Escape the Day

 Escape the day, the norm. Shock yourself.

Walk in the pouring rain, splash in a puddle. 

Climb a mountain, just to do it. Pull off the side of a road and park, just to enjoy a sunset. Sooth a crying baby with a soft voice and a gentle rock. Make it a point to tell an aging veteran that you appreciate their sacrifice, and your freedom.

Write a letter of encouragement to someone for something you've gone through, and come out of. Take flowers to a nursing home, and ask for that one who never gets visitors. Pray for the president..really pray! Walk through a grocery store, just to visualize the abundant blessings you have available. Be silly, just to make a child laugh. Put a hand on someone's arm that needs comforting. Bend a knee beside your bed at night, and whisper a 'Thank You', to the one that helped you escape the day.

Direction

I read and hear people in social media, and in the news, talking about the state of the nation. They repeat how it seems we are going completely in the wrong direction as a country. I agree. We seem to have drifted from being a strong nation of immigrants, with a tightly woven moral fabric, to a borderless geographic area on a map. This once purposeful Judeo-Christian, God-birthed country, has become a backseat, lead from behind, poll-driven, man-pleasing, God-rejecting people. It's not that we are misreading our moral compass, we have discarded Gods compass altogether.
Everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes, deciding morality as they see fit. Evil is now good, and good is now evil. We are now completely lost, wandering, unable to tell good from bad, and without a true time-tested moral compass with which to go by. So, here we are lost, and unable to see through darkness.
One thing I learned while attending Survival School was, when "lost", STOP, see where you are. Get your bearings, open your map (the bible...Gods Word), and reorient yourself with your map.
Once you examine your surroundings, find landmarks (identify what is around you), then you can lay the compass, the Truth of God's word over it. If the darkness is too much for you to see, thankfully, like the glowing pointer and degree makings on my survival compass, we can see clearly in complete darkness. Even those that are not followers of Christ are uneasy, scared, knowing we are in a bad way right now.
Christian man, Christian woman, it's way past time to STOP! Reorient ourselves with God's Word. Realize we are adrift, or wandering...lost. Lay our "compass" over our nation, and pray, asking God to help us to see our direction, and to put us back on His path for us, allowing God to show us where we are to go.
One last point. While I was in survival school, it was one thing to be "lost". It was quite another, to "admit" to your instructor that you were lost, and needed help turning you around, putting you on the right path again. Many times, it's just as difficult with God. However, he wants us to ask for help, he wants to lead us back onto the right path, he wants to give us clear and purposeful direction in this life today, and for eternity tomorrow.

Friends

Jesus. It's hard many times to truly relate to his sufferings, his trials, his pain, his anguish, his lonliness, and friends who no longer stood with him in his great time of need. Every day, we experience periods of temptation, suffering, and trials. In my personal opinion, nothing is harder and more painful, than when close friends inform you they are not going to be standing with you anymore. They are going to go in a new direction, seeking new things in life, that do not happen to include you. Jesus had most of his friends not just leave him, they ran away from him. What a heartbreaking thing to happen. Think about that for a moment. He had to witness his friends literally fleeing from his side, because they feared. Jesus understood that part. The sight of seeing his friends leave, is how he can relate to our loss. He understands the pain, because nearly ALL of his friends left his side. He knows what our loss means, and the big hole that it leaves behind in your heart. The great feeling of abandonment, and the vacuum left from the void...He understands. That's why he can, and he will, be a strength to you. He's been there, experienced the loss, and he can relate completely to us. He knows the value of a friend...He knows.

Choices

Freedom. What an amazing blessing. We take it for granted, the greatest of these is the free will to chose. I pondered my blessings as I traveled this past week. I drove freely across several states. I stopped when I wanted, for how long I wanted, and for what I wanted. 
How easily this can be lost, in a moment, at any time, we can lose it...or worse yet, we can simply forfeit it.
God offers us even far greater freedom, the freedom to chose to turn to him, to trust him as the Lord God, or to turn away from Him. He absolutely leaves this choice to us. He gave his best for us, he sent his Son to die for our sin, and loves us, even when we don't love Him.
Then, he leaves us the choice to love Him in gratitude and thanks, or we have the freedom to reject him, to reject his love, and his costly sacrifice. The greatest freedom we have, isn't living in America, it isn't having abundant blessings, it's the simple freedom to chose to receive God's gift of ultimate love, or to ignore and reject Him. Use your freedom wisely, chose carefully. The freedom he gives you to chose, has eternal consequences.

