It was before dawn and very brisk….I had a decision to make: Do I sit lazily and wait for the defrost to melt the ice away, or try to improvise and use a credit card or other make-shift object?  I chose lazy, and waited…..but only until there was a round 8” clearing in the frost at the very bottom of the windshield.

Driving Blind!

So here I am driving down the road, hunched over, peering through this tiny hole!....couldn’t see much to say the least (don’t say anything, you know you’ve done it too.)  Luckily, by the time I reached the highway, the windshield was mostly clear and I could see enough to drive safely.

After traveling a few miles down the road, the heat had really kicked in and every spec of frost was melted away.  Plus, it was getting nice and toasty inside the truck.  Life was good……until I broke over a hill and found myself driving directly toward the newly risen sun.

The glare was unbearable, not so much because of the brightness of the sun, but because the inside of the windshield was covered in a dirty/smoky film that distorted the sunlight, causing it to scatter, and basically rendering me unable to see.  I immediately had to pull off the road and clean the film off the inside of the windshield.  I pulled back onto the road.  Finally, I could see clearly and drive toward the sun!

"Problems" Inside and Out

Our lives aren’t all that different from windshields.  There are forces from without and within that obscure our vision, and keep us from finding our way toward God.  It takes great effort on our part to keep our windshields clean.

The stuff on the outside; frost, mud, or whatever, is our life situation.  These are the components of our lives that are observable to the outside world.  They exist in the space that surrounds us.  These outside forces such as problems at work, relationships, money, etc, inhibit our ability to see our path….if we allow them.  The key is to either change or accept these parts of our life situation that we consider “problems”.  Either alternative increases vision, one acts as defrost and melts the problem away, and the other acts as Rain-X and allows the problem to just roll off of us, but both are proactive measures.  Acceptance is not the same as doing nothing about our problems, which like choosing to drive down the road blindly with perfectly good windshield wipers.....we have to do something!

The stuff on the inside of our windshields is what Christ spoke of when he taught about keeping the inside of our cups clean.  What’s funny is that the film that had developed over time didn’t become evident until the light from the sun glared on it. God reveals to us what we need to change in our lives by shining the light of His spirit on it.  Over time, we begin to see how this “film” obscures our vision of the pathway toward the Son.  Sometimes we even have to “pull off the road” and allow Him to make us clean once again.

How else do windshields apply to life?.....didn't even get into cracks or bugs.

Where art thou wise Yoda, in our time of Need?

Is it possible to pour your heart and soul into something without building an identity around it?

Is it possible to fully embrace the economic reality of our society without being “of the world”?

Three questions that have been on my mind lately, and I know the answer to each…is Yes.

Reconciling the Spiritual with the Physical

We are simultaneously faced with two opposing realities:  we are both eternal beings AND temporary forms.  Furthermore, it seems as though we are forced to focus our attention on either that which we need to sustain life but won’t last (the physical), or what we need to be happy, but won’t sustain life (the eternal).

Therefore, you find many people who fully embrace one end of the spectrum and neglect the other: on one side, a Buddhist monk who has relinquished all connection to the physical world; a pragmatic entrepreneur who disregards all things metaphysical on the other.  Both are fully embracing life, but in my opinion both are incomplete.  It's in finding the balance between the spiritual and physical, in splitting the Gordian knot down the center, that we find happiness in this life and success in both realms.  But what could possibly motivate an individual to strive for something with all their being while simultaneously remaining in a state of inner peace regardless of the results?

Finding Meaning and Motivation in Life’s Higher Purpose

The essence of accomplishing this is finding a higher purpose for our existence, in something far greater than our self.  This higher purpose, life mission, God’s plan for us, or whatever we wish to call it, instills within us a burning desire and passion for life, but also disconnects us from the results of our efforts.  We have transcended the realm of the physical where results are manifested and we have now entered the eternal where we are no longer defined by the fruit of our labor, but by the mission itself.

What’s interesting is that this mission always centers on serving others and serving God, in which there is no difference.  In Matthew 25:40, a mantra for my life, Jesus plainly states, “Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these my bretheren you have done it unto me.”

