The Right Tool For The Job

May 21, 2012 Leave a comment

Last Thursday night three different storms brought booming thunder, streaks of lightning, and a deluge of rain to our little town. It was the rain that created the problem for me as a rushing current dumped a lump of old leaves and pine-needles on top of a drain cover at the bottom of our outside basement steps, right in front of the basement door. The clogged up cover became a dam that allowed the water to mount up in front of that door and begin to seep into the basement. Thankfully I was still up at the time and had the good sense to check the basement before too much water got in there. Of course, I must have been quite a site out in the yard at 12:30 a.m. in the middle of a flood trying to clear that cover. At least the lighting strikes every five seconds allowed me to see what I was doing!

Well, Friday morning was cleanup time, which meant that I needed one of those wet/dry vacs to get the water out of the basement. I got in touch with my brother Richie, who has one, but he had already left his house to go to work. He did offer to make the trip back home, but another option seemed viable. One of my church-members, a fellow named Chris, is doing some renovation work around our house these days, and he had a small wet/dry vac with him. We figured it would be big enough to handle the job since there wasn’t that much water. I soon found out, though, that we had figured wrongly.

For one thing, there was more water in that basement than I realized. For another, that little vacuum had to be emptied about every thirty seconds. I was wearing myself out walking to and fro emptying that thing, and I hadn’t even gotten to the deepest part of the water yet. Clearly it was time for a better plan. So I got in the car, drove out to our local Sears, and bit the bullet to buy a shiny new sixteen-gallon wet/dry vac. The thing cost $117, but now I had the right tool. I was tired of having to borrow Richie’s every time a water problem came up anyway.

Once I had the vacuum back home, the battle with the basement water was over quickly. Whereas I had been making numerous trips to empty that small vacuum, the sixteen-gallon one just kept pulling up water until the basement was dry. As I was emptying it for the one time afterwards I couldn’t help but think to myself, “There’s just no substitute for the RIGHT tool.”

Have you ever used a shoe to drive a nail in a wall? Have you ever used a knife to turn a screw? Have you ever used a pair of scissors to prune a bush? Speaking from experience, I can tell you that using the wrong tool might be one way to get a job done, but it will never be the best way. If I had kept working with that small vacuum, I could have eventually gotten that basement dry, but it would have taken me half the day!

As I consider all this, I honestly feel for the Lord as He tries to get His work done in this world. What do you do when a nail needs driving and your hammer won’t report for duty? You use a shoe who will report for duty. What do you do when a screw needs turning and your screwdriver is a.w.o.l.? You use a knife who is present and willing to work. What do you do when a bush needs trimming and your shears are off doing their own thing? You use a pair of scissors who will do whatever you ask them. Such is God’s plight. He has to make do with what He has available to Him, and so many times that just isn’t the best tool for the job.

Please understand that I am in no way criticizing anybody who is out there doing any work for the Lord. Much to the contrary, I praise each one for his or her willingness. As the old saying goes, God is more interested in your availability than your ability. I’m merely pointing out that God’s work gets done so much more efficiently and proficiently when the exact tool for a job is yielded to Him and willing to do it.

You see, small wet/dry vacs can do certain jobs far better than large, cumbersome ones, but it just so happens that drying up a fair amount of water from a basement isn’t one of them. And so it is with God’s work. That’s why He needs all different kinds of tools at His disposal. And, yes, that includes the tool that you are. So the question is, are you letting Him use you to do the jobs for which you are specifically designed or is He having to use the wrong tools to do those job because you refuse to report for work?

Filed under faithfulness, God's Will, Individuality, Ministry, obedience, Personal, Service, spiritual gifts, Talents Tagged with , , , ,

Lynched By Mistake

May 10, 2012 5 Comments

There’s a Peanuts cartoon where Charlie Brown is lying in bed talking to Snoopy, who’s lying atop the covers at Charlie’s feet. Charlie says, “Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, “Is life a multiple choice test or is it a true or false test?” Next, in the closing panel, Charlie says, “Then a voice comes to me out of the dark and says, “We hate to tell you this, but life is a thousand word essay.”

