Live Like We are Dying

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.  Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. James 4.13-17

This verse has been on my heart since yesterday.  I found a quote a while ago and set it on my skype ID as my quote: "God, during my vapor what have You called me to do?"

This weekend was one of the best weekends I've had in a long time.  It was because I lived it with purpose.  I purposefully scheduled time with each of my girls and did things with them that I knew they loved.  Abby and I went and sat at a park with our sketch pads and just drew.  It was pretty cool.  She did a great charcoal picture of some flowers, while I doodled different elements of the park.

Hannah and I went to the driving range.  Granted, I really like to do this and Hannah has never done anything more than putt-putt, but she has asked me a lot about when we would go putt-putting again. So we got a loaner club from the driving range and hit a bucket full of balls.  She is now asking when we are gonna play golf again and that she wants her own "puck" (golf club) to play with.

Jen and I went out to a movie and then a nice dinner at Season's 52 (our favorite place).  It was a great dinner to catch up with my wife and see her heart again.  Many times in life you just get comfortable with someone and then you lose sight of their hearts.  It was wonderful to smile, cry and laugh together as we walk through this life.

While at dinner, I received a phone call from my dad that my uncle, who is 3 years older than me and more like my brother, had a stroke.  This sent my heart and mind into a tail spin.  He is only 39 and in good health.  This type of stroke usually happens to older people with high blood pressure.  He doesn't have either one of these.

This just serves as a reminder to me that I'm not guaranteed the next breath, much less tomorrow.  That is what today's passage tells us.  We do a lot of bragging and planning, but live like we are entitled to the next breath.  I live with the assumption that I will make it home from work to kiss my wife and girls and tell them once again, "I love you."  But I am not guaranteed the next moment, much less this evening.

With this morbid thought, we have one of two choices.  We can either let this settle in our hearts and cause us to live our lives paralyzed by fear emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and physically or we can use it to motivate us to live our lives, every moment, on purpose - without regret.  I choose this day, this moment, right now to live without regret.  I choose to take my wisp of a vapor, called life, and use it bring glory to God my Father in Heaven to make sure that everyone who comes in touch with me right now knows I and God love them tremendously.

Let me close by allowing my inner-red-neck to come out.  Take a look at the lyrics to this Tim McGraw song entitled, Live Like You Were Dying:

Verse 1
He said I was in my early forties, with a lot of life before me
And one moment came that stopped me on a dime
I spent most of the next days, looking at the x-rays
Talking bout' the options and talking bout' sweet times.
I asked him when it sank in, that this might really be the real end
How's it hit 'cha when you get that kind of news?
Man what did ya do?
He said

Chorus
I went skydiving
I went rocky mountain climbing
I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu
And I loved deeper
And I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denyin'
And he said some day I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dyin'

Verse 2
He said I was finally the husband, that most the time I wasn't
And I became a friend, a friend would like to have
And all of a sudden goin' fishin, wasn't such an imposition
And I went three times that year I lost my dad
Well I finally read the good book, and I took a good long hard look
At what I'd do if I could do it all again
And then

Bridge
Like tomorrow was the end
And ya got eternity to think about what to do with it
What should you do with it
What can I do with it
What would I do with it

Join me in living like we are dying.  NO REGRETS!!! Take a moment and tell those closest to you that you love them.  Speak kindly today to those you come in contact with. Forgive those who have hurt you. Don't waste another moment...seize them with joy and purpose.

The Other Side - Part 2

Text: Mark 4:35-41

Traveling is fun and exciting.  You have the anticipation of the trip and what it will be like.  You have the preparation of packing and planning.  Then comes the trip itself.  At each of these stages comes great joy and marvelous apprehension.  The fear of the unknown and the unexpected can creep in and cause paralysis to point of cancellation for some of us, but most of us push through or don't even recognize our fear and get in the car, plane, train, or boat and head out for the great unknown.

What helps many of us in preparating is to study the area we are going to and the journey that will take us there.  We map it all out.  We plan our stops around scenic points or favorite restaurants.  We are going to make the journey part of the trip.  We enjoy getting there as much as being there.

When God calls us to go to the "other side" however, we can't exactly plan our trip like this.  In some cases we don't know where the "other side" really is or how we are going to get there, we just know that God has called us to go.  In other cases we know full well where there is and we don't like the idea of going or the path that getting there is going to take.