A Work In The Masters Hands

After making the decision to follow Jesus Christ some 20 plus years ago, I never though he would lead me to where I am now. Over the last 7-8 months, God has been tugging at my heart in ways that are contrary to what I want to do. One of the mysteries of serving God and "surrendering to his will" and not mine, is that many times, God desires to stretch us more than we think we are able.

I have worked in and/or been involved in many different aspects of the Christian life and church ministry over the years. Recently, I have felt the call to shepherd people in my church. Keep in mind, I was NOT the pastor. This was perplexing, because I love my church and have no plans to leave or move at this time. For many months, I have awakened at crazy hours in the middle of the night, feeling drawn to pray for EVERYONE in my church! Until i did so, I found it hard to fall asleep again. Finally, after deciding to do what God was urging me to do, I began to have a peace without having any idea whatsoever where it would lead me. I had decided to allow God to use me where he saw fit, not where I wanted to go, but where HE wanted me to go, doing what HE wanted me to to do. This allowed me to be a work in the masters hands. Are you a work in the hands of the master?

Unnecessary Regret

Life. We have no idea of its value, no understanding of its importance, until it is nearly snatched from us. That loved one we so casually ignore, or assume will always be there, will someday be gone.

We interact with one another saying, “See ya later”, and if we’ve taken a step away from them, we wave and continue without pausing to turn back, and hug them goodbye.

As family, we always assume, there will be a “next time”. We assume that person “knows” we love them. We take for granted they will be there that next time. We can call them later. We will see them another time.

Never leave someone you love without a hug goodbye, without looking them in the eyes and purposely, from your heart, tell them you love them. Always squeeze a hand, rub a shoulder, offer a soft kiss, because that next time may not come. Tomorrow may not arrive for them, or for you.

Life. God gave us life to love one another. Get busy loving. You don’t have a minute to waste, but you may have a lifetime of regret.

Unexpected Detour

How do we ever know when we're too busy? During our "busyness", how do we know when we need to slow down, or to stop and catch our breath? Most of the time, we don't. Most of the time, something has to give...something has to get our attention.

I had one such moment recently. What was mine? A health scare. A serious one, one that comes out of nowhere...one that puts you flat on your back, one that interupts your day...your routine, one that brings you face to face with eternity, and the very real possibility of dying.
Yes, the fact that I write about it now shows that I survived, recovered, and now reflect.

Until you are flat on your back for several days, you sometimes fail to hear God. He is a thought in a prayer, or a momentary comfort, or a bit of wisdom during a time of need. He generally doesn't have our full attention. During my days on my back, surrounded by family and friends, I came to realize, I had been "detoured" from my routine...I was pulled aside by God. He needed to talk to me, and I had been too busy to listen. Now, I was all ears. What did he say to me? Why had I been removed from the "norm"?

The things God spoke to me are far to numerous to list, let alone share in a blog. However, his "detour" took me away from rough roads, pot-holes, and roads of "doing it all myself", and he showed me clearly, that he is my rest, my strength, my guide, my wisdom, my direction, and my God...he, and he alone. I had been relying way too much on myself, what "I could do", I had taken on loads that God desires to carry, tried to do things he is supposed do, manage things he is supposed to manage.

The good news? I was given a clean bill of health. Even better news, God has shown me I can trust in him. He assured me of his peace. He demonstrated how fragile life is...how quickly we can be here one minute, and gone the next. He showed me to slow down and enjoy life, not to stress over things he already has under control. To pause often, to stop occationally, and to commune with him. Lastly, he showed me that at or near the end of life, I can confidently trust that he has my eternity firmly in hand.

Remember in your busy day, to take time throughout, to talk to God and even more importanly, to listen. It may very well prevent a major "detour" on the road of your life.