Entrusting Love

When my daughter's husband-to-be asked me for her hand in marriage, I said, “My answer is ‘yes.’” I told my future son in law my "yes" was because I could entrust my daughter to him to love and care for her now and long after I am gone. Entrusting someone you love to another person is the highest affirmation you can ascribe to another person. May we be that kind of person in all our relationships.

 

 

The Clean-Up and Set-Up

In a dream, I saw a large conference center. It was just used to host a gathering of hundreds of people. When the event was finally over, and all the attendees had departed, a stillness settled over the facility. Looking around the room, I could see it needed straightening up, the trashcans emptied, and the floor vacuumed. The structure was architecturally sound, and its design appealing and inviting. Nothing had changed in those areas. It merely looked used and in need of refreshment. Before the next group arrives, the facility will need a thorough clean up from the past and a fresh set up for the future.

I know the dream had to do in part with the busy season Jan and I experienced in the last couple of years. It has a broader application for some of you who have been running hard. Like us, I invite you to not let the busyness you experienced in the past or the emotional debris that still clutters your thoughts to get in the way of the new events that are approaching your life. God wants to use this time to prepare you to be ready to receive the next gathering He is bringing your way. 

At the end of the image, I saw a lone janitor quietly working through the empty meeting room. He was enjoying the quiet space and the alone time as he picked up trash, straightened chairs, and swept the floor. He was singing a song as he worked, its melody echoing throughout the emptiness. His song was a prayer. 

The last season was filled with the execution of essential plans and activities that will produce significant fruit. This time of quiet work and reflection has equal significance. In this interlude of clean up and set up, God will whisper to you what He has planned for the next season.  He enjoys this alone time with you as much as He enjoys the events themselves.  

Directed Steps

We can make our plans, but in the end, it is the Lord who directs our steps. 

Making a plan is a good exercise. Because we only see in part, even our best plans are only partial. Something is always missing. The larger image in our minds must be the picture of God’s love that is always directing us forward and deeper into his heart. 

Maybe you need to get a different perspective and see how God views your plan. We are like a child with a box of crayons trying to color within the lines. Our plans are simply our best attempt to reproduce God’s heart and desires as we see them. 

We can plan each step in life, but it will be the hand of God that captures our feet and places them in the desired foothold. This is where your trust needs to be placed: in the directing love of God who will get you where you need to be. 

(An excerpt from the book, A Good Place)

Swimming in the Deep Waters of the Spirit

Deep water feels different than shallow water. If you have ever jumped off a boat into the middle of a deep lake or out at sea, you will know what I mean. Yes, water is water, but the unknown depths beneath your dangling feet do something to your perception. For many, swimming in deep water creates a fear of the unknown. When we enter the depths of the Spirit something different takes place. We do not experience fear. We encounter awe and wonder. 

When I enter a church, and the worship is being led by the Spirit, I get the feeling that I can’t touch bottom. That depth is a place where trust is expanded and miraculous encounters take place. In some instances,  I have experienced shallow professionalism that never took us out into the deep water.  I have also experienced a sloppy ministry style that each week was defined as "we are just being led by the Spirit." Neither one got far from the dock. 

In the moments when the deep water of the Spirit was encountered, I experienced something that a well-scripted worship event or a loose leadership style could not attain. The depths of worship in those moments was an invitation to float into something more profound and awe-inspiring. Our lives must occasionally take these swims into the deep waters of the Spirit, or we will succumb to the acceptance of a wonder-less faith where our spiritual feet will always demand that we must feel the bottom. 

This is not limited to worship teams. It applies to a Fortune 500 executive leading a corporate team into a new venture, a musician taking his genre in a new direction or a single mom faithfully leading her children into a new season of life after her husband walked away. No matter our life-assignment, this boils down to a willingness to do all we can to host the Presence with as much skill, excellence, and commitment as we can muster and then diving into the deep water in faith willing to do whatever it is that God has called us to do. 

For many of you, your next season of life will be revealed in your willingness to sail your boat of faith out into the deep water of something new. In that new place, the Lord will ask you to jump out of the boat into unexplored waters where you can no longer touch the bottom of what had previously felt secure and familiar. In those moments awe and wonder will fill your heart with an unexpected buoyancy only experienced by those willing to swim in the deep waters of the Spirit.

