Joy in the Journey

  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34   The students in my classroom are labeled as “Intellectually disabled.” That is true. All of them struggle in some areas, each one has different strengths and different limits. One thing that is often common in our learning community is the tendency to eat too quickly. It is not unusual to see a child take a “bite” that is actually half a hamburger or attempt to put an entire dinner roll in his mouth at once. Shoveling all things spoonable, potatoes, mac and cheese, fruit is pretty ordinary for some of my kiddos. Thus there has to be a constant reminder, “slow down, sweetie, take manageable bites.”           That term, manageable bites, came to me this morning during my quiet time with the Lord. I was looking around my office, overwhelmed by the chaos that is my Christmas prep. Paper, t...

  But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:20 All around me at this time there is so much preparation for Christmas. Jesus is having a birthday. This season reminds us that Jesus came to live and move among us, to direct our minds and hearts toward the Father and to save us from sin and death. Then He left. Thankfully, that is not the end of the story.           The students in my classroom read from a book that has stories that continue for more than one lesson. At the end of the story it says, “the end” but on the prior lessons it says, “more to come.” These last few weeks as I’ve heard them read those words, “more to come” I have been reminded that there is indeed more to come.           Jesus is coming back. He left us, only for a time and He did not leave us alone. He gave us His Holy Spirit to be with...

   “ For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Matthew 23:12 On humble people, Christian writer Brennan Manning says, “Following the counsel of Jesus to take the last place they are not shocked or offended when someone puts them there.”   It is important to know your worth to God but to know also that while no one is better than you, neither are you better than another.  Our Father sees us all as equal. Though it is difficult for us to understand He sees all sin in the same light as well. We often fall into the trap of the Pharisee who compared himself to the tax collector, forgetting that our Father loves each of us as if there were only one of us. Self- promotion is never effective. Only God’s promotion counts.  The way of the world is to shine our own light. Take a look at any political campaign. Such paragon’s of virtue and people of immense strength and widespread accomplishment are runnin...

But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. Jeremiah 17:7-8   How simple is the life of that tree. It is planted safely at the edge of the stream. The water is always there, in the blessed cool or the sweltering heat. The tree makes no effort to obtain the water. The tree simply stands beside the water and waits. Further, that same tree does not wring its branches each year and wonder if this will be the year that no fruit grows. Most of us are so different from that tree.   We stand beside the Lord, a position that ensures us love, protection, freedom and still we fret and worry. How will feed our family? What if… and here you can add just about anything you want because we what if ourselves sens...

But those that hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31   Some days life just feels hard. The more we try the less we accomplish. Everywhere we turn we meet adversity. The pain or aggravation of that adversity can cause us to miss out on the blessings and the joy of life, leaving us empty and edgy. At those times in life when putting one foot in front of the other just seems impossible we need to remember that we can soar on eagles wings. We can fly high above our pain and problems. We can go to a place where that pain cannot reach us.           The last few years I have had quite a mixed bag of blessings and challenges. Many of the blessings have come from releasing the challenges to God. I have been able to accomplish things I thought impossible by simply understanding that they weren’t mine to accomplish...

  Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 2 Peter 1:2 (emphasis mine) Years ago my friend Matthew had a beautiful golden retriever named Kelly. Kelly was the sweetest dog in the world. Normally, she was very well behaved, walked beside us without a leash, stayed where you told her to stay and stopped barking when you asked her to stop. In one area, Kelly was a naughty girl. Kelly loved to shake water all over. Whether she was wet from the lake, from rain or from a bath, no matter how many times Matthew would say, “Kelly, no! Don’t shake!” Kelly would shake, blessing all of us with the spray from her latest adventure.           I thought of Kelly this morning while I was talking to the Lord about grace. Too often many of us, people who claim Jesus as Lord and Savior, think that we shouldn’t ask too much of Him. How much more could we ask? He gave His life for us. That indicat...

  As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work- which is by faith. The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have departed from these and turned to meaningless talk. 1 Timothy 1:3-6 It would appear that our world is going mad. It’s not unexpected, Jesus warned us to expect things like this, family members on opposite sides (Matthew 10:34-39), people telling us what we want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3) instead of the Truth, to name a couple of examples. It should not surprise us that things will get worse before they get better. I’m not surprised but I am saddened.           Just the other day my sweet friend Donna put a message ...