What Jesus says can be confusing, at first!
I mean, He confuses even me sometimes!1
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The sun peeked through the darkness.
The storm was lifting. Hope filled the air along with the fresh scent of life, stirring, awakening with the rain. It was a new season.
Today.
Join people in over fifty countries who read this to gain valuable life wisdom! (Or maybe they’re just laughing at me? . . . Whatever!)
I stretched, removed the covers from my bed and sat up, looking around me blankly. What would this new day, this new season bring, now that this storm was lifting, I wondered? I poured my coffee and asked these questions of God, and his whisperings startled me.
There is so much in my life that He is longing to awaken. How about in yours?
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
And how do we awaken, if we, like Sleeping Beauty, have been spiritually resting for a few years?
Try this: As the song below plays1 and as you sit with your morning coffee, pondering this new day or this new season, what stirrings in the dry soil of your heart, of seeds coming to life, do you sense?
Oh! And she sings of repentance in this song, but I wouldn’t recommend THAT or anything! In my humble opinion, there doesn’t seem to generally be any need to travel down any spiritual path as far as repentance would take us.
Please!
I definitely recommend turning back and hanging out with the rest of us who don’t want to walk THAT far! And anyway, the part of the song about repentance doesn’t apply to me, thankfully! (It may, however, apply to you, of course.)
True repentance [is] not merely . . . sorrow over sin, but . . . a “sweet sorrow” arising from a new, awakened delight in the beauty of God.2
John Piper – Desiring God
PS – I’m not sure exactly what John is talking about here, but it sounds deep, and it seems to fit, so I thought I would include it!
You’re welcome!
Good luck!
Thanks for liking me! I like you too! – Proven HERE, HERE, and HERE! Let’s journey together!
Photo Credits Me! (Except I Look Different) by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash, Is That Hope? by Etienne Boulanger on Unsplash, No! That’s NOT God Speaking! That’s Steam! by Clay Banks on Unsplash
1 She’s a little serious in this song. You’ll want to offer her a cookie and tell her, “Hey, Lady! Relax a bit!” (At least I do.) The point is that it’s good to wake up spiritually. She gets that part, so we can at least learn that bit from her!
2 And may you awake a little more with each poke repentance gives our sleeping form, friend.
The bird flitters from branch to branch.
It’s a yellowish green. It has yellowish-green feathers and a little white circle around its eye – a flycatcher. This family of birds has built its nest here for at least a dozen of its little bird generations, for as long as we have visited this summer cabin.
We didn’t notice them for the first few years.
Join people in over fifty countries who read this to gain valuable life wisdom! (Or maybe they’re just laughing at me? . . . Whatever!)
We only heard them, the little “Whew-it!” sound, rising at the end, every two minutes or so. “Just another bird sound,” we thought, eating our food at the outside table and distracted by the food and by each other. But that sound sure was insistent.
Could there be more to this incessant sound than just another bird flitting around nearby somewhere?
“Can you pass the peanut butter?”
And we forgot about them again.
Until the baby bird fell out of the nest that summer and flapped pathetically on the floor right beside our table outside.
“Whew-it! Whew-it!” We heard that same sound now, but more intensely, more insistently, louder.
It was the Father bird calling, imploring the little bird to stretch its wings, give flying a go, insistent now.
Our eyes had finally awakened to EXACTLY WHICH bird made that insistent sound, and was the nest far away? Directly above where the little bird was flapping, we finally noticed the obvious – a nest in the rafters just above us. The birds flitting above us as we ate our meals several times per day were the parents. They were doing their little bird jobs, telling the babies to wait a bit – they would bring more food once the scary demon humans had eaten their meals and finally cleared out. The birds were flitting and making noise above us as we were eating our meals.
A lot was going on that we didn’t have eyes to see until the unusual happened.
A baby bird flapped, and its Father called next to our feet as we ate our lunch that day.
And when we got up from the distractions of more food and of each other, and took a closer inspection at this bird, and then followed the clues to notice the bird’s nest above our heads, finally, we were awakened to a whole other world that had been going on right next to us for years.
And in precisely the same way, God wants us to open our eyes to see the realities of the spiritual dimension, happening right next to us every minute of our lives.
Sometimes we see something remarkable, something that makes us rub our eyes and say, “What now?” kind of like a baby bird flapping at our feet during breakfast.
Sometimes we hear a sound, repetitive and gentle, kind of like the “Whew-it!” sound of a flycatcher repeatedly calling to its young while we distractedly eat breakfast.
