April Fools...Not!

That’s it. I’m fed up. I’m leaving. It might not be on a jetplane – because that is expensive, but I’m through. I can’t take it anymore. The situations, the way people act, the things they argue about. Worthless. It’s all a sham.

I am done. There’s no point to hanging around any longer. I’m out. I’m finished. I’m taking this “job” and shoving it… that was what Johnny Paycheck sang, wasn’t it? I’m walking out the door.

 

I can’t take the people who say one thing and do another. I can’t take the ones who blame others because of their lack of wanting to get close to people… and to the boss. Am I doing the same thing in other people’s eyes? Do I talk one way and walk another? Do I try to push the blame of not getting things done the right way onto other people?

Perhaps. But it doesn’t matter. I’m through. Finé. Caput.

Sorry God. Sorry Christ. Sorry Holy Spirit. But I’m leaving because just when I think everything is going fine – People around me show me different. Tell me different. Act different. No, it’s not my fault. I’m not the one to blame.

So, I’m adopting the following mantra written by someone else. Read it line by line.  You might want to adopt it, too.

“I live my life according to these beliefs
God does not exist
It’s just foolish to think
That there is an all-knowing God with a cosmic plan.
That an all-powerful God brings purpose to the pain and suffering in the world
It  is a comforting thought however
It is only wishful thinking
People can do as they please without eternal consequences
The idea that
I am deserving of hell
Because of sin,
Is a lie meant to make me a slave to those in power
“The more you have, the happier you will be.”
Our existence has no grand meaning or purpose
In a world with no God
There is freedom to be who I want to be
But with God
Life is an endless cycle of guilt and shame
Without God
Everything is fine
It is ridiculous to think
I am lost and in need of saving.”

Is it true? Do I really think this?

No, of course not. I know the God who created this earth entered human experience in the person of the Son and died for you and me. But, quite honestly, there are times when I really identify with the feelings above.  You know...those times when you are just fed up with the way people act and the things they do and say. The hypocritical way they live. The way they are inwardly focused on their own wants, needs and fulfillment. I know God does exist, and I truly do adopt the second half of the mantra the man wrote when he said that…

“God reversed my thinking…

I am lost and in need of saving
It is ridiculous to think
Everything is fine
Without God
Life is an endless cycle of guilt and shame
But with God
There is freedom to be who I want to be
In a world with no God
Our existence has no grand meaning or purpose
“The more you have the happier you will be”
Is a lie meant to make me a slave to those in power.
Because of sin,
I am deserving of hell.
The idea that
People can do as they please without eternal consequences
Is only wishful thinking
It is a comforting thought however
That an all-powerful God brings purpose to the pain and suffering in the world
That there is an all-knowing God with a cosmic plan.
It’s just foolish to think
God does not exist
I live my life according to these beliefs."

Do we? On this April Fool’s Day are we cheating ourselves? Do we really subscribe to those second set of words? Do we truly believe that He exists, and do people know what we believe by the way we live? And not just among our friends and coworkers, but among our Christian brothers and sisters? Or are we fooling them, too? The problem is, I know we are not fooling God.

Sometimes I wonder if the people who do and say things about God’s people and are a part of God’s people are not more damaging than those outside of the church.

The Bible tells us we should lift one another up – not tear each other down. That’s Satan’s job, and last I checked, he’s so good at it, he doesn’t need anyone’s help.

What beliefs are you showing in the way that you live? In the things you say? In the actions you portray?

By the way, I’m not going anywhere, for I realize that the one true God exists and loves me and sent His Son to die for me. I may get fed up with people and things, probably like God gets with me sometimes, but my mantra comes from Philippians 2. I bow my knee to the name of Jesus and exalt him to the highest place. I strive to do everything without grumbling so that I may become blameless and pure like a t

rue child of God. I want to be able to “boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain” as I continue to work out my “salvation with fear and trembling” so that God works in me “to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”

I pray to God that every day of my life is not an April Fool’s Day to those around me. I hope they truly see God living in me and through me. I don’t want my Christian walk to be a joke. How about you?

Heavenly Father, may my life be a praise and sacrifice to you. May I humbly give my life to you so that your will is enacted in my life and so you can use me in any way you see fit. Help me to say no to the temptation to shun grumble and complain.  Instead help me to be a person who uplifts those around me. Help me to live a life so you are not ashamed to call me your child. May I be an example to those around me daily. May I be a reflection of You. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Joey Roberts

Stephenville, TX

Staying in the Game

I remember playing sports in junior high and a kid on the “B” team was playing defense against the “A” team offense. He made a tackle on a bigger, stronger running back and when the kid got up, he was holding his arm and complaining of it hurting badly. The coach told him something like “if you want to play “A” team ball, you have to play through pain. The next day the kid shows up at school with a broken arm in a cast.

