Pain is God's Gift to You

The sonogram on Tuesday showed 0 babies. God loved them so much that he didn’t even make them walk this Earth like you and I have to do. He just took them straight to be with Him in heaven! Praise God for his grace and mercy on them! A painful aura of love filled the room in the moments following the empty sac on the screen, selfless hearts mourning loss together. God sends pain, pain grows us.

I love pain. I think it’s God’s greatest gift to us. The first thing God taught me from this situation is that physical pain is not the best teacher. Jesus’ biggest struggle on the road to the cross was not the beatings, the crown, the nails, and the struggle for breath. The real pain came from Peter denying he ever knew him, THREE TIMES, Judas’ betrayal, knowing his mom was seeing him suffer so greatly, knowing the people who shouted “CRUCIFY HIM!” had no idea what they were saying. The real pain had to have been the emotional turmoil knowing how much Jesus loved each face he saw, and knowing the only way he could get them (me, you) to understand how deeply the Father loves us was to do it. His prayer in the garden was not a plea to escape the physical pain, but a plea to escape the emotional pain that came with the absolute loneliness he was about to face.

Think about it. None of the most vivid, intense, incredible pains in your life came from something physical. Mine came from here:

1.       A phone call in 7^th grade saying my friend who I’d been with the night before died in a car crash with his mom, grandmother, and sister.

2.       Waking up after fibula repair surgery knowing my athletic career had come to an end.

3.       Ending a toxic relationship because God had much better plans for both parties.

4.       Seeing an empty hole where a heartbeat should be.

The minutes, hours, weeks, and months that followed each of those occasions were/are excruciatingly painful. And they are supposed to be. They are also 4 times in my life when I died again to myself and Jesus’ light could be seen through me most clearly. This is the first one I get to experience with a complete soul, as Loren is now one with my Spirit, and it’s already hurt the most and taught me the most. I can’t wait to see how this deepens our love for God and brightens our light for His Kingdom.

In Jesus’ name we will consider this trial pure joy (James 1:2-4) and embrace the soreness from spiritual growth. Praise God for this pain because he’s being made strong in our weakness (II Corinthians 12). Some of God’s mightiest warriors came from mom’s like my beautiful bride who had issues bearing children: 

Isaac

Jacob & Esau

Joseph 

Samson 

Samuel 

John the Baptist.

In this pain, we will not give credit to Satan. He’s too smart to have children come in to the world through such struggle. He knows the pain they’ve already gone through and will fight to make them lukewarm so they don’t burn so bright against the darkness.

I challenge you to do the same thing. Embrace some pain in your life. Praise Jesus for it. Don’t pray for comfort, for an easy path, for relief. Pray that you are continually made weak, so God’s strength can show through. We’re only here for a little while anyway, we might as well enjoy the suffering while we’re here!

Thank you for your unending prayers on our behalf. Continue to pray, but not that we be comfortable or our pain eased. Pray that God speaks clearly through our pain to bring your hearts closer to his love. We will be parents when he’s ready for us to be. And we couldn’t be more blessed to have such a selfless family to help nurture the next generation of slaves for Christ!

The Reason for the Beard

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:17

One of my favorite segments of Forrest Gump is when Mr. Gump leaves his front porch on a journey “for no particular reason”. Forrest spent his life changing people (Elvis Presley, 2 Presidents, and Coach Bear Bryant to name a few), but it wasn’t until he took off runnin’ that people began to follow him in droves. Why did they do that? What was the allure to a below-average intelligent man from Alabama who just ran? Dedication. Here is the clip to refresh your memory:

Call it crazy, call it genius, call it what you will. The man was dedicated to something and went after it more than anything else. That kind of fanatical dedication is contagious. People want to know why. People want to know how. People want that in their lives.

I stopped cutting the hair on my face August 5, 2013. I cut it for the first time November 29, 2013. For 116 days I grew a beard. Much like Mr. Gump, I wasn’t sure why at the beginning. Much like Mr., Gump, people took notice after a while and started wondering why I did it. Once I cut the beard, people wondered why I just stopped.

God, in his supreme wisdom, had a plan for my beard. He wanted to teach me this lesson with it, so it’d be rude to keep it to myself. Dedication is contagious, and if you’re zealous enough about it, people will follow. If I can grow a beard for 116 days (and give my beautiful wife the patience to love me in spite of my whiskers), how much greater would my light shine if I served like Christ with such unwavering dedication.

