A good friend and I were talking the other day and he told me about an experience he had in Hong Kong. First I’ll tell you what he saw. Then I’ll tell you a story based on that. Then I’ll apply it in one of many, many ways you can apply the story.
What My Friend Saw
As he and his group were traveling through the market in Hong Kong, he noticed someone selling rabbits. (Note: I’m pretty sure they weren’t being sold as pets.)
There was a cage full of rabbits. Then on top of the cage there was a single rabbit, just sitting there, motionless.
My friend asked, “Why doesn’t that rabbit run away?”
The answer: Because he’s been in the cage so long he’s forgotten what life outside the cage is like. He assumes there is nowhere else to go.
My Little Rabbit Fable
Once there were two rabbits. Both were raised in captivity. Both had only known a life within the confines of a cage or pen. But that wasn’t all bad. [click to continue…]
This is an interesting time. Another school year is in the books (to coin a phrase). I don’t think I’ve ever seen more snippets from graduation speeches than I have this year. Lots of talk about knowledge, the future, credentials and stuff.
It’s also a time for remembering, especially on this day, that freedom isn’t free. What we know and enjoy today is based on the sacrifices of men and women who gave their lives so we could be free from oppressive and abusive government.
It’s a time in which we are reminded almost daily that we live in a world where people die before they’re “supposed” to, and that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness may be inalienable rights, but they’re not time-bound guarantees.
At any point in our lives, most likely, we can point to things with humble gratitude and declare, “I don’t deserve this.” At any point in our lives, we can point to things with frustration and despair and declare, “I didn’t sign up for this.” At any point in our lives, it’s a valid question to ask, “Where is God in all this?”
So in this season of talk about knowledge and the future and no guarantees and credibility and freedom, I wanted to encourage you with some reminders that have encouraged me lately. [click to continue…]
by Acharaporn Limpanapirak (Gift)
(I mentioned the other day that our friend Gift is visiting from Thailand. Gift is a businesswoman and the wife of a pastor in Bangkok. I asked her if she would like to write a guest post for LifeVesting readers, maybe about her experience with Jesus Christ and what Thai Christian culture is about. She graciously agreed – I think you’ll find below that the challenges Christians encounter there are similar to some we encounter here.)
I have been a Christian in name for more than half of my life, but for some time I never realized that I had never known my LORD, Christ Jesus.
It happened 13 years ago at my previous church in Bangkok where my husband, Pi Dui, served as a deputy pastor. A certain man came to talk with Pi Dui and asked an interesting question
“Arjan (Pastor) Dui, I would like to know Jesus. Could you please tell me how to do so?”
When I heard this, it was as if someone hit me on the head. This question had confused me for a while. This guy came from a rural part in Isaan, in the Northeast of Thailand. Few people there have any opportunities to go to school, and they are incapable of reading or writing (illiterate). But, WOW, he wanted to know Jesus, with a very simple faith like a child, as Jesus told in the Bible. Here I had been a “Christian” more than 20 years, and I had not ever a desire like this. I felt so ashamed. [click to continue…]
Jordan’s heart is still awake, even though his body surrendered to sleep an hour ago. He’s restless. Anticipating. Watching and listening for that heart connection he once knew. In the psalmist’s language, Jordan is thirsty like a deer panting for streams of water. He knows what he’s thirsty for, and He knows that God is faithful. And yet in this dry season, He feels so far away.
Caitlyn waits all the time, but the nighttime seems the rudest. She waits for a change in her mother’s prognosis, even though no change is coming. She waits for that dreaded decline in respiration, though it seems her Mama is too tough and too stubborn to die. The days keep her busy, but the nights at the bedside turn up the volume on Caitlyn’s grieving heart. She knows that ultimately what she’s waiting for is the Lord. And He feels so far away.
Brody is exhausted. It’s been the longest night of his professional life, but the rookie firefighter forges ahead through the rubble of what once was a safe place for kids; a cruel tornado had other ideas. Keeping his own two children, ages 4 and 2, close in his heart, Brody alternately prays he will find survivors and rages that a just, loving God lets innocent children die. His faith is as weary as his body and mind. He wants to believe God. But He feels so far away.
Cindy sorts through photos and memories of what sometimes looks like someone else’s life. She called it her “days of awakening,” and so they were. Though she had been a believer since she was 11 years old, amazing things began to happen in Cindy’s life when she was a student in college. Unusual, near-instant answers to prayer. Life-changing mission trips where once she even witnessed a miraculous healing. Extraordinary spiritual growth. Now ten years later, Cindy is hungry to see those days of awakening again. But it’s been a long time, and He feels so far away. [click to continue…]
Our Thai friend Gift is back. She visited us for the first time last year and has returned with her sister Goy. It’s always a delight to spend time with our Thai friends because of their contagious joy, their delight in serving, and in the case of Gift, her husband Dui, and Goy, their deep love for Jesus Christ.