Life is a series of playing through pain events. People we love, people we’ve known for years, people we work with, people we barely know often cause us pain and we have to decide whether to come out of the game, play through it or retaliate. At times, I’ve done all of the above. There have been times of pain where I have simply withdrawn and tried to hide from it. All that did for me was take me out of the game and cause me to miss opportunities that could have been much more rewarding than hurt caused by the moment of pain. Other times I have chosen to retaliate and when I make that choice, it’s close to a scorched earth policy where nothing is sacred, nothing is out of the line of fire and I often find myself wondering what in the world possessed me to make such a horse’s backside of myself. Finally, there are times I’ve simply played through the pain knowing that pain is often temporary and usually manageable if I’ll simply keep my eyes fixed on what is ahead. Now, it doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes stop to have a professional assess the situation and prescribe something to help me heal and it doesn’t mean that I don’t ever sit out for a brief time to recuperate. I’ve done both of those but then I got back in the game as soon as it was reasonable and kept playing.

One of the things I have learned through pain in my life is that it is not usually generated by people but by Satan working through people. When I focus on a person as the source of my pain, I most often react by quitting or retaliating, just what the evil one would want me to do. On the other hand, when I focus on Satan as the source of my pain, I most often play through it by first relying on God, the healer, to prepare me and get me ready to play on and then trusting that as long as I follow the physician’s directives I will be able to keep playing, to work through the pain and to achieve the goal he has prepared me for. I can face pain the way evil wants me to or I can face it the way God hopes I will, knowing that my suffering is not as great as the one who gave his life for me but that in my suffering and choosing to play on, I share in the victory Christ has prepared for me.

Philippians 3:10-11 says, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” This is what I want, to share in his suffering and his resurrection, to play through what tries to bring me down, to stop me and keep moving forward for what God has in store for me.

Grace and peace to you.

Jeff Jones
Decatur, Texas

From Solitude, to Community, to Ministry

“The word discipleship and the word discipline are the same word--that has always fascinated me. Once you have made the choice to say, “Yes, I want to follow Jesus,” the question is, “What disciplines will help me remain faithful to that choice?” If we want to be disciples of Jesus, we have to live a disciplined life.”

--Henri Nouwen

When I think about Christians, several words come to mind, but one of the first ones is “busy.” We are so caught up in this postmodern culture, believing that all perceived realities are really just social constructs. We find meaning in how many things that we do, how many (expensive) things that we buy, and how we maintain or achieve a well-respected position within the confines of our culture’s social constructs that pose as absolute truth and reality. By the time Sunday rolls around, we are too tired to engage fully in community. If we can’t engage in community, how can we even think about doing ministry? Well, we can’t. Or we can, but we do it halfheartedly. If we’re going to do it that way, we may as well not do it at all.

If we are constantly so busy and exhausted and unable to be fully present in communal settings with fellow believers, something must change. The change should start with our schedules. I like the quote above by Henri Nouwen. Oh yes, we are very disciplined. We organize our planners and keep our calendars on hand and make all of our appointments on time, but we forget to schedule in time for the Lord. It is really sad that we have to use the words “schedule” and “God” in the same sentence, but that is what our culture has helped us become. I’m guilty of it. Sometimes I get to the end of my day and realize I haven’t spent a moment in solitude with God until my head hits the pillow.

This is the missing component. We cannot engage in community and move from there into effective ministry if we do not begin with solitude. Think about Jesus. In Luke 6, He spends a night in prayer--alone. In the morning, He summons His disciples to Him and chooses 12 of them as apostles. After this, the Sermon on the Mount begins. Solitude--community--ministry. Jesus does it right. He spends an entire night in prayer before taking part in community, and finds peace and stability within community before beginning to minister to the crowds.

We tend to find our identities in the places that we put most of our time and effort. Those on the outside looking in at Christians probably identify us as overcommitted, exhausted, and spread too thin. If I don’t spend time alone with the Lord and allow Him to remind me where my true identity lies, this will be reflected in the way that I approach community and ministry. If outsiders view us as too busy and overcommitted, don’t you think that probably applies to how they view our faith, community, and ministry as well? I don’t want to be seen as someone who is “too busy” to be fully committed to my faith and ministry.

This makes me think of the second and fourth verses of the hymn “Take Time to be Holy.” The words are as follows:

Take time to be holy,

The world rushes on;

Spend much time in secret

with Jesus alone;

By looking to Jesus,

Like Him thou shalt be;

Thy friends in thy conduct

His likeness shall see.

Take time to be holy,

Be calm in thy soul;

Each thought and each motive

beneath His control.

Thus led by His spirit

to fountains of love,

thou soon shalt be fitted

for service above.

Sowing seeds in the right places produces good fruit. Spending time nurturing a relationship

 with the Lord produces good relationships and effective ministry.

Father,
Please bless us in our pursuit of relationships with You, others, and in our ministry. We love you.

Through Jesus,

Amen.

Erin Daugherty
Abilene Christian University

Claiming Peace

A few years ago I discovered I was walking around in shackles. I had been wearing them for so long I thought my hobbled walk was normal. My discovery happened after a conversation with a dear friend and mentor about the fruits of the Holy Spirit. I told him I was beginning a personal prayer campaign for peace. Not world peace, but peace in my heart. Since early childhood I had struggled with low levels of anxiety; anxiety about my future, my present and at times my past. I was especially anxious about my relationships and what others thought of me. According to my mother at the age of three, my physician grandfather remarked to her that she needed to teach me to relax. Unfortunately, this was a lesson that went unlearned.

