Omega

The Bible speaks of God as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.  When I began this blogging journey it was with a biblical reference to Genesis as a beginning.  Thus it is fitting that I would close it with the Omega reference as an ending.

Since 2015 I have poured out a lot of thoughts on life, and many of them have been centered around the theme of simplicity.  Today I choose to take some of my own medicine, and simplify.

The thoughts I have shared weekly have been at most times a joy, but recently it has begun to seem more like just an additional item to check from my list.  Today I choose to simplify in a small way by taking the step of ending this journey of Workout Your Faith.  My heart and mind are no longer aligned to continue.

I am thankful for all those who have read these musings for nearly 3 years, and the amazing feedback from many.  However, it is time, and I am finished.  Best wishes as you continue to Workout Your Faith, and I hope as the Bible states that you will do it, "with fear and trembling."

Time and Lack of It

For most of my adult life, and especially since my daughter was born, I have been a proponent of not over-scheduling.  Something of a "less is more" advocate you might say.  How then is it that I feel like I have fallen "off the wagon" so to speak with my time management recently?

To begin answering my own question, life is hard, and we have so many things coming at us that we often don't realize just how full we are loading our plates until we feel the overwhelm.  That is where I am today.  I feel a little of the overwhelm, and some of it is not strictly my own, but a nice portion vicariously for my wife and daughter as well.  We each have a lot going on in our lives, as do you I'm quite sure.  The question becomes, how much of it is necessary, and how much have we chosen as excess and how much of the excess is truly too much?

This brings us back to that tried and true topic of priorities.  Yes, I'm going there!  Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines priority as:

Definition of priority

plural priorities

1a (1) : the quality or state of being prior 

(2) : precedence in date or position of publication—used of taxa

b (1) : superiority in rank, position, or privilege 

(2) : legal precedence in exercise of rights over the same subject matter

2: a preferential rating; especially : one that allocates rights to goods and services usually in limited supply 

• that project has top priority

: something given or meriting attention before competing alternatives

Do we really set priorities?  This is a question we must grapple with if we indeed want to master the allocation of our time.  Currently I would say that I am failing, but less miserably than most.  How about you?  Are you setting your life up around a small number of priorities?  If so, then that is fabulous.  My guess however, is that you are not, and that you are working hard to keep your head above water trying to do it all.  Am I right?

Today take a moment and rediscover what is important to you.  Find those few building blocks that need to be in place as a foundation upon which you build the rest of your activity.  I can't speak to what this will look like for you, but here are a few suggestions from my own self-examination:

1. Faith - there should be time in each and every day to practice and express your faith.  Nothing can bring you back to your essence quite like recognizing that God provides for our needs, and sustains us on our journey.
2. Family - recognize the value of those who are closest to you, and build one another up with love, understanding, and encouragement.  When this building block is neglected your foundation will assuredly be shaky.
3. Fitness - again a foundational issue.  We cannot function at the high levels we desire when we don't take care of the machine (our mind and body).  As someone who deals with chronic illness I now recognize this more than ever, and to be honest this has been one of my greatest recent struggles.  Understand your body, and the phrase "your health is your wealth".  Recently I have forgotten this and made too many poor choices.  I have seen it revealed in some of my numbers, known it in my mind, and excused it to my own detriment.  Don't make this mistake.  I am personally re-committing to finding the joy of improved health and hope that you will too.  Let's do this together.
4. Finance - Yes this old bugaboo is troublesome for most of us.  Take a few minutes today to sit and do a financial inventory to see where you are in this area of life as well.  Finances can be a huge stressor for us affecting each of the three other building blocks listed before it.  Most of us are not wealthy by the "American Dream" standard, and many of us struggle to keep the right balance in this area between living for today and planning for tomorrow.  We should remember though that just by virtue of being an American we are wealthy by the standards of most of the world.

Yes these four come up over and over again as some of the top building blocks for creating a life that rocks!  I encourage you, and remind myself, to take a look, fine tune, and Make Today Great!