In a Perfect Storm

In a life-transition, you will never find yourself in a situation where God does not have a plan of rescue in place. Trust him. 

Ship captains don’t start their sea voyages by planning to sink. Neither do we start our transitions by planning to sink. However, there may come a time when you experience a storm, a “perfect storm,” when all the elements for disaster come together and threaten the transition. 

These are relational storms that have dangerous reefs of distrust, winds of betrayal, and waves of conflict that seem too high for your current level of faith. These storms break your heart. Your future and family face uncertainty. Havoc seems to fill the air, and you have nowhere to run because you are trapped on the open seas of transitional turmoil. 

In the stormy moments when you think all is lost, call out to God. He has a plan to help you ride through the storm to a safe harbor. And sometimes, he will supernaturally calm the storm first and have you move forward across calm waters. 

(An excerpt from the book, A Good Place)

When You Want To Walk Away

If you have experienced a frustrating and painful outcome from a decision or an action made outside your control and now you want to walk away, make sure you are walking into the arms of Jesus, not into the arms of bitterness and anger. Be wise in the choices you make in these moments because other arms are also waiting to embrace you that have unhealthy agendas. 

God is willing to work with you to restore you from the hurt you experienced.  When His plan of restoration is complete, He may not return you to the place where the offense occurred, but that will be His choice, not yours. 

When we are wounded we can make really bad decisions fueled by our emotions that will set us on a sorrowful path leading to a life of regret and a series of never-ending scenarios of future disappointment. The only time our hearts can make wise decisions is when they are aligned with the heart of God, not the wounds caused by others or the pain of our unmet expectations.

Critics at the Doorway of Your Future

Your loudest critics have been positioned at the doorway of your future. Many have stalled at this noisy threshold not because they weren't gifted to function in the future. They stalled because they were unable to handle their critics with wisdom and grace. The presence of a critic is an indicator you are about to enter new territory. Press through these critical encounters with integrity and watch what God will accomplish.

Proving Our Worth

Bondage is anything we do to prove our worth. We have nothing to prove. We have been placed in Jesus at the right hand of the Father in eternity. In that place, we are full and complete in Christ. We live this current life from the reality of that present eternal position. This life will eventually be no more. Our position in Christ will remain unchanged throughout all eternity. 

We have gained all the worth we will ever possess. Our worth was given to us the day we received the gift of forgiveness through Jesus Christ. In Him, we were made fully worthy. 

Because we have already been placed in the final destination of our life journey, we never have to struggle to gain worth. Trying to prove our worth in any way is bondage. Bondage is a self-inflicted wound. 

We pick up bondage whenever we try to prove our worth to God by doing anything to validate that worth. If at any point in your journey of life you begin to feel unworthy, stop. Stop and deal with that lie before you do anything else. God wants you to experience life and freedom. That is why he set you free before the journey began. 

(An excerpt from the book, A Good Place)

Our Easter Destination

The cross and the tomb are both empty, but the throne is forever occupied. That is God’s Easter message to the Church – Jesus has risen to His place of honor! He was raised from death to occupy a place of enthronement where all powers and authorities contrary to the love and will of God are in submission under His feet and as a result of His victory, under our feet as well. 

The suffering of the cross and the darkness of the tomb were only temporary stops along the way toward the ultimate fulfillment of Christ’s mission - enthronement.

As you worship the Lord this Easter, take time to contemplate your place in Jesus seated with Him upon His throne. This is not a future event. It is your present reality. That understanding has the potential to change everything.

“For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). 

Have a blessed Easter!

The Return to Glory

When Tiger Woods won the 2019 Masters golf tournament this weekend, CBS headlined his victory with the words, “The Return to Glory.” At age 43 and 11 years since his last major victory, along with a life filled with disappointment and injury, some sports announcers are calling Tiger’s comeback one of the greatest in golfing history.

As an 11-year old boy, I remember walking the 18^th hole at Pebble Beach with my father when he won the California State Championship for his handicap division. I still have the trophy handed to my father in front of the clubhouse on that day 58 years ago. What was unique about my father’s win was the fact that 9 months prior to his victory was the first time he ever held a golf club. He won the championship with a cheap set of ancient clubs he bought at a pawnshop. He was a natural.

Both Tiger and my father did something the doubters would say was not possible. I have come to realize, having walked with God for so many years, that He loves to do what seems impossible. For Tiger, he returned to former glory. For my father, he experienced golfing glory for the first time. 

