Month: October 2026

Days Of Our Lives

What major historical events do you remember? That’s the site prompt for today and it’s a very good one. This topic is endless. Where were you when the Challenger exploded? How did you feel when the wall fell? What were you doing on that September morning in 2001? Were you afraid? Were you hopeful when (insert name here) was elected? Kennedy, the Boston Red Sox, the moon landing (assuming it wasn’t filmed on a sound stage), Vietnam, the list could go on and on. Sometimes, these events change us and provide the knives with which we use to carve up our lives. Did we become different people on September 12th? Or the day after Hurricane Katrina?

The events of our lives aren’t what the hosting website means, aren’t “major historical events,” but maybe they’re even more important to us as a means of delineation. I changed when my dad died, my wedding day, when I had my first son, when our house was swallowed up by a flood. The transformation seems immediate and inevitable now. At the time, I only felt confused and rudderless. Who knew where I would eventually surface, and who would I surface as?

These prompts are sometimes silly and not worth our time, but others, like today, can lead us by the hand into the stories of our lives. We get so busy, so distracted, so overwhelmed, we can become so focused on today that we forget to stop for a second, breathe and look around. Staring at the individual puzzle pieces, we can forget the entire picture we’re creating.

I think we forget a lot. (A lot = often AND many things.) Our purpose, or the meaning of it all, can get forgotten in the day to day, and it is integral that we ask ourselves the question, “Where am I?” Who am I?” “What is happening here?”

These major historical events, as well as the major personal events, give us reason to pause. Maybe we regressed in moments, maybe we lost ourselves, maybe we fell and couldn’t get up. Or maybe we grew, discovered something about what mattered, maybe we did get up. Probably, these events have some component of everything. We are lost, afraid, hopeful and inspired. We are broken and healed. These lives are complex, complicated, they aren’t ever easy to stuff in just one box.

Where is all this coming from, and why am I writing about this today (I hardly ever use the prompts)? In the circles of my life, the rings of people that surround me, right now there is quite a bit of pain, suffering, uncertainty, fear, loss, frustration, and confusion. These are words that can feel like cages, words that shrink our perspectives, words that close us off to ourselves and others.

But if we remember these major events in our pasts, we find that these words, if they can be integrated and transcended, have provided the soil for the most important transformations. And if it happened then, it might just happen again now.

At night, I lay next to the Angel and reach my foot out to find hers under the covers. Usually my feet are cold and rough and she is cozy warm and smooth, and she feels nice on my skin. But I think the much more important thing I find is that she is there, that I am not alone. These events cause us to stick ourselves out, and finding another’s foot, hand, heart, presence, finding we’re not alone, we have not been abandoned, is the most wonderful reality – and that reality can give the comfort we need as the storm is happening.

IF/THEN

In last week’s message, we discussed the Hebrew word charam. It’s super complicated, it can be absolute destruction, and it can also be dedication. It is death OR life, horror or beauty. I chose not to use it the way it is used throughout most of the Old Testament, when it refers to the Israelites commanded response to victory in war, and instead wanted to focus on the idea of taking our anything and consecrating (dedicating something to a higher calling or purpose, making something holy) it.

That “anything” I suggested consecrating was ourselves. That we might take our lives (and all that implies) and give them to the God that gave them to us in the first place.

The Story of our salvation (from creation to the fall to salvation), when fully & properly understood, carries with it a kind of reflexive response. Like the way our legs kick when hit with a doctor’s hammer. We are rescued, given new life, and we have no choice but to charam those new lives. We are buried under and avalanche of God’s love, so we have no choice but to love, Him and everyone/everything else. We are wrapped in His arms, see & feel His heart for His creation, we simply cannot remain unmoved, cannot stay stuck in our own blissful apathy.

[This presents an interesting question regarding enemies. If we truly see ourselves and each other as God sees us all, then there would be no such thing as an “enemy.” We are all brothers and sisters, under His grace. Also, now that I’m thinking about it in this way, if we truly saw each other as brothers & sisters, with lives given by the same Father, would we ever take a life? I don’t imagine we could ever, ever watch it on tv, either. But maybe those questions are for another day.]

And consequently, if we continue to be impatient and unkind (the first 2 concrete characteristics of love in 1st Corinthians 13), there are only a few reasons. 1. We don’t know The Gospel of Jesus Christ. 2. We don’t understand The Gospel of Jesus Christ. 3. We don’t care about The Gospel of Jesus Christ. I’ll allow a 4th. We have forgotten (even for a moment) The Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I guess, more and more, I’m seeing our growth and (fancy Christian word coming…) sanctification as a process of opening our eyes to the God that is there and has already done all of the work. Our only work is to just relax our legs and allow our natural reflexes to operate as they have been designed. Maybe that’s it. No climbing. No self-improvement plans. Just waking up to the Truth. And opening our eyes might just look like nothing more than knowing Him and His Gospel.

