The Highlander

  I am always amazed at how often God reminds me where my focus should be. It is easy to get off track and get my eyes on the wrong things. If circumstances are bad or difficult, I become anxious, and often find myself falling into the, “what did I do wrong God?” and then going on the search for some sin or flaw that has caused me to fall into the difficulties.

Or, if things are going well, I “feel” good about my walk with Him, and assume that all of the good things that are happening are the result of my “faithful obedience” to Him. My focus is then on what “I” am or am not doing that has lead to these “good times”.

In the theological realm, it is easy to get on the treadmill of doctrinal defense and controversy and run myself ragged if I want to. There are plenty of theological footballs that are being kicked around out there today. And of course, I can go straight to the “Scriptures” to present my sound apologetic , prove my point, and send my theological opponents running for the hills with their hair on fire.  I then look good and capable in the eyes of others, and the satisfying feeling of “winning” and “being right” boosts my ego to new heavenly heights. But alas, even in this, my focus is on “me”,”being right”, and “winning”, not Him.

Yet, I was soundly reminded by Father the other day, that if what I do, say, preach or live, does not lead to Him, it is all a waste. While walking on the road to Emmaus, Jesus did something awesome. While talking with those guys, the Scripture says that, “beginning at Moses and the prophets, He expounded to them the things concerning HIMSELF in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27). He used the Word to bring them to HIMSELF. Why? Because it is all about Him! What was the result? Their hearts BURNED within them. Why? Because they were led to Him!

Later on that day, He appeared to the disciples and did what? Opened up their minds to understand the Scriptures. About what? HIM!  Where is our focus to be? On Him! When we read the word, it is to find Him and be led into fellowship
with Him. When troubles come, or the good times roll, where is our focus to be? On Him. Theological truth
is given and revealed to us, not for debate and argument, but to lead us to Him!

When it is all said and done, and every knee bows and every tongue confesses, where is all the attention
going to be? On HIM! That is what Father desires, and knowing His Son is the only thing that can bring
fire to the soul and contentment to life. It (life), really is all about Him!

The Highlander

 This was originally posted in Patrol Magazine.  I found it quite insightful and I am afraid, spot on.

Grace and Peace,

The Highlander

 The Flabby Body of Christ  Why is church so dull? A psychotherapist diagnoses the Sunday ritual.

  By Stephen W. Simpson    Nov 12, 2009    SHARE

 CHURCH IS boring. I don’t ever recall hopping out of bed on Sunday morning jazzed about the sermon, even when the preacher was good. I’ve never driven to church in anticipation of hearing the choir or the worship band, even when they included remarkable musicians. When I went, it was to see my friends. I wanted to talk. Sunday school and Bible study were okay, but breezeway and parking lot conversations were the most invigorating.  My utmost communion with the Body of Christ didn’t even happen on the church premises. That happened in some loud restaurant that offered free refills of Diet Coke that helped me power on past noon and large portions that would render me unconscious fifteen minutes after I got home.

 Now that I have kids, I don’t really get to have church anymore. Our four year-old quadruplets (all natural, so step-off, octo-haters!) keep us scurrying during the breaks. I go to church for them now. Statistics on church attendance, especially for men my age, suggest that I’m not alone. Maybe the problem isn’t me, after all. Maybe something is wrong with church.

 As much as postmodern evangelicals bandy about the word “community,” our gatherings have changed very little. Stylistic alterations might add some hipster flair, but the focal point of the liturgical week remains theater. A dozen or so people perform for a few hundred that sit, stand, kneel, pray, and sing on command. We squeeze real community into the gaps, between events with a hierarchical structure. Not only is this a long way from Biblical models of the early Christian church, it’s a breeding ground for messy group dynamics. And, again, it’s boring.

 Church today, whether a cathedral, a mega-aluminum warehouse, or a little wooden building in the country, has little in common with the New Testament church. In the first century there was still teaching, prayer, and worship, but the early church was about community. Paul’s letters paint a picture of people living together and collectively figuring out what it meant to follow Christ. The authority of the leaders and teachers wasn’t a forgone conclusion. They were in dialogue with their congregations. Paul himself often had to defend his position of authority and many of his letters are part of an ongoing doctrinal debate. You get the sense, however, that even theological issues were somewhat secondary. The focus was a meal, not a class or a worship service. Some early Christians enjoyed the community meal so much that Paul had to tell them to tone it down because they were partying a little too hard.

 Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine most Christians getting too carried away having a good time together. Church is an adjunct to professional and familial communities. We get up on Sunday, drive, park, sit, listen, sing, pray, chat, and go home. Even if we’re involved in a small group, the relationships are usually secondary. The early Christians learned and grew through relationship. It’s plastered all over the New Testament. Yet, we still structure our religion around one guy, and it’s not Jesus.

 Churches often grow for the wrong reason. If you don’t find church boring, it’s probably because of a talented preacher. He’s smart, but moreover, entertaining. Big, active churches are cults of personality, not communities. Try to imagine Mars Hill in Seattle without Mark Driscoll. Try to imagine the other one without Rob Bell (though at least he had the wisdom to abdicate his throne). Try to imagine Lakewood Church without Joel Osteen. You can’t. When the focus turns to Christ, it’s because a showman gets our attention first. We don’t find God in each other. The Body of Christ has an enormous head atop a weak, flabby body.

 Though pastors give “servant leadership” lip-service at leadership conferences, few enter the ministry out of a desire to submit and suffer for others. How could they? How can we expect our leaders to be authentic when theater is the center of our religious week? How can someone consent to shepherd the flock as a Man of God without being narcissistic? Any leader in the modern church needs at least a little bit of narcissism to survive. No one is drawn to such a job unless they enjoy power and attention.

 A little narcissism isn’t really the problem. We need to like ourselves and have a healthy sense of entitlement. But when these traits reach a clinical level in the form of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), it’s poison to the body of Christ. In my fifteen years as a psychotherapist, I have encountered few human systems so consistently dysfunctional as church staffs. I’ve heard of pastors doing things that would make the most ambitious CEO’s blush. Though most of us only hear about this when a high-profile church leader’s grandiosity leads to recklessness, most of the time acrimony and dysfunction continue behind the scenes for years. When we rely on the talents and titillating vision of one man instead of the slow, silent life of community, it’s easy for people to get hurt.

 After spending a thousand words twitting the Sunday service, I should probably come up with an alternative. But I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’m too narcissistic as it is, and I don’t want to be the one to tell you how it’s supposed to be. We need to decide. We need to figure out, once again, what it means to follow Christ together. This is a plea, not a prescription. I want church to be fun again. By fun, I don’t mean entertaining or topical or cool. I can get that at concerts and movies, and they do a much better job than the church ever will. No, I want to talk. I want to listen, but to a friend instead of a sermon. I want to be taught, but only if I can ask questions and participate in dialogue. Mostly, I just want to eat, drink, laugh, and enjoy other people. That’s where I find God.

 As I began my rookie training with the local Fire Department, I was reminded in a round about way of how much our lives impact the lives of others.  One of the things I was blessed with as I began my training was our wonderful textbook Essentials Of Firefighting And Department Operations.  This wonderful gift literally weighs about 20 pounds, give or take a few ounces!  It is loaded with all kinds of vital information that every firefighter NEEDS to know.  As we were going through our class on Firefighter Safety and Health, I came across a quote that struck a deep chord within me.  It was this, “Train as if your life depended on it–it does.”  No statement could be any truer, especially when it comes to firefighting, and all of the rigorous and repetitive traing that you go through.  This statement has affected the way I approach all of it; from working out and doing all of the physical training, to all of the mental and psychological aspects as well.

Yet, the more I pondered that statement and principle, I thought about another statement that is just as true, “Live as if the lives of others depended on it–they do.”  We have been placed in this world by Father to love Him and to love others.  It does not get any simpler than that.  Every single day, people are brought across our paths that He has placed there for us to love in some way.  It may simply be a kind word that they need or maybe some encouragement.  It could be that we have the chance to invest some time in their life or give them something that they may physically need.  It may just be that they need a listening ear.  It doesn’t matter that you don’t have all of the answers, just that you have the time to care enough to listen.

The deepest need of all of our hearts is to be loved.  Having that need met gives us all of the significance, meaning, and direction that we need to live a fulfilled and richly blessed life in this world.  The way that we live, the words that we speak, whether we like it or not, touches the lives of others.  That impact can be positive or negative and it could be one that lasts for a short time or for a lifetime.  People watch us and listen to us, especially if they know that we profess to walk with Christ.  I don’t say that in order to “guilt you” into living right.  That is just a fact.  We don’t need more rules and regulations or principles and steps, in order to live lives that make a difference.  We just need to live loved by Father.  As we receive His love for us, and it fills us up, it HAS to spill over into the lives of others.  We just cannot contain it.  We learn to live life as Eugene Peterson states in The Message, according to the “unforced rhythms of grace.”

