Me, Muscle Strain & Sin

I always strive to see the hand of God in everyday life. I try to see Him in the Starbucks, over the internet, and in the weather. With such being the case God gives me unusual inspiration through my usual experiences. This week was no different. As I was working out a few days ago I felt a strain in my back and chest. I'm not exactly "the Rock" (yet) but I work out enough to know that pain is part of the process so I stretched and took a day off to rest. Two days later I was back under the weight bar and feeling more exhausted than usual but fought to finish my workout anyway. Again, "no pain, no gain" right? WRONG! At least it was this time. When I completed my workout I recognized that I had strained a muscle in the previous workout and going through with this workout as if nothing was wrong actually made the problem worse. I could try to walk it off and act like I didn't feel it but something in my chest (the pain) said that I was wrong. This time I had to pause and acknowledge the issue so that I could recover. I believe such is also the case with sin.

All of us have areas of our lives where we have tried to press on as if nothing is wrong but in our chest we know we took a hit. We can feel the strain, we can feel the pressure and the more we try to go about our daily business acting like nothing is wrong the worse the problem becomes. I have chosen to take a break from the weights for a week or two because that is what's necessary for this muscle strain to heal but what is needed to heal a heart of sin? If you have been feeling the strain of sin on your heart or in your mind I'd like to direct your attention to one of my favorite scriptures; 1 John 1:9 which says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." Just like all I need to heal this strain is to lay on the couch and relax all you have to do to heal the strain of your sin is to confess and reflect. Confess to the God who already knows what you have done and reflect on the steps that got you to those bad decisions so that you can avoid them the next go round.

As for me, I'll stretch a little better next time before a workout. The pain of a muscle strain is too much to deal with when I know it can be prevented. How about you? What could you do to avoid the pain of sinful decisions? You may need a stretch of your own...a stretch for new friends, a stretch away from negative influences, a stretch toward reading the Bible more or getting more out of church. What ever your stretch may be to avoid the strain of sin in your life, trust me when I tell you that it's a lot better than sitting down out of the game waiting to recover. Consider, confess, and continue to stretch!

Can you hear me now?

For the last couple of weeks I've been doing a study series concerning "calling". I'm sure that you have wondered from time to time why you are here and what is your life's purpose. All of us do; because as we begin to live a new life in Christ there is something on the inside of us calling us to a higher level of living than we had thought possible before. There is something telling us that we're here for more than what Pastor Ed Young calls, "Procreation and Recreation". But the question then remains, "How do I know what I'm here to do?" For many of us the answer to this question can be difficult to find but as you search for your purpose let me share with you a few ways that God helped me to discover mine.

1.) What bothers you?
Having excepted Christ in my teenage years, I did not grow up in the church. Whether this was a blessing or not, I'll let you decide but it gave me a unique perspective on things at a young age. When I came to church it was not necessarily to be entertained but rather to get a deeper understanding of this Jesus that had changed my life. With that being said, it irritated me any time I would listen to preachers who said a lot while saying a little, if you know what I mean. In other words, it bothered me (and still does to this day) when I would listen to people preach personal opinion or try to go so deep where you can't understand a word that they're saying. This irritant caused me to begin to try to teach in a way that everyone could understand and draw conclusions as to how they could apply the Bible to their daily lives. I believe that God was allowing me to see different styles and practices of teaching that were effective and/ or ineffective because the calling to teach was resident within me so I would have to learn every day how to reach people. Now that's me, but what about you? What bothers you? Do you hate seeing children not being cared for? Does it bother you that people are forgotten in nursing homes, hospitals or prisons? What bothers you? That may be an indication of your calling.

2.) What burden's you? What do you dream about?
As I discuss, "dreaming" I'm not necessarily referring to that frequently which crosses your mind while you're sleeping because I believe that sometimes what frequently crosses your mind while you're awake could also be an indication of your calling. I was asked by a person a while back about how one knows when they are called to ministry. I try to tread softly on this one because I never what to feel as though I called a person as opposed to the Spirit of God calling them so I told them, "If you feel as though there is nothing more that you would like to do than share God's Word with people, if nothing would bring you greater joy than to tell people what God has said in the Word than you may be experiencing a call to preach". This may seem somewhat extreme but what I wanted them to understand is that there is something for all of us to do and I don't believe that we are to pursue it halfheartedly so that thing must be the central focus of our efforts for Christ. In my own personal life I enjoy sharing the Word so much that I get excited just thinking about any opportunity to speak to people concerning the Word and I try to use any medium available to do so whether it be live and in person, typed in a blog, hosted on youtube, or posted on Facebook or Twitter. What I'm saying is that your calling should leak out of every pore.

If it is to bless children you'll find yourself wanting to help out in the children's ministry, volunteer with the sports programs, or maybe tutor children in a local school. If it is to write music you'll find yourself writing on napkins in restaurants, typing in the notepad in your phone or pecking away at your ipad every time you receive an inspiration. Whatever your calling is I believe God will plant it so deeply into the core of your being that it will leak out even when you don't want it to. Even when your over extended and tired your calling will call to you because there is something that God made you to do and you only have one life time to get it done. What do you dream about? That may be an indication of your calling.

