Today

Today is all we have.  Today is all we can ‘control’.  And I use that word, control, lightly.  Today.  This day…..what story will we write?

Every day the penmanship of the Lord flows over the pages of our life story that He is writing.  We choose what will be written.  He will not choose for us.  Today……we must choose.

Today am I choosing to act and speak like I believe?

Today am I placing a watchman over my mouth?

Today am I placing Him Lord over my decisions?

Today am I loving as He did?

Today am I choosing to speak in faith rather than complain?

It is too overwhelming to say that for the rest of my life I will live like this.  I can’t even tell you what will happen this Friday let alone a month from now.

But I can enact TODAY what I believe.  I can do this TODAY.  TODAY is all I have. 

RIGHT NOW……….

And that’s all He asks of us.  “Don’t worry about tomorrow, for TODAY has enough worries of its own…”

Brian

Just Chat With Him

I just had a conversation with my daughter.  A REAL conversation!  Emma is 3 ½ and usually our phone calls are stream of consciousness for her, what happens to be in front of her at the moment and daddy just goes along for the ride.  But today, we actually asked and answered questions to each other!  It was a simple conversation of her asking daddy where he was and daddy asking Emma what she was going to do that day.  But how wonderful!  I was completely aglow after I hung up.  How much I love to hear her voice.

As I sat back down at my desk, smile big as Texas pasted to my face; I realized something; that is just like prayer.  Do you realize that?  As much joy as I just experienced with my daughter talking with me is just like our heavenly Father when we speak with Him.  He loves to hear our voice; no matter the subject, no matter the length; He is aglow when His children come and chat with Him.  Emma could go on and on and I would be the happiest man alive and we are speaking of nothing more than bugs or Curious George.

Remember, you don’t have to sound like the King James Bible when you pray.  Just talk with Him.  He loves it.

Brian

Growing…..in a tight spot.

I was walking along Maitland Avenue the other day and there, where the sidewalk and wall came together, grew a beautiful flower.  Stretching proudly to the sun, unaware that it grew in an impossible place.

There, in a mass of concrete, far from meadows and flower beds, it flourished.  Forcing itself out from a crack, the tiniest of openings, and defying the odds……it grew.  And not just a wilted, sickly plant; but a proud and smiling flower, full of life.

I want to be like that flower, don’t you?  I want to flourish wherever it is He plants me.  It will not always be in the comfort of a flowerbox or the lushness of a meadow.  Some seasons He will ask me to defy the odds, by His power, and push my self out through the stones of an impossible situation.  In an arid place, devoid of anything promising, He asks us to grow.  And not just seep out, wilted and sickly, but to be a thriving, blossoming example of Him.  A smiling flower reaching for the Son.

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.  They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water.  Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought.  their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit.”  Jere. 17:7-8

Brian

Batman in Orlando

I was waiting at a red light when I heard a polite little toot on the horn beside me.  I looked and sitting beside me was the Batmobile.  A beautiful jet black, smooth as silk, Mercedes.  It even had black rims.  It was the Batmobile.  All it needed was a grappling hook to come shooting out of it.  The smoke tinted window slid down and the gentleman inside (who did not look like Christian Bale at all) was pointing at my back seat where Emma sat.  I hadn’t a clue what was going on.  He was mouthing something I couldn’t make out.  For a second I thought he was offering to buy Emma from us.  Strange.  I cranked down my smoke-free, un-tinted window to see what Batman would have of me.  Smiling, he pointed again to the back seat but this time I heard him:  “You’re a Steeler fan!”  He was referring to a sticker on my window.  I told him I was and he gave the ole brotherly fist pump that all men do to each other when speaking of the love of the same teams.  Yet another aspect of men that drive women to the rolling of eyes and a shake of the head.  Cars collected around us as we waited and he went on to tell me how he was at the Super Bowl, 50 yard line, a few years ago.  Looking at his car I surmised that this expense came out of the jar he kept on his dresser where he puts left over hundreds when he empties his pockets after a long day buying small countries like Ireland.

We exchanged our pleasantries of how this year is going to be a good year and as the light changed his window rose and he disappeared once again, the Batmobile slipping away.  I ground my gears and muttered at the hamsters that turn the wheels of my ’95 Honda and headed home.

This interaction surprised me a little.  We just don’t talk to people in our comings and goings anymore do we?  We are encased in our metal shells that take us from place to place; we pass people in the aisle and we do everything we can to avoid eye contact or saying ‘hello’.  We email so we don’t have to speak to someone on the phone and all but barricade ourselves behind the front door of our homes.  This is the way of society.  And we as believers are going along for the ride.

But this is against all that Christ wants of us as His disciples. Never do we see a picture where Jesus is running from people or taking a different path so that He wouldn’t have to speak to someone.  In fact, a picture we see of Him is so very different.  He is actually looking for the hurting and the lost.  Interestingly enough……He was never in a rush was He?   Here we are speeding from place to place worried that if we stop to look someone in the eye it will throw off our whole schedule and here was a Man who did nothing but look people in the eye and was never in a hurry.

“Go into all the world and make disciples…”

Roll the window down. 

Say ‘hello’ to someone passing you in the aisle. 

Smile. 

Take a moment. 

Look someone in the eye.

Love God.  Love people.  The greatest commandment of all.

Brian