A Legacy Received and Hopefully Passed On

Tomorrow will be a very reflective day for me. We would have celebrated my dad's 74^th birthday had he not passed away last spring. I still miss him very much. I am sure, when the anniversary of his death rolls around in a couple of months, I will be writing about him again, but bear with me for now, please.

We shared a lot in common, most notably, a love of sports – especially baseball. Major League Baseball's spring training kicked off over the weekend and I caught myself wanting to call him and talk to him about the Braves, and of course, his favorite team, the Saint Louis Cardinals. I am the sports fanatic that I am today because of him. I am still adjusting to life without him and I suspect I will be adjusting from now on.

A love for sports, however, is not the most important thing my dad instilled in me. He taught me to love Jesus above all. I can remember times as a child when I needed something for school or some other activity, and we would not have any idea how we would get it. He would always remind me that the Lord provides, and sure enough, the Lord did. My dad did not send me to church . . . he and my mom TOOK me. They were there, too, actively serving God. My parents sacrificed to send me to a school where I received solid Biblical training for life. They financed bachelors and masters degrees in religion so I could train to do what God called me to do. My dad taught me that the most important thing in life was NOT possessions, titles, accomplishments, but my walk with the Lord.

Unfortunately, as I observe Christian fathers today, I am afraid many pass on a different set of values to their children both my example and exhortation. Kids see their Christian dads pursue all life has to offer even at the expense of putting God on the back shelf. Dads tell their kids that God is important, but they model a different set of values all together. How many children hear and see their dad pray regularly? Or even at all? How many children see Dad make sacrifices for the good of the family or others? On the other hand, how many children hear dad rationalize his own questionable behavior? How many children see Dad chase his own version of the American dream at the expense of his family, co-workers, and even his relationship with God?

I am so thankful for my Dad. I still love him deeply and miss him dearly. As I have thought so much about him these last few weeks, I have recommitted myself to my daughter, my wife, and most importantly to Jesus. I want my family one day to look back and see Jesus' fingerprints all over my life. I want to make a positive impact on my family, my church, my friends, my colleagues, and any with whom I can have any influence at all for Jesus' sake.

Men, let me challenge you to consider what message you are passing on to your kids. Not what you are saying, but what you are SHOWING.

Nagging God

If my daughter is anything, she is persistent. Then again, most 7 year olds are. She doesn't give up easily. The other night as we returned a rented Wii game to the store, she wanted to rent another. Since it was a school night, I told her we would have to wait. She didn't care much for that answer. She begged several more times before I convinced that NO was my final answer. No lifelines, no phone-a-friends, and no 50-50s.

At first, her persistence annoyed me, but the more I thought about it, the more her persistence inspired me. You see, when I talk to my Heavenly Father, I am not as persistent. I give up too easily. I will pray for a friend for a few days, or I will bring a personal problem to the Lord a few times, but then I drop it. I interpret the absence of a tangible answer as a "NO" from God. Such is not always the case. Jesus encourages us to be persistent in our prayers.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. – Matthew 7:7-8

When I read those verses, I first see a progression in urgency – from ask, to seek, to know. In other words, if asking does not produce and answer, I should "turn it up a notch" and seek an answer. If seeking does not produce an answer, I should take it one step further and begin to knock in heaven's door to produce an answer. The longer the answer delays, the more fervently I should pray. With time, the frequency and intensity of my prayers should not fall off but rather increase.

A second lesson I learn in those verses, however, is persistence in offering my prayer. The Holman Christian Standard Bible, which is the translation I use most often, translates the verbs in verse 7 as "keep asking," "keep seeking," and "keep knocking." When I checked my Greek New Testament, I discovered that is quite the accurate translation. The tense of those three imperative verbs indicates the commanded action should take plan on a continual basis. Prayer is not meant to be a "one and out" proposition. If I want answers from heaven, I need not "mention" my request in prayer, but instead, implore heaven to hear and answer.