Agents of Change

Yesterday was a beautiful day across Arkansas and my family and I enjoyed it in the Little Rock area.  As the afternoon grew toward evening we spent a little bit of time walking around the Arkansas State Capitol grounds.  There we found flowering trees in bloom, the distinctive architecture of the Capitol structure and the several memorials spread across the property to be quite interesting and beautiful.

Among the various memorials was one that was quite striking.  Pictured above is a sculpture of "The Little Rock Nine."  This group of 9 students bravely walked a path that no student had walked before as they were the first African-American students to enroll at Little Rock Central High School.  Their entry into the school was a national, if not international news story, which stirred emotions and involved not only police but National Guardsmen, and a power struggle between the Arkansas governor, and the President of the United States.

These brave young people paved the way for others of their time, and for generations to come, to be afforded the dignity of a full and equal education as they were integrated into Central High.  These young lives served as agents of change in a society that didn't know that it was ready, and in need of, such change.  So it is with so many others, perhaps not on this grand of a stage, but on whatever stage they may be cast.  Change never comes easy, and often evokes emotion, or extracts a high price in the short run.  Change, however, is necessary. 

There is only one thing that is unchanging and that is God's love for us.  God offers us stability in changing times, and is a refuge for the believer.  

The Lord will also be

a refuge for the oppressed,

a refuge in times of trouble.

Psalm 9:9

God expects us, His children, to be agents of change as we walk through this world.  He knows that from the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, up until Jesus returns in glory, there will be a constant need for change.  With the propensity of man to seek pleasure in sin and to spurn the will of God, there would be a need for faithful folks to take up the call of faith.  The Christian agent of change is actually quite paradoxical, in that we change by seeking to stay the same.  We hold a course, in Christ, that doesn't waver and becomes attractive to those with an honest heart who seek shelter from the storms of life that are exacerbated by the powerful consequences of our poor choices.

Though the Christian is spiritually set apart, we are not perfect and do endure storms in our lives.  The difference makes all the difference.  We walk through these storms with a hope that rings eternal.  It is the dignity and the convictions of our faith that make others take note.  Today can you as my brother or sister in Christ be an agent of change?  Stand firm in your convictions and share your hope.  Through this maybe you can spark change in the soul of another, leading them to the place of refuge in the Lord.  If you will choose this path, then that is a fundamental way to Make Today Great!

The New Man

Life is full of struggles both great and small.  Some struggle with their health, others with relationships, and yet others with their finances.  The struggle is REAL!  The struggle is a part of the human condition.

The struggle doesn't have to be debilitating.  Yes, you heard me right our struggles don't have to be debilitating.  There is hope beyond the struggle.  It comes through our faith.

There is a section of Ephesians chapter 4 in the New King James version of the Bible which has a heading of "The New Man".  

 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,  having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;  who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

 But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

I just want to say a few things about this passage.  The first thing is in that very first verse where it says that we shouldn't walk as the Gentiles, "in the futility of their mind".  Do you see that word futility?  That is a strong word.  Futility is what we feel when we feel powerless or that what we are doing is useless or meaningless, that is futility.  This passage says we don't have to feel that way with God.  Hallelujah for that!

The next thing I want to point out is a little further into the passage where it says, " who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness."  There is a lot for us to ponder in this section.  I want to zero in on that phrase, "being past feeling."  That is when Satan feels that he has you securely in his grasp.  He wants the struggles of this world to overtake you into that sense of desperation to the point where you feel defeated and nothing more matters.  It is precisely at this point when many give up and no longer even try to walk by faith.  However, if we will reach out God will be there and He can and will restore our hope.