Here are some other dedicated verses by/about dedicated people:

Leviticus 27:28. Devotion comes from the LORD.

1 Samuel 1: A mother’s word.

Jeremiah 29:13-14. With all your heart. 

Philippians 4:13. I can do it all through him.

2 Timothy 4:7-8. Paul’s farewell address.

Like everything I do, I grew my beard in the name of Jesus for His glory. The reason is a mystery to me no more. The year is ending; a new year is coming. Find something in your life to teach you dedication, and watch what God will teach you.

Attack Armor

Attack Armour

 

A soldier needs his panoply in order to be successful in battle. I had to look the word “panoply” up too when we sang it tonight at the end of our discussion of the armor of God. It means complete set of armor according to its definition. Growing up being the “good little church boy” I have heard many a lesson on the armor of God and how he designed it and equipped us with it for DEFENSE AGAINST EVIL in the spiritual warfare we face on a day-to-day basis.  This is a great idea and an excellent way to look at it, but my spirit tonight challenged me to dig a little deeper.

Here is the passage of scripture in Ephesians about the Armor of God:

The Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20)

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

Read the passage again, but this time change your mindset from “defense against evil” to attacking in the heat of the battle field. Take the image of your favorite epic battle in a move scene with you as you read.

Does that change its meaning a little bit? What if God gave us this excellent and perfectly designed set of armor for when we ride full speed into the middle of the action? I am not saying the armor is not for our defense and protection. But I am saying there is no use for the armor if we are hiding behind the castle walls and waiting on the battle to end. Belts, breastplates, shields, helmets, and swords are not something to be used defending the wall. They’re meant for up close and personal hand-to-hand combat. God wants us to go face to face with our adversary and destroy them.

There is no mention of the camouflage of being a “church goer”. I also could not find the binoculars of foresight or the map of preparation showing us the enemy that lies ahead and exactly what to expect once we ride into battle. If God wanted us to have those things, he would have designed them as part of the armor. It is not our job to be able to see what the enemy is bringing to the fight or know the outcome of the battle. And there is certainly no need to put on our religious camouflage and hide behind it to avoid being seen or disturbed by the enemy. Our God does not call us to be passive.

This brought me great comfort because my approach to any situation is far from passive. It brings me great joy to know that God has given me the tools to be aggressive and attack every day.

WWII General George Patton paints a graphic but accurate picture of the type of spiritual warfare I think God calls us to wage against our enemy:

When we land against the enemy, don't forget to hit him and hit him hard. When we meet the enemy we will kill him. We will show him no mercy. He has killed thousands of your comrades and he must die. If your company officers in leading your men against the enemy find him shooting at you and when you get within two hundred yards of him he wishes to surrender – oh no! That b*****d will die! You will kill him. Stick him between the third and fourth ribs. You will tell your men that. They must have the killer instinct. Tell them to stick him. Stick him in the liver. We will get the name of killers and killers are immortal. When word reaches him that he is being faced by a killer battalion he will fight less. We must build up that name as killers.

Take such an approach to your walk with Jesus. Destroy evil.

How much do you really trust Me?

Making plans is stupid. So is having preconceived notions about a person, place, time in your life, or anything. The older I get, the less “must have a plan” oriented I am and the more “let’s see what God does with this one” I become. I have completely planned out my life many times: Career, children, marriage, living, retiring, stuff gathering, even put some thought in my funeral. And guess how all of that stuff is going to work out… exactly the way God decides. And there is not one single plan you can make or act you can perform to change that. And that isn't even the best part. The best part is that God is going to do great things in spite of our best efforts to let our plans rule our lives.



You don’t believe me? That’s fine. Ask Jonah. Read his story and tell me how well all his plans and preconceptions worked out. And despite Jonah’s best efforts (agreeing to die by drowning by being thrown into the sea) God still loves him so much that he saves a whole nation of people through Jonah. And God even gave Jonah shade once he completed God’s task and it did not turn out to be the fire and damnation that he hoped. 

King David understood this. That’s why his heart looked so much like God’s heart. That’s why there are so many Psalms written “in the valley of the shadow of death” but their authors are certain that God is going to remove them from it. Here are a few examples of this:


Psalm 22
Psalm 23
Psalm 31


Pay special attention to Psalm 31 and the way the author calls God out to take care of him, then spends the second half of the psalm praising Him because the author knows God is faithful to meet and exceed his requests. And the author does not do this out of selfish ambition because of some great plans he has made. The author is humbly laying his life at the altar of God, and just letting that be enough.


