Truth, Grace, and Time

As I got up this morning the phrase “Simply the Best” kept running through my mind. There’s a theme for those things in the title for the blog today. Tina Turner certainly popularized the phrase with a song actually entitled “Simply.” Since the chorus starts off with the whole phrase “Simply the Best”, that’s what it is known by, even if wrong.

“Simply the Best” happens to be the title of an album I really like. It’s two cd’s of popular movie themes from days gone by and the orchestras that performed them. Quality music that doesn’t disappoint!

The picture is the handiwork of my beautiful bride and the recognition of being the best at the County Fair!! $5 check paid for half an order of cheese curds! Leah, your “Simply the Best!”

When it comes to the best, I can’t think of anything other than God. And if we were to list off the attributes that add up the sum total of why, there is one attribute that actually stands above all others. The attributes on the list certainly bolster the grand conclusion. His love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability, justice, infinite self-existence, self-sufficiency, wisdom, steadfast faithfulness, goodness, and on and on…

The attribute I’m talking about is one that we in the church sing about frequently. It is a reminder of that which stands different from our experience of people here with each other. Our relationships with each other are frequently broken through duplicity. Saying one thing but doing another. Those events can be large and difficult to overcome. Something like marital unfaithfulness comes to mind as a big one in that category. But it can also be the little things, promises that go unmet, choices to invest time, money, and energy into something we agreed not to do. Saying you love someone, yet consistently doing small things that represent the opposite of that.

I think we have replaced this attribute of God that is central with other attributes of God and it actually changes our perspective in ways that can be damaging to the complete picture of God. It’s best reflected in a song title that we sing in the church. The version we seem to want to sing today is “Loving, Loving, Loving.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m a firm believer in the Love of God, just like I’m a firm believer in everything else on the above list. But we have chosen one attribute and made it the whole. Just like if we took God’s omnipotence and began to worship that in a singular way it would change our perspective, probably make us a little power hungry instead of following the servant life Jesus modeled for us. Thus the reason for completing the picture.

The song we do sing is “Holy, Holy, Holy.” The Holiness of God sets Him apart, He exists in perfect purity and is eternally consistent with Himself. People grow, mature, age, but God is eternally the same. There is not a shifting shadow in His character. God is the source and standard of goodness. The moral code we are invited to is not a coin flip of today’s cultural ideas, it’s rooted in the person of God, the way He is always and as such, requires of us. Alignment with the Creator of the universe makes things go better, not simply compliance for compliance sake.

As we enter into Holy Week, there are many things to celebrate, most of those things spill over into our lives and are cause for us to see how blessed we are. The Holiness of God is why we speak of Him as an anchor, firm foundation, and a solid rock on which to stand. In a word where you can’t bank on much, it’s His holiness that informs us where to build. “Simply The Best.” better than all the rest…

Humans want what other humans want, and pay no attention to things others don’t want.

I have three grandkids I watched today. Some toys sat lifeless for hours, no one was interested even remotely. But then, the second one becomes interested, everyone else demands they share it, then begins the inevitable bickering we love so much. Ironically, the one time someone picked up a toy and got no response… “no one wants to play with me.” Priceless!!

I’d like to think that we grow out of this but ebay tells me some things never change. If you want to sell a $100 item and start the bidding at $55, bad idea. Human nature says people want what other people want. Start the bidding at $1 and get twenty bidders thinking they need what 20 other people need and you’ll get to your destination. Start the bidding too high, get no bidders, everyone thinks “nobody wants this, maybe I don’t either.

10 years ago I was at an antique, once-a-month occasional sale, always very interesting items. I noticed everytime I picked something up and talked about it, everyone in the room needed to see what I was holding. Put it down, walk away, watch how many people need to see what you had, what they are missing out on. It happened EVERY TIME. All I could think was this place needs two people walking around picking up stuff and walking away, good for 30 extra sales!