Melding Mission and Money

This all sounds all fine and good, but we all know we can’t make a living helping the homeless or working at a food bank. So how do we incorporate our mission into our careers?  In my opinion, your career, where you live, or any other aspect of your life situation is completely irrelevant to fulfilling your life’s mission.  All that matters is that you give everything you have to fulfilling the measure of your creation, God will take care of the rest….He really will!

This is the essence of Christ’s teaching in Matthew 6:

“….Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth……But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven….For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also……Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on…….But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

So we can see that it’s through living these spiritual principles that we can find happiness in this life as well as the next.  If we are passionate about embracing our eternal nature, God throws the physical in.  If we make the temporal things of the world primary in our lives, we lose them both.

We look to Christ for the perfect example of life on earth.  Not only did He transcend His physical nature, but He did it for us as well.

There are many examples of those who have achieved a high level of self mastery, but He is more than an example. We look to Him for our salvation.  As the One who made it possible for us to be one with the Father and to transcend this world….giving us the ability to fuse the dichotomy between our spiritual and physical natures. To be able to strive without connection to results; to have ambition without an identity crisis; to live this life with hope and the knowledge that Love transcends all of the temporary circumstances we may find ourselves blessed to experience.

So imagine yourself living this principle…in full surrender of yourself and fully engaged in doing the will of the Father; giving your heart to fulfilling your life’s mission.

What can add or detract from your happiness?....nothing in this world.

Thanks for being here today.

Thoughts, comments, questions?

But let's just say that as difficult as what's in the video below is to accomplish, it didn't make the top three:

And as wicked cool as the dude in the video below is, his skills don't even register on the difficulty scale of the human feats we're talking about:

This looks a little tougher, but still not one of the three most difficult tasks for a person to master.

Ok, enough teasing!   As difficult to master as the above human achievements are, their difficulty pales in comparison with the following 3 Human Accomplishments:

1.  To Give Love in Response to Hate

2.  Standing up for those who are not present.

3.  Admitting when you have made a mistake or when you need to change.

Think of how you apply (or don't apply) these core behaviors in your life:

• Do you respond with kindness when someone won't let you merge lanes in traffic?

• Do you defend a friend or loved one when someone dogs them in their absence?

• Do you live in a state of constant self-assessment; willing to make any adjustments to bring your intentions in alignment with God's?

If you can answer "Yes" to any of those questions then congratulations, you've done something more difficult than breaking the world bench press record, beat-boxing on a national level, and balancing the weight of your entire body on the tip of your index finger!

The most amazing aspect of this is that the power to accomplish any of these three tasks lies within every single person on this planet. You do not have to have superior genetics to respond with love, you do not have to have super human strength to stand up for your friends, and you do not have to be an enlightened spiritual guru to make the necessary changes in your life.

The ability to master any of these three tasks is as simple as making a decision; a decision to do it.  God has endowed each of us with a free will; the ability to chose for ourselves what we are to do in this life.  It is in the mastering of this will, in the mastering of ourselves, that we can give all we really have to offer God.  I'm sure He appreciates good beat-boxing like anyone else, but something tells me He'd rather we focus on smiling at the guy who just cut us off in traffic.

What say ye?  Comments welcome as always:)

What forces stress the connection between you and God?

Have you ever been stuck using a computer with dial-up internet after being spoiled by a lightning fast high-speed connection?

Talk about a trial of patience!

What’s really frustrating is that sometimes my connection with God seems to be stuck on ‘dial-up’....and frankly, sometimes my spiritual internet seems to be down all together.

What can we do on these ‘dial-up’ days?  The following are 3 steps to help establish a 'high-speed' connection with God.

3 Steps to making a Better Connection with God:

Step 1:  Close the ‘Programs’ of the Mind

Think of our mind as a computer.  What happens to a computer when too many programs run at once?  We’ve all had it happen…..it crashes right?  The same is true with the programs of our mind.  They serve a purpose, but when these programs, or thoughts, are running they inhibit our ability to connect with God.

