1.Let it Go
2.Open the Door
3.Cancel the Debt.
Tag: success
What’cha Looking For?
What’cha Looking For Series ~ Part 1
Temporary Fixes Continue to Need Fixing
Sometime ago, in order to save money, I began cutting my own hair. Initially, I had a rough go of it. After a few bowl cuts, a number of bald spots, and a few emergency trips to the barber on his off day, over time I eventually became a decent barber. Well, while on vacation one summer, an electrical surge burned out the motor in my hair clippers. So I resorted to using a cheaper pair that was previously packed in the “give-away” bag my wife had buried and expected to see them again only in the afterlife of the Salvation Army; it was slated for donation to charity. I did not mind using the cheaper pair; the brand was okay, and they trimmed fine, but the inexpensive clippers were missing a vital guard piece that was necessary to finish my haircut properly. Consequently, I resorted to using the guards from the burned-out clippers on the inexpensive clippers.
The guards from my old clippers did not fit snugly on the cheaper pair. So I had to press them into place and hold them with my thumb, tilt the clippers to the appropriate angle, and fade the temple and nape areas, all the while holding a mirror in the opposite hand. As a result of this awkward juggling act, I began missing the old days—the barbershop days. I yearned for the casual hours filled with conversation, the chair, the knee-slapping chatter, and the quickly formed camaraderie with whomever happened to occupy the seat next to you. Ahhh, those were the days.
But for about the price of one haircut, a shave, and a small tip, I could replace my old clippers and continue cutting my own hair. If I were to settle for the comfort of the barber’s cut and shave, my hair would still need trimming the very next week or maybe sooner; to say nothing about the continued challenge of using the old clippers and my throbbing thumb pressing those guards into place! I actually considered paying the price of a one-time haircut, a short-term solution, over purchasing clippers and remedying my problem for good. My struggle was between a temporary fix and a remedy. I actually considered settling for a temporary solution to a perpetual problem. I was about to engage in a repetitive action, (getting a haircut every week) with no return, as opposed to a one-time action (purchasing clippers) that would generate a residual return. Allow me to put it a different way.
Chinese Fish?
An old Chinese proverb says, “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, he will eat for a lifetime.” The moral? Some actions are repetitive, but not residual. A repetitive process may provide provision in the present but does nothing for the future. A residual process performs an action in the present, which creates momentum for that process, providing and producing its own provisions for the future. The repetitive offers a gamble, the residual provides a guarantee. Receiving a fish sandwich for lunch every day at noon might provide for the immediate hunger but does nothing to prepare the consumer for tomorrow’s lunch. But the act of fishing creates the possibility of extra today, which allows storage for tomorrow. The act of fishing removes from the process the gamble and replaces it with the guarantee. Yet, some are content to search for a fish sandwich as opposed to a fishing pole. Many are content to anticipate promotions and provisions from limited human resources rather than seek them from the unlimited supply of heaven.
Are you searching for a fish sandwich as opposed to a fishing pole?
Thanks for stopping by. Leave a comment and come back soon to finish our conversation. ~Thomas
Is Your Logic Ludicrous?
What’cha Looking For? ~ Part 2
No Reign, No Rain
Scripture affirms, unapologetically, that promotion comes from God (Ps. 75:6). So why do we grope aimlessly in the murky caverns of human effort to achieve that which only God bestows?
If in God lies the source of all good, then why search for good in anything or any person other than God? Ahab portrays a picture-perfect example of this ludicrous logic. As Israel’s king, Ahab coerces Israel to dabble in a season of spiritual dehydration, which drains the nation of the refreshing thirst-quenching relationship with God. The children of Israel opt out of drinking from the refreshing wells of God’s revitalizing word, for the inebriating and intoxicating liquor of lies poured into the cups of their minds by idol gods called the Baals. They arrogantly neglect the psalmist’s evaluation: “The Law of the Lord is perfect reviving the soul” (Ps. 19:7); or the counsel of David, the Lord is my shepherd and He “restores my soul” (Ps. 23:3).
Since Israel discards God’s right to rule and reject His reign, He decrees a debilitating drought to express His displeasure with the atrocity of Israel’s arid arrogance; no reign, no rain. God announces a moisture shortage; no rain nor dew upon the land until He gives the word. Over time, things simply wane, wither, and wilt; rivers dry up, ponds shrink, and crops dry out. When heaven shuts off the spigot, brooks and streams stall, gardens and fields waste away.
Looking Ludicrous
Speaking of wasting, Ahab is livid but will not be outdone. He blames God for the decree and Elijah for the drought. As a result, he puts out an APB on the prophet. The King sends ambassadors to the surrounding nations inquiring the whereabouts of Elijah. He concludes, if he can find the prophet, he can levy the force of the kingdom and persuade him to reverse the drought. After an extensive search, he comes up empty-handed. Ahab determines that the best course of action is to find grass; at least the entire livestock wouldn’t die!
Interestingly, when Ahab can’t find Elijah, he seeks grass. Grass, really? In a drought? Whether it’s the heat or his apostasy that drives him to the absurd, we may never know, but he chooses to look for grass—in a drought. He would have had better luck finding chopsticks at an Italian bistro or calories in the dregs of a Coke Zero—looking all ludicrous-like! When the King realizes his inability to find the preacher, he searches for pasture; when he doesn’t find the messenger, he looks for meadows. He reasons that if he is unable to find God’s man, at the very least he might find God’s grass, trading the temporary over the permanent. Sadly, in all his searching, Ahab never searches for God. Because there is no fresh word from God, Ahab proceeds to trust his own wiles and not the wisdom of God; he trusts his ability and scorns the authority of God. Ludicrous-looking.
