Ten 13 Sixty Seven

My mom is in the hospital as I write this for a pretty serious back surgery. She is recovering well, just in a lot of pain. The surgery and her recovery has taken place ironically at the same hospital I was born in 43 years ago today. They have moved her to the older part of the hospital. She told me this morning: "who knows, maybe it was this very room you were born in." That was a weird thought.

Where did 43 years go? I don't feel 43. I definitely don't act 43. When I was eight 43 seemed very old. When I was 18 it seemed even older. I have very vivid memories of my childhood. I can remember graduating from high school like it was yesterday. They were not joking when they said time truly flies by after high school. Our birthdays and New Years Day help us reflect twice a year that life is short and we better make the most of it because one thing for sure we cannot control is getting older.

One of my Spanish speaking friends wrote on my facebook page:"FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS"
Literally translated from Spanish to English it means "Happy years completed." I like that. I have completed 43 years! Some were better than others. Some were easier than others. Never the less, they are complete.

One of my favorite writers Henri Nouwen said this about birthdays:

"Birthdays are so important. On our birthdays we celebrate being alive. On our birthdays people can say to us, "Thank you for being!" Birthday presents are signs of our families' and friends' joy that we are part of their lives. Little children often look forward to their birthdays for months. Their birthdays are their big days, when they are the center of attention and all their friends come to celebrate. We should never forget our birthdays or the birthdays of those who are close to us. Birthdays keep us childlike. They remind us that what is important is not what we do or accomplish, not what we have or who we know, but that we are, here and now. On birthdays let us be grateful for the gift of life."

In other words we should make a bigger deal out of birthdays than any other accomplishments, graduations, or successes because of the simple fact that we were born. We count. We matter. We exist. Most importantly we matter to God. He created us and gave us purpose and in Christ gives us hope. Celebrating birthdays matter because we matter to Him.

So on my birthday I offer this simple prayer:

"Lord, let my birthday be a reminder to me of all the gifts and blessings I have received from You this day and all the days of my life. On my day of celebration, I thank you for my life and all of my blessings and ask for another year filled with Your presence in my life that I may continue to grow in your love. Gracious God, I thank You for enabling me to celebrate my birthday. Lord You have been good to me all these years and I thank You for all the blessings I have recieved but especially for life itself. Creator God, I do not know what lies ahead for me this year. Yet I know that You are holding my future in Your hand. Let my ways be pleasing to you. As You have promised, be with me, Lord. Gird me with Your strength and grace so that I can live for Your light. Enable me to draw closer to You that I may walk in your peace and be the creative and loving person that you intend for me to be. I ask this and all things in the sure and certain knowledge of your love for me and for all your people. Amen."

Letting Go

To let go doesn’t mean to stop caring, it means I can’t do it for someone else.

To let go is not to cut myself off, it’s the realization that I can’t control another.

To let go is not to enable, but to allow learning from natural consequences.

To let go is to admit powerlessness,
which means the outcome is not in my hands.

To let go is not to try to change or blame another, I can only change myself.

To let go is not to care for, but to care about.

To let go is not to fix, but to be supportive.

To let go is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being.

To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes, but to allow others to effect their own outcomes.

To let go is not to be protective; it is to permit another to face reality.
To let go is not to deny, but to accept.

To let go is not to nag, scold or argue,
but to search out my own shortcomings and to correct them.

To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires,
but to take each day as it comes.

To let go is not to criticize and regulate anyone,
but try to become what dream I can be.

To let go is not to regret the past, but to grow and live for the future.
To let go is to fear less and love more!

Author Unknown

Who do you love?

I once heard a definition for love that has always stuck with me: :"Love cares for, provides for, and protects the well-being of the one loved." We have heard it said that love is not a feeling but it is an action. There are many examples in Scripture that support this understanding. For example: "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." (1 John 3:18) Jesus said there was no greater love than a person lay down their life for their friend.

Love is a tricky thing. It is a word that is used very loosely. We can "love ice cream" and we can "love God and others" meaning a very different type of love.

If love is an action more than a feeling then I am asking myself the question: "who do I really love"?

We are not commanded in Scripture to "like" everyone, we are told to "love" everyone. Even those who hurt us, who speak badly of us, those who mistreat us, those who are even our enemies.

Jesus said that people will know who are His followers if they live lives of love.

I know that my love is imperfect, yet God's love is perfect. "God is love." He is the very definition of love and He lives in me, therefore I can love the unlovely and unlovable because He does.

I dream of the day when I will be so consumed in God's love that love for others will be the first response from my heart when I get hurt by others or people disappoint me.