What’s up with this hard wiring so deeply ingrained in us? Frequently it seems more of a waste than being super useful. Are we afraid of the road less travelled? Does popularity always have to fuel the decisions we make? Does the culture around us get to decide which items to pick up and value based on trends. I’m reminded of Joshua and the stand that gets taken there, it sounds much like the choice of this day, Joshua 24:15…

” But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods of your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

You can sit at the spiritual store and see which idol people pick up and caress and proclaim the greatness thereof, and you can make that choice to follow that popular god. But I’m standing here in the crossroads of faith making a decision and it’s not based on anyone else’s decision, their love, their comfort, or any other subjective feel good choice. I’m taking my stand, even if everyone else wants to choose_____. “As for me and my house, (great big intentional pause… wait for it…) we will serve the Lord.” Not because of a trend, but because of conviction concerning the truth. What is our choice rooted in? Human nature makes that choice a certain way every time, but it’s generally not the way that leads to life.

I pray you choose life!

I’m a big fan of thinking, pondering, musing, if you will. I highly encourage it, but just like Ecclesiastes reminds us, there is a time for, a season for, everything. A time to be born and a time to die, a time to break down and a time to build up, a time to seek and a time to lose.

There is a time to get lost in our thoughts, but also a time bask in the beautiful sunset. To be fully present to the gift that is ours without moving past it to get to the other “pressing things” of life.

The above picture is a sunrise at Split Rock Lighthouse at about 5:00 AM some August morning. After an hour drive, I arrived early to set up for a photo. To be honest, the morning looked like a wasted drive, but I found a good spot, set up my tripod and waited. As the morning continued on there were signs of hope, followed by this and many other pictures. At the end of it all, I was torn between two truths; 1. I got some great photos and 2. I was so preoccupied with framing this picture I wasn’t really here myself to take it all in. Now all I have for a memory is rushing to take a shot and an 8X10 which pales in comparison to a sunrise that fully envelopes you. It reminded me of the saying; wherever you are, be there. I was there, but I wasn’t really there.

In the middle of all my thinking, sometimes I create a world where I forget to remember His great and precious promises. I take it in only to try and find some motivation for growth or how can I preach this to others. It’s difficult to just breath it in as deep as possible. So be blessed by these promises today…

2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Philippians 4:6–7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

 Philippians 4:19 “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”

Matthew 11:28 “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Isaiah 41:10 “fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

 Hebrews 10:23 “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”

 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Philippians 1:6   Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The exercise of searching our hearts is important. At his trial, Socrates is attributed to have said “the unexamined life is not worth living.” There is a season for examination in our lives.

Today I’m inviting you to be fully present to the sunrise that is the many promises of God. To just take it in, be there, be thankful and rest in the gift that is ours.

Stars, Miracles, Hearts

I promise, they are related. Stars: I remember years ago reading a book that talked about how Reggie White’s (famous NFL star for any young in’s) testimony has more value than my grandmothers. The fallacy lies in our notion that the value of a testimony is in proportion to the popularity of said person. My faith has more value because a popular person believes the same as me. My grandmother’s testimony bears no weight as no one knows her. It very well could be the exact opposite as a heritage is a spectacular thing, but that’s for another post maybe.

This moves me into the topic of healing. We ask when was the last time you really saw the Spirit move. What are we looking for when we ask that question? We’re looking for rooms shaking, wind blowing, and lame persons jumping out of their wheelchairs and Jesus calling out Lazarus from the dead, or stories like we heard about last night from 2 Kings 13:21. While I fully believe that God does miraculous healing, most people have heard me say “The per capita death rate is still 1 per person.” 83,000 people die each day, 15 million per year and my guess is there is a lot of prayer that they won’t die. Our concept of healing gets stuck in what is close to rare and then we forget about the healing that could be taking place each day.

This is related to a pet peeve of mine concerning Isaiah 53:5…

“He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by his wounds we are healed.”

From the context of this passage what is the writer talking about? It seems pretty clear that the passage is speaking about our ultimate sin problem and separation from God that is at the heart of our trouble. When did this passage become a cure for the flu or cancer, or goiter, or any of a large list of ailments. “All you have to do is claim your healing?” Again, none of us are getting out of here alive save the second coming of Christ. Then people who can’t seem to get healed lack faith or we’re forced to come up with an explanation of why God heals some and not others, but maybe, just maybe we’re living out “Adventures in Missing the Point.”

