God, in real life

“God, in real life, is nothing like the God we’ve been taught about in church.”- Matt Bays

Matt Bays rivets your attention and at the same time sets the tone for Finding God in the Ruins: How God Redeems Pain with the opening sentence of his preface: “God, in real life, is nothing like the God we’ve been taught about in church.”  Or, as Jeff Manion (The Land Between) wrote in reference to the Israelites wandering in the wilderness: “They had known about God’s faithfulness in theory, but now they would be called upon to know through experience.”

Matt observes that anyone who has experienced pain or devastating loss knows that in the immediate moments- as well as the terrible aftermath- of that horrific experience “hell often feels more powerful than heaven.”  Pastor Bays explains how suffering and doubt are necessary components of faith:

“What if our sufferings and doubt are necessary components- or even the very essence of faith?  [I] was told to be careful, that my questions could drive me away from my faith altogether.  Doubt is a part of life, and our faith can be strengthened when we increase our understanding of who God really is by allowing ourselves to ask the difficult questions.”

Matt has written Finding God in the Ruins so that he can come alongside you in your troubles.  He ends his preface with this encouragement:

“Together, I want to see if we might find God sitting in the ruins of our lives, shaking his head, same as us, over all that has happened.”

Today’s question: Following your ministry downsizing or vocation loss, how has experiencing “God, in real life” strengthened your faith?  Please share.

Coming Monday: the new Short Meditation, “Every falling tear”

Tomorrow’s blog: “Simply being present”

God, in real life

The faith factor

As June Hunt concludes Chapter 11 of How to Forgive, she discusses the faith factor as it relates to dealing with suffering.  Ms. Hunt states that whether we succeed in turning blame and bitterness into healing and hope “depends on our willingness to exercise our faith in God, to trust Him, even when we must draw upon every ounce of energy and hold on to the thinnest of threads.”

June notes that sometimes we need to take the apostle Paul’s comforting words of Romans 8:28 by faith:

“We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

It is possible we may never understand God’s higher purpose for our suffering or get to see our pain bear fruit.  As the author points out, that’s easy enough to say when you’re at a safe difference from suffering.  In other words, it’s easier to recite Romans 8:28 than to apply it.

Ms. Hunt emphasizes the importance of our attitude toward God when we’re in the midst of suffering:

“Blaming God for our suffering looks back and focuses on our pain.  Trusting God looks forward and focuses on His plan.”

Diamonds, the hardest know natural substance in the world, take years of intense pressure and high temperatures for the carbon to transform itself into a beautiful, valued gem.  Similarly, the Master Jeweler preplanned how He will use the heat and pressure of injustice in your life- unless the rugged rocks of resentment in your heart interfere with His handiwork, stalling the process of transformation.  June adds:

“As you dig deep to remove those rocks and hand them to the Redeemer, He will cut and craft them into dazzling diamonds.  They then become a shining testimony of His purpose through pain- no longer do they remain diamonds in the rough.”

Today’s question: How does the faith factor support your response to the pain and suffering of your vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Forgiving ourselves”

The faith factor

The fruit of forgiveness

“The fruit of forgiveness is always peace. . . . When we forgive, we free ourselves every bit as much as those who have hurt us.”- June Hunt

Today, in Chapter 4 of How to Forgive, June Hunt concludes here discussion of five key factors we know about forgiveness- based on the example of Jesus.

3.  Forgiveness removes the conditions for grace.  When faced with a devastating situation, such as a ministry downsizing or vocation loss, it is common to struggle with drawing the line on forgiveness.  If we don’t draw the line somewhere, we feel we will be overwhelmed.  Who gets forgiven?  Who doesn’t?

We may believe God has set His standards too high, that we can’t live up to them.  Ms. Hunt emphasizes our quandary ends when we adopt a single standard- God’s unconditional love.  We are freed from the burden of judgment.  We become more like Christ.

4.  Forgiveness is a doorway to reconciliation.  It takes two to reconcile, so reconciliation isn’t always possible.  June states:

“Forgiveness is a doorway, but we do not always get to walk over its threshold.”

June adds that when extraordinary forgiveness is in our hearts, even the peace we think is most elusive is attainable- within reach.

5.  Forgiveness erases the debt.  Ms. Hunt truly believes that if Christians understood how much God loves them and how Christ has freed them (at the heart-and-soul level), everything about life would change for the better.  We would manifest the fruit of forgiveness.  June explains that our challenge is:

” . . . to try to grasp, with our finite minds and limited comprehension, the love God lavishes upon us.  If we could fully experience the magnitude of our forgiveness from God down deep at the very core of our being, we would more readily, even eagerly, grant forgiveness to others.”

