I Can't See A Thing!

A few weeks ago we took a family vacation to New England. We had a great time taking in the history and sights of that part of our country. On one particular day we decided to drive up Mount Washington in New Hampshire. Now, the summit of Mount Washington reaches a height of only 6,288 ft. To put that into perspective, Pike's Peak is 14,115 ft., Mt. McKinley is 20,320 ft., and Mt. Rainier is 14,410 ft. So, having been up Pike's Peak several times, we thought a drive up Mount Washington would be piece of cake. Afterall, the city of Colorado Springs sits at an elevation of over 6,000 ft. and we've taken several trips there without any problems.

The initial part of our journey was incredible. The colors of autumn were unbelievable as slowly we made our way up the mountain. The road was a bit narrow and the absence of guard-rails made the drive a bit adventurous. As we continued up the mountain, some clouds blew in and our ability to see became increasingly more difficult. Onward we drove with the summit as our goal. Thicker and thicker and thicker the clouds became until we could not see past the front of our vehicle. Oh, did I mention the wind? The wind was hitting the car like a linebacker hitting a running back. Needless to say, our drive up the mountain that was suppose to be a piece of cake was turning into anything but. My crew's confidence in me was failing. Well, actually my own confidence in me was failing. I'm pretty sure I saw a turtle pass us like we were sitting still.

Now, although I've driven in some difficult weather before, I have to admit this was a first for me. That being said, I've faced this scenario many times walking through life. Those moments when you have no idea what lies ahead. You want so desperately to know how this thing is going to turn out, but there's know way of knowing. Just like us on that mountain, even the next step is cloudy. Maybe, you've heard God speak and you step out in confidence knowing that you've heard him clearly. Then, life takes a turn and you begin doubting. Circumstances are screaming loudly and the journey you anticipated is not the one you're experiencing. The fun has given way to work and everything in you is saying turn back. Everyone around you is screaming turn back.

Your mind becomes flooded with questions and doubts. "Maybe you didn't hear from God." "Maybe you missed God on this one." "Maybe this is God saying, NO!" In those moments for some reason its hard to hear his voice. Perhaps its because there are so many other voices competing for your attention. Whatever the reason, the truth is that so often here is where we lose the battle. Its in those moments when what we know is challenged by the world around us. Our five physical senses begin taking in thousands of inputs and most of them oppose that one input we originally received from God.

We are no different than the disciples who think the boat is going down in the storm or who can't wrap their brain around the day Jesus died. We're no different than Abraham trying to figure out how God was going to give him and Sarah a son at such an old age. Just like them we are faced with the decision to continue on or throw in the towel. We are faced with the cold hard reality of how firm our faith is.

On that mountain, I couldn't see a thing. I had never been there before and I had no idea what was up ahead. I would love to say I forged ahead and made it to the top. I didn't. I found a place to turn around and started back down the mountain. Sadly, that has been the same outcome many times throughout life. Fear, doubt, and unbelief win and the summit is never reached.

I know it would be great to journey through life with no obstacles. It would be so wonderful to be able to hear God's voice clearly, see the big picture and step out with no opposition. But that kind of life would require no faith. God has designed us in such a way that faith is a necessity for how we are to live life. Its living life in such a way that regardless of how our five senses interpret the world around us, we simply believe and trust God. Its understanding that there is a reality that is more real than what we can touch, see, hear, smell, and taste. Its banking on the promises of God when your experience is telling you something else. Its seeing with another set of eyes when your natural eyes see nothing.

While we had a great trip and I will never forget the experiences we had there, I do regret not making it to the top of Mt. Washington. I know that on that day once we got there we would have not been able to see anything. That's not really the point though. The point is just finishing the journey. Its about fighting the fear, the obstacles, and every urge to throw in the towel and just pushing forward to finish the journey. I pray today that wherever you find yourself on the journey, you fight through everything that says turn around and you fight to press ahead. The summit awaits!

I Will Trust In Him...No, Wait...Ok, I Will...No...

This week my wife Lori took our two boys to the mall to get their hair cut. While she was there she noticed there was some police activity going on around the mall so she called me to check and see if the news was reporting on what was going on. The news was indeed reporting on the matter. The first report said a gunman had shot a lady in the parking lot and the suspect was still at large. Naturally, I immediately got on the phone to call my wife to tell her what was going on and to not get out of the car and to come home. Unfortunately, there was no answer. I called again and still no answer. I proceeded to call what seemed like a dozen times in the span of probably 5 minutes only to get her voice-mail each time.

