Whiffle Ball

When my boys were really young, I would often be found in the backyard, pitching ball to them. I knew it was impossible for them to hit it every time. Actually, if they hit maybe three out of ten, it was an accomplishment. If I saw them wanting to give up too soon, I would assure them that no one hits the ball every time and encourage them to keep trying. In the end, if they really tried hard, even though they whiffed at more balls than they hit, I would still credit them with a job well done and maybe go get them ice cream cones. Logically, this makes no sense. Here were my children with a 30-percent success rate, and I was rewarding their effort. Likewise, God intercedes for us and counts us as righteous because of our hunger and our desire for him. (Matthew 5:6) Pretty amazing huh? The truth of the matter is that He doesn’t expect us to be perfect; we often expect us to be perfect. Let's quit striving for perfection and start living in this freedom!

The Orange Vest

A life jacket was developed to keep people alive...but it is useless unless you wear it. During one particularly stressful time, I took my wife on a little surprise getaway. We traveled to a nearby
lake and rented a boat. The idea was to get away from everything for a while. No phone, no noise, no responsibilities. We were having a great, relaxing time out in the middle of the lake—until my wife realized that I wasn’t wearing my life jacket. Why couldn’t she relax? For good reason. She was anxious because I can’t swim. She knew what the result could be if I fell into the
water unprotected. I assured her that I’d be fine, but she wasn’t convinced and insisted that I put the jacket on. This is the same kind of anxiety and urgency we must have for persons who are unprotected from the shark-infested waters of sin. Who do you know that's exhausted from swimming against the tide and is struggling to stay afloat? God calls us to intercede and be lovingly persistent with those persons in our life who need to be fitted with the eternal life jacket.

Great Intentions

In life, it’s crucial that we choose to lighten our schedules. When we shut off the noise of ourselves and clear our minds, we can actually hear, listen, and be open to the Lord’s instructions. We are told many times to be there for one another, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and to do these things in both physical and spiritual ways. We know this, and yet many of us lay his instructions aside until tomorrow. We feel that nudge, but we bargain and say, “Tomorrow, tomorrow.” We mean to offer a word of encouragement, but never get around to it. We want to write a letter or make a call, but it never gets done. We desire to share Christ with a coworker and intend to get serious about our Christian faith. We hope to read the Bible and pray more. In short, we all have great intentions, but time, laziness, and the trivial things of life sap our strength and divert our attention until the day comes when the desire is gone and the seeds of complacency and mediocrity take root. Has this happened to you?

The Almost-Built House

At times I think of a piece of property I see on a certain drive through the countryside. On it is an almost-built house with a driveway grown over with grass. It’s clear that the builders had
started out with great intentions, but for some reason they stopped their work. If we’re honest, this is what happens to many of us and our outreach efforts. We have great intentions and start things out with a great deal of energy and ambition, only to allow some lame excuse to douse the fire. Paul tells the church at Corinth that they are to “finish the work, so that their eager willingness to do it may be matched by their completion of it” (2 Corinthians 8:11). Where have you stopped working? Finish the work!

Life-Giving Mercy

True mercy is putting our 'compassion into action.' Jesus is the greatest example of this kind of mercy. In his encounter with the adulterous woman(John 8), he not only physically saved her life, he also gave her the opportunity to embrace a new spiritual life she had seemingly never known. Also, in the story of the woman at the well in chapter 4 of John’s Gospel, we see how his power and presence transform the woman from a five-time divorcee to an anointed evangelist who reached her community with the gospel message. Christ clearly majored in misfits and outcasts. He healed the sick, made the lame walk, loved the lepers, gave sight to the blind, made deaf ears hear, gave life to the dead . . . We could go on and on, but the point is that he saw those in need, and he showed them compassion by intentionally choosing to do something about it. A truly awesome thing about Jesus’ mercy is that it meets us both physically and, better yet, spiritually. He loves and forgives everyone, from loose-living prostitutes to dishonest tax collectors to regular old sinners like us!

...Of Races and Runners

A story is told of a race between two neighboring rival schools. The two best runners for each team often ran together in the offseason and thus became very good friends. As this much-anticipated race began and progressed, the two were running stride-for-stride. As they rounded the last turn, one began to take a short lead. The one who was slightly behind tried desperately to catch up, and somehow their feet got tangled together, causing the second-place runner to fall hard onto the track, yelling and grabbing his bloody ankle. When his friend, who was only twenty-five yards from the finish line realized what had happened, he stopped running, went back to help, and lost the race. What do you think the spectators who witnessed this race
remember about it? How many persons five years later could even recall who eventually won the race? What lesson is seen here?

Cheeseburger and Fries

A friend of mine is a retired truck driver who has eaten in his share of restaurants and diners during his years out on the road. He made a good analogy when he said that for years, he would
go into the diner and not even look at a menu. Every time it was the same order: cheeseburger and fries. He was so comfortable with his cheeseburger and fries that he never bothered to consider anything else. He feared that maybe he had become this way in his spiritual life as well. Same old, same old, predictable and bland. How about you? Is it time you tried something new?