Opportunities aren’t accidents

Have you ever had the opportunity to sit back and watch God work? There have been moments in my life where I’ve been able to see Him working in ways that only He could, but  I can honestly tell you that I’ve never seen Him so obviously than in the last six months.

God has opened so many doors. He’s been so present and has provided for me in so many different ways that I can’t even begin to explain it all. And I can trace it all back to a single moment in January this year when I finally said Yes to what He’d been telling me to do since last August.

God has plans, and they’re good plans. And He doesn’t just dump people into the midst of His plans when they aren’t prepared or equipped. Maybe they aren’t prepared or equipped when it starts, but by the time God says go, they’re ready.

But no matter how life works out, one thing is certain: We can plan and prepare and try to make up our own minds about our futures all day long, but God is the one who truly calls the shots. And we can either get on board with that or we can keep hurtling helter-skelter down a path we’re forging on our own, blind and ineffective until we wear ourselves out and end up going back to Him anyway.

The crooked path to the top of Helen Hunt Falls, Colorado Springs, CO

Today’s verse is Jeremiah 10:23.

I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own.
    We are not able to plan our own course.

So much of life is waiting. I’ve blogged about that before. I hate waiting. I hate it. I want to be up doing something, preparing for what’s ahead so I can anticipate and control a situation and pretend like I have some type of command.

I’m trying to learn to love waiting, and in the last six months, I’ve made great strides toward that because it’s become more apparent to me than ever how and why God makes us wait.

I was talking to a friend in the Starbucks parking lot the other night about baking cakes. When you mix up a cake and throw it in the oven, it would be so much easier to just eat the batter right then. Cake batter is awesome. But it’s not cake. If you want cake, you have to wait (yes, even if the cake is a lie, you still have to wait).

God often calls us to a time of waiting so we can develop and grow and get stronger and learn what we need to learn. Maybe we just need to learn how to trust Him.

Waiting isn’t punishment or a curse. It’s a gift, marvelous, quiet downtime when you realign and get your thoughts straight and focus on grounding yourself in truth. Because when God says jump, you’d better be ready to jump.

When God is ready for you to go, you need to go. And when you say yes, don’t think for a moment that things will slow down. Actually, they’ll get faster and crazier and more awesome than you imagine.

God has planned the direction of your life, and it’s up to you to say yes to His will. Or do you think He forces you? No. God doesn’t force us to do anything, but He won’t always intervene when we end up stuck in the hole we dug for ourselves.

What is God telling you to do today? Is He telling you to wait? Is He telling you to jump? Whatever it is, just say yes. Do what He’s telling you to do. Stop fighting Him.

If He’s opened a door and made a way for you to do something, do it. Make sure it’s from Him–make sure it’s in line with Scripture and it won’t cause you to compromise on the truth of Scripture–and go for it with everything you have.

Opportunities in your path aren’t accidents. They’re strategic. God has created you unique. Whether you believe it or not, you have gifts and abilities that no one else has, and God wants you to be able to use those talents to reach other people with His love.

Don’t doubt the gifts God’s given you. Don’t take credit for them either, but don’t doubt them. Doubting them isn’t humility; it’s insecurity and fear. God has made you to do awesome things for Him.

Don’t doubt Him. Don’t doubt His plan. It’s okay to be afraid, but don’t let that fear keep you from saying yes to God.

Underdog

I love underdog stories. Those stories where the main character comes from unfortunate circumstances but still manages to overcome the challenges in his life are the most heartwarming stories in culture, I think. Like the Karate Kid movies, even the new one, which I really enjoy. Like the Mighty Ducks. In some cases, even some superhero types are considered underdogs. They just never intended to be heroes.

You have to admit, there’s something endearing about a character who has always had a rough time in life suddenly finding himself (or herself) in the middle of a situation where the stakes keep getting higher. And there’s something inside us that cheers for the underdog constantly. It doesn’t matter who they are or what they’re trying to accomplish; if it seems impossible, and if the odds are stacked against them, we cheer them on. At least, I do. I have a soft spot for underdogs.

