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State of the (You)nion

Today, President Obama will stand in from of Congress and present his view of the State of the Union.  There will be lots of agreeing and disagreeing, as Mr Obama lays outs problems, goals, solutions and challenges for our country.

This makes we wonder, whats the state of my union?  Whats the state of ME?  And makes we want to ask you whats the State of You?  Have you ever stopped and considered how things are really going with you, or what it would be like if you had to stand up tonight and review you personal state? I wonder if that is what is being referred to in Philippians where it states “continue to work out your salvation”.  ( I never have really understood what that actually is saying.)

Anyway, I’m trying to do that.  I am trying to examine the state of me and see whats good, whats bad, whats needs to be different.  Its a tough thing – transformation, and one that takes time. But I thought I would share two verses that address “concerns” I am trying to focus on this year, as I try the address some of the humility and “frustration” issues that I deal with on a daily basis.  These are the ‘political promises’ I am trying to make to myself.  Maybe seeing these will help you as well:

31Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:31-32

and

9With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. 11Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. James 4 9-11

I know I will not be perfect in these things, but its is one of my goals for this year to allow these verses to transform me.  (its part of the whole obsessed thing I mentioned at New Years) Not by my own actions, but by giving in to the Spirit that live in me.  I’ll let you know right in these posts how it goes.

Whats the State of You?

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Wisdom from Twitter

I have recently started using Twitter with more vigor – more on the following end then the tweeting end, however I do tweet to keep my family and friends up to speed on the mundane in my life.  But seriously, I find it a great way to discover ideas and get a glimpse of other things going on out there.

Also, I have been spending time thinking about myself in relationship to God and other people.  This is one of the elements of my New Years statement on wanting to be obsessed.  Anyway, I’ll return to that later in the week, I think, but its the cross roads of these two thoughts – Twitter and relationships that I wanted to share today.

(Yes, what a goofy introduction, I hope you are still hanging with me)

So, one the tweets I read this weekend pointed me to a blog by an author named Donald Miller.  He is just releasing some new material that I thought seem interesting, so I keep his page up on my browser for a few days with the intention of stopping back by and reading it.  Well the weekend took other turns and when I returned and refreshed he had posted a new article, one I felt worth sharing.

The post is about humility and knowledge.  Take time to read it here.  He tells a tale about how knowledge puffs up.  Its a struggle we all deal with, ok, maybe just me.  But really, as we gain knowledge and wisdom, we can battle feeling “better” or being condescending to others who may have just not learned that yet.  Maybe its your role to teach them?  Maybe its your role to make those around you better? Maybe its your role to simply apply that knowledge to the way you treat other people?  Either way, humility and love seem to go hand in hand.  I could not help but read this and think back to 1 Cor 13.

4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; (1 Corinthians 13:4, New King James Version)

or Proverbs 3:34 (actually James 4, who is quoting Proverbs)

34 He mocks proud mockers
but gives grace to the humble.

So take some time to read his post.  And as you gain wisdom, also gain humility.

“The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.”
-T.S. Eliot

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Blackberry, Beatles and bLove

Have you noticed these new Blackberry commercials with the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love” song as the primary theme?  I have found myself stopping and staring at the television whenever they are playing.  I am still not sure what in the world it has to do with a mobile device, but they are a little bit inspiring.  They almost make me want to go and exchange Amy’s RAZR for a Blackberry Curve. ( however, I think Amy’s likes texting on a numeric keypad, its makes her happy).

Anyway, although the ads pull me in with the little storylines, I can’t figure out what this has to do with a phone.   But it has always interested me that John Lennon was able to capture the essence of Christian thinking in this song, and popularize it in a way that Christians never have been able to!  All we need is Love.

Paul tells us its the greatest thing in 1 Corinthians 13

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

and John reminds us about the greatness of Love in 1 John 4

7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

Sometimes its a hard thing – especially for the men among us, but Love is all you need, it should be the backbone of the way we treat each other.  So today go ahead and sing this song.  Love is all we need.  And then – apply it to you life.  Will you live that way as well?

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Going Home

This morning, I will board a 6am flight, and travel across air back to my Southern home.  Its such an amazing tribute to the gifts that men have been given that we have figured out how to make machines that fly.  That aside, going home is always a wonderful thing.  No matter how enjoyable the trip is, the anticipation that comes with traveling back to the comforts of your home can not be topped.   The warmness, the deep relationships, the ability to completely relax and be yourself. 

Sometimes, I think about heaven, my eternal home, and I wonder why I don’t always have the same excited feeling about going there.  Imagine how that place will be – for some reason I think it will feel more like home, then a church building.  I am going to use this little return trip to consider they way I view and feel about the return to heaven to be with God.  Its always these little things in life that help us understand and set our perspective.  I hope you spend a little time, as you return home – whether its from a day at the office, or a run to the grocery, to consider the trip.  Notice the anticipation, the  excitement and the relief.  And then consider these words about our “heavenly homecoming”.

2 Corinthians 5

 1-5For instance, we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven—God-made, not handmade—and we’ll never have to relocate our “tents” again. Sometimes we can hardly wait to move—and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what’s coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we’re tired of it! We’ve been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies! The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what’s ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we’ll never settle for less.

 6-8That’s why we live with such good cheer. You won’t see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don’t get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It’s what we trust in but don’t yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we’ll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming.

 9-10But neither exile nor homecoming is the main thing. Cheerfully pleasing God is the main thing, and that’s what we aim to do, regardless of our conditions. Sooner or later we’ll all have to face God, regardless of our conditions. We will appear before Christ and take what’s coming to us as a result of our actions, either good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:1-10, The Message)

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Falling Down

“Yard Sale”, my skiing companion yelled, as my ski went one direction and I went the other.   That’s how my night started.  Yes, I fell forward, I spun, I lost skis, I fell backward, and I think I actually fell in ways, I did not know you could fall.  And there I was, later, in the evening, with my body in a pile of snow at the edge of the trail, and my skis tied up the the deep snow and the branches of the small tree I had almost hit, thinking how in the world I am going to make it down this mountain.   It was that fall, which was actually on the third or fourth run at this particular trail, that I decided that I would get myself back up, cast aside what was really holding me back and go.  What was holding me back – fear.  Fear of the exact thing that I was doing – falling! 

On the last run of the night, I made it from the top to the bottom without falling – even taking a slightly harder trail to the bottom.  YES, I shouted as I hit poles with my companion at the bottom of the run.  I had overcome, I had cast fear aside, I had gained confidence in the skills I had been given, and I was actually really skiing ( vs just making it down alive!)

Our lives are like that.  We fear.  We fall.  We think we are not good enough.  We think we don’t have the skills to do what we should or what we want.  We lie in the deep snow caught up in trees and give up ( read sin and dispair).  However, we have something that should prop us up and should give us the gumption to get back up and get in there.   Life is meant to be lived in the fray, and we should be in there, not worried about our own inadequacies.

I mean check this out in Romans 7.

24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Yes, we can yell that out on any day – what a wretched man that I am, WHO CAN SAVE ME!

Just a few verses down, we see the answer in Romans 8

1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

We are free, we can get out and live it.  We can get up and overcome.  I did! Hey, I can now say I am a skier ( with some asterisks, but still a skier).  Get up! Get out of the snow, point those skis and go man!  GO!