My Aching Back

At the beginning of this year my new year’s resolution was to lose ten pounds.  The first five months did not go well because I was having so much trouble with my back that I had a hard time exercising regularly.  I probably gained two or three pounds just thinking about not eating.

Well since I’ve gotten a new temperpeidic mattress my back has been feeling much better and it has made exercising regularly easier.  I’ve now lost about 4 pounds.  Unfortunately I’m just back to the weight I was at when I decided to lose ten pounds.  So I still have ten to lose.

But  it”s amazing to me how much better I feel just by getting my back healthy.  There has to be some kind of spiritual application in this somewhere.

So, I’ve got five more months to reach my goal.  Let me ask you, how are you doing with your new year’s resolutions?  Remember, you have all year so if things aren’t going that well you could start afresh with a mid year’s resolution.

Habits

It has been said that it takes 21 days to start a new habit but only 3 days to break one.  I’m finding that to be very true when it comes to this technology stuff like blogging.   I enjoy doing it but after coming back from vacation I’ve found it difficult to do.  I just seem to forget to do it.

Habits are good things but they are particularly hard to establish when they are not daily habits like brushing our teethe.   If you forget to brush your teethe you’ll remember because you do it daily (or someone will remind you).

Spiritually we call habits spiritual disciplines or practices and they are just as easy to let slip as blogging is.  Weekly worship, daily Bible reading, prayer, generosity, helping etc.

So if you’re like me and have let a good habit or spiritual habit slip;  just start over.  But remember it will take 21 days for that habit to get reestablished.  Until then write yourself notes, ask a friend to hold you accountable, or pray that God reminds you.

Adaptation

We’ve all heard that we need to learn how to adapt to new things.   I have to admit that that preaches real good but it ain’t so fun to live.  Yes, God has given us the ability to adapt.  In fact, those creatures that fail to adapt we now call extinct.  The problem however with adaptation is that it isn’t pleasant.

Last week my wife and I got a new bed because I’ve been having back problems.  Well, we went all out and got one of those memory foam beds.  They’re nice beds but they’re not like a traditional bed.  They feel very different and it is taking us some time to get used to it.

And if that is true of a bed what can we expect when we are faced with really big changes in life, like a recession?

So let me give you a little hope.  We will adapt to the new realities of our world.  We will make it and what seems to be abnormal and uncomfortable to us now will become a the normal way of life.  And who knows maybe we’ll even begin to like it.

Celebration

Celebration is an important part of life.  We celebrate birthday’s, anniversaries, graduations, achievements and all kinds of things.  One of the things I think we need to celebrate more often is community.  We often take the people in our lives for granted.  Those closest to us often get the least of us.  I know that shouldn’t be the case but often it is.

This Sunday we at Eagles Nest are going to celebrate our church family with a special baptismal service.  We’ve come to understand that while Baptism is a public declaration of our faith in Christ it also marks entrance into a church community.  It’s like a birth.  We are born again into the family of God.  (John 3:3-6)

It’s going to be an exciting day for us and I believe it will be one of those days that we look back on for years.  We have over a 100 people signed up to be baptized.  We’ve been scrambling all week to get ready.  I want to thank Kim Tappenboch (spelling??) from Dagsboro Church of God because he lent us their portable baptismal pool.  We have a baptismal pool in our church but we need another to get so many people baptized.

I love my church family.  While it isn’t perfect it is becoming an Authentic Biblical Community.

No Place Like Home

I just got back from vacationing at the Outer Banks.  It was a week filled with the beach, swimming, golfing, and eating.  Our family had a great time.

What is interesting is that after a week my two boys told me that they were looking forward to getting back home.

I guess Dorothy (Wizard of Oz) got it right when she said, “there is no place like home”.

And I have to admit, I’m glad we are home.

Spiritually speaking I think that when we get to heaven we are going to realize that there is no place like home.

Too Many Cashews

I love cashews but they don’t love me.  So I have to limit how many I eat and how often I eat them.  Well, I wish I could say that I always stay within my proper limits but I don’t.  I had a couple of handfuls three days in a row this week and my stomach decided to let me know that I exceeded my limit.

There is a spiritual principle here.  You see Plato believed that man’s problem was that he was ignorant.  So the answer to a man’s problems was knowledge.  Now this sounds good but it just isn’t true.  Plato was wrong.  I was fully aware that I can’t eat too many cashew before I get a belly ache.  But I ate too many anyway.

That’s why the Bible doesn’t say that knowledge is the answer to what ills mankind.  In fact, the Apostle Paul turns to the whole Greek world upside down when he writes in Romans 7:14-25 that he cannot do the good he knows to do.  He is saying, “Plato, you’re wrong”.  I keep doing the things I know I shouldn’t.

You see the Bible doesn’t say that we need more knowledge (though knowledge in and of itself isn’t bad).  What we need is the ability, the power to do what we know to do.  And that’s where Jesus comes in.  Jesus didn’t come to educate us.  He came to empower us.  He came to die for our failure to do what we know to do (the Bible calls this sin).  But once we receive Him we not only get forgiveness, we get help for living.

Yes, we will make mistakes and eat too many cashews.  But the reason I failed is that I didn’t ask him to help me in the first place.

So if you need help overcoming a hurt, habit, or hang up.  Look up and ask Jesus to help.

