First Love

Do you remember your very first love?  You know...the one that made you fuzzy on the inside.  I remember mine well.  I was experienced at love when I fell for this beauty.  I was in the fourth grade and she was in the third.  We were so in love that we decided to spray paint our names on the street in front of my house.  Yeah...I know...it was true!  We were steady for 4 years.  Yes, 4 years!  But...by the eighth grade she had lost interest in me.  I knew something was up because we weren't sitting at the same lunch table anymore.  I remember the day well and I knew it was coming when I saw her beady eyed little friend approaching my table with a smirk on her face. Before I knew it this little monster was standing in front of me twirling her hair and smacking her gum. As she opened her venomous little mouth I braced myself for the pain. "She wants to break up with you today because you're to chubby."  Too chubby?  I mean yeah I had gained a little weight but that just crossed the line! She was throwing away 4 years of pure bliss over a couple of pounds? She did and in the blink of an eye it was over.

Needless to say my heart was broken and my first love was gone. Oh how my little chubby heart wept.  I'm over it now but it took awhile.

Why do we choose to walk away from our first love? I guess in my case "it" walked away from me. 

But when it comes to our spiritual journey listen to what Christ says;

"I know you are enduring patiently and are bearing up for My name’s sake, and you have not fainted or become exhausted or grown weary. But I have this one charge to make against you: that you have abandoned the love that you had at first, you have deserted Me, your first love. Revelation 2:3-4 (AMP)

You see, I work real hard at trying to do the right things.  I mean, I do good stuff for God so what am I missing? Doing good stuff FOR God is completely different than being WITH God.  I find myself walking closely to what appeals to my nature and not closely enough to what appeals to His nature and without realizing it I have quietly and rebelliously drifted away from my first love.  

As a follower of Christ do whatever it takes to return to your first love.  When you do you will be glad you did.

How clean are the feet of those who betray us?

I had a thought this morning.  Yes, I know, some of you are shocked, but I think it is a legitimate thought.  Most of us know the story of Jesus washing the feet of His disciples right before going to the cross.  And most of us know that Peter had the biggest issue with it.  Peter's argument, I believe was two-fold.  #1:  Why would the most powerful man in the room stoop down and wash my feet? and #2:  I will have to model this behavior and it doesn't suit me.  I mean after all Jesus was the teacher, rabbi and master and Peter didn't like where this was going.

But my thoughts this morning turned to Judas, the one who ultimately betrayed Jesus.  Jesus knew him well.  He knew his motives and what he would do in just a few moments.  He (Judas) would get up from the table and set out to betray the One he had just spent three years with.

And Jesus washed his feet anyway.

John 13:12 says, and when He had finished washing THEIR feet, He put on His garment and returned to His place.  It doesn't say that He washed the feet of only the ones who were true to Him.  He washed the feet of ALL of His disciples including Judas.  Let that sink in for a minute.  Jesus washed the feet of the one who would betray Him.  Jesus knew what Judas was about to do and He served him anyway.

What a lesson in humility for me this morning.  In my heart, I know that I am able to serve and love those who will serve and love me back.  However, I can't seem to wrap my mind around serving and loving those who won't return the favor, much less the people in my life who betray me.  If someone betrays me once then shame on them but if someone betrays me twice then shame on me, right?

I have a long way to go in what unconditional love must look like in my life.  I mean, Jesus must have known that I too would betray Him, but made the decision to serve me anyway.

The ultimate form of service, on a cross, laying His own life down to ransom mine. How many times have I looked into the face of Jesus and said, "No thanks" as His unconditional love said, "That's ok Ty. One day you will understand."

Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand." John 13:7

Once you find it...never let it go!

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There is so much clutter in our lives.  Sometimes I believe our goal in life is to be so distracted with stuff that it numbs the pain of our existence.  We work very hard at making life work for us and somewhere in the middle of our existence there is something so precious and valuable. Something worth fighting for! Yet it can get pushed out of the way if we are not careful.  Search for it!  It’s found in the middle of all the clutter.

And when you find it…never let it go!

The Source of Satisfaction

Lately I have been in a place in my life where I am struggling to find satisfaction.  God is good, life is great but there is something deep within me that longs for something more.  Henry David Thoreau says it this way, 'The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."  What a quote, huh?  Quietly desperate.  Desperate for more.  More of what? Who knows. Just desperate. 

Life seems so purposeless and mundane at times.  The routine of it all seems bleak. I long for the day when I can shed this desperation like old skin?  Where do I turn to find the satisfaction that I desperately long for.  Church?  Hobbies? Work?  Facebook? Movies? 

Not even close do these things come to satisfying the deep parts of our soul. These things are like layers of mediocrity compared to what we truly need. The surface of the ocean doesn't even come close to the beauty of what is underneath it.  I find myself spending so much time skimming the top of my life and never really understanding the beauty that lies underneath the surface of it.  

Satisfaction is not circumstantial.  It doesn't come based on whatever circumstance we find ourselves in. It has to come from a deeper place. A deeper source.

Enter stage right:  Jesus Christ.  Every single time I get to a place of quiet desperation I quietly find myself at the feet of the only one who can bring deep satisfaction.  It is then and there that my heart rests.  That I begin to hope again.  The surface becomes the deep. The source becomes the satisfaction.

Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Luke 6:21

Africa, Detroit or to the uttermost....

Last night I woke up with a scary thought!  What if God chose to send me to Detroit!  Would I go?  I mean really...to me, Africa seems better than Detroit. 

You see, I never have wanted to fully surrender to God's destiny in my life because it might include being stuck in Africa where McDonald's and Wal-Mart don't exist.  Heaven forbid! God, please!  I will do anything else but not Africa. I mean after all I am an American and I can do more for you in America!  I promise I could...let me just show you.

Wait...hang on a second...let me add something to this prayer God...I love the South!  I mean after all I am a southern American so I will just serve you in the South. Yeah, that's what I will do. I will serve you in the Southern part of North America. Ok?

But God if I may get a little more specific with you.  There are parts of the South that are just a little too cold for me. I mean after all I was born and raised in Florida and me and cold don't like each other very much, so here is what I will do for you God - I will serve you!  No applause necessary...remember, I am just your humble and obedient servant who is fully surrendered and sold out to declaring your incredible love to people!  Yay me! 

However, if I could do it in the Southern part of America, specifically Florida, then I am all in! And by the way...You are welcome.  I know you want me all to yourself so I am here ready to serve you anyway I can in Florida. 

Yep..that sums it up. I'm good if you are!  Thanks for this little conversation we had tonight God. I feel much better.  Detroit?  That was a good one God!  You are too funny.

GLOW

Do you remember glow in the dark toys?  Your child might have one or two of these glow wonders stuffed somewhere deep down into the trenches of the toy box.  It might be underneath a race car or some train tracks but it is probably still there.

 

If you were to find that toy and turn the light off you probably wouldn’t get real excited at the dark plastic mass in your hand.  Why?  Because that super fun toy has not seen the light of day in months and appears broken. It is not glowing anymore! Well you know as well as I do that it is not broken it just needs a dose of light to glow again.  In minutes after an encounter with the light the glow is back and shining brightly in the darkness of the room.

 

Today, you might find yourself down in the trenches of the toy box. You feel stuffed somewhere between your personal responsibilities and pressure from others and you find that your glow is gone.

 

You just need to find your way back to the light so you can glow again. It only takes minutes in the light to get the glow back.

 

My dad and I went camping a few years back and for some reason we woke up at the same time.  Our tent was pitched in a clearing on top of a mountain and the view was extraordinary.  We unzipped the tent and walked out onto the camp site and the moon was as full as I have ever seen it.  It was so full that it looked like we could have just reached out and touched it.  We stood there in awe for a few minutes staring at the glory of the moon.  And the truth about the moon is that it would have no glory to it at all if the sun wasn’t shining on it.  The sun illuminates the moon making it absolutely breathtaking.  Without the sun shining on the surface of the moon the moon would look like a giant rock floating in the air.  It takes the light of the sun to make it glorious.

 

Your light source is Christ and you are a reflection of His light in this dark world. Get back to your source of light and then share that light with everyone around you.

 

Here comes trouble

My senior year of college was going great! I was very busy with my double major of intramural sports and girls.  However I started to realize that my demanding schedule was beginning to leave me breathless at the end of the day.  At the age of 23 I was ten feet tall and bullet proof with a strong feeling of immortality.  But all of that came crashing down in an instant when I went to the doctor for a checkup.  After running multiple tests the results came back and were very clear. They had discovered that I had a very rare heart disease called “Ebsteins Anomoly.”  The doctor told me that I needed open heart surgery and needed it right away.  The only thing I could remember at the time was a sense of complete devastation. How could this be? I had my whole life in front of me. 

The brother of Jesus was very specific when he wrote to us.  He said, “Dear brothers and sisters, when trouble comes your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.”  James 1:2

JOY?!  How in the world can our troubles turn into joy?  I mean don’t we spend most of our lives trying to avoid the troubles of life.  We work so diligently at trying to make our lives as comfortable as possible so we will be filled with joy, right?

There are some attributes of trouble that I believe are very true.

1)   Troubles are going to happen to us whether we like it or not. 

2)   Trouble tends to come out of nowhere.  Have you ever been blind sided in life?  Everything seems to be going just right and then all of sudden, “WHAM”, out of nowhere you are faced with a crisis in your life.

3)   Trouble tends to cause us to doubt God.  After we are faced with our crisis the first place we look is up with one question on our hearts.  Why me, Lord?  Haven’t I been faithful to you? Haven’t I tried to live a life pleasing to you?

4)   Troubles tend to force us to look upwards.  After the doubt in our heart subsides and we have nowhere else to go we begin asking God for relief.  Psalm 4:1 says, Answer me when I call to you. O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress.

5)   Troubles have a tendency to allow us to find strength in God.  We slowly begin finding our strength in the One who loves us the most. After the questions and doubt leave then we turn to God for help.

6)   Troubles have a tendency to show us what pure joy really is.  It is not God’s nature to abandon His children.  We might think that He does at times but what He’s really up to is a process of completing our joy by carrying us through the trouble.

Always know that through any storm in your life God is always at work!