It’s a great big praise God moment to see a miracle take place, but it’s probably the exception more than the rule and it actually causes us to miss the miracle that could take place here in the next few minutes. Healing is for everyone everywhere, but as long as we make it out to be earth shaking, can’t miss events the more we will miss out on the heart level miracle.

Gods goal for us is intimacy with Him, a real oneness with the King of all Kings and the Lord of all Lords. In the trouble of life our hearts get wrapped around abandonment, harsh words, restlessly needing to prove ourselves, never feeling adequate, over attempts to show we are adequate, using others, feeling used, power struggles to validate, living in the shadows and giving up, being overrun and just needing to catch my breath or being the one who overruns, restlessness, slothfulness, anything to cope with the deficiencies we feel rightfully or wrongfully identify in our selves. We turn to alcohol, work, greed, post likes, being the one with all the answers, being the one who doesn’t care about any answer. All of these things become an identity to us.

You want a miracle that everyone can have today. That, like the Leper, you could say to Jesus “If you’re willing you can make me clean.” And his response would always be a resounding “YES”. God wants to break through all of the walls our heart has put into place to deal with the weight of life, and you know what it would take to clear out all the underbrush… you got it… a miracle of healing that would alter everything. I’ve listened to the following song about 30 times this week and 10 times that in the last twenty years. It still gets me in the right frame of mind with my Lord and God, give it a listen…

The journey of the heart is a potentially overwhelming place, but replacing bitterness for forgiveness, longing for fulfillment, emptiness with overflowing, self with God is a place of life. I pray that we’d connect with the One who brings us the healing we so desperately need. There’s more than one way to be healed because there is more than one way to be sick. The Lord will cure the heart sickness for anyone willing.

“If you’re willing you can make me clean?” -prayerfully, all of us

“I’m willing.” – Jesus

Traditionally a Marine mantra, it becomes useful in a lot of life. As a coach, it’s my challenge to players before each game. Every game offers a unique set of challenges and it’s one of the things I enjoy about competition. What challenges are being presented tonight? How can we adapt and overcome… with the added notion of how fast can you adapt and overcome? Be a problem solver.

So I told my wife it was her turn for me to make her a quilt, long story short she finds this really unique Highlander Cow quilt to which I look at it and say, “yeah right.” I don’t even know where to start. As a guy whose only done this hobby for a year and a half, I really don’t know what I’m doing. The only thing I have going for me is that I’m willing to give it a try and I rather enjoy the task of problem solving.

When faced with a challenge the one thing I’ve learned is to break things down into bite sized pieces and set my attention to the smaller issue. Looking at all of it is just too overhwelming. I broke down the problems here into the nose/mouth, entire snout, ears, forehead, all the pieces coming down from the top. Each piece took some attention. Darks in back, lights up front, fabric cut so the length is exaggerated, frequency, variety it can begin to be overwhelming and overthinking can sometimes get in the way.

It is easy to get overwhelmed at each step and then glance over and see how many problems you have yet to solve. It’s in those moments where we live in the fight or flight syndrome of possible responses. Or another “F” that a young lady confessed recently, “Freeze.” I confess there are moments I put it all down and step away. Tired of making decisions tired or things not working the way I’d like or the rcognition that this isn’t going as well as I’d hoped. Some more wasted fabric on a doomed project. I think to myself, wouldn’t it be nice to just have a pattern. Someone whose already done this and can just tell me what to do. But this is the dichotomy of life right, the ease of someone making decisions for me verses the freedom to really create. My how the pendulum swings.

Years ago my daughter introduced a new song named “Overwhelmed.” Her confession was the nature of an overwhelmed heart. Our heart faces issues more radical than fabric choices, but the feelings are similar. The question becomes, what am I overwhelmed by? Instead of fight/flight/freeze, is there a whole new choice of what overwhelms me. Here’s the song…

Of all the choices I’ll make today, the one that will define it best is the choice of what will Overwhelm me. For all of the decisions you and I make today I pray that they will pale in comparison to a heart overwhelmed by the God who loves us beyond comprehension. May all be well with your soul and mine today!!

⁴ One thing I ask from the Lord,
    this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
    and to seek him in his temple.

