouTube and listen to David Phelps from Gaither ministries sing the song, "No More Night." It's a style of music that doesn't appeal to everyone & isn't something I listen to any other time. There is something captivating about this particular song however, that keeps me coming back to it. Part of the attraction is in Phelps' voice--it is one of the most pure and powerful voices I have ever heard--and I am a music geek that finds tremendous pleasure in harmonies & melodies.

It's not just an appreciation of talent that keeps me coming back to this song though. It's the depth in the lyrics that resonates with my soul. It reinforces a tension that I regularly feel--that we are made for more than just this world and moment. We are incomplete here--even in this world's joys & pleasures created by God. This world is merely a reflection of something better and perfect and our best moments here will be wisps of memory when we achieve perfection in Heaven. Meditating on this song and the promise of a better realm creates feelings of longing and provides comfort when this journey becomes weary. It can be a bright light when things seem dark or when I simply need encouragement to keep pushing through difficult times with the hope of a better day.

One of Those Days

You ever have one of those days that started out strong & just didn't finish that way? Of course you have. That was my day today.

I felt good about the beginning of the day with coffee, prayer (even as I struggled with maintaining some focus through it), and Bible. I got a jump start on some other reading, enjoyed breakfast with my lovely ladies, and hit the office ready to conquer the world (or at least my to-do list.) Things moved along fairly well until shortly after 11 when it seemed all momentum stopped. For the rest of the day it felt like I was running as fast as I could through chest-deep mud. No matter how much energy or enthusiasm I generated things moved slowly. Nothing went as smoothly as I had hoped or on the time schedule that I had set up for success. Needless to say my list for tomorrow now includes a lot of what I had hoped to have finished today.

I would like to impart great wisdom here and lay out a spiritual principle to benefit faithful readers, but alas, it isn't there. Some days just don't work out exactly as you planned even if you do manage to stay focused. I can mutter and mumble about it around the house tonight, but will instead choose to enjoy the movie night with my ladies and time with my lovely wife. My objective there is to take pleasure in their company and I am confident that particular objective will be accomplished.

The Struggle

"The struggle to the top alone can make the heart swell."
Albert Camus

This quote rolls through my head quite a bit.  It is often misread-Camus' intent is not to talk about struggling alone, but that sometimes the difficult journey holds more rewards than actually arriving at your destination. I have to believe that it is true-I am holding fast to that thought now. 

It is difficult to create a new culture in a church & in an area that has been around for so long.  There is so much teaching to be done, so much patience to be had, leaders to develop, foundations to build, and prayers to be prayed.  I'm not afraid of hard work-I actually relish it-but it can be frustrating as you continue to push along and not see the results you are hoping for or expecting.

Some days it frustrates me more than others.  I have this great desire to see ministry blossoming and people living out their faith on a consistent basis.  I invested 6 1/2 years in Florida and God did great things in spite of me there.  I don't want to recreate a Florida environment in Georgia, but my aim is to see young people (and us older folks) passionately following Jesus and desiring to do His great work.  It is going to take some time and the lessons that He is going to teach me (and His church) through the journey will mold and mature us into the church He designed us to be. 

I pray that I would not grow weary as we do His great work.