It’s time to click the red “X” at the top-right of the screen and close those suckers out!

• that song stuck in the back of your head……gone!

• the things on today’s ‘to-do’ list…..see ya!

• what happened on the TV show last night…..bye-bye!

But How do we Quiet the Mind?

Be the school master:

Did you ever have an experience in school where you were fully engaged in conversation with a buddy during a lesson and you look up to find the teacher and the rest of the class staring at you?  What did you do?  Probably exactly what I did…..you shut up!  Be the teacher of your mind. But don’t scold the students (your thoughts) when they are out of line.  In fact, don’t even judge them….simply observe.  That teacher staring at me directly in the face had more of an impact than anything else she could have said or done.  This first step is essential because a conscious connection with God can only occur through the spirit, not the mind which we’ve grown to rely on so heavily.

Step Two:  Click the Spiritual “Connect” Button

Now that we’ve closed the ‘programs’ of the mind, it’s time to make the connection.

I love the account of Elijah the prophet in 1 Kings 19: 11-12 as he withdraws into the wilderness to commune with God:

“….And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:  And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. “

Notice that it was only after the noise was quieted that Elijah made the connection with God.

Think of the brilliant words used to describe the communication of God to Elijah:  “still small voice”

His connection with God came through stillness.  Our spiritual “Connect” button is this stillness, which is the space between the wind, earthquakes, and fires of our lives.  To make conscious connection with God we must discover this tranquil place despite the distractions of life…and go into it.  It is in this stillness that we commune with God and how we “Connect” with Him.

What is truly fascinating about this connection is that we do not have to go to a mountain retreat like Elijah to make this connection.  I wrote about an experience I had in a recent blog post that occurred during what would have otherwise been a stressful situation.  A connection with God can literally occur any time or anywhere.

Step Three: Focus on the Connection

One of the biggest mistakes I make when connecting with God is to focus on the ‘data’ that I’m ‘uploading’ to God rather than on the connection.

The spiritual upload I’m talking about here is what I’m saying to God….the actual language I use during a prayer.  The problem is that I sometimes spit out words with absolutely no meaning.  Have you ever heard someone accidently bless the food in a night-time prayer….my kids do it all the time, and I’ve caught myself about to do it as well.  To focus on the words of a prayer, or better stated, to feel that the words ARE the substance of the prayer is all wrong!  The substance of the prayer or meditation is the connection with God, not the language we may use.  If we are truly in unison with Him, our deepest and most heart-felt feelings will emerge as a natural result of the connection.

As we move forward with our lives, let’s focus on quieting our mind and listening to the still small voice.  I have found that my life is so much easier when I have a conscious connection with our loving Heavenly Father.  My toughest days are definitely the ones where I'm on spiritual dial-up.

Comments welcome as always!

The Dreaded Phone Call

Apparently while removing the concrete, one stroke of the sledge hammer had missed its mark and struck the pool just above the water line.  The pool was damaged, and in a ‘perfect spot’ that was highly visible.  The blemish was solely cosmetic and it would not affect the pool structurally, but this was not a pleasant phone call for either party nonetheless!

The solution was to install waterline tile on the pool that would cover the defect and give the customer a free upgrade.  A win-win right?  Well, I had my doubts.  Especially considering that I now had to tell a customer, who I promised less than 48 hours ago that we would be “incident free” that we have just smacked the side of his pool with a sledge hammer.

Unfortunately, I knew that if I broke news to him on the phone he would probably not allow us back on the job.  So I resolved to tell him in person….and I knew I had to tell him quickly.  But catching up with this guy within the next 24 hours would be tough.  Especially considering that I didn’t find out about the problem until late that day, I lived an hour and a half away, and he would be leaving for work the next morning at 5:30 am.  Call me crazy, but after some fervent prayer I resolved to spend the night at the office and to make sure I was sitting in his driveway waiting for him when he left for work the next morning.