Psalm 27:4

Heart: a. our blood pumpin’ muscle b. the seat of our emotions. We’ll look at b today. We have a lot of sayings related to the heart…

“That kid has a lot of heart.” “Put your heart into it!” “Your breaking my heart.” “Absence makes the heart grow fonder (of someone else).” “A heart of gold.” “A bleeding heart.”

We have thousands of saying about the heart, most of them have a view of some internal quality about a person, anything from good to painful realities we experience on this journey we call life. It stands as something different than our intellectual life. If I say someone is all “mind” that leads me to a different understanding than if I say they are all “heart.” It’s an internal place that has emotions as part, but the bigger picture is that it is a place from which our lives are driven.

The heart is what’s at the core of us, what drives us. “out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” What’s going on in our heart is what comes out from us. There is a link there that is missed by us because we are not used to doing any heart level work, our world almost exclusively asks for intellectual work. Know this, know that, there will be a test on it later. Emotional IQ is a phrase that comes up lately, it really gets at the heart of understanding how our heart shapes things. Intellectual IQ gives us a sense of knowledge(Jeopardy potential or not) Emotional IQ asks if we are living in heart level awareness about ourselves and the world around us.

Our hearts can be satisfied or hungry, fearful or at ease, anxious or confident, broken or healed, cold and hard or soft, bitter or forgiving, evil or righteous, grieving or comforted, devious or honest, duplicitous or singular, sunk or lifted, begrudging or willing, no/half/whole hearted, stirred or ambivalent, hateful or loving, oblivious or resolved, cold as ice or burning with fire…. stay with me, there are only about 200 more.

Our heart is on a journey and that journey will take our heart to places we never wanted to go. The picture above is inevitable if your address includes planet earth. We speak intellectually about those places but are nervous or have a very small group of people with which we speak about the deepest of wounds. The Bible invites us to mourn, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” There are things locked up in our heart. Trying to avoid these things seems like a reasonable course of action to us, avoiding the pain seems less painful. But the Bible invites us to mourn, to get out from us the things that are locked up inside of us. Lancing a wound to get the build-up of infection out of us for the purpose of healing. Otherwise, if we don’t get these things out from us with honest mourning, it’s going to “come out sideways”.

I’ve appreciated that phrase, “Come out Sideways”, over the years because the more I think about it the more real it is in people’s lives. Mistrust, bitterness, hard feelings, or a lack of feeling (1,000 yard stare) at all just so I won’t feel the pain are the sideways path of an overrun heart. The thing that would truly solve our heart issues going unresolved year after year and the path we choose is walked on over and over again and before we know it, the path is so worn in, we can’t even imagine another way. Let me tell you friends, there is another way. Despair and discouragement get added to our heart condition and the sad part is, people get stuck when hope is so close.

The desire of God is not just a rennovation, trying to patch something up as best we can. God’s desire is to give us a new heart, to remove the cold broken one we have and get a transformed heart. This new heart would allow us to see our world in a new way.

It’s my prayer that we become more aware of the status or our heart from moment to moment in each day. It doesn’t take much for the joy-filled heart in the morning to be overrun by fear, anxiety, or heartache at any moment, but “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:26

God’s portion is always plenty.

They say you and I will make 35,000 decisions each and every day. Starting with getting up, our morning routine, breakfast, driving, time spent, money spent, thought life spent. Almost 300 of those decisions will be made about food. All these decisions and the reminder that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. 35,000 steps, depending on your stride, that’s 17.67 miles. We cover a lot of ground with the steps(decisions) we make every day.

The picture above was a funny moment when Leah and I visited Mt Rushmore a few years ago. Sometimes the phrase “Give me a sign” is indeed not helpful. 1 arrow right, 1 arrow straight, 3 arrows left: one lane. Do I have options, do I not?

Lately we have been living in the winter that never ends. Storms, wind, ice and in the middle of all of this there is something in my spirit I have felt before. Not only the pandemic, but many of my hobbies produce this same angst in me. Decision weariness, decision fatigue, call it what you want but the 35,000 decisions I make during a normal day seem to be raised to epic levels.

