THE PROBLEM WITH WAITING IS THAT IT IS SO SLOW

Wait.  Oh sure.  In other words, put me on hold when I've got so much to do.

Wait 'til Spring.  Wait 'til you can drive.  Wait for the light to change.  Wait for Christmas.

Wait a minute!  Regular life seems to be packed with a most common; yet a very nuisancing non-time capsule called W-A-I-T.

Wait is what makes the church God's.  Hurrying is what makes the church ours instead. These aren't a match.  Much valuable time is lost, not in waiting, but in forging on without the endorsement of Father, Son, and Spirit.  We tend to want things and, when the idea hits, we want them now.

The Spirit has everything to do with waiting.  When the early church began in Acts the placed popped with robust life because the disciples (very much emotionally and eagerly engaged in this new drive of God's), who were intentionally poised to reach the whole world, were told to wait.

So they did.

This very idea is one of the grand secrets of the Holy Spirit because man's nature feels more at ease as long as we are doing something; anything but standing still.  Our movement seems paramount to satisfying the flesh-life.  This is why so many who deem themselves as committed Christians...never pray.  That's a zone more of waiting than taking fleshly action.  To these, prayer seems dull, useless, and a complete waste of time.

The problem with waiting is that it is so slow.  The marvel of waiting is that it is so endorsed by the divine call of God.  It has always been true of those in Scriptures and those who follow them; those who wait on God tend to get more done than those who have no time to be with God because they are so busy trying to get their kingdom efforts to produce.

STRIVING TO BE IMAGINERS

God is all about imagination; wildly so at that.  Man, religious man, succumbs however to managination; management of the spiritual.  The former is Life in the church and the latter is Death.  Without the Holy Spirit we tend to manage our imaginations which, fundamentally, results in dabbling with Kingdom matters to the extent that we would be in control.  Control is a big important word to a person who has one foot in the Kingdom and one foot in the world.

I love the church!  I love getting to be a part of it!  But a great flaw in me is that I want to know how my/our efforts will go.  I would not have been a valuable board member when it came to releasing God's children into the raging and swollen waters of the Red Sea.  No, I would have needed a few more business meetings and a bit more perspective if I were to regard myself as a respected supporter of such a hair-brained move.

What I'm/we are learning is that God surely enjoys being God.  Showing His handiwork seems to give Him (and us) enormous delight.  Therefore, may we be a people that note when we are discussing possibility and potential with the invisible culprit of fear sitting in our midst.  May we be imaginers--risky, unemplainable, take-your-breath-away, imaginers for none of us believe God's arms have atrophied.

Dare we strive, vigorously so, to step out by faith to see God do what no man nor church has yet imagined could be done.  And then, might we spread the word of His activity among us?  Imagine what can be but hasn't been....yet!!!

TRY NOT TO SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF

If not careful, we will spend far too much time resenting stuff--people stuff, work stuff, or not-enough-hours-in-the-day stuff--and will miss the brilliance of the enormous amount of great stuff which is abundantly all around.

It's most natural to fall prey to such distraction.  We may feel ignored, or misunderstood, or abused, or put upon, or _______.  Yet, far too much of what weighs on us is a light-weight when compared to the burdens of others.

Yesterday, Thanksgiving Day, I received two messages which were stark.  The first was a call regarding a young woman who died yesterday of a heart attack.  The second was about a dear old friend who also died.

Aggravations are real.  Frustrations due to people and/or circumstances are common. The sudden death of one(s) close in heart are stunning.  We all know about this truth. Yet, we still find ways to become distracted and then hurt.

May we be glad for the privilege and wonder that is all about us.  May we treasure the moment.  May we, in turn, not sweat the small stuff.

WHEN YOU WISH YOU COULD BE MORE THAN YOU ARE

Surely one of the toughest terrains for any of us to walk is that terrorizing zone where we admit that we aren't as much as we had hoped.  The admission is painful enough. The sheer loneliness that follows is devastating.  We had hoped that by this age we would be much more than we are; but it turns out that in many cases we are even less.