Today’s question: Which of June’s five key factors of forgiveness resonate most with you?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Barriers to forgiveness”

 

The fruit of forgiveness

A stock clerk with a goal

“Give me a stock clerk with a goal, and I will give you a man who will make history.  Give me a man without a goal, and I will give you a stock clerk.”- J. C. Penney

Today, in Chapter 15 of The Circle Maker, Mark Batterson continues his discussion of ten steps to goal-setting with goal three through six.

3.  Think in categories.  Mark recommends looking at the life goal lists of others as a way of stimulating your own unique goals.  Mark also has found it helpful to think in categories, with each category having a spiritual dimension: family, influential, experiential, physical, and travel.

4.  Be specific.  In order for you to know whether you’ve accomplished a goal, it has to be measurable.  For example, losing weight is not a measurable goal.  However, losing a specific number of pounds by a specific date is a measurable goal.

5.  Write it down.  Mark has a saying he repeats often to his family and church staff: “The shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory.”  Verbalizing a goal is powerful.  Verbalizing a goal is more than a good idea.  Mark states it is a God-idea.  Writing down your goals holds you accountable and enables you to celebrate an answer to prayer because you’ve got a record of what you requested.

6.  Include others.  Mark observes that shared goals cement relationships: “Goals are relational glue.”  Going after a goal with another person doubles your joy.  When you go after a God-sized goal, you will draw closer to God.

Today’s question: What goals have you refined or re-created following your ministry downsizing or vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “An ebenezer moment”

A stock clerk with a goal

Get your feet wet

“We say to God, ‘Why don’t you part this river?  And God says to us, ‘Why don’t you get your feet wet?’ “- Mark Batterson

Mark Batterson concludes Chapter 10 of The Circle Maker by expanding on this statement: “God is great, not just because nothing is too big for Him; God is great because nothing is to small for Him.”  If we would learn to obey God’s promptings, especially regarding small things, we’d find ourselves in the middle of miracles far more often.

Pastor Batterson adds that we need to be looking and listening for miracles.  Talking is the easy part of prayer.  Listening to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit is much harder.  When the Israelites were standing on the bank of the Jordan River- the Promised Land on the other side- God gave this command to the priests (Joshua 3:8): “Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go stand in the river.’ ”

Mark admits he’d much rather have God part the river so then he would step into the miracle.  If God goes first, you don’t have to get your feet wet.  You need to take a step of faith, perhaps in an area where you feel most self-assured.  Mark offers this prompting:

“Now let me ask you a question.  Where do you feel like you need God least?  Where are you most proficient, most sufficient?  Maybe that is precisely where God wants you to trust Him to do something beyond your ability. . . . And it is God’s strange and mysterious ways that renew our awe, our trust, and our dependence.”

Today’s question: Following your ministry downsizing or vocation loss, where do you need to get your feet wet?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The litmus test of trust”

Get your feet wet

No failure is fatal

“Failure is a form of quicksand.  Take immediate action or you’ll be sucked under.”- Max Lucado

In Chapter 10 (“No Failure is Fatal”) of Glory Days, Max Lucado writes that when we fail, we hear or presume the voices of others are spewing negativity or condemnation.  We join those voices of failure when we disqualify, berate, or upbraid ourselves.  When we do so, Max sadly observes, we sentence ourselves “to a life of hard labor in the Leavenworth of poor self-worth.”

People may not know how to address failure, but God does.  Max states the Bible is written for failures.  God used Joshua’s failure to conquer Ai in order to show us how to handle ours.  God quickly and urgently calls us to get on with life.  Unless we take immediate action, failure will suck us under.  God’s Promised Land offer depends on His perfection, not ours.

No one is immune from stumbling.  What differentiates people is their response.  Pastor Lucado explains:

“Some tumble into the pit of guilt.  Others tumble into the arms of God.”

Perhaps you’ve made some poor choices during the desert, land between time following your ministry downsizing or vocation loss.  Like the prodigal son, it is time to arise and go to your Father.  The apostle Paul wrote of his choice in Philippians 3:13-14 (Phillips): “I leave the past behind and with hands outstretched to whatever lies ahead I go straight for the goal.”