Are there needs or people for whom you have ceased to pray? Why not restart? If you haven't received your answer yet, it may be because you didn't stay with it long enough in prayer. Jesus told the story of a woman who hounded a judge incessantly to rule in her favor. Just to get her off his back, the judge finally issued the ruling she sought. Jesus went on to say that if an "evil" man rewarded such persistence, how much more should we expect our Good God to reward our persistence in prayer. (Luke 18:1-9)

Keep praying, keep seeking, keep knocking. Your answer is on the way.

How Do You Define Success and Failure?

Pragmatism. An approach to philosophy, primarily held by American philosophers, which holds that the truth or meaning of a statement is to be measured by its practical (i.e., pragmatic) consequences. [pragmatism. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pragmatism (accessed: February 07, 2010).]

Such a worldview can get us in trouble. Pragmatism defines the success or failure of an endeavor on the immediate tangible results, usually results arbitrarily chosen to enhance the position of the one making the case for or against the endeavor.

There are at least a couple of serious shortcomings to such a practice. The first lies with the definition of "success" and "failure." When we try to evaluate our circumstance, we might make the mistake of view God's blessing as an endorsement of our behavior, or the withholding of certain blessings as indicative of His opposition. Such pragmatism reared its ugly head in Job's story. Job's friends felt certain that Job must have committed some secret sin so egregious that God punished him severely with the circumstances of his life. They were convinced that nothing like what happened to Job would ever happen to someone in God's favor.

We fall into that trap also. We see one ministry draw great crowds and we declare it successful while another slowly losses some of its following, so we declare it a failure. We give no thought to the idea that God allows the rain to fall and the sun to shine on the just as well as the unjust (Matthew 5:45). So also, pleasant circumstances do not necessarily indicate God's pleasure just as unpleasant circumstances do not indicate his displeasure. When things are going our way, God may be extending grace even though we are not obedient to Him. When things are not going our way, God may not be punishing us, only testing our faith.

As second danger of pragmatism is the temptation to assess a situation too early. If we do not give God time to finish His work before we deem it successful, we may be premature and miss what God is trying to accomplish. He doesn't always (actually seldom . . . almost NEVER) work on our timetable. We are confident that He who began a good work in us WILL COMPLETE that work (Philippians 1:6), so let's not be so hasty with our assessments.

So how can we live if we cannot judge success or failure by our circumstances? Galatians 6:9-10 gives us good instruction for our lives:

So we must not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don't give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, we must work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith.

Obey God and let the circumstances fall where they may. Do what is right regardless of the outcome, and KEEP doing right. Don't listen to the naysayers like Job's friends who tell you that your alleged failures are signs you are not doing something right. Keep doing what God tells you, and you will see a breakthrough "at the proper time."

Hang in there, brothers and sisters. Don't give up, don't give out, and don't give in.

Where Is Ponce De Leon When You Need Him?

It happened again . . . somebody thinks I am old. That's twice this week. Earlier in the week, a young woman who works at Zaxby's thought Bekah was mine and Andrea's granddaughter. Today, the cashier at Wendy's gave me the senior discount – without even asking. She just assumed I am an old man.

When I face the facts (and the mirror), I realize that I AM indeed showing my age. I have gray in my hair (what's left of it), wrinkles and age spots on my face, and weathered hands. We can cover it with cosmetics, lift it with surgery, and delay it with exercise, but eventually the effects of aging show up on our bodies. God did not create our bodies to last forever. Our time on earth is temporary.

Over time, my body has borne the effects of my environment. The sun pounds my skin with its damaging rays, the air that I breathe pollutes my lungs with microscopic particles, the "preservatives" I eat may preserve food, but they destroy my body. Physical deterioration is inevitable, but spiritual growth is optional. Consider the words of Paul:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away,
yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. – 2 Corinthians 4:16 (NIV)

I harm my body by exposing it to the damaging ingredients of my environment, but I GROW my spirit by exposing it to the things of the Lord. Take a break from the blog and go look in the mirror. Seriously, step away from the computer and look at yourself (just remember to come back). You do not look like you did five years ago. My spiritual life can also waste away, however, when I expose it to sights, sounds, and experiences contrary to God, but we can renew the "inner man" each day by exposing our spirit to the Word, prayer, praise, and Christian accountability and fellowship instead.