Look at this:
"That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, 'Let us go over to the other side.' Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him.  A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.  Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.  The disciples woke him and said to him, 'Teacher, don't you care if we drown?'
"He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, 'Quiet! Be still!' Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
"He said to his disciples, 'Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?'
"They were terrified and asked each other, 'Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!'" Mark 4:35-41 (NIV)

These guys were fisherman, many of them.  They grew up fishing on the Sea of Galilee.  They knew these storms and many of them had been caught in one at one point or other.

They also "knew" Jesus, or so they thought.  They had seen him cast out demons and heal the sick.  They had already heard His teachings, yet they still didn't comprehend or believe. This leads to the age old question:
Is believing seeing or seeing believing?

Let me pause here for a moment, Jesus was in the boat with them.  He was at peace because He knew that it wasn't His time yet.  If Jesus is in your boat and your life is swamped - if you feel like life is out of control and you are following God and His plan to go the other side - then rest assured that you are going to make it.  See Jesus wasn't sent to die in a boat, He was destined to die on a cross.  In our lives Jesus is risen, never to die again.  If He is with us then we won't sink or capsize or drown.  He will see to it that we make it to the "other side".

Some times the journey isn't an easy sail across the lake.  It isn't tiptoeing through the tulips.  It isn't a nice drive across town.  It is fraught with many perils and dangers.  It is filled with spirit crushing events. See our enemy, Satan, wants to demoralize us before we ever get there.  He doesn't want us to make it there alive, physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually.  He will do whatever it takes to stop us from making it to the other side whole and intact.

Here comes the encouragement for all of us, "He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, 'Quiet! Be still!' Then the wind died down and it was completely calm." Mark 4.39

"Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world." 1 John 4.4

Our Savior and Lord, the One who is planning and leading this trip to the "other side", is greater than the one opposing us. We will make the trip to the other side.  We will see God show up in an amazing way and do something that only He can do.  We will see the glory of the Father revealed in and through us as we make this journey to the "other side".

Don't let fear of the unknown paralyze you from making the trip to the "other side" this year.  Don't let the storms of life cause you to lose heart and go back.  Don't let life drowned out the passion and desire to live for God totally and completely.  Don't stop making the journey to the "other side" because God has a task for you.  He has a role for you to play.  He has Himself to reveal to the people and lands of the "other side" and He wants to do it through you.

Prayer: Lord, would you please help me! I am drowning in life.  I am overwhelmed to the point of death with fear and trembling.  I feel like I'm going under for the last time, but I know the truth in my head that You are with me.  I know the reality is that You are more powerful, help me to live it out and believe it in my heart.  Please help me to not be so afraid and to walk in faith.  I want to see You glorified and magnified among the people who live on the "other side". Amen.

The Other Side - part 1

The Other Side - part 1
Mark 4.35-41

The other side is a scary place. It is full of unknowns and uncertainties. It remains a mystery as long as it remains the other side. It remains "there" instead of "here". But when we travel to the other side we find some thing amazing happens in us and through us.

Many times in life we are content to stay right where we are - comfortable - unchallenged - familiar - unmoved. We don't like the feeling that the unknown brings. We don't like being outside of our comfort zones. We don't travel outside of our usual circles. We don't wander too far from the sidewalk. But is this what we have been called to do? Is this how Christ lived? Is this what He saved us for?

The "other side of the lake" (Mark 4.35) or the Sea of Galilee was Gentile territory. It was a foreign place to the disciples. They wouldn't have traveled there because it was outside of their culture. It was considered unclean. It was so far from their beliefs that they would never have gone there. Yet Jesus tells His disciples, "Let's go to the other side of the lake."

Jesus was making a point in this statement. He never just says something to say something. He lived His entire life with purpose - on purpose. He was going to take the gospel to the Gentiles. He was going to expose His followers to new territory. He was going to show them the BIG picture. He was the Savior of the Jews and the Gentiles. He was living out John 3:16 - for God so loved the world. 

Many times we get stuck on our side of the world. We get comfortable and complacent. We get hung up on the minors. We don't go to the people unlike us simple because they aren't like us. They don't live like us - believe like us - talk like us - look like us. If God wants to reach them then He will send some one like them to them. 

WRONG!

The people on the other side don't need our pity or our things. They don't require our money or possessions. They don't request our arrogance or service. They need our lives.

Jesus is telling us that He is for ALL people and He is sending us to ALL people. 

Where is the other side in your life? Who are the people that live on the other side? Will you be the one to get in the boat with Jesus and go to them? Will you make there here?

Prayer: Lord you asked Your disciples to go with You to the other side, and now You are asking me. Give me the courage to get in the boat, the love to stay in the boat and the strength to see it through. Help me to see others as You see them. Help me to love others as you love them. Help me to go to the other side with You and share Your live an hope with them.