What’s amazing to me is that so does God. The Bible is full of underdog stories, where average people like you and me end up in extraordinary circumstances, and through God’s power, they change the world. Yesterday I blogged about how God can take the sadness in our lives and change it into something worth rejoicing about, but that’s not all He can do.

Tortoise at the Sedgwick County Zoo, Wichita, KS

Today’s verse is Zephaniah 3:19.

And I will deal severely with all who have oppressed you.
    I will save the weak and helpless ones;
I will bring together
    those who were chased away.
I will give glory and fame to my former exiles,
    wherever they have been mocked and shamed.

You want to talk about underdogs? Let’s talk about Israel for a moment.

When I was little, I used to think that Israel had to be some amazing, great country full of resources and power. I used to think that they had to have done something incredible for God to have called them His Chosen People. But let’s be honest here. Israel is a beautiful country, and they have many resources. But in comparison to other countries in the world, they’re kind of small. They have a lot of history, but other countries have more. Honestly what makes Israel special isn’t anything they’ve done; it’s the fact that God chose them.

By that same token, I used to think that Abraham was someone special. I used to think that he had some kind of special gift or something that made him the best candidate to found the nation of Israel. But he didn’t. He was just a guy. There wasn’t anything special about him other than the fact that God called and he obeyed. That’s it.

Israel and Israel’s history is full of instances where they were the lightweight in the corner who didn’t have a chance. But every time Israel’s leaders did what God told them to do, whether they were patriarchs or kings, God gave them victory over armies much larger than they were. God took a little, unimportant country and elevated it to a place where the region had to recognize their victory. He did the same with people, ordinary shepherds, children, uneducated people, outcasts, foreigners. You name someone who would be relegated to the dregs of society and read about how they followed God and how God raised them up to a level where other people (people who had made fun of them or hated them) had to recognize that they had achieved something.

Only God can do that.

Do you think Joseph could have become the second most important man in the world on his own steam (Genesis 37-54)? Do you think David could have had the strength to stand up to Goliath without God on his side (1 Samuel 17)? Do you think any prostitute could deserve to belong in the lineage of Jesus Christ Himself without God changing her heart (Joshua 2)?

God is a God of underdogs, and He’s always looking for people who are willing to answer when He calls. And those people who answer when He calls have a chance to do the impossible, because when God is working with you, the impossible isn’t impossible anymore.

Are you in a situation where you feel inadequate? Do you find yourself in a place where no one recognizes you, whether you want them to or not? Are you lost in the shuffle of the crowd? Are you the low man on the totem pole?

Guess what? God’s cheering for you. It’s the folks on the bottom who attract God’s attention. I’m not saying He can’t use people on the top. He’s done that before too, but I’d be curious to know how those people at the top got there to begin with. Usually if you start out at the top, you aren’t interested in helping folks at the bottom–and that’s what God usually asks.

So if you’re inadequate and all you know is that you don’t have the skills to accomplish what God has called you to do, you’re in good company. But don’t worry because your responsibility is to answer. You don’t have e to know how it’s going to work out. You just have to do what God’s called you to do, and He will equip you for any eventuality you encounter along the way. And through His power and His strength and Him just being Him, He will change you from being the ineffective one at the bottom of the chain to someone who can change the world.

When everything changes, God is good

I know good people. They’re the kind of people I can trust will always do what’s right, even when it’s difficult. Those are good people to know, to surround yourself with, because they keep you honest and they usually experience good things as a result of their wise choices. Granted, they aren’t perfect. Nobody down here is, but there’s something about people who always do the right thing that is attractive and terrifying. You want to be friends with them, but you’re afraid of them at the same time because if someone always does what’s right, how do they feel about someone who usually ends up doing what’s wrong?

Most of the time those good people don’t even consider themselves good, and the ones I know certainly don’t. They’re just trying to follow Christ as best they can. And that’s one of the amazing truths about God is that He truly is good. There’s no one better. And because He is truly good, everything He does is right.