The glory of God is different. It is available to all believers, not just those who stand in the winner’s circle. We carry the glory of God and in some instances of life that glory will become what has been termed the manifest glory of God. This is when the glory of God is released in a tangible way during worship or in the midst of human conflict and it becomes obvious that God is present and working beyond our natural ability or our wildest imagination. 

As I read the caption from CBS news about Tiger's return to glory, I sensed the Lord speaking to me about something more than a sporting victory. We are in a moment of history when God is calling, and in some cases calling back, believers who have been written off as too failed or too fragile to be trusted with a shot at victory. While the world, and unfortunately some in the Church look only at the rising stars, God has not forgotten those who failed or were never even considered as candidates for something new. 

When the glory returns, those who step forward in obedience to the call will experience unusual demonstrations of God’s presence. When this happens it will be obvious to all the glory has indeed returned. 

My New Best Friend

On November 27, 2017, a best friend of mine died. Abby was my Australian Shepherd. She lived just a few days shy of 15 years. To say I was devastated at her passing would be an understatement. I cannot remember grieving like that in all my life. A few weeks ago, the same breeder from whom we purchased Abby let me know a new litter would be coming this month. We will bring our new puppy home around the first of June. 

Loss is like a dull ache without borders. It bleeds over into all areas of our lives and sets off tearful emotions at the oddest of times.  Loss needs time to heal and process. I am ready. The healing of Abby's loss is taking place with the thought of a new Aussie. I want a girl. Unless something changes her name will be Lady.

Our new dog won’t be Abby, but she will be what I need in this season of my life, just like Abby was for all those years when she was part of our lives. With God, He knows just the right time to fill a strangely quiet home with the sounds of a new life. God is good and so are the creatures He gives to us who become our faithful companions walking with us along the path of life.

Your Life Will Become a Sign and a Wonder

I took the attached photo of an empty signpost while on a walk through the small town where Jan and I live. It looks like city workers planted the signpost in the ground with plans to attach a sign in the near future. After I walked past the bare signpost, I sensed a nudge from the Spirit to go back and capture its image knowing the Lord had something to say at a later date. Today is that later date.

Some of you have been planted in places, relationships and seasons of life you did not expect or see coming. At this time in your life, you look and feel like the solitary signpost in the photograph. You have a place, but not a message. A sign detailing why you have been put in this position is coming. The Lord is about to attach an explanatory sign to your life. Like the base of a signpost that needs time to become secure enough to support the weight of a sign, so has it been with you. God has been firming and seasoning your life in this place getting you ready to support the weight of your sign’s message once the Lord attaches the sign to your life.

When the Lord finally places His sign on your life it will all make sense – the reason for your placement, the why of this season of waiting, and the content of the message you will carry into the future. Your life will become a sign to others that God has been at work in your life all along even as people passed by and thought it odd that your life resembled a signpost without a sign. The sign upon your life will cause the doubters to wonder how it all happened. For the ones who believed in you and never gave up, your life will become yet another sign to celebrate the goodness and the faithfulness of God.

Riding the Landslides of Life

A massive landslide took place last week on the Oregon coast. The landslide is almost a mile in length. It has displaced the coast highway downslope toward the ocean turning the highway into an impassible mass of crumbled asphalt and dirt. It looks like the remnants of a catastrophic earthquake. 

The strange thing about this landslide is the fact that it is still moving. Every hour it slides farther toward the ocean. The landslide was moving at two feet an hour during one 24-hour period. The destroyed roadway has cut off cities along the coast and will create a significant impact on the local economy and summer tourism.

What struck me was the fact that the landslide is still active and moving. These catastrophic events are not static. They can seem alive. So it is with the catastrophic events in our lives. When a loved one dies or divorce takes place or a friend betrays us these experiences can set off an emotional landslide. The landslides created by these broken relationships can come without warning and set in motion a slab of painful debris that keeps moving for many years.

As I looked at a picture of the devastation along the Oregon coast, I thought of some of you who are riding atop an emotional landslide. You are wondering if it will ever stop. Your life seems so uncertain and out of control. Something larger and more beautiful than the pain of this displacement is in play. What was planned for your destruction will be reversed. 