It also always leads to some interesting conversations. Gift is many things – a deep thinker, a shrewd businesswoman and entrepreneur, a disciple in every sense of the word. She told me that this time while she was here, every once in a while she wanted some time to ask some questions.
Fine, I said. Feel free to ask anything.
Lo and behold, she nailed me with the first one. She was looking at one of the books I had out – a book on leadership – and she asked, “Why do Americans study and read so much about leadership?”
That sound you didn’t just hear were the crickets chirping in my head.
Somebody just asked the fish to explain water.
“Well,” I said to break the awkwardly long silence and try to get that deer-in-the-headlights look off my face, “that’s the first time anybody has ever asked me that.”
Wow. That was really helpful. [click to continue…]
(If you never read another thing I write, before going any further, please read this short piece my daughter wrote to her children, ages 5, 2, and ten months. Click here, if you dare, and brace for impact.)
Okay. Back? Let’s get to it.
You don’t have the luxury of praying for people you love – especially your children or grandchildren – like a sissy.
The time is too short…
The enemy is too cruel…
The church is too powerless…
The Lord is too near His return…
…for you and me to sit on an arsenal mightier than a nuclear weapon and ask God to make their lives more comfortable…
easier…
safer.
Safer to whom, for God’s sake? The devil? The world? The ACLU? The media?
Stop asking God to make your little angels little angels. Or mild-mannered weenies. In the name of all that is holy, I dare you to ask God to make them dangerous. Call on Him, in the heavenly realm, to put a sword in their teeth and courage in their hearts to blast a hole in the kingdom of darkness. [click to continue…]
Okay, let’s start an argument. What would you say are the two most important words in the Bible?
You’re wrong.
I know because my two words are (probably) different, and I know I’m right.
Yeah, yeah, I know, they’re all important. But the way I figure it, if the Lord took the time to repeat something over and over and over, He must be getting at something.
Now I have to admit, it took me about 40 years to realize this. Which is about how long it took Moses to figure some things out, too, but I digress. The reason I took so long is because I let my brain check out when it should have been sitting up and taking notice. [click to continue…]
Can’t believe it’s been a whole year, but I got to see Walter again yesterday. We took a little ride and shared a little fellowship. It was good to catch up.
Two years ago Walter was going through a severe depression. He had been through a series of deep losses, including his job and health benefits. That’s tough enough for anybody, but at Walter’s age new careers don’t just grow on trees. I really don’t know how old Walter is, but I’m 54 and he’s a good five-to-ten past that. I have to say, though, he makes it look good.
There is none of that suicidal darkness remaining that so gripped this man just a couple of years ago. And make no mistake about it – this was no bootstrap operation. Walter is joyfully explicit about Who gets the credit for raising him out of the pit. His life radiates with gratitude and joy, even when he’s all business.
Walter is especially excited because he and his wife are meeting their children and grandchildren in a few weeks. [click to continue…]
You may be wondering if anybody sees, anybody knows, anybody cares. I wanted you to know someone does. And I am praying for you.
Especially on this day, as you pour yourself out in love, I pray you experience a return – not just in the world of faith, but even in the realm of sight – that others would give back to you as you have so faithfully given to them.
As you laugh today, I pray that others laugh with you. As you sing, I pray that others sing along. As you labor, I pray that others work beside you. As you dance for joy, I pray that even there you delight in the company you keep. [click to continue…]
CNN had an interesting story yesterday. The headline: “When Christians Become a Hated Minority.” Like so many other current cultural debates, it assumes that Christ followers are camped out on one issue. Maybe that’s because that issue is the one place, seemingly, where the world has managed to join forces with the tide of popular opinion. Now anybody who speaks out against homosexual behavior or gay marriage is a hate-filled bigot.
The article fairly raises the question of whether Christian-haters are the new bigots. It points out that many believers avoid saying anything about, well, anything for fear of the backlash.
This raises a painful question for Christians: Why are we being trampled on? It sure seems that anywhere you turn anybody and everybody has the right to say whatever they want, do whatever pleases them, and demand to be accepted. But let somebody mention Jesus or the word “Christian” and the arrows fly from all sides.
Here’s the problem: We’re asking the wrong people. [click to continue…]
A good friend and I were talking the other day and he told me about an experience he had in Hong Kong. First I’ll tell you what he saw. Then I’ll tell you a story based on that. Then I’ll apply it in one of many, many ways you can apply the story.
