The week burns on and the the weekday theme continues as we head straight into Ash Wednesday!
This is the start of the Lenten time for some folks, where they give up stuff that keeps from the serving their Lord and Savior. I guess that’s a pretty good thing, as you know I am a big fan of people transforming and chaning! And in some ways this is similiar to a New Year’s Resolution. I think however, that we need to be careful about changing for a season. Look at what the Christos says in Luke 14:33
ouch!, He doesn’t day put away stuff for a season. He doesn’t say keep you favorite behavior because that’s just you. He says to give ALL, ALL the time.
I like the way David Platt talks about this. He says all the rest of you relationships need to look like hate when you compare then to your relationship with the creator. It is first and foremost and obvilously so.
So, I guess it’s fair to say, what are you giving up today – for good?
I mentioned a few weeks ago about the teenage girl from the little town in which my home sits being on America Idol. Well, last Sunday Ty Pennington and his ‘little’ crew came to down and sent a family to Disney. That’s right, Extreme Makeover Home Edition right in my backyard. Well, not literally, but just a few miles away. Close enough that Amy and I have been altering our travel paths to and from work and soccer practice to get a glimpse of the action. It is pretty amazing to see all the stuff that is going on around the house – trailers, tents, security for blocks, etc. It’s pretty evident the amount of work and planning that is put into this type of change.
There is also a live streaming camera. Last night, about 200 internet viewers and my family watched the live feed, and when I shut it down last night, the house only had a floor. While I dreamed of new org charts, resumes, and knees that did not hurt, a transformation was in place. So, when I popped up the live feed this am, there was a house – walls, porch, rafters! Wow. It’s not completely finished, but wow what a transformation in such a short time. I am anxious to see how things proceed the remainder of the week. Even since I awoke this morning, windows are in and people clad in blue shirts are swarming all of the structure.
Boy, don’t we want this type of change in our lives? It would be nice to have the bus pull up and say, hey just leave town for a week, and when you return we will have redone you. Rage – gone! Addiction – gone! selfishness – Gone, et cetara et cetera et cetera. However, very few of use get to experience extreme change in our lives over night – well except the forgiveness that comes from God. But even then, we tend to change our ways and our attitudes slowly – everyday. And with a plan,and an approach and a little bit of preparation and a smattering of the spirit, we can become made over.
8-10You groped your way through that murk once, but no longer. You’re out in the open now. The bright light of Christ makes your way plain. So no more stumbling around. Get on with it! The good, the right, the true—these are the actions appropriate for daylight hours. Figure out what will please Christ, and then do it. (Ephesians 5:8-10, The Message)
Keep it going today. Today maybe the day you notice change, or it may just be a day that a few limbs are removed.
Last night I had a sobering experience. I traveled a very familiar road after work across town. Like I have any many nights, I worked my way through East Chattanooga, squeezed through the tunnel, watch for bullets as I drove past Kanku’s, and turned past the trailhead at the Levee. I pulled in to school and parked in front of the Kindergarten classes and walked into Amy’s classroom as I have done on countless evenings. What I didn’t realize was what would await me as I walked into the cafeteria, sweet tea in one hand, and a Chick-fil-a sandwich in the other.
For the next hour, I sat across the school cafeteria table from my oldest son and listened to the high school guidance counselor discuss high school class scheduling, college preparatory classes, scholarship funding and a four year plan to get your child through high school. I sat among friends, having shared experiences with many of the other parents since pre-K, and yet as I looked across the table, I could not help but to feel excitement for him and sadness for myself.
I am sitting at the end of my time of directly leading him as I shift to a different leadership position in his life, but he is on the precipice of the 8 years that will really start to shape him and
although he is reluctant to admit it, he has a lot of dreams and aspirations in his head.
When I returned home, I was checking out my task list and noticed I had a task to check out this mini-movie called Change The World.
It seemed so appropriate. As he heads off with dreams I can only imagine floating around in his distracted teenage head, I can only hope that he holds on to those dreams and remembers what he was created for. And I hope that he continues to dream and to follow those dreams despite the difficulties that will lie ahead for him.
Most of you are past that point in life, and maybe your dreams have been extinguish. I hope you can spend a little time remembering the dreams of your youth and that despite the callousness of the world, you will find the motivation to not settle and to keep pressing on.
Are you willing to dream? Are you willing to capture that energy and excitement of your youth again? Are you willing to day by day change the world? It’s what you were created for.
Last night I was discussing some things with the family and needed to go back and find some old digital pictures that were not on my “spinning disk”. Confidently, I thought to myself that I had all of those old images, documents and the like from computers gone by archived nicely on a set of compact discs. So, I started to go look for them, and that’s when panic sat in.
Hours later, after digging through several CD’s I now have recreated the digital photograph history of my family from 1998 until the present time and have plans for tonight to archive those in a much more organized and accessible way. Even though I discovered the pictures I needed were actually taken with film – whatever that is – and I will have to search though another box to find those, I still learned a few things about myself.
First, the rate of technology change is absolutely amazing. The first set of pictures in 1998 were taken with a digitial camera that required a 3.5″ floppy disc, the last ones in the set, on a camera smaller then a deck of cards with the ability to store over 1200 very high definition photographs. Secondly, the rate of change in my life’s activities is absolutely amazing. Yes, there is the radical change in the growth of the children, plus there are these two odd skinny kids that show up in the pictures which are supposedly Amy and I, but for the most part as I scanned the backup documents my life has been boringly similiar today at its core.
There are some parts of that that are good! There are some parts of that that are bad. But overall, I was able to see patterns change and some that is as drastic change as the technology change when comparing start to finish.
It reminds me on this Groundhog Day, of the movie with the same name. In that film, the star is stuck in the same day over and over, until he learns to change his ways. For a time he doesn’t realize the issue, and then once he does he fails over and over again, as he learns the changes in his heart that are necessary. There’s a great lesson in that about transformation. We also need to be able to identify those areas in our life that need changed and realize that we will not wake up tomorrow and see that change. It may take several failed attempts to make it happen, but eventually and gradually the transformation occurs.
So on this groudhog day, don’t be afraid of your shadow and have another go at transforming your spirit, and each day little by little things can change. It may take 12 years, it may take 1 more day.
2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2 (New Living Translation)
This morning Amy asked me what I wanted for dinner, I responded with the first thing that came to my head – Ice Cream Sandwiches. I love those things. They are the best in the world. I don’t eat them as often as I wish, but man, when I do , I could eat the whole box. Then there are the ones that are found in Disney World. Personally, I find that the one’s distributed from Sleepy Hallow are in fact the best in the world, and make watching a Disney parade even more enjoyable. I mean just look at the picture. Yum. If we could just eat those all the time, day and night – what a great world it would be!
So go ahead – at lunch today, as you walk past that little cooler with the ice cream treats, slide open the lid, and reach in for a nice ice cream sandwich! As you enjoy the super taste and fulfillment that only comes from consuming one of these babies, consider what would happen to your body if that was all you ate. And then consider your spiritual life. As you eat, think about your spiritual diet and if there are things that you need to change to help you truly transform! Taking hold of the pinnacle of handheld deserts everyonce in a while is great, but as we know there are other things we need. Use The Sandwich to help spurn you to continue your quest for deeper knowledge and for true transformation!
