Every once in a great while I have a bad day. Well maybe not a bad day but a patience testing day. I'm on call for work. I've only had a couple of calls to go out on today but they where tuff. I spent 3 hours on one and 3 1/2 on the other (should have been about an hour on each). So I was getting frustrated, tired, hungry, and not very happy. Until.... On my way home I stopped at Arby's. I was sitting in the drive-thru (which took forever too) scanning the radio and this song came on. There have been several times in my life that I've been down, depressed or frustrated and for some reason this song pops up one way or another. Coincidence?
Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)
Styx
Written by Tommy Shaw
You see the world through your cynical eyes
You're a troubled young man I can tell
You got it all in the palm of your hand
But your hand's wet with sweat and your head needs a rest
And you're fooling yourself if you don't believe it
You're kidding yourself if you don't believe it
Why must you be such an angry young man
When your future looks quite bright to me
How can there be such a sinister plan
That could hide such a lamb, such a caring young man
You're fooling yourself if you don't believe it
You're killing yourself, don't believe it
Get up, get back on your feet
You're the one they can't beat and you know it
Come on, let's see what you've got
Just take your best shot and don't blow it
You're fooling yourself if you don't believe it
You're killing yourself, don't believe it
Get up, get back on your feet
You're the one they can't beat and you know it
Come on, let's see what you've got
Just take your best shot and don't blow it.
Every time this happens it brings tears to my eyes. I know it's a reminder from God.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
C.S. Lewis writes
"The goal towards which [God] is beginning to guide you is absolute perfection; and no power in the whole universe, except you yourself, can prevent Him from taking you to that goal"
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Continue.........
I just got home from the GCC 2008 Men's Retreat: Totus Porkus Going Whole Hog for Jesus. This event is one of the highlights of the year for me. This year over 220 men attended the 2 day event. Friday evening started off with a hog roast followed by worship and a sermon by Pastor Mark Beeson (you can get more detailed accounts of the event on his blog).
During the teaching on Friday he posed these questions;
During the teaching on Friday he posed these questions;
"Where do you intend to be in 4 years?"
My ability to financially help others?
My ability to spiritually help others?
My ability to financially provide for myself?
My ability to spiritually feed myself?
Which of the 7 deadly sins do you least struggle?
These are very important questions. But for me to answer them I need to look at my past. Where was I 4 years ago? I was in a deep dark place. Depressed, broken, spiraling down into a pit that would eventually lead to death. 3 years ago I was found, saved, forgiven, baptised. 2 years ago I was in stride moving forward growing closer to God. 1 year ago at the retreat Mark challenged us to step up and make a move. He had each man write on a card what his move was going to be, then attach that card to the cross. When the retreat was over and everyone had packed up and gone I stayed around for a while and walked out to the lake. I had some alone time with God. I asked him to guide me, strengthen me, work through me. I had written on my card: "I want to help others find Christ." Within a few weeks the thoughts of going to school began. Now I'm enrolled in college, working on a degree and helping other people find their meaning to life.
My ability to financially help others?
My ability to spiritually help others?
My ability to financially provide for myself?
My ability to spiritually feed myself?
Which of the 7 deadly sins do you least struggle?
These are very important questions. But for me to answer them I need to look at my past. Where was I 4 years ago? I was in a deep dark place. Depressed, broken, spiraling down into a pit that would eventually lead to death. 3 years ago I was found, saved, forgiven, baptised. 2 years ago I was in stride moving forward growing closer to God. 1 year ago at the retreat Mark challenged us to step up and make a move. He had each man write on a card what his move was going to be, then attach that card to the cross. When the retreat was over and everyone had packed up and gone I stayed around for a while and walked out to the lake. I had some alone time with God. I asked him to guide me, strengthen me, work through me. I had written on my card: "I want to help others find Christ." Within a few weeks the thoughts of going to school began. Now I'm enrolled in college, working on a degree and helping other people find their meaning to life.
Photo by Jeff Kamp
This year he called us out again; write on a card and attach it to the cross. I wrote: "Continue the quest you sent me on last year." After the retreat was over I went back out and stood in that same spot on the lake. Had some alone time with God, asked for more strength, more courage, more guidance and I thanked Him for the opportunity to help build His Kingdom in this way.
Where do I intened to be in 4 years?
4 times closer to being the man God wants me to be.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Frank C. Laubach
My friend Steve loaned me the book Streams of Living Water by Richard J. Foster. I try to read a few pages everyday but with work and so much reading for school it's going to take a while to finish. In the book there is a story about Frank C. Laubach, he was a missionary educator in the Philippines during the 1920's and 30's. While living on the island of Mindanao he worked along side the Maranao people but had little success in educating them. Every evening he would climb Signal Hill to have alone time with God. These are his words of what happened on a December night in 1929.
One evening I was sitting on Signal Hill looking over the province that had me beaten. Tip (his dog) had his nose under my arm trying to lick the tears off my cheeks. My lips began to move and it seemed to me that God was speaking.
"My child" my lips said "you have failed because you do not really love these Moros. You feel superior to them because you are white. If you can forget you are an American and think only how I love them, they will respond."
I answered back to the sunset, "God, I don't know whether you spoke to me through my lips, but if you did, it was the truth...Drive me out of myself and come and take possession of me and think Thy thoughts in my mind..."
My lips spoke to me again: "If you want the Moros to be fair to your religion, be fair to theirs. Study their Koran with them."
Laubach climbed down the hill and told some local priests that he wanted to study their Koran and the next day his little cottage crowded with people each with a Koran under his arm.
He goes on to say "After that night on Signal Hill when God killed my racial prejudice and made me color-blind, it seemed as though He were working miracles at every turn" From this watershed experience two great pioneering efforts emerged- one internal and the other external- both inextricably bound together. The first explored the growth of the soul under God. The second involved the development of a literacy movement that eventually reached an estimated sixty million people.
My point in sharing this is; when we turn to God, listen, and take action , great things will happen.
One evening I was sitting on Signal Hill looking over the province that had me beaten. Tip (his dog) had his nose under my arm trying to lick the tears off my cheeks. My lips began to move and it seemed to me that God was speaking.
"My child" my lips said "you have failed because you do not really love these Moros. You feel superior to them because you are white. If you can forget you are an American and think only how I love them, they will respond."
I answered back to the sunset, "God, I don't know whether you spoke to me through my lips, but if you did, it was the truth...Drive me out of myself and come and take possession of me and think Thy thoughts in my mind..."
My lips spoke to me again: "If you want the Moros to be fair to your religion, be fair to theirs. Study their Koran with them."
Laubach climbed down the hill and told some local priests that he wanted to study their Koran and the next day his little cottage crowded with people each with a Koran under his arm.
He goes on to say "After that night on Signal Hill when God killed my racial prejudice and made me color-blind, it seemed as though He were working miracles at every turn" From this watershed experience two great pioneering efforts emerged- one internal and the other external- both inextricably bound together. The first explored the growth of the soul under God. The second involved the development of a literacy movement that eventually reached an estimated sixty million people.
My point in sharing this is; when we turn to God, listen, and take action , great things will happen.
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