I can take you to the spot.
I can point to where I was standing.
The old, worn gold carpet is long gone, I’m sure. The house on Watson Road has likely been redecorated many times since we lived there.
But there’s no mistaking that spot where I made one of the most life-altering decisions of my life. And get this: I never told a soul about it. In fact, I never uttered a word. But in a silent transaction of the mind, will, and emotions, with three simple words I began a process of sowing to the wind… and reaping a whirlwind.
The words?
I.
Give.
Up. [click to continue…]
Phillip’s down, and he thinks he’s out.
Life hasn’t been kind to the 33-year-old; in fact, life has been brutally unfair. In just one calendar year, Phillip left his friends due to a job transfer, lost the job that transferred him due to downsizing, suffered an excruciating ankle break in a pick-up basketball game, and separated from his wife of seven years, though they are working on things.
Phillip tries to be hopeful when everything around him feels fatal. But he can’t mask the confusion. How can a year that started with such promise and confidence leave him feeling so lost and broken? How can a life driven with such expectancy just a few months ago feel so aimless now?
But what Phillip can’t see because he’s in too deep is how close he is to the Circle’s End.
Karen can’t believe her eyes, but there’s no mistaking that little “plus” sign. After months and months of futility, what she has dreamed of all her life is finally happening. She’s going to have a baby. That’s a much better explanation for that morning nausea than “stomach flu.”
The enchantment she and her husband are feeling is surely a precursor of things to come. The family they both have dreamed of. The joy and delights of holding that little one for the first time. The expectancy that life has made a turn for the better, and there is nowhere to go but forward.
And she’s right… to a point. But just as tides ebb and flow, Karen will eventually reach the Circle’s End.
However you would classify your circumstances, one thing is certain – they’re anything but still. [click to continue…]
Somewhere in the places where sighs give way to hope and promises sing to aching hearts, your soul waits for something different. More than the pleasure of a passing moment or those 15 minutes of look-at-me, you were created with a craving soul. “He has planted eternity in the human heart,” Solomon said, “but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”
One day – sooner rather than later – that craving will be satisfied. And not by what the pavement is made of or what the real estate market is like past the pearly gates. Not by something that resembles Sunday morning at the church house, Monday noon at the White House, or Friday night at the penthouse. Craving souls are smarter and deeper than that.
One day – nearer rather than farther – tired hearts, stale relationships and flyblown religion will give way to a new dawn. And at long last your soul will taste satisfaction. Ashes will give way to beauty. You’ll trade your mourning in for the oil of joy. You’ll wear a garment of praise – complete with dancing shoes – instead of a spirit of heaviness. In the satisfaction of the soul… [click to continue…]
Constantly in motion, ever-aware, always alert both night and day, an unseen force is shaping your life in ways you can’t imagine.
Ever-learning.
Ever-revealing.
The algorithms behind this crawler make Google look, in comparison, like a nearsighted man searching for a haystack in a needle factory.
He sees you when you’re sleeping and knows when you’re awake. But I’m not referring to the jolly old elf. I’m talking about the Ultimate Search Engine. But it’s not an “it” – it’s a Person. [click to continue…]
We welcomed you into a world that you have already become a part of – but now we’ve finally met. And though I have only held you once, you already occupy a place of deep connection, belonging, and love in my heart.
Today, March 9, 2011, the world can be a scary place. As a newborn American citizen, I’m sorry to tell you that you already owe more money than you can repay in your lifetime – most of it to people who don’t live here. The Communist government in China wants to take over the reincarnation process (I don’t even know where to start with that). And a bully in the Middle East is clinging to power, whatever the cost.
But while the future is uncertain, it is no more so than the world our Lord Jesus entered two thousand years ago. And His life, death, and resurrection casts a much greater beacon of hope than the shadows of a fearful world could ever compete with.
You have been born into a loving family, who has established their home first and foremost on a steadfast love for God. You have the unique distinction of having a big sister – and if anyone was ever born for the role, she is. [click to continue…]
…the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.
Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me (Song of Solomon 2:12)
Be like the dove, He said… [click to continue…]
One of Friday's Lovely Moments -Cohen's first haircut, and I got to BE the front-row seat.
Nobody has to convince you that life is busy and blazes by at the speed of, well, life. Expressions like, “Where did all the time go?” are the stuff of every-day conversation.
Sometimes that can feel painfully lonely as we emerge from the grindstone and wonder where everybody went.
Sometimes that can feel out of control as we are swept away by the rhythm and melody of somebody else’s music.
And yet…
And yet…
Even in the craziness, the busyness, and the where’d-it-all-go, life has a way of presenting what Roger Breland calls a Lovely Moment – those experiences where even if for a brief pause, life seems to come up for air and fill your heart.
Sometimes the Lovely Moment arrives in the form of a long-anticipated event, like your wedding day, graduation, or the birth of a child or grandchild.
Sometimes the Lovely Moment comes as a complete surprise, when suddenly you realize how full your heart is because of a special memory, a future conversation played out in your mind, the joyful news of a friend, or a reminder somehow that you’re being thought of.
The Lovely Moment can be an elusive thing, but only because we’re too busy, too wounded, too stressed, or too blinded to open our eyes and see them. The truth is, Lovely Moments are in abundant supply… [click to continue…]
I have a friend who doesn’t do change well. I have another who aches for it. Strangely enough, they both find themselves routinely responding in the same ways.
Both are fiercely loyal, probably to a fault. They will cling to relationships, to institutions, even to ideas long past what most people would consider healthy or normal.
Both are very deliberate in the ways they go about making decisions – to the point that life sometimes barges in and makes the decision for them.
Both have dreams that seem to escape them while they wait for the circumstances to improve… which they never seem to do.
Interestingly enough, both are people of great faith. These are not casual Christians. They are heart-deep in a pursuit of God’s best for their lives.
They also have their differences. One pushes himself to grow, to stretch, to improve – only to find out the ladder he was climbing was leaning against a bombed out building. The other refuses to consider that if she keeps doing the same things, she’s likely to get the same results.
One will analyze a situation to death without ever taking action, then analyze what happened when the action took him. The other will react to situations on the basis of emotions, but typically they’re feelings of fear or regret.
Meanwhile, the winds of change just keep on howling. To one it feels like a blowing rain. To the other it feels like a mocking tormentor. [click to continue…]
Okay, so try this. Let’s take a little mental inventory. Go back to the twilight of your thinking last night – that mental place where you drift between the time you close your eyes and the time you actually go to sleep. (I can tell you mine, but I’m saving it for a future blog post… watch for something called the “three A’s.”)
Or… how about the first line of thinking out of the mental gate this morning – that place where your mind went before you got out of bed?
Was it something to do?
Something you were worried about?
Some pressure, or pain? Or some pleasure or something/someone you were grateful for?
Was it a longing, or an idea? Or a feeling of dread?
Recapture that thought or line of thinking for a minute… then go behind it… and look for the desire. Based on your thinking, mentally complete this sentence: “I want to _____________.”
It could be something you want to feel.
Could be something you want to accomplish.
Could be something you want to experience.
Could be somebody you want to connect with, serve, or resolve an issue with.
Got it yet? Okay, let’s dig a little deeper. [click to continue…]
Cohen is an expert crawler.
He can cross a room lickety-split on his hands and knees.
He’s an awful walker.
He’s learning. But why risk injury when he can get there safely on all fours?
His parents don’t treat his crawling ability as a special gift, however.
It’s just a skill that helps him until the greater abilities arrive.
Same goes for you and God. [click to continue…]
I can take you to the spot.
