Tragedy and Travesty!

The pillow is finally in the perfect position, the mattress is soft as a cloud, the covers are all snuggled around you as your bed envelopes you in all of it's comforting warmth. Your drifting around in the beautiful, perfect kind of world that can only come through dreams. It's like your own little slice of heaven on earth.

Until the buzzing, beeping, ringing, sound pierces through that invisible shield of bliss. You try to fight it but the sound is practically evil incarnate and it persists until you manage to surface enough to blindly thrash about until your hand finally connects with the alarm clock and silences the awful noise.

It's morning and no matter how much you want to go back to sleep there are too many things that need done. So you push the hair out of your face, rub your bleary eyes and make the momentous effort to sit up. With a deep breath to gather your courage you flip back the covers and swing your legs over the bed. Slipping your feet into those fuzzy bunny slippers you yawn and stretch your hands far above your head, knowing that there's only one thing that make the awful morning hour bearable.

With that knowledge in mind you stumble out of your room and down the stairs. The happy yellow paint of the kitchen silently mocks your sleepy state but that's okay, it'll all be worth it in just a moment. Because the only upside to the morning is the coffee that, thanks to the wonders of technology, will already be made and just waiting for you to pour a cup of that fabulous, tasty, life sustaining, liquid known as coffee.

So you amble over to the cupboard, pull out your favorite blue coffee mug with the pretty daisy on it and smile as you go to get the carafe. Then something awful happens. As you go to pull it out you realize, there's no coffee inside! How is this possible? You open up the lid but the grounds and water are inside. You hastily check the plug, hoping against hope that this is just some cruel accident and the coffee pot, your wonderful coffee pot, your faithful friend, has just gotten unplugged but sadly, no! It is plugged in! Leaving only one possible conclusion. Your loyal coffee pot has broken! Gave up the ghost! Dead and buried!

The tragedy! The travesty! Whatever will you do now? How will you go on? What will happen next? Is your life over? Should you start planning your funeral?

Or you could just go to that coffee shop just down the street. After all that mocha is going to taste a lot better on such a rough morning then a regular ole cup of joe this morning anyways. And then you can swing by your friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart or Fred Meyer and find a new coffee pot for cheap. And avoid the same tragedy tomorrow.

Yeah, that's probably a better idea then the funeral.

How to Praise God When Life Gets Tough

Life is tough. Maybe it's divorce, job loss, a death in the family, a family strain or financial strain. Maybe it's a move or something else completely different that I haven't even come close to naming. Whatever it is there has been, will be or is a crisis in your life. (If you can't think of one then maybe roadblock is a better word for you then crisis.) So how do you praise God when life is so hard?

Well first let's look at a different question, do we have to praise God?

There are 38 times that something along the lines of "rejoice in the Lord" comes up in the Bible, here's a few.
Deuteronomy 12:12 "And there rejoice before your God- you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns who have no allotment or inheritance of their own."
1 Chronicles 16:10 says "Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice."
Psalm 32:11 "Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous; sing all you who are upright in heart!"
Isaiah 61:10 "I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a pries, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels."
Habakkuk 3:18 "...yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my savior."
Philippians 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!"

Okay, so we know that we are encouraged and even commanded to rejoice in the Lord. Great. But life's tough and sometimes you just don't know how to rejoice, you don't want to rejoice and you feel like you're drowning so how in the world are you supposed to rejoice in the Lord when you feel like you're securely in the claws of the devil?

Well... let's talk about someone who we have proof was being tormented by the devil. You guessed it, come on down Job!

In the first chapter of Job the Bible tells us that the devil comes to present himself before God and God is talking about Job, how there is no one on earth like him. Of course the devil's response is (and I'm paraphrasing here) "Of course he serves you, his life's practically perfect!"
So God gives the devil permission to take everything away from Job but does not allow the devil to harm Job personally.

Now before we get too far let me point something out. Was God being mean? Why did he let the devil mess with Job? Recently I read something about this- and although I can't remember who said it I want you to notice something. God put limitations on what the devil could do. He actually protected Job! Yes, he allowed him to be tested but he still protected his servant.
And no, God doesn't always physically protect us, later in the book Job was physically assaulted too although he was spared from death.

Okay, moving on, the second part of Job 1:20 says, "Then he fell to the ground in worship..."
Hold on, Job just lost his kids, his livestock, basically all his wealth but then he falls to the ground in worship? How does that work?
It's actually not as complicated as you might think. Job was human, just like you and me, so how did he worship after everything he'd just been through?

HE CHOSE TO!