A Long Night

Needless to say I didn’t sleep well that night.  When the alarm sounded I showered, dressed, and shot out of the door.  The trip to his house was about 30 minutes from the office.  As I was riding down the road I contemplated how this plan had made so much sense the day before.  But for some odd reason the notion of making a surprise visit to an unhappy customer’s house at 5:30 in the morning didn’t sound like such a great idea; especially when the purpose of the visit was to deliver bad news.

When I was about 10 minutes away from his house I finally determined that what I was doing was absolutely insane….I seriously considered turning around.  I could just call the gentleman later in the day.  At least then I knew I wouldn’t get shot!....kidding.

But when the internal debate was at its peak, I remembered something.  It was through prayer that I had determined what course of action to take.  That this wasn’t my plan at all; I was simply doing what I was directed to do.

Just then a warm feeling fell over my body as I was sitting in the seat of my truck; it was that feeling of peace that could only come from beyond this world.  Just then I looked up as I was passing an old country church.  It had a message board that read “Don’t worry, Moses thought he was crazy too!”.  I think this was the first time in my life I had ever laughed and cried hysterically at the same time.  I felt as close to God at that moment as any other in my life.

Tiny Miracles lead to Huge Testimonies

In the end the job turned out fine.  We corrected the problem and the customer is now another happy name on our reference list.  But here’s the thing: This isn’t about the relationship between a business and its customer.  It’s about the relationship between man and His God.  If we are willing to make Him first in our lives, everything else will fall into place.  And when we see these ‘things fall into place’ first hand, there’s another term used to describe it:  a miracle.  And they happen all the time if we are willing to take advantage of the opportunities God gives us to exercise our faith.

I don’t want to know how many opportunities I’ve missed, but I do know that when Gods involved, even something as inconsequential as passing an old dilapidated church sign can turn into an experience that will change your life forever.  This feeling of direct connection with God, this feeling of peace from beyond this world is available to us all.  He wants us to have this type of relationship with Him.  “Seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.”  That is a promise He has made to each and every one of us.  He is standing at the door knocking, all we to do is open the door.

How have you seen God at work in your life?

Is seeing believing?

Let me shoot straight right off the bat here:  I’m a Christian.  So obviously when I say “problems with Christianity”, these are things that the world sees as issues with the Christian religion.  I consider them more like difficulties, because Christianity is a difficult religion to live, but I also believe it happens to be true.

Occasionally I talk with people about religion, spirituality, etc. and I’ve found that many of them have the same hang-ups regarding their notions of religious truth.  So I figured I’d do a series discussing many of these issues in hopes that it will bring a new perspective to what many people consider to be an antiquated religion.  Bear in mind that I’m no theologian; I’m just a guy who has an opinion and wants to help others discover the happiness that I’ve found in a relationship with God.

Parting the Waters

I was working on a construction site with a rather ruckus dude a few years ago and we somehow found ourselves on the fiery topic of religion.  He was making the case that there was no way he could believe in something he couldn’t see.  The job was on a piece of water front property and he looked out over the water and passionately said “buddy, if you can part that creek I’ll join your church right now!”  I thought that was hilarious and we both actually laughed about it, but I think he and I both realized that if I really did part those waters it would not lead to any change in his life at that time.  I mean come on, Moses already did his thing and it ultimately made no difference in the lives of The Children of Israel.  They all eventually turned away from God anyway.

What does this mean?

It means that seeing God has nothing to do with our eyes but everything to do with our heart.  It’s a matter of the will, not of the mind.  The world is full of stuff we can’t see but we know is real…..radio waves, cellular signals, the wind, etc.  You don’t have to be a metaphysician to accept those things as “real” even though you can't see them.  Why is God any different?

But you’re probably thinking ‘Yes, but we can prove that these things exist.  I can tune into the radio, I can make a call on my cell phone, I can feel the wind on my skin!’.

This is true, you can prove the existence of these things to another person through empirical evidence.  But aren't there things that we accept as real but can't be proven?  Like love, for example.  We all know love is real, but imagine trying to prove it's existence to someone who didn't believe in it.  You can't!  One has to experience love first hand in order to know it exists because it's reality cannot be demonstrated.  It simply exists.