“What was that?” we wonder, but then all is quiet again, and maybe it’s just another bird in the trees doing who-knows-what, we think, returning to our breakfast cereal.
And so, how do we awaken to the physical and the spiritual unusual? We linger, we listen, we allow the questions of our soul to surface, and we watch a bit longer. We attach our ears, and we take off our blindfolds.
Then it’s a little easier for God to surprise us with the unusual.
The land you have given me is a pleasant land. What a wonderful inheritance!
Got time to open the door, friend, have a cup of tea with Holy Spirit, and start an adventure?
Thanks for liking me! I like you too! – Proven HERE, HERE, and HERE! Let’s journey together!
Photo Credit – There’s A Whole Other World Out There by Vijayalakshmi Nidugondi on Unsplash
That time when I was discouraged, when I sensed God calling me into something new, something that made my knees quake, she said that when she prayed for me, she was reminded of something.
It was a picture of a dead plant.
The dead plant was me.
Well, there was a bit more as she explained it to me. The plant was in winter. All that could be seen were a few sticks for branches poking above the ground.
Join people in over fifty countries who read this to gain valuable life wisdom! (Or maybe they’re just laughing at me? . . . Whatever!)
Sounded like my life in that moment.
“But spring is coming,” she encouraged me.
I picked up my discouragement and continued walking on the ill-trodden path that God seemed to be leading me down, wondering if, sometime in the future, there would be life above the snow.
The word “establish” kept coming to my mind as I prayed. What needed to be established? Holy Spirit also seemed to be nudging me to write. Now, I had always written copiously in journals, but I would never think of sharing my written thoughts with others!
“Who would read such neurotic pretensions?” I asked myself. Certainly not me! I looked at my piles of completed journals, all of them unopened and unread, even by me.
Keep writing, God seemed to encourage me.
The first time I sat at my desk and tried to write something I intended to publish, it was like the seat of my office chair was on fire – It was so uncomfortable. I couldn’t sit there! Only a pompous, inflated prig would would presume she had something to say to another!
But it’s essential to fit in with others, so, of course, I pretended1 to be a pretentious know-it-all with an inflated ego so I would have something to write about!
And then I pressed publish.
The simple reality is that if you ever want to do anything significant for the Kingdom, you will have to overcome fear and internal resistance. If could be fear of the unknown, fear of what others will think2, fear of harm or injury3, fear of failure, fear that you’re not ready or equipped for the task. There is ALWAYS fear.
Craig Cooney In The Tension of Transition
And so, to return to the start of this article, “A winter season,” she had suggested that day.
“Establishing,” God had seemed to be whispering in my prayers. Establishing a habit of pressing “Publish” and letting my words be carried off on the wind. I was learning not to care what others thought about the things that deeply mattered to me.
I was learning to listen to His voice and to dance in joy with Him.
And when the amaryllis, the lilac, and the peony bloomed that spring after a decade or more of relative death, I looked back in awe at where He has been leading me.
And he reminds us that spring, the season of blooming and life, always follows winter, as we rest in Him.
Is this an establishing season for you, friend? May your roots grow deep as you trust that “if you’re not done working, God, I’m not done waiting,” as the song below sings. As the song below also sings, “Though the winter is long, even richer, the harvest it brings,” after a moment of silent reflection and thanksgiving, consider asking God, “What new thing are you trying to water in this season, God, and how can I best be obedient to Your gentle nudge in a new direction?
Oh, and the question is not so much, “Where will you go?” or “What will you do?” but “Who will you become?”
And so, what is a simple habit to find our identity? We obey His promptings from our prayer times. Then we wait and trust that life sprouts.
Because spring always comes with new life.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth, doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry, so will the words that come out of my mouth not come back empty-handed. They’ll do the work I sent them to do, they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.
That’s it.
Thanks for liking me! I like you too! – Proven HERE, HERE, and HERE! Let’s journey together!
Photo Credit: Who Are You, Anyway? (God Knows) by Alexander Mass on Unsplash, Self-Portrait (In That Season) by Stacy on Unsplash
1 Yes! I have been PRETENDING! Of course! What did you think I was doing?!
2 I would never fear that!
3 I definitely fear that, but thankfully, I am pretty safe at home writing on my computer in my safe little town in Canada with all the doors and windows locked! (Just in case.)
I looked out my window that day and saw something surprising in our overgrown “flower” patch.
This flower was so entangled in the weeds that I had to cut back the surrounding greenery to snap a photo.