The mind and heart can hardly take it in.  When high hopes come crashing down and we are left with ourselves, whew!, it's tough to breathe.  So what do we do?  How do we react to circumstances or respond to people when we feel quite flattened, embarrassed, and ashamed that we aren't the tower of life we had hoped?

It is here, at this very place, that we are challenged to believe that we can be resurrected from this living grave of ours.  It is here, on this turf, that we must not give up.  Our conclusion must be of a living, breathing faith that even dead situations can be reversed.  Faith is believing what isn't yet can be.  Too, it is trusting that what has been lost can be resurrected.

And faith we are to possess.  Note that this faith is not a spreadsheet of right and wrong answers which we might find within organized religion.  No, rather it is an unearthy kind of air we breathe being assured that God can deliver us even when no one can remember the code.

So we persist.  We persevere.  We are backed by the of the Spirit of God.  Our work of faith is to stand still while He bears His fruit.  We can't on our own; but He will if we will but avail ourselves to His loving, growing, reaching process.

No man is an island.  Well, great.  I didn't want to be an island anyway.  I just wanted to make a difference.  That's what you want as well.  The longer we last in life we will note an increasing struggle to stay with His original call; more of Him and less of us.  Rats, I was intending to become more prominent; not less.

This world we live in is buried in stress.  Very few win the lottery and those who do, it is sometimes reported, find that they now have an entirely new region of frustration like never before.

So our option is profoundly powerful.  We must continue to draw to the Light.  He knows stuff.  We don't know beans about His stuff.  Let your discouragement awaken you to the reality that you aren't as much as you may have thought; but due to His embedded Spirit within, you are more than you had ever imagined because He alone brings you up from the grave...that grave that had hoped to conceal your beauty and wonder from the neighborhood.

When you wish that you could be more than you are, the only way is to follow the trail of Jesus; all of it.  This involves more than public approval coupled with alone-time with Father.  It includes rejection, suffering, disappointment...on purpose.  As we see him struggle, we identify.  And as we see him empowered even greater from those situations, we are cheered to keep moving forward.

Up from the grave we arise!

SHOULDN'T I HAVE MATURED A BIT BY NOW?

As it turns out, life isn't going the way I had assumed.  Now, understand, I love it very much and really wouldn't want to be without it.  But what surprises me is that I had just figured that by age 69 I would have a better grip on life's unfoldings.  But it simply doesn't seem to be a-happening.

While I know more facts and even have more experiences, life grows bigger at a faster pace than my understanding.  The older I get the behinder I am....about everything! And, I'll go ahead and mention that at my age it is most challenging to try to learn the new; while simultaneously remembering the things that I learned of the old.  (Where did I leave my keys seems to be a new ritual.)

Welcome the the World of God.  His passion for creativity--which means a consistent and constant supply of new--is more than a hefty challenge to one's mind and heart.  It is devastating.  The reason for such an observation is that we students of the Word try to corner Him and yet those very Scriptures clearly declare that if there is one thing not going to happen is for Father to be cornered, labeled, sorted, and filed.

Let His soldiers be outnumbered and He'll take on thousands more of numbered enemies and beat them silly with the likes of paper plates and wet toothbrushes.  The true scenes of God's Bible battles are too weird to even be noted as weird.  You can't make this stuff up...but He did!  He seems to get a kick out of baffling the wise of the world.

Ah, maybe that's why it lists in First Corinthians 1:26-29 a most stunning few sentences...for us to do what we can to grasp:

For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.

He has chosen the things that are not to nullify the things that are?  And we are supposed to explain this by now?  That we can't explain it....is the explanation!  Thank. You.  God.

DO NOT...I REPEAT...DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED

It ain't easy being us.  Whewee!  We take two steps forward and then somebody comes up from behind and pushes us into the ditch.  Some seem to feel that they can never just pull even; let alone get ahead.