So in the words of the great Huey Lewis, "Do you believe in Love?"

I would submit that it takes no more faith to believe in God than it does to believe in Love.  The problem is that although everyone experiences love, not everyone experiences God.

How can I have this experience?

Let's stick with the love metaphor.  They say that love is a verb and I agree.  This flies in the face of Hollywood's notion the feeling of love being the foundation of all relationships.  If you don’t feel as though you’re particularly ‘in love’ with your spouse at any given time, go out of your way to serve them.  This demonstration of real love is sure to produce the desired feeling of being 'in love'.  "Love the feeling is the fruit of love the verb”, as Stephen Covey puts it.

I think the same is true with God.  I think this is the underlying principle behind Christian statements such as “seek and you will find” and “faith precedes the miracle”.  In other words, faith is a verb.  It requires action on our part, the strong conviction of the reality of God is only the fruit of our efforts to come to know Him.  In my opinion, it's not all that different than any other relationship.

Why does God wait for me to take the first step?

I don’t know.  Maybe it has to do with a need for us exercise our free will.  Maybe he’s not waiting at all; maybe He’s been there our entire lives there with open arms and we simply haven’t taken the steps to discover it.  All I know is that I’ve found this principle to be true in my life…..with my spouse and with God.  If you seek, you will find.  This is why faith is considered one of the greatest virtues.  It requires a step into the darkness without a clue of what you’ll find….but it’s only a step, and the first one is the hardest.  The journey becomes more and more illuminated the further you go.

I can tell you that God is real, He knows each of us personally, and loves us unconditionally; all things in my life flow from this truth.  I’m convinced that if you seek, you will find.  I’m also convinced that if God did make a grand showing to all mankind, it would make no real difference in people’s happiness or level of consciousness.  Knowing He exists is one thing, knowing Him is another.

What say you?

Endless possibilities!

In case you don’t know, the Hughes’ are “that family” in church. You know, the ones you try to avoid sitting near because it guarantees you’ll miss 90% of the message that day.  We have literally came into church, sat down, and had the people sitting in front of us get up and move to the other side of the chapel….no joke.

In our defense we do have four kids and one on the way, plus my mother-in-law brings three other grandchildren.  So we are outnumbered by little kids 7 to 3.  At that point you have to switch from man-to-man to zone, and you’re pretty much give up on complete silence and go into damage control mode during the entire service to try to prevent a total melt-down.  I personally love it and wouldn’t have it any other way, but in an attempt to improve our behavior at church we try to practice being reverent in our weekly Family Home Evenings.

One particular evening, Chrissy and I were trying especially hard to teach this principle, so we patiently spoke with the children at length about the importance of sitting still and being quiet.  We had chairs lined up for them in the living room and asked them to practice perfect behavior during our short lesson. 

Needless to say, it didn’t go well.  Right off the bat there was restlessness, laughing, and even kids falling out of chairs.   We tried to keep our cool, but we finally reached our breaking point after seeing that all of our efforts were having no effect.  One of us, I won’t say who, lost it and had everyone march into the kitchen where a liberal dose of dish liquid was promptly administered to the mouths of three children.

After weeping, wailing, and gnashing of some very clean teeth we all went back into the living room to resume the lesson.  I was in the center of the room and the kids were once again lined up in their chairs.  For emphasis, I was sure to re-iterate the importance of being reverent in a short stern lecture. Now they knew we meant business….they were sure to straighten up.  After concluding the lecture I asked if they were ready to start behaving.  I looked over at them to find that all three had blown spit bubbles about the size of their heads with their soapy saliva.

What can you do at that point?  There are only two options: you either explode with anger, or with laughter.  We all busted out in hysterical laughter and ended up having a great lesson.  Sometimes we need to remember that there’s more to the living the gospel than the way we look and act in church.

How about you?  Does this remind you of anything you've had happen in your home?

Until next time, God Bless!

I got all rolled up into myself!