I knew God was speaking through this flower and will explain why soon. But I also wondered, “What are You saying?” I felt confused, which is usually how I feel when Holy Spirit seems to be nudging.
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Join people in over fifty countries who read this to gain valuable life wisdom! (Or maybe they’re just laughing at me? . . . Whatever!)
I may not write QUITE as many new articles in the next while because I have to get my youngest kid ready to move out. What that involves is figuring out all the ways I messed her up, and then gently revisiting those topics to say things like, “Ha Ha! I was kidding! Of course!”
That type of process is what motivated our first daughter to begin her own healing journey, so I’m hoping the same method works again!
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Join people in over fifty countries who read this to gain valuable life wisdom! (Or maybe they’re just laughing at me? . . . Whatever!)
Tony Robbins1 is larger than life, both in terms of stature (6’7” – 1.98 m) and influence.
I have considered myself larger than life as well. For example, that time when I gained some weight! So, I point out, however humbly, that there are some slight similarities in the impact of my life, Tony Robbins’ life, and God!
Join people in over fifty countries who read this to gain valuable life wisdom! (Or maybe they’re just laughing at me? . . . Whatever!)
The context of today’s article is that I was part of the energetic, jumping crowd that listened to some of Tony Robbins’ free Time-To-Rise teaching series on YouTube this week.
When Tony Robbins’ talk began this week, I thought he said there were two billion people at his online meeting. At that level, he would be helping almost as many people as Jesus in that moment! However, I got order of magnitude confused, and it was ONLY two million people that he was helping!
It’s easy to mix up how many zeros there are after a number when we consider how many people we have helped!
As for me, I don’t have quite as many zeros after my two people that I have helped,2 but, as Tony Robbins helpfully points out, it’s not the order of magnitude that matters so much as how much value you provide!
Tony Robbins set himself the goal of helping feed one billion people.3
Jesus feeds every person on the planet every moment, if our eyes are open enough to see. For example, check out this YouTube channel. He is helping lots of people!
I am not up there on that website of people Jesus helped because I don’t have a neck tattoo, and I didn’t spend time in jail (which is basically the same thing) before I decided to follow Jesus, so my story is less interesting, but He still helps me!
And there are tons of other people with boring4 lives like mine that Jesus also helped!
For now, we have firmly established that Tony Robbins and Jesus5 help people! A future article will compare the details of how Tony Robbins helps people (He helps a lot of people!) and how God helps people (God also helps a lot of people!). We hope that, after delving into this theme in more detail, you, too, can find someone (awesome) to help you transform your life!
You’re welcome!
Good luck!
Thanks for liking me! I like you too! – Proven HERE, HERE, and HERE! Let’s journey together!
Photo Credit – Which Way Will You Go, Friend? by Majestic Lukas on Unsplash
1 A guy who helps people. Learn more below.
2 For example, I helped two people in my church a few years ago! Once, I helped a child in our church find her toy after I gave her toy to my daughter because I liked my daughter more! I also helped one other person way before that, but I can’t remember the details now.
3 It should be noted, just as an aside, that I feed my family almost every night, which is also impressive because I’ve cooked even when I didn’t want to!
4 And by boring, I mean exciting because I write online, so of course I have a fascinating life under the boring bits!
5 (And me!)
In the last article, we discussed the hints of a spiritual revival breaking out, especially among youth. Here’s another example of a quiet revival that occurred among some youth several years ago. And when I say ‘quiet revival,’ it wasn’t so quiet.
Join people in over fifty countries who read this to gain valuable life wisdom! (Or maybe they’re just laughing at me? . . . Whatever!)
A few Christian youths who lingered after church to pray made international news headlines.
The Washington Post: Why students at Asbury University are praying and singing round the clock
The Washington Post: Asbury University revival set to end after attracting thousands
A reminder that the Washington Post isn’t sympathetic to the majority of a Christian worldview on social issues. The newsworthy facts remained that over 60,000-70,000 people from 200 academic institutions and multiple countries came to a sleepy 6,000-person town over two weeks to experience the felt sense of God’s love more deeply. This event, however startling, was not entirely dissimilar from what has happened in previous generations and places when multitudes gave their lives to Jesus.
Many of us have experienced something similar to what happened at these events.
For example, several years ago, I was sitting beside a lake one morning, minding my own business, when God’s spirit ushered into my life and gently woke me.
Not from my sleep but from my life.
Wake up! Holy Spirit seemed to be nudging me.
What happened at Asbury reminded me of this experience. A bunch of regular kids attended a church service. It was an uneventful day.
