Perseverance—It’s The Climb

The more you stare at it the higher it gets.

Over lunch at Jimmy’s Egg the other day, I was telling one of my pastor’s about my struggle with wanting to become the man God wants me to be but never want to have to put in the grunt work to get there. He reminded me that God isn’t so much focused on the finished product of what we become but on the process we go through to get there.

If you haven’t read through James recently it starts off with how to deal with temptation and persevering through tough trials. What continually draws my attention is James 1:4:

“And let perseverance have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Just before that James tells us that when our faith is tested it produces perseverance. I think so often we get impatient and focus on our finish lines instead of the hustle and grind it takes to get us there. We want that instant car wash experience.

Babe Ruth struck out all the time. Thomas Edison failed thousands of times before finally finding the formula to construct the light bulb. Do you think either would have achieved greatness or notoriety if they’d have given up or said, “It’s not worth it.”

The longer we sit and stare at our problems, the bigger the mountain in our way seems to grow. But we will never reach spiritual maturity unless we strap on our boots and tear a hole up the face of that mountain.

Your patience matters. Your endurance matters. Your perseverance matters.

When you feel God isn’t there or isn’t listening, have faith that He’s on top of it and waiting to see you on the other side.

You can hate on me for quoting a Miley Cyrus song but it’s not always about getting there that matters, it’s about perseverance. “It’s the climb.”

Give God the reigns and let him take care of it. He knows what He’s doing.

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Living Water—The Ultimate Thirst Quencher

Have you ever been truly thirsty?

I run. One of my newest hobbies is running. In jr. high and high school I ran a little bit but that was mostly to stay in shape for baseball season and I didn’t really enjoy it. Now, as an adult, I find myself getting out and hustling even harder.

Why?

I’m not playing sports; there’s not some big prize for me when I get home after a few miles except soreness, shortness of breath and dry mouth. But is that truly thirst?

Webster defines thirst as: “a feeling of needing or wanting to drink something; lack of the liquid needed to sustain life.” When I get done running I have a strong desire to cool off and soak in a tub of warm oatmeal.

Not really. That would be awesome though wouldn’t it?

The archaic verb usage of thirst also defines it as “having a strong desire for something.” That’s the same for anything you’re passionate about doing.

As I read God’s word daily the more I thirst for it. I am passionate about His truths and for His purposes. I want to make His name great.

Jesus is our living water. In John 4 he tells the woman at the well: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.”

He is the only thing that can quench what we need. He is the “liquid needed to sustain life.”

What do you thirst for?

What do you desperately need?

I pray that we all come to realize and seek out the true source of life. That source is Jesus Christ and He alone can quench your thirst.

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Huff, Puff, Throw Up—Just Do It

Nike lied to me.

Seriously, in all those Nike ads where you see people running down some empty, industrial city street they never tell the whole story. All you see is some tan and toned olympian hauling it as if he had a pack of rabid Russian Wolfhounds on his heels.

They do a great job of marketing though. “Buy this shoe and this could be you.” That one was mine; not too bad actually.

The point is, you always see the model of awesome. The world is always being fed what the standard of excellence is and what you need to buy to get there. How you should dress or eat and what you should drive.

Why is that so appealing?

When I see other people who have “made it” or look like they’ve arrived I always speculate on how they attained it. Whatever level of success they have or however that might be defined is all relative, of course. But the truth is: somebody, somewhere had to put in the hard work.

Athletes, firefighters, scholars, astronauts, politicians; they all at one point put their foot down and said, “It starts with me and I’m gonna do what I have to make it happen.”

All my heroes made the choice to step up and be proactive about making a change.

They just did it.

So whether it’s my diet, fitness, friendships, spiritual life, whatever, I have to do it.

I can’t expect to lace up and bust out a 10k without a little practice, sweat and diligence beforehand. I’ve gotta be consistent and dedicated from the get-go.

So get started!

Though you may huff and puff or decorate your neighbor’s tulips with lunch’s queso, get busy! Success doesn’t come to the dreamer, it comes to the doer.

So just do it

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The Worry Wart—Trust

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

I meet one-on-one with a few senior guys from my youth group on a regular basis. Usually our time consists of about 45 min of goofing off, eating ice cream and talking about life. Then we get down to business.

The following hour or so is where it gets real and we dive deep into the Word and/or whatever book we’re going through. The purpose of this time is to cultivate and disciple these fellas to love the LORD.

As a 23 year-old, it’s way too easy to forget what it’s like to be 17-18 and trying to figure out what college to go to, whether or not I’ll need to work and all the other stresses that come with young adulthood. I, myself sorta skipped the whole college phase and went right into the music scene/road show circus. I still, however, know what it’s like to be in their spot: faced with a tough decision and having to duke it out to make the right choice.

