Month: December 2016

I love the Sunrise.  It’s one of my favorite parts of the day.  I love that my gym’s pool is outside so I get glimpses of the sun on early morning swims.  I positioned my house on a hill facing east so that the sunrise would be visible from the bedroom. 

This morning since it is winter and I woke up later than normal, I was able to observe a fantastic sunrise with very minimal effort.

I love the sunrise because it signifies a new start. A new chance at making something better.  Another attempt to solve a problem or change a situation.  Each sunrise seems to say that yesterday with yesterday’s failures (and even accomplishments) has passed away.  Each bright orange stripe broadcasts that it is time to get after it again.  It’s refreshing and for me very uplifting.

I hope it is for you as well. I hope you are renewed each sunrise and use it as a reminder that all we have is today. Every sunrise let us take some advice from the marketing team at Garmin and make it our intent to Beat Yesterday!! 
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.  2 Corinthians 4:16

Most of the day on Thursday I spent alone in my little cubicle, in headphone mode working on creating documentation as well as studying and learning.  I was completely introspective and in my own little world most of that day.  Late in the afternoon, I had to leave my safe space and head off to a meeting.  I walked into the conference room and took my seat, sort of still in the cloud of my own mind.  I was a little startled when one of my teammates looked over and was like “are you ok, having a good day?”

It was thenI realized that I was still in my introspective mind and probably looked like I was upset or worse, angry.  Then I was reminded just how important it is to make sure people are appreciated and recognized when you see them.

It’s strange how little things like that can really impact people, and these interactions both positive and negative add up over time.

As you go about today, finishing up the year at work, or finishing up your Christmas errands, or just spending time with your family, remember how important it is to make sure you are aware of the way you are impacting those around you.  Lift them up, and shift their day in a better direction!

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, Hebrews 10:24 ESV 

Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. Romans 15:2  NIV 

Last weekend I like many of you watched part of It’s A Wonderful Life. It seems that it is on all the time. Sometimes I wonder why it’s even a Christmas movie, I mean it is set around Christmas, but it’s really not a movie about Christmas at all. Yet the message has everything to do with the Christ story. I love watching this movie and thinking about how George Bailey gives up all of his dreams, all of his goals and all of his desires for everyone else. Although he doesn’t realize it, he makes everything better by giving himself up.
It seems like a simple enough thing. Take your hopes, your dreams, your desires, your wants and cast them aside forever for the benefits of others. Yet it’s not something that we find ourselves doing very well or very often. When we do find someone, somewhere, who lives this way, we usually hold them in very high esteem.

But, the cross-life requires this type of life.  All through scripture we are admonished to give, to place others before ourselves, to willing choose to submit ourselves so that others can. So that others can.

Sigh.

But I have my wants. my desires. My likes.  My things.

But so others can.

GRRRR!

I love this line from one of my favorite books, The Celebration of Discipline.  In it, Foster writes these words about being submissive.

The cross-life is a life of voluntary submission.  The cross-life is the life of freely accepted servanthood.

Foster writes those words immediately after discussing these words of Christ.

“I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you” – John 13:15

Sigh. Where can I stand, except at the foot of the one who provided this example for me?

As we near the celebration of the one who submitted his entire life for us, let’s not forget the example his entire life is for us.

So Others Can!!!!!

I spent the weekend in the Big Apple and the thing that always amazes me about that place is the shear number of people!  There so many fighting for the same space on the sidewalk that it tends to exhaust me the longer I stay in the city.

This time however, i think because of the week, I started to think about how each of  those people bustling around were made in the image of the Creator and that the Savior was born for them as much as he was born for me.

Maybe that’s why we like to sing ‘Go tell it 0n the mountain’ this time of year.

Let us tell it in the mountain and in the city.  Let us tell it every day!!!  The Savior has come!!!

I’ve been listening to O Come O Come a whole lot over the last day and I think that this verse sums up why it has become my favorite.

“I long for the Lord more than sentries long for the dawn, yes, more than sentries long for the dawn.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭130:6‬ ‭NLT‬‬
I just can hardly wait for his return.  Sometimes the ‘night’ seems so long, and the anticipation of what will be when the Christ returns is even larger then what a child feels on Christmas Eve!!!