Today’s question (from the study guide): Have your failures stuck with you?  To what degree have you felt trapped in the “Leavenworth of poor self-worth”?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: the new Short Meditation, “Back in the box”

 

 

No failure is fatal

A trick question

“It’s not a question of being broken; it’s a question of brokenness.”- Kyle Idleman

Kyle Idleman continues his discuss of “A Sinful Woman Forgiven” (Luke 7:36-50) with what he considers to be the real question we should struggle with after reading Luke’s account: Who do you want to be most like, Simon or the sinful woman?

It’s a trick question.  Pastor Idleman states that most of us, especially those who have been Christians for a long time, want to be both.  Phrased differently, we want to be made whole without having to be broken (author’s emphasis).  We want to learn our lesson sans significant sacrifice.  There’s only one problem with that strategy- all of us are broken.

In Luke 7, it’s painfully obvious the woman is broken.  But what about Simon?  Kyle states Simon had memorized the entire Old Testament by age fifteen and could recite nearly three hundred Messianic prophecies.  Yet he treats Jesus as an unwanted dinner guest.

Simon isn’t just broken, he is really broken.  Pastor Idleman defines “really broken” as “not knowing you’re broken.”  Romans 3:23 tells us in no uncertain terms, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  The real question, Kyle notes, is whether or not we can own up to it.

Today’s question: Following your ministry downsizing or vocation loss, how have you avoided the temptation to find the easy way out?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Embrace the paradox”

A trick question

A reason for every season

“There’s a reason for every season in your life- good or bad, easy or challenging, rewarding or draining.”-Bill Hybels

Bill Hybels concludes Chapter 9 of Simplify with a reminder that “you aren’t in your current season by accident.  God’s hand is in it, and there’s purpose to His activity.”  No other season in your life will be exactly like your current season, and God wants to teach you something during this unique time.

Loneliness is one of the most challenging seasons any of us will face.  Pastor Hybels observes one lesson God wants to teach us is about “the tangible presence, proximity, and friendship of Jesus Christ.”  Without learning this lesson, we might be tempted to let a season of loneliness consume, depress, or cripple us.

Face-to-face relationships also are essential.  We need wise, Christian friends to accurately help us see ourselves.  Loneliness won’t be relieved without relational risks.

Once we’ve identified and understand the season we are in, we need to be fully present in that current season and dive in.  Pastor Hybels adds:

“Rather than trying to dodge your challenging season, lean into it– and learn how God’s strength can infuse your frailty.”

Viewing life as structured around seasons means we’re less likely to spin our wheels in a season that should have ended long ago or avoid change because we fear the unknown.  By viewing life as structured around seasons, we can look forward to the lessons God has for us to learn in our next season.

Today’s question: What lesson do you think God wants you to learn following your ministry downsizing or vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: Staying on course”

 

A reason for every season

The truth is your friend

Bill Hybels continues Chapter 4 of Simplify by stating he finds it helpful to filter your former job- or any revitalized and revisioned vocation you’re seeking in the future- through four foundational alignments: passion, culture, challenge, and compensation.  The first two alignments will be discussed today.

1.  Passion.  God wired each of us with a passion for something.  Getting the passion alignment right plays a vital role in job satisfaction.  Pastor Hybels believes the best book written on the subject is Letting Your Life Speak by Parker J. Palmer.

2.  Culture.  The author asserts if the culture alignment is off-kilter, satisfaction and fulfillment will be drained from your job.  It is essential to consider the following:

a.  Ask the right question.  Is this a place where you could thrive?

b.  The truth is your friend.  The Best Christian Workplaces Institute describes four levels of staff culture: Toxic (alarm bells should be sounding); Critical Moment (teams are moving toward either toxic or flourishing); Healthy (things look good, but not great); and Flourishing (running on all cylinders).  Facing the truth may be painful, but it will benefit you in the long run.

c.  Culture builder or culture buster?  In your daily actions, are you a blessing or a burden?  Whether your work environment is healthy or dysfunctional, you can be a blessing to everyone who crosses your path.  No one can ruin your attitude unless you give them permission to do so.

Today’s question: How does accepting that the truth is your friend position you to revitalize and revision your vocation?  Please share.

New addition to the Crown Jewels: “Approval addiction”

Tomorrow’s blog: “Appropriately challenged- plus”

The truth is your friend

God"s provision for my life

“I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”- Philippians 4:11-12

Today Bill Hybels discusses the second relevant central tenet forming the foundation for full financial reconciliation with God (Chapter 3 of Simplify).