Lizard on a rock on a hiking trail at Glen Eyrie, Colorado Springs, CO

Today’s verse is Deuteronomy 32:4.

He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect.
    Everything he does is just and fair.
He is a faithful God who does no wrong;
    how just and upright he is!

There’s no second guessing with God. If He does something, it’s good. The Bible says that over and over and over again. So where does all the hurt and brokenness in our world from? Well, God didn’t create the world like this; He created it perfect, and we’re the ones who broke it. He’s doing the best He can with a world that refuses to listen to Him. If He wanted a world full of robots to do His bidding, He could have “fixed” our world long ago, but that’s not who He is. And those people who get angry at Him for allowing atrocities in our world would chafe against a solution like that anyway.

I don’t claim to understand everything. I don’t claim to understand God. Nobody can do that. But I would like to think I know His heart. I know what the Bible says about Him, and I believe the Bible. So when the Bible says He’s good, that means He is. The world isn’t good. I’m not good. People aren’t good. But God is. And He is working to make things good again for the people who follow Him.

Does that mean that everything that happens is good? No. But we’ve got to remember that the world is currently under different management than it was originally intended. God created it and gave it to us to take care of, but our first parents forfeited that right when they disobeyed, and Satan took over. Yes, God is ultimately in control, but right now Earth is under the governorship of Satan. We gave Him that right, but one day God will take it back. One day God will make everything right again. And until then, we have to trust Him.

So how does that help us today? Today we face a world that is more uncertain than ever. Personally, I live in a country that no longer recognizes itself. Like a rebelling teenager, the United States has pushed away from everything that is good and is striving to do wrong because we can. The rest of the world is already there, but the U.S. is running to catch up and the consequences are going to be disastrous. The whole world is running itself into the ground. I have to laugh about doomsday clocks and the Mayan calendar and all the other threats that say the world is going to end because the world is going to end, but not with ice or fire. The world is going to collapse on itself, rotted from the inside, trying to support a facade of self-righteousness that’s too heavy for something without a spine.

The world is changing by the hour, and most of those changes are bad. Or they will bring bad things, even to people who trying to live right. But because I know that God is good, I trust that He does good things and that He can take even the ugliest situation and make it beautiful.

So when everything goes wrong today, remember that God is good. We may not understand what’s happening or why, but if you’re a follower of Christ, nothing can happen to you that God can’t use for good.

Being thankful

Do you ever have a day when you just want to sit and be thankful? That’s where I am today. So much is happening, so much is going right, so much is going wrong, everything is going too fast–I just want to take a moment and sit and be thankful. Because I know that no matter how the events in my life end up, God will be glorified.

Why? Because I have chosen to live a life that brings glory to Him. I have decided to make decisions that allow me to give Him glory. And even when disappointing and unhappy circumstances come into my life, I know that He is able to use those things to bless me and glorify Himself. Because that’s what He does.

God will be glorified no matter what. Why be at odds with Him? Why fight Him when He has our best interests in mind anyway?

King David sang a song when he and his army brought the Ark of the Covenant back into Jerusalem. This is the whole of David’s song, and I thought it would be a good reminder. This is in The Message, but you can read it in New Living Translation too.