This painful movement will eventually come to an end and that will be your signal that the construction of a new roadway into your future is beginning. God has plans to remove the debris from your past and create a solid roadway on more stable ground. When He is done, you will be able to travel into the next season of your life with freedom, confidence, and security.

A Loving Touch

I'm guessing I kiss or hug Jan at least 10 times a day. Our love involves a continuous intimate physical encounter. Jesus did not come as a vaporous spirit. He came to incarnate a physical representation of God's love. Don't settle for a stale and unfeeling form of love. Tomorrow may never come. Today, touch the ones you love. Express to them what you feel and do it with a touch. A  loving touch will continue to be felt long after you are gone.

Crossing Life's Intersections

Every intersection of life has a word from the Lord in place that will function as a traffic signal. As you approach these intersections read the signals carefully and wisely. Some have sped through these intersections without wisdom and their assumptions have caused unnecessary collisions. As you approach your next intersection, take time to read and discern the signs God has in place. They were put there for your safety and the safety of those who are traveling with you.

The Summit of Our Fears

For the last few years, I have loosely followed the career of the rock climber, Alex Honnold. He is super-human in his ability to scale what appear to be impossible rock walls. His most notable climb was made alone without ropes and climbing gear up the face of El Capitan in Yosemite. The climb was filmed in a recent documentary titled, Free Solo. In a trailer for the film, Honnold addressed the issue of fear. He said, “I work to expand my comfort zone until there is no fear there.” This week the film won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Scripture tells us that perfect love casts out fear. I used to think if I had God’s love, fear would have to leave. I have found that is not true unless my faith is involved in the process of casting out the fear. The casting out is not some magic phrase we utter and fear has to run away. It involves something more. 

I have experienced plenty of fear while the love of God was all around me. The fear never left unless I was involved in its expulsion.  In order for our comfort zone to expand and overcome our place of fear, we must involve our faith with God’s love to scale the impossible places where fear is entrenched and stands before us spiritually as El Capitan stood before Honnold when he climbed its vertical rock wall.

There are times when the promise of God is waiting just across a Red Sea experience or at the top of a summit of a challenge that looks to us like El Capitan. At first, it seems impossible to make these passages and ascents because between us and the promise lies an obstacle we cannot comprehend overcoming. When you find yourself looking at a promise and saying, “I’m not comfortable with that” know that you are in the right place. No promise is easy. In your moment of uncomfortableness reach out and take the first handhold you see and begin to pull yourself upward. God will faithfully reveal each crack and crevice you will need to make it all the way to the top. 

In the ascent, you will be confronted by your worst fears. As you continue to rise higher with each act of faith, God will ask you to exchange your fear for an act of personal courage. This process is what will cast out fear and help you continue to move higher as love pushes fear out of your way.  There will come a moment when you finally reach the summit of the challenge you and others had previously thought impossible. That destination is available for anyone who is willing to exchange their fear for the kind of faith that can rise above any obstacle. This is the kind of faith we thought impossible before the journey began and our comfort zone was defined by our fears. 

Preparing for a Smooth Landing

Last night, a memory came to my mind of the time when our family lived in the Caribbean. The kids wanted to see Kingston, Jamaica from the air.  I had not flown in a couple of years and wasn’t current so I could not rent an aircraft. I called up a local charter company and arranged an hour flight in a Cessna 182. The pilot and I sat in the front seats and my kids sat in the back and off we went.

After orbiting around the city for the better part of an hour it was time to head back to the airport. During the flight, the pilot and I talked and he found out I had been a flight instructor and charter pilot. To my surprise, he said, “Do you want to take it in?” I said, “Sure.” I had not landed an airplane in several years but knew I could land without a problem. It was my refined skills that were rusty. As we approached the airport, I wanted to execute a good landing to keep my piloting pride somewhat intact.

When I turned from base to final, the air was still and thick. My airspeed was right on the money. When we crossed the numbers, I eased back on the yoke and held the nose up as the airspeed bled off and the Cessna gently touched down. The landing was so smooth we did not actually feel the wheels touch the runway. It was that perfect. The charter pilot turned to me and said, “Now, that’s how to land a 182!” I tried to act like it happened all the time when in reality it was one of the best landings I had ever completed - even when current and flying frequently. God was kind to an out of currency pilot that day.