It should make sense that the older you get the easier life gets. What I mean is, you’ve got your dumb mistakes behind you. You have the advantage of experience. You are wiser, more seasoned. But the problem is that whatever help comes from being experienced and wiser gets counteracted by the fact that life’s issues become more complex. When I lie awake at night, I think back to the days when I was a kid playing with a plastic baseball and bat in my backyard. That was such a simple, carefree time. The only thing I had to worry about was hitting my ball so far into the surrounding woods that I lost it. When I got hungry, I went back inside and ate. I never gave a moment’s thought to what all was involved with getting those groceries paid for and placed in those cabinets. For that matter, I never gave a moment’s thought to how the mortgage on our house got paid. I know now that “baseball stadium” back yards don’t come cheap.

How should I support my family? What church should I pastor? Where should we live? Am I doing right by my wife Tonya? Am I being a good father to my boys, Ryan and Royce? Should we renovate our garage apartment and rent it out? Are we putting enough money back for retirement? What sermon should I preach this Sunday? What post should I write today for my blog? These are the kinds of topics that I struggle with nowadays. And, yes, despite all my experience and seasoning, it’s a struggle. You want essay questions? I got ‘em.

I’ve read that at Boot Hill Cemetery in Arizona there is a grave-marker that says: Lynched By Mistake. That tells me that all mistakes aren’t created equal. Some of them carry far greater consequences than others. This is why I obsess so much over God’s specific will for my life, which just also happens to coincide with His specific will for my family’s life. I don’t want to make a bad decision that will get me, Tonya, Ryan, or Royce lynched. I’m not talking about getting lynched on an old-west gallows. I’m talking about getting lynched on the gallows of ending up in a setting or circumstance that isn’t in God’s will. You see, places like that make for dangerous ground. Gallows are everywhere if we only had the spiritual discernment to recognize them for what they are.

It is for this reason that I pray frequently and fervently, and I try to talk with God as opposed to just talking at Him. Why do I want my prayers to be dialogues and not monologues? It’s because I understand that I don’t have the answers to life’s essay questions. My best decisions come when I willingly play the role of sheep and let the Lord play the role of shepherd. I don’t always agree with the direction in which He leads me, but I do try to obey Him. Admittedly, that takes more faith in regards to some decisions than others, but I’ve learned that whenever I obey Him a great weight of responsibility is taken off my shoulders. How the decision turns out is no longer my department because I’m working out His plan, not mine. And I’m happy to report that neither I nor Tonya and the boys have gotten lynched yet.

Filed under Choices, faith, Fatherhood, fear, God's Omniscience, God's Will, Husbands, obedience, Parenting, Personal, prayer, submission, Trusting In God, Worry, Youth Tagged with , , , , , ,

Who Are You Riding With?

May 3, 2012 1 Comment

The Lone Ranger and Tonto were out in the desert in Texas. 10,000 Indians attacked them from the north. The two fled south. 10,000 more Indians attacked them from the south. They fled east. 10,000 more attacked them from the east. They fled west. 10,000 more attacked them from the west. So there the two were with 40,000 Indians bearing down of them. The Lone Ranger looked at Tonto and said, “What are we going to do?” Tonto answered, “What do you mean we, white man?”

A few years back there was a hit country song entitled “You Find Out Who Your Friends Are.” It talked about instances such as you running your car into a ditch, needing a couch, or having your well go dry. That’s when you find out who your friends are. It reminds me of something I once read: A true friend is someone who will walk in your door when everybody else is walking out.

Along these same lines, one of the most valuable lessons that I’ve ever learned is this: The more you deal with people who like you for who you are, the happier you’ll be in life. This is a lesson that can be applied to so many circumstances. Allow me to name just three off a long, long list.