Have you ever been in that kind of spot? That state of unknowing. The mind can play some crazy tricks on you can't it? I remember sitting there thinking ok, she has her phone in her purse and doesn't hear it. Immediately fear spoke louder and said "there's a crazy lunatic on the loose and my wife and kids are walking through the parking lot and...." You get the picture. It was like a see-saw battle back and forth. Trusting that they were safe and then fearing they were not. That went on a half a dozen times a minute until finally I heard from her. She, oblivious to the fact that a lady had been shot literally a few hundred feet from where she parked, was in the mall safe and sound.

That's the way it normally plays out doesn't it. While we sit there wringing our hands, in the end there was really no need to sit there wringing our hands. We all know that worrying never changes the outcome yet, we all do it sometimes. To be honest, it all comes down to a trust issue. When we give into fear and worry, it is the result of our lack of trust in God's ability to provide a favorable outcome. You know it as well as I do that when everything is going smooth, it's a piece of cake to trust God. Throw a little uncertainty into the mix and suddenly that trust can begin to become a little shaky. The truth is that we become really good at trusting ourselves and our ability to fix things that need to be fixed or control things we can control. It's those moments when things are out of our hands. Its moments when we can't fix something or can't control it that we start to sweat a little bit. Do you catch what I'm saying? We actually trust ourselves sometimes more than we trust God.

Scripture tells us things like, "trust in the Lord with all of your heart..." Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him..." "He is a shield to all who trust Him..." and "But He who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him..." Yet, we often struggle to really trust Him. We trust in ourselves, our abilities, our money, our jobs, our government, and lots of other things. All of which are limited, imperfect, unstable, and ever changing. God on the other hand, is unlimited, completely perfect, perfectly stable, and never changing. He can be trusted. He can be trusted with your past, your present, and your future. He can be trusted when you travel, when you're at home, when you're sleeping, and when you're awake. He can be trusted when the doctor runs out of options, when your spouse runs out the door, and when your child makes the wrong turn in life. He can be trusted when the economy tanks, your bank account hits zero, and the company you've given your life to lays you off. And yes, He can be trusted when your wife and kids go to the mall at the same time a lunatic is running around shooting people with a gun.

Tell Me A Story, Daddy

Tell me a story daddy! I hear that a lot at night. Both of my sons like me or their mommy to tell them a story as they lay down at night. I've told literally hundreds of stories over the years. Stories of knights chopping off the heads of two headed dragons. Stories of Jedi knights whippin up on the bad guys. Stories of little boys who grow up to be race car drivers, NBA superstars, fighter pilots, etc. Stories of giant bugs, or giant dinosaurs, or giant something else attacking cities and how two boys save everybody.

I don't mean to brag, but I think I'm pretty good at telling stories. At least, my two boys think so. It's crazy though when I don't tell the story just the way that want to hear it. Both of them will let me know in a hurry when I take the story in a direction that they don't agree with it. There have even been times when they've attempted to have me deviate so much from my original story that I just tell them to finish the story. Afterall, there is only so much compromise a story teller should have to make. Of course, they never want to do that, so onward I push, even though my creativity has been tampered with.

The truth is they want me to tell them a story, but most often they want the controlling rights to the story. They want the license to change it up, if in fact the storyline strays from the way they want it to go. As I sit here thinking about that, I really think our response to God is often the same way. As a believer, we come to God wanting Him to write our story. We truly want Him to be in charge and we want to follow His direction for our life. At least until that story goes a direction we don't want it to go. We think to ourselves certainly, this can't be God taking us down this road. He would never tell the story this way, and if He does then we want a re-write. We want to take back some control as to how the story should go.

It's as if we sing the song, "I Surrender All," but we sing it with a disclaimer at the bottom of the page that says until we get uncomfortable, or don't agree with the storyline. The bottom line is we want to be in control. We want everything to go the way we want it to go and when it doesn't, it is so easy for us to get all bent out of shape. We pray prayers that often try to manipulate God to make everything go our way, rather than praying the kind of prayer that Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane. You know that one right? "Not my will, but Yours (God) be done."

Ouch, that even hurt writing it. It's the truth though and we all know it. If we truly want God to write our story, then we'll let Him write it. And when it takes a turn that we don't particularly like, we'll trust that He knows what He's doing. He truly is a masterful story teller, and the story He writes for us, has Him walking through each scene with us. Trust me, Hollywood can't write a better story than the one he has for us. Let's choose to allow Him to write our story and then just walk through the adventure with Him, trusting Him the whole way.

