Never forget

I have to admit....I forget.  I forget some of the most profound things I have ever experienced and am overwhelmed by the trials of today.  I forget what God has done in my life and fret over the trials of today....completely forgetting his love and care every moment of my life!  How do I forget so easily? How do I trust him so little?  It grieves me to know, like the children of Israel in the wilderness, I forget all God has done and find myself worrying, complaining and fretting over the trials of today.

But this morning I watched a portion of a sermon by an old friend as he shared the story of God's touch in his life.  And I remembered when God did that in my life as well....but until I saw his story I had almost forgotten.  How could I forget the most profound thing that has ever happened to me?  But I did!  

Here is the passage my friend shared,

The Lord your God is with you,

    the Mighty Warrior who saves.

He will take great delight in you;

    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,

    but will rejoice over you with singing.

Zeph. 3:17

He will take great delight in you.

His love will change how he deals with you.

He will sing about you!

Do you realize how amazing this is?

In my own life my encounter with God's love happened nearly 47 years ago, but changed my life forever.  

How could I forget that encounter, that reality, that presence of God's love in a moment?  But I had!  

It's sad how easy it is for us to forget when God parted the Red Sea, fed us with manna and gave us water from the rock....and then, only days later, we complain because we have no meat.

We forget to remember that God loves us, he cares for us, he sees us and will never let us go.  Never forget that you are madly and passionately loved by the God who made you and saved you!  

Never forget!

Choices and Outcomes

You choices change your outcomes

You have heard that in different ways all your life

but

here is the truth...

You can't always control your situation,

what happens or what has happened to you

but you do control your responses to those situations

A young man by the name of Daniel lived all of this out

He was taken into captivity

His parents probably killed

His home destroyed

His life changed

He never saw his home again

He couldn't control any of those things

But what he could control was his choice

about his situation

and

he chose to live for God

in the middle of the worse possible situation

his choices completely changed his outcomes

and

the outcomes of his people

and 

his country of captivity

No matter what happens in your life

never forget you choose your response

you choose how you will deal with the situation

and

that choice will change the outcome in you

and

in the situation you face

Nothing really matters

This morning I had to take our dog to the veterinarian for a checkup. As I waited with my nervous little dog in the waiting room two old men were visiting and one said to the other, "Well, nothing really matters anyway." 

My first thoughts were of a Queen song, but then I imagined he had to be either a realist, a pragmatist, a fatalist or a Nihilist.  Since he was old I thought him a fatalist resolved to his situation but I wondered.

Why would he believe nothing really matters?  What had brought him to that point?  Did he lose faith somewhere? Did he just give up?  It was such a shocking statement from the lips of an older gentleman that I began to wonder what had brought him to that dark place.

But, as I thought about it I realized it might be a liberating place as well.  If you aren't clinging to anything, aren't expecting anything, then you aren't surprised or disappointed by anything either.  It might be a great defense mechanism for him.  "Well, nothing really matters so who cares that the house burned to the ground."

But we are not left at such a sad place.  God has come and shouted to the world that life has meaning, we are not just animals doomed to death and oblivion, but we are the loved creations of God.  And his love brought him here to tell us, "YOU really matter!"  And then he proved it by giving everything to give us life.

The grand and glorious declaration of a loving God is that there is hope, there is a purpose, we are loved....and it matters!

Tragedy

All hell broke loose this week in Las Vegas.  It is a tragedy beyond words.  

Tragedy plagues our planet.  Earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, floods, draughts....shall I continue?

Tragedy is a stark and sobering reality for the human race.  After every tragedy where life is lost one of the questions we all ask is "Why?"  

and

"Where is God when these things happen?"

Tragedy leaves us looking for answers that cannot be found easily and sometimes not at all.

We blame the shooter, the guns, the government, we even blame God.  

We want someone to pay.

But rarely will we find an answer, a note, a message in the clouds.  Rarely will we understand.  And what puzzles us even more is that tragedy often takes the best of us and leaves the wretched untouched.

In a vacuum of answers the one thing I hope tragedy does when it knocks on your door is drive you to God.  Don't run to him for answers. I've never found him willing to explain to us children why the boo boo hurts or why he didn't  stop it.  And when we ask, "Why did you allow this?"  we almost always hear silence.  I think the reason for God's silence is our inability to understand what has happened and what he is doing about it.  

In the midst of tragedy don't look up in anger, look up in prayer to a loving God who cares more than you could ever know.

Small graces

They are easy to miss.  Life is so busy. But God provides small graces each day to reveal himself, his love and his presence.  Most rush right past them.  There are meetings to attend, paperwork to do, babies to hold, kids to shuttle.

But be careful.  In the rush of life you will easily miss the small graces of God's presence, the thin places where he makes himself know, where he smiles at you, shows his love.  They are like gentle whispers.  They won't force their way into your attention, but they are all around you.

These sweet graces begin early.  A bird singing.  God took care of that bird through the night and he is singing of God's care and provision.  Did you hear it?

The sun came up.  Without a sound it declared that God is faithful, caring and providing for us.

Hopefully you were able to eat something to begin your day.  It's part of the daily bread thing God talks about.  He provides it for the saint and the sinner.  

Small graces.  Don't rush through your day too quickly.  You will miss them and in doing so you will miss God.