We often fear that enduring someone’s abusive words or actions and being willing to forgive those who participate in them against us somehow makes us weak. See if Joy’s little motivational speech changes your mind. For all of you Harmony folks the ministry she works with may sound pretty familiar.

For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. (Philippians 1)

Believe and suffer.

Doesn’t sound very like a very good tagline for a consumer does it? And in this day and age of consumerism the Church has often changed our tagline for the sake of communicating to the culture in a way that is relevant.

Believe and you will be saved from Hell.

Believe and you get eternal life.

Believe and you will become God’s son or daughter.

Believe and God will fix your spouse, or your kids, or your parents, or your boss.

Believe and God will make you wealthy.

Believe and God will make you well.

When our belief is focused upon us…when your belief is focused upon you, and is for the sake of you, then we will always view Jesus through the eyes of the consumer. There is plenty of evidence that any one of these belief statements may be true for you, but in the end if our belief is built on any one of them we may be setting ourselves up for disaster. In the end if our belief is built upon our willingness to do believe and suffer for the sake of Jesus, then suffering can bring joy and a new depth of our worth becomes evident.

But to be willing to believe and suffer for the sake of Jesus requires that we become familiar with the depth of our own fallen state, our own hopelessness without Jesus, our own desperate need of Jesus, and that can be a humiliating experience…but one worthy of enduring.

What suffering might you be avoiding for the sake of your comfort?

You have been spared. Either you have over corrected only to find no oncoming car, or you have jumped before looking, or you have arrived late or early instead of on time, but regardless of the situation we all have been spared. There have been multiple moments in my life where it could have been the end, but the situation or circumstances just didn’t play out that way. It was either luck or providence. In either case I still am left with the question of why?

Why have you been spared?

I can’t relate to much of what Lecrae has experienced except for when the light began to break into his darkness. From that point forward in his story he’s telling my story. Is he telling yours?

Today is End Malaria Day. This is a preventable disease that kills 750,000 people every year. The most vulnerable being widows and orphans in sub-equitorial Africa. Sleeping under a net is all it takes to help save lives. Today, if you buy a book loaded with essays by some of the top business authors all of the proceeds go to provide a mosquito net. Check out http://endmalariaday.com/

Happy Homecoming Day Everyone!

It may seem a little early for the traditional Homecomings we may celebrate during football season, but last year August 10th was marked as a significant day in our lives when my Mom lost her battle with cancer, but won her race to Jesus. It was just about now one year ago that we were awakened by our phone ringing and I was asked to come over to help calm down Mom. Moments after arriving she breathed her last a slipped peacefully into that hoped for unknown we Christians call Eternity.

While I never really appreciated it when she was here Mom was quite the celebrator. Just about any special occasion on the calendar was celebrated. Everything from Halloween to Valentines Day to the first day of school was a day she felt was made to remember. I always thought every kid got homemade fudge and a card from their parents on Valentines Day, and that everyone’s Mom spent tireless hours making the best Halloween costume that Southern Elementary had ever seen (I was a Storm Trooper in second grade and childhood friend Todd Ratliff still recalls it to be a costume to be envied). It wasn’t until I had my own children that I realized what a chore it was to fix breakfast in bed for my kids on their birthday. And it may speak to my laziness as to why that tradition hasn’t carried over. Mom never seemed to complain about how difficult it was for her.

This picture was taken on her last birthday on planet Earth. As I remember it we struggled to find a time to get together for it and settled for a lunch date and she was glad to have it. While I think she knew, little did we know what was on the horizon 33 days later.

While I know today will be filled with emotion and some grief as I reflect on her physical absence during the most significant year of my family’s life. I know without a doubt that she would desire we celebrate that she hasn’t missed a thing and more than likely has enjoyed it far more than if she were still here. That’s one thing she definitely passed along. Something or someone is worth celebrating just about every day. Thank God she loved Jesus! Thank God Jesus loves her!

I miss ya Mom, but I can’t wait to see what kind of celebration it will be when I see you again.

I was turned on to this commercial by my 14 year old last week and saw it for the first time during America’s Got Talent. It’s brilliant and makes me want to get a Venza.

I hope the extent of how my 14 year old views my life is not how I sit, study, write, preach, and teach, but it’s how I live…and do it with them.

There are days

There are days that I fail

There are days that I fail to see

There are days that I fail to see people

There are days that I fail to see people as people

Because my eyes are focused on ME: my hunger, my decisions, my struggles, my failures

There are days that I see people as people

There are days that I see people

There are days that I see

There are days

How will you spend your days?

I’m not sure why this guy was video taping his trip, but what are the odds of this?

I don’t typically interrupt my Happy Tuesday’s with a serious post, but this is a must read.

Sarah Cunningham posts a challenging, insightful, and damning blog at @ POTSC.com. Check it out.

Doubletakes: The Infant in the Panhandler http://bit.ly/hJBrXc

I think I may be picking up “Picking Dandelions” off of my shelf to read after finishing Willard’s “Renovation of the Heart”.