The other night I was trying to make sushi rolls for dinner.  I emphasize the word “trying”.

If you’ve never done this before, imagine trying to roll your dinner up in a sticky piece of wet tape.  Even though I have successfully pulled this off on several previous occasions, it wasn’t going well this go around.  The stupid things were falling apart and it turns out I had more rice stuck to my arms than in the sushi!  And to make matters worse I had spectators.  Two of my sons wanted to watch ‘the master’ whip up some sushi (I whipped it all right).

I was under a lot of pressure and found myself becoming more frustrated by the minute.  And would you believe that right in the middle of all this my six year old had the nerve to ask me questions?  The audacity!  And he wouldn’t quit….question after question after question.  Plus he was fidgeting!

I just couldn’t work under those conditions.  I told him that if he couldn’t sit still and be quiet he would have to leave the room.  And guess what?  5 seconds later he was back at it!

That was it; I told him he had to leave.  And that’s what he did.  He quietly got up and walked out.  After standing there in silence, I came to the realization that at that moment I was not only failing at sushi, but also as a father.

What was going through his little mind?

“Dad loves that sushi more than he loves me.”  That’s what he was thinking.  Dang that stings!

I know this is not exactly a case of child abuse, but it demonstrates an important point:

Our children see anything that draws our attention away from them as competition for our love.

Through the lens of a six year old, this sushi incident was pretty black and white.  “I want to spend time with dad, but he doesn’t want me around because I’m less important to him than what he’s doing.”

Of course that’s not true, but perhaps it’s not entirely false.  Nothing in this world could ever be more important to me than my children.  But let’s take a closer look at what really happened.  If I’m being perfectly honest with myself, I would have to admit that in the heat of the moment, I placed more value on getting dinner completed than on my son’s feelings.  I justified my behavior by thinking that what I was doing was really important, that he’ll get over it soon enough and probably forget it even happened.

That’s what we do right?  We rationalize; we try to convince ourselves that there’s a good reason to do a bad thing.

But there is only way to describe my behavior:  selfish!  It’s so easy to get caught up in what we’re doing and put ourselves first.

So who are your children’s competitors?

Maybe you’ve never had a similar incident with raw fish, but there’s a good chance you can relate to my story.  What competes with your child for your attention?...a hobby?....career?....television?  We all have a plethora of things in our lives pandering for our attention, and many of them are legitimate.  But that’s not the point.  We need to demonstrate to our kids through our actions that our love is unconditional.  They only know what we show.  We do this by making the most of the opportunities we have with them, and quite simply putting their feelings before our own selfish wants and desires.

If I had a second chance, I would forget about trying to form a perfect sushi roll and focus more on involving him in the process and just have fun with it!   Wouldn’t that send a different message to an impressionable child?

The great news is that we do have second chances….and third, and fourth, and fifth chances.  It’s never too late to change.  It’s never too late to improve a relationship.  Kids are very forgiving, that’s probably why we take their feelings for granted so often.  But there comes a point in a relationship where too many withdrawals from the emotional bank account result in bitterness and a loss of trust.  Let’s not let that happen with our children.  We love them too much.  Let’s make sure we show it.

I'd be interested to hear your take on this.  Maybe your a sushi freak and see nothing wrong with it.  Please comment below.

What can we learn from a childs prayer?

I think there’s a lot of applicable truth to Christ’s teaching to become as little children. As adults we tend to seriously over complicate things.  Look at prayer for example.  Kids get it right.  They know who they are talking to, they say what they feel, and that’s it. What a great example!  The problem is that as adults we refuse to believe anything can be that simple. We allow our mind to create doubts and concerns that inhibit our ability to communicate with God.  As a result our prayers lose their vigor, or even worse, we stop praying all together.

Here are three common questions we tend to have about prayer:

• How can God hear my prayers when there are millions of other people praying at the same time?
• Is God just a vague intelligence that keeps the universe in check, or is He really a personal God that hears my prayers?
• How can I continue to pray for help or forgiveness when I constantly make mistakes?

