Keeping Watch

It's hard to live each moment of each day as if it matters, with a constant anticipation of the coming of something great...or dreadful. The sheer mundane every day routine is sure to dull even the sharpest excitement. Yet we are called to be watchful (Matthew 24-26), to be ready when Christ returns. And according to Matthew 25:1-13, it seems the consequences of not paying attention are huge!

So what does this mean to be watchful? To be ready? Well, there are a few hints what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean be lazy, nor unjust, nor "caught" doing the things that the Master would not condone. It means taking care of hit hat which is entrusted to us. From these passages Jesus mentions finances or relationships, or family in his parables but I almost think that they are more like analogies of something else. I can't quite put my finger on it. But he talks about taking care of it in a serious way and growing it not just holding on and keeping it safe, but exposing it to risk and seeking a return on it.

Yet to be watchful too.

Jesus, what on earth (or heaven!) are You talking about?

Rebirth

When you move your family, home, and work 600 miles you get the feeling that you've been reborn. You get to start anew, afresh, and enjoy skull ting a new story. You build new friendships and new community, you get to see the world from a new perspective. You start to develop a new routine, new habits, a new life.

Since this is where I find myself, I have realized how important it is to have principles and values to carry me through the rebuilding process. We're at a wonderful time to make things new, but if we're not careful we'll let the environment around us create the edges of our foundation. And once the cement has dried, it'll be much more difficult to reset and try again.

Three months of transition had let my values slip from my mind such that I forgot to love the person in front of me. It's not that I broke into some sort of sinning rampage, but simply that I lost focus on why matters. I fell when under very little pressure.

I had 4 back to back meetings in Lafayette and focused in on financial planning versus helping people. In the first meeting I met a guy whose main goal in life is to have enough money now and in retirement to afford to go to strip clubs as often as he wants and fund a lifestyle...not worth repeating. And upon hearing this, I simply processed what he would need to do financially to make that happen. Kind of...actually I was pretty thrown off because I had never met someone with this low of morals or dreams and desires. However, a siren should have been going off in my head that this guy doesn't need financial help, he needs Jesus!

For the next week I kept chewing on this meeting in my brain trying to figure out what to do. I ended up posting my values on the wall and calling him to share how mine don't add up to his and we really shouldn't work together. I still don't know exactly how I should have handled that situation, but I am adamant that my values should play a bigger role.

Which brings us to Sunday.

Kim an I have found a church home here and are excited about what's going on. This Sunday, the pastor spoke about the 5 steps to fall, referencing Peter through each point. It was helpful to me after considering this scenario I just described.
1. Confidence in self instead of God's word (financial planning confidence for me)
2. Spiritual apathy: sleeping instead of praying and keeping watch (I should go into each meeting after praying through it)
3. Acting on my will instead of God's (I was trying to bring on new clients, I hadn't even considered God's will)
4. Following Jesus at a distance (trying to tip toe as a Christian until I get settled here. Afraid of how people will react and then not knowing how I should react)
5. Sitting with the enemy (trying to make a friend out of someone I really should never have as a friend)

I, like most of us, would like to think I have learned this for the last time. History has a way of repeating in a different color and different dance. When that happens, may you and I stick to our values and let those frame our thoughts and out actions.

Prayer Needed

Please pray that our loan will be approved for our home purchase.  There have been a few hiccups that are screwing up the process.

Thanks!

Being

7 days until we close on our new home in Baton Rouge, LA.  A ton has happened in the past 3 months and Kim and I have done well to keep our head above water.  Thankfully, we'll soon have time to stop and reflect on all that God is doing, has done, and dream of what comes next.  I'm a dreamer, a planner, a futurist and love these moments where we can stop and think.  Since today is my birthday, I'm taking off some of work to spend time in this moment to breathe and reflect.  Really, it may be the best decision I've made in while. 

Much of the past few months I have been caught up in doing.  I've transferred licenses, renewed licenses, took over 20 hours of continuing education for licenses and designations.  I've done actual business stuff like meet clients or call clients, or meet new people, network, etc.  Kim and I have church shopped (to no-avail yet!), we've volunteered.  We've hung out with friends, we've made meals, cleaned the apartment, readied our home to sell, sold, moved, resettled.  Kim's written papers, and reports, and exams as she finishes her Masters degree.  We've prepared documents for loans, and shopped for houses, and made offers, and counters, and inspections, and contracts.  We're in the midst of packing again to move in next week.  We've been running and sleeping and eating for 3 months.  But, probably out of necessity, haven't had a chance to BE. 