#1: If you are single, don’t waste your time and energy chasing someone you have to jump through hoops to impress. I don’t care how desirable the person is or how much you long for them. The hard cold truth is that no matter what you do you will probably never impress them anyway. And even if you do, you’ll have to keep up that standard of achievement as long as you are with them. As the old saying goes, “What you win them with is what you have to keep them with.” Remember that the highest ideal for love is unconditional love. Hold out for someone who loves you unconditionally for who you are.

#2: If you are looking for a job, try to find one where your boss appreciates what you bring to the table. Yes, I know that you don’t always have the luxury of being selective about where you work, but you get the idea. Holding down a job is hard enough without feeling like you have to prove yourself or earn your stripes every day. It’s maddening to work for someone who always seems to be looking for a reason to fire you or demote you.

#3: If you have a child who is involved in some kind of team sports, do your best to keep that child on teams where the child is a good fit. What I mean is, sometimes the team with the best winning percentage or the most successful coach isn’t right for your child. Does the coach share your standards of integrity? Does he or she share your goals for team sports? Can your child get along with the other players on the team? Can you get along with the other parents? Is your child’s talent level on par with the other members of the team? Again, I realize that sometimes you have no vote in the team your child lands on. All I’m saying is that whenever you do have some sway in this department, use it to get your child on a team where he or she will be truly appreciated and valued. That makes for such a better experience all the way around.

My point in all this is that life is hard enough without you adding unnecessary “hard” to the mix. I don’t know why the Lord led me to write on this subject this morning, but I’m guessing that someone reading this needed it. Are you that someone? Have you been knocking your brains out trying to impress or please someone you stand no chance of ever impressing or pleasing? Cut your losses and move on. Are you calling some people “friends” who wouldn’t lose one minute’s sleep if you vanished off the face of the earth tomorrow? Find yourself some new friends, some honest-to-goodness ones. Are you trying to “keep up with the Joneses” even though you can’t stand the Joneses and everything they represent? Ask yourself why you are doing that and stop it. As I said, the more you deal with people who like you for who you are, the happier you’ll be in life. It’s such a shame that so many of us spend our lives riding with Tontos who aren’t worthy of all the time, energy, effort, money, loyalty, etc. we pour into them.

Filed under Children, Choices, contentment, faithfulness, Friendship, God's Will, Parenting, Sports, Work Tagged with , , ,

God Knows Best

April 19, 2012 Leave a comment

A farm boy went off to college to get some big-city learning. When he returned home for a break he had some new ways of looking at things. No longer was he content to emulate his daddy’s simplistic trust in God. To the contrary, the son’s college courses had caused him to begin to lean toward atheism.

Well, even though the son’s confidence in his father’s beliefs was crumbling, he still loved his dad very much. So one day he made his way out to the fields where his father was working and said, “Dad, let’s take a walk and do some talking.” The boy had in mind to ease the father into a conversation about God. That’s how he would broach the subject of his new-found atheism.

As the two walked along through the fields, they came to a pumpkin patch nestled under a large oak tree. There the young man saw his opening. He said, “Dad, if I was God, I wouldn’t have put the pumpkins at the end of weak vines and the acorns on strong branches. I would have put the pumpkins on the oak branches and the acorns at the end of the pumpkin vines. Wouldn’t that make more sense?” Then the son smiled, sensing that his father would have to see the common sense of the observation.

Before the father could answer, though, an acorn fell and hit the son in the top of the head. At that point his father said, “Well, son, I guess you’re glad that wasn’t a pumpkin that just fell on you.” What’s the lesson of the story? BELIEVE IN GOD AND TRUST IN HIS WISDOM. Even when His ways seem illogical, He always knows best and has a wise plan.

