Moments

Have you ever had a message just hit you dead center? This below pretty much speaks to me, dead on. Why should I continue to struggle to do this ironman stuff, knowing I am an old, no talent person, ill qualified for this pursuit? And why is a big question? How can God be glorified by me burying myself in this when, most likely: I will fail. I must confess that I can't see the end of it. Perhaps, what is being trained most is my faith and obedience? Nevertheless "God isn't looking for impressive people; He wants willing ones who will bow the knee in humble submission. Being weak and ordinary doesn't make you useless. Rather, it positions you for a demonstration of divine power in your life. He takes insignificant ones and delights in making them great. Have you ever considered that your lack of ability, talent, or skill is the ideal setting for a great display of Christ's power and glory? If you are willing to submit to His leading and venture into the s...

My grandchildren love off-the-wall-things. Today, I let them spray shaving lotion on my desk, smear it around, draw in it, and eventually clean it up. My youngest granddaughter drew our house. She had all the parts and even had all of us in it, to include my recently deceased mother. To those that came in, she took joy in naming the parts of the house and the people in it. Then I asked her, "You love this old house, don't you?" "Uh huh," she answered "Why" She studied a moment and said, "Because you're in it?" Sometimes I wonder how much usefulness I have left here in this world and then I hear something like this. I am loved, I am needed, and someone's world is made better because I am in it. Thanks God. I needed that.

She was 102 when she died after surviving assisting living residence and two nursing homes for six and a half years. My mother was tough. In the assisted living, at one time or the other, there had been bad food, flies in dining room, roaches running wild, mice crawling all over, cricket swarms, inattentive care, lost hearing aids, heating and A/C units that often failed, and falls from which she lay on a hard floor for hours waiting on aides to find her. In the nursing homes, she survived many wounds to her legs from aides trying to transfer her to her wheelchair. She subsisted on food that only someone with a sturdy set of jaws and teeth could eat. She made it through being left unattended in her wheelchair for hours. She recovered time and again from the blistered bottom and the consequent urinary tract infections caused by being left soaked in her urine for hours. She made it through quarantine for a bowel virus caused by antibiotics. But finally she could not overcome ...

My mother is old, quite ill, incoherent, in pain, and still she lingers partly in life; partly in death. In response I fret, eat too much, worry, remember, and become conflictive to incompetent caregivers. What a time to go through; sick at heart and mind. But, in the midst of this haze of despair there is opportunity for witness. What difference does my faith have in how I go through this? What difference has God made? It is a time, an opportunity, to prove; to witness, that indeed, He is able: able to keep me from falling though I stumble. And some who have heard me proclaim my faith will be watching to see if faith fails or is lived out, to see what difference God has made? My troubled times could be my best witness; my finest hour for God. Do I "know how to be abased and how to abound?" Or, do I just know how to talk about it? Do "I know how to be hungry and how to be full?" Or is my allegiance just a Christian tattoo that I wear on my skin but not hold...

Just like the resurrection, Hope rose with the dawn. The Texas weather is at its worse as far as I am concerned: heat and stifling humidity for at least the next eight weeks. But Hope survives the heat. And I feel good about the future though it be quite uncertain. Perhaps that Hope is spawned by what I have prayed for most recently: a closer walk with God. I sense that in a way I cannot explain. I know it with a certainty beyond mere reasoning. Ah yes, there it is: Faith; I can know but not understand; "the peace that passeth all understanding." When God comes close so does an unexplainable Hope

Self concept is important and I see in pictures. So, I have pictures in my mind and on my computer of the people I like best. Below is a photo of my swim exit; all in pushing toward transition to "run the race set before me." I like this guy. He is purposeful, committed, and all in for life. The other picture in my mind is of myself in an attitude of thankfulness, humility, and reverence to the God who has allowed me these moments of purpose, commitment, and high points in life. In this photo the race has been completed and I am complete; all in for life with God, now and forevermore.

Have you ever had some event or behavior put distance between you and a friend, a spouse, or family member. Conversation is tentative and strained. Communication is rigid, almost formal, lacking substance and real meaning. What if that kind distance has become between you and God? What is you can't pray and stay focused? What if you pray with no faith in that prayer? What if prayer seems to "echo empty down the hall?" What if you know your prayer went nowhere? What went wrong between God and I? Where is the unconfessed sin, the sinful habit I am unwilling to acknowledge and give up? Why can't I clear the communication lines between me and God? Why do I feel like I have been forsaken? Now I sense a small piece of the agony Jesus felt on the cross when He said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" But that thought turned me around and started to bring me back. It was not God that moved. I had. With a dying mother and prayers that were ...