Jeff Johnson wrote a song called Ruin Me that describes this sacrifice. Listen to it. Pray it. Live it.


God has shown me that my plans were greater than his over and over and over again. He gave me a better college career, coaching instead of playing. Gave me a better job, with people I have come to know and love and a church family close to my heart. God gave me a better wife, more perfectly designed to share God’s work with me than any other. And God will continue to give. He will finish the housing mess he blessed me with starting. He will start my family off correctly and build it exactly the way he wants it. He will lead us wherever we need to go and let us do whatever we need to do. All I have to do is listen and follow. Just like Noah. Just like Abraham. Just like Jesus. Just like my dad.

Ruin my life, the plans that I've made.

Ruin desires for my own selfish gain.

Destroy the idols that have taken your place.

Until it’s you alone I live for.

Amen.

Relentless Pursuit

There is nothing I respect more than someone who relentlessly pursues something. As a football coach (and a defensive one at that) all the schemes and situations really matter a whole lot less than 11 guys relentlessly pursuing the guy with the football. We demand it in practice, it helps us win games (and lose them if we don't pursue relentlessly), and the people watching from the bleachers can tell if a team is relentlessly pursuing their goal of tackling the guy with the football. The guys that run the hardest to the football are usually the guys that try the hardest in the classroom and work the hardest at relationships. There is something undeniably admiring to any sports fan about an athlete who relentlessly and passionately pursues their goal.

The first King of Israel, Saul, gets a bad rap because of some of the selfish things he did as his reign as king began to end, and rightfully so. He became arrogant and selfish, and neither of those things are very admirable traits. But that guy knew how to relentlessly pursue someone.

From 1 Samuel 18 until his death 1 Samuel  31, Saul is relentlessly pursuing David and trying to kill him. While his desired result (killing the man after God's own heart) may not be the purest of motives, there is no denying the passionate pursuit of a man who knew exactly what he wanted.

There aren't many more examples of that kind of relentless pursuit in the Bible or elsewhere. But I dug around my sword and found a few:

Abraham pursuing God's righteousness, at the cost of his son's life: Genesis 22
Jacob pursuing his wife Rachel: Genesis 29
Solomon's pursuit of the meaning of life: Ecclesiastes and his story in Kings
Paul's pursuit of righteousness: The whole book of Acts

I am a passionate person. My goal in sports was always to play harder than anyone else on the field or court. But my pursuit of Christ and righteousness is not always like that. The separation of relentless pursuit and pursuit is consistency. Nobody wants a guy that'll go hard for 2 plays and take 1 play off. The consistency of the pursuit is the whole key to the relentless. Sometimes it doesn't happen on the first try. Or the first 100. It takes relentless consistent pursuit to get what you want.

There is, however, more than one side to the coin. Saul's pursuit was definitely relentless, but his desired goal was totally wrong. And look what happened (spoiler alert) he ended up killing himself instead of David. You have got to pursue the right things in order to achieve what you desire. I have pursued a lot of things that aren't really what its all about. We all do. Money, success, recognition, relationships, sex, drugs, alcohol, winning games, beating someone else at something, etc.

I am a brick wall sprinter type personality. I go as hard as I can after something until God puts a brick wall up in front of me, I slam into it, bounce off, and run the other direction. And the more walls I slam into, the more my path of relentless pursuit changes from the aforementioned things and is guided towards Jesus. It's helped narrow my path from having a building named after me, winning a ton of games, making lots of money, and being the coach of a major program to wanting to be a great husband and father, loving on all my athletes and fellow coaches, and serving my church and my community.

I haven't figured this out by any stretch, and I just really needed to hear this myself. I guess what I am trying to say are these two things:

1. Relentlessly pursue your goals and dreams in your life.
2. Make sure your relentless pursuit is towards getting to know Jesus, and #1 will take care of itself.

Are you relentlessly pursuing anything right now? Why or Why not?
Is what you're pursuing something selfish or is it for others?
What can you do to better relentlessly pursue your relationship with your Father? (like write in your blog more often than once every 5 months)

Dig around on it a while. Struggle with it.

No matter what the case may be...

I like to think of my self as a man who lives without worry. That is true about 99% of the time. Today was one of my 1%ers.

