Change Begins In The Mirror!

Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
    do not depend on your own understanding.

Proverbs 3:5

I'm not a huge fan of change.  In fact, I will say that there are some changes that will meet great resistance from me.  For example, over the last 12 weeks, I have been working on a program through the insurance company, that was supposed to help me do a better job with my eating habits and my exercise habits.  And I will tell you, I hated every minute of it.

My eating and exercise habits have become ingrained over the course of YEARS, because I like what I like and I dislike what I dislike.  I tend to stick with the things I like and am not very open to changing that. However, through this program, I have begun to open up (somewhat) to making minor alterations (not "changes" but alterations) to my habits.  For example, I have learned that there are some vegetables that I actually like, and should be eating them with more frequency.  I have learned that Citrus Beer does NOT count as a fruit! That humus on really is rather tasty.  Also eating an entire pizza should not be something I strive to achieve.

The same thing applies when dealing with people.  Yes, there are some people who are like asparagus to me and, thus, I will avoid them as much as possible.  But there are people who, once they facades have fallen, are some of the most incredible people ever.  And there are some people who can only be taken in small amounts.  But there are also people who think the same way about me.

If I have habits that are bad or unhealthy, perhaps I should consider making changes.  We want changes in our society...then we must begin with the face we see in the mirror.  We cannot expect or demand from others what we are unwilling to do.

Change.....TRUE Change begins with us!

Lord Take The Wheel!

The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over.

Jeremiah 18:1-4 

 

It's never fun when we have to endure change.  It's not comfortable and it's usually not going to happen at the most opportune time....according to us.  Therein lies the key: God brings change, but we are never ready for the change God brings into our lives.

 

Have you ever watched a true potter working a potter's wheel?  They make it look SO easy, that I find myself envious of their skill.  But I got to talk with one potter who was making a cup.  He was almost finished making the cup when he stopped, took the clay, wadded it back into a blob, and started over.  I asked him later why he did that.  He said, "The cup needed to be changed."  No other explanation was given, and for him, no other explanation was required.  He made the cup into the cup HE needed to serve the purpose HE had planned.

 

Time for me to get preachy, so either get some coffee or go wander through Facebook.  God does the exact same thing with us.  God has a plan for us (Jeremiah 29:11) and HIS job is to fulfill that plan. 

 

Paul tells us in Philippians 1:6 - "And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns."  

 

God's ultimate plan for us comes in stages.  Just as an infant must grow in stages to toddler then child to awkward adolescent to young adult to middle aged to senior adult to wizened elder.  Each stage requires change!  If I had my choice, I would have stopped the process when I was 21 years old, I felt like I could conquer the world and nothing could stand in my way because I had ALL the answers.  And boy was I an IDIOT!   With each change in life come challenges which, hopefully, prepare us for the next stage.  But in ALL these changes, God is fulfilling His plan for our lives.

 

It's way past time for me to tell God to "PLEASE TAKE THE WHEEL!" I don't want God to be my co-pilot, I need Him to be the PILOT! 

Where's Your Peace?

On that day, when evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s go across to the other side of the lake.” So after leaving the crowd, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat, and other boats were with him. Now a great windstorm developed and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was nearly swamped. But he was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. They woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are about to die?” So he got up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Be quiet! Calm down!” Then the wind stopped, and it was dead calm. And he said to them, “Why are you cowardly? Do you still not have faith?” They were overwhelmed by fear and said to one another, “Who then is this? Even the wind and sea obey him!”

~ Mark 4:35-41

Storms shake things up.  Storms bring change.  Storms are not always welcome.  But storms are a part of life.  

In today's passage, Jesus and the Disciples were boating across to the other side of a lake.  Jesus, who was tired from teaching and healing, fell asleep in the back of the boat.  Then came the wind which stirred up the waves until the boat began taking on water.  And Jesus slept on.  Finally, when the boat was about to swamp, the Disciples decided it was probably time to wake Jesus up and inform Him that the boat was going to sink.  

So instead of waking Jesus and telling Him, "We are sinking!  Help!" the Disciple take a different, rather disrespectful, approach by asking Jesus, "Don't you care that we are about to die?"  Ever notice when stress enters our lives and we feel overwhelmed, courtesy is one of the first things to disappear?

Jesus woke up and told the storm to, as my Grampa told us many times, "Sit Down and Shut Up!" In the Greek, the word means to "silence one's voice" (usually involuntarily with a gag or some other restraint).

  

Think about this:

     * Do you think the Jesus was unaware of the storm?

     * Do you think Jesus panicked as the Disciples did?

     * Why?

Jesus was not surprised or taken off guard by the storm.  He knew the storm was coming.  Jesus had no need to panic because He knew storms are never permanent.  Jesus also had no reason to panic because He is God the Son.  Jesus relied on the fact that the Father will take care of His children even when the children cannot see how.  Jesus faced the storm head-on and reminded the storm who is in charge (and it isn't the storm).

Now, think about this:  God has promised never to leave us and that He will take care of us.  So why do we fear storms?  Because storms are loud, chaotic, destructive, and in your face!  Storms don't surprise our Father, because He knew all about you and everything that would happen in your life before He even spoke the world into being!

And if we claim to trust in Jesus, what would happen if we turned our storms over to Him?  Storm....meet Jesus!  Who do you think would have the last word?