The Power of Weakness

For a long time I've been trying to explain to God that I feel like I'm not quite in my niche... Like I'm spending most of my time doing things I'm not very good at...And laying in bed last night, I finally realized how often and how long I've been saying that for.

It's been years.

At first I wanted to complain about it. But then I realized how many awesome things I've been learning in the long process:

When you live your life doing things you're weak at, you learn to stop trusting yourself for everyday success and start trusting God for it. Perpetual weakness can very easily turn into consistent training in trusting God's grace.

When I do things I'm bad at, I can't trust myself to be successful...and rightfully so. I'm generally not very good at what I'm doing. And in that place, my heart is immediately postured for dependence on God's unmerited favor. Because I can't very well earn success at that point. It has to be given to me as a gift or it won't happen at all.

When I look at my weaknesses, I really only have two options. Listen to my fears or start trusting God. My fears will always point me to my inability to earn it, and therefore, suffer the penalty of my mistakes. The basis of fear, in this case, is you and your inability.

The basis of peace is God and His ability. Notice how your ability is no longer in the picture. It's not about you anymore. It's not about what you do to earn success...or failure. The focus has changed. It's all about Him and what He does for you. And in that place of supreme confidence in God alone, we find space for the rhythm of God's love to take over. Our days start breathing the love of God.

We remember His perfect love for us, proven completely on the cross. This casts out our fears because we realize God is no longer holding our mistakes against us. The penalty for those mistakes was completely put on Christ and we trust in Him alone. This sets us free to live a life where we don't rely on our rightness anymore. And because our right and wrong actions aren't in the way anymore, the love of God has an avenue to express itself.

When the Apostle Paul said, "It is no longer I who lives, it is Christ who lives through me", this is what he was speaking of. Where is Paul's success or failure in this equation? Where are his good or bad actions? Where is his ability or inability? It's not there anymore because he refuses to rely on it. He's as good as dead, which means that Christ is able to live through Him. The love of God is breathed in. the love of God is breathed out.

And in that place, God's success starts showing up in ways that are outside of our ability. Weakness is only terrifying if you depend on it to be strong. But when we depend on God to be strong instead, weakness becomes our daily reminder of the powerful God who takes care of us.

So don't be afraid of living in weakness, because that ends up being the proving ground for God's strength.That's where we learn to trust again. It's worth waiting in.

Seeking and Finding God

Imagine yourself as a pirate looking for buried treasure. Arrg! Now, let's pretend that you were born into a family of pirates and none of them had ever found buried treasure. Is the treasure even out there? Will you be able to find it? As life proceeds you become pretty well convinced that the treasure is near impossible for you to find. Deep down, you believe that you're never gonna find it. But you also know that good pirates at least look for it. So you go out to search for treasure to prove that you're a good pirate.

Do you see what just happened there? When the pirate believes he won't find what he's looking for the paradigm on what he's looking for shifts. When the pirate status quo becomes looking for buried treasure, finding the buried treasure is no longer the objective. The ultimate goal (finding treasure) has become secondary to the culture created by it (the culture of looking for buried treasure).

The pirate culture screams, "If you're just looking for it, you're doing great! Arrg!" But if you don't believe you can actually find what you're looking for, are you actually looking for it anymore? Are you actually looking for the treasure? No, at that point you're just trying to be good at your culture. 

When we cease to believe we can find the Treasure, our search for the Treasure has ended, and a new search for self-worth without the Treasure has begun.

But let me encourage you with something:

"7 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." [Matthew 7:7-8 ]

Real seekers always find. That's a promise from God.

Sometimes when I'm reading the Bible, it helps to ask myself the question: What If I actually believed that?

What if I believed my search for the Treasure would never end in failure? What if I believed I would always find?

It would change my life! I would ask God more questions. I would read the Bible in anticipation of God talking to me. I wouldn't get discouraged if I didn't understand something. I'd just believe that God was taking me on a finding journey. There's no such thing as "not finding" for me. I'm knocking on God's front door and He always opens up.

Even if it's a spiral journey to the Treasure, its gonna be an awesome, dangerous, fun adventure all the way... Arrg! a pirates dream. God doesn't always work in straight lines and we don't actually need him to. So go ahead and start believing that you're going to find. Every day believe it. You're going to find again today!

Lessons From a Half Marathon

Yesterday I ran my first half-marathon (13.1 miles)! Super happy about it!

Right now, walking is only possible if I wobble like a penguin. Stairs also cause immense suffering. This will be my life for the next few days...

On the brighter side, I wanted to briefly cover some important things I learned along the way:

1. It's so cold in the D- Seriously though. It was really cold yesterday... and yet I still managed to sweat a ton. I was sweating like that guy on that one Axe deodorant commercial... which leads me to my next point.

