The Hats We Wear

There are hats for all seasons and for all occasions.  The hat that may be proper for one event or venue may not be considered so for another.  Each is made of different material, perhaps shaped differently or suited to a very specific purpose.  Such is the fabric of our lives.

As we journey through this life, we will figuratively wear many hats.  For me a few are Christian, husband, dad, writer, co-worker, employee, leader, supervisor, neighbor, friend, and so on.  The list of your hats/responsibilities tends to increase with age.  We start out with few responsibilities and relationships, but as we grow into adulthood we tend to become avid hat collectors.  This can be a good thing, or it can cut the other way when we are ill prepared.

My goal is for each of us to look at the roles and responsibilities (hats) in our lives and examine how best to wear them, or to prepare for others that may be to come.  This then becomes an exercise in self reflection and self awareness.  Neither of these are things that seem to come easy for the majority of us, but as we hone this skill we find great value.

5 Critical Questions for Self Reflection

What are the roles I currently play or expect to play in the future?

This is the most basic part of the assessment

Who depends upon me, and for what?

This question begins to determine the magnitude of each role

How am I succeeding in each role?

This gives us the opportunity to feel some positive mojo

How am I underperforming in each role?

This allows us to highlight areas that need a tune-up

What do I need to do to capitalize upon the things I am doing well,

while acquiring the knowledge or skills to improve those I am not?

This is where we put the assessment to work

I don't know where you will go from here, but do know that Solomon put this into perspective for us with some of his writings in Ecclesiastes:

To everything there is a season,

a time for every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born,

and a time to die;

A time to plant,

and a time to Pluck what is planted;

A time to kill,

and a time to heal;

A time to break down,

and a time to build up;

A time to weep,

and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn,

and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones,

and a time to gather stones,

A time to embrace,

and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to gain,

and a time to lose;

A time to keep,

and a time to throw away;

A time to tear,

and a time to sew;

A time to keep silence,

and a time to speak;

A time to love,

and a time to hate;

A time of war,

and a time of peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NKJV

Solomon, the ultimate man who "had it all", was a deeply troubled soul.  In the book of Ecclesiastes he takes a very hard look at his life which can serve as a model for us today.  Are we willing to take such a close look at our lives?  Will we acknowledge the errors in judgment that we have made?  I believe firmly that when we are willing to be as introspective as the great King, then we can gain great insight to guide our future.  This week I challenge you to take a look at the book of Ecclesiastes, and concurrently examine your own life framed by the five questions above.  If you will do these two things I believe it is a fast start for us to better wear our many hats, and to Make Today GREAT! 

The Spirit of the Season

Webster’s Online Dictionary defines gratitude as the state of being grateful; thankfulness.  It goes on to list the following synonyms:

• Appreciation
• Appreciativeness
• Thanks
• Thankfulness

These are all words we should get a better grasp of in our daily lives, and even more so if we are Christians.  Blessings truly do abound when we take a look around us.

In our church the minister has been doing a powerful series of lessons on thankfulness as we lead up to this Thursday’s holiday.  The point however is not to build up the idea of gratitude and containing to this one day and the days surrounding it, but rather to instill in us a spirit of gratitude at all times.

Many of us would recognize the biblical principle found in I Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray without ceasing”.  However we often forget how this is bookended by two other short verses that really speak to the idea of gratitude.

Rejoice always,

Pray without ceasing,

In everything give thanks.

I Thessalonians 5:16-18

Too often we get caught up with moaning and groaning about what we don’t have, or “missed out on” clearly violating the first of these three admonitions.  Then we fail to pray, not only by not having the constant spirit of prayer that is suggested, but with an improper mindset, forgetting to seek the Lord’s will and chasing after our own.  Which brings us to our third violation which is not being thankful for the things we have been blessed with.  The temptation in our fast paced world of instant gratification and consumerism is to want what we want and want it now, if not yesterday.  We forget that God’s timing does not always match with ours, and that perhaps the things we want could be bad for us, so He may be withholding them as a protection to us.

Now, with all that being said I would like to share with you a few of the things for which I am thankful and have been listing in my personal journal over recent weeks:

• A warm and loving wife who works hard, maybe too hard, for our family
• A faithful daughter who is bright and beautiful inside and out, and is on course to be a wonderful adult
• God’s daily provision of food, drink, shelter, clothing and medicines
• A great place to work surrounded by people with servant’s hearts
• Great communities in which to live, work, and serve
• The ability to see God in His creation all around us
• The gentle flow of rivers and streams and their calming power
• The Word of God that gives us direction
• The encouragement of others

I will say that I am not as consistent as I could be at writing in my journal, but each day that I do I have begun to write at least 3 things for which I am grateful.  This is a tremendous exercise to put us in the proper mindset to start the day.  Writers and speakers such as Zig Ziglar, Andy Andrews, and many others I am certain, have written and spoken about this as a way to gain the proper perspective, and I for one am a believer.

This week don’t go out and be thankful, just because there is a day that our country has set aside to be thankful.  I urge you to set a course where everyday is one filled with a thankful heart. I would love to see some short lists or items from some of you proclaiming your thankfulness.  Look around and find the blessings great and small that surround you in every way.  If you will, then you are very likely to Make Today Great!

Battlefields and Burial Grounds

Yesterday my wife, daughter, and I spent a good portion of our morning at Shiloh National Military Park, a place like several others in our country, where you can feel the history.  It was once a Civil War battleground, and is now a cemetery, and reminder of the dark days of our past.  Considering that it is a place shrouded in the chaos of war, it is now one of the most serene places I have ever visited.  It is hard to imagine the intensity of the fight as brother fought with brother during the Civil War, in beautiful locations such as this sprinkled across our vast and varied landscape. 