In the middle of this event there are two things acting on me and probably on all of us. 1. The realization that my decision has an impact on people. Cancel an event and the snow doesn’t materialize, have the event and someone ends up in the ditch or hurt. This internal dilemma that weighs on you for hours prior to a decision. 500 decisions just to get to the decision. Then 2, the flip side are the decisions that you don’t make, somebody made them for you. It’s easy to dive into the frustration of a world controlled by someone not named you. Once, not that big of a deal, but how about 5, 10, 20 times, a toll grows.

The temptation is to write this off as a first world problem, we’re not living under Idi Amin here. Some perspective is useful, but there is something going on in my heart that I have to pay attention to. There is some usefulness in identifying the cumulative effects of mounting circumstances. It’s possible to write off each individual event with the question, “why does this matter so much?” Better to acknowledge that it feels like my life is beyond my control on a regular basis, what is that doing to the condition of my heart?

If you’ve ever had mono you know about the fatigue that hits you as you recover. Simple mundane expenditure of energy wipes you out for a few hours. I feel the same way with snow events at this point. It’s not really such a big deal, but the decision-making wears us thin. Pandemic flashbacks!! It’s easy to lose yourself as another straw gets put on our back, and our adjustments are as small as the straw except the straws add up and our adjustments are 17.67 miles away from where we started.

It’s why we are invited into worship, into being in God’s word, into being in fellowship with other believers. A great quote from Shania Twain…

Ecclesiastes 4:9-ff

⁹ Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor; ¹⁰ for if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up! ¹¹ Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? ¹² And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.

As our hearts shift in the course of life, stay connected to the people who know your heart on its most redeemed day!! Most of all, connected to God who has the capacity to heal your heart and transform into a work of art that only He can create. Blessings on the journey! 37,198…

Laughter: of all the things I miss about having small children in the house, laughter is pretty high on the list. The excitable exuberance, big smiles, dumb jokes told for the 100th time, the tickling and the belly laughter at the table, in the car, wherever… Whenever I was gone for a week as a Youth Pastor, my favorite kid thing was to come home and hear their laughter.

But time marches on, the nest becomes empty, the laughter fades and I live in recovery mode. At first, I didn’t really realize that I missed it. That moment of laughter after a day’s work, broke up the monotony of life. The silliness and acceptance of a child welcoming you back from your day. They don’t know or care about the type of day you had, they live in the moment and for the most part their moments are lighthearted and joy filled. Laughter is great medicine.

This video came out a couple years ago. A young kid working on a math problem finds a joke as the solution! It’s priceless, his facial expression, infectious laughter and to be honest, the way that the mind converts the answer to a joke is super funny!!

Ther are numerous ways to get a laugh, this one is a classic redirect. You have a certain expectation of the way this is going to end. It’s going to end with the addition of numbers, but it gets redirected to the status of one by measuring their bank account!! It reminds me of Buddy the Elf, crossing the street to Macy’s with really perky happy music. The scene is set up for purely good feelings only to end with buddy getting struck by a cab! Needless to say, I don’t mind my humor to reflect a little pain.

I make it a personal goal to find something to laugh about everyday. In my sermons I generally try to find a light-hearted moment. I am by nature a clown, meaning when I find myself in tense situations, I am the one who is like to say something to break up the tension with a little but of humor.

Psalm 126 When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
    we were like those who dream.
² Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
    and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then they said among the nations,
    “The Lord has done great things for them.”
³ The Lord has done great things for us;
    we are glad.

We all have a personality profile that makes us unique. I tend to be more serious and focused on change and growth. But 1 Timothy reminds us that God has given us all things richly to enjoy. So take a load off, find a kid to hang out with or watch your favorite comedian or tell some stories with good friends about the funny things of life. Take some good medicine and offer it to others as well.

in-stinct: an innate, typically fixed pattern of behavior. Nature is always impressive in light of instincts we witness. A couple of years ago our dog had puppies. She did not take any Lamaze class or read any puppy parenting book, but the list of things she knew to do by instinct (God’s internal written code) was long and impressive. My wife and I should just stay out of it because our dog knew better what to do than we did.

