Who will be the greatest? In Luke chapter 9:46-48 “An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. Then he said to them, “whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all-he is the greatest.”

Children were considered the least among the masses in Jesus’ time. I won’t get into whether or not I believe if society has changed all that much or if we have gone the extreme and spoiled our kids. I don’t get into politics and my opinion means little to anyone other than myself. What I want to press upon is the humility factor when I am blessed to be around kids. I love their ability to make friends quickly. I love their flexibility to let change happen in their surroundings and in the plan they wanted for their day. I love that even in a dirty, grungy old church basement kids can light up when around each other, can shine that positivity by showing respect and grace and love to each other in any setting. There is magic that happens when kids get together, when they are lead by positive teachers for a positive message in Christ and given a chance to be themselves and figure out their identity in Jesus.

I am humbled by the hard work of leaders and teachers who make serving the lives of children their top priority. I am humbled and a bit shamed when I think of my sometimes attitude, stress levels, and judgments against my fellow adults. I am grateful to see, appreciate and learn from the children in my life. Thanks Evergreen Kids!!!

Faith is akin to electricity. We cannot see it but we can see what it can do. We cannot see the Holy Spirit but we see how lives are changed through it. When we are in tune with God’s will for our life the changes can be recognized and then examined as truth. As I celebrate four years of back to back abstinence from my drug of choice, sugar, I am so grateful that I believe. Not only that God is here but that he wants to work through me. This gives me peace and hope and purpose.

Why is it then that I can still have emotional binges and freak out at the enormity of a task unmanageable or a fear projected? And why in tarnation must I revert back to reacting rather than responding to trials and hiccups in my day? Proper time and energy into daily scripture and prayer helps to solidify the intention for each day, just like pushing myself to bike into town rather than drive, we need to push ourselves to look beyond ourselves in order to grow. Often I find myself in the catch 22 of feeling too busy, thereby foregoing morning exercise-physical or spiritual, which creates less productive time because I waste it worrying instead of praying.

Fear is disloyalty to God. When I fear, I am not trusting that I am really being cared for, that I’m loved by our Father, that the feeling and troubles will be worked out. We need to work in the natural for God to work in the supernatural. I used to pray to wake up one day thin. Due to my action in the natural, by following a plan and program to have clear boundaries with sugar, God has provided the supernatural of honest relief from the obsession of the tasty morsel of a hot fudge brownie atop a mound of ice cream. This is a miracle I have seen, felt but have absolutely no idea how it happened. Not by my own volition that I know. There must be a current running through me that I need to honor by taking care of my life; physically, emotionally and spiritually. This is how I learn grace and gratitude.

Letting go of defects of character is not easy. The coping skills, no matter how unhealthy they are now, served the purpose of survival while being formed and the safety of familiarity is often tempting to stay in. But the teachings of Jesus reminds us on more than one occasion, in more than one verse, how to live and why the new way of life.

Ephesians 4:22-24 reads: “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

It’s easy to slip into the old habits and ways of thinking. I can certainly justify a snide remark or allow my greed of time to prevent me from helping others. Even forgetting to smile at the clerk during checkout on the busiest weekend of the summer will let the old ways creep back in and the habit of a new life is jarred.

Ephesians continues to outline specifically how to turn our habits around; speaking only truthfully because we are all one under the body of Christ; work usefully so you have something to share with those in need; speak only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Snapshots of wisdom not only fill the Bible in every paragraph but the miracles abound when we learn how to apply this wisdom.

“Show me our ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” Psalms 25:4-5

Why do I continue to beat myself over the head with the club I had intended to use on others? Resentments skew my perception of reality by overpowering the peace and serenity God has given me and replaces it with pride, self-pity, fear or all of the above all at the same time. When was the last time you became angry at a co-worker or secretly hoped your ex would beg you to come back (but only after you had that rich gorgeous fiancé.) Perhaps a minor irritation from an inattentive driver throws your morning into a tailspin, creating the day that never ends and you need happy hour at lunch to make it through the rest of the day.

The old ways of reacting to life do not work when you reach for Jesus and commit your life to his teachings. Where before you may have judged, most certainly justified and probably blamed others for the hardships or excuses for inactivity or flat-out failure, the goal now becomes growing up the capacity to love, no matter what the circumstances warrant.

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2

To pick up a new life, a new way of reacting, it takes intentionality on our part…daily thoughtfulness of God’s word. How can you say you are following God’s will if you are not taking the time to read, pray, listen, experience? The blessings in life cannot happen unless we accept them and accept that we need to work for it.

“With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him.” 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12

I recently confessed to a group of women how extreme my ego-centricity was growing up. As a senior in high school we had to perform 200 hours of community service during the school year to graduate. I worked a total of 25 hours and forged signatures for the remaining hours. I was consumed with the idea that my time was too valuable for anything outside myself, not realizing the opportunities I would gain and the knowledge I could obtain from trying new things and meeting new people while providing service.