I get it. It’s scary knowing that whatever decision you make right now could ultimately determine where you end up in life. We all know, we face these questions all the time. Peter reminds us to “cast our cares and anxieties upon Him(Christ) because He cares for us.”

Again, Jesus reminds us in Matthew 6

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Just before that He says:

“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?…But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

What I constantly try to remind these guys is that “yes, we need to be proactive and obedient to His call in our lives but also that God will provide our needs and take care of us. In the meantime, ‘seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.'”

Did you hear that? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. That’s the proper perspective we need to have. Why do we get all bent out of shape when we know that He’s got it down? He’s got our problems and issues under control.

Stop being a worry wart and trust in Him fully, today.

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Waiting—The Patient Genie

Ever wish you could just summon your own, personal magic genie to solve all your problems?

So much of our lives is spent waiting. We wait on traffic, phone calls, emails, check-out lines, food orders, web page buffering, microwaves, commercials, etc. People. Most of the time we’re waiting on people. This world runs and depends on people.

But people let you down. People change. People make bad decisions. People judge. People misjudge. People make empty promises. People forget. People give up. People get impatient. Just like me waiting on them.

Impatience is nothing new.

Imagine living in a dry, barren land that depended on rain for crops and healthy livestock. Every day was a struggle to survive and luxuries included spare clothing, a well-producing garden and perhaps even a servant.

I doubt it would take much to cultivate impatience in a world like that. It’s easy to tell when someone is getting impatient. Usually it’s written all over their face but it shows even more in their posture.

The posture of our stance says a lot about the posture of our heart.

When our lives are so consumed with waiting on other people it’s far too easy to forget that we have a God who waits on us all the time. I don’t mean in a waiter or servant manner but He’s aware of our needs and always willing to supply what we ask.

However, our prayers and wishes don’t always line up with His will but why should we go anywhere else when He is always available? Ephesians 3:20-21 says:

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

In our times of waiting we must always be praying and aligning our hearts to be ready and willing for His purpose to be fulfilled in us. Because it is to His glory throughout all generations.

The psalmist says in  Psalm 130:5

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope.

As you wait on people today remember who waits on you. Not some genie in a bottle, but the God of the universe. More so must you wait for the LORD – willing and ready to fulfill His purpose.

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How To Make Quality Friends—My Fave 5

 I firmly believe that you are the average of the 5 people you surround yourself with.

The other day at about 10am I got a phone call from my good buddy Erik. It’s calls like these that make me drop everything and gladly give up the next hour for a quality heart-to-heart convo. I know that sounds cheesy but when you’ve got friends like him you take every chance you can get to catch up.

Erik moved to Fort Worth, Texas in August of 2013 to attend Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. As stoked as I was for his future and growth in the Lord, I was a pretty bummed that he was leaving.

Since our friendship took off in 2008 Erik has become who I consider to be my closest confidant outside of my brother. There is no stronger bond than one formed during tough circumstances. I won’t go into details but feel free to ask me about it sometime – keyword: New Zealand.

All this to say, the people you surround yourself with are ultimately who you will come to resemble most. So as a believer how are you going to find like-minded, godly, quality friends? By doing what they do. By replicating what godly people do, you will in turn grow to be a strong, God-fearing person. There’s no secret formula to becoming a “super-Christian” with all the answers. It is simply to follow in the footsteps, to replicate what successful Christians do.

The same goes for friends. The key to winning friends and influencing people is to become the source of what they’re looking for. What you, yourself, are looking for.

Even though I’ve been a customer of T-Mobile for years, I’ve never utilized the 5 Faves or My Faves option. The point of this terrible illustration is to drive the point home that you are the average of the 5 people you surround yourself with. If you want to grow in the LORD then you must surround yourself with those types of people. People who will challenge you in your walk. People who will ask the tough questions. People who will spur you on and keep you accountable.

How do you make quality friends? You be the person that attracts quality friends.

You be a quality friend.

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Mom Is Gonna Flip!—Blanket Forts and Justice

Do you think Mom heard that? Of course she did. Hurry, hide it. Quick!

I remember when I was a child, being sent to my room wasn’t the punishment, it was what came after. Since I was a connoisseur of all things awesome to a 7 year-old, spending an hour or two in my room was the least of my worries. I could make a blanket fort or organize my baseball cards by league, team and year. It wasn’t the alone time that bothered me, it was knowing what came next.

The rod. My punishment. My reckoning. The source from which all tears would flow.

The moment my Mom came into the room wielding her bible in one hand and the patented weapon of fear in the other, a little wooden rod, I knew it was over. There was no bartering with the woman. No stack of blankets could hide me and no amount of layered underwear could soften the blow. I had sinned and so I must pay. She always finished by reading to me and explaining that she loved me so much that she had to punish me.