So I want to be one of those voices in your walk that would say that you can make it.  First of all, I have my days like many of you do.  Don't you get tired of being tired of the multiple non-cooperative idiots in your world?  Oh, how I exaggerate...kinda.  And, while bad stuff does occasionally happen to me, too, I especially want to say that we can make it.

This is who Father is.  It's His nature to redeem, to rescue, to revive.  That's His job.  That's His Himness.  Ours is to be redeemed, rescued, and revived.  It's a team sport.

God has wired our world backwards.  The first shall be last.  The weak shall be strong.  And we...the very ones who campaign for Him...find ourselves repeatedly stumped over His backward approach to moving us forward.  This Divine Format forever knocks at the doors of our hearts seeking permission to enter.

Discouragement has incredible endurance.  Shove it down here and it arises there.  So we have to/want to be aware that we are moving targets.  Two things are essential for success; Father and people.  The one-another passages in the New Testament are not page decorations.  Rather, they are survival kits for each of us when our hearts grow faint.

I need God.  I need you.  Every.  Day.  Because when I have those moments where I can't stop the tears, you carry the keys to open the hallways of hope and cheer.  Thank you....for being you.

ARE YOU EVER THANKFUL THAT YOU ARE NOT LIKE OTHERS? IF SO, STOP IT!

Jesus replays a scenario in the 18th chapter of Luke that is more than bold; it is clearly about us.  Two men went to the temple to pray.  One noted in front of God how much better he was than that other praying colleague.  Across the room that other praying fellow was fully aware of his lower-case stature.  God was not vague as to which one was acceptable and which one was not.

The one who elevated his personal spirituality by judging the other was not justified in Father's eyes.

In general we like this story that Jesus tells.  The reason is fundamental; we prefer to be the person right with God.  Yet, there is a consistent flaw in all of society and especially within the church.  We have such brazen tendency to believe that we are better than others (not all others because we do play the humble card; but certainly we have a few in mind who are bigger failures...we assume).  It's an easy stride.

Champion our strengths, demean others' weaknesses, and whoa!, we've got a winner...and it's usually assumed (of course) to be self.

Jesus and his disciples seemed to be efficient at living as lower-rung believers.  They truly believed that others were better than themselves.  The Cross that Jesus carried and the ones we are to carry offer an exact message; we are the ones worth executing as we value the lives of others more than ourselves.

Personal arrogance is epidemic.  I know.  I am.  Wishing to hide it, I still try to come out looking good in front of others at every level I possibly can.  My big concern in most scenarios is myself.  I don't like finishing middle; let along last.  But we are just like the lowest of sinners; not in pretense, but in reality.  No violator of God's commands reaches deeper in failure than the me/us group.

When we admit this fact, a new life explodes onto the scene.  We immediately note a sympathy to others (sinners) as well as a new-found gratitude to be in the called-of-God mix which, in turn, causes absolute joy.  We are in!  Not because we earned it; but because His grace allowed it...just as it does for all others sinners...just like us.

If you want to transform to a heart of thankfulness, be aware that you are exactly like the rawest of sinners and yet saved by the blood of the one who took on our sins upon the cross.  This revelation causes good heart-health.  If you are ever thankful that you are not like others, stop it.  If we could save ourselves by our own good deeds, there would have been no need for Jesus to die upon the Cross.

IS FAITH AN ORPHAN DOCTRINE?

Faith.  It's so liable to be regarded, even relegated, to a soupy Sunday School term. Rather than carry impact, I wonder if it has become a mere orphan doctrine which awaits at the end of the long road after we've given effort our best shot.  Do we not give credence to mission or works or baptism as the bigger stuff; while faith seems to get an "oh yeah" nod of approval?

Faith is ever the call of the day...of my day.  Whether coming at us or going from us, disruption of life tends to bully.  How will the day go?  What are we to do with strain and stress?  When will "they" get a grip on life; because until "they" do, my week is frankly one long bummer.