The path just keeps going. Say yes will lead us to allow us to experience His love, which will lead us to open our eyes, which will lead us to know Him. And to know Him will lead us to knowing ourselves, and knowing ourselves will bring us into a new reality of gratitude and love.

In a conversation with my sister this morning, I wondered to myself is gratitude is nothing more that fully present mindfulness. IF we are where we are, fully aware to who/where we are and The Story we are born into, then we couldn’t be anything else but thankful.

Love is just simply logic. If love goes in, if love is the only thing that goes in, then love will go out.

I know this all sounds elementary, but that’s probably because it is. We just make it so hard and complicated. What I’m asking us to do is to soak in the Truth of Who He is and what The Gospel truly is. If we can do that, then everything is possible.

Landscapes of Thanks

I’m thinking a lot about gratitude lately. And the so-called law of attraction. And Paul writing, in Philippians 4:11, “Not that I speak in respect to want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”

[Before we go any further, I just used the 21st Century King James translation. I think that means that the King James translators got together and thought their work needed an update for modern readers. Then, they came up with this, decided to use the word “therewith” anyway. Sometimes, translations help us understand what we’re reading and other times, they don’t. I tried to read Dante’s Divine Comedy several times, unsuccessfully, until I found a translation that worked as a key that gave me access to the Italian in which it was written. The NIV translates Phil. 4:11 as “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” Therewith that probably makes much more sense. Translations matter. If anyone tells you the one you use is wrong and the one they use is right, unless they are reading the original Hebrew or Greek, they are simply condescending to you, trying to use a mask of arrogance to hide their insecurities behind. But if you like the KJ21, enjoy!]

I’ll set a picture on this post to show you where I am, today, but that is not the only reason that I am grateful. I think that’s what Paul “learned,” and it is what I’m learning. If we can —— landscapes of thanks in our souls, then we start to see everything through those lenses… [that “——” is because I was looking for the right word. I first thought ‘cultivate,’ like gardens, where we till the soil, plant seeds, fertilize (feed) it with the right kind of good nutrients, then watch as the plant/flower/fruit/vegetable grows. We do the things to create an environment that will produce the kind of result we want. We don’t plant roses and expect tomatoes. We don’t plant resentment and bitterness and expect patience and kindness. But I could also use ‘forge,’ because we take a metal in raw form and put it under extreme heat, then hammer it into the shape or form we want. That certainly feels like it describes the process of human growth, doesn’t it. We are placed under stress, then beaten into new, sometimes shocking & unrecognizable creations. Both are purposeful, they don’t just happen. My yard has no apple trees or grapevines, because I haven’t planted them. The wrought iron railing at the school doesn’t look like an art installation.] …and what we end up seeing is grace. We see gifts everywhere we look. We notice beauty in all things. The little we might have suddenly become enough. Therewith we are content in everything.

The thanksgiving comes first, usually. We change the input for a more desirable output.

That’s where the law of attraction becomes useful. I don’t think it’s a law and the new-agey application can be selfish nonsense (ex: “I want a kajillion dollars or to play in the NBA.”) Just because we want something doesn’t make it true, but that doesn’t discount the entire theory. If I look for white Chevy Equinoxes (Equini?) on the road, I find them. If I look for people who are awesome and trustworthy and smart and funny, do you know what I find? Yep, awesome, trustworthy, smart, funny, people. If we look for beauty and grace, if we look for God’s love, we will always find it.

I used to think gratitude journals were pretty silly, but like most things, that said more about me than it did gratitude journals. And in actuality, the act of journaling, of writing in a book, might be the least important part of the process. If I know I have to write 3 things in my spiral diary of thanks, I am constantly aware of my life. Where are they? What am I thankful for? I walk around and interact with my life in a mindset of discovery. I am curious and open. And we never have trouble finding only 3.

It’s easy to be thankful and content with the Angel at the beach under a brilliant sun. As it turns out, it’s also not so hard to be thankful and content at home, on a rainy day, alone, when the Dallas Cowboys lose. It just takes more practice and an intentional focus. We can’t always change our circumstances, so that usually means the answer is that we are changed in those circumstances into grateful, content little fiery balls of love.