Our time is not our own. We are responsible for managing it well and that is all we control. We can’t save time like vacation hours at work. One of the Greek words for time is kairos, “a passing instant when an opening appears which must be driven through with force if success is to be achieved. We have to be intentional on how we spend our time. Kairos also means the appointed time in the purpose of God. It is up to us to live the life God intended so the time we have is well spent. If we see time in this regard think of how much better our work, our relationships and our community could be. Let us live a life of exceeding abundance, beyond what is expected, imagined or hoped for.

Christ came so that we could live an above-the-ordinary life…an abundant life. In today’s language it means more than enough, ample. We assume this idea of having more than enough means we need to strive for this “abundant” life by getting more, more, more. More cars, bigger meal portions (who doesn’t go to a buffet and “eat their money’s worth”?) We often try to obtain the most praise at work, giving into the competitiveness rather than the compassionateness of relationships.

Look at the word abundant in its Greek origin, perissos. It means superior or beyond measure. The word in this context it isn’t so much as more, more, more but better. Once we accept Jesus Christ as our savior our lives can be superior. Not in comparison to those around us, but to our life before.

“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” John 10:10. Why would we spit in the face of Jesus by refusing this abundant life?

To continue the idea of living a fruitful life as explained in 2 Peter 5-7, we actually have to do some work. More than just praying. More than just “practicing patience” by waiting for something to happen. I think we often confuse the idea of powerlessness and surrendering our life to God with inactivity and laziness.
Are you relying on God to give you the right job by sitting in front of the television watching the latest ‘dancing with the stars’? Perhaps focussing on Ashton joining the cast of ‘2 and a half men’ and how freaked Sheen is over the latest news-breaking development? Are you asking God to bring “The One” into your life and then head out to the local bar in hopes of finding him? Yeah…that’s not what surrender means.
We can say we have faith, goodness and we are seeking knowledge. Now to gain self-knowledge and bleed that into self-control. We can do this by owning our feelings, not to deaden them or numb them with material things, ie. drugs, drinks and doo-dads (and don’t forget dairy queen!) We need to name it, claim it, then dump it. By turning our thoughts to our own feelings and ignoring outside distractions we can develop a more attune sense of right and wrong.
I think of it as as keeping your side of the street clean. And don’t focus on anyone else’s side. It is not your business what others think of you. I, for one, have enough things to do keeping my side of the street clean without worrying about what is going on at the neighbor’s house. When we habitually name it, claim it and dump it, all we do to persevere is do the same thing as the day before. We can reverse the order of our destiny. By learning self-control we gain power in God. Then we are on the road to freedom and happy destiny.

Life sucks when it has no purpose. I know. I lived in the land of suckiness for a very long time. Going to God with my hand out, palm up, forever asking, why not me? When am I going to get what I want and at the precise time I want it? For most of my young adult (heck, let’s be real and my mid-adult life) I most often resembled Veruca Salt…”I want an oompa loompa now!” in a seething, annoyed voice and would guffaw at the mere thought of having to actually work for something. I would pray every night to wake up thin, bartering with God for a boyfriend or to win the lottery…thinking all of these worldly things of least importance was just the thing I needed to fill the emptiness in the pit of my stomach, not realizing that feeling was actually absence of a real relationship with God.

One of my favorite verses in the bible is 2 Peter 5:11 because it so clearly states what I need to strive for to become the person God needs me to be in order to live effectively. “Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness and to godliness, brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness, love.

We trick ourselves into thinking believing in God and going to church is enough. We trick ourselves into thinking our volunteer hours are enough. They aren’t. We need to constantly be striving for knowledge, however that looks for you; perhaps a new book, a different song or talking with someone who has peace and serenity in their eyes and ask them how they got it.

To have the faith first, then desire to be good and seek the knowledge to be better are the first three steps to living a fruitful life. Taking these steps in manageable bite size pieces allows me to follow through with the tasks at hand. After the habit of the first three, we have the courage to tackle the rest.

Psalms 27:1 The Lord is my light and my salvation-whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life-of whom shall I be afraid?

I admit it. A big fear of mine is disapproval. How will I be seen by others? The biggest lesson I’ve had in the last 6 months is that I cannot afford to be self-seeking. This is not the same as being selfish, although I battle selfishness as well. I cannot afford to seek approval in order to feel good about myself. I cannot afford to be performance based instead of biblically based.
We are continually getting messages from society starting at a really young age (Hello Disney!) Messages that I need to care about being the most intelligent, the prettiest, the most thoughtful and understanding person in the room. This is a misnomer. Not because it isn’t good to be intelligent and pretty and thoughtful and understanding, those are very good qualities to strive for, but as women in general and in ministry specifically, we get into a cycle of competition and rivalry that goes against what God’s vision is for our lives.

The reason I can’t care what others think of me is because when I am self-seeking my focus is either on me or you or the lady down the road with the bmw and the mba able to get a tcby (are those yogurt stands even still around?) without gaining an ounce and not on who the focus needs to be on: God and the people far from him.

So I think of Psalms 27:1 when I get caught in the trap of seeking outside approval. I key back into the mission God has called me to, keying into where I fit at church, at home, at work. In the end I am just one small person in one small church in one small city in one small state in one small country in one small continent in one small world. It’s not so scary when I remember my place. I can be excellent for God, not for anyone else.