Genuine faith, though, is an entirely different spiritual animal than what we might think. It brings into existence things that aren't yet.  Too, it takes our dyingness of each day and infuses a livingness in the very place we have groveled for more air.  Faith moves mountains and changes dispositions.

Faith is not to be an orphan doctrine that gets lip-service during our Bible discussions. It changes the world; my world, your world.  It is real.  Faith is invisible; yet true.

Faith never gives up.  When nothing hopeful can be seen or heard, believing that God knows and does marvel and wonder in the center of such times is both life-giving and life-changing.  Oh how I need this...and want it.

For every breakdown there is an oncoming breakopen.  When darkness prevails, morning is creeping closer.  I tend to forget.  A good thing about me is that the deeper I forget the closer remembering His provision tends to move my direction.  Remember, we don't move toward the sunrise.  It moves toward us.  Faith believes hope is getting closer.

You see, at the cemetery where Jesus was entombed a fact happened that changes where we live.  When he arose again, death died.  Yes...take this in...death died.  Your dark days?  Temporary.  My blues?  Will end.

Such comes about never because we are intellectually maneuveralistic.  It happens because we believe God can deliver when we don't even know what such a package would look like.  Faith is not insurance; but assurance.  Don't let the dark times rule. Rather, trust that they will one day end...again.  And when they do, the surprises of God will be awaiting.

Faith is not an orphan doctrine that has to hitch-hike in order to ride the gospel train.  No, it sits behind the steering wheel and takes us places we have never dreamt we could get to travel.

JESUS DIDN'T GIVE US A CROSS FOR THE PARADE OF IT

We are targeted by dark opposition.  The temptation to shut down, fade into the woodwork, or just quit seems to run through one's path here and there.  I don't know about you; but I don't like the deep struggles.  I don't like 'em a little bit.  Yet, I learned something years ago that has proven true and accurate.  God doesn't waste one crumb of our crummy times.  Everything is indeed for our benefit; the kingdom style of being a yes.

What bugs me, though, is that while I really do know this and believe it, I somehow wish that it meant an end to the rough times.  But that's not to be.  That isn't reality. Otherwise, why would He hand off His cross for us to carry?  Just for the parade of it?

So be reminded and encouraged that the many pressures and stresses you encounter are not doors with intent to shut you out.  Rather, these are doors packaged with instructions as to how to note opportunity.

There is no resurrection if there is no burial.  There is no burial if there is no death. We are called to carry our crosses how often?  Once?  One time?  No, you know that not to be the case.  But we are to carry them daily.  This, I believe, insists that we take up our crosses every day to die to ourselves.  This daily dying is directly linked to daily renewal....II Corinthians 4:16-18.  Especially note that verse 17 explicitly states that affliction is productive.

Without God, then yes. being shut down means being shut down.  Bummed and discouraged, nothing offers significant hope.  Yet in the Kingdom, there is such strong reversal that the very shut down moments will be used as the fuel for lift off.

In reality, this is the most difficult part of my walk.  I hate the process of dying to self. I'd prefer everything go well and that everyone applaud me!  But that isn't reality, is it?  So what we do, in the deepest moments of suffocating despair is remember God's call to carry an assigned cross.  From there we look forward to resurrection moments even when we can't see anything at those precise negative moments anything beyond our reasons for frustration.

It is true, however.  The very thing which wishes to shut us out is pregnant with the very element that will open a new door....as He insists in that verse 17....of productivity.  Do what you can to believe.  May we continue to hold on to one another while we try to get there.

WHEN STRUGGLES JUST AREN'T OUR THING

    Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from         the things which He suffered.  Hebrews 5:8

We tend to live so very upside down.  For starters we love chocolate cake and despise peas.  That is the basic mis-standard of all of life right there.  The spirit-life that we each possess has peas written all over it...known as suffering.

The cross is our most meaningful presentation. Supposedly that is our calling just as long as it is cushioned as well as convenient.  But everyone knows that the cross of Christ is brutal, damaging, and absolutely rugged.  And yet the ones we carry are supposed to be....different?