Of course, at that age, in the moment, I thought it was child abuse but her correction was always comforting in the end.  “Just as I am correcting and  forgiving you for *fill in the blank* so does God when we sin against Him.”

I get it now and I rejoice when I read passages like Psalm 130:3-4

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.

Just like when I heard my parents’ footsteps coming down the hall, I was afraid. But I also knew that in the end, there was forgiveness. Thank God that He doesn’t mark our iniquities because seriously, WHO could stand? Not this guy.

“I praise you O LORD for your grace. Thank you for setting me straight when I am in the wrong. Thank you for providing God-fearing parents who were faithful to administer justice and not spare the rod when it was most necessary. It is by your grace that I follow you today. Thank you.”

Nowadays I’ve learned better. I don’t still live with my parents and my blanket forts will probably never rival those of my childhood but when I do wrong, it does no good to try to hide it or cover it up.

Take responsibility and let justice be served.

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Undefeated—The Underdog

Everybody loves the underdog.

One of my favorite movies is Remember The Titans. What could be better than a story of unlikely success born from a melting pot of pride, tradition, prejudice, sweat and pig skin?

We all know the ending; a small town dealing with racial tension in the middle of the civil rights movement pulls together and through unlikely circumstances manages to put together an undefeated, championship football team. Great story.

Once you know the ending and how everything turns out okay, re-watching it isn’t the same as the first time though. It’d be pretty stupid to get all worked up over nothing once we know who wins right?

So why do we get so worked up over petty everyday issues  when we know Who ultimately wins?

God has orchestrated our whole lives and knows the ins and outs of our future. He’s the one running the plays, blowing the whistle and taking all the credit when the season finishes. Our job in the meantime is to be a team player, hustle, make plays then take none of the credit.

It is He who works in our lives but it is our job to be faithful.

We all love to root for the underdog. The vagrant. The overlooked. The hometown hero. The real winner who stood his ground even when no one else was willing. 

The only way to live an undefeated life is to live looking to God 

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Mine!—Seagull Syndrome

Have you ever seen Finding Nemo?

Remember those ridiculous seagulls and their Pokémon-like vocabulary?

We laugh cause, quite frankly, it’s hilarious, but geeze Louise that sounds eerily similar to us humans. We’ve been born, bred and fed this entitlement mentality that our culture is screaming back at us that everything is about me. When is it MY turn? Where’s MINE?

I like to call it Seagull Syndrome. That’s right. I even got it approved by urbandictionary.com

The point I’m trying to drive home here is to remind you that:

 “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

The context here in I Cor 6:17-20 is specifically talking about controlling our bodies and fighting against sexual immorality.

“But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?”

I said this yesterday but it bears repeating: God wants to bring you into union with Himself, but unless you are willing to give up your right to yourself, He cannot.

We need our desire to please God to be bigger than our desire to please ourselves.

When God see’s a believer He’s the one saying “Mine! That one’s mine!” As goofy as the saying is, we have to get rid of our Seagull Syndrome. We must yield to the desires of our flesh and give ourselves completely and fully over to God.

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In-di-vid-u-al-i-ty. Boy, That’s A Mouthful

“If we were all the same it’d be a boring world.”

I tell that to people quite often when we’re discussing how different a certain person is. Isn’t it true though? You need only to drive into a recently finished neighborhood and see the cookie-cutter resemblance of all the houses to be thankful for how unique you are. That’s the beauty of individuality.

God made everyone with their own little quirk, their own personal oddity that makes them awesome. But we all know the “hard-to-be-arounds” don’t we? The ticking time bomb. Sometimes the smallest thing or comment can set them off and boy-howdy does it get ugly. They’ve got a case of the in-di-vid-u-al-i-ty.

It’s far too easy to point out what’s wrong with that other person but what about ourselves?

Far too often we can’t see the forest because we are the trees.

We, as Christians, want to be open and available to do His work but so often when God asks something of us we try to assert our own agenda where it doesn’t belong. For some crazy reason our individuality gets in the way and cuts off all potential for God to use us properly. We can’t be obedient because we think whatever it is that He asked of us should happen differently.

What does Jesus say?

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”              Luke 9:23-24

God wants to bring you into union with Himself, but unless you are willing to give up your right to yourself, He cannot.

Don’t be the foolish servant who wouldn’t put his talents to good use.

Don’t be the foolish prophet who ran the other way and spent 3 days in the belly of a fish.

Don’t be the foolish son who said “I can’t wait until you die, give me my inheritance now!”

All of this can be avoided when we swallow our pride, die to ourselves and are willing to do what He asks of us. Whether it be to work hard with what we’re given, speak up in a hostile environment or be patient and loving to those around us.

Our individuality must be yielded to God so that our spiritual life may be brought forth into fellowship with Him.

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