If we will give ourselves over to the pursuit of being loved by God and loving Him, the impact of our lives on others will be for the eternal good.  So remember, live as if the lives of others depended on it–they do!

The Highlander

 I never can seem to get enough of the gospel!  When I look at my life and just how many times I fall flat on my face,, I am reminded why Martin Luther said that we must preach the gospel to ourselves every day!  I need to be reminded just how much I am loved by Father and that ALL of my sins have been forgiven and are gone forever!  I need to stand afresh at the foot of the cross and look up at my Savior and remember how much value He placed in me, because He paid the ransom price with His own life for my soul.  I must hear the good news that condemnation is gone, gone forever, and will never exist towards me again because I am in Christ.

The gospel tells me that I am a free man.  I am free from the guilt and condemnation my sin brought me.  I am free from the tyranny of the past and the anxiety of the future, because I now belong to the One Who controls it all, and He has given me His absolute word that He will never leave me, fail me, or forsake me.  I am free from the bondage of the evil one because my Redeemer has crushed his head beneath His heel, and transferred me from the power of darkness into His glorious Kingdom of light and life.  I am free from the Law and its harsh judgment, because Jesus fulfilled the Law for me as my substitute.  He lived the life I could never live, and died the death I deserved to die.  Now I live by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and I only have one law to live by…love!

I was dead, but now I am alive.  I am a new creation.  Old things have truly passed away and everything has become new.  Now I live by His life within me, and I am free to experience life…real life, abundant life!  I no longer hear the Law screaming at me demanding me to “DO!”  Nope.  I hear the gospel shouting victoriously, “DONE!”  Rather than tuning in to the frequency of “religion” and listening to the tune of “work, work, work”, I have fixed my dial on the station of “grace” and enjoy the smooth sounds of “rest, rest, rest”!

Wow!  Just writing this is getting me stirred deep within!  And to think that being born from above is just the beginning!  It only gets better from there!  There is so much more waiting for us.  That’s what the Scripture tells us.  Our eyes have not seen, our ears have not heard, and we cannot in our wildest imaginations, conceive of all that God has planned for us!

I know that life can throw some real curves at us all.  Things happen to us almost on a daily basis that can bum us out and get us down.  We can all “step in it”, regularly and become depressed and discouraged.  When those times come, preach the gospel to yourself.  Shucks, you may get so happy and encouraged that you’re ready to take up an offering (well, maybe not that), but you get my drift.  The gospel is good news, it really is.  Not just for the world, but for me and you!

The Highlander

  I don’t know why I find it so difficult to trust God (or very many people for that matter).  I know I should (yikes!  There’s that profane performance word), and I also know that the surest way to please Him is to simply trust Him (Hebrews 11:6).  Heck!  When in my life can I go back and find a time when He ever failed me or did not ever keep a promise?  None.  Now, that is not saying that I cannot go back and find times (many I am afraid), when He did not do what I “thought” He should, or what I felt like He “said” (through some inner impression or outer “word” from some well meaning saint) He would do.  There are more of those than I can remember.  And with each failed experience came a letdown and just a wee bit of confusion.  Why?  Why God?  Why didn’t You___?  I just KNEW You were leading or speaking!  Why!?  Silence.

If I am honest, my life has not turned out anywhere like I thought, dreamed, or planned that it would!  How about yours?  It seems like God has frustrated all of my “plans/dreams” at every turn.  I am not where I thought I would be at this point in my life in any area…period.  I do not have it all together, and I find that I now have more questions than I do answers.  I am less sure about more, and more sure about less.  Looking back, I realize that I have spent more time in “speculations, controversies, and questions” ( 1 Timothy 1:4; 6:4-5; 2 Timothy2:23), than learning how to simply love and live loved by Father.  (more…)

 ”For You have tried us O God; You have refined us as silver is refined, You brought us into the net; You laid an oppressive burden upon our loins.  You made men ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water, YET You brought us out into a place of abundance” (Psalm 66:10-12)

Have you  ever noticed how important the “little” words are in Scripture?  Words like “but”, “and”, “the”, and this word “yet”?  Heck.  These folks had been through a living hell.  Tried, tired, captured, oppressed, conquered, and put through fire and water.  None of which are fun experiences in and of themselves.  But, throw them all together and you have a recipe for night of the living dead, and you are one of the living dead!  They were beaten down, ready to throw in the towel, take a handful of pills and just end it all.  What’s even worse, is that God was the One Who led or  allowed all of these things to happen to them!  Talk about wondering if God loves you!  I am sure they questioned that one a great deal.