The final thing I want to leave you with is found in the phrase, "and be renewed in the spirit of your mind."  The mind they say is a powerful thing, and scripture speaks to it repeatedly.  If you are in the depths of struggle look for opportunities to renew your mind.  What does this really mean?  Change your way of thinking.  The mind is the ultimate sponge with a tremendous capacity.  Think about that sponge you may have under your sink or in your garage.  When it has been in pure water and you squeeze it what will come out?  Pure water.  Likewise, when it has been run through the muck and the mire or muddy water what will come out under the pressure of that squeeze?  Muddy, dirty water.  Our mind works that same way.  We need to begin filling it with the good, the pure, and the positive.  We know that we are going to be put to the test, under pressure.  If we will renew our minds by continually choosing to fill it with the good then as we face the pressures and challenges of life the old and dirty can be expelled in favor of the new, the pure, and the good.  This is when we prove ourselves to be living like the passage is titled, "The New Man."

This week take bold steps to renew your mind and find "The New Man" within you.  If you do, then you will Make Today Great!

Valuing Others

As humans, and particularly Americans, we tend to put a value on everything.  Typically that value is measured in economic terms.  Is that the proper model for viewing other individuals, or ourselves?

As Christians we should value one another as God values us, not in economic terms, but rather in relational terms.  Genesis 1:26 tells us that we are all created in the image of God.  This alone makes us very special in his view, and should be a cornerstone for how we relate to one another.  In the book of John we are told:

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another;

as I have loved you, that you also may love one another.  By this

all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

John 13:34-35

This past week, in the same day, I had reminders of this on both ends of the spectrum.  During a meeting at work I posed a question that, at its core, was rather cold and lacking compassion.  Thankfully, when the meeting was over my boss called me out on it and helped me realize the selfish nature of what I had said.  Just a few hours later I was having a running correspondence with one of my daughter's teachers (not from this school year, but the past) who was encouraging her and some other former students to participate in an event at a nearby university on Saturday.  Not only was he taking care of his current students, but also continuing to watch out for and develop his former students.  In this case I took the opportunity to thank him for this and made the following statement,

"thank you for the confidence you instill in your students

especially Olivia.  The school system would be so much

better if all faculty invested in kids the way you do."

Since Friday when these events occurred I have had several thoughts on how inconsistent I was in my actions and words that day.  As a leader in my home, my church family, and my workplace I must do a better job of recognizing the value of others.  Beyond that I need to help others recognize that value in themselves.  Many around us need an encouraging word, or the confidence boost of sharing our trust in them.  

5 Ways of Showing

Others Their Value

1) Give your undivided attention

2) Express thanks whenever possible

3) Teach them something new

4) Be consistent

5) In the words of Ronald Reagan, "trust but verify"

I intend to take these to heart and put them more consistently into practice, and hope that you may do likewise.  If you we would all do this it would Make Today GREAT!

Olympic Perspectives

With the Winter Olympics coming to a close, I am somewhat sad.  Although most of the sports that are a part of the games are not a part of my warm weather culture, for two weeks every four years they are captivating. 

Let me begin by turning in my "man card".  One of the most fascinating events of this Olympiad for me was the Ice Dancing competition.  It is not an event that has ever been of interest before but for some reason caught my attention.  The performances were strong and the final night was incredible with the gold medal coming down to an incredibly close showdown between two pairs, it was truly electrifying.  This is what good competition is all about, rising to the occasion and pushing one another to greatness.  This also occurred in the women's figure skating competition which was extremely close with two champions pushing one another to a tremendous finish which was decided by a razor thin margin.

In Arkansas we don't get much snow, but most of us at least understand traditional alpine skiing events which are speed based, but where do they come up with some of these other things like moguls and skicross or the Nordic events such as ski jumping?  I will say that ski jumping has always been a favorite event of my winter olympic viewing.  I did not see very much of it during these games, but it never fails to captivate.  Even with how much I enjoy watching the ski jumps, I can't figure out how that one got started.  I suppose that there just isn't much daredevil in my soul.

Then there is curling.  Wow, that one grabbed my attention several years ago probably during another Olympic year, and now it is must see television.  A few months ago I wrote about how "The Joy of Painting" with Bob Ross is mesmerizing.  Curling, too, is mesmerizing it is so different that you can't help but become intrigued.  This Olympic season it became even more intriguing as the U.S. men's team began to take one of the most unlikely journeys ever from a 2 win, 4 loss start in pool play all the way to the Gold Medal.  As the old song "Young at Heart" says, "Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you. . . "  This year that fairy tale did come true for the five men who formed this team.