The key to a smooth landing is the result of learning how to hold an aircraft off the runway during the last moments of flight just before touchdown. This is where any excess airspeed is allowed to bleed off until the wing stops flying and the airplane touches down. It is the part of a flight where the smallest adjustments can bring the greatest results. Flying an aircraft thousands of feet up in the air is not a real challenge – touching down safely and smoothly is where your piloting skills are revealed.

When the memory of the flight in Jamaica came to mind, I knew it would apply to some of you reading these words. You are approaching the final stages of what God has assigned for you to complete.  At this point, impatience will be your enemy. You need to bleed off some of the speed that has carried you this far. It has been a long flight of faith. Don’t rush these critical remaining moments. There is no need for a rough landing. Hold onto to your faith for just a little longer. 

It would be easy to rush the landing because you have worked hard for this moment and you can see the completion just ahead. Like a pilot who has learned to not rush a landing, so it will be for you. If you can be patient for just a little longer, you will touch down gently and wonder how everything worked out so smoothly. Happy flying!

Unsolicited Criticism

In this life, you will receive unsolicited criticism and suggestions. Everybody has an opinion. Choose to be large enough in your spirit to be willing to review each of these, even those that appear absurd. Embedded somewhere in such suggestions may be the very thing God wants you to hear. Ask the Lord: “Is there anything in that comment you want me to hear?” 

Sometimes, a critical piece of information we might need in order to make a healthy life-transition can be packaged in the most unlikely form. God may place a piece of information inside the comment of your critic to test the condition of your heart. Having the right information is not enough. We need a right heart attitude in which to house the wisdom we receive. 

(An excerpt from the book, A Good Place. https://www.amazon.com/Good-Place-Walking-Transitions-Ministry/dp/0615947573/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1545056288&sr=8-6&keywords=garris+elkins)

Into the Empty Places

There are times when I need to go to an empty place to be filled. Once, I searched for a night sky empty of light pollution in order to experience the wonder of a panoramic sky of stars that spread from horizon to horizon. In the clarity of that night, the stars appeared so close it felt as if I could reach up and touch them. Another time I found myself traveling into a waterless desert to irrigate my soul with the beauty of a dry and desolate place. I found a similar feeling early one morning while walking the dark and empty streets of downtown Los Angeles several hours before the city awakened. In each of those places, I discovered a sweet vacancy that caused me to pause and reflect on things a busy and constantly occupied life does not consider.

Above our home is a small, elevated valley that deflects the noise of the surrounding community from within the stillness of its tree-lined enclosure. Whenever I hike into that small valley, I stop and experience what I call the hush. The unique location of the valley erases outside auditory input. The noise of people, cars, and leaf-blowers are absent in the hush. The hush silences any hurried thoughts I brought with me on the hike. In the hush, I get in touch with the deeper and more important realities of life.

Each of these places, a dark night sky, a dry desert, deserted city streets, or the hushed silence of a secluded valley, fill me in a beautifully strange way. What I  sense is Heaven’s nearness – a Kingdom closer than we realize. Some have called these locations "thin places." A thin place is where the distance between the spiritual and natural realms narrow and we see and hear things not considered in the normal routines of life.

Discovering these empty and thinned places is important to the health of our soul because they remind us that being emptied is the preparation for being filled. We need to find empty places and safe relationships that allow us to occasionally pour out the content of our lives to see if what we are carrying is from God or not. These places of safe solitude help us empty out things that pollute our thinking and make us fearful and faithless.

An empty place also gives us a sense of peace in its solitude and provides us with a reminder that life is not always about productivity, activity or trying to fill our experiences with anything beyond the experience itself. In these places, we can be still and know what is not realized elsewhere.

You Are Seen

Almost every time I drive to town, I see a red-tail hawk sitting atop the same telephone wire looking down on the terrain below. He remains faithful in that position no matter what the weather or the time of day. His is unnoticed by the majority of people who drive past his location.

The hawk reminds me of many of you who occupy an unnoticed place of faithfulness unseen by those that fail to look up and who quickly pass by your life without taking notice. I want to assure you that you are seen by those of us who know what to look for but more importantly, you are seen by God. 

Don’t allow the loneliness of your assignment to cause you to fly away prematurely. You have been positioned by God in that place for heavenly purposes. Because you have been faithful to remain in your position, the Lord will show you things others will miss because they have not been willing to assume the high and solitary place of revelation and prayer that is the life of those whose assignment is to watch and pray.