Being Present

I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” – 1 John 2:14

A couple of weeks ago I had an interesting conversation with a dad.  He was broken.  His voice was hollow.  He recounted how “absent” he had been from his family and from his church family.  Although he had always been “around", he confessed that he had not been “as engaged” as he knew he should be.  Each day he felt like a tether ball that swung toward irritability one day and numbness the next.  Joy was a word without definition.  He couldn’t pray.  Smiling was a manufactured experience.    Life had become a thousand little weights that made their dwelling place in his heart.  All of it had affected his interest, stamina and will to be the kind of presence in his family and in his church that he wanted to be.  He was stuck.  He said, “I just feel so lost and aimless right now….and guilty.  When I get home or go to a church gathering, a class or an event, all I want to do is sit.  Thinking about the Word, getting involved in a ministry or just being genuinely present for my wife and kids takes Herculean effort.  I’m just constantly churning inside.” 

His story was all too familiar.  As men, we don’t just live life.  We “feel” life.  We feel its tugs, distractions, pressures and the restlessness that sometimes comes with being “the man”.  In the midst of it all we can hear God’s call to be present – to be engaged as God’s man.  But…?

I marvel at Jesus life and ministry.  His ability to be “present and engaged” is astounding.  The last twenty four hours before he goes to the cross is staggering.  The swing of events notwithstanding, his ability to bring words of hope, strength, encouragement, and peace to his disciples as the weight of the world lands finally and completely on his back is nothing short of breathtaking (Read John 13-17!).  He knew his destiny.  I’m certain he “felt” it, too.  In Gethsemane he gives voice to his humanity as he reaches for the cup of suffering.  And, yet, through it all, he stands before us as a model of what being present and engaged looks like.   

His ability to stay in the moment as he needed to be was contingent on a lot of things I’m sure, but none more than his communion with the Father.  As he received strength from His Father he was able to give to those around him. 

Life doesn’t slow down for us.  Challenges come and go.  We don’t have an “I’m exempt from anxiety” card.  It’s idealistic to think we can go through life as men and not feel life’s pins and needles.  There will be moments when prayer, encouragement, listening, comfort, and service come with struggle.  That’s okay I think.  What we really need is refreshment for our hearts.  We need communion with the Father just like Jesus did.  We need communion with other men who share our experiences – who “feel” life just like we feel it.  We need silence before the Word allowing the Spirit to bring the ministry of the Word into our hearts.  And, God ministers to our tired, aching, restless and anxious hearts in unseen but real ways that empower us to be present in our moments as we are needed.   Allowing ourselves to tap into this blessing refuels us to be the instruments God uses to bless others. 

O Father, we want to be engaged as men, husbands and fathers.  We sometimes lose the will to be present in the lives of our family, church family and people in general.  Save us from accepting this as normal.  Awaken us to your desire to refresh our hearts and restore our souls.  Show us your majesty and power in the midst of our frailty.  Teach us that we can cast all our anxiety on You because You truly care for us.  Help us rise up each day with strength and vigor ready to be in our moments as we are needed.  Thank you for Jesus who shows us how to do it.  Amen.

Randy Daugherty

Stephenville, Texas

Unexpected Grace

“God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.” Romans 5:20

He appeared out of nowhere. Blue and red lights burst on right about the time I laid eyes on his intimidating, unmarked SUV.  Immediately I checked the speedometer. It confirmed what the officer knew: I was speeding. A sinking feeling knotted my stomach as I prepared to receive the punishment for my inadvertent disobedience of the traffic laws.

I watched in my rear view mirror as the police car crept up behind me. With driver’s license and registration in hand, my fingers tapped in irritation on the steering wheel. My scowl deepened as I impatiently waited for the policeman to walk to my window. “Sir, I stopped you for speeding. Driver’s license and registration please.”

Then it happened. The unexpected. The unwarranted. The undeserved.  The policeman glanced into my car and checked out my passengers (including my three deer-in-the-headlights kids in the back seat). Then he startled us all by blurting out a big ol’ Southern “Hey!” to my wife, calling her by name.

Apparently they had grown up in church together and proceeded to spend a couple of friendly minutes reacquainting. He handed back my license and registration and gave me a smile. “Slow it down please, and have a good day.”

We sat stunned and breathed a collective sigh of relief as I drove away – slowly, I might add.  I had not paid attention to the guidelines set forth. My guilt was obvious, and I had no excuse. I deserved to suffer the consequences, but instead I was given grace.

Grace is undeserved favor or pardon. We can’t earn it or buy it. It’s something the giver bestows out of the goodness and love in their heart. The Bible tells countless stories of people who received grace, including prostitutes, unfaithful marriage partners, deceivers, thieves, liars and more. Their sins deserved a punishment, but when they asked God for forgiveness, His grace wiped their guilt away. They were treated as pardoned offenders – just as I was.

In the verse above, Paul is reminding the people of Corinth that despite their sin, God is good, and the Giver of grace. It serves as a reminder that God not only offers grace – He offers it in abundance. The more we need, the more we get.