Now what does all this have to do with faith?  It all depends on how you look at it.  From my perspective each of the athletes who competed has dedicated themselves to their sport.  That dedication takes on many forms and requires daily preparation.  Could we as people of faith look to our Olympic favorites and put their discipline to practice in our lives?  Yes, and for such a greater cause.  If we spent time daily in the Word of God, intentionally seeking a greater understanding, then we could be better ready for the "competition" of daily life.  Those times when roadblocks and temptations are placed before us would not seem so daunting.  The opportunities we are given to share our faith would be a bit more comfortable.  The fine tuning of our bodies and minds would give us the physical and mental strength to carry on as soldiers for the cause of Christ.

Yes, the Olympics are concluding, but the lessons we learn can be something to propel us onward, if we put it in the proper perspective.  I hope you have enjoyed these Olympic games as much as I have, and more importantly I hope you can take the lessons of discipline and determination and apply them to your faith.  It is by daily walking with a disciplined approach to our faith that we will Make Today Great, each and every day!

LIfe's Soup

Last week I wrote about physical health and wrapped that discussion up by discussing how our physical health impacts our abilities to serve in our faith.  We often want to put our lives into boxes and move ourselves from box to box.  The truth of the matter is that it is not possible to live fully under this approach.  The various aspects and dimensions of our life could looked at as a soup.  Yes, you heard that right our life can be looked as a soup.

Second Corinthians 4:6-8 says:

  For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair

This passage speaks of our lives as a vessel, in my line of thinking that is the soup pot.  Now if we were in the kitchen and were preparing a pot of soup we would choose various ingredients to include in that soup depending upon what we want to end up with and eventually eat.

Soups like people come in many forms.  There are hot soups and cold soups.  There are vegetable soups and soups that include meats.  You can make chili or chicken tortilla.  Each of these requires different ingredients in different proportions, and to get to your desired result it requires making decisions.

Aha, decisions are our control mechanism.  To build a life, like building a tasty soup requires making the right decisions of what to add to your life and in what proportions.

A tasty soup will have a good base to which all the subsequent ingredients are added, but which often controls the depth of the flavor.  Our lives also, if we do it well, will have a strong base in faith.  If we choose this base, then we have set the tone for the ultimate outcome of our lives.  Like completing that soup recipe we mix in other things that will add to the flavor and satisfaction of the soup.  

In our lives we add things like family, friends, home, work, health, finance, personal growth and so much more.  As we make decisions about how we mix these things we will find our lives taking on various flavors or tastes.  Just like those who are cooking up soup in the kitchen we must continually sample the product with a little taste test.  

In the realm of life this means consistently taking a look at ourselves and doing some self reflection, what is the taste we have currently?  Is it the life we desired, is it tasting more like that final flavor we are looking for?  If so then our life mix is on track, however if it is not, then we need to consider either emptying our bowl (pouring ourselves out before God) and refilling ourselves with that base of faith, or if we don't believe that we are off by much, then we can tweak the levels of the various ingredients bringing them into a more tasty balance. 

What is in your bowl today?  Are you feeling pretty good about the taste that the soup our your life is leaving in your mouth?  Today I challenge you to consider the soup of your life and make some decisions.  This is another way to Make Today Great!

Cause and Effect

For those of you who may not know, or have forgotten, I live with type II diabetes.  Though it is a condition that "runs in my family", up one side of the family tree and down the other.  It is a condition that I could have likely avoided, or at least postponed further if I had made better decisions in regards to my health.

As I awaken this morning I did my glucose monitoring test and found by blood sugar level to be 123.  This is not an alarming number by any means, but it is 15 points or so higher than my current norm.  Why is it higher this morning?  Cause and effect, plain and simple.  Yesterday I made poor choices, and today those choices manifest themselves in my blood sugar reading. 