Then comes the “YET”!  After having taken them through all of these horrible places, He brought them OUT into an abundant place!  Way to go God!  Yep, weeping may endure for a night, but joy really does come in the morning. There was a light at the end of the tunnel and it was not a train.  It was the glory and blessing of Father!

For all who know and walk with God, there is always a “yet”.  Things may seem bad, chaotic, dark, and hopeless at times, but for us, but there is always a “yet”!  He will never leave us in the pit or in the net.  We always pass “through” the fire and the water.  Though we are tested and tried, as well as seemingly put through the ringer, we must not forget that HE is in control!  His desire is never to leave us in any of these places, but take us through them and bring us out into an abundant and blessed place!  He always has and He always will, even if it does not seem like it at the moment.

Do you feel like He has forsaken you?  Do you question His love for you because of the hard or dark place that you find yourself right now?  Are you ready to quit?  Don’t!  He has a “yet” for you too!  Just throw yourself into His arms of love and trust His heart for you.  Your “yet” is coming.  In fact, it may just be right around the next bend in the road!  Don’t forget…”yet”, “yet”, “yet”!!!

The Highlander

Hola Mafe!  Que tal?  Y Brady?

 I started a series of messages last Sunday on the Kingdom of God.  It is a theme that has captured my heart for years now, and one that I see more and more that so many believers have little understanding of.  The fact that our God reigns is undeniable, yet we have forgotten the fact that He created man to rule and reign with Him!  Our rule was only meant to be exercised in union with God, as He would act with us.  He always intended to be our constant companion and co-worker in the creative enterprise of life on earth.

One of things that I was reminded of again as I was preparing to share, was that He intended for all of us to have a unique realm over which we would be responsible.  In fact, He prepared that realm for us, before the world was ever made (Matthew 25:34).  Now that just blows me away!

The whole of His relationship with us was not about religion, rituals, rules and regulations, it was all about love.  It was about Him being our Father, our Life, our Love.  He wanted to walk with us in loving and harmonious union and oneness.  It was not about going to a PLACE to meet Him, but living life IN HIM everywhere we went and in everything we did.  He was to be our all in all.

In the context of that wonderful relationship, man would be what He desired and He could turn Him loose to rule over His creation as he desired.   Of course we all know that sin entered the picture, and disrupted the whole process.

But that was no surprise to God!  He had a plan all along to redeem us and restore us and all that Adam lost.  He did that in the greatest demonstration of love ever exhibited on earth…through the death of His only Son on a Roman cross.  He gave us His best, when we were at our worst.  If that does not show us how much and how truly He loves us, nothing does!

When we, by grace through faith, enter into a relationship with God, we are restored, reborn, and released!  We become these wonderful new creations and God begins the process of making us into the kind of persons that can rule and reign with Him!  Life is not about WHAT we do FOR God, but the KIND of person that we are BECOMING in and by His gracious work IN us!  He is preparing us to rule over that unique realm that He has had prepared for us since the foundation of the world!

Obviously, good works flow from our lives as we walk with Him.  But they flow out of who we are, as He wills and does His good pleasure through us.  We do them because we love Him and others, not in order to gain brownie points with God.  We do righteous works because we are righteous people in Christ!

I needed to be reminded once again that God is not so much interested in how much I do FOR Him in my life, as He is in the person I am BECOMING.  Why?  Because the person I am becoming has eternal impact on the realm over which I will rule in the coming age.  If I focus on the person I am becoming, and give myself to those things that shape that, the works will flow as naturally as rivers do to an ocean.
Enoch’s life sums the whole matter up beautifully; he walked WITH God.  Now that is a life I am totally up for!

Peace,

The Highlander

 O sleep, where art thou?  It is 5:30 am and I have been awake since 2:45, and finally gave up the battle of trying to return to the bliss of rest at 3:50 when I finally got up.  Between two daughters who got home at the ungodly hour of 3 am (after watching a midnight showing of Transformers, go figure), and being afraid that every time I turned over I would hear the squeal of Max being transformed from poodle to pancake, I felt “led” to get up.