Filed under Atheism, Creation, God's Omniscience, God's Will, Humor, Trusting In God Tagged with , , , , ,

Praying In Jesus’ Name (4)

March 16, 2012 Leave a comment

With this post I want to deal with yet another aspect of what it means to pray in Jesus’ name. The new aspect goes like this: To pray in Jesus’ name is to pray with an understanding of the limitless power such praying offers. Christian, I’m not trying to swell your head with this one, but I do want you to realize just exactly what Jesus said in John 14:12-14 concerning praying in His name. Read His words again and let them sink down into your soul:

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

Now, before you run off and become a “name it and claim” kind of Christian, let me remind you of my second post from this series. There I explained that to pray in Jesus’ name is to pray in submission to God’s will. This means that words such as “whatever” and “anything” must always be viewed through the lens of God’s will. Not only is this implied in the New Testament, there is even a passage that comes right out and says it. That passage is 1st John 5:14-15, and it’s worth mentioning that it was written by the same John who wrote John 14:12-14. The passage reads:

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

And so, you see, it’s clear that Jesus never intended for His followers to turn God the Father into a wish-granting genie via their prayers. Let’s be clear about that. But, with that fully understood, let’s not water down what Jesus did teach about prayer either. He said, “The one who believes in Me and asks for things in My name will do even greater works than I have done.” What an astounding thought!

Jesus walked on the water. Jesus fed thousands with a boy’s lunch and had food left over. Jesus turned water into wine. Jesus healed the sick. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. How could Christians, even praying Christians, do greater works than these? The answer is: Our works can be greater in extent.

Remember that Jesus, in His earthly body, was confined to one place at one time and spent His entire life in one small part of the world. Furthermore, His public ministry only lasted for three-and-a-half years. Jesus didn’t preach a sermon that led 3,000 people to get saved. But Peter did (Acts 2:14-41). Jesus didn’t take the gospel throughout the entirety of the Roman empire. But Paul did. Jesus didn’t start churches wherever He went or write the books of the New Testament. But His followers did. And these works were greater in extent than even Christ’s earthly works.

Therefore, Christian, never be guilty of underestimating the incredible power of prayer. As James 4:2 says:

…you do not have because you do not ask.

A church got a new pastor, and the first Sunday the man was there he walked to the pulpit and said, “Let us pray.” Then he proceeded to pray for ten minutes. When the service was over, one church member said to another, “Boy, we’ve sure got a good pastor now. He asks God for all kinds of things our other pastors didn’t even know were available.” Christian, don’t you be like those previous pastors. Lay claim to the fact that praying “in Jesus’ name” means praying in POWER. The only requests that lay outside that power are those that lay outside God’s will for your life. Other than those, have at it with your asking! Who knows what “greater works” the Lord might have in mind to pour out in your life?

Filed under Christ's miracles, Desires, God's Omnipotence, God's Provision, God's Will, God's Work, prayer, Prayer Requests Tagged with , , , , ,

Praying In Jesus’ Name (part 2)

March 12, 2012 Leave a comment

In my last post I explained that Christians are the only people who can rightfully close their prayers with the words “in Jesus’ name.” Now with this post I want to offer a second fact about praying in Jesus’ name. That second fact is this: To pray in Jesus’ name is to pray in submission to God’s will.

It is only fitting that praying in Jesus’ name would entail praying in submission to God’s will. After all, Jesus was the very embodiment of one who was submitted to the will of His heavenly Father. Consider the following passages. First, in John 6:38 He says:

For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

Second, Matthew 26:39-44 tells us that Jesus prayed the same prayer three times in the garden of Gethsemane on the night of His arrest:

O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.

Third, Matthew 6:9-10 says that Jesus taught His followers to pray:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done.

Christian, you need to grasp the concept that prayer isn’t you sending God on an errand. It isn’t about you getting your will done in heaven either. It is much more about God getting His will done on earth. You see, your prayer-time is a good time to die. I’m talking about you dying to your wants, wishes, aspirations, plans, and schemes. Don’t spend twenty minutes in prayer telling God what all you want to happen and then have the audacity to close your prayer with the words, “in Jesus’ name.” When Jesus hears such a prayer in heaven, He must say to Himself, “That’s not how I lived my life, and that’s certainly not how I prayed.”