Personality

If you haven’t noticed we’re all different.  A big part of our difference lies in our personalities.   Many of the things we like about people have to do with their personalities.  For instance, some people are bubbly, others are analytical, some pensive, others artsy.  We can be attracted to others by such qualities.  But we can also get irritated with each other based on personality differences.  Some people like structure, others like spontaneity.  Some people’s lack of organization can get on our nerves if we like to be organized.

Many of our misunderstandings, conflicts, and relational challenges are really matters of personality.  Many of us are way too quick to take things personally when in truth the friction between us and others is really a personality difference.

So my challenge to you today is this: if you are struggling with conflict in a personal or work relationship ask yourself if the issue is personal or if it’s personality.  Most of the time people aren’t really out to make our lives miserable.  They just make our lives miserable  unintentionally (and sometimes they seemed gifted to do so).  Often, once you diffuse the personal aspect of a conflict, resolution isn’t far behind.

On My Mind

I’m still a very inconsistent blogger.  But when I consider all the new tech that I’ve incorporated into my life in the past year I’m not upset with myself.  I recognize that I am an immigrant when it comes to tech.  My kids are the natives.  Whenever I need to know something about my computer or phone I ask them.  So I have not yet gotten blogging into my daily routine.  Two to three times a week is where I’m  (if I’m lucky).

I have to admit that I like blogging when I do it.  But I don’t always feel like doing it.  It’s like exercise and prayer.  I don’t always feel like doing them either but I always feel better after I do.

There are times during the week that I have all kinds of ideas to blog about but when I sit at the computer often my mind goes blank.  The good news is that it is getting easier and easier to blog.  It is actually helping my writing skills.

My life gets so hectic that I don’t know how people have the time to blog, email, tweet, face book.  It seems so hard to stop and write, text, or face book.  But then again I realize that I’m an immigrant.

The lesson of all this is really meant for those of us above 40.  The truth is that many of us will always be immigrants when it comes to technology.  We will learn it but it will always be a little unnatural.  Now for our children it’s totally different.  They are growing up in the tech age and it is as natural to them as breathing.  It’s nothing for them to tweet, text, or blog what’s on their mind.   For me blogging is getting easier but when I have something on my mind its more natural for me to call.

What about you?  If you’d rather blog your a native.  If you’re like me and are more comfortable calling; you’re probably a technological immigrant.

But whether a native or immigrant we need to learn how to share what’s on our minds in a positive and constructive manner.

Hope

I’m currently reading the book  called “A Patriots History of the United States”.  It covers the history of America from the discovery of America to the current day.   I’m not sure if the author’s purpose was to give us hope or not but it is giving me hope for my country.

Our history is amazing in many ways but one in particular is giving me hope.  Our history is the story of the battle for freedom.  And battle is the appropriate description.  I think me and my generation have kind of taken our liberty for granted and lost the sense of urgency when it comes to protecting it.  We just assume its always been and always will be.

But as I read this book I am reminded of the many struggles that each generation has had in its quest to create or retain freedom.  Our history reveals that we have made many mistakes on the path to true liberty but we have been successful in many ways as well.

I’m currently reading about the transition that took place after the revolutionary war.  We became free but then what?  It took twenty years for our nation to figure out how to build a nation of free people.  The thing that we all need to remember is that it wasn’t easy.  The battle for freedom didn’t end with the revolutionary way.  George Washington our first president grew weary of the political battles that plagued his two terms.  But Washington gave us a gift both as president and as the commander of our revolutionary forces.  He gave us time.  We didn’t defeat the British.  We out lasted them.  Washington knew that all he had to do was keep his army together and we could win the war.  That’s what Trenton was all about.  This was the same tactic he used in his presidency.  His foreign policy, his domestic policy, and his presidency in general bought us the twenty years we needed to build the structure of this great nation.  It wasn’t perfect but it has endured.

Now I wrote all this to say this one thing.  The battle for freedom didn’t end with Washington.  It is the same battle we find ourselves in today.  And I think that one of the keys to victory is the same one Washington discovered.  “Endurance”.  If we endure we will win.  There is reason for hope.  Liberty can prevail.  But we must hang on.  We must not lose hope.

I’ve said many times to couples who have come to me with problems “that marriages don’t fail because of problems.”  Marriages die when hope is lost.  When one or both believe their efforts are in vain the marriage dies.  I believe the same is true for liberty.  Our problems as a nation aren’t what will defeat us.  The real thing that can defeat us is hopelessness.  And I’m here to tell you if we will endure liberty will prevail.

With God all things are possible.  So my endurance starts with Him.  I hope yours does as well.  For as long as I have God I have hope and as long as I have hope the torch of freedom will stay alive.

Scheduling

My staff and I are about to go into a four hour meeting to determine our schedule for the next year.  Now I  realize that not everything in our lives operates on a schedule.  Things happen that you can’t foresee and we need to be flexible to add things that ought to be done.

A schedule is like a budget.  Just as a budget is a spending guide that determines how we will spend our money our day planners are our budget of time.  We determine in advance how we will spend our time.

It’s been said if you want to find out what is really important in a persons life look at his/her check book and day planner.  There is a lot of truth in that statement.

So let me ask you, if I were to look at your check book and day planner what would I find?  What is really important in your life?  I mean really?