Although God hates sin because it separates us from Him and ushers pain into our lives, His grace is available no matter how big our offense may be. And when we receive the pardon that was paid through the sacrifice of His Son, and begin a relationship with Jesus Christ, we receive grace, forgiveness and mercy.  As much as I appreciated the grace extended to me from the officer that day, it paled in comparison to God’s grace. You see, the officer’s grace was one of kindness, but not one of redemptive love. It was a grace of compassion, but not the life-saving grace Jesus gives.

The truth is, I deserved a speeding ticket that day but grace was given. In the same way, although we deserve punishment for sin, God’s forgiveness and favor are offered anyway... through the gift of His unexpected, unwarranted and undeserved grace.

Dear Lord, thank You for the undeserved gift of grace. Forgive my sins, and shower me with Your favor, even though it is undeserved. Thank You for loving me enough to grant me pardon for my mistakes. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Casey Dacus
Graham, TX

Been Watered Lately?

Two weeks shy of Easter and its 28 degrees outside with snow berms over my head.  This winter has seen record breaking snow fall in Alaska.  While the snow is beautiful and fun to play in, once the vernal equinox rolls around my eyes expect to see signs of spring.  My mind wanders back to the sights and smells of West Texas awakening from its winter slumber.  The candy red of the spider lilies, the vibrant green of budding pecan trees, and the heady smell of wisteria fill my heart with longing.  

For now, I have traded in the white Easter sandals of my youth for boots with traction.  Feeling my plight and attempting to cheer me up, my best friend brought me a bundle of tight, dry, husked blooms the other night.  The label promised me they were daffodils, so I put them in water and went to bed.  The next morning I awoke to beautiful yellow blooms trumpeting their Creator’s praise.  I was amazed to see how a night spent in water had transformed the buds.  

By night, Nicodemus came with a question and Jesus answers him with, “water and Spirit”.  In John chapter 4, Jesus tells the Samaritan women that if she drinks of the water that he gives, not only will she will never be thirsty again, but the water he gives will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.  Jesus goes on to describe the Holy Spirit as a “flowing river of living water,” in John 8.

Much like the tight, dry, daffodil blooms, our human hearts stay tightly wound and hard until we come into contact with the living water of Jesus.  The prophet Isaiah reminds God’s people that if we “loose the straps of oppression” and cry out for God we will be like a well-watered garden...beautifully blooming to our fullest potential.  Like time spent in a beautiful flower garden, time spent with us will be restorative and pleasing to the soul.   We will also provide nourishment and shelter.  Let the words of Isaiah wash over you and bring your heart joy, like they did mine.

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry,
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.    Isaiah 58:9-11

Dana Jaworski 
Anchor Point, AK

The Grandeur of God’s Creation

“…When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4)

Prompted to contemplate the glory and grandeur of God’s creation, you might be inclined to go out on a clear night and gaze into “outer space” at the innumerable stars in the heavens. Of the thousands of stars visible to the naked eye, only 12 are within a range of 10 light years, and only 133 within 50 light years. If there were a means of travelling somehow at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), you could span almost 6 trillion miles in a year, and yet at that speed, it would take you over 4 years to reach Proxima Centauri, a relatively small brown dwarf star not much larger than  Jupiter, and the closest star to our sun. If you take the most distant stars visible to you and me, those at a distance of approximately 2000 light years away, we’re still talking about a distance that is only 1/50th of the diameter of the Milky Way.

That’s “outer space.” Let’s take a look at “inner space!” To put things in perspective, picture a relatively large body of water, such as the Gulf of Mexico.  Emptying into the Gulf is a rather non-descript river system we call the Brazos. There are hundreds of smaller tributaries that in turn feed the Brazos. Among those, just north of Abilene, 3 small creeks—the Elm, Catclaw, and Cedar—merge, and, after a small hiccup called Ft. Phantom Lake, flow into the Clear Fork of the Brazos.

Now, pull a single eyedropper of water from Cedar Creek and place a drop between two glass slides. Beneath the lens of a microscope, a marvelous universe appears!  This is where I believe God did some of His finest work. Look! There’s an amoeba! Its size is only about 90 μm (symbol for micrometers), and yet it moves and digests and reproduces. It is a living, single-cell organism. In comparison, it’s about 900 times the size of an average virus; and to put that in terms that are a little more visual, it’s like a 6 ft. man standing next to a man over a mile high.

Consider the human body that is made up on a cellular level of countless muscle fibers, bone fibers, blood cells, dendrites, nerve endings, tissues—none of which on an individual level has the remotest ability to conceive what the concerted work of all as a whole looks like or is able to achieve. And we honestly fail to consider what a wonderful machine we are. We fail to appreciate all the unique and individual parts that make up our physical, mental, and emotional being.

Whether we look to outer space or inner space or our own wonderfully constructed beings, why are we so tempted to limit our imaginations? Is it really so hard for humankind to contemplate that whatever we have become in this vast universe of outer and inner spaces we are…under our Creator’s eyes?

Keith Morgan
Abilene, Texas