Avoiding the Thistles

I was out hiking earlier this week. As I went along the trail, I carefully kept to the center to avoid the plethora of dried out thistles that had grown up around the trail. Where had they all come from? I didn't remember a bunch of thistle plants being there a month ago. How could they have grown as tall as me and then died all in such a short timespan?

As I got to the top of the hill, something caught my eye. A little sunflower. I thought it was growing up out of the thistle patch. Then I noticed: the sunflower was coming out of the stem of the thistle plant. That didn't make any sense! How could it be? Simple: all of those huge "thistles" were actually out-of-season sunflowers.

I chuckled at my mistake. Then it hit me: we do that kind of thing a lot in life. We see something that looks unpleasant at a glance and try so hard to avoid it that we don't realize what it really is. Sometimes God uses the ugly things and circumstances in life to help us learn and grow.

"For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven" - Ecclesiastes 3:1

Are you prepared for the deadline?

I woke up and stared at the number on my dry-erase board. 1. That was the number of days I had until I needed to turn in my class projects. I'm usually not the last-minute sort of person, but this month I've been traveling a lot and didn't have enough time alone to work on everything. Even when I did, I'd been distracted by other things, such as packing, work, and other little duties. Where had the time gone? It felt like this deadline hit me out of nowhere, and I had to rush to catch back up. In the end, I made it. Just barely.

While our earthly deadlines can be a big deal and occasionally a matter of great stress, there is another deadline that matters more: Christ's coming. Emphasis on the "dead" of that deadline- because if we are not prepared for that one, dead is exactly what we will be. The thing about this deadline, however, is that we have no set date for it. As a result, it is "out of sight, out of mind" for many people, even some Christians. 

Paul wrote to the believers in Thessalonica and said, "For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night." (1 Thessalonians 5:2). Nobody expects a thief, and likewise, when the Lord comes, it will take even those who are eagerly awaiting Him by surprise. 

You can stress over and run after your earthly deadlines constantly, knowing when they will hit. But are you prepared for the one deadline that has no final submission date? Do you know where you will stand in God's eyes on the last day? And does the reasoning behind your answer match up with what the Bible says?

What rewards are you getting?

Today I celebrated a recent win - I picked up the gift card that was my prize and used a little of it to get myself a cherry empanada. Victory can be sweet. Literally. But you know what else it is? Fleeting. Very fleeting. It was a delicious celebratory snack, but it was gone in 5 minutes.

As I ate, it hit me what a contrast that is with the reward that we as Christians will have at the end of time. 1 Corinthians 2:9 says “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” and in John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

Are your rewards temporary? Or are they everlasting?

Seeing The Light When Your Glasses Are Filthy

"Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." Romans 8:24-25 says. That's the truth. It's hard to find hope you can see when all you have to stare at is a desert and you can barely look through your dirt-encrusted sunglasses. But do I wait with patience? That's hard. Patience is a fruit of the spirit that I often lack. Looking back at that verse, I'll be honest, patience isn't the only thing here that is lacking: it's hard to hope for what I don't see. It's easy to give up when the horizon looks empty.

So where can we go from here? What happens when all you can see is a dead horizon through your crusty dirty glasses?

Romans 8 continues in verses 26-27, "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."

Pray, my friend. Pray. It's all we can do, and even that isn't done entirely on our own accord.

Our Daily Provision

For the longest time, I had been obsessed with lists. Every single weekend I would write down all the things I needed to get done, including a long string of projects that I had in mind to do in the future, just in case I had time to work on anything related to them. The list was as big as my forearm, and at the end of my two days off, I would mentally berate myself for not having accomplished much. Hey, we are called to be good stewards of our time. I rationalized.

As time went on, I became more worn out and more stressed. Then I stumbled upon a piece of writing having to do with the Lord's prayer. It pointed out the part that says "give us each day our daily bread", expounding on the fact that it says daily. Not meals for a year, a month, or even a week. But simply sustenance for a day. Whether that means a meager serving of oatmeal or an extravagant feast, who can know- but we will be provided for.

Planning ahead can be important and useful, sure. But when it comes to our day-to-day life, one day's worth of provisions will carry us through to the next day, and then the next day's provisions will carry us to the one after that, and so on. We don't need to worry about accomplishing a million little things that are unnecessary for today. God will give us the strength and time necessary to do exactly what He intends us to do today, however much or little that is. 

Our job is to do what He equips us for with diligence, and trust Him when He allows distractions or down periods to hit. We can make all the lists we want, but in the end, He is sovereign over each day.