Blooming rose in the Rose Garden at Glen Eyrie – Colorado Springs, CO

1 Chronicles 16:8-36

Thank God! Call out his Name!
      Tell the whole world who he is and what he’s done!
   Sing to him! Play songs for him!
      Broadcast all his wonders!
   Revel in his holy Name,
      God-seekers, be jubilant!
   Study God and his strength,
      seek his presence day and night;
   Remember all the wonders he performed,
      the miracles and judgments that came out of his mouth.
   Seed of Israel his servant!
      Children of Jacob, his first choice!
   He is God, our God;
      wherever you go you come on his judgments and decisions.
   He keeps his commitments across thousands
      of generations, the covenant he commanded,
   The same one he made with Abraham,
      the very one he swore to Isaac;
   He posted it in big block letters to Jacob,
      this eternal covenant with Israel:
   “I give you the land of Canaan,
      this is your inheritance;
   Even though you’re not much to look at,
      a few straggling strangers.”
They wandered from country to country,
      camped out in one kingdom after another;
   But he didn’t let anyone push them around,
      he stood up for them against bully-kings:
   “Don’t you dare touch my anointed ones,
      don’t lay a hand on my prophets.”
Sing to God, everyone and everything!
      Get out his salvation news every day!
   Publish his glory among the godless nations,
      his wonders to all races and religions.
   And why? Because God is great—well worth praising!
      No god or goddess comes close in honor.
   All the popular gods are stuff and nonsense,
      but God made the cosmos!
   Splendor and majesty flow out of him,
      strength and joy fill his place. 
Shout Bravo! to God, families of the peoples,
      in awe of the Glory, in awe of the Strength: Bravo!
   Shout Bravo! to his famous Name,
      lift high an offering and enter his presence!
   Stand resplendent in his robes of holiness!
God is serious business, take him seriously;
      he’s put the earth in place and it’s not moving.
   So let Heaven rejoice, let Earth be jubilant,
      and pass the word among the nations, “God reigns!”
   Let Ocean, all teeming with life, bellow,
      let Field and all its creatures shake the rafters;
   Then the trees in the forest will add their applause
      to all who are pleased and present before God
      —he’s on his way to set things right! 
Give thanks to God—he is good
      and his love never quits.
   Say, “Save us, Savior God,
      round us up and get us out of these godless places,
   So we can give thanks to your holy Name,
      and bask in your life of praise.”
   Blessed be God, the God of Israel,
      from everlasting to everlasting.

Remember. Hope. Wait.

How awful would it be to have to live the same day over and over again? I mean, I can only count on my hand the days that were so good I would have wanted to experience them over and over. The majority of the time, while I’m thankful for the day, I’m also very thankful that it’s done. Every morning is a new day. And I’m thankful for that.

Sunrise behind trees - Haven, KS

Today’s verse is Lamentations 3:23.

Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

I had intended to stop there. Because how can you top that? God is so faithful and so awesome and so kind to us that even if we screw up royally, He still forgives us and still gives us another chance the next day to get it right. He’s the God of second chances and third chances and fourth chances.

Mercy is withholding punishment that a guilty person deserves. And God gives us new mercy with every sunrise. Not old mercy. Not mercy that drags up the past and shoves it in our faces but new mercy that doesn’t even remember the sins of yesterday.

How can anything be better than that? Well, I kept reading. And then I read the whole passage in context, and I felt the need to share because this really touched me today. This is Lamentations 3:19-27 in The Message:

It’s a Good Thing to Hope for Help from God

 ^19-21I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness,
   the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed.
I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—
   the feeling of hitting the bottom.
But there’s one other thing I remember,
   and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:

 ^22-24God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,
   his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning.
   How great your faithfulness!
I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).
   He’s all I’ve got left.

 ^25-27God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits,
   to the woman who diligently seeks.
It’s a good thing to quietly hope,
   quietly hope for help from God.
It’s a good thing when you’re young
   to stick it out through the hard times.

We all struggle. Everyone. It doesn’t matter who we are or where we come from or how rich we are or how poor we are or if we’re gainfully employed or not. Everyone has trouble. Everyone hits the bottom. Everyone despairs. And that despair can be hard to forget.

But there’s one thing we need to remember: God’s mercy is new every morning.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve hit rock bottom and feel like you can’t stand up anymore, God’s mercy is new with the sun. His love never runs out. And it’s a good thing to wait for Him because He is good to those who wait with passion and seek with diligence.

And if we can remember that, we can have hope. Not the loud, obnoxious hope that people brag about when they’re trying to show others how spiritual they are. But quiet, confident hope that God will come to your rescue even in the darkest of times.

That kind of hope makes all the difference in the world.

We’re nearing the end of January 2012. February is just over the horizon, and I know people who are struggling to keep their chins up, whether for economic reasons or health reasons or emotional reasons. Just remember it’s a good thing to quietly hope for help from God. It’s good because it gives God the chance to show you He knows what He’s doing.