I think each of us would do well to follow the example of the legendary evangelist D.L Moody. He used to pray the following prayer:

Lord, if what I ask for does not please you, neither would it please me. My desires are put into your hands to be corrected. Strike the pen through every petition that I offer that is not right. And put in whatever I have omitted, even though I might not have desired it had I considered it.

Another good role model in this area would be the renowned preacher Phillips Brooks. He wrote:

Every true prayer has its background and its foreground. The foreground of prayer is the intense, immediate desire for a certain blessing which seems to be absolutely necessary for the soul to have; the background of prayer is the quiet, earnest desire that the will of God, whatever it may be, should be done.

And so, Christian, the next time you tack the words “in Jesus’ name” onto the end of your prayer, I hope they will be in line with the requests you’ve made throughout the prayer. If they aren’t, your best move would be to restart the prayer and do a more Christlike job with the requests. Yes, it will take some time. Even more than that, it will take some dying. But the end result will be that you will be able to use the words “in Jesus’ name” and have them be more than just lip-service.

Filed under Desires, Dying To Self, God's Will, prayer, Prayer Requests, submission Tagged with , , , , , , ,

How To Handle A Bad Inning

March 5, 2012 Leave a comment

My son Ryan has now officially begun his high-school baseball career. He had his first j.v. game last Friday. It’s put me in the mood to share one of my favorite “baseball” illustrations.

At a Little League game the visiting team had already scored 21 runs and was still batting in the top of the first inning. The mother of the kid in right-field began to worry that such a staggeringly lopsided loss would demoralize her child and destroy his confidence. So she left her seat in the stands and made her way out to the right-field fence. She stood there on her side of it and yelled out to him, “Son, this has to be an awful experience for you, and I just want you to know that you don’t have to keep playing if you don’t want to. I’ll take you home right now and explain things to your coach.” The boy, however, seemed shocked by the suggestion. He simply smiled back at her and said, “But mom, we can still win this game. We haven’t come to bat yet!”

You have a choice to make as to how you approach life. You can operate with an optimistic attitude or a defeatist one. You can believe that God is up to something good in your life or that He is leading you off a cliff. The choice is yours.

As for the optimistic approach, I’m not talking about some pie-in-the-sky, “hope so” kind of thing. I’m talking about you putting your faith in a Savior who loves you enough to die on the cross for your sins and stands ready to give your life ideal meaning and purpose. I’m talking about heeding Him when He says, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23). I’m talking about relating to the apostle Paul when he says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

Does following Jesus mean that you will never experience any blowout defeats? Hardly. But it does mean at least two things. First, if you stay submitted to Christ’s will for your life He will keep you out of a lot of those situations that would end badly for you. Second, even when those difficult times do come along, Jesus will not only give you what you need to get through them but also use them to increase your strength and wisdom.

I don’t know where this post finds you today, but perhaps you are right now guilty of bringing a defeatist attitude to the playing field. I suppose this is understandable for a person who doesn’t know Christ as Savior. After all, if I didn’t have the hope provided by Him, the state of this world would have me down in the dumps too. But it should be different for the Christian. Our Savior wasn’t a quitter, even as battered, bloodied, and bruised He carried the cross up Calvary’s hill. None of us will ever have a worse day than that one, and yet the eternal good He accomplished through it is far too deep for our human minds to grasp. That should teach us that the hardest things we have to endure in life can produce the greatest good. And that’s why we shouldn’t quit playing even in the midst of a bad inning.

