The previous post – the one about Eagles’ Wings – was a significant one for this site – it was Post #1,000. Over the last six-plus years, roughly three times a week, I have had the delight, challenge, and opportunity to share an insight, rant, celebration or half-baked idea on a wide variety of subjects.
And now this. What to do to begin the next 1,000?
At first I had this crazy idea about going through the titles of every single post, in order, taking one word and writing a single piece. Yeah, that became pretty impossible, pretty fast.
Then I thought about other variations on that theme, playing off of previous post titles, etc. Problem is, that, too would have taken an enormous amount of time, and I still didn’t know what I actually wanted to say in that format.
I thought about linking back to favorites – mine and yours… [click to continue…]
“You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Exodus 19:4, NIV)
Here is a place.
An experience.
An image used to describe the powerful grace of a loving God.
Here is a birthright.
An invitation.
A metaphor for flying swiftly above the dangers and dead-ends into the loving arms of a Heavenly Father.
And where you can’t go on your own and when you lack the strength to survive, that’s when He meets you where you are and brings you to Himself… on eagles’ wings. [click to continue…]
Love…
Such a simple word in English,
made complicated by the fact
that it can mean and refer to so many things.
It’s often cheapened
by reducing it to something resembling selfish pleasure…
It often generates cynicism
among those who gave their hearts to someone or something,
and were crushed by the experience…
It creates confusion
because the same word can be used for
Readers Digest,
Mom’s lasagna,
old movies,
and your newborn infant.
Yet even in the face of the frustration of finding the right way to express ourselves,
I still believe in the promise and the reality of a Perfect Love… [click to continue…]
(Get Out of the Boat, Part 3)
(Note: Today is a very special day for me. It was 40 years ago today that the Lord made it clear to a young high school sophomore’s heart that He had a call and gifts for vocational service for me. All I had asked for is clarity, and on this night He did that in no uncertain terms. There are many things I wish I could have done differently in the last 40 years. But if I had one thing I could say – one lesson learned that surpasses all others during this time – what follows is a pretty good expression of it. Hope you enjoy…)
How long are you going to wear that?
How long are you going to treat that uniform as if it’s a tattoo?
How long are you going to assume that past results are a guarantee of future disappointment?
How long are you going to treat failure as if it is a person – namely you – and not an event?
How long will you believe that people who love Jesus never blow it? And people who blow it could never love Jesus again?
How long – how long – will you assume that forgiveness couldn’t possibly mean restoration?
Maybe you’re the one who needs to get out of the boat. [click to continue…]
(Part 1)
There come those times in the life of every Christ follower when we are faced with a set of choices. These aren’t salvation issues – far from it. But they are faith issues. Growth issues. Issues of maturity and usefulness and power.
One of those choices has to do with your strengths, or areas of confidence. It has to do with whether you will acknowledge that even in the places where you’re an outright genius, God may have a better idea. That maybe – just maybe – He’s even smarter than you are.
Another has to do with just the opposite – your areas of fear or insecurity. Will you be willing to leave the predictable, the safe, and the orderly to do something completely unprecedented if Jesus calls you there? Even if the people closest to you are telling you you’re a complete fool?
Still another has to do with having courage in the wake of failure. Will you believe the testimony of grace that Jesus declares over you, or will you give failure the final say in your life?
It all comes down, friends, to what you do with your boat. [click to continue…]
You probably won’t read about this in your favorite leadership book – even the Christian-flavored ones. You almost certainly won’t read about it in the latest wave of business tomes or political memoirs. And yet nearly every significant leader of every stripe in the Bible practiced this.
The politicians did it.
The prophets did it.
The priests did it.
The preachers did it.
The patriarchs did it.
I’m running out of things that start with “p,” but if you think of something, they probably did it too.
What’s this “secret weapon” of leadership? This so-obvious-it’s-embarrassing-we-missed-it practice of every revolutionary influence I can think of in scripture? [click to continue…]
Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised,
And His greatness is unsearchable (Psalm 145:3).
Lots of comfortable, well-worn words here. Sometimes familiarity can hide the truest meaning of the language.
For example, God is “great.”
(God is good, let us thank Him for our…)
Hang on a minute. [click to continue…]
It starts out innocently enough. You dutifully climb into the attic and start hauling out the boxes of decorations. Once again the house is tricked out with stockings, twinkling lights, and the scents you save for just this time of year.
You ask the familiar questions: Do we go with same-old same-old, or try something completely new and different? Are we staying home, or traveling, or both? Who’s coming and going? What’s on the calendar between here and there? And of course, what should be get for [fill in the blank] this year for Christmas?
But here’s the tricky part – other than Black Friday, nobody’s giving you any extra time to make all that happen. You still have a job to go to (hopefully), 21 meals a week to account for, meetings to attend, bills to pay, promises to keep.
So how do you make it all fit together? You hurry. You scurry. And sometimes you worry that it never quite seems to all get done.
Truth be told, sometimes sacrifices have to be made to get it all in. And therein lies the rub… because the one thing that Christmas is all about often gets lost in the flurry. [click to continue…]
There’s a place where love feels like love,
Where all the affection in the universe seems gathered up
And pointed only, always to you…
That place – that beloved place – is under His mercy.
There’s a song where all the symphonies and sonnets,
Ballads and serenades seem to converge
And sing only, always over you…
That song – that harmonious song – is under His mercy.
Under His mercy the world is recreated,
Eden reimagined, and hope is born again.
Under His mercy we all are reinstated,
Those stains are washed away, and we’re adorned again.
We’ve traded ashes for His beauty…
And longing for His love…
Under His mercy.
[click to continue…]
The Dream
Somewhere in the deepest places of your heart, however old and tired or fresh and alive it may seem, there lurks The Dream. Rooted in who or what you believe to be true, grounded in what you are most passionate about, The Dream is your ideal sense of beauty, happiness, and ultimate contentment.
For many people, The Dream is so patently obvious or so magically impossible, they hardly think about it, much less discuss it. For others, The Dream is tantamount to heaven, so they assume that the only joy here is preparing for life there, after death.
Let me be clear. “God has prepared things for those who love him that no eye has seen, or ear has heard, or that haven’t crossed the mind of any human being” (1 Corinthians 2:9, CEB). But in setting your heart toward home, He has given you a sense of life as it ought to be… as it can be. It may seem impossible this side of heaven…
Nevertheless, The Dream is there.
And you are here.
And in between are the Distance and the Spaces.
The Spaces are those markers and milestones that speak of the progress you have made in the direction of The Dream.
The Distance is the ruthless, unyielding set of facts, measurements and rules that, apart from God’s grace, show us just how far we have to go. [click to continue…]
