Living life for God includes being able to discern the path that he has for you. This includes listening to his Spirit and paying close attention to the details around you. I am all for both, but am skeptical at times of our ability to interpret events and the leading of his Spirit. Often we are forced to discern between what may be the Lord speaking to us, and whatever we just had for lunch, or hormones. Often we are wrong, much like the young man who believes that God is telling him to marry the pretty girl next to Him.

                When it comes to interpreting events, we are usually no better. Events must be interpreted and last I checked, I am not perfect. However interpret we must. My recommendation is that when in doubt, assume that God is at work. What he is working towards though, is clearly laid out in Scripture. He is working us towards doing good, serving others, and performing acts of love and redemption. Our focus should be on what we know is true from Scripture first, everything else is secondary. However, there are times when asking for a sign can have important results.

                I remember one time in my life where I was for whatever reasons distraught and seeking the peace of the Lord. I was most likely going through my regular and routine midlife crisis where I realized I seem to not yet be like a movie hero. So after reading the Scripture and praying, I asked God for a sign. I walked outside on a brisk fall afternoon. Our front driveway is circular and on either side there is a thick hedge of trees. The sun cast dancing shadows as a light wind rustles the leaves. Right in one of theses shadows on the right side of the driveway, a snow white dove, a rare siting where I live, landed in the driveway.

                I was elated and reminded of the doves representation of peace. I was thankful that God in this instance answered my prayers and gave me a very visible reason to trust in his peace. As I watched the dove just sit there in the driveway, I walked out off of our porch towards it, to see how long it would stay. As I slowly walked towards it, a falcon slipped out of one of the trees and sunk its talons into the small white dove. I watched in horror as the falcon began to dismember and eat my sign of peace right before my eyes. For a minute or so the falcon picked at the bird, until finally it flew up into a far away tree, dropping feathers as it went, to eat my peace.

                I still have no idea what that means.

                Be careful what you ask for, and even more careful what you attribute to God. But know that if you want to live your life well, you must know what is sure, the truth of Scripture.

I am starting a new series on life worth living, with a few random posts fitted in there as well. This is the first one, with many to follow that all point towards my goal of, “Inspiring life”

                One of the fears of a good friend of mine is, “living a mediocre life”. I never grew up with this fear. I always imagined grandiose visions of excellence for God’s kingdom. I imagined spreading the gospel to the wealthy, to every one of my coworkers, speaking to thousands, and possibly being a martyr. Even still I dream of running a home where several married couples all live together so that they can adopt many children and have direct support of other married couples.

                The communal aspect of having other like minded people, would, of course, move everyone forward towards always being aware of the need to live passionately for God. Furthermore, I had the dream that having a spouse to fight for and with for the sake of God would motivate a life worth living.

                I have in the past week realized this is a dreamy ideal. A life worth living is not motivated by people around you, even if they help, or by a spouse. It is solely between me and God. I have complete control of my choices towards, or away from a life worth living. God is always willing to provide the grace to make that so.

                I choose whether or not I go out of my way to help others, join a ministry, get involved at church, and choose the path less travelled. I also choose whether or not I pray fervently for the changing power of the Holy Spirit. I know at times we do not feel like doing good or sacrificing for others, but Christ’ power is manifested by His Spirit that he gives freely. So if you want to live a great life, do so. And make sure that your hope for a great life is placed in God, and not in others around you.

One Thing and the Whole           

                As I am growing and developing in my professional skills and balancing working a marketing position and running the church Jr. High and College ministries I am learning how much any one piece of that effects it all. I can’t be on top of my church involvement and let one of my work responsibilities, say phone calls, slide. The backsliding in one area will affect all of my other responsibilities.

                I have a really bad habit of just not trying my hardest. I am fairly smart and have been very blessed in my life to always have good opportunities for work and education. I pick up new skills quickly and can get by just fine without having to pay attention to every detail. This comes through in every area of my life. In martial arts, I don’t pay very close attention to every detail of every move, like where my weight is placed during a kick, and I can still perform at an acceptable level. I can teach my Jr. Higher’s without hours of prep and still pull off an okay lesson. I can write a paper without going through carefully word by word and still write a decent paper

                Often I know everything I should be doing, but since I am adequate, I let it go. The problem is that this is not being a good steward. Every choice in my life will affect the lives of people around me. How well I teach can affect my kids for a life time. How I write will affect my readers. How I train will change how I think about the rest of my life.

                I am going to begin taking a principle of, “change the outside to change the inside.” I will begin to practice martial arts with intentionality. As I train with intentionality, I will be not only training my body, but also my mind in how I should think about everything. Just like mold on food, it spreads. I want to spread professionality. So I start in one spot and watch it spread. 

30 Day of Random Acts of Kindness

                A while back I posted a link to a ted talk by Shawn Achor. In it he encouraged people to practice a thirty dayy attitude changing drill. For it you write out three things you are thankful for each day, write about one positive experience, and reach out to a random person each day. In light of that, not only am I writing out positive experiences, but I am also starting thirty days of actively looking for opportunities to love.

                Each day I am going to look for ways to show the people I am around that I love them. This includes things like—gifts, flowers, notes; acts of service, hugs, helping to clean up, dishes; encouragement, compliments, reminding people of who they are; and many others. Tonight I am starting off by buying my good friend Ashley a gift.

                Now I am probably the worst gift giver ever. Usually I end up buying my mom and sisters birthday gifts several months (or a year) later. I also have the hardest time finding a gift. I either think what they want is impractical, or that it is something they can just get themselves instead of as a gift, or I rationalize why they wouldn’t really like it. I am a perfectionist so when I don’t think it is perfect, I excuse it.

                But tonight I am going to give the simple gift of a purple pen. It isn’t much. It is just a pen. But I do know that it is her favorite color. And even if she doesn’t remember it in thirty years or cry from appreciation (which will definitely not happen, more likely I will get weird looks) I will be doing a kind thing for her.

                As for my other three, I haven’t figured those out yet. But I still have about 11 more hours in my day, so I still have lots of other chances.