...This Work Thing...Is It Our Hokey Pokey?

But I said, "I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing. Yet what is due me is in the Lord's hand, and my reward is with my God." - Isaiah 49:4

It's off to do more training. It's another business trip. Where is it this time? Toronto...Chicago...and then home.

You put your right foot in and out and you spin all about and you do the Hokey Pokey and turn yourself around and THAT'S WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT!

Really?

Have you ever felt like you're spending your life using your talent for things that people value to be sure but perhaps in the grand scheme they are useless?

I've been taking more care of my time (really...I have!) and it just seems that life is often spent doing mundane activities that seem to have little eternal purpose.

If you read the entirety of Isaiah 48, 49 you get a sense that the great prophet Isaiah was struggling with his own purpose. He knew he was chosen to be a voice for God, yet life became purposeless for Isaiah. He had come to a place where what he did didn't seem to give him what he needed as a man to feel true fulfillment.

Now this is a big subject and I am about to hop a plane but you must be similar to me. We all go through periods when our purpose seems to be clouded with the mundane. We see little meaning in life. It is my struggle. I see moments and relationships where God is so there. I also see many others and other things I am doing that seem tired, worldly and minimally valuable. As we can read in this segment Isaiah didn't stay in this place. We read in this passage that he knew the truth of his existence and that truth, His being, was of far greater importance in God's scheme than what it might otherwise appear.

Like Isaiah we need to look past this present circumstance and know that our real reward and purpose is fully revealed in eternity. We also need to get that giving God glory isn't about our "doing" all the time but it's about our proclaiming with all of our lives and not just our well-done work. Isaiah knew that God was just and loving, so he placed his faith on this truth. Isaiah wasn't accepted by God because God measured the work of this man and found it, comparatively, really good work. No. This was about the work God did in Isaiah. Our Heavenly Father found that work perfect!

When life appears to lack meaning and purpose, remember that if you devote your life to the purposes your Kingdom Daddy has for you, the fruits of your labor will be manifested in due time. But more than this, you will realize your satisfaction will come in your growing relationship to Him and not to the better and more valued the work of your hands may be judged otherwise.

As Paul said, The ONE who has called you is faithful; He will perform it - I Thessalonians 5:24

I remain...

InHISgrip,
~J~

The Rocket Man Effect!

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: "Moses My servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them-to the Israelites. - Joshua 1:1-2

A rocket launch is truly an amazing phenomenon to me. We don't see them very often today but thank God for You Tube. What you have is tons of weight stacked vertically to the sky with thousands of gallons of fuel exploding in a matter of moments. As it leaves the atmosphere the rocket drops its take-off boosters and uses additional boosters to move the remaining payload to the next stage of the mission. The first engines have a unique purpose...to get the rocket to the next stage. Massive power-massive results!

The reading today came from the book of Joshua. Joshua was known for almost 40 years as "Joshua, servant of Moses." This was God's preparation for him. On the part of Joshua it required years of selfless service, training in the desert, and through countless tests of faith. We should think of those preparation years as booster rockets designed to move Joshua into each next stage of his development and his ultimate calling. We should similarly look at the massive amount of work, trials, heartache, pain, perseverance and experiences we shoulder in our earthly walk. These are the booster rockets of a true Rocket Man for God! It takes power. It takes dynamic experiences but some of it might also seem mundane and causal.

God allows each of us preparation times to lay a foundation upon which He builds. It does not mean useless training time. It's not all years going by like lightning...like the space left behind by booster rockets. Like those rockets progress is made and important and significant work is done. But I won't discount that some of those foundation times appear to be laborious and meaningless; much like trying to get through west Texas on your way east to some place specific. When we look at all the fuel that is expended in a rocket launch it often seems like overkill. Teleporting would be so much more efficient Lord! Yet in our life these varied experiences are what God is using to frame your life for the message He is building in you. There may be a time when He speaks through you for one amazing end result mission or maybe it will simply be the same mission just with more profound results in its final stage.

My point is that without these foundational experiences, the Jordan River can never be crossed and we cannot enter the Promised Land nor can we lead others and to be sure, if you are in Christ today, you will be leading others.

Embrace these times of both seeming inactivity and times of fiery powerful forward motion that jar you to your foundations. Embrace them as from God. They, too, are a rocket booster to your next stage of your walk with God. You are a Rocket Man/Woman!