When you live with chronic conditions such as diabetes it is crucial to your long term health to understand your illness, and how to manage or control it.  Even when you have a solid understanding of your situation it is easy to fall to the seduction of the forbidden fruit.  In the life of the diabetic one of the the primary challenges is diet.  As someone who thoroughly enjoys food, maintaining complete control of my diet is practically impossible.

Cause and effect.  Eating pasta and breadsticks for dinner at 7:30, followed by a Krispy Kreme doughnut two hours later is wonderful on the tongue, but terrible on the glucometer, and the scales were unkind as well this morning.  The real danger is not in the short term aberration in the blood sugar level, but in the establishment of habits where these poor decisions become routine.  It is in our habits that the hemoglobin A1C levels are set measuring our long-term level of blood sugar.  It is in this level over time that damage can ensue.

Cause and effect.  What is the danger of longer term elevation of blood sugar level?  There are many, I see the examples daily as I go to the office.  In  extreme cases it may be the loss of limbs due to infections or the unrelenting routines of dialysis for those whose kidneys no longer function as is necessary to sustain life.  More common are those who have suffered strokes or lost most, if not all, of their vision.  Diabetes is bad, and uncontrolled you can see that it is really bad.

Bad is something that can be said for several other common conditions as well, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and being overweight or obese.  Here are some links to investigate related to various afflictions:

Mayo Clinic - Diabetes Diagnosis and Treatment

Mayo Clinic - Top 5 Lifestyle Changes to Improve Your Cholesterol

Cleveland Clinic - Weight Management: Special Procedures and Treatment

CDC - Blood Pressure Fact Sheet

It is not my desire for this week's piece to be a downer, but rather to be a wake up call.  Recognize that the decisions we make have an impact.  That impact is different for each decision we make, but the key thing is to know that we have a great deal of control over the future of our health, even if we are afflicted with a chronic illness. 

You might be asking, what does this have to do with my faith?  This is Workout Your Faith isn't it?  Yes this is Workout Your Faith, and yes it does have something to do with our faith.  Two things actually. 

1. The first thing this has to do with our faith is when we are not at our best physically, mentally, or emotionally, then we will have difficulty serving others which is a calling card of our faith.
2. The other thing that is a direct application to our faith is that the same principles apply to our tastes for sin.  God has immense grace to cover our sin, but he does not want to us make those poor choices and dabble with sin.  We must recognize there are consequences that result from our choices.

Life is all about cause and effect.  Decisions influence outcomes.  Make better decisions today and live better tomorrow.  These are a few ideas of how to MAKE TODAY GREAT!

Have You Ever?

Have you ever looked at a problem or a question so long in trying to determine what the best answer should be that you lose track of what the problem really is?  Such is the nature of the analytical mind.  Such is the nature of my mind.

Recently the leadership group at my office was provided with personality training, which I might add was a very good session.  The test, not too surprisingly, put me "off the charts" in the area of the analyticals.  The biggest problem for those of us with this mindset can be that old foe of paralysis by analysis.  Obviously this is a major problem for the population at large as you find "about 20,800,000" hits when you put the words paralysis by analysis into the Google search engine online.

Have you ever struggled with someone like me because of your more quixotic nature?  Given the number of hits listed above it is almost certain that a large number of you have faced this type of challenge.  Despite the huge differences in how we are wired, and how we get to an answer, we do need one another. 

There are times when we in the analytical camp need someone from the fast moving camp to just implement a decision and move on toward the next thing.  While on the other hand we in the more contemplative group can provide a stability for those who prefer fast action.  As Albert Einstein is quoted, "Life is like riding a bicycle.  To keep your balance you must keep moving."

Keep moving, that is great advice for us all.  It is also the message of scripture.  Paul in writing to the Philippians says,

"Not that I have already attained

or am already perfected; 

but I press on,

that I may lay hold of that

for which Christ Jesus 

has also laid hold of me.

Brethren,

I do not count myself

to have apprehended;

but one thing I do,

forgetting those things

which are behind 

and reaching forward

to those things which are ahead,"

Philippians 3:12-13

The apostle Paul was not going to remain stuck in one place, he was going to grow in his faith, understanding, and service.  He believed in the power of progress, he like Einstein's bicycle must keep moving.  