Enter humanity, I’ve always said there are a lot of things I never had to teach my kids. Most of those things are the worst about humanity. I never had to teach them how to reject help, say no, scream “mine,” be jealous, hoard toys, take toys while a sibling is not looking, manipulate instructions, produce a list of needed items to keep from going to bed… how long of a list can we make. I did not have to instruct my kids on one of those things, they came by it naturally. My kids were born knowing how to sin, my wife and I did nothing to teach it to them (except for a little modeling I presume!!) Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things. Greed, selfishness, jealousy, manipulation, it is not too hard to find it in our world… it is not too hard to find it in… myself.

Enter coaching, there is a challenge in bringing good knowledge to the point of instinct. It requires truth, grace and time. In our world the first step is knowledge (reminder of the truth), the second step is that knowledge is so ingrained in us that we do it, without even thinking about it. Grace to repeat the instruction repeatedly, realizing that the journey from knowledge to instinct is a long road that requires time. In a sports competition, in the time it has taken you to think about it, then do it, it is too late. Instinct takes milliseconds, thought then action takes seconds… or minutes (not naming names!!) You are at the point of instinct when players simply jump into the things you previously had to yell (proclaim with exuberant volume). It is a lot of fun to help our girls develop a series of instincts that make basketball go better.

Enter Spiritual formation, there are many journeys to instinct here. The journey from selfishness to selflessness. The journey from needing to fill an internal void in me, to being filled with Christ and having an overflow to give out from me. The journey expressed in the line of the hymn, “Hearts unfold like flowers before thee, opening to the “Son” above.” All these journeys are reflected in a long string of choices in our moment, day, week, and years. The process of being a three-year-old saying “mine,” having a selfish instinct that, by the power of God alive in me, becomes an instinct to serve and love generously without need for payback. The journey of a lifetime…

May God grant us a vision for those new instincts. These things aren’t hidden, the Bible presents them plainly. We have a great coach who offers truth, grace and time for these to develop in us. A new natural is better than the original natural.

Here’s to the power of God to recreate the Godly version of instincts in our hearts!!

Sourdough bread, four ingredients and time. Water, flour, salt, sourdough starter and lots and lots of time. On the recipe card it’s easy to wonder “how hard can this be?” As with many things in life the devil is in the details, so as much as you wonder how any of this could go wrong with four simple ingredients, there is a response “let me count the ways!!”

The age of the internet is great for watching a series of videos. I even made a video of myself to help a friend be able to see what each step along the way looked like in real time. After you get the hang of it, your back to simple… sort of! Problems still come up.

Problem solving in this instance involves living in as few variables as possible. But when trying to help people, I never underestimate the ability of people to overcomplicate the problem related to sourdough or anything else for that matter. I think good leadership in our day needs to break things down for people and simplify our instructions. As much as I would love to help people with sourdough/bonsai/basketball/football/spiritual growth theory, I recognize most people are more pragmatic in their pursuits. What works?

Enter our walk of faith, simple, profound, chaotic, peaceful, with a few bouts(or many) of “why is this happening to me?” In the chaos of life, simple becomes chaotic, the recipe seems to jump to 50 ingredients, most of which I don’t seem to have on hand. My perceived need of things I don’t have increases, the feeling of being overwhelmed which seems to add even more to the ingredient list.

Gideon was one of the Judges found in the book by the same name in the Bible. The recipe for Gideon was 1. Trust God who has helped you with all your other enemies. 2. Go with what you have and I will take care of things for you.

Gideons recipe. 1. I need a sign(cause you talking to me already wasn’t a sign!!??!!). 2. I need a sign, because the first two signs you gave me were not enough of a sign. 3. I need a sign… first three weren’t enough. 4. Going into battle means having an overwhelming force, Gideon wants numbers. But God recognizes they will just give the credit to themselves if they win. 30,000 soldiers becomes 10,000 soldiers then 10,000 becomes 300 soldiers. A different recipe, God’s recipe a simple recipe… unless of course your name is Gideon in which case you need to go back to the original instruction, “TRUST GOD.”

We live in a world that wants to overwhelm us with information and we become data junkies. Just another hit of info and all my anxiety will go away. There is a God who loves you, he is the God who created you, he made a plan for us to be reconciled to Him and each other, all he asks is that you and I trust him. Simple in idea, profound in expression.