See what I mean?  When’s the last time your 4 year old dropped one of these questions on you? Seriously though, these are legitimate concerns.  Let’s see what we can do to address them.

1.  How is it possible for God to hear all of our prayers at the same time?

The problem is in the word “time”.  When we picture God listening to our prayers, we see Him the same way we would see ourselves trying to listen to 40 screaming children asking for something in unison.  The natural response would be to silence all of them, then address each child one at a time.  Dang, there’s that word again!

Here’s the thing:  God isn’t bound by time, He is eternal.  We, on the other hand, live in time.  One moment passes and is gone forever; and it’s now the past.  Not so with God.  All time is the present for Him.  We see our existence as it passes moment by moment on a timeline; God on the other hand sees the entire page the time line is written on.

I’ll paraphrase C. S. Lewis’s wonderful illustration of this principle: Imagine you’re writing a fictional book about your main character Mary.  She is sitting alone at her kitchen table, when there is a knock at the door.  In Mary’s world there is no delay between the knock and her response to go and answer.  But as the author, after the knock you can stop and think about Mary for three days if you like, because you are outside of her time sequence.  Mary would never know the difference.

The same is true with God except He is not bound by limited metal or emotional capacities.  He does focus specifically on each of us without being rushed along moment by moment.  He can spend a thousand years listening to a split second thought from our heart.  This is the miracle, isn’t it?  Despite how small we are and how great He is, we do have His undivided attention!

2.  Is the God of the Universe really a personal God?

There’s a lot of talk in today’s spiritual teachings of the universe, karma, and levels of consciousness...and frankly I’m in agreement with most of it.  But if I’m being honest with myself, I must admit it annoys me that many of these teachings don’t give credit where credit is due. What I mean is that you frequently hear of a great intelligence that keeps the Universe in balance, but seldom hear that the great intelligence is in fact a Personal God. This has its spiritual implications.  Why would I want to pray to a vague notion of intelligence? What would it care about my Math test, my problems at work, or my inner-most struggles?  Maybe I should forget about praying and just meditate so I can bring my energy in line with it.  Sorry….not trying to mock, but I’m making the point that if we don’t see the Almighty as a personal God it will affect our relationship with Him.

We have to know that He does care about the Math test.  He does care about our struggles and wants us to come to Him with our inner-most concerns. We should speak to Him as personally as we speak to our spouse or our best friend.  We should also listen for His counsel.  He is not just a mass of great collective intellect floating somewhere in space.  He is, in the truest since of the words, our Heavenly Father.

3.  How can I continue to pray for help and forgiveness when I constantly screw up?

One of the biggest tools the adversary uses on me is when I become convinced that God is annoyed by my prayers.

Like God’s up there thinking:

• “Oh gosh, here goes Jason again.”
• “Yeah, you’re sorry all right….you’ve used up your last sorry bud.”
• “Help?...yeah right!  What have you done with the help I’ve given you?”

When I’m having these thoughts I’m reluctant to pray with real intent, or sometimes to pray at all.  I believe we all have a tendency to place our own limitations on God’s ability to bless us. We feel unworthy of His forgiveness and undeserving of His help.  This is probably because we are indeed unworthy.  But we also believe that He responds to our mistakes the same way we would.  That’s the lie! It’s hard to comprehend unconditional love so we tend to believe it’s not possible, even by God.

I feel spiritually bankrupt!

We tend to think of our relationship with God like a checking account with a finite balance. Every time we make a mistake and ask for forgiveness, a withdrawal is made and the balance of the account diminishes.  Until one day our spiritual account with Him is overdrawn.

This principle has proven true with my personal finances, but is certainly not the case with God.  To be spiritually overdrawn with God would require Him to have a finite amount of love.  Not so, God’s love is infinite and unconditional.  This means there’s one account we have that can never be overdrawn baby….yeah!  Granted, we may be in trouble if we cancel the account but that’s another story.  The most profound thing to me is it seems that God sees a genuine plea for forgiveness as more of a deposit than a withdrawal.  He wants us to partake of His Love.