I may not be able to stop the effects of aging, but I can spend the rest of my life growing stronger on the inside as I let God have His way in my life. What about you? Are you more concerned with delaying – or maybe satisfied merely hiding – the effects of aging on your body than with growing your heart closer to the Lord? Do you spend more time primping your outer appearance or priming your inner walk? Are you more concerned with how you look than who you are, better yet, WHOSE you are?

Let me challenge you that while you are trying to take care of your body, take even greater care with your spirit. Take a good warm spiritual bath in God's Word. Slather yourself with praises to God. Cover yourself with intimate prayer to the ONE who created your body to live temporarily but your spirit to live forever. Just as the things to which you expose it affect your body, so also the things you place in your heart affect your spirit.

Who needs Ponce De Leon's fountain of youth when you have the Lord's Tree of Life?

The Heisman Trophy of Christian Living

College football's most prestigious individual achievement award – the Heisman Trophy – is named for John Heisman, who served as head football coach at several colleges including Auburn, Rice, and most notably Georgia Tech. His cumulative record in 37 seasons of coaching was 185-66-16. In 16 seasons as the head coach of the Yellow Jackets, Heisman compiled an outstanding record of 102-29-6, including Tech's most lopsided victory – 222-0 over Cumberland College in 1916 and Tech's first of four national championships in 1917. The story of the Cumberland College game is interesting but will have to wait for another day.

The reason I like Coach Heisman so much, however, is for his ability to keep things simple. Coach Heisman held his teams to only three very simple rules: (1) don't cuss, (2) don't argue with the officials, and (3) above all . . . DON'T LOSE. Pretty simple, if you ask me, and apparently his teams responded well to the simple rules.

Paul boils down a successful life into three simple rules also:

. . . seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you . . . – 1 Thessalonians 4:11

I like the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases the verse in The Message:

Stay calm; mind your own business; do your own job.

First, Paul encourages us to lead a quiet, calm life. In one sense, we can understand "quiet" as refraining from speech. Certainly, we would all be better off if we spoke less and listened more. However, much of the strife we experience in life is self-inflicted. We tend to stir things up rather than let things lie. What do you do when someone comes to you with criticism of someone else? If we are seeking to lead a quiet life we give them two choices – drop it or take it somewhere else. We do not encourage the drama; we seek to minimize it.

Then, Paul encourages us to mind our own business, literally "pay attention to your own things." The best way to get our nose out of joint is to stick it constantly in places it doesn't belong. I am more productive by concentrating on what is mine to do and not worrying about the church down the road. Their business is theirs and mine is mine. The same is true for you. Don't worry about how someone else conducting their affairs, take care of your own.

Finally, Paul challenges us to take care of our responsibilities completely. Do your job. Fill your day full. Instead of worrying about someone else's responsibilities, make certain you meet yours first. In the words of one of my favorite football coaches (Tony Dungy), "do what you do." In John 21, when Peter questioned Jesus about His plan for John, Jesus replied, "…what is that to you? As for you, follow Me." (John 21:20-23)

If we can follow these three simple rules, we can win the "Heisman Trophy" of Christian living.

Change You Can REALLY Believe In

"I am the Lord, I do not change." Thus declares God in Malachi 3:6. I am so thankful for that. God does not wear out, fade, evaporate, unravel, crack, dry out or up, grow weary, change the rules, remodel, etc. He is FAITHFUL. We can always count on Him to be the same, act the same, love the same, forgive the same. Indeed, HE never changes.