2.  Live joyfully within God’s current provision for my life.  Pastor Hybels notes it is human nature to look for greener pastures and wish for better circumstances or an easier life.  It logically follows that if we were to get these things we would be happy.

If this is the case, the author notes, Americans should be among the happiest people on earth.  However, a 2012 Gallup Poll ranked the United States thirty-third on a happiness scale.  In contrast, seven of the top ten countries were in Latin America, an area ranking low on typical economic indicators associated with happiness.

Pastor Hybels comments on the beautiful words of St. Paul:

“Someone fully reconciled to God financially can joyfully accept God’s current level of provision for his or her life. . . . It is our responsibility to make adjustments so we can live within God’s provision and be joyfully content whether He provides a little or a lot in any given season.”

Today’s question: What Bible verses have fortified your trust in God’s provision following your vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Examining your work life”

God"s provision for my life

Financial reconciliation

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father.”- James 1:17

Bill Hybels continues Chapter 3 of Simplify with his opinion that exceedingly more Christians have spiritual reconciliation experiences with Jesus than financial reconciliations.  Pastor Hybels defines this second reconciliation:

“A financial reconciliation in which the power of God breaks the power of money in your life, His love cleanses your shame and guilt about your financial state, and the Holy Spirit fills you with the power to move ahead with all-new financial practices.”

Pastor Hybels asks us to imagine what it would be like if money- or the lack thereof- no longer had the power to tie us into knots, leaving us overwhelmed. In the author’s study of Scripture, over the years he has found five central tenets that form the foundation for total financial reconciliation with God.  The first two tenets are applicable to vocation loss.  The first is discussed today.

1.  All I have comes from God.  Not one of us has gotten where we are in life today totally on our own power.  We’ve had help from teachers, parents, friends, and co-workers- gifts directed to us from God.  God has given us everything we have and invites us to steward each of our gifts for His purposes in the world.

Today’s question: What people have been God’s gifts to you?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “God’s provision for my life”

Financial reconciliation

Outward activities and inner priorities

In Chapter 2 (“From Overscheduled to Organized: Harnessing Your Calendar’s Power”) of Simplify, Bill Hybels begins with the wry observation that “our schedules are packed so tight, we couldn’t slip a razor blade between appointments.”  Our busyness easily becomes a source of pride, feeding our sense of importance.  But this pride nourishes something unhealthy in us, and the cost is severe.  Pastor Hybels cautions:

“A runaway calendar . . . holds you hostage to tangible things- meeting, appointments, and projects- without giving proper priority to the intangibles: who you are becoming, your relationships with family and friends, your connectedness to God.”

Breaking the pattern of chronic over-scheduling necessitates conscious intervention.  Yet, people often sound as if they had no choice in the matter.  Pastor Hybels interrupts with a news flash: You are the boss of your schedule!

However, simply reshuffling the same deck of cards consistently will deal the same too-busy hand.  To achieve a simplified life, the hours of each day must be well-invested, holistically creating room for both outward activities and inner priorities.  The author emphasizes the calendar is our “primary tool” for helping us become who we want to become.

Next, Pastor Hybels asks us to consider how we would spend our time if God were in charge of it.

Today’s question: Following your vocation loss how have you established balance between outward activities and inner priorities?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: the new Short Meditation, “Lessons from a burrowing owl”

Outward activities and inner priorities

The first door

“So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.”- Hebrews 12:13

Today John Ortberg looks at the second reason we’re tempted to give up searching for the door when the wall seems insurmountable.

2.  God is not good enough.  Pastor Ortberg states we become afraid God will give up on us.  Often we feel like we’re on the outside looking in.  When Adam and Eve first were created, the Garden of Eden was a world with no doors.  Sin changed all that.  Genesis 3:24 (NRSV) describes the first door:

“[God] drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.”

Sin, John notes, is a room with no door.  Jean Paul Sartre titled his portrait of hell “No Exit.”  But there always is a door- and that door is Jesus.  Jesus took on our “outsideness,”, as John explains:

“Jesus became an outsider so we could be invited in.  Jesus left his home so we could come home.”

God’s goodness is the only reason we need to persevere in following the wall until we find the door.

Today’s question: Following your vocation loss, have you ever felt God has given up on you?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “When we’re afraid”

 

The first door

Sheep among wolves

“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.  Therefore be shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”- Matthew 10:16

In Chapter 6 of All the Places to Go, John Ortberg writes that the sheep is not an inspiring animal, so this is an unexpected metaphor.  While many sports teams have animal nicknames, no team is called the Sheep.