As I sit here in the pre-dawn moments of a new day, I am thinking about life.  I am enjoying Cathleen Falsani’s book Sin Boldy- A Field Guide for Grace.  I have never read anything by her before, but this book is refreshing.  It is a simple collection of stories from her life that illustrate God’s grace in different ways.

As I was reading a chapter about her experiences in a very poor area in Kenya, she made a remark about the women there that slapped me in the face.  As she talked about the women’s energy and ingenuity in their work, even in the most difficult of living situations, she said this, “They had no time for despair.  They are far too busy living.”  SMACK!

“Far too busy LIVING.”  Now that grabbed my attention.  I thought about the reality in my own life that whenever I found myself depressed, doubting, and despairing, I have stopped living.  In those times I have chosen to throw the car of life into “park”, and refuse to journey on and enjoy the ride.  I cannot enjoy the sights, sounds and people around me, because I am too busy navel gazing while sitting in the drivers seat.

The fact is, I have cut myself off from the source of real life and that is Jesus.  After all, He Himself said that He is the Way, the Truth, and the LIFE.  Despair says that God has turned His back on me, and that there is just no reason to go on.  Despair says that there is no purpose in life, no rhyme or reason to any of it.  It tells me that I am sinking in a pit too deep for me (or God for that matter), to get me out of, so why go on.  Just sit and sulk, and cry, “Woe is me.”  Ever been there?

I remember Jesus telling a guy one time what the definition of real living was.  As always, He made it real simple.  So simple that even “I” can get it!  He basically said that if you love God with your whole being, and other people as yourself, you would live (Luke 10:27-28).  Real life is found in loving God and loving others.  We love in order to live and we live in order to love.

Because He lives in us, His love has filled our hearts (Romans 5:5), and that love has to go somewhere!  It has to be expressed both upward (towards Father), and outward (towards others).  Whenever we are doing this, even in the simplest of ways, we are living.  When we are not, we cease living in the truest since of the word, and start trying to find life in things that can only bring death.  Then you know what happens?  Yep, despair shows up at the door with a great big smile on his face.  He is ready to move in and set up house keeping.

The women Cathleen spoke of were far too busy loving God and others in what they were doing, that they had no time or place for despair.

I want to live!  I want to sieze the day and live it to the hilt.  Yet, I realize that when I look back at my life, far too many of my days have been spent just “existing” and “getting” by, and not really living.  Despair and I have spent more time together than I care to remember.  So, today Papa, as I sit here listening to the birds waking up and singing a song of welcome to the rising sun, I want to live.  Let Your life in me, a life that is love itself, find expression upward and outward today.  In word, thought and deed, let Your love flow out of me, so that when I do put my head down on a pillow later on (and I am looking forward to that!), I will know that by Your grace, I lived!

I hope that today you will have no time for despair, because you too, are far too busy living!

The Highlander

 I was recently scanning some blogs about different “Pastors Conferences” that were going on around the country, and as I was reading, I just had this sick feeling come over me.  I started looking at the “headliners” who were speaking at these places, and of course, they were the guys who have supposedly “made it”.  They have big churches, lots of nickles and noses, and have seemingly found the key to growing a big church.  They’ve written books, got You Tube status, and are “reaching the world for Christ”.  Now, they can go and stand in front of a group of salivating folks who want to know how they too can do the same thing, and get paid very nicely to tell them “how”.  In most peoples eyes, they have “arrived”.

It’s sickingly funny how this has not changed through the years in any denomination or movement.  It seems that the only way you have a right to share or speak at these major events, is if you have proven that you are a success, however that group or movement deems that.  Here in the United States, that success is determined by the capitalist principles of buildings, budgets, bodies, and popularity.  If you have done well with these, you can write a book and headline all the major “Christian” gatherings across the land.

There may be exceptions to this, but they are rare…very rare.  What about the little guy who sits unnoticed in the back of the room who is doing good to gather 25 people together on a weekly basis, BUT, who knows God in ways and depths far beyond the “keynote speaker”?  What about the man who struggles weekly just to get by, but whose character and conduct reflect Jesus in ways that leave an impression on people for a lifetime?  Don’t you think these guys might have something of far more value to share with us concerning a RELATIONSHIP with the living God, and not about how to have a “successful ministry”?

We are a nation that flocks to the “successful” ones in any field.  We are attracted to the glitz, glamour, and gold of those who have arrived in our eyes.  Sadly, it is no different among the Christian community, and especially among the “professionals” in that community.