But have you ever noticed that everything that comes in contact with Him DOES change? The earth was empty, a formless mass cloaked in darkness. Then God changed things. And what a splendid creation of which we are part – the crown even! God's people were in bondage, living in Egyptian servitude, but God changed that and gave them a land to call their own – which they still do to this day. I was a sinner, in bondage to sin, hopeless and helpless. But God showed up and changed all that. Now, there is no condemnation for me because I have life in Jesus Christ. Yes, God met me where I was, but praise Him, He did not leave me there. I am being transformed day by day; I am a work in progress.

That being the case for all of us . . . why do we resist change so passionately? Why do we want things to stay the way they were 20 years ago? Can we not see that change is not optional, it is INEVITABLE? You don't believe me? Get out some old photos of yourself, and look at them while you are standing in front of a mirror.

So what is it about change? Is it the fear of the unknown? If that is the case, we need to confess our sin of unbelief. We may not know what the future holds, but we certainly know Who holds the future. Do we not believe that? Do we not trust God? Do we not believe that our Father of lights who never fades or casts shifting shadows will give us every good thing?

Or is our resistance to change about control? Are we afraid we will not like the changes that God will make? Then we need to confess our sin of pride and rebellion. When we made Him Lord of our lives, we signed over every right to Him to make us what He wants us to be. But think about it, who knows better what to do with us than the One who created us? If we make Him the delight of our lives, He will cause our heart to desire what He wants for us, and the changes will be more than agreeable, they will be a tremendous blessing to us.

There could be a plethora of other determining factors for our resistance to change. But the fact remains that our Unchanging God is all about Change. We cannot encounter Him and remain the same. Jacob couldn't. Moses couldn't. The woman at the well couldn't. And neither could I. Change is good when that change is brought about by our growth in the grace of, knowledge of, and life experience with Jesus Christ.

Change is like a train coming down the track. We can either get on and ride, step aside and let it pass us by, or foolishly stand in its way and find our attempt to stop it only gets us smashed. So, what should be my response to change? Expect it, embrace it, ask God to bring about His change, and trust that every good gift and every perfect gift comes from Him.

Change my heart, Oh God! Now THAT is change I can REALLY believe in.

Sweaty, Petty, Fretty

"Don't sweat the petty stuff and don't pet the sweaty stuff."

I like that saying . . . I try to make it one of the guiding ideals of my life, but I am not always successful. What a liberating thought, nonetheless. The rub comes in learning what things are petty and what things are sweaty!

This is a Biblical concept by the way.

"…that you may be able to discern what is best…" – Philippians 1:10

We can get really busy doing stuff that seems urgent but is not really important. In fact, the most important things in life never scream for our attention, but instead quietly and patiently wait for our attention. How can we discern those things that matter most? Here is a short list of qualifications I try to use to help me stay on track.

1. Earthly vs. eternal. Look at your calendar. What/who occupies most of your time? Is it really important? Fifteen, twenty years from now, will it really make any difference? The most important things in our life are those things that have eternal consequences – things that will matter far beyond our tenure on earth.

2. Ritual vs. relationship. Some of the things we do, we do just because we do them. Make sense? We can easily get distracted doing things that have no real value; they produce no real fruit in our lives. Yet we continue to do them for fear that they will not be done if we don't. Maybe we continue to do them because we are "supposed to" do them – according to someone else. What really matters are those things we do that nurture the important relationships in our lives: God, family, friends. God created us as human BEINGS not human DOINGS and hard wired us to relate to others.

3. Comfort vs. growth. Sometimes we busy ourselves with things merely because they are familiar and we fear getting out of our comfort zone. We are creatures of habit and we find comfort in routine. However, any routine can easily become a rut. Our faith grows only when challenged. Only when we venture out of our comfort zone do we experience God fresh and new. Real growth occurs only in freshly plowed ground.

So what are you fretting, sweating, and petting? As you take inventory of your life, ask God to help you honestly assess the things you do and to have His wisdom to bring the truly important and best things to the forefront. It will take courage to jettison some of the familiar things of life, but to exchange the life-draining petty things of life with things that matter for all of eternity frees us up to grow more than we could ever imagine.