The downside to all of the doing, is we inevitably miss the big picture.  I don't know why; maybe it is because doing is left brained and being is right brained.  And my two sides of my brain have not had a chance to meet.  But I do feel a disconnection of sorts.  I look forward to settling down.  And I hope you'll join me too.  Because life is too busy, messy, and hectic when we focus in our tiny portion of the painting.  We end up missing the opportunity to see the full masterpiece being created.

God's grace

So, obviously a huge transition for Kim and I as we move down to Baton Rouge and get started down here.  While our house sells in White House, we've decided to rent down here.  So, we go into the apartment office to sign the lease and wrap it all up, when we see this:



One of a looong string of signs that God is and will be with us here.  And today, one of the other people working with Kim in her LSU office mentioned that she'd like to speak with me about their financial planning! 

And so we live largely out of blind faith as we walk through each day, doing our best to follow where God leads when we don't know entirely where we're going, where He is leading (or where He is!), and without (it seems to us) many resources to make things happen. . For business, I'm calling the people I can think of to meet, doing my best to set things up, and it seems that God is putting people in our path to take care of us in the meantime. 

May we continue to trust in our Lord, even when we struggle to do so.  May we continue to wrestle with Him and seek to walk under His wings.

Our charge: In-between

There is an inestimitable amount of tension on this planet.  From the apparent tensions of policitcs or faiths or relationships or money, to the more subtle tensions of environmental pollution or distruction or waste.  But again I am faced with the tension that tugs at our hearts, beckoning us to think heavenward. 

Isaiah 35 speaks about a day when the desert will blossom with flowers, that "'your God is coming to destroy your enemies.  He is coming to save you.' and when he comes, he will open the eys of the blind and unstop the ears o the deaf.  The lame will leap like a dear, and those who cannot speak witll shout and sing!"

But that day has already come...

Didn't Jesus do just that? Open blind eyes and deaf ears, give spring to lame legs, give voice to mute mouths...

But what has happened since? Another long period of waiting?

We have this tension that what we've longed for has come, but hasn't stayed.  Our God has left and will return some day.  Until then, we miss Him dearly and long for his return. Tension.

And we're charged to live in a way completely contrary to that in which we are currently living: Isaiah 53.

Do we live our lives constantly feeding the hungry? Clothing the naked? Opening out homes to wanderers?

This is our charge. How are we doing?

Give Yourself

"The greatest thing you can give is yourself."

-Bob Burg in the Go Giver.

"There is no greater love than to lay one's life down for one's friend."

-Jesus...does he need a book reference (John 15:13)

It's pretty easy to go through life searching for the thing that we're supposed to do.  The purpose we're here, our calling, our gifting...But how is it that if we're all supposed to reach this understanding, that so few have?  Have we bought into yet another myth about this life?

We talk about seeking the will of the Father, of searching for Jesus in every day life, or even what to do in this very moment.  I'm not saying that these are bad questions to ask, but doesn't this focus in on US still?  What should I do?  What's Your will for MY life?  Where should I live, work, play, serve, give?  Doesn't this world center around me?

But the story's not really about us is it?  It's about God.  So why do we spend so much of our timing asking questions that revolve around us?

...Kim and I have been focusing on two questions over the last few months: Where do we need to live, and where/who/how do we give financially?  We really don't have any answers to these questions yet.  Maybe that's a good thing.  Because it shouldn't be about us.

I don't know about you, but I get caught up so often on the questions and miss the point of the whole journey.   I start thinking that these questions matter and end up then thinking that I matter a whole lot more than I do.  I'm simply an extra in God's great movie.  

So, what really matters?

I'm not sure yet.  But I do know there are billions of people whose situation is worse than mine.  What if I spent as much time each week thinking about them as I did thinking about me?  Wouldn't that have a huge effect on my heart, mind, and actions?  Then, maybe I'd remember that the greatest gift I can give is to to love the person in front of me; to give myself away.

This week, may we all spend more time thinking of the interests of others than we do ourselves.