Life...Abundantly.

For the VERY first time in my life I can honestly say, "I LOVE MY JOB!" To tell you the truth I never thought I'd be able to say that. Sad huh? I really thought that somewhere back down the road I had taken too many of those alternate turns that took me farther and farther away from things I truly enjoyed doing. The cost of doing what I do now is SO dwarfed by the joy of doing something I really love doing and working with people I truly enjoy working with. The cost of taking this job was purely financial. I had to take a big pay cut from what I used to make, before I took time out to be with Gracyn. To be honest though, I know God will handle the financial details. Plus, the payoff is SO worth the pay cut!

Life is all a matter of choices, isn't it? So many times we have to make sacrifices that sometimes seem SO BIG, in order to find the things that God wants to place in our lives. When we are obedient to Him and to the things He asks of us, the sacrifices we make soon pay off in ways we never dreamed of. That's been the case in my life in SO many areas...not just this job. When He places something in my life that I know I want and I know He wants me to have and I look at what I'd have to give up in order that have that blessing, sometimes giving those things up seems so difficult. But the payoff is SO MUCH MORE! Give up your foolish pride and live with your folks; get an amazing family environment for you and your child at a crucial time in both of your lives. Give up a sinful lifestyle full of sinful influences; get peace, forgiveness, and Godly friendships. Give up a big paycheck; get a job you can't wait to go to everyday. Give up an unhealthy relationship; get more peace than you dreamed existed. Give up yourself, surrender your life to Him; get salvation.

The more I give up, the more I let go of and surrender to God, the more and more He blesses me. It's like I give him a boulder (because in my eyes it is HUGE) and He gives me a mountain in return. I pray that I use all that He blesses me with to HIS glory and His work. I pray that I might continue to decrease so that He may continue to increase. I pray that I continue to have a spirit willing to give up physical things so that He can continue to bless me with the spiritual things. Lord, I pray when I am weak and hold too tightly to things of this earth that You send Your gentle spirit to remind me that I am just passing through and that what you want to give me is SO MUCH MORE than the trinkets of this life can give. Let the trinkets not consume me, CONSUME me Yourself, I will have all that I need and so much more! You came to give me life and to give it to me ABUNDANTLY!

Excuses

Isn't it interesting how an excuse is SO easy to find when we are looking for one? I know this to be true in my life. I've also seen it in the lives of others. Why are we so prone to making excuses? The truth of it is that most of us call them: reasons. In reality, the vast majority of the time...they are excuses, pure and simple. I know, because I do it masterfully. They are not reasons; they are well-thought-out, intricately-designed excuses.

I was thinking about this today, particularly in regards to why we don't do what we know we need to do in our Christian walk. I was SO moved this weekend. I was blessed to be in the same room with over 150 Christian men who came together to eat a meal, fellowship with others, and pray together. I've had many times in my life when I felt that men (most men) were all about women, sports, sex, and testosterone gone-wild. But to listen to the speaker share his story with such emotion and such surrender to God and such devotion to Christ was powerful to me. To see a huge room full of men bow their heads in prayer together after hearing such a real life MANLY story moved me to tears. It was an amazing experience for me. It was for them too. It moved me because God has changed my perception of men--Christian men. My perception was warped by some men that I allowed into my life outside of God's plan for me.

So what does all of this have to do with excuses? I know there were men that needed to be there. I know that there were men that had real reasons why they couldn't be there. And I know that there were men that had excuses. Lame excuses. But excuses that they crafted so well that they couldn't even recognize them as excuses anymore. I know, it's easy for me to say, right? Right, it is easy for me. It is, because I am an expert at doing this too. But the reality of it is I know that there are many Christian men that need other male Christian relationships. I know that not pursuing such relationships can be SO EASY, because all that has to be done is to concoct all kinds of "reasons". But the truth is...all of these hundreds, possibly thousands of men, continue to miss out on something God wants to share in their lives. He wanted more men to be a part of such a moving, bonding, and spiritual experience, but the excuses were rampant. It breaks my heart that men that needed that "stirring" in their lives, hearts, and spirits didn't receive it this weekend because the excuses were just too easy to conjure.

It breaks my heart for them, but it breaks for all of us, myself included, that have missed out on so many, MANY things God wanted to bless us with, that WE decided were not worthy, not needed, not comfortable, etc... Shame on me for doing this MILLIONS of times in my life. I pray that I start TODAY recognizing my reasons for the lame EXCUSES that they really are. I hope that you join me.