But God‘s spirit rushed in and grabbed them, gently shaking them with a deeper awareness of His love.
The kids stayed and worshiped.
We know someone who attended that event. This person said that the sense of God‘s love was palpable as soon as you entered the building. Many others felt it too. In the sermon that Zach Meerkreebs preached just before this outbreak, he said, “Make sure you experience God‘s love. Don’t graduate until you have experienced God‘s love. Don’t leave this building until you have experienced God’s love.”
How deeply intimate and far-reaching is his love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding – this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!
And, coincidentally perhaps, I was asked this question this morning: How would this (day, month, or) year look different if you really understood that you are deeply loved? A good question. (Who wouldn’t fly around the world to experience a bit more of the felt presence of God’s love?)
But we can also experience this type of powerful felt presence of God’s love in our own homes.
The time when God touched me, powerfully, precisely as happened in Asbury, I also experienced a deeper understanding of God’s love just before it. I had listened to a sermon by Rolland Baker. He said that many of us are seeking outpouring, seeking even what happened in places like Asbury, but what we need to seek is simply God.
And so this touch of God at Asbury that shook the world, that is waking us up to say, there is more, is possible within each of our hearts and in our homes and in our churches in every moment.
Got time for God?
Thanks for liking me! I like you too! – Proven HERE, HERE, and HERE! Let’s journey together!
Photo Credit – Where is Love Found? by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash
I can finally be authentic and write about something I know a lot about! The promise in the title of today’s article is TRUE in my own life! So I can actually help you today!
As you know, and I’ve humbly hinted at once (or possibly twice?), people in over fifty countries have read my online writing!
Join people in over fifty countries who read this!
Let me share my formula (”Patint1” Pending) for how to get strangers to like you, too, even though physical (what do you call those who aren’t online?) people in your life find you (very!) annoying!
First, a story to illustrate the process.
You can read the first half of the story HERE. (Bonus: You can also read a helpful analysis of how to know if you are a Christian, based on the type of cigarette or weed you smoke there!) In that helpful article, I begin by explaining my magnetism, noting that I followed (what seemed to be) God’s nudge to sew some pants.
I ended up making doggy pants.
And now, without further ado, here is more of that story of the clerk and me at Tim Hortons.
After these initial discussions between the clerk at Tim Hortons and me, it seemed that God wasn’t finished speaking to him yet, but I had some pressing paperwork to do. I’m busy! Would I trust Him to interrupt my more essential tasks again?
It started when I realized that their staff had burned my bagel.
I could eat a bagel, slightly dark at the edges.
Tell them it seemed God was saying.
Really? How rude! Plus, I already had one (successful!) interaction in which it seemed God somehow fed this young man a crumb.
“Why did I have to ruin it by criticizing the food and be a loser again, God?” I wondered.
After sulking for a bit (which I would NEVER do!), I obeyed this seeming nudge, and coincidentally, perhaps, it was the same young man whose turn it was to speak to me. Several others were working the till. I showed him my bagel and explained that I recently learned that burned food contains carcinogens, substances capable of causing cancer.
I apologized for the nuisance.
“Maybe I should come to you for advice!” the clerk called loudly across the restaurant, as I walked away.
(!)
I smiled. He thinks he is drawn to me, but he is drawn to You in me. May he learn the difference.
We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at.
And so, how do we get the servers at Tim Hortons AS WELL AS people in over fifty countries (who have read my stuff2), to like us?
How would I know? [Editor’s Note: Online writers are confident!]
Well, as confidently explained in THIS ARTICLE, I believe people like to listen to me and to read my online writing for one of the following reasons:
a. They are laughing with (or at?3) me.
b. God sometimes whispers between the words to mysteriously touch their soul, which should be the case for all of us who learn to listen to and follow Jesus4.
c. I am finding my inner cool.
But it might be b. Whatever. Regardless, we’ll finish this story another time.
You’re welcome!
Good luck!
Thanks for liking me! I like you too! – Proven HERE, HERE, and HERE! Let’s journey together!
Photo Credit – My Doggy Pants! by Someone Standing Nearby When I Needed A Picture Of My Doggy Pants! and Follow The Crowd! by Valentin Lacoste on Unsplash
1 Yes, I did spell that correctly. Why do you ask? The paperwork for an actual “Patent” is so tiresome!
2 Did I mention that?
3 It CAN’T be that entirely! Please!
4 He speaks through our lives. (So no, I’m NOT saying I’m special (you Loser!) because we’re all losers -but this is good news!– remember?)