Pastor Ortberg notes that Jesus’ metaphor raises this question: How does a sheep go among wolves?  Answer: very carefully and very humbly.  That means we don’t present ourselves as intelligent, strong, or impressive.  When we are sent as sheep, doors are opened to us that never would be opened to wolves.

Going wholeheartedly through doors leaves us vulnerable to failure and disappointment.  We’re vulnerable because we’re not strong enough.  Paradoxically, with Jesus vulnerability is stronger than invulnerability.

John stresses that the church always is at its best when it goes into the world like sheep among wolves- with humility.  Several centuries after Jesus, John Chrysostom wrote about the importance of being sheep:

“Let us then be ashamed, who do to the contrary, who set like wolves upon our enemies.  For as long as we are sheep, we conquer. . . . But if we become wolves, we are worsted (defeated, overcome), for the help of our Shepherd departs from us; for he feeds not wolves, but sheep.”

Today’s question: Following your vocation loss, have you gone through open doors like a sheep or a wolf?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Wise as serpents”

 

Sheep among wolves

Failure tolerance

Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken.  At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.  The jailer work up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.  But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself!  We are all here!”- Acts 16:26-28

In today’s blog, John Ortberg discusses the seventh way God’s wisdom can lead us to/through open doors.

7.  Test, experiment, and learn failure tolerance.  Pastor Ortberg states that while God does have guidance for a particular decision, He doesn’t have guidance for every decision.  And sometimes God’s guidance is not so much about what He wants to do through us as what He wants to do in us.

John observes that discerning open doors does not equate with guaranteed success.  When God called Jeremiah (the weeping prophet) and John the Baptist to walk through open doors, those open doors led to enormous difficulty, not external reward.

We learn through failure.  Courage and risk-taking are not developed through failure avoidance.  In Acts 16, Paul’s clarity on his life’s purpose enabled him to open spiritual doors for others, as John states:

“Paul chooses the greater door, even when it looks like failure.”

Today’s question: Has failure avoidance been an issue for you following your vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The ultimate door”

Failure tolerance

Braced for the future

“Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”- Colossians 2:6-7

“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”- Confucius

My freshman year at Luther High School South in Chicago brought new academic as well as orthodontic challenges.  Throughout my grade school years my front teeth angled outward so severely that using them to bite an apple was futile.  Additionally, after my remaining baby teeth were pulled, a 1/4″- 1/2″ gap existed between my upper/lower canines and molars.  Incremental tightenings during the next several years straightened my front teeth and eliminated the gap (finished product on display in senior picture).  The change was so dramatic that my orthodontist once took my before/after molds to an orthodontic convention.  I vividly remember the day my braces came off and I was fitted with a retainer.  On my way home I made one purchase at the neighborhood IGA- a pack of Adam’s Sour Orange gum!

Those small, imperceptible adjustments transformed the alignment of my teeth, anchoring them in place.  I was braced for the future through consistent application of orthodontic techniques.  As Proverbs 21:5 (The Message) states: “Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run; hurry and scurry puts you farther behind.”

Jeff Manion devotes Chapter 14 of The Land Between to the concept of incremental growth, defined as the “kind of gradual growth [that] often occurs as a result of a consistent spiritual diet accompanied by a responsive heart.”  Such gradual growth is capable of producing powerful life changes.  Incremental growth:

1.  works to fend off spiritual drift

2.  steadily aligns our hearts with God’s heart

3.  enables us to respond to God’s transformational work with trust and cooperation forged through daily obedience

When the crashing waves of vocation loss threaten to sweep us away, these gradual changes in our faith sustain and transform us, as Pastor Manion writes:

“It is in saying yes to God again and again when little seems at stake that we prepare our hearts to say yes to God when everything is at stake.  In this way, steady, incremental growth prepares the heart for extreme disruption- not just to weather these seasons but, in the midst of them, to be transformed.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzqhUYaAI78

 

 

 

Braced for the future

Easy on the inside

“But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door of effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.”- 1 Corinthians 16:9

“Easy doesn’t come from the outside.  It comes from the inside.”- John Ortberg

In Chapter 4 of All the Places to Go, John Ortberg presents the third common myth about doors.

3.  If it’s really an open door, my circumstances will be easy.  Applying this myth to vocational doors, Pastor Ortberg notes that we falsely assume that the right job will bring daily passion and fulfillment.  Our performance reviews will be off the charts.  Coworkers who we find difficult to get along with quickly should self-identify their primary role in the discord and move on to another job.