Likewise, Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes that there are times for all things.  So no matter which camp you are in recognize the needs of those who are not in your personality style.  Find the common ground and work with each other's strengths rather than against them, and you will make a positive impact.  

We all need to learn from one another, and often from ourselves.  Have you ever thought about that?  There is more than any one of us can know in this world, and there is more than any one of us can share in this world.  My suggestion is to find your character in the richness of scripture and then build upon it with the God-granted gifts that you have in order to aid others, and to Make Today GREAT!

Muddled Thinking

How often do you suffer from muddled thinking?  It seems all too common in my life, and clearly visible in the lives of others.

What is the cause of this affliction?  That is an amazing question that, truth be known, probably reaches beyond my ability to answer.  However, I am going to give it a try.

It seems to me that our biggest problem is we too often put ourselves in the place of God.  In so doing we create a situation where we are not in the proper framework or mindset to make the decisions that are best for us.

"Listen to this, O Job;

Stand still and consider

the wondrous works of God.

Do you know 

when God dispatches them,

and causes the light of His 

cloud to shine?"

Job 37:14-15

Truly it is not within us to fully understand all things, no matter how hard we try.  Though scripture tells us we are made in His image, and that we have been given dominion over all living things, it stops short of telling us that we are gods.  In fact in the Genesis account of the fall, the lie that Satan perpetuates is that by eating of the forbidden fruit would make them as God.

A little humility would go a long way to solving much of our muddled thinking and many of the problems facing the world today.  This is a basic truth for each of our lives as we face the daily grind.  So much more this is magnified in the shortcomings of our ever devolving American government.  In the founding of this country there were many flawed men who gathered to chisel out what this country should strive to be.  Each came with differing viewpoints and often from the various divisions and factions of the religious world.  Yet when they were humble enough to set aside their differences and recognize those things upon which they could be unified God's providence shone upon them and this great nation was born.

Over many years the divisions and the lack of humility has crept back upon us.  As I look at the recent grumblings and groanings coming from the District of Columbia, and all multiplied across our extensive and often overzealous media outlets, I find it disheartening that we have become a nation so divided.  However, I find it symptomatic of the divisions we find in the church.  God desires unity among His people.

"Behold, how good

and how pleasant

it is for brethren

to dwell together in unity!"

Psalm 133:1

See also Ephesians 4

If we as the people of God were to have our collective act together most of this upheaval would not be occurring.  Over the course of the 240+ years of our nation's history we as God's people have abdicated much of our responsibility and handed it over to the government, a government which in its purest form (not what we see today), is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.  

Today I plead with each of you to set your house in order.  Think in terms of humility and unity.  Lets all do a better job of looking to those things which unite us and that we share in common, recognizing opportunity for growth in our differences.  Once our homes are set in order the healing can begin, the groundswell of such a positive force would no doubt sweep us up in a virtual tsunami of unity and clarity for our future.  If we would take this grassroots, Christ-centered approach, rather than a top-down Government-centric approach to living, then and only then, would we gain the fullest measure of the blessings of God and the favor of His divine providence.  This is how we can Make Today Great!

Learning the Script

This weekend I have been on the road with our church's youth group attending an event in Conway, AR.  Over the course of the weekend we have participated in singing many praises to God, hearing some fantastic messages from God's Word, and having some great interaction with these kids.

I know from experience, as do most adults when honest, that growing up ain't easy.  The struggles of our teens are real and of great consequence.  On Friday evening the preacher, Jeremy Pierce, was very real with the audience talking about some of the major issues that we all face today.  He shared statistics that were mind-blowing to many of them, and a stark reminder to us adults, presenting a much needed reality check. 

During these years they are processing all the things they have been taught against all the messaging that the world would thrust upon them in their music, movies, video games, online content, and the like.  Just like us as adults, each has a different individual struggle and those struggles are real and intense.  Many of the decisions they make today will have impact them for many years to come and likely will set the course for the rest of their lives.  The problem here is that at this point in their lives they are often ill-equipped to make such monumental decisions without significant input from others.