The Faith Of A Child

Friday night we were waiting to be seated at a restaurant when a guy in a wheel chair rolled passed us. My inquisitive 2 year old asked, "What him in?" I told him he was in a wheel chair to which he responded, "Why?" I went on to tell him that there was something wrong with his legs which made him unable to walk. As I watched the look on his face as he watched the man leaving, it appeared to be one of great concern. I simply asked him if he wanted to pray for him and he responded by holding my hand and confidently said a quick prayer on his own. "Jesus heal him, so he can walk amen." He then looked out the window looking for the man and said, "Now he doesn't need that wheel chair."

Wow! Wouldn't it be great if it was that easy. Actually, it is. It just comes down to trusting God with that kind of faith. The kind of faith that believes that God can do anything. The kind of faith that takes no thought about how big the problem is, but just knows that God is big enough, strong enough, powerful enough, to fix the problem.

I remember when I was little, I had that kind of faith. I never doubted God's ability. I prayed about everything and truly believed that God answered prayer. I really believed that nothing was impossible with God.

Perhaps you found yourself there in your younger years as well. Then life happens and we begin putting God in a box. We begin to limit him in our minds and although we pray, it is no longer with the kind of faith we once had as a child. Then we follow that up with religious jargon that we learn along the way in an effort to explain the ineptness of our prayers.

The Holy Spirit, used my little one Friday night to speak loudly to me and remind me how simple trusting God is. No, the man didn't get out of the wheel chair and miraculously start walking across the floor. But, that's not really the point. My responsibility is not performing miracles, that belongs on God's shoulders. What is necessary on my part is simply to believe and trust Him. Its to approach God with a child-like faith that views God as the omnipotent, compassionate, limitless God that He is.

I wonder how different things would be if we saturated our prayers with that kind of child-like faith. I wonder what types of humongous, mind-boggling, feats we would step out and attempt for God, if we approached life like we serve a God who can truly do anything. I for one would like to just see it, rather than just imagine it.

Only One Is Fit To Be Our King

We had a young man minister in our service this past week and as he closed the service in prayer he said something that has stayed with me all week. "Jesus, You are the only one fit to be our king!" Simple phrase, but profound statement. As we look ahead to the coming election and we take a survey of where we are as a nation politically, economically, spiritually, and every other "ally" you can think of, this election appears to be one of the most important, at least in our lifetime.

Now, I'm not going to get political here, I'll save that for another time, but our next leader will have to be one who can navigate us through a lot of tough stuff. All I know is I don't envy the man who takes on this task. Of course, I'll do my part and vote for the guy I think holds my personal views and convictions, and that I think is best equipped to lead us as a nation right now.

In doing so, I'll take part in the great American process of electing those who lead us. I love that idea and am thankful that I have been fortunate enough to live here my entire life. It is true that in America we are blessed in ways that many of us take for granted. I truly have no desire to live anywhere else.

Naturally, if those I believe are best able to lead us go down in defeat come November, I won't be a happy camper. That being said, I don't think it'll destroy my world. Although, I expect a lot from those who lead us, I've been around long enough to know that it can be unhealthy to place too much confidence and trust in these mortal men and women. Although, there have been great leaders and will be some great ones to come, each of them will fail, disappoint, and upset us at some point. Yes, even the ones we like.

Let's face it, there is only One who is fit to be our king! There is only one who can be completely trusted. There is only one who has the ability to hold our life together when the world around us is crumbling. There is only one whose eternal tenure as king can not be affected by public opinion, purchased by special interest, manipulated by money, or tainted by political ideologies. His kingdom though at war, is one of eternal peace. Our king has no term limits, and wasn't chosen by popular vote. He sits on the throne because according to the God of the universe, he earned it. He can never be impeached or overthrown. He is not subject to the limitations of checks and balances, but rules with absolute power and authority. His is a government that is perfect, led by a perfect leader. Now, with Him at the helm, is there anything we really need to worry about? Trust me all is well, and all will be well for those who are a part of His kingdom.

The Longest Night Of My Life

Living in southeast Texas most of my life, I have dealt with severe thunderstorms, the threat of tornadoes, hail storms, and tropical storms pretty regular. Even an occasional hurricane from time to time, but nothing I’ve ever been through compared to Ike. Now, living about 90 miles from the coast we expected to get hammered a bit, but I really didn’t expect to get hit as hard as we did.

As the storm arrived, my two boys were out cold, totally oblivious to what was going on. I on the other hand was just beginning my sleepless nighttime adventure. Now, the high winds would not have been all that big of a deal, had our house not been surrounded by 75-85 foot pine trees. When I say surrounded, that’s exactly what I mean, they are on each and every side of the house. Although Ike showed up at night, there was still just enough light to be able to see the tops of these trees being tossed by Ike’s hurricane force winds. I don’t know if you have ever seen pine trees swaying in the wind, but at 40-50 mph they look like they could snap. Now, picture 75+ mph sustained winds with 100+ wind gusts and that’s what we were watching. Those pine trees appeared to be made out of elastic, swaying and bending to a point that seemed well beyond their limit.