Filed under Attitude, Belief, Choices, Christ's Death, Disappointment, Encouragement, God's Love, God's Provision, God's Will, perseverance, Personal, trials, Trusting In God Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Don’t Try To Wear Someone Else’s Armor

February 8, 2012 Leave a comment

When King Saul heard that a teenage boy named David had volunteered to fight the giant Goliath, he called for David and tried to talk him out of it. He said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he is a man of war from his youth.” David, however, was insistent and full of confidence. He explained to Saul that he had killed lions and bears while tending to his father’s flocks and concluded, “And this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.” So, finally, Saul reluctantly gave his approval by saying, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”

But before Saul sent David out to fight he let him borrow his personal, kingly armor, which included a bronze helmet and a coat of mail. David put on the armor and tried walking around in it but found it to be too cumbersome and ill-fitting. Saul was a very tall man, the tallest in all Israel, and young David was much shorter. So David politely declined the offer and chose instead to arm himself with five smooth stones, which he placed in his shepherd’s pouch, and his sling. Of course, the rest is history.

I’m 45 years old now, and if I’ve learned nothing else about life I’ve learned one thing: You can’t be successful trying to wear armor that doesn’t fit you. You have to be yourself and strive to keep yourself in situations that suit you. Not every job is a good fit for you, even if the pay is good. Some neighborhoods just aren’t your style. Your relationships with certain people will never be quite right, no matter how hard you work at them. That’s just the way it is. The world has its Sauls, wearing their armor, and its Davids, carrying shepherd’s pouches and slings. People are different.

That’s why it’s so important that you learn to appreciate it when you find yourself in a good circumstance. Don’t be so quick to run off from a spot that is obviously well-suited to you. If you’ve found people with whom you can get along, stay with them. If you’ve got a job that provides you with not only a paycheck but also contentment, stick with it. If you’ve discovered an oasis in a desert of life’s barrenness, sink your roots down into it and enjoy it. There’s nothing wrong with maintaining your individuality and being true to yourself. After all, God is the one who wired you the way you are. So why try to be someone you’re not or force your round peg into a square hole? That won’t work for you any more than wearing Saul’s armor worked for David. And could it be that Goliaths aren’t getting slain in your life simply because you aren’t fighting in a style that suits you? Think about it.

Filed under Change, Choices, contentment, Desires, God's Will, Individuality, spiritual gifts, Talents Tagged with , , , , ,

Making A Decision In Winter

February 6, 2012 Leave a comment

Several years ago Tonya and I were shopping for a house. We had sold the one we had lived in for about ten years and were currently renting. One house we were interested in was not even on the market, but we liked its location and the owner was Tonya’s aunt. Through the family grapevine, we heard that she might be open to selling.

As it turned out, she wasn’t interested in selling at that time, but the reason she gave fascinated me. Very politely she told us, “No, I don’t want to sell right now because from past experience I’ve learned that I don’t make good decisions in winter.” I have to admit that when I heard that answer I thought to myself, “Good for you! There are people who go their entire lives and never recognize such a pattern about themselves.” I actually admired her for being able to figure that out about herself. You see, she is the type of person who is prone to melancholy and depression, and winter weather causes that to bubble up in her all the more. But through much introspection and self-analysis, she had learned that about herself and come up with a way of limiting its damaging effects in her life.

Well, in the end, Tonya and I bought another house, and quite a few years have passed since. Still, though, I remember the line: “I don’t make good decisions in winter.” I think of it when I want to resign from a church during a rough stretch of attendance, spirit, and offerings. I think of it when I want one of the boys to quit a ball team because a coach isn’t doing him right. I think of it when I want to sell our current house because I’ve grown frustrated with all the renovating and repairs it needs.

“I don’t make good decisions in winter” simply means: Always be wary of making a major, life-changing decision during a difficult time. It’s usually better to wait until the sun is warm, the birds are singing, attendance is up, the spirit is good, the money is fine, things are going well for your kid, the repairs are finished, and your overall outlook on life is upbeat. Then, if you can still make the same decision, you know the course of action is right for you.

