A weekend with Papa

Have you ever had a time in your life that was so wonderful and filled you with so much joy that you wish time would freeze and you could live it over and over again?  This past weekend was one of those times for when I had the extreme privilege of hearing Wm. Paul Young, author of "The Shack" speak at my church and at a men's retreat.  throughout the series of talks that spanned over three days I laughed, cried, and learned how to feel God's love in my life in brand new ways that I never thought was possible for me.  I cannot possibly share all of the stories Paul told that were both heart-wrenching and utterly hope-filled at the same time, but I wanted to share just a few things that my Papa has been trying to tell me all along.

1.  I love you! I love you! I love you! No matter what you do son, I love and I will always love you.  No matter what!  You can't change this and I won't change this! I am love.

2.  You do not belong to fear and sin.  You, my child, were created in My image, and I am always good.  If there is pain, sorrow, hurt or sin it did not come from Me.  So if I am always good, and you were created in My image, then you do not belong to sin, you belong to me. If you do not belong to sin then sin does not define you, only my love defines you.

3. I don't bring pain and death into this world, but that doesn't mean that I won't use it for something better, something monumental.  I did not create death, but I can use death to create a bigger and better life than you can imagine.  

4. I cannot lie because I am always good.  So, if I ask you to trust me, then nothing can happen that won't be good.  Nothing.

5. In case you've already forgotten, I love you!  

This is what Papa told me this weekend, and if you are quiet and listen really carefully, He's telling you too. If you want to hear part of what Wm Paul Young shared this weekend, you can go to Cornerstone Church's website and listen for yourself.  Now go talk to your Papa!

 

Where has the time gone?

It’s happened again this year.  In fact, it’s happened more than once this year.  An entire season has gone by far more quickly than I anticipated.  Thinking back to around Memorial Day, I can remember that I had a mental list of things that I wanted to do and projects that I wanted to tackle that just didn’t get done.  What happened?  Life happened: work, sleep, and mostly times when I was just feeling completely unmotivated to do anything and always thinking to myself, “Well, I’ll do that next weekend.”  It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time passes by and how large my ambitions are vs. how committed I am do seeing something through to the end. 

Unfortunately, there are other areas in life that can fall into this same pattern.  We have so many good intentions that never make it past the planning stage. We put off phone calls to family members and old friends to the point where we don’t think about them anymore. We let the Bible sit on the table gathering dust and choose to turn on the T.V. instead of talking to our Father who misses hearing from us.

I often forget that from the day I was born, my time on this planet was already pre-determined and I don’t get an unlimited number of tomorrows or next weeks.  What I choose to do today and every other day is critical to my life and the lives of others.  The opportunities I have to comfort, hug, or even say “I love you” to someone decrease every single day and I don’t get those moments back.  The chances to show hope and love to my neighbors, co-workers, even the person in front of me at the grocery store slips away with every sunset and before I know it, there are no more chances and no more tomorrows. 

I don’t want to think to myself, “If I could live my life over again I would…” rather I want to know exactly where my time has gone and know it was spent well.

The cradle will not rock

My job is fairly uneventful. Mainly a 9 to 5 type of work with some travel thrown in the mix here and there.  I can say it’s been pretty carefree and uninteresting for the most part, that is until this week.  It just so happens that I was scheduled to fly to Boston 24 hours after the bombing at the Boston Marathon two days ago.  There was definitely a pit in my stomach when I heard about this on the news on the drive home when it happened.  Panic and fear immediately hit a city and an event that draws immense international focus and attention.  I was hoping to get an email immediately saying that my conference was canceled.  I was hoping that the hotel, which is one block away from where the blasts happened, would say that everyone has been evacuated and it is closed until further notice. But no, this wasn’t the case.

When I got to Boston I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.  Would there be mass chaos or people everywhere in the throes of emotional breakdowns? No, this still wasn’t the case.  What I saw, and still see around me here, is quite the opposite.  While everyone is all too aware of the tragedies of two days ago, the people of Boston are not defeated.  The faces I see around me are still smiling, although maybe not as much as they normally would.  People are still laughing and courteous, although maybe a little more wary of their surroundings than they might otherwise.  The city is still embracing one another, even the visitors such as myself, as they would have otherwise.  The spirit of Boston is still vibrant, and I think even to the point of patting the rest of the nation on the back and saying “It’s going to be okay.”

What does it mean to be tested and tried?  What does it look like to get up when you fall or you're pushed down?  I’ve experienced triumph and I’ve experienced failure and disappointment.  I’ve been beaten down to the point where I almost haven’t been able to get up.  But this is the first time since 9/11 I’ve witnessed first-hand an entire community stand back up and brush itself off.  I don’t think it’s possible to fully understand the events that this city have experienced in the last 48 hours, but I am grateful, and privileged, to witness the recovery that is happening.  I’m glad I came, I’m proud of this city, God Bless America!

The Day In Between

Yesterday, it all went down.  The man who spent the last three years of his life dedicated to loving others without concern of what the world thought, who performed miracle after miracle for people who both praised his name and I’m sure some who just took his gift and threw it away, was humiliated, beaten, and then spent hour after agonizing hour hanging by spikes ripping into his flesh.  It was brutal and excruciating pain, made all the worse by Roman soldiers pointing and laughing while throwing die to see who would get his only possessions he ever owned.  But his entire life was preparing him for this day……..it was destined to happen from the beginning.  And why was that?  It was because of me and because of you.  We were the hammer, the hammer that drove the nails into his body.  We were the ones who chose to turn away from God time and time again.  We had our own agenda and our own game plan.  We chose evil, and hate, and nasty words, and death, and tearing people down, and letting people starve, and letting children wallow in sickness and did nothing.  We should have been up there, hanging from those beams and writhing in pain.  We deserved this.  But that man, the one named Jesus, he did it for us.  In fact, just as he was being taken captive by the those soldiers the other day, he turned around and gave a little nod to the disciples, saying, “Don’t worry, I’ve got this.” This was yesterday.

Tomorrow, well we know what’s going to happen then.  Jesus was telling us all along what would happen.  While he would die, he would live again.  He would live forever and we could too if we were willing. Yep, that’s what’s going to happen tomorrow and I can’t wait! It will be the best day ever! But what do we do now? What can we do now? What do we know how to do?  Well there is one thing we know how to do because we did it so well before, and that is to be the hammer.  But this time, what if instead of causing pain and death we choose to heal and free.  What if tomorrow, on that amazing day, we look around for people who have build up these walls around themselves.  These walls of anger, fear, failure, pain, sorrow and loneliness that have been building for so many years.  The walls that are now thick and tall, and take our hammers and chip away at them.  Some of these walls we might only crack a little bit, but others might come down with one swing.  What if we hit, and hit, and hit, and hit these walls with love, compassion, understanding, patience, and most importantly God’s forgiveness so that we aren’t the only one who get’s to see Jesus live again and reach out his hand to us? What if other could see and experience this as well?  It’s about time this hammer of mine did some good in this world.