Do you find yourself looking for stuff as opposed to the source of stuff? Are you looking for God’s stuff as opposed to searching for God? Have you traded the hunt for heaven for the hunt of honeys, homes, and hundreds?
Remember, “All good and perfect gifts come from God” (James 5:17).
Yet, we would rather look for a fish sandwich than to learn to fish. Obadiah and Ahab went looking for a fish sandwich when they should have been learning to fish. They went looking for grass when they should have been learning to trust God for an outpouring. They were looking for grass when they should have been looking for rain.
Have you ever looked for grass when you should have been looking for rain? At times, to turn us back from our lustful pursuits, God lovingly decrees a drought in our lives. He endorses this shortage to make us thirst after righteousness; He longs to be longed for (Matt. 5:6).
In times of drought, we must turn our attention to God and not grass. We must turn our attention away from the gamble of grass and toward the guarantee of rain.
Glad you stopped by. Leave a comment and come back soon to finish our conversation. ~Thomas
God’s Ass?
Excerpt from Don’t Fight The Darkness
So why the hen?(Video)
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The Creative Necessity of Darkness
You can’t have morning without the night. It is creatively and logically impossible. Night is a part of the process. Notice how God creates: “God called the light Day and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first Day” (Gen. 1:5, esv; italics mine). Even in the creative process, God starts with the night. Your night promises morning. The very notion that you are in a night dictates that morning follows:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (Gen. 1:1–2, esv)
The darker the night, the more involved God is in your deliverance. It is important for you to remember that God moves under the discreet curtain of darkness. If you are in a dark mess right now, the good news is God is on the move. Be on alert; the darker the night, the closer God is to you. Just as He brooded in creation, He broods over you. As a mother hen broods over her unhatched chicks, God broods over your unhatched potential. Paul says it best, “What we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him” (1 John 3:2, esv).
Friend, I don’t know what you are going to be after this, but it’s going to be amazing! Presently, you feel locked in your gloomy shell, but never fear. It is darkest when God is brooding; it is blackest when the Almighty overshadows you. After this present nightfall, God is going to unleash all He has been brooding over, keeping secret, protecting. He is going to release every breath of potential He spoke into you. Hear the words of Jesus on joy:
You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. (John 16:20–22, esv) ~ Don’t Fight The Darkness
God has already ordered my steps however depending on my compliance, I will either walk or limp into that destiny . Either way, I’m going.
Prison again?
Failed again? The warden of your present may define its duties based on instructions from the parole officer of your past, but neither possess custody of the keys to your future. -#DontFightTheDarkness
A Coffee Lover’s Hell
A Coffee Lover’s Hell
The other day I’m sitting in the drive-through at Starbucks scoring a much needed caffeine boost—a tall white chocolate mocha. Now, fellas, I normally drink my coffee black, but every now and then I like to live on the dangerous side of caramel, milk, and whipped cream. I expect the usual delays when using drive-through, but the lady in the car in front of me was obnoxiously slow. Obliviously, inconsiderate of the patient coffee aficionados behind her, she acted as if the world revolved entirely around her bulging car emblem, plush leather seats, and manicured nails. She put the “star” in Starbucks; it was her movie, she was the star. Starbucks was supporting cast, and the line of cars jammed behind her were just, well, unpaid extras who should be happy just to inhale her exhaust. She read and reread the menu like she was proofing the fine print of her Global Life insurance policy. I just knew that at any moment the sky would crack, Jesus would rapture the Church, and I would be forced to leave my car in Starbucks’s drive-through!
Am I Being Punked?
Finally, after the cows came home, she selected her beverage of choice and crept sluglike to the window. Once there, she took her time receiving her beverage from the server, sipped it, and paused as if critiquing the latest Chardonnay, placed it tidily in the cup holder, and rearranged something in the passenger seat to accommodate her incoming bagel. “Oh, would you warm this for me please?” Are you kidding me right now? After receiving her bagel, she handed it back to the guy and insisted that he warm it. Okay, where are the cameras? At best, I’m the newest victim of the TV show Punked, at worse, another two minutes of my life wasted on a blueberry bagel, nonetheless.
Out of Christmas Cheer
Finally, with warm bagel in hand and steaming java in the cup holder, the inconsiderate driver pulled up. Not off and away, but up. I inched up to the window in the space ungraciously left for me, and to my surprise, the server, without saying a word, looked me in the eye, closed the window, and disappeared into the delicious abyss of brewing coffee, blueberry Danishes, apple fritters, and cash registers. Wow, the nerve! A bad-mannered patron and a discourteous sales rep? I sat there for a moment; it was the Christmas holidays, but I’m quickly running out of cheer. The impolite driver in front was noticeably self-absorbed, and now this Starbucks barista seemed ill-mannered as well.
The Grande Upgrade
At that moment I had a choice to make; I could brood, boil, burst, and give him a piece of my mind, or I could keep calm and allow the peace of God to rule my heart and carry on. Hesitantly, I chose the latter. I took a deep breath and hoped that he would return within the millennia. What I did not know was that the barista had witnessed my patience and, without a word, decided to upgrade my tall white chocolate mocha to a grande!
Sometimes, a wait isn’t a delay but an upgrade! When in the throes of life, we must resist the urge to rush God to get our plans accomplished. God’s plans follow a precise sequencing order from the foundation of the earth. Everything in the universe, the galaxy, and even your life coincides with a strict divine order more fundamentally permanent than 1, 2, 3 or A, B, C. God has an order, a recipe for your life, and a chain of events that obeys a rigid progressive procession.
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