Of course, there was really nothing I could do but pray. And perhaps that’s the very thing that I struggle with at times. Not so much praying, I pray a lot. But it’s the not being in control that I struggle with. I mean, I like it when I can fix things and solve problems. I like it when I can protect my family, and provide for them. I like it when I am at a point where I can trust my ability to get done what needs to get done. But, here I was unable to do any of that. It would have been great if I could have pulled off a “Jesus calming of the storm” moment, but I couldn’t. Here I sat, watching my two boys and my wife and realizing it was all out of my hands. I had reached my limit to protect them and take care of them. I was in a position where I had to totally rely on my Heavenly Father to take care of us. Perhaps you can relate. It’s like when your little one becomes sick and there’s nothing you can do to fix it. If you could you would take the sickness on yourself rather than watch them have to deal with it. Or, how about those times when you are watching a loved one die and there is nothing you can do in your power to change the situation. If you are at all like me, you feel powerless in those moments. You have all this ability to do so many things but none of it does you any good when it comes to moments like these.

I’ve discovered throughout the course of my life, that it is in these moments that we find there is One who can be trusted when our ability has run its course. One who can be trusted to carry the weight that we so desperately try to carry, but were never designed to carry. It’s moments like these that God is waiting in the wings for us to release to him the role and responsibility of being God that we so often try to step into. Its in these moments where he proves to us that he does a much better job at being God than we do. When Ike rolled into town, he was much bigger than me. I couldn’t stop him, slow him down, or weaken him. His fury came through at full throttle and I had to release the role of protector of my family into the hands of my Heavenly Father. And just like always, He pulled through. As we drove through our neighborhood to check out the post-storm damage, there are literally hundreds of trees down. Homes, and cars are damaged, but it didn’t appear at first glance that anybody had been seriously injured. As for our pine trees, they are still standing, a testimony of a God who can be trusted.

Trust: The Key To Overcoming Fear

A dark room, noises in the night, the sound of thunder, and the creature that lives under the bed are just some of the things little ones fear. None of which makes any sense. You can protect your children by carefully monitoring what they watch on TV, but somewhere, somehow, someway they all face some kind of fear at one time or another. For some it requires little more than a caring, reassuring talk from Mom or Dad while others really struggle to overcome their fears. Whatever the case, fear can dominate and cripple a child whenever it is present.

Over the past few years I've had the opportunity to walk both my boys through several of these "fear" moments. And as I mentioned earlier, most of the time it makes no sense. For instance the simple flipping of a switch to turn off a light and suddenly a room becomes a scary place. Or, you mix that dark room with a tree branch rubbing against the window and now that room is an unbearable place to be. See, what I mean, it makes no sense.

If you are a parent I'm sure you've had to deal with some crazy fears like this from time to time. Or, perhaps when you were a child you had your own fears you had to walk through. What is so ridiculous about this whole fear thing is that as we get older, it never really stops. The fears just change. And just like with those little ones, they can be dominating and crippling. Think about it. You get a sharp pain and your chest and what instantly shoots through your mind? It could be nothing more than a muscle spasm, heart burn, or gas, but why is it we often fear the worst? Or, how about when that phone rings at 3am? Or, when you hear economists on the news proclaiming how bad everything is and how it's only going to get worse?

There are millions of different ways fear manifests but often times, just like our little ones, it makes no sense. I think that fear often shows up when we are not in control. A child is scared of the dark because he can't see. He has to trust that nothing is happening even though he can't see to make sure. He fears the noises at night because he can't see what's making them and his mind begins to imagine all kinds of creatures that could make those sounds. We as adults fear the struggling economy because we can't do anything to change it. We fear that sharp pain in our chest because if it is indeed a heart attack, we can't fix it ourselves. Let's face it when we are not in control, it's not a comfortable place for us. We love it when we can fix things and handle things on our own, but when it comes to completely, totally relying on God we get a little uneasy at times.

What is so crazy is that we are talking about the Creator of the universe here. Trust me, he is much better at being in control than we are. We need to learn to trust the fact that when things are beyond our control, that they are never beyond him. When you mix that with the knowledge that He truly loves us, and wants the absolute best for us, then and only then, will we begin to live a life free of fear. It all comes down to trust. And the whole idea of trust means you have to rely on someone or something else. Throughout my life men I have trusted have failed me, and stuff I've put my trust in has failed me. But, through the years I've learned that God can be trusted.