Funny how Paul had no spiritual “heroes”.  He cared less about what others were in the eyes of men.  It was no big deal with him that he got to hang out with Peter and James for a while.  Heck, what were they to him, but brothers in the family?  He was not smitten by their very presence, what they had done, or even the fact that they were part of the “original” group of disciples who physically walked with Jesus!  Don’t believe me?  Just read Galatians 2:1-14.

This same Paul also talked about the more insignificant parts of the Body deserving greater honor than the ones everybody else could see.  But, where do WE focus and glory in, and flock to hear?  The one’s everybody can see!  We seem to be mere hearers of the Word and not doers of it.

We have whole cult followings now in every circle, movement, and denomination, along with devoted followers to their particular “heroes” who will defend them and their message/theology to the death.  It is idolatry plain and simple.  Has “I am of Paul, I am of Cephas, I am of…”, now become the “in” thing?

If I remember correctly, Jesus did say something about the fact that HE would build His church, and I don’t remember Him saying that He needed our help in doing it.  What He has invited us into though is a RELATIONSHIP with Him and each other, where we learn to love Him and others as we journey through this life.  He Himself said that others would know that we were His by the way we loved each other and Him.  He did not say it would be by how “successful” our ministries were, or how “big” our churches grew.  No, it all goes back to LOVE.

I guess I am at a point in my life where all that stuff just does not matter any more. I really could care less whether any man or group deems me a success.  It used to be important to me (sadly and sickingly so), but not any more.  I have a library full of thousands of books that when I look at them, I feel sort of like somebody who is full of steak walking into a steakhouse to have to eat again!  There is just no appeal.  I rarely go into a “Christian” bookstore any more, because of that same feeling, and because the shelves are lined with “how to’s” and “steps to” success in whatever area you want.

I have not been to a Conference in years, and have no plans to be at any in the near future.  Don’t get me wrong.  I am sure that there are many folks there who truly love God and want to serve Him, and believe that they really are.  It is just the “system” itself that makes me sick.  The Kingdom and its values just is vastly different than those of the world.

I am interested in a relationship with a God Who is better than my best thought of Him, and Whose grace is richer and bigger than I can imagine!  I want to walk with a Father Who loves me more than I’ll ever know, and Who deems success in terms of Him shaping me more and more into the likeness of His Son each and every day.  He promised to finish the work HE started, so I think I will just sit back, learn to love Him and others, and enjoy the ride.

The Highlander

  Well, I passed another birthday this weekend.  Funny, I feel the same as I did a week ago, but the calendar says I am one year older.  Of course, calendars don’t dictate how you feel on a certain day, they just inform you of what day it is.  How you feel, live, and experience life on that day, has a lot to do with you.  You can “live!”, or you can just “exist”.

The older I get, the more I want to live, really live, each day.  I want to enjoy every moment that Papa gives me.  I am realizing that every second is a gift and while each gift is given, I want to receive it and milk it for all it is worth.  Sure, I want to accomplish things that make a difference in somebody’s world while I am here, but I am also learning how relish the little things that nobody else sees.  Sometimes, God shows Himself to me in those “hidden moments” more than in the wide open ones.

One thing that He has driven home for me in the last few years, is that the only thing that REALLY matters, is love.  Nothing more, nothing less.  My life will be judged by how well I loved.  Because how well I lived, will be determined by how well I loved.  Everything the Bible speaks of is summed up (as Jesus said), by how well I loved Father, and how well I loved others.  So, every opportunity I get each day to express love for Him and to others, I need to seize it.  I want my life to be invested, not spent.  The only way that will happen is by living a life of love.

In five minutes, I get a chance to love in word and deed.  My wife will come out here, and I will hug her, and tell her how special she is and how very much I love her.  In an hour, I will be out among people and will be looking for the opportunities that Papa will give me to show love to someone else.  It may be in a kind or encouraging word.  It could be in an act of service that is needed, or just to sit still and listen to someones  heart.  Father has more “love adventures” planned for me each day than I can shake a stick at.  I just need to be looking for them as I am going along.

So, my prayer this day is not, “Father use me to do great things”, or “make me a great man”.  Neither is it, “Bless me, bless me, bless me”.  Nope.  It is, “Father fill me with Your life and let me walk in love towards You and all that You bring my way.”  I am sure that He will answer that prayer, and I am also sure that I will have lived life to its fullest if I do those things.  Heck, love sort of makes life worth livin’!

The Highlander