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 - Philippians 1:6

I remain...

InHISgrip,
~J~

When Love & Respect Rule

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. - Philippians 2:3-7

This story was shared with me by someone I admire a great deal. Over the years I first looked at him with admiration. Later, as a sort of "arms length" mentor. As of late, as someone who I have my differences as to style and even content of the messages he delivers, but, a true leader, great man in the faith. This is the story though...

It was a cold, blustery January night in 1973. Senator John Stennis, the venerable hawkish and wildly independent Democrat from Mississippi, drove from Capitol Hill to his northwest Washington home. At 71 he was still the powerful chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. At precisely 7:40 p.m., Stennis parked his car and started toward his house 50 feet away.

Out of the darkness jumped two young robbers---little more than kids, really. One nervously waved a .22 caliber pistol as the other relieved the senator of his personal possessions. "Now we're going to shoot you anyway," one told Stennis. He did, firing twice.

For six-and-a-half hours, surgeons at Walter Reed Medical Center labored feverishly to repair the damage and save his life.

At 9:15 that same night another politician was driving home from the Senate . . . a man on the opposite end of the political spectrum, a Republican "dove" who had clashed often and sharply with Stennis. His name? Senator Mark Hatfield. The tragedy was reported over Hatfield's car radio that wintry night. Disregarding the strong differences in their convictions and pulled by a deep admiration for the elderly statesman plus a compassion for his plight, Hatfield later admitted:

"I had no skills to offer. But I knew there was something I must do---and that was to go to that hospital and be nearby where I could be helpful, if possible, to the family."

There was untold confusion at the hospital as fellow senators, colleagues, and curious friends and reporters overwhelmed the hospital's telephone operators. Understaffed and disorganized, the hospital crew tried their best but were unable to handle the calls and answer the questions.

Hatfield quickly scoped out the situation, spotted an unattended switchboard, sat down, and voluntarily went to work. Much later---after recovering---Stennis related what he heard happened next: "He told the girls, 'I know how to work one of these; let me help you out.' He continued taking calls until daylight." An exceedingly significant detail is that he never gave anyone his name because someone would surely suspect some political connection, some ulterior motive. Hatfield finally stood up around daylight, stretched, put on his overcoat, and quietly introduced himself to the other operators. "My name is Hatfield . . . happy to help out on behalf of a man I deeply respect," he said as he walked away.

The press couldn't handle that story when it leaked out. It boggled their minds! No way did it make sense for a Republican to give a Democrat the time of day, not to mention several long hours of personal assistance in some anonymous, menial task. I mean, that kind of character went out with the horse and buggy and silent movies and saying "ma'am" and "sir" to teachers. Or did it?

I want to be Mark Hatfield. I pray to be like that.

Politics and personal preferences and opinions on things like military involvement, immigration and health care may vary among members of the body of Christ - even issues such as church polity, theology, and the balance between personal revelation and the Bible . . . but there is a bond deep within that must bind us to one another. It is the glue of authentic love, expressing itself in honesty, compassion, fairness, willingness to support, and (when possible) coming to the aid of another. We should do this personally and in humility. Without strings attached. Committed to the protection and dignity of another human . . . regardless of how somebody votes or what stripe of faith they represent.

So, this happened to me yesterday. A brother in the faith, came to me, in humility and to correct. It was not easy. It was hard for him to do. It was hard for me to hear. He did it. Thank you Richard Casteel.

But, what did it take? Bigness. Being free of grudges, pettiness, vengeance, and prejudice; in love, considering the greater message and the greater one to be served. Seeing another in need---regardless of differences of opinion or the challenge of the moment---and reaching out in solid Christian maturity.

It takes this though: Just because you care.

That's bigness. It's living above labels . . . it's seeing beyond hurts . . . it's caring unconditionally, helping unassumingly.

And therefore it's rare. As rare as a hawk and a dove in the same nest on a cold winter's night in a city not known for love and unmitigated respect ruling the moment.

I remain...