Did you get that? Let me repeat it.

Job chose to worship. He was grieving, this wasn't a happy, with a smile on his face and arms lifted to the heavens as he danced in the aisles, kind of worship. Job was in a world of emotional pain but he still chose to worship. In fact his next words are truly incredible.

vs. 21 "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised."

How many of us have that first reaction? Because trust me, it's not normally the first words out of my mouth. But maybe it should be because look at the next verse.

vs. 22 "In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing."

Wouldn't you like God to say that about you? That when a crisis came you didn't sin? I wouldn't and it all starts with a choice.

So how do your praise God when life gets tough? The same way you do when life is great. You choose to.

Legends and Legacies

Have you ever heard of people talk about the legacy someone leaves behind? Sometimes it's a legacy of a successful career, or a generous heart. Sometimes it's how strong their faith was or the dozens of people they helped. Hebrews 11 is a chapter dedicated to the legacies of people who walked by faith. Most of them are what we consider legends of the faith.

"By faith Noah..."

"By faith Abraham..."

"And by faith even Sarah..."

"By faith Issac..."

"By faith Jacob..."

"By faith Joseph..."

"By faith Moses' parents..."

"By faith Moses..."

"By faith the prostitute, Rahab..."

Pieces of Hebrews 11:7-31

So many people commended by their faith! They weren't perfect, Noah got really drunk right after he got off the ark. Abraham lied repeatedly as did Sarah. Jacob favored one child over the others. Moses killed a man and Rahab was a prostitute but God forgave them those sins. He not only forgave them but blessed them and used their lives to teach us lessons about faith.

I've also been very blessed with a legacy of faith left by my family but that doesn't mean that it was always easy for them either. Just a couple of days ago I heard a story about the faith of my great-grandparents.

My great-grandparents had six children they were raising during the Great Depression and life was hard for everyone. They were no exception.One day Great-Grandma had run out of a loaf of bread and needed some in order to feed her children. It cost a dime but they didn't have any money, not even ten cents. We find dimes, nickles, even quarters when we're sweeping the floor, cleaning the couch or vacuuming the car. It's hard to imagine being that poor but they were. 

Anyways, Great-Grandma was a woman of great faith and she told her whole family, all the children, and Great-Grandpa, to pray with her that God would provide the money so she could buy some bread. 

Great-Grandpa was a carpenter and he happened to take off the door of a cupboard so that he could fix it. When the door came off a dime fell out! It had somehow gotten stuck in there and none of them knew but God did. And He provided the dime in the most unexpected of places. 

Legends and legacies. Legends like stories of how God provides and legacies like how people will remember you some day. What stories is God doing in your life today that will become legend? And how are you living your life today that will sometime become your legacy?

Body Image or God's Image

With the beginning of the new year you see all sorts of crazy posts, magazines, commercials and ads out there for what you should be doing. Things like "getting healthy" with the latest medications, plastic surgery or whatever. Or "becoming the best you" with this diet or that gym.

Some ads try to shame you. They make it seem like if you don't come to their gym you're doing everything wrong. Then they offer a little reward because if you do then you'll get everything you want out of life. You'll land that job, finally find your true love and have more friends all because you look good.

Some ads are sneaky and they appeal to those insecurities we all have but try to hide. You'll feel better. You'll look better. You'll have more confidence, more energy, more whatever it is that you're looking for in 2018. You want it they offer you the solution and all you have to do is buy their product.

Others berate you for not doing it right all along then give you the opportunity to redeem yourself. They make you want to hate yourself then try to make it all better by giving you the solution to learning to liking yourself again.

Some are diets, some are exercise plans. Some use models who may or may not be airbrushed or edited but they all have one thing in common. They want to "fix" you, solve your body image issues so you can look at yourself and be happy. Now don't get me wrong, being healthy, being active, liking what you see when you look in the mirror, none of that is bad.

However I just have one question. Whose image were you made in?

Genesis 1: 27 says "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."

We were made it God's own image. So why do we get so wrapped up, obsessed even, with our body image? Haven't we gotten so far away from the truth? Friends we should take care of our bodies, they're the temples of the Holy Spirit after all, but we were also created in the image of God. God! His image! Can you imagine anything more beautiful or amazing then that?

So let's take a different focus this year. That exercise plan you came up with? That new diet you want to try? That goal on the scale you've set? Great. Do it, try it, meet it. But through it all remember that your body image is not what's most important in your life. What you see in the mirror is not what defines you. Who you belong to is what matters most. And whose image you were made in is what you should keep in mind every time you look in the mirror.