Scan Isaiah 53 for a bit.  Look over the report of torturous suffering at the hands of enemies of Jesus. And we proclaim with solid affirmation that we are all about following him?  

Yes.  We are.  And in doing so we must, must prepare for the intensity of distress and heartbreak of being a Christian.  Mood-swings won't cut it.  Dodging hard times won't either.  With all of the new and more modern ways to worship God, one significant matter will never change.  We are to struggle via insult and injury to the extent that it is our thing....because it was His.

Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.  Hebrews 5:8

WHEN I GET ON MY OWN NERVES

No one wears me out as quickly as I do.  As a dear friend of mine always says about herself, I get on my own nerves.  For me, this is laughably (and sometimes tearfully) true of myself.  If I irritate you, you oughta note how I feel about myself sometimes!

Could it be that our struggles are not to be wasted; but rather noted for a divine moment which, in reality, it seems we'd rather not experience?  Could it be that our twists, our turns, our screams, and our angsts are birth pangs of yet another new birth called maturing?  Theologian Alan Jones wrote, There is a self within each one of us aching to be born.  Sue Monk Kidd immediately comments on Jones' note by saying, And when this aching breaks into our lives--whether through midlife struggle or some other crisis--we must somehow find the courage to say yes.  Yes to the more real, more Christ-like self struggling to be born.

Be not dismayed at your own frailty.  Rather, never cringe and never give up.  The rough moments are divine tutors who are to lead us into the newly expanded more productive us.  Everybody has a bad day.  And those same everybodies are targeted by stress to build muscles of faith because we've got a world to reach.

THE CURE FOR WHAT AILS US

All of mankind has identical ailment.  This dis-ease knows no barriers.  Religion, race, nationality, educational level, social status, nor economic structure is able to resist global unhealth of the inner person.  Whether climbing the corporate ladder or racing for a supreme destination, all wrong breaks loose anytime one determines to finish anywhere but last.

This is a terribly stunning concept that seems to be, on all counts, absurd.  Yet, the very reason society is in disarray from family structure to community charm is the truth that individuals (as in each of us) live fundamentally for the welfare of self.  Self-preservation dominates roles, conversations, and actions.

A major breakthrough to abundant and satisfying life is to finish last.  Such a statement is usually found to be repulsive.  Maybe we don't have to finish at the top; but don't point me toward the bottom rung of the social ladder.  Yet, this is precisely a missed secret for success.

Jesus left his luxurious Heavenhattan Apartment on Fifth Avenue to become the janitor of the world.  He arrived a nobody and left an assumed convict.  All-the-while, his role on earth was specifically to clean up our messes.  When he left earth, the Apostle Paul picked up the baton and moved about declaring that he himself was the least among all people.

We?  Well, we tend to want recognition; not neglect.  Honor is our wish; not unappreciation.  Thank yous would be expected rather than blatant rejection. Favorable comments would be accepted; but not vocal disdain...in front of crowds. And, while we are at it, a robe and a crown would seem to be more in line as a reward for our generous efforts; not beatings and public execution.

Somehow, we have manipulated the Word to say these strenuous things about Jesus and the Apostle with little regard for such dimensions to be activated within our own walk.  The world is in it's own realm of hurt because those who try to get serious about carrying crosses do just that.  We tend to carry them with little intention of dying upon them.

As was true of us when Jesus found us, our neighbors cannot get well if we do not see the need to finish last so that they may finish higher.  Our loss is their victory--necessarily so-- and these victorious ones will be called by God to be the next batch of losers so that others may taste victory.

Losing our lives for others is the cure for what ails...all of us.

WHERE DOES GOD FIT IN A POST-ELECTION REALITY?

We lived! We endured it! We engaged it in!

We listened, we debated, we laughed or we cried, we relaxed and maybe we cringed....and someone eventually won the Presidential Election. Congratulations to all who won political offices and thank you to each who championed your causes only to learn of defeat.