Filed under Change, Choices, contentment, Desires, God's Will, Impatience, Patience, Personal, weather Tagged with , , , ,

The Building With The Golden Windows

January 18, 2012 3 Comments

Contentment is one of those subjects that is easy to talk about but hard to live out. Let’s say that my neighbor buys himself a brand new Corvette. The car is “please notice me” red. The interior is “please don’t get me dirty” white. The engine is the factory option “you can’t unrun me” high performance. The wheels are “you can’t afford me” aluminum. And to top it all off he starts wearing a shirt that reads: “Real men drive Corvettes.” Well, how long do you think it will take me to become discontented with my “it’s all I’ve got” Subaru? Not very long.

I want you to take a personal survey. No one is paying attention except you and God. Ask yourself this question: Is there anything in my life right now with which I am not content? Perhaps it’s your car. Perhaps it’s your home. Maybe it’s your job. Maybe it’s your financial situation.

As I was growing up, my dad would say to me on numerous occasions, “Russell, you can’t be satisfied with anything.” I remember how I always chafed at that accusation because I honestly didn’t believe that it was true. I used to think to myself, “No, he’s wrong. I can be content. I just can’t be content with what I’ve got to work with right now.”

Unfortunately, as I’ve grown older I’ve been forced to learn that my father was right about my contentment level. If it was a thermostat it would be set very, very low. It doesn’t take much to get me to looking over the hills and thinking, “Oh, how much better my life would be if I was over there.” If God had let me move every time I had a whim to do so, my vehicle wouldn’t be a Subaru; it would be a U-HAUL. As for Tonya and the boys, I guess they would feel like a military family that moves from one base to another, never staying anywhere long enough to put down roots and build lasting relationships.

Somewhere years ago I read a silly little line that has always helped me. It goes like this: “If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence it’s because it’s growing over a septic tank.” That line has often come to my mind when God has turned down my latest urge to bolt and run and seek my fortune elsewhere. Have I got problems in my current location? Yes. Would I be problem free if I moved to that latest place that has caught my fancy? Nope. It would just be a new set of problems, perhaps even worse than my current ones.

You can learn some things by watching childrens’ television. I can’t remember if I was babysitting Ryan or Royce, but one of them was watching a kids’ show one day when a thought-provoking cartoon segment came on. It was about a little girl who lived in an apartment building in the big city. Every morning she would look out her window and stare longingly at the building with the golden windows that sat on the other side of the city. Oh how she wanted to live in that beautiful building! So one morning she made up her mind to go and see the building up close. She got herself dressed and headed out to find it. All day long she searched and searched, but she couldn’t find the building with the golden windows. Then, late in the afternoon, just as she was about to lose all hope, she turned around and there it was. But it was way over on the other side of town. So she ran and ran and ran and ran until she finally arrived at the building. Only then did she notice that it was the building in which lived. She thought, “How is this possible?” Suddenly the answer came to her: The sun which cast its light upon the one building in rising in the morning was casting its light upon her building in setting in the evening.

Now why am I telling you all this? I’m doing it to help you realize that where you are right now is a wonderful place if it is where God wants to be. Does He ever relocate people and lead them to make changes in their lives? Certainly, but that’s a whole other post for a whole other time. Right now I’m saying that if He has you living in a certain place, working a certain job, maintaining a certain financial level, and driving a certain car, you need to learn to see the golden windows in those things. They are there. You just have to recognize them.

I’ll leave you now with some words from the apostle Paul. They are words that I know very well because they have haunted me many a time. The haunting stems from the fact that I still can’t truthfully make the statement that Paul makes. In Philippians 4:11, he says:

…I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.

I can’t speak for you, but I haven’t completely “learned” that yet. Without doubt, my classes are still in session. I’m hoping, though, that I can earn that degree one day. Until then I need to keep looking for those golden windows of where God has me.

Filed under Attitude, contentment, Desires, Disappointment, faithfulness, God's Will, Personal, Problems, Trusting In God Tagged with , , , , , , ,

← Older posts

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 40 other followers