To most people my inward battle with anxiety made me outwardly appear driven, high achieving, and energetic. As an athlete I used this tool to push my body beyond its limits and unfortunately pay the price with painful bursitis and tendonitis in both shoulders at the age of 34. As an employee I never lacked for promotions or more responsibilities, unfortunately these came to the detriment of real relationships outside of work and struggles with infertility. Anxiety left me constantly discontent, overbearing, and living in a world of unrealistic expectations for myself and others.

It was the question from my mentor of, “Why are you praying for peace when you already have it?” that allowed me to see that I was missing out on a huge promise from God. A study of Galatians 5 and the fruits of the Spirit led me back to the beginning of the chapter where Paul writes:

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

Like the Christians in Galatia, I too had put Christ on in baptism and in doing so had “crucified the flesh with its passions and desires”. However, like the Galatians’ desire to be justified in their faith through their works, I had also been “working” at peace, and “working” at joyfulness with little success.

When we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit we in turn have access to the fruits, but access does not guarantee ownership. Some fruits come easily while others are more difficult to obtain. It is our flesh that keeps us from walking in the freedom of Christ and enjoying the Spirit’s fruits. When I take up the shackles of anxiety and worry about the lack of control I have over my life and those in it, I deny the peace and joy already set before me and become a slave once again to sin.

I would like to say that once I learned this lesson I forever broke the chains that bound me, and never took them up again. But, oh how alluring the sin of anxiety can be for me at times. In my anxiety I can out-work, out-criticize, and out-worry the best: calls are made, closets organized, prayers given, notes written, bible class materials gathered, and meals cooked. Sometimes we can do good things yet nullify the freedom and power of a relationship with Christ if we try to do it all on our own. The question I must constantly ask myself is what is my motivation? Is it out of the overflow of a heart fully given over to God, surrendered to his love and walking in his truth? Meals may have been prepared, bible class planned for and the house clean, but at what cost? Did my children receive nothing but rebuke and frustration from me during the day? Did my husband and friends get the encouragement they needed? Did the “peace that passes understanding” reign in my home?

Thank you, God that like a parent delighting in their child’s stages of development, you delight in me as I grow. Thank you for teaching me I am not defined by what I do, but by my identity in Christ Jesus. Thank you for setting me free through your Son.

Dana Jaworski
Anchor Point, AK

Got it on cruise control?

A friend of mine was driving down the road with the cruise set on 70. He noticed a highway patrolman ahead of him sitting beside the road. He passed with confidence and even waved as he went by. To his surprise the patrolman started following him with his lights flashing. “Must be stopping a car going the other direction,” he thought to himself. But, there wasn't a car coming the other way and the trooper waved him over. Angrily, he pulled over, got out and walked back to meet the trooper. As he met him he said, "I had my cruise set and I was driving 70 miles per hour. Why did you stop me?" The trooper calmly said, "Sir the speed limit here is 55." My friend knew he was right and boldly proclaimed it. Unfortunately, he wasn’t aware of where he was and had not noticed the signs and the correct speed limit for that stretch of road.


There are times when my spiritual life is on cruise control. I go through each day with little focus and little attention to my relationship with God. In Ephesians 6 Paul makes a chilling statement when he says, “Our fight is not against people on earth but against the rulers and authorities and the powers of this world’s darkness, against the spiritual powers of evil in the heavenly world”. Satan does not want us to experience the perfect relationship God intended we have with Him and with His Son Jesus. The devil does everything he can to stop us from even beginning to know God. For believers, his assaults on us are real and they are cunning. If we aren’t prepared and alert the results are much worse than a speeding ticket in West Texas.


Jesus warned of this when he told the story about planting seed in Luke 8. In sharing the different places the seed (God’s message) falls He describes circumstances when the devil comes, when troubles come, and when the worries, riches, and pleasures of life come. In each case the intent is to keep us away from that perfect relationship with God which is the good soil in the story. My take-away from this story for many years was to be the good soil and produce fruit. Certainly, that is the story’s conclusion. However, I have another understanding. I should expect and know that Satan will attempt to detour my journey of loving God and loving others. He will bring troubles into my life with the sole purpose of disrupting my relationship with God and with those I love. He will bring worries, riches, and pleasure to trap me in my choices and take away the joy and true life that God intended. But, my focus changes as I see these events in a spiritual context. I see them for what they are. They are Satan’s efforts to separate me from the God I love. And I will fight. I will not surrender to the enemy. I won’t attack those I love. I won’t become a victim. I won’t walk away from the church. I won’t blame God should troubles, problems, sufferings, hunger, nakedness, danger or violent death (Romans 8: 35) come into my life. Rather, I see these attacks for what they are and will take courage with the promise that nothing can separate me from the love of God. I will be reminded I am not alone in this battle and will draw strength even in the worst circumstances knowing I will overcome because of His great power (Ephesians 6:10).


Father you never leave us and you never give up on us. Remind us that every day we must make the decision to put you first in everything, and when we do you give us true life, joy, and peace. Amen.

Scotty Elston
Shallowater, Texas