3.) What have you been blessed with? What comes spiritual for you?
Notice that I didn't say what comes naturally for you or what comes easily for you because both of those things can be deceiving. The question is not what comes naturally but what comes spiritually? What gifts came into your life AFTER you excepted Christ? In my case it was the ability to speak publicly without losing my mind. You may think that "losing my mind" was never an option but that's because you weren't with me in my Intro to Theater class when I was in high school. I almost failed this class voluntarily because I was afraid to make a presentation in front of the class. I pushed it until it was almost the end of the year and there was no way around it and then I muddled my way through it for a passing grade. This was in stark contrast to a few years later when I had excepted Christ and was beginning to walk toward what God made me to be (a Christian Communicator and/or preacher; depending on your context) when I leap at the opportunity to do so. Come to think about it, the fact that I view it as an "opportunity" is an indication of the tremendous change in my perspective. What happened? Christ changed me and opened my eyes so that I could see what I was made to be and as a result speaking about Him came spiritually for me. What about you? What comes spiritually for you? Is there anything that you may not have necessarily been trained for but that you can do as well as those who have? I would encourage you to do as the Apostle told Timothy when he asked him to "Fan into flame the gift that was inside him..." This is important because the gift is shared spiritually but you have to work to improve your proficiency in operating it. For me this required, and still requires, the constant reading of books and articles, making the most of every opportunity to exercise the gifts, attending an undergraduate program that would help sharpen my skills and a masters level program that would help to broaden my perspective. Additional steps are important because your calling is so important to the lives of those that it will impact that you have to demonstrate a level of seriousness that shows that you will not try to accomplish your purpose and fulfil your life's assignment with a lazy or lackadaisical demeanor. It's too important for that.

So as you consider your life's calling think about what bothers you, what burden's you and what God has blessed you with the gifts to do. As you think and pray about these things you'll be well on your way to discovering you're divine destiny and connecting with you're life's calling. Can you hear it now?!

"I just want to be successful"

This morning I had an opportunity to speak to the honors students at a middle school in the area. As I considered what to present to them that could possibly cut past all of their distractions and ignite a desire in them to achieve great things within the time frame of ten minutes I was reminded of a popular song that many of them recognized. I know that I'm a preacher so this may come as a surprise but I'm not talking about "Pass me not oh blessed Savior." I'm referring to a song that's a little more recent and not nearly as sacred..."Successful" by Trey Songs. While some of the elements of the song are questionable the sheer popularity of the song demonstrates that many of the young people (and even middle aged and above) want to be successful. The question is, "How can this be done?" How can I take a life that may be filled with challenges and faced with opposition and use it to become successful? This was the question I considered when preparing what to discuss and four principles came to mind that are not particularly profound, and yet, if implemented may have a profound impact in one's life. Before I get into that let me first say that I realize that all of these efforts must be bathed in prayer and faith in God's ability to make them effective. But then again, as Christians shouldn't everything be? Moving right along.

1.) T:

The first practical thing that we can do to begin to see more success in our efforts is to actually think about what we're doing. I'm not talking about passively considering our actions, I mean to actually take time to reflect on our actions. Why do we do what we do? Why have we been following the path that we're following. This type of activity will help to prevent us from flying through the years on autopilot and waiting until we get to the wrong destination to change our route. Think about what you're doing (preferably before you do it).

2.) I:

The second practical thing that we can do to increase the probability of success in our efforts is to invest in our own success. Many times we will be the first to invest in our own success (well, we are second to God's investment in us but after that we're the first). People will often jump on the band wagon, so to speak, after they have already started to see returns on the investment that we have already made into our success. Many of the success stories that we see are the biproduct of personal investments in one's own success. So how can we invest in our own success? We can pray so that we may gain an understanding of what success for us looks like. Without prayer we can risk pursuing success that has been defined by someone other than our maker which means we may complete an objective and not be successful at all because we didn't fulfill our life's purpose. We can find a loving, life-giving church to grow in so that we can develop a godly and biblical concept of ourselves and what true success looks like. We can read books, articles, blogs and resources to increase our knowledge of our particular field and practices that will help us to excel. There are several ways to invest in your own success and you must be willing to invest in you before you can expect any one else to.

3.) M:

The third thing that we can do is make every moment count. Success is not usually one major breakthrough that overtakes a person unexpectedly. While this may occur occasionally, this is not the most frequent experience of the successful. Rather than waiting on one major successful instance, you could probably benefit from several meaningful moments working together to bring about success. You may not see your goal or life's calling as achievable in one swoop, and you're probably right, but if you take the steps of consistently wiring excellence into your daily routine and make the most of every day & every moment trusting that God has the ability to honor your diligence I believe that you'll be amazed by what God does through you. Thomas Edison once said that "The more I do the luckier I become." What he may have been suggesting is that the more he made the most of the moment the more he could expect success. God has a plan for every one of us and the more we see each day as an opportunity to play a part in that plan coming to pass the more we'll see that there is a method behind the madness that we've had to deal with because both the bad moments and the good moments can be used as meaningful moments if we're willing to make the most of them.

4.) E:

The last thing that we can do to press toward success in whatever God has been calling us to do is to evaluate our efforts. I know you want to be successful but when is the last time that you evaluated your efforts in that pursuit? When is that last time you evaluated your productivity at work? When is the last time you evaluated your own study habits? When is the last time you evaluated the way you spend your money? Taking time to evaluate your efforts helps to determine if you have a healthy dream or if you are just suffering from a delusion. Success isn't automatic and it's not just going to overtake you one day. You must be willing to constantly "Take heed to yourself" to see if you have areas in your life that could be improved. This principle is so significant that Jesus shared a parable instructing us to examine ourselves before we begin to examine others (Take the plank out of your eye--> Matthew 7:5). Examine your efforts to see what has been working. Stick with the habits that work and scrap the habits that haven't.

If we will be willing to Think about what we're doing, Invest in our own success, Make the most of every moment and Evaluate our efforts I'm convinced that it's only a matter of T.I.M.E. before we see what the book of Joshua calls "good success".