“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread,
4 and forgive us our sins,
    for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”

- Luke 11:2-4

Walking (and Driving!) by Faith

It struck me on my latest road trip: we put a lot of faith in our technology. We trust that our GPS will take us where we need to go, that it's turn cues are correct and the streets it sends us down are the ones we need to be on. We rely on this piece of technology. Even though it can- and occasionally does- get stuff wrong, we generally trust that everything will be okay when using it. 

If we can put such faith in fallible gadgets, why do we so often fail to extend the same (or even greater!) faith towards God? So often our attitude is that we are displaced in life, that God couldn't possibly have meant for us to be on the path we are on. That latest life event just had to have been a miscalculation on our route, right? 

"...'My righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.' But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls." - Hebrews 10:38-39

No, my friend. God does not miscalculate like a GPS unit. Even when it feels like you're taking the long way or completely off-roading it, God is using it to shape our lives and put us in a place that will ultimately lead us to glorify Him.

Great is Thy Faithfulness

Every time I look back at my trip to Yellowstone National Park, I get to this photograph and the hymn "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" starts to run through my head. Old Faithful is the park's most famous geyser, and it more or less lives up to it's name. It tends to go off around particular times each day and draws a notable crowd of watchers. Despite it's title, the park rangers told me that over the years it's timing has shifted and you can't quite rely on exact times for it to blow anymore. That's the world for you; reliability only goes so far. 

What is truly reliable? God. The lyrics below are deeply rooted in scripture. Take the time to ponder and appreciate the facts behind them.

“Great is Thy faithfulness,” O God my Father,

There is no shadow of turning with Thee;

Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not

As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

 “Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!”

  Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—

“Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,

Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,    your faithfulness to the clouds. - Psalm 36:5

New Beginnings

The new year tends to emerge with much noise and glory. People banging pots, blowing party noisemakers, lighting off fireworks, and making toasts to new beginnings and resolving to change their lives for the better. There is so much excitement and enthusiasm. We know we've made mistakes over the past year, and we're all ready to write them off and start up anew as best we are able.

Why are we so thrilled by the prospect of new beginnings? Why do we like that feel of a fresh start so well? Because it's what we are meant to have. We are meant to be transformed by a relationship with Christ and become new. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. - 2 Corinthians 5:17

If you're already in Christ, do you see the newness? Is there a noticeable difference between you and the rest of the world? It won't be an overnight switch, but the closer we grow in our relationships with Christ, the more like Him we will become and the less like the rest of the world we will seem. I pray for you and myself alike that the difference will be ever increasing. 

Happy New Year!

Back on the Rock

"He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!" - Psalm 40:2-4

Being a hiker, this passage really stands out to me. When you're out in the wilderness, it is very possible that you could fall to your death if you slipped into a large pit; you have to avoid stepping in miry bogs, and you feel the stability of rocks under your feet. Even those who are not outdoorsy can still feel this imagery; sometimes we feel as if we've slipped into a mental bog that we cannot escape on our own, and at some point in time, we have all been dead in a pit of spiritual destruction.

Let us be thankful and continually praising God each day that He has saved us from that destruction and set us upon His firm foundation. Know that He is equally capable of pulling us from the miry bogs of sin and despair. Believe it. Hang onto it. Don't be afraid to share it so that others can know. Trust God, and never allow yourself to pridefully believe that you are the only one who can rescue yourself.

A New Hope

My brother and I were on a road trip. I had doubts about the single lane farm road that my GPS wanted us to turn on, but we had all afternoon to get home, so I allowed my sense of adventure to take over and made the move. After nearly an hour of winding scenic roads (half of which were gravel!), we were coming down a large hill, finally nearing what appeared to be civilization, we saw this road sign. We laughed and cheered, partly because of the Star Wars reference and partly because the timing was so appropriate for us to see a "new hope".

Then I did a double-take: Loop. New Hope Loop. Loops lead in a circle and spit you back out right where you started. That's not hopeful! But how often is this exactly what many of our hopes do for us? We hold an event, item, or person  (maybe even ourselves!) up in our minds, putting our hope in them to make us feel happy or fulfilled. Eventually, things happen, and those hopes fall flat. Or, if our hope is fulfilled, the happiness only lasts for so long before we start in on another low and have to find something new to hope to find our fulfillment in. Thus, the loop repeats.

While there is nothing wrong with excitedly awaiting events, loving people, and even being satisfied with yourself, we should be careful not to elevate those things above God. He is the author of hope; let us keep our hope in His plan and purposes! 

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." - Romans 15:13