John describes the problem when we desire the easy road:

“If ‘easy’ is my criterion for door judging, then every time I hit ‘hard’, I will be filled with doubt about God, myself, and my choice.”

An open door does not come with the promise of an easy life.  In fact, John notes, when God calls people to go through open doors, generally life gets much harder.  The apostle Paul took the presence of many adversaries as confirmation of the wide door God had opened.

When Jesus said, “My yoke is easy” (Matthew 11:30), He was offering internal ease of spirit- peace and joy in the midst of adversity.  If we experience easy on the inside, we can withstand hard on the outside.

Today’s question: Is your current focus easy on the inside, or are you aiming at easy on the outside?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Small, quiet invitations”

Easy on the inside

How to fix a broken story

John Ortberg concludes Chapter 3 of All the Places to Go by stating that there are times when we become so obsessed with vocational open doors that we’re blind to relational open doors.

Yet, every heart comes with a door.  Pastor Ortberg emphasizes that one of the great gifts of life is having the door of a person’s heart open up to you.  At the church John serves, a group of senior citizens decided to get involved with low-income, high-risk students at a San Francisco high school.  Grant Smith, age eighty-two, is part of the tutoring group.  When Grant didn’t show up one week, his tutee asked. “Where’s my homeboy?”  John comments: “An open door can make a suburban eighty-two-year-old retired pilot somebody’s homeboy.”

My life is energized when I don’t regard it as my life; every moment presents an opportunity to connect with another person, to learn from them, to make them smile.  John summarizes:

“Anytime you step through the open door, your story and Jesus’ story begin to get mixed up together, and you become part of the work of God in this world.  The only way to fix a broken story is to embed it in a larger story that begins and ends well.  As is was once said, so it is said again. . . . ‘But wait!  There’s more.’ ”

Today’s question: How can you embed your broken story in Jesus’ story?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Make our lives count”

How to fix a broken story

Anti- miracles

“At some point, we must recognize that the circumstances we ask God to change are often the very circumstances God is using to change us.”- Mark Batterson

In Chapter 20 “(The Miracle League”) of The Grave Robber, Mark Batterson completes his study of Jesus’ sixth miracle, the healing of a man born blind.  Pastor Batterson asks what we do when the miracle we’re believing God for doesn’t happen, no matter how hard or how long we wait.  Mark states that we have two options:

1.  Sometimes we need to keep holding out for the miracle.

2.  Sometimes we need to accept the new normal, in the process recognizing that God wants to glorify Himself in a way we wouldn’t choose.

Mark rephrases and expands the second option:

“Sometimes the miracle we want isn’t the one we get.   God gives us a different one.  It might not be our first choice, but it’s not second best (emphasis mine).”

We can’t claim half a promise, Mark asserts.  If we are asking God to open doors, we must be willing to let Him close a door.  Those closed doors would prove to be trap doors if we walked through them, taking us places we don’t want to go.  As Mark explains, we view closed doors as anti- miracles:

“When God closes a door, it often seems like an anti- miracle.  But what seems to be a setback is God setting you up for something bigger, something better.”

Today’s question: Following your vocation loss, how have closed doors turned into unanticipated miracles?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The ultimate goal”

Anti- miracles

The drop in the bucket effect

“Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”- John 6:9

In Chapter 13 (“Two Fish”) of The Grave Robber, Mark Batterson begins his discussion of Jesus’ fourth miracle, feeding the five thousand (John 6:1-13).  Pastor Batterson believes that the catalyst for this miracle was the boy’s willingness to give up his meal of five small barley loaves and two fish.

Mark notes that in the natural world it’s easy to assume that if you give more, you’ll have less.  The lesson embedded in this miracle is quite simple, as Mark explains: “if you put what you have in your hands into God’s hands, He can make a lot out of a little.”

Our natural inclination is to let what we aren’t able to do keep us from doing what we can.  Psychologists call this the “drop in the bucket effect.”  Mark describes the drop in the bucket effect this way:

“If we feel overwhelmed by the scale of a problem, we often don’t do anything about it because we don’t think we can make a difference.”

The amount of food the boy gave Jesus to feed the approximately twenty thousand men, women, and children present was a drop in the bucket .  Mark comments on the significance of the boy’s action:

“. . . he didn’t let what he didn’t have keep him from giving what he did have to Jesus.  And that is the precursor to many a miracle.”

Today’s question: How has the drop in the bucket effect played out in the aftermath of you vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Cloudy with a chance of quail”

 

The drop in the bucket effect