These memorial grounds where the dead of battle are buried and forever entombed have many lessons to teach us, if we are willing to seek them out.  Today I feel the need for us to consider the battles that surround us.

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,

but against principalities, against powers,

against the rulers of the darkness of this age,

against spiritual hosts of wickedness

in the heavenly places."

Ephesians 6:12

My question is what, or more importantly who, are we burying in today's battleground?  While there is most definitely a spiritual war taking place are we recognizing the walking wounded?  The battle call is real, and we must recognize that what we are seeing is on a far greater scale than the great conflict between the states.  

When we walk the paths of our daily lives it is easy to overlook those that may be struggling in their battles.  The signs may not be obvious, but they are present.  As soldiers in the Army of the Lord, Christians, we must train daily to understand the enemy's strengths, and weaknesses as well as our own.  By recognizing these we can construct a battle plan, and we can escape with Christ's victory in tact.

In the noisy, smoke-filled battlefields of war brave soldiers would risk their lives to charge onto the battlefield in an effort to recover or save their fellow fighters.  When is the last time we have done that on the spiritual battlefield?  The risks we are willing to take seem minuscule, partly due to the nature of the modern spiritual battlefield.  They are risks we must take.  The kingdom of God needs more brave souls who are willing to do more, fight harder, and risk it all for their brothers and sisters who are wounded and dying in the battle.

So what does this take?  Effort, plain and simple.  If we will dedicate ourselves to putting effort into our walk of faith, it will surely grow.  No one planted a garden and then failed to tend it and expected a bountiful harvest, the expectation included effort.  Such is the battlefield of life.  Unless we get our priorities aligned properly, our battlefields will grow darker, and the light of His Word will become a dim glimmer in the distance as we face the cold realities of the harsh battlefield. 

Get familiar with Ephesians 6:13-20.  This passage talks about the "whole armor of God", and is a wise starting point to understand how we fight in both the offensive and defensive postures of this spiritual warfare.  Take a look, be engaged in the battle, not just letting it happen around you.  Together with God, we know that in the end we have victory, but we can also win in these skirmishes and rescue others from the battlefield attending to their needs.

I ask you to consider these things, and Make Today GREAT! 

Living on the Edge

Most of us have likely heard the phrase, hope springs eternal, coined by Alexander Pope.  Living a life full of hope and possibilities is a great way to live, and certainly beats the alternative viewpoint of gloom and doom.

On Friday night I attended a high school football game here in my hometown between the two public high schools.  Paragould's Rams vs. Tech's Eagles.  This is a true rivalry game where the two school districts intertwine and distinct district borders went out the window many years ago with various consolidations.  Neither school has enjoyed a great deal of success on the gridiron, leaving this game as the most important on the schedule slated for the final game each season.

This year, if I am not mistaken, both teams came into the game with a 1-8 record. Records no longer mattered, it was time to do battle for "the Bell", a trophy that is retained each year by the winning school.  As the game unfolded it was back and forth and by early in the third quarter it was Paragould 21 and Tech 21.  The game appeared to be an epic showdown and then the Rams pulled ahead to a 35-21 lead.  

That's where the "hope springs eternal" phrase comes into play.  The Tech kids would not give up, the horn had not sounded so they still had hope.  Late in the fourth quarter the Eagles secured another touchdown bringing the score to 35-28, and though hope was running out with each tick of the clock, hope was not dead.  A series of events unfolded that left the Eagles with the ball, a last breath of hope and very little time remaining, while the Rams led the game and had hope that clock would soon hit 0:00.  Eventually there would be a final play with the ball around midfield and the clock read 0:04.  Tech went to the old bag of tricks and against all logic ran what appeared to be a pitch sweep play around the right end, but the back then tossed the ball back across the field to the quarterback on a lateral near the left sideline.  The quarterback did not catch the ball cleanly and it hit the ground adding to the madness.  He then picked the ball up and sent a pass spiraling toward the end zone where a receiver was about as open as he could get catching the ball after the horn had sounded bringing the score to 35-34.

In football if there is a score on the final play the scoring team has the opportunity to attempt the point after conversion despite the clock having run out.  In this situation most teams would opt to kick the extra point and bring the score to a 35-35 tie if successful and head into overtime.  Tech however kept their offense on the field and opted to take the 2 point conversion option and put it all on the line with one play to either win or lose.  As most of the crowd on both sides stood in stunned disbelief at what had just occurred I asked the Tech faculty member standing beside me, "is this gutsy or stupid?"  A question to which he shook his head in indecision and his wife replied, "we'll see in a minute."  

The play started with a clean snap to the quarterback who rolled out to the right and made a pass that seemed to hang in the air, as if in slow motion, that was caught by an again stunningly open receiver.  The two point conversion was complete and the victory was secured.  Hope had carried one team through, and for the other hope had run out for this week and season.

In our walk of faith we are bolstered by hope.  Job was a man who went through more than most of us could imagine but had his hope in God.  Eliphaz the Temanite reminded Job of this in saying;

"Is not your reverence your confidence?

And the integrity of your ways your hope?

Job 4:6

Scripture also tells us where to place our hope;

"Be of good courage,

and He shall strengthen your heart,

all you who hope in the Lord."

Psalm 31:24

I urge you to put your hope in God.  Live with the hope of the faithful, understanding that there is more to life than meets the eye.  There is a place beyond that we should strive for, in faith.  Unlike the opportunity for a conversion after the buzzer at the football game, when the clock hits 0:00 our hopes or our fears will be fully realized.  Don't live on the edge!  Make a decision today, follow Christ and take on the hope and joy that will carry you through each day despite the ups and downs of life.  This would be a wonderful way to Make Today Great!