2. Sweating in the cold leads to Hypothermia- Les Stroud and Bear Grills taught me this truth many years ago, but my body refused to learn from it. I didn't quite reach hypothermia, but my legs were pretty much numb by mile 10...Stupid over-productive sweat glands...Which brings me to point #3.

3. Sweating + not drinking enough water + cold muscles= Lebron style leg cramps at mile 11- My penguin wobble actually began near mile 11 when my frozen legs decided they'd had enough. I managed to finish the race but it wasn't the glorious sprint through the end line that I envisioned. Instead, imagine a mix between the Tin Man and a toddler a with full diaper... That's probably how I looked running at that point.

And out of all the important lessons I learned, this next one stuck out to me the most:

Encouragement actually matters- Basically the entire 13 mile stretch was lined with people who were just there to cheer the runners on... and they probably cheered for a good two or three hours straight as all the waves of runners passed by. That's literally all they did.

At first I didn't really notice them but as the race went on, I realized how important to my running they actually were. When I got tired or reached a steep incline, their cheers helped me keep going. And when my legs cramped up and I was visibly struggling, they encouraged me on all the more.

Somehow, they actually helped. They weren't providing my legs with physical energy. And sometimes, it didn't feel like what they were saying was true. "You're almost there!" at mile 9 didn't initially feel true. But the more they said it, the more I realized that they were actually right. Really, they were encouraging me to believe. And the more I believed, the easier the running became.

So if you love to encourage people, please realize that our world needs you more than it will ever admit. And it needs you now more than ever before.

There's a lie in our world that says that you, individually, have to do everything that Jesus did in order to fulfill your destiny in God. It's not true. If God made you awesome at encouraging people and you love doing it, don't let anyone pressure you into doing something else. Maybe your not supposed to run the same race they're running. Maybe your job is simply to be amazing at encouraging the people around you... It actually does matter. So do it like it's your race. You're extremely important. I need your encouragement and so does everyone else.

Let your heart be free to encourage!

Order

I walked down a sidewalk and saw 2 things:

On the right: A well maintained, mowed, and landscaped strip of grass and trees. My sidewalk was one border. The street was the other.

On the left: Miles of chaotic nature. My sidewalk as one border and the blue sky the other.

Which side was more orderly? The well maintained grass with evenly spaced trees? Or the as-it-lies nature?

When man makes order, we expect the right side of the road. When God makes order, He expects the left.

When man comes up with orderly theology to define God, he comes up with the right side of the sidewalk. Every tree neatly spaced. Every aspect, outlined appropriately. When God comes up with theology of how to define Himself, He expects the left side. It is what it is. He is what He is.

The order isn't found in how we place the trees. It's found in the DNA of the trees themselves. You have to get to the fundamentals of what makes nature, in any way predictable. Nature is orderly only in that DNA is orderly. Understanding God isn't about understanding landscaping. It's not about placing the puzzle pieces. God is only orderly because his DNA is orderly. But He isn't landscaped. He won't always fit the patterns we've made for Him. He will be what He is.

And even when we put Him in our neatly spaced doctrines, still the only thing that's orderly is His DNA.... His heart. Our landscaping is nothing. Our puzzle mapping is nothing. God is as wild as nature and as orderly as nature.

God is more similar to the left side of the road and if we could, perhaps, begin viewing Him like that, we would stop throwing out cheap answer's to messy questions. Perhaps we would have to dig deeper into the motivations of God's heart before we claimed to understand anything. And perhaps, God's answer would meet the complicated requirements of our difficult questions... because that's who He is.

The New Normal- A Worry Free Life

Did you know that it's actually normal to not worry about anything?

Philippians 4:6-Don’t worry about anything...

You're not being irresponsible or naive by not worrying. You're actually doing what God said to do.

I think we would all love to live worry free, but the question is how do you do it? Here are some things I've really found helpful:

1. Realize that worrying doesn't provide any benefit to you whatsoever.

Matthew 16:27- Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

Worrying isn't helping you. There's something in humans that feels more in control of a situation when we're hanging onto it in our minds. Realize that it's a lie. You don't have control of a situation because you are thinking about it. Your worrying is literally gaining you no advantage.

2. Cast your worry on God

1 Peter 5:6-7- Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 

Humility is synonymous with living care free. Holding your cares is proof that you think yourself more able than God for any given situation. Instead, remove the heavy weight of responsibility completely off of you and on to God. God wants the pressure! Let him take care of the outcome.

3. Rejoice in His amazing love!

Philippians 4:6- Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

Prayer is casting the worry on God. Thankfulness is rejoicing because He loves you and will give you good in your situation.

 Romans 8:32- He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

He's already proven His love for you on the cross. The more we rejoice in the cross, the more confidence we'll have that God will give us the perfect outcome for our situation.