Make some for yourself, too, God seemed to whisper to me that day several years ago. God had been nudging me to make fleece pants with my kids and their friends. Now, He seemed to be nudging to make fleece pants for me, too.
So, I was online ordering fleece fabric.
A particular type of fabric stood out to me, as joy bubbled from within. I bought the fabric with golden retrievers stamped all over it (True story, but why would I lie about that?). I made my pants.
And now, I will convey something challenging to articulate.
Join people in over fifty countries who read this to gain valuable life wisdom! (Or maybe they’re just laughing at me? . . . Whatever!)
Shockingly, these doggy fleece pants are like a key opening a door between another culture and me.
People who would never even bother looking down their nose at me suddenly become my best friends. I am accepted by a whole new world of people when I wear these pants. These pants melt their hearts, and they pour their love on me, after asking me where they, too, can buy the same pants.
Note: I say this HUMBLY, but in THIS article, I deferentially mention the name brands of the clothes I am wearing, because I am THAT kind of a person. Just saying. Read more HERE.
But a couple of stories to illustrate the surprising allure of these doggy pants: Once, someone exclaimed jubilantly that she loved my pants and then recounted a surprising amount of her life story as I stood, listening, stunned and speechless, my to-go coffee cup waiting in my hand, mid-air, for her to finish. This kind of thing happens often.
It happened today.
The teenage guy working at Tim Hortons spent five minutes before taking my order telling me he loved my pants, telling me a story about his dog, and then speaking with the lady next to him about whether she liked dogs or cats better.
I listened mutely and smiled.
When I finally pulled away from him to sit at a table to drink my coffee, I noticed the table was covered with crumbs. I returned to that young man to quickly ask for a napkin to clean it. He leaned in to confide that they are understaffed, “But I will clean the table for you.” Stunned, I watched him wipe my table.
Then he said, “People really surprise me sometimes.”
“How do you mean?” I asked.
He was quiet.
I offered, pointing to the messy table, “You mean how people are always making messes?”
He nodded.
He seemed to need a crumb to eat, as he lingered a bit longer at my table. I wondered what I could say in the several seconds left of our interaction that could feed him just a little. “Well, it’s a good thing that God forgives us after we create our messes.”
I looked innocently away, waiting for the metaphor to nourish his soul.
The crumb nourished him, and his hunger pangs made him sputter forcefully, “I can’t believe people don’t know I’m a Christian! I don’t even smoke!” He then felt the need for some reason to confess to speaking a partial truth to me, a perfect stranger, by quickly adding, “Well, I do smoke weed.”
My brain was overheating. “Did he say that smoking weed made him a Christian?” I wondered.
Or that smoking cigarettes made a person not a Christian? It’s hard to keep all that theology straight – I can empathize!
“And so, where do we go from here, God?” I prayed. What do I say in the twelve nanoseconds before he departs to resume his job? Clearly, he was being nourished, somehow, by the crumbs of this measly conversation.
But Jesus said, “There is no need to dismiss them. You give them supper.”
“All we have are five loaves of bread and two fish,” they said.
Jesus said, “Bring them here.” . . . They all ate their fill.
“Well, if we can truly understand that God loves us after we mess up our tables, that’s the important part, right?” I offered him, like a crumb. Would he take and eat?
He stared at me, fumbled, and then dropped his cleaning cloth.
His hat fell off as he bent over to pick up the fabric. He stared at me a moment before picking that up, too. He was deep in thought.
Eye contact one more time before he walked away.
Was there a glimpse of light lit for a moment, so that Your light broke through this ordinary day for a clerk at Tim Hortons, God?
May this generation find messy tables wherever they go, we pray.
And may the crumbs somehow, by your grace, be multiplied to nourish the soul. There is more, there is more, there is more, He is saying to the teenage boy working at Tim Hortons. There is more to this story, too. I’ll continue it another time.
For now, how can our lives spiritually feed others?
Jesus said, “. . . Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever.”
My sheep recognize my voice. I know them, and they follow me.
In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.
That’s it.
(And may you, your doggy and your doggy pants1 (of course!) bring some love and crumbs to nourish a spiritually hungry world, too, friend.)
Thanks for liking me! I like you too! – Proven HERE, HERE, and HERE! Let’s journey together!
Photo Credit – 3 Methods / 3 Ostriches by Jutta Kamp on Unsplash and Me-and-My -Doggy-and-My-Doggy-Pants (Of Course!)
1 Or however He leads you in your culture.