Our job as parents, friends, mentors, and persons of influence is to shape them and prepare them for these decisions.  I will paraphrase the writer Andy Andrews by saying that our job isn't to raise great kids (despite what most people would say), but rather to raise our kids to be great adults.  That is an important distinction as most would think that great kids are the goal, this would be a great intermediate goal, but it is short-sighted.  We MUST prepare them for adulthood by controlling exposure to the issues of the world, not keeping them from everything, but shaping them to make good decisions, to recognize trade-offs, to understand consequences and risk-reward systems, but most importantly to put them on firm ground spiritually.

When we remove God and His ways from the context of their lives they are essentially baseless.  The messaging this weekend has been built around a theme of Love Out Loud and trying to identify what that looks like.  One of the most powerful demonstrations I have ever seen occurred last night when the minister, Dr. Spencer Furby, taught that scripture (the Word of God) is the script for our lives.  He set up a scenario that teens face on a regular basis where a young pairing had been dating for several months and was faced with the opportunity to have some alone time together at home.  In this scenario the young man was attempting to talk the young lady into "taking advantage" of this situation and moving to a new level of physical intimacy.  The Good Dr. Furby then pointed to scripture as the script for this situation, to craft a response to the effect of:

  "My body belongs to God,"

and 

"My body belongs to my spouse"

(sorry the actual references escape me this morning)

This scenario was actually played out in front of the roughly 400 teens in attendance and I believe was a seminal moment for several.  In a short debriefing with 5 of the boys from our group after returning to the hotel, it was obvious that they were duly impressed with this demonstration.  When we craft the right object lessons it is possible to make an impact.  This scenario could be tweaked as well to put a more adult spin on it as well, as this type of struggle is not restricted to teens.

We would all do well to get into The Word, as it is the best way to flip the script on society.  Learn it, love it, live it, and you will Make Today GREAT, and set a course for smoother sailing ahead.  That smoother sailing won't be without some headwinds and rough waters, but will keep you in touch with the Great Captain of our lives who is more than willing to navigate you through the storms, when you cast your cares upon Him.

Expect the Unexpected

How often do we find ourselves saying something to the effect of, "I didn't see that coming"? If you are anything like me it is far more often than we would expect.  There we go again, just within that statement it has happened again.  The point is that life is pretty much unpredictable.

Those subtle warnings in fine print, telling us such gems as, "past performance does not guarantee future results", and such are truly trying to tell us something.  There are no sure things in this life.  Our best bet then is to turn the odds in our favor by looking beyond this meager existence. 

"Do not lay up for yourselves

treasures on earth,

Where moth and rust destroy

and where thieves break in and steal;

but lay up for yourselves

treasures in heaven,

where neither rust nor moth destroys

and where 

thieves do not break in and steal."

Matthew 6:19-20

Christ has paved the way for us to have certainty, and the passage above points us to something that has certainty.  In another passage we are told:

"Let not your heart be troubled;

you believe in God,

believe also in Me.

In my Father's house are many mansions;

if it were not so,

I would have told you.

And if I go to prepare a place for you,

I will come again 

and receive you to myself;

that where I am,

there you may be also.

And where I go you know,

and the way you know."

John 14:1-4

With the beginning of a new year we tend to get caught up in goal setting, resolutions and new beginnings, none of which I am opposed to.  However life is going to throw us curves, and if we are not expecting there to be some unexpected moments, events, and outcomes, then we may struggle to maintain our composure.  When we take a fuller perspective and bring Heaven and eternity into the picture, that is when we can begin to have certainty.  

Go forth, chase your dreams, desires and goals in 2018, but do so with a full view of the perspective God has for you.  Expect the unexpected and be certain knowing that you, if you are a Christian, are insured by the greatest insurance policy ever conceived, the grace of God!  When we put our faith to work in this way, that is when we will Make Today (and every day) GREAT!