4. The wind is your theme music

Sometimes there's an excitement and energy in life that we don't know how to deal with. For example, an interview is a very exciting situation. I recently had one. Even if you're truly not worried, the excitement and energy of the moment might feel a bit overwhelming.

It's probably a similar feeling to what was going through Peter when he walked on water with Jesus. The wind in the moment started howling so loud and strong that he couldn't avoid it.

But what if, instead of becoming afraid of the wind, he just started dancing to it?

I hate that I'm about to reference a Taylor Swift song but I just have to: What if the wind was just the music in his mind, saying it's gonna be alright? What if the excitement and energy of the moment is the wind giving you a theme song worth dancing to?

God didn't create life to be boring. So have fun in the storms! They're your epic theme music for life's greatest victories. Treat excitement and energy that way. Don't let them scare you. It's gonna be alright!

The Joy of Admitting You Don't Know

Don't be afraid to ask questions.

Don't be afraid to not know.

I'm not talking about asking questions that just turn out to be walls.There's such a fine line between asking a question because you want to know and asking a question because you don't want to know.

Some questions are just walls... nothing more.

Some answers are just walls too. Many times our answers are just defenses against what we don't want to believe. They have very little to do with a real, meaningful discovery.

But there's a real joy in admitting when you honestly don't know something. I'm talking about genuine questions. The kinds that make you laugh at how little you understand.

It's a humbling experience to not know. It forces you to sit down and realize for a moment that you are not God... That you aren't in control like you thought you were. It forces you to let go, and trust again. What a good and healthy experience that is!

But a lot of people, I've found, don't treat "not knowing" like that. It actually scares them. They feel insecure when they don't know...And I think that's why we get a lot of bogus answers to difficult questions. The answers are generated out of fear of not knowing, rather than confidence in the love of God.

But let me just encourage you: God doesn't protect you because you know everything. He protects you because you're his kid. The fears aren't coming because you don't know something. The fears are coming because you've forgotten how much God loves you in spite of your ignorance.

Even babies know how to grab for their parents. It doesn't take great intelligence to trust. It simply takes confidence that somebody's gonna love you. And God proved it to you, right? God proved that He loved you by giving Jesus to die on the cross. He gave His only Son so that you could become his child. Because he wants to protect you and keep you safe.

My encouragement to you today is to not let fear drive you to a bogus answer. Don't be afraid to not know something... or even a lot of things... instead, rejoice because the heavy weight of being God does not fall on you. Rejoice because he answers prayers and even difficult questions. It may take time for God to answer our questions, or it might be as quick as lightening... But until your answers come, trust that God loves you and by all means, don't be afraid! Don't let you heart be troubled!

And even right now, as weird as this is, I just see that God has placed mighty angels there to protect and save you. I don't know how that can be possible, as I have no idea who is reading this or who needs to hear that but it's true.

Psalm 91:11
For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways.

God is there to protect and save. So don't be afraid!

Seeing the Invisible (Part 3)

Much of learning to see God's love for you comes with practicing it in daily experiences. When life happens, you'll have the choice to trust the love of God for you that isn't visible or trust the natural consequences of this world which are visible.

Quite often I have found that Christians, including myself, are absolutely willing to believe in God, but struggle to trust Him with life's realities. We believe in a God who's a spirit but sometimes live our lives like naturalists...Or said a different way: We believe God like Christians but sometimes, we trust Him like atheists.

We can live as though He's ineffective. We can live as though He's dead to our today experience. But Jesus rose from the dead to live with me in my everyday, from now until forever.

So let's do this right now: What would you ask God for if He was real? What would you ask God for if He was alive today?

Think about it for a moment. It can even be impossible. You can even not deserve it. 

Once you've decided what that desire is, put it into your left hand.

Now while holding on to this desire, remember that God already fully proved His love for you on the cross. God welcomes you as a great friend. He's not ashamed of you and he's not holding your mistakes against you. In fact, He promised to never remember your sins because your sins were placed on Jesus forever. In Him, you have perfect righteousness. He approves of you and accepts you because of Christ.

Now take God's hand with your right hand. And give him your desire with your left.

In truth, God has already decided to completely satisfy the desire you just handed Him with a good thing. It might not be exactly what we expect, but we can trust that it's the perfect thing for our desire. And we can trust that, not because of what we see visibly in front of us... and not because we even see or don't see the gift... but because He's already given us His Everything in Jesus. Jesus is always the proof that we look at.

Now do that everyday. Every worry, every care, every desire. And when we do that, we'll start finding the pieces of the puzzle we've been missing. There will be a lot more peace in our everyday experience. 

I've been jamming to this song lately... I just love the line, "not earthly confidence, it's only by your blood!" Trusting the blood will build real confidence that won't be shaken. Enjoy it friends!