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Archive for the ‘Thought for the Day / Quotes’ Category

This weekend (January 1st, 2017) I heard many a person bid good riddance to the year that just passed (2016).  No doubt, it was one of the most contentious 12 month periods I’ve experienced in my fifty plus years.  But if we want 2017 to be markedly different, we’ll need to handle some things differently.  Here are some suggestions:

 

  • Spend more time and energy engaging the people in our community, and less time protesting the things we don’t like.
  • Recognize that hating on people that we consider to be “Haters” or “Hateful”, only promotes more hatred.
  • Look for things to be inspired by instead of focusing on things to be offended by.
  • Find new and better ways to express love and hope, and give less voice to fears and opinions.
  • Make a conscious effort to leave things better than we find them.

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Trying to convince someone of something they refuse to believe is akin to throwing rocks at a closed door.  All it does is damage the doorway.

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Despite all the negative things that can be said about the holiday season, there is still a wonderful opportunity for encouragement, healing, and renewal whenever families gather together.  Sadly, this potential generally goes untapped in favor of opening old wounds, indulging our appetites, and maxing out our credit cards.  It reminds me of something C.S. Lewis observed, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.”

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There is a significant difference between getting the win and attaining victory.  If the price of the win is our character, integrity and maybe even a bit of our humanity, I would suggest that we’ve missed “victory” all together.  At the end of our lives, our winning percentage, or the number of trophies on our shelf, will not be the ultimate measure of our success.  While we can rationalize that the ends somehow justify the means, the means we chose to gain those ends says everything about who we really are.

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I’ve noticed that it is on the mornings when I wake up with a little energy that I try to power through the day in my own strength, and that it is in those times when I feel like I have nothing in the tank that I reach out for God’s hand.  So this morning, as I consider the meagerness of what I’ve found in my basket, I bring it before the Lord and pray that He would multiply these few loaves and fishes into whatever this day requires.  Indeed, when I am weak, He is strong.

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When it becomes more important to express our opinion than to convey the heart of God, it says something about what truly matters to us.

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If the mission is to help people forge a connection to the person of Jesus Christ, there is perhaps nothing more damaging to that cause than to misrepresent His heart and character to them.

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Jesus did not publicly shame, threaten, or otherwise coerce people to come to repentance, which is why our efforts to do so “in Jesus name” only serve to drive them away from Him.  The good news of the gospel is not the judgement to come, it is that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, and that this amazing grace is still available today.

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We should not expect a “good day” to run through the obstacle course of our circumstance and find us.  Indeed, it is incumbent upon us to press through the crowd of impediments and apprehend it.  Every day comes with an armload of reasons to be sad, mad, hurt, disappointed, frustrated, or afraid.  And if we choose to make any one of those the centerpiece of our consciousness, there is no “good day” with the power to wrestle it from us. (Deuteronomy 30:15)

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The fruit of the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” (Genesis 2:17) is presumption.  Partaking of it allows us to believe that we can rightfully discern for ourselves what is right and wrong; what is just and unjust; and ultimately, what is in our best interests.  It’s pulp nourishes the notion that we are self-made and dependent on no one.

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