Satan would have us believe that we are unworthy of the Atonement of Christ.  This is one of the greatest lies he perpetuates.  Don’t buy into it!

Let’s pay attention the next time we hear a child pray. Let’s remember their innocent faith when our minds become clouded with notions of a distracted, impersonal, or unforgiving God.

So what has kept you from praying in the past?

Have you ever struggled with one of these problems?

Thanks for visiting and until next time, God Bless!

Yep, we've got it all figured out!

Have you ever had a phenomenal coach?  You know, the type that you never forget; that inspired you to do more than you thought possible and taught lessons you remember to this day?  What made them great?  I’ve been blessed to have many wonderful coaches and they all had the same things in common:  they cared, they were great teachers, and they set high expectations.  So if life is a big game, who’s your head coach?    

Who better to coach us through life than Jesus Christ?

The best coaches are the most dedicated.  They spend hours upon hours in preparation for the team; pouring over books and film, attending coaches clinics, etc.  They want the best for the team as well as each individual player.  They care, and they are willing to sacrifice their time and energy for the benefit of the team.  Christ cares so much for us He sacrificed His life!  Not for His own glory, not for ‘coach of the year’, but for the glory of His Father in Heaven and for our benefit.  Rest assured…..He cares about you.

When I reflect on the things I learned in athletics, for the life of me I can’t recall being taught any actual sports skills.  No drills, technique, or any of that.  I learned those things, I just can’t remember them being taught to me.  All I can seem to remember being taught are life lessons…..hard work, dedication, sacrifice, brotherhood.  It seems that the greatest coaches are life coaches.  They are teachers of principles that transcend any single sports season or phase of life.  I’m here to tell you that there is no better teacher of life lessons than Jesus Christ.  His teachings are as applicable today as they were 2,000 years ago, and I would submit that we need them more today than ever.  I liked a line in the new movie ‘Avatar’, “You can’t fill a cup that’s already full.”  Let’s allow ourselves to be taught by Him.

In high school football I remember running “the hills”.  Man I thought I would die!  Back in the woods behind the school was a huge hill.  Several times a week the coach would take us back there and we would all line up single file at the bottom.  Upon the coaches word “go” our objective was to catch up with and pass the runner ahead of us.  We would run our hardest all the way to the top, trot back down, and repeat (there was wailing and gnashing of teeth!).  What stands out to me after all this time isn’t the pain, but it was how hard we were pushed.  No one resented the coach; we knew it was for our own benefit.  In retrospect, I appreciate the demand placed upon me.  It made me a better football player and a better person.  The same holds true in life.  I have a major problem with the popular notion that Jesus does not demand anything of us.  That it’s alright to worship Him with our lips and not our heart.  I would submit that He demands everything of us……in fact not everything we have, but our entire selves as C.S. Lewis puts it.  He knows, and deep down we know as well, that this is the only way we will be the best “player” we can be.          

The Danger of being our Own Head Coach

Sometimes I like to think I have it all figured out.  Strangely enough, this seems to always happen right before I do something really stupid!  I’m beginning to think that maybe there’s some sort of connection here. I mean really, let’s look at this for a second from a football perspective.  How effectively could the quarterback coach the entire team while still in the game?  Better yet, let’s say he played both ways, offense and defense, and still had to coach the entire team.  Granted, some people would do a lot better job than others, but doesn’t that sound like a recipe for failure?  You say, ‘but in life I’m not responsible for an entire team, I’m only responsible for myself and I can manage myself’.  But that’s not the point.  The point is that we can’t see everything while were in the game.  The defense if blitzing, the offense has called an audible, and we miss all that because we can only see what right in front of our faces.  We have Lombardy standing on the sidelines waving his hands screaming "let me help, let me help!", but we dig in and call another play. 

We have the opportunity to be lead by the perfect Head Coach!  All we have to do is admit that we need Him and hand over the whistle.  It’s my testimony that he will transform as much of us as we are willing to give Him into things of beauty….into Heavenly Super Bowl Champs.

What say you?