A question we now have is where will God fit--does He fit--in the post-election life in which we now face? Not only will He fit, not only does He belong in such a zone, His presence is essential. Without Him we are sunk and with Him we are victorious regardless of political bent.

The future of anyone is pregnant with rock-solid hope. The reason for this can only be attributed to the Holy Spirit of God. "Ah, Terry, you are going to inject religion into this?" Nope! I'm interjecting the reality of Life into it. Jesus didn't get himself down here to give us robotic religion. He came that we might have life and have it ABUNDANTLY!!

But, how? is a perfect question.

The how is found in the Holy Spirit who dispenses actual attitudes and dispositions withing believers....Galatians 5:22-23. He helps us love when we can't on our own. He assists in infusing joy and peace, etc. when we can't pull it out with our best determinations.

America isn't going to work because we are rid of one President and now face upcoming time for a new. No, our hope is embedded within our hearts. Hope is a spiritual matter; not an explainable nor a humanistic power move. Kindness and goodness and gentleness won't walk our streets because we are Democrats or Republicans. No, such hits the road because we are empowered to offer hope to all around us; even when we are too inadequate to do so on our own steam....II Corinthians 3:4-5...which can only be found legit through the Holy Spirit of God.

THIS IS A TEST

Only a test.  Do not read.  Do not send money.  Well....send money if you must.

ADAPTING TO LIVING IN THE UNKNOWN

There is a spiritual health available that allows us to walk blindly (faith without sight) through the terrain of our earthen experience.  While, of course, this can be most challenging, it is exceptionally alive with excitement.  Dare we want it?

I personally like to shop; headed for the mall with nothing specific in mind; just looking around.  Some are impatient and regard such as a waste of time; while others believe it to be wonderful life!  When one comes upon that special item or amazing bargain, joy fills our hearts.  So it can be/should be/is to be in the Kingdom.  As a matter of fact, that's one of the special treats of working with God.  He is full of surprises; events we don't anticipate or people's blessed interaction which might catch us off guard.

I really like how Thomas Merton puts it, The imagination should be allowed a certain amount of time to browse around.  Yes!  Wouldn't it be such a loss if, when shopping, we had no time to browse around?  The struggle would be?  We would miss out on the happy surprises!

That's exactly what happened to me in my earlier years.  I was loaded to the hilt with schedules and goals and needs and...and...I my devoted church activity was blocking me from the surprises of the One I was pedaling fast to represent.  When I learned to be still, it seemed that maybe Father had an opportunity to show me a few options that had yet to be considered.

May we develop a faith which would dare to allow each of us the amazing experience of abundant life in the zones of the unknown.  May we think it, seek it, wonder it, imagine it!  He can still do more than we can imagine or think according to the power that works within us...He says...Ephesians 3:19.

Our job?  Allow it.  Try to live in the unknown.  God is waiting there.

LIVING IN GRATITUDE TO GOD

I'm not sure that we can understand the dynamic wonder of our salvation until we grasp the raw truth that, until Jesus hits, we are devastated by our own sins.

May we do our best not to live in comparison of others; but in gratitude for His pardon.
                                                                                                    .....II Cor. 10:12,

THE CHURCH: THE PEOPLE-PLACE

I never saw it coming.  I mean the very idea that I could be a part of church...and like it?  For me, Sunday church was the low point of every week.  Disengaging.  Incredible slowing of time (just how long can an hour last?).  Rigid.  Oh, and did I mention boring like in "bored out of my mind"?

Church, I discovered, is 24/7 and the most exciting venue upon earth...and tied directly to heaven.  Rules stagnate church.  Jesus redefines it.  After all, it is he alone who is the head of it.  We churchers are members of his body...which roams earth to this day.  Our goal is the same as was his: (1) draw absolute attention to Father, and (2) give sacrificial attention to people.

Today, as was true back in Jesus day, the religious world is dramatically divided into two opposing camps; (1) those who live to energize neighbors, friends, and even enemies, or (2) those who live to see that the church system and organization are functioning upon all of the "right" cylinders.  The former risks life-giving vulnerability to try to serve while the latter hides in a spirit-killing religious orthodoxy.