2012 is off to an interesting start. It has already been filled to the brim with change, lightly squeezed with a sour taste of consequences, served with a delicious looking plate of opportunity. In this whirlwind of an appetizer course to the year I found myself deep in worry from about 1:30 yesterday til 9:00 tonight.

I was worried about paying for my truck repairs, $3500 expected to be paid by today for exact, on top of rent and the complications with my loan and payroll over Christmas break. Love that money! Woooooo!

I was worried about my career, how well I fit in with a new staff, whether my second degree was worth the trouble, and if college coaching was my right fit right now.

I was worried about my new job, learning how things operated and doing it efficiently and how it'd effect my performance in the job I already held.

I was worried about my relationships, whether or not I should be looking for a girlfriend, missing friends that moved away, and wondering what'll happen in 5 months when more move.

UNTIL...

On my way home after some nice family time and a home cooked meal, The Spirit reminded me of a song my uncle Steve sang in VBS way back when he had a gross mustache and I had no facial hair (or very little). The song goes like this:

I've got confidence.
My LORD is gonna see me through.
No matter what the case may be
My LORD is gonna fix it for me.

And I sang it all the way home from Tuscola and until it morphed from a hopeful prayer to a refurbished foundation of my faith. Matthew 5:48 is one of my favorite verses in the Bible because it reminds me of my ultimate goal in this life. To be perfect as my Father in Heaven is perfect.

Satan and Selfishness like to tag-team combat my heart into thinking I am the one responsible for the perfection, the completeness in my life. And they when every time I lay down my spiritual armor and show up naked to a nasty, ruthless war on Evil. That and my work ethic make me think I can accomplish things if I know all the answers and work my ass off to get it done. But I can't. And that is perfectly alright because I've got confidence. My LORD is gonna see me through. No matter what the case may be, my LORD is gonna fix it for me.

Thank you to everyone who has ever helped with a Vacation Bible School. You never know what God is doing in the spirit of a 6 year old that he will really need at 1:00 am a little over a week before he turns 23. Truth roots itself deep in our souls. Hold fast to truth.

It’s easy to be a slave; it’s hard to be a Son.

I love talking circles in my head about the concept of freewill. If we have freewill, but God had our lives planned out before we were created, do we really? Questions like that are fun discussions with my friends but they really end at the same place they started. I don’t know. I do believe we have the freedom to choose whichever lifestyle we please, and every single choice we make is solely our own. But the key to being happy is finding what God would have us choose.

Ephesians 6:1-9 talks about the relationship between children and parents as well as the relationship between slaves and masters. Pay special attention to the difference in the commands for children and slaves. Children are asked to HONOR their father and mother while slaves are told to OBEY their masters. Which one of those things is harder to do?

Honor means to regard with respect. Obey means to do what you are told. I do not know about you, but just being told what to do is much easier than making a decision on my own that honors the one who gave me the right to make the decision. So many times we just want an answer, something clear cut that screams “GO DO THIS MY CHILD, ITS EXACTLY WHAT I WANT YOU TO DO” because that would be easier than spending time loving and respecting our Father enough to know what will disappoint him and what will really make him proud.

Children are also told to obey their parents, because honor does not come naturally. I had to learn to obey my parents before I could honor them because I had to find out what they valued and what they thought to be trivial or ignorant. Honor is not something that happens immediately, it has to be developed through relationship and struggle. I did a lot of disobedient and stupid things when I was a little kid, but when I became a teenager, the mood shifted from disobedient to dishonor.

Our Middle Eastern and Eastern brethren have a much clearer idea of honor and shame than we do in America, and I think it would do us all well to learn something from them. Honor is paired with long-life (see Deuteronomy 5:16), especially to those who honor their father and mother.

My dad does not tell me what to wear every day, he didn’t tell me where to go to college, what sports to play (or not play), what girls to date (or run screaming away from), etc. because he gave me the freewill to do so. I am very grateful that I had my dad as the first glimpse of what God looked like and that he treated me like God would treat a son. It may be harder to be a son, but it is well worth the struggle and reward for pleasing my Father in Heaven.

Take this with you. You are a son or daughter of Christ. If you’re still new and learning, then obey God with all your heart. Do what he wants and find out what makes him click so you may honor him. If you know what honors your Father and what shames him, live accordingly in a way that honors him. And most importantly, if you have a son or daughter, remember this: You are their first perception of God. They worship you from the very beginning because you gave them life. Make sure your lives are pointing to the Father and your standards of honor and shame match up with His.