Cowardly Thing

When I was in school I usually ended up cramming for tests. I would want until the last minute to finish deadlines and to turn in reports. If I am not careful I can treat my own spiritual life the same way. How many of us wait until a crisis to start praying? Or we go weeks without reading the scriptures and then try to read a whole book in one sitting on a Sunday afternoon (in between the Falcons game of course!) In speaking to a large crowds Jesus says, "For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it" (Luke 14:28)? What if you decided to build a house and the contractor showed up without any drawings and said we were going to wing it as we go? Yeah that will be fun (and costly)! Laziness means more work. C.S. Lewis says, "The cowardly thing is also the most dangerous thing." The Christian life takes preparation. It takes planning. It takes centering our lives on Jesus. It takes stepping back DAILY from the demands of the world to re-position ourselves, re-center ourselves, and to re-gain our grip on the life we have been called to live in Christ.

Small Voices

There is a story about a little boy who one night during dinner was not being heard and decided to make sure everyone around the kitchen table knew he was present. He let out a loud screeching scream that vibrated the dinner plates. His mother sent him to his room.
Life is filled with tiny voices often lost beneath the noise of a busy world. Those tiny voices remind us that the importance in life is most often than not found in the little things. Many times we discover that our lives are not changed by the enormous events but by happenings so small that we almost miss them.
Centuries ago there was a Roman official in a small obscure village on the outskirts of the Roman Empire. One day the priests of this region sent the official a case to review. It seems that a local carpenter was turning this little part of the world upside down with his teachings and miraculous wonders. The local officials did not like it so they attempted to present their case before the Roman official. The Roman official didn’t see a reason to get involved. He considered it an insignificant manner. He turned the manner back over to the local officials. Pilate, the Roman official, did not know that this carpenter would shape the course of history forever. The carpenter from Nazareth would become the hope of redemption for all of humanity. Pilate saw him as an inconvenience.
We need to remember it is the inconveniences of life that give direction to our lives. People who are careful about little things can be trusted to handle larger things. Businesses run more efficiently when attention is given to detail. Homes are built by small deeds of kindness. In life it is the little things that count.
Life is filled with many voices. The people who seem to manage life well are those who listen carefully for the small voices and who are alert for the small things. I’m still learning. Maybe next time I will listen to my son as we sit around the dinner table and he is trying to tell me something that I have already wrote off as unimportant. I guess I was the one that needed to be sent to his room that evening. I am discovering that it could be the tiny things could change your life. Hear

Quiet Time

The reason I believe in a quiet time is because I believe in more than that God exists. I believe that God longs to be intimately involved in our lives. God is personal. God wants to be included in our decision making process and we need God to be involved in our decision making process. The life of Jesus gives witness to the importance of setting aside time to commune with God. Throughout the gospels we read where Jesus goes off to pray. He separates himself from the crowd to get personal with His heavenly Father.
Another reason I believe a quiet time is important is because it establishes the boundaries of our lives. It reminds us that we are not controlled by people or circumstances that fight for our attention but instead our life is governed by the God we serve. By setting aside a time for prayer and study of God's word it reinforces the fact that the flow of our lives is not based on each and every crisis but on the overflow from our time with God.

Words

The words we use will dictate the health and quality of our relationships. Words are powerful. In the story of Job we have a man who has lost everything – his children, his home, and his health. He has three friends who come and try to convince Job that it is his fault that he is in this horrible state. Finally Job has enough of this negative bashing, he says, “"How long are you going to keep battering away at me, pounding me with these harangues? Time after time after time you jump all over me. Do you have no conscience, abusing me like this? Even if I have, somehow or other, gotten off the track, what business is that of yours? Why do you insist on putting me down, using my troubles as a stick to beat me” (Job 19 The Message)? The writer of Proverbs says, “Words kill, words give life; they're either poison or fruit—you choose” (Proverbs 18:21, The Message). We have a choice. Will we use words to give life or kill? When it comes to your most intimate relationships with spouse, children, and friends how careful are you with your words?