I completely understand the hiding part for that's how I was in the beginning of ministry.  I was programmed to be sure that I taught Bible facts precisely as God intended, while highly intimidated by the encountering of the public.  I was one who found safety by hiding behind a public pulpit.  But people?  Only my friends were my calling.  Strangers were not my forte.

But Jesus wouldn't support my self-designed church structure; although I certainly had a lot of church company in refusing to look for others who needed encouragement about the nature and Spirit of God.  I was hiding behind my church laws as they kept me comfortably at bay from interacting with...with people.  Hmmm, exactly where Jesus clashed daily with the intensely getter-done-right Pharisees.

The church is a people-place where people encourage people about the dynamics of Father, Son, and Spirit.  The church is more than proper rules and detailed organization.  It has a gigantic and sacrificial heart for the hurting, for the lonely, for all who are trying to do life while feeling completely lost.

In the beginning I had a knack for Truth and for inspiration.  But I found, it seemed, legal excuses as to how I could be peopleless in my walk with God.  This won't work because it isn't His calling.

So you.  Are you a part of the church, as was I, to mark your check-list of attendances? Or are you given to the call of Jesus to believe that what isn't yet can become as well as offering words of hope to the many who haven't heard a good word in ages?  May we break open to the common person(s) in our midst that these might hear a message of incredibly Good News coming from our formerly shy lips.  We can do this.

HOW TO OVERCOME THE CONFIDENCE DROUGHT

I've roamed parts of earth now for 69+ years.  I've learned a few things along the way. It continues to be quite a ride.  Learning the most basics about God is a day by day, decade by decade matter because He is so God and I am so not.  There's one constant factor that both bugs me as well as motivates me.  Each of us fights for lasting confidence while inner confidence is what the Holy Spirit is all about.

Here are precise words needed for those of us who find it difficult to be chipper day by day.  And such confidence we have through Christ toward God.  Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God....II Corinthians 3:4-5.  Never adequate/always adequate is found in each of us when we surrender our own lack and permit His presence to enter.

Clearly, conflict rages within.  We spend our earliest years forward learning to be adequate.  And this is true of every person from poorest to the richest, fear and frustration over who we are and aren't calls too many of our shots.  As a result we live in defense of our meager portion of control hoping--oh just hoping--that we are looking good in front of all others.  We beg that our flaws (inadequacies) not be detected.

A self-confidence drought is in play day by day.  I battle it for I'm not ever enough...not ever.  My victory (whenever I get to experience it) is when I can admit my lack while simultaneously receiving His power.  We believe the Divine lives from within the unDivine.  We believe that He makes a difference for us and within us when we have absolutely no clue.  Such cluelessness is that mystery of faith; know it but can't visibly see it.

At this very long stage in ministry, I continue to find myself needing the reminder that just because I am inadequate does not mean that I am useless.  Such is the very stage from where God performs His stuff.  This has always been His style and His approach; weak man linked to powerful Father.

Be encouraged.  Don't give Him your confidences for they are full of holes.  Give Him your lack and then step back and watch Him feed 5000 with it.  Don't bring to the table your plans and predictions for they will eventually fade.  Rather offer Father your prayers and your will.  Open your hands and your heart.  Dare to allow God to place within both dreams of possibility that are well beyond imagination.  Such is His specialty.

This...will overcome the confidence drought.  Shed our self-confidence.  Be open to Holy Spirit confidence...and let the world in on why there is a new you.

THAT AWFUL YEAR THAT I WAS TRADED TO THE CUBS

Next January I am headed to my 34th year of playing baseball for a week at the St. Louis Cardinals Legends Camp at Roger Dean Stadium and Spring Training baseball complex in Jupiter, Florida.  While the camps began as an only Cardinals gathering at the then Spring Training facility in St. Petersburg, Florida, we later moved to Mesa Arizona where we encountered a week-long camp of three teams of Cardinals and three teams of Chicago Cubs.