InHISgrip...
~J~

Who God Uses & How Is About His Purpose Not Our Perceptions

Esther Chapters 9 & 10

...9:23-29 So the Jews accepted what they had started to do, and what Mordecai had written to them. For Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur (that is, cast lots), to crush and to destroy them. But when it came before the king, he gave orders in writing that his evil plan that he had devised against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. Therefore they called these days Purim, after the term Pur. Therefore, because of all that was written in this letter, and of what they had faced in this matter, and of what had happened to them, the Jews firmly obligated themselves and their offspring and all who joined them, that without fail they would keep these two days according to what was written and at the time appointed every year, that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, in every clan, province, and city, and that these days of Purim should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of these days cease among their descendants.

I'm really not much of one to read the "girlie" books of the Bible. But this morning it was that time in my reading chart to continue on in Esther. I had ignored it long enough. And, just as the verses exemplify God met me in an unexpected way with unexpected characters.

Has this ever happened to you? Has it ever happened and you just really didn't like it? Well, that's sorta what this was like for me. I got over it quickly however because the depths of the truth of it rang deeply and true.

At the end of Esther's story, we have the same king as you would have found at the books beginning, King Ahasuerus. We have the same kingdom, where he reigns from India to Ethiopia. It's no small place with more than 127 provinces. We have the same country, Persia, and the same capital city, Susa.

But some things have changed.

You see this is a story about the struggles of God's people. Their peril and pain and the panic and improbability of any help on the horizon.

So what else do we have here? Well, Vashti is no longer queen; Esther is queen. And she is a queen who has won her husband's overwhelming respect and loyalty. The great enemy of the Jews, Haman, who was once second in command, is dead and gone. Mordecai is alive and well. Wicked plans have been thwarted. Corruption has been rooted out. Evil has been fully dealt with. To make matters even better, Esther's righteous uncle Mordecai has been promoted by the king, and he is now in Haman's old position---"second only to King Ahasuerus."

In the natural this whole scene is way too freaky. These are not the characters or the kinds of lives that great heroic stories are born. But, then again, when God intervenes, the people He uses are often unexpected.

Or consider another unexpected choice. If you wanted to lead an exodus of two million people out of Egypt, who would you choose to confront Pharaoh---a Jew or a noble, high ranking and well positioned fellow Egyptian? Be honest, now. And if you chose a Jew, would you choose an individual who was not at all Egyptian (although it could be argued he had connections...) who had in fact killed one of Pharaoh's fellow countrymen? How about this qualification: would he be eighty years old? Or, how does this resumé stunner sound: would you select a gruff and rough leather-skinned shepherd who hadn't been in the metropolitan area for over forty years?

See, the further you look, the more surprising it gets! Moses' resumé was pretty, um, FRIGHTENING when considering the responsibility he's being given (save a nation, represent them to the head of a nation).

How about this one: Would you have chosen a seeming pagan harlot to hide the spies you, had sent out, to keep those men safe as they were to navigate the land God had indicated your people were to conquer?

Then of course there is Jonah and I ask you would you have chosen a defecting, rebellious prophet to lead what Chuck Swindoll called, "The Greater Nineveh Evangelistic Crusade"? Is that what we would do; send a whiny, "I don't wanna go!" Ninevite hating racist?

We get to the New Testament and this pattern continues. Would you have chosen a Christian-hating Fundamentalist Jewish Pharisee to model grace and to write most of the New Testament? (Apostle Paul)

Would you have chosen a man who denied Jesus (three times!) as the major spokesman for the early church? (Peter)

Does any of that seem reasonable ladies and gents?

But, you see, God does surprising things. That's why He lifts a no-name Jew from the gate of the king and makes him a prime minister (Mordecai). God delights in lifting up nobodies and using them as somebodies. As Paul writes to the Corinthians, "not many mighty, not many noble"---in other words, not many "A" listers are chosen.

He has chosen the despised and many of the losers of the world to follow the One who died on a cross and to bring ultimate victory for us all. And thus it is in the book of Esther, the God who seems not to be present is, in fact, ever-present, omnipotent, and in complete control.He has plan and purpose for you. Your job is to wrap your spirit around it, anticipate it, believe, it, embrace it and get into the flow of the Holy Spirits' leadership of you in that purpose daily.

Because you my lovelies are not prepared for greatness, not wise, not wealthy, not an "A" lister, not ready for this at all...in God's eyes therefore you are PERFECT!

I remain...

InHISgrip,
~J~