Lets pray together:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon:
where there is doubt, faith ;
where there is despair, hope
where there is darkness, light
where there is sadness, joy
O divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen. (Prayer of St. Francis)

This is a must read: Simply life changing

Copy and paste this link

http://download.redeemer.com/pdf/learn/resources/All_of_Life_Is_Repentance-Keller.pdf

One of the best books I have read is called "The Prodigal God" By Tim Keller who is also the author of this article. Everything he teaches and preaches is centered on what Christ has done for us and how that is the key to real and lasting hope and change.

For more by Tim Keller follow this link:

http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/bio/timkeller.html

Prone to wander

Why is it so easy to be so introspective and self-abasing? Why do we struggle not only believing the Gospel but living in the grace that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has provided? Jesus died to make us right with God. There is nothing we can do that adds to the righteousness found in the Gospel and there is nothing we can do to take anything from it. (Romans 3:21-26)

Martin Luther is helpful when he writes:

"This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified."

I woke up this morning thinking about a verse found in 2 Peter 1:3:

"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." NIV

God has given us EVERYTHING we need. That means we lack nothing of what really matters and we do not lack the things that are necessary for real life! He truly has given us everything we need.

What has He given us? He has given us the promise of eternal life. He has given has the Lord Jesus, our Savior, our King, the best friend we could ever have! He has given us His word which provides lasting peace & real joy. He has given us the Holy Spirit. He has given us the Church, He has given us "one another." What else do we really need? How we answer that may help each of us answer my first question of why we are so restlessly introspective and self-abasing.

I can relate to the old hymn that says:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Butt Prints in the sand

One night I had a wondrous dream,
One set of footprints there was seen,
The footprints of my precious Lord,
But mine were not along the shore.

But then some stranger prints appeared,
And I asked the Lord,"What have we here?"
Those prints are large and round and neat,
"But Lord,they are too big for feet."
"My child," He said in somber tones,
"For miles I carried you alone.
I challenged you to walk in faith,
But you refused and made me wait."
"You disobeyed,you would not grow,
The walk of faith,you would not know,
So I got tired,I got fed up'
And there I dropped you on your butt."
"Because in life,there comes a time,
When one must fight,and one must climb,
When one must rise and take a stand,
Or leave their butt prints in the sand."
--Author Unknown

Valor

val·or: boldness or determination in facing great danger, especially in battle; heroic courage; bravery: a medal for valor

Pat Tillman was killed in friendly fire on April 23, 2003 in Afghanistan. Tillman was a successful defensive back for the Arizona Cardinals. He was so successful he was on the brink of signing a multi-year contract worth millions of dollars. He had turned down more money from the St. Louis Rams the previous year out of loyalty to the Cardinals. Tillman was so moved by the terrorist attacks of 9/11 that he felt it was his duty to join the Army and serve his country. He gave up fame and fortune to follow what he felt was his obligation at the cost of his own life.

To me this is the definition of sacrifice. When we sacrifice it means we give up something for the benefit of others. I am thankful for those in the military who sacrificed their comfort and convenience for the rest of us. Numerous men and women have shown incredible valor by facing danger and adversity for the sake of  the freedom of others. There are not enough words to express thankfulness for their bravery. 

Memorial Day makes me think of someone else who possessed incredible valor, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ laid down His life to give freedom for sinners like me. He did not have to do it, but He chose to do it because He loves us: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

The reality is we should be mindful of the sacrifice of those we remember on Memorial Day more than one day a year, and we should be even more mindful of the sacrifice of Jesus everyday.

2 Corinthians 5:21
"For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ." NLT

As soldiers do their best to defer, deflect, and detour those who would harm us, so Jesus did when He died on the cross. The cross of Jesus Christ will never make sense nor be fully appreciated until we grasp the sinfulness of sin and the holiness of God. Sin destroys lives that is why God hates it so much and that is why it took such a great sacrifice to atone for it. Scripture puts it this way:

"We are made right in God's sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done. For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God's anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us. God was being entirely fair and just when he did not punish those who sinned in former times. And he is entirely fair and just in this present time when he declares sinners to be right in his sight because they believe in Jesus." (Romans 3:22-26 NLT)

Jesus turned away God's righteous judgment of my sin and yours when He died on the cross.God treated Jesus way I deserved to be treated. He was judged so that we do not have to be judged. Jesus showed what valor was all about when He faced the agony of the cross. Christ's valor was motivated by perfect love. He was not dying for land, governments, policies, oil, or any earthly kingdom.

"...He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterward. Now he is seated in the place of highest honor beside God's throne in heaven." (Hebrews 12:2 NLT)