That was a fun move.  It surely increased the competitional mindset.  There was no doubt that the Cards/Cubs rivalry, indeed, did exist.  Tension, all in fun (well...sorta), prevailed.

In these camps they do what they can to give us what they call a Big-League experience everywhere from playing a game against the former big-leaguers to suffering traumatic injury due to pulled muscles.  The most popular guys in camp are the trainers, three or four of them, who have us waiting in line for treatment after just one day's workouts and games.

An unusual thing happened to me that, thus far in the many camps, had not taken place...ever.  And it surely was one of those "experiences" they try to provide.  A catcher on one of the Cubs team got hurt.  I, being a third baseman and a catcher, was traded to the....to the....Cubs late in the week.  This provided a moment that I had no idea existed.  These guys had lost the participation of their friend.  I was a Cardinal...and they didn't want me.  But....they had me!

What?!?!  Who could not like me?  I'm that happy, look sorta like Brad Pitt, and am friendly to everyone, Terry!  Nope.  Cold.  It was like they rolled their eyes in disgust.  These Cubbies were not going to throw out the welcome mat for me.  So I learned yet another lesson of how some of the big-leaguers feel at times.

I dunno.  Do you think that my wearing my Cardinal uniform while on their team might have perpetuated my being rejected?  Either way....CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CHICAGO CUBS ON YOUR WORLD SERIES AWE!!  I have many friends who are former Cubs players and I am ultra happy for your victory...really.  Great job!!

EAT HEALTHY

Give us this day our daily bread.
                                         Jesus

Daily is quite the important factor if we are serious about being believers in, of, and with God.  Life in reality is not a one-time decision that just about covers being of effective faith.  No.  It is rather a constant start-over once again.  Confessing our sins day by day, overcoming hardship day by day, reinforcing conviction and commitment....day...by...day.

To live in the Kingdom under Spirit order challenges the heart. This is why much strong language comes from the Bible regarding the call for endurance.  Why?  Because the flesh-nature is to eventually cave to disappointments and frustrations...and quit.

Bread is for sustenance.  Daily is that effective standard of how often we need food of the Spirit in order to make it through another twenty-four hour slot filled with both celebrations and exasperations.  We desperately need to remember Jesus' prayer example, "Give us this day our daily bread."  Oh, many can hide and develop a sense that there is no such need.  But for all who walk in God's army and are on the firing line, He insists that we have the energy to keep going forward.

I wish to cheer you on about your rugged days of conflict.  We are not in need of others to get a grip and, therefore, get off of our backs.  We are first need to pray for His provision to fill us for we cannot do life on our own strength.  God is the One who fills.  We are the vessels to receive His filling.  

Try to curb the inner drive of doing life on your own steam.  

Daily....bread.  Eat healthy.  

THE PREGNANCY OF DEATH

For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silvanus and Timothy—was not yes and no, but is yes in Him.

For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.  II Corinthians 1:19-20

This statement thunders with new hope for every person in every setting.  This is a world-changer.  Even if bad things/wrong things happen, God will use them as cobs to stoke the fires toward success. 

Who doesn't hit the terrain of deep struggle?  Of mighty opposition?  Yet, buried within what we would regard as negative is the positivity of God.  But can we really buy into this marvel?  The answer is yes.

The YES is because of what we know (believe) to be true about Jesus; he was resurrected from the dead.  Life in Christ is all about this principle.  God is so mighty that death is pregnant....pregnant with life.  It will give birth to the YES.

Do bad things happen?  Everyday.  To the masses?  Everyday.  But something drastic--even marvelous--happens when we shift from believing what we can control to what He can.  God knows how to turn the tables of demise into fruitful productivity of arise.  That's the message of the entire Bible.

Our problem is that we have let the troubles of life talk us out of the possibilities of God.  Our hope, however, is that we become more certain of His strength...even in the very center of our weaknesses.

                                              ....II Corinthians 12:9