I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post, it's been a busy time, which is not an excuse, and a really interesting time. 

I believe that in this life people are primarily looking for Life and Love (a friend of mine, quoting another youth pastor, is the one who originally brought these two words and this thought to me).  Everywhere you look companies are selling ways to improve your life in some way, or ways to experience love and fulfillment somehow.  The great thing about following Christ is that He has Life and Love to offer in abundance!  Because God is Life and Love, you can't really fully experience all of Life and Love until you experience God.  You can experience pieces, even significant moments of both, but not the fullness of either without The Initiator and Source of both.

However, as an offshoot of that, Life and Love express themselves differently in different circumstances and times, and one of the primary ways I've been bombarded with recently is their expression, or lack thereof, through peace.  Over and over again over the past week and a half I've either had someone talk to me about needing peace, or I've been in desperate need of it myself.  The truth of this life is that testing, trials, and hard times come frequently...in some cases, everyday.  Jesus promised us as much in John 16:33.  Peace is hard to come by in a broken, dying, war-ravaged world.  Life sometimes seems more like a death sentence that we're just waiting out, rather than a joy-filled adventure full of twists and turns.  Everyday brings new tests and trials...new opportunities to live fully or die slowly. 

The key to peace, and experiencing Life fully, has less to do with our circumstance and situations, and more to do with our beliefs, mindsets, and actions.  It's not a matter of whether you'll be tested (you will), or whether you can experience peace in the testing or trial (it's always available), but how you respond to those situations (Philipians 4:4-7).  A pastor who I intently follow and greatly respect, Steven Furtick of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC) said it this way on his blog recently:

"If you’re going through a time of testing right now, keep this in mind:

The way you respond to this test
Determines what you get to do next.

If you fail the test, you must repeat the grade level.  Or, you can pick up the credit hours in summer school.  Either way, wouldn’t you rather just do it right the first time around?

You can’t clep out of any of the courses in God’s divine degree program.  Whatever you’re going through today is a prerequisite for the next level of His plan for your life.

Show up early.  Stay late.  Get a tutor.  Do your homework.  Sharpen your #2 pencils.  And hang in there through your test.

Graduation day is closer than you think…"

Times of testing and trial will always be there, and as you pass one test and move into another, they'll get bigger and bigger, but so will your resolve!  and so will your ability to experience the peace of God in them!  Our God is bigger than...!  Be ready!  Believe!  Experience!  Pass!  And have Peace!

If we really believe in Resurrection, and the power that comes along with it through Christ, then we should have no problem dying to our selves, past, present, or future.  So, why do I have so much trouble letting go?  

I know this isn't an original thought, and it's kind of morbid, but either Saturday sometime while I was pressure washing, or Sunday morning in the shower (I can't remember), I had a thought about my life and what I wanted people to say about me when I die.  Don't ask me why I was thinking about this, but I do think it's helpful to sometimes think about how we want our lives to end up so that we can begin to live that way right now (you know...the whole "begin with the end in mind" thing). 

As I was thinking about what I wanted people to say, this very simple thought came to me.  I'm sure it's not original, and I know Jesus said something similar in Matthew 16 when he said, "what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul" and "whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it", but for me this is a simple but powerful way to express what I hope people will say about how I lived my life:

About my life:  He died!

About my death:  He Lives!

That's it!  That's all I want anyone to say about me.  The shortest funeral ever!  All Glory goes to God because of His Love and Life...my story is simple...His-Story is eternal and I'm just a very small part of that.  Thank you Lord for even letting me be a little piece! 

What do you want said about you?  Let me know, leave a comment...

Mike and I just got an incredible opportunity to not only eat lunch at one of the local schools (like we do almost every Wednesday), but, at the invitation of a couple of students, to go and sit in on a religion class at this school.  We were pretty nervous at first since we weren't sure we were even supposed to be there, but once the class started and we got to know the teacher a little better (who seems to be doing a great job in challenging the students), we had some very interesting conversation!  Part of where the conversation went is in how traditional, stale, and boring Christianity in the South can be, specifically in Montgomery.   It seems that to be a follower of Christ in the South, you have to be Republican, Middle Class (at least), and go to Church every Sunday (which I think is a good thing by the way).   And people who are outside of those ranges, like a Democrat for example (note: I am an Independent), are looked at and talked to differently.  I could name several examples off the top of my head.

However, the bigger issue here is not what a follower of Christ looks like, but how we as Christians constantly detain our Universe-Creating, Big God by handcuffing him with our own limitations and viewpoints of what He should or shouldn't look like or do.  In Judges 13:16, Samson's parents try to "detain" the angel of the Lord to stay with them and continue to explain how to raise Samson, but the angel won't be detained, the angel has other work and must continue to move on according to God's Will.  On the Mount of Transfiguration, in Matthew 17, Peter wants to stay on the mountaintop with the Transfigured Jesus and his friends (Moses--the Law, and Elijah--the Prophets), but Jesus won't be enshrined on any mountaintop, He must  always be doing the will of the Father and moving forward.  God's Call and Will don't always include things that will bring glory to us, but continuing to live into His Call, according to His Will, will always bring glory to Him! 

God will not, and can not, be detained, boxed, shackled, or conformed to any image.  He is always bigger than our image and view of Him, and at the exact moment we think we have Him figured out, He will break whatever mold we've made of Him--no matter how good we may think it is!  Think about it this way...you will never know all that God has to offer and give because He is infinite, and so is all He has to offer and give, and we will spend eternity experiencing Him in new ways!  That is a big God!  One of my mentors and friends, Morgan Morrow, said it perfectly in a comment on another blog post:

         "It helps me to remember that God is not a bigger version of us. He is not even a MUCH BIGGER VERSION of 
          us...He is completely Other than us and so is His love. He is inviting us to day-by-day, one-stumble-after
          another, learn to walk in that